Grand Princess - Med 2009 Review with Video

[seb530]

Hi all, put together a small review of our cruise, video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBISn4PoIMg sorry about the music - it objected to my original (and choreographed) choice!

Grand Princess Review
27th June - Mediterranean


Ship
The ship is in excellent condition and I really couldn’t fault it. The carpets are in very good condition as is all fixtures and fittings. During our cruise the staff were constantly repainting and varnishing to ensure that the high standards remained.
Hygiene on the ship was high on the agenda with dispensers for cleanser at many locations where food can be found, especially those areas where passengers handle the food e.g. buffet areas.
On the first day, a waiter is sited at the entrance to Horizon Court to demonstrate the automated dispensers and ensure everyone gets into the swing of using them.
Ice Cream is now free all day in vanilla, chocolate or a mixture of both flavours.
Sweets (Candy) can also be purchased from the ice cream station and waffles can also be had from here for breakfast.

Cabins
Rooms are surprisingly spacious – we had two adults, one 14 year old and one 10 year old in a balcony cabin. Once our stuff was stored we didn’t feel cramped at all.
I found the beds to be extremely comfortable contrary to some of the posts I read before we sailed.
Princess provides several toiletries (shower gel, conditioner, soap etc) and two sets of towels – white for the bathroom and blue/white stripes to take to the swimming pool.
Once dirty, just leave them on the shower floor and the steward will replace.
Cabins are cleaned in the morning when the beds are made up, afternoon with the towels etc replaced and in the evening where the beds are turned down, chocolates laid and the room again cleaned. The stewards always seem to be around and are very friendly.
Note that in our four person cabin, the beds could not be combined into a double due to the layout therefore be careful in your selection if you are expecting a romantic break for two!
On one of the early days after sailing, a fruit order form will be placed in your cabin. Complete and hand to the steward and the fruit will be delivered and topped up on request.
Late evening, the Princess Patter for the next day is delivered and in the morning the Cruise and Deputy Cruise Directors host an early morning show letting you know about the day ahead.
The in-room TVs have a number of channels covering ship information, news, Love Boat repeats and movies.


Restaurants
Food on board our cruise was excellent I thought. From the main dining rooms to the Horizon Court and burger bar. We signed up for anytime dining, giving us the flexibility to eat where and when we chose. We only had breakfast in a dining room on one occasion and didn’t take lunch there at all as we felt we would have come home 5 sizes larger!!!,
On our cruise, formal nights were a big hit and I would estimate 75% of adults dressed for the occasion.

On-Board Entertainment – Kids
The Kids entertainment is based around clubs where they are grouped by age. We had experience of Shockwaves (8-12) and Remix (13-17). Shockwaves was reasonably well received by my youngest but she didn’t appreciate one afternoon where the girls were allocated makeover whilst the boys had Mario Kart Wii – why not have both open to anyone.
Remix was a bit more of a miss than a hit. The structure didn’t really suit the teenagers who prefer a bit more flexibility in their programme – a few evenings the majority didn’t fancy what was in the schedule and wanted to do something else but were unable to. Perhaps multiple activities would be good. As teenagers do, they merely check out and hang out around the pool and movie screen. Fortunately on our sailing there were only 300 children and there were no problems but later in the season this rises to 500 and could be more of an issue.
Movies under the Stars was reasonably popular but be aware that the popcorn does sometimes stop at 10pm with the second movie starting at 10:30pm.

On-Board Entertainment – Adults
Adult entertainment is centered around six main locations – wheelhouse bar, explorers bar, atrium, Skywalkers, Vista Lounge and Princess Theatre. My opinion of each location:
Wheelhouse Bar – very quiet and more hosting the jazz type of music etc
Explorers Bar – More up-tempo and playing host to quizzes and the resident band Opus
Atrium – classical music during the day and early evening with a piano/singer duet at night
Skywalkers – the up-top nightclub was very quiet during our trip
Vista Lounge – used for ballroom dancing, bingo and some shows. This lounge is one of two “show” stages but is significantly smaller than the larger Princess Theatre. Some one-off shows (such as the cruisers talent show) would have been better suited to the Princess Theatre in my opinion.
Princess Theatre – Largest of the on-board theatres and host to a selection of shows and individual acts. We found the comedians/magicians to be the best and suitable for the whole family. The crew talent show is one not to be missed.
Most shows tend to be shown once on one evening and then at 20:30 and 22:30 the next in order that most people on differing dining options have the chance to see them.


Ultimate Ships Tour
I booked this tour and it took place on the second last sea day. We visited the behind-scenes theatre, galley, food storage areas, photography area, engine control room, funnel, hospital and bridge. The tour lasted approximately 3.5 hours and cost $150. Along the way, various gifts were given out – bag, 4xphotographs, luxury bathrobe and chefs jacket. The tour culminated with nibbles and cocktails on the bridge with the captain followed by individual photographs with him.
I felt the tour was well worth it and an interesting insight into the workings of the ship.



Ports
This cruise was very port intensive with eight ports in nine days.

Malaga – not worth visiting. Simply a holidaymakers concrete jungle. The Tour bus wasn’t worth the money, the only saving grace is that it was an easy way to get around rather than learn about the place. If I visited this port again, I wouldn’t get off!

Cartagena – Very pleasant port . The ship docks and you leave along a palm tree lined avenue towards the main shopping area.

Barcelona – Ship docked some way from the main area, well worth taking the shuttle bus ($5 each way per person) or even better a taxi (10 EURO trip). Two bus tour companies – independent and one run by the Tourist Board. We opted for the Tourist Board bus which had two main routes taking up to 4 hours to complete. After spending much time in traffic jams we switched to the underground to get around which was relatively easy once we had worked out the system. Las ramblas is a very busy and vibrant shopping strip – my daughter loved the human statues. Be aware that it can be very challenging trying to see the main sites in the time you are in port!!

Monte Carlo – Well, what to be said. We were lucky in that the ship docked rather than tendered and no doubt saved any queues to disembark. We arrived the day before the Tour de France started but still managed to get around this small are easily. We wandered up to the small train which took us on a tour of Monte Carlo for 20 EURO. After sightseeing the old town and having lunch in a small cafe, we headed back down to the marina to catch a boatbus over to the other side where we explored the shops and casino area by foot.
Civitavecchia
Gateway to Rome we headed out to the left to the main train station and caught the early train and were in Vatican City before 9am. Thanks to Liz for telling us to validate our ticket before boarding or facing a large fine. Price of bus was 9EURO each which covered the return journey to Rome and use of the underground. Arriving at Vatican City, we immediately entered St.Peters basilica with no queue – very impressive. From there we made our way to the underground which took us in to central Rome and the main attractions. Note that the return trains seemed to leave from platform 28 which is quite a walk away from most of the other platforms. Be sure to leave yourself an extra 10-15 minutes for the walk!!
Naples – We did the Pompeii trip and on returning we were simply too exhausted to head into Naples itself. The itinery was starting to take its toll on all of us I think!
Ajaccio – What a lovely place. Headed out and caught the small train for a tour of the town before walking through the shopping district and heading back to the ship.
Gibralter – A surprise for me as I wasn’t expecting this to be anything other than a rundown outpost of the UK. To tour the “rock” you will have a few options – ships tour, DIY or private tour. Taxis line the route from the ship and try to charge 25 EURO each based on 7 sharing. This is negotiable! At first glance this seems quite expensive until you realise that the cable car is 6+ EURO and the entry ticket to the rock is 8 EURO. On top of that you have to get there by foot and there is a 3 mile walk to see all the attractions at the top. We opted t share a private tour and are so glad that we did as the cable car queue was in excess of an hour. Our tour driver was very knowledgeable and gave us plenty of time to explore the main attractions and take photographs before dropping us in the main shopping area. A highlight for most is that this area is teeming with shops selling low price alcohol, cigarettes, jewellery and electronics.


Company
Another CC member, Liz, organised a get together on the first sea day and from that we spent a lot of time with them and other couples. The company is what really made this cruise and I would encourage you to join your roll call, meet up and take it from there. If the other members of your roll call aren’t your taste then no real loss but you may find you end up, like we did, with excellent company. What a hoot it was.


Disembarkation
The night before, pack, tag luggage and place outside. On disembarkation day, vacate room by 8am and meet at the designated time and location to be shown off the ship. Collect luggage and away. Very easy.

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent review, thanks for taking the time to post it.

Like the video too.

[dfields1814]

I really enjoyed your video! We were on the Grand for the exact same cruise in early May. I would agree with just about 99% of what you said in your review. The only disagreement would be Malaga. I have no knowledge of the port Malaga itself - if it should be a port excursion or not. However, Malaga is the port that used to get to the Alhambra in Granada. That is not to be missed. It is one of the great architectural monuments in the world right up there with the Parthenon and the Taj Mahal. We opted to take the Princess excursion to see it. It was expensive but worth every penny! You are right about Cartagena and Ajaccio . Those ports were pleasant surprises for us. We expected very little from them but they ended up as two of our favorites. Gibralter was another pleasant surprise. That is where they had the UK party on sail away. That was really fun. We were two of 200 Americans on board with 2200 Brits. (We had a great time with them!!! They were there to party!!!) When they played God Save the Queen, this old man in a wheel chair was held up by those around him so he could stand. He had a Union Jack in his hands. We were very moved. Great review!!! Was Pee Wee still teaching line dances?

[seb530]

Thanks for your comments, unfortunately we didnt book an excursion for Malaga and spent the day in the town itself - a tip for future travellers to do an excursion in that port might be the way to go.

We watched a little of the dancing but unfortunately I dont know who the dancing teachers were.

[lizboyle]

Oh Brian, it makes me relive all those wonderful memories of our great cruise. I hope our Ruby princess one next year will be just as memorable.

[CaroleLee]

Originally Posted by seb530

Hi all, put together a small review of our cruise, video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBISn4PoIMg sorry about the music - it objected to my original (and choreographed) choice!

Grand Princess Review
27th June - Mediterranean


Ship
The ship is in excellent condition and I really couldn’t fault it. The carpets are in very good condition as is all fixtures and fittings. During our cruise the staff were constantly repainting and varnishing to ensure that the high standards remained.
Hygiene on the ship was high on the agenda with dispensers for cleanser at many locations where food can be found, especially those areas where passengers handle the food e.g. buffet areas.
On the first day, a waiter is sited at the entrance to Horizon Court to demonstrate the automated dispensers and ensure everyone gets into the swing of using them.
Ice Cream is now free all day in vanilla, chocolate or a mixture of both flavours.
Sweets (Candy) can also be purchased from the ice cream station and waffles can also be had from here for breakfast.

Cabins
Rooms are surprisingly spacious – we had two adults, one 14 year old and one 10 year old in a balcony cabin. Once our stuff was stored we didn’t feel cramped at all.
I found the beds to be extremely comfortable contrary to some of the posts I read before we sailed.
Princess provides several toiletries (shower gel, conditioner, soap etc) and two sets of towels – white for the bathroom and blue/white stripes to take to the swimming pool.
Once dirty, just leave them on the shower floor and the steward will replace.
Cabins are cleaned in the morning when the beds are made up, afternoon with the towels etc replaced and in the evening where the beds are turned down, chocolates laid and the room again cleaned. The stewards always seem to be around and are very friendly.
Note that in our four person cabin, the beds could not be combined into a double due to the layout therefore be careful in your selection if you are expecting a romantic break for two!
On one of the early days after sailing, a fruit order form will be placed in your cabin. Complete and hand to the steward and the fruit will be delivered and topped up on request.
Late evening, the Princess Patter for the next day is delivered and in the morning the Cruise and Deputy Cruise Directors host an early morning show letting you know about the day ahead.
The in-room TVs have a number of channels covering ship information, news, Love Boat repeats and movies.


Restaurants
Food on board our cruise was excellent I thought. From the main dining rooms to the Horizon Court and burger bar. We signed up for anytime dining, giving us the flexibility to eat where and when we chose. We only had breakfast in a dining room on one occasion and didn’t take lunch there at all as we felt we would have come home 5 sizes larger!!!,
On our cruise, formal nights were a big hit and I would estimate 75% of adults dressed for the occasion.

On-Board Entertainment – Kids
The Kids entertainment is based around clubs where they are grouped by age. We had experience of Shockwaves (8-12) and Remix (13-17). Shockwaves was reasonably well received by my youngest but she didn’t appreciate one afternoon where the girls were allocated makeover whilst the boys had Mario Kart Wii – why not have both open to anyone.
Remix was a bit more of a miss than a hit. The structure didn’t really suit the teenagers who prefer a bit more flexibility in their programme – a few evenings the majority didn’t fancy what was in the schedule and wanted to do something else but were unable to. Perhaps multiple activities would be good. As teenagers do, they merely check out and hang out around the pool and movie screen. Fortunately on our sailing there were only 300 children and there were no problems but later in the season this rises to 500 and could be more of an issue.
Movies under the Stars was reasonably popular but be aware that the popcorn does sometimes stop at 10pm with the second movie starting at 10:30pm.

On-Board Entertainment – Adults
Adult entertainment is centered around six main locations – wheelhouse bar, explorers bar, atrium, Skywalkers, Vista Lounge and Princess Theatre. My opinion of each location:
Wheelhouse Bar – very quiet and more hosting the jazz type of music etc
Explorers Bar – More up-tempo and playing host to quizzes and the resident band Opus
Atrium – classical music during the day and early evening with a piano/singer duet at night
Skywalkers – the up-top nightclub was very quiet during our trip
Vista Lounge – used for ballroom dancing, bingo and some shows. This lounge is one of two “show” stages but is significantly smaller than the larger Princess Theatre. Some one-off shows (such as the cruisers talent show) would have been better suited to the Princess Theatre in my opinion.
Princess Theatre – Largest of the on-board theatres and host to a selection of shows and individual acts. We found the comedians/magicians to be the best and suitable for the whole family. The crew talent show is one not to be missed.
Most shows tend to be shown once on one evening and then at 20:30 and 22:30 the next in order that most people on differing dining options have the chance to see them.


Ultimate Ships Tour
I booked this tour and it took place on the second last sea day. We visited the behind-scenes theatre, galley, food storage areas, photography area, engine control room, funnel, hospital and bridge. The tour lasted approximately 3.5 hours and cost $150. Along the way, various gifts were given out – bag, 4xphotographs, luxury bathrobe and chefs jacket. The tour culminated with nibbles and cocktails on the bridge with the captain followed by individual photographs with him.
I felt the tour was well worth it and an interesting insight into the workings of the ship.



Ports
This cruise was very port intensive with eight ports in nine days.

Malaga – not worth visiting. Simply a holidaymakers concrete jungle. The Tour bus wasn’t worth the money, the only saving grace is that it was an easy way to get around rather than learn about the place. If I visited this port again, I wouldn’t get off!

Cartagena – Very pleasant port . The ship docks and you leave along a palm tree lined avenue towards the main shopping area.

Barcelona – Ship docked some way from the main area, well worth taking the shuttle bus ($5 each way per person) or even better a taxi (10 EURO trip). Two bus tour companies – independent and one run by the Tourist Board. We opted for the Tourist Board bus which had two main routes taking up to 4 hours to complete. After spending much time in traffic jams we switched to the underground to get around which was relatively easy once we had worked out the system. Las ramblas is a very busy and vibrant shopping strip – my daughter loved the human statues. Be aware that it can be very challenging trying to see the main sites in the time you are in port!!

Monte Carlo – Well, what to be said. We were lucky in that the ship docked rather than tendered and no doubt saved any queues to disembark. We arrived the day before the Tour de France started but still managed to get around this small are easily. We wandered up to the small train which took us on a tour of Monte Carlo for 20 EURO. After sightseeing the old town and having lunch in a small cafe, we headed back down to the marina to catch a boatbus over to the other side where we explored the shops and casino area by foot.
Civitavecchia
Gateway to Rome we headed out to the left to the main train station and caught the early train and were in Vatican City before 9am. Thanks to Liz for telling us to validate our ticket before boarding or facing a large fine. Price of bus was 9EURO each which covered the return journey to Rome and use of the underground. Arriving at Vatican City, we immediately entered St.Peters basilica with no queue – very impressive. From there we made our way to the underground which took us in to central Rome and the main attractions. Note that the return trains seemed to leave from platform 28 which is quite a walk away from most of the other platforms. Be sure to leave yourself an extra 10-15 minutes for the walk!!
Naples – We did the Pompeii trip and on returning we were simply too exhausted to head into Naples itself. The itinery was starting to take its toll on all of us I think!
Ajaccio – What a lovely place. Headed out and caught the small train for a tour of the town before walking through the shopping district and heading back to the ship.
Gibralter – A surprise for me as I wasn’t expecting this to be anything other than a rundown outpost of the UK. To tour the “rock” you will have a few options – ships tour, DIY or private tour. Taxis line the route from the ship and try to charge 25 EURO each based on 7 sharing. This is negotiable! At first glance this seems quite expensive until you realise that the cable car is 6+ EURO and the entry ticket to the rock is 8 EURO. On top of that you have to get there by foot and there is a 3 mile walk to see all the attractions at the top. We opted t share a private tour and are so glad that we did as the cable car queue was in excess of an hour. Our tour driver was very knowledgeable and gave us plenty of time to explore the main attractions and take photographs before dropping us in the main shopping area. A highlight for most is that this area is teeming with shops selling low price alcohol, cigarettes, jewellery and electronics.


Company
Another CC member, Liz, organised a get together on the first sea day and from that we spent a lot of time with them and other couples. The company is what really made this cruise and I would encourage you to join your roll call, meet up and take it from there. If the other members of your roll call aren’t your taste then no real loss but you may find you end up, like we did, with excellent company. What a hoot it was.


Disembarkation
The night before, pack, tag luggage and place outside. On disembarkation day, vacate room by 8am and meet at the designated time and location to be shown off the ship. Collect luggage and away. Very easy.

Thanks so much for your tour de force on the Grand. Will probably book her for 2010.
Carole

[lizboyle]

Having sailed P&O, RCCL, OV, Celebrity, NCL, Carnival and Island cruises, I can honestly say our cruise on the Grand was one of the BEST! You will not be disappointed if you sail on the Grand.

[Milli Molli]

Hi Seb530

I am so thrilled to read your review. My sister and I are on the Grand next July for her birthday and I've been reading mixed reviews about the ship and your post has restored my faith that we have made the right decision and I'm looking forward to our trip more than ever now. Am counting the days. Thank you so much.

[Milli Molli]

....... and I loved your video! Roll on 10 July 2010!!!