Grand review - 4/2/05 - 4/9/05 - long, as usual

Overall, it was a great cruise. Not perfect, but still great. Travelers were DH and myself (26 and 27; also my 18th week of pregnancy), and DH’s parents, mid-50s. First cruise for my in-laws, and DH’s first Princess cruise – we’ve done 3 on Carnival together.

EZ Cruise Parking – not as smooth as the first time. We arrived at the lot around 10:15. We were the only ones waiting and were told it’d be a few minutes. However, the prior trip was late getting off, so there were still plenty people streaming into the lot. I understand the need to get people off the ship, but in the hour + that we waited for a ride to the terminal, two shuttles left the lot empty. As we were the only ones there, I don’t see how it would’ve been a huge inconvenience to take the 4 of us (eventually 6 when we finally did leave). I’d still use them again just for the price, though; I suspect it’s not entirely their fault, but an explanation on the empty shuttles leaving would’ve been nice.

Embarkation – A mess. Bad Princess. We arrived about 11:40 to a complete cluster. As soon as we went inside up the escalator, we were greeted with a line snaking around a small area, and people sitting in the chairs dividing the room. Apparently, the chair people were first in line. Those standing up were lined up starting OUTSIDE the queue setup for security. Yes, outside. There were 300-400 people easy crammed in this area, with the line snaking every which way because for some reason, they didn’t want to line up in the queue set-up for security. About 12:00, they started letting us through, with the seated people first. Well, not everyone knew the seated people were first in line, so those standing just started trying to force their way in. As we happened to be right where they broke the line to let people through, we played traffic cop as best we could, but then people started coming from around the corner to sneak behind the Princess employee trying to control the entrance to the security line. She’d stop them and ask them if they were sitting down, but they’d just say no, but I’m with them, point in the general direction of the line, and she’d let them through. When people in line way behind us started pushing through, we said forget it, and it became a free-for-all to get in the security line. We still made it on the ship by 12:40, but why in the world they wouldn’t use the security queue area to line people up, or why they wouldn’t even let us check in before boarding (there was much more space in that area than what they tried to cram us in), is beyond me.

The only other minor complaint I have about the first day is missing sailaway. They delayed muster until 4:00, but by the time we were done, we were nearly halfway out of the channel. Since pushing off from the dock is one of my favorite parts, as is waving to everyone on shore, I was bummed to miss that.

The ship in general looked to be in great condition. We had a balcony, C308, and I loved the large balcony. If I can’t get aft, I’m going for this deck forever on the Grand class, it was wonderful. I liked they layout of the cabin a lot better than the inside I had in December. I don’t know if my mom and I just packed too much or what, but DH and I had plenty of space to store everything this time around. My in-laws had an OV on Plaza, and they had some of the complaints I had about our inside, since theirs was laid out the same way. Jerry was our cabin steward, and he was great. I asked him for extra lotion to help our sunburns, and I was treated to four extra cardboard packets, and a bottle from the suites. These guys have a sixth sense to know when you’re out of your cabin; he only showed up once while we were still in the cabin, and even then we were on our way out. We’d leave for breakfast, never seeing him, but come back after breakfast and our room would be clean. I don’t know how they do it.

Kids were kids, but they stayed out of trouble. No problems with the elevators, kids in the adult pools, diapers in the pools, etc. There were some kids in the hot tubs, but it could’ve been a lot worse. I did see deck attendants going around on sea days and picking up abandoned towels, so kudos to them.

Food was good. The meats were a little bland compared to what I remember on Carnival, and there wasn’t as much variety. Most of the appetizers and entrees were geared towards seafood of some sort, which I don’t eat. I had bread as an appetizer most nights. DH agreed with me that he thought the food on Carnival was better, but it was by no means awful. The raspberry soufflé, though, was incredible. I almost bought the cookbook just for that recipe. We did Sterling one night, and while the steak was definitely delicious, the number of choices for appetizers and desserts were disappointing. Also, the baked potato that came with my steak was a lot smaller than what I got in the dining room. Everything was cooked as requested all week. We had dinner in the buffet one night, as well as most of our breakfasts and lunches, and again, all good. I thought it was great quality for a buffet, and definitely way better than Golden Corral could ever hope to be, as some people have referred to it lately. BTW, the hot dogs at the grill outside are delicious!

Dinner service wasn’t the greatest. We had PC, and never really could find a good waiter. The first one acted like he was too good to serve us, one guy we happened to get twice was too slow (the second time we had him, dinner took 2 ½ hours, and that was with an officer at our table for the evening), and the one we had on the last night tried to charge corkage on a bottle of champagne one of my table mates had won on the ship. You really don’t know the true value of a good waiter until you don’t have one. (We made reservations every night, as we were eating with others, so I can’t comment on wait times; our table was always ready by the time we got to the front of the line.) We did eat breakfast in the dining room on the last morning, and service was great there. The buffet staff was amazing. They cleared plates super quick, and offered to get us drinks from the beverage station, something I’ve never had before. We had no virus problems that I was aware of, but all week they did have a crew member handing you a plate and rolled-up silverware as you walked in. Food for the most part was self-service.

Speaking of the crew, these guys and gals never cease to amaze me. They’ve seen a lot of passengers in the four months since I’ve been there, but every single person I remembered, rememberd me. I don’t know if it’s because our group was just that “memorable”, or if so few pax take the time to talk to them that they remember the ones that do. I hope that’s not the case, but I suspect it is. Regardless, it was something I’ve never experienced before, and it really made me feel at home. With the exception of the PC wait staff we encountered, I found the crew to be extremely friendly and willing to bend over backwards to help.

Ports – I’ll post more detailed info on the port boards, but here’s what we did:

Costa Maya – hung out at Tapas. Overall it was a good day, but nothing special. I think the only reason I felt a little disappointed was because I expected more, given the rave reviews here. Still had a good time, though, and I’d go back.

Belize – Shark/Ray Alley with Coral Breeze. What a great trip! The sharks stuck around after we got in the water, so we were able to pet them and get some great pictures. I wasn’t too thrilled about the guided snorkel, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Our tour ran long, though, and I barely had time to do some shopping. We left Caye Caulker at 11:15, and didn’t get back to the city until 12:45 – apparently our boat had new motors on them, and they couldn’t go full speed yet. The long tender line gave me enough time to get what I needed to get.

Cayman – stingrays with Moby Dick. This was my second trip with them, and it was every bit as fun as the first. Mark is a fun guy, although he kept trying to get me in trouble with DH, asking me if I was still single, and if I enjoyed my singles cruise in December. I enjoyed chatting with him again, but he was very good about making sure he got to spend time with everyone on the tour.

Cozumel – we’d had enough sun by this point, so we scrapped our beach plans and just shopped. We had lunch at Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s, something I’d never done, and had some of the most delicious bbq ribs for an appetizer. I had the bbq chicken as my meal, along with a couple of virgin strawberry margaritas (tasted just as good as the regular ones!), but I wasn’t feeling too good a few hours later. I don’t know if it was the food or not, since I’m sure plenty of people have eaten there before with no problems, but I’ll probably think twice before I eat there in the future.

Disembarkation – Calling this a cluster is putting it mildly. Princess wasn’t at fault for this; my next task is to work on my letter to US Customs for the chaos they caused. At about 6:15 on Friday, Tim, the CD, announced that they had just been informed about a change in the immigration procedures. Instead of doing immigration before leaving the ship, we were participating in a pilot program; immigration was now going to be done on shore after disembarking. He went on to say this was a good thing, as now we only have to wait in line once, etc., etc., but DH and I just looked at each other and knew what was coming.

Our worst fears came true. The first tags were called about 8:40; my in-laws had the very last tag that would be called, so we went up to deck 15, grabbed some chairs, and settled in for a long wait. From about 9-10, not a single tag was called, which we later learned was due to some bozo getting ticked at having to wait in line, so he just tried to skip through and caused all kinds of chaos, stopping the line for an hour. DH and I had earlier tags, so when our color was called about 10:20, we decided to go ahead and get the car.

We walk into the terminal and are greeted with a mess. All the luggage is lined up on two sides, and in the middle is the immigration line. For those of you who have been in terminal 2 in Galveston, the line stretched from as soon as you walked out of the tunnel into the open area, to the other end. It was madness. I got in line while DH went to search for our luggage (of course it was on the other side of the line from where we were). There was no organization, people were cutting everywhere, no one could control it. We finally made it through about 11:30. DH walked over to EZ Cruise to get the car, came to get the luggage, then left me at the terminal to direct his parents to the car when they were called. I didn’t see them until about 1:00. Worse, when people finally did escape that madness, they walked outside and had no idea where to go; a rep from a limo company was directing people where to go, there was no one from Princess to help people find where their shuttle was. The customs agent I talked to agreed this was a mess, but his boss was sold on the idea, so his boss sent him down to “make it work”, and encouraged everyone to voice their experience to US Customs, which I certainly plan on doing. I can’t really put into words what a madhouse it was.

Oh, for those wondering what it’s like cruising while pregnant – I’m not really showing yet, so it got old refusing wine at dinner every night, but with the exception of the lack of alcohol, it didn’t feel any different to me. I would not have wanted to do this trip any sooner, as I was still pretty tired most of the time, but I’d do it again. I think DH actually liked it better this way – our shipboard bill was only about $300, and I wasn’t constantly running around everywhere, dragging him with me. I would recommend memorizing the location of all the restrooms, though – that got old, and by the end of the week I preferred to dine in Michaelangelo, because the restroom was right outside the entrance, as opposed to Da Vinci.

It may not read like a great trip, but it really was – I guess the bad is easier to remember than the good because there’s less to remember ;). I had more issues with other pax than anything, like whoever it was that stole my digital camera Tuesday night and forced me to buy a new one in Cayman (look for it on E-Bay soon, so I can re-buy the one I had! ;)), or the lady complaining about a dog being on the ship and wanting to know why it was there, (it was a guide dog) or those complaining when others in wheelchairs got to cut in line, or those smoking in non-smoking areas – I normally don’t let that bother me, but I did say something this time, given my condition. They were generally apologetic and moved when I asked. Smokers were especially considerate in the casino, believe it or not (well, at the craps table – too make smokers at the BJ tables for me to play there); they tended to stay on one side of the table and blow away from people, so as long as I stayed on the other side of the table, I didn’t have any problems.

Okay, I’m done babbling, so much for my “brief” review. Don’t know how many questions there will be, given the summer itineraries coming up, but as always, I’m happy to answer what I can. :)

Thanks, Meredith. I hope that somehow, Princess can work with the authorities on the mess at the terminal. Our experience there makes me reluctant to cruise out of Galveston again. It's really a shame that some of the problems are no closer to being solved than they were several months ago.

We were on the same cruise and have to agree that disembarkation was the worst ever. We were lucky, we were one of the first groups off the ship. After we located our luggage the line was only about 2/3 of the way to the back of the building. It went downhill quickly though. The next group off the ship had to go to the front of the building to find their luggage and then had to lug it all the way to the back. They had to cut through the line going to imigration. As Meridith said, it was a cluster beep.

The cruise itself was good. Great weather & smooth seas. We did run into the same problem on embarkation but again, with luck, we were there a little earlier and we were actualy in the roped area so we didn't have the cluster beep that the other people went through.

Not sure what you meant about missing the the sailaway. Muster did start at 4:00 (supposed to start at 3:30) but we were back in our cabin but 4:30 and on our balcony waving to people as we left.

All in all a good cruise but I think from now on I'll stick to land vacations.

I loved our cruise out of Galveston, and we had no real issues getting on or off, but it appears we were lucky, and that's not the norm.

My issue with Galveston is that we could only get connecting flights from Denver to Hobby airport, which is closer than Bush. But we wanted direct, so we flew into Bush. And since it was Mardi Gras, we had to spend the night in Houston because all the hotels in Galveston were full. Either way, we'd have had to make the trek from Bush airport to Galveston, and it's just a little tedious. It's also very cool in Galveston in February, which is my fave month to cruise. Even when we left the port, the first full day at sea was chilly.

As much as I dislike Fort Lauderdale airport, I think that's where we'll cruise from next time (I've done it twice before). It's warmer, and it's not such a hurdle to get from the airport to the ship. The absolute best was flying into Vancouver, for an Alaska cruise. But even that had its drawbacks, because of customs.

I wonder if having more than one ship in port caused a delay in boarding the ship for you. We were the only ship in port (3/5/05) when we boarded and could only have gone faster if we would have run!:eek: We got to the port around 12:30, and were on the boat by 12:45.

I remember being confused as to why they called our tag for immigration and then again for disembarkation. The line for immigration was a couple of hundred feet long but seemed to move pretty quickly. I then thought there would be a line to get off the boat, but it was only a couple of dozen or so. There was no luggage line to get out but we did encounter a cluster when trying to get a shuttle to Ezcruise. I ended up walking back to get our car and it seemed to be the way to do it. That was the morning that the Carnival ship had all of the problems. We saw some camera crews interviewing some unhappy passengers.:mad:

I would imagine luggage terminal will get pretty hot and sticky this summer. I bet they go back to immigration on the ship like the rest of the cruise lines do.

Imigration decided to change things on this cruise. You were called by tag number and then left the ship. You then picked up your luggage and then got into line to go through customs. Usually (as I understand it) you went through imigration while on board ship then you disembarked and got your luggage. This made for a mad house inside the terminal. Just not enough room for all the luggage, people looking for luggage, people standing in customs line, and people trying to navigate said luggage through the lines to the back of the building.

Hopefully customs learned their lesson on this experiment and will go back to the old ways of doing it.