Grand Princess- Dry Dock Mar 2019?

Hi all,

I heard that the Grand is scheduled for a dry dock in March 2019. True?

Just curious if it’s a true dry dock or just a refurbishment, ie new carpet and paint type thing.

Thanks!

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Yes there is a gap in Grand Princess' schedule from March 3 to March 20.

But the Grand was one of the first ships to receive all of the upgrades that are currently making their way across the fleet. She already has the remodeled Kids & Teens rooms, Sabatini's rebranded to Sabatini's Trattoria, Ice Cream stand changed to Coffee & Cones, new MUTS screen, new tables & chairs in the HC, Sea Witch livery painted on the hull, etc etc...

One of our regular insiders posted that as the ship is now twenty years old it is required to have routine drydock inspections more frequently. But given Grand will be out of service for 16 days there may be more in store than scraping the barnacles off her bum and the standard sprusings of public areas. If your'e waiting for something official to come from Princess, don't hold your breath...

(I am assuming the original question actually meant to say "Is this a refurbishment or just a routine dry dock?")

Ok great thanks! I was just curious as we booked a Nov cruise in 2019. We’ve always enjoyed cruising on the Grand.

I found this on the Internet....it must be true.

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/ships/fleet-drydock-schedule

I found this on the Internet....it must be true.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/ships/fleet-drydock-schedule

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I found this on the Internet....it must be true.

 

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/ships/fleet-drydock-schedule

If you found this on the internet then certainly it "must" be true since the internet only contains truth. :rolleyes::rolleyes::')

I just got off the Grand on Monday and overall thought she was in fine shape. Loved having a real promenade deck to sit on and watch the world go by

Looking at the online Princess sailing dates for the Grand, there are no cruises scheduled from March 3 - 20 next year. This generally indicates that either the ship has been chartered or more likely a drydock has been scheduled. The ship is based in San Francisco so depending on where the drydock will be accomplished assuming that it is a drydock period and the time to get there and back to San Francisco would indicate a 14 day or so time being refurbished. This generally is a sprucing up of the ship (new carpets, etc) and repainting the hull. There are most likely no changes to the ship other than cosmetic.

Am very interested in this drydock as I will be on the March 20th sailing! First time on Grand. Last time I was involved with her was when I acted as my daughter's and son-in-law's TA and booked their honeymoon cruise in 1999 when the ship was, I think, about a year old. They loved her. I am using my very first and probably last WS on her and am looking forward to this cruise for that reason. Hope she's all ready to go by the 20th!

Pooh

I just got off the Grand on Monday and overall thought she was in fine shape. Loved having a real promenade deck to sit on and watch the world go by

We were on the same cruise!

Our room steward's supervisor was saying that there would be a lot of stateroom work done - balcony railing replaced, pipes that run along the decks repaired/replaced, new carpet and refinished furniture in the some staterooms, new tiling and bathroom fixtures in the Aloha deck accessible staterooms among other tasks. I found our stateroom A302 to be pretty tired but clean. The public areas of the ship really looked pretty great for a 20 year old ship!

Hopefully they may do some updating of furniture in the Window Suites too!!!!! I can hope!

Pooh

On our last cruise which was the Emerald they replaced our balcony wood railing one day. I have seen them replace carpeting late at night when most pax are sleeping. The repair/refurbishment occurs continually not to say that it also is completed while in dry dock We were last on the Grand over a decade ago when they still had skywalkers hanging over the stern (flat end) of the ship.

Great, we are booked on the Grand for 1/2020. Took the first cruise on the Grand out Istanbul in the spring of 1998... so yes she is 20 years old. Love this ship, take it out of San Francisco, my home port every few years.

So, a 17 day dry dock for the Grand. Maybe they will put Skywalkers back on the ship.......:D

We are considering the 3/20 booking as well, so this is exciting... we got off 8/4 and felt it did need some sprucing up. "Tired" is a good word for it.

We were on the same cruise!

 

Our room steward's supervisor was saying that there would be a lot of stateroom work done - balcony railing replaced, pipes that run along the decks repaired/replaced, new carpet and refinished furniture in the some staterooms, new tiling and bathroom fixtures in the Aloha deck accessible staterooms among other tasks. I found our stateroom A302 to be pretty tired but clean. The public areas of the ship really looked pretty great for a 20 year old ship!

This is nice news since my Sister and I will be in this cabin on July 5th. Thanks for sharing *hugs*

Today is March 3, 2019 and I just got off the Grand Princess in San Francisco.  She is currently being loaded with tons of stuff and heading to Portland to be put into dry dock for 2 weeks of extensive upgrades.  This was validated while we were onboard by the crew.  She was in pretty good shape for our cruise but should be in great shape for the next one on March 20th.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2640951-grand-princess-drydock-march-2019/

Can follow along here with vessel tracking and cams here.  She should show up on the Astoria cameras around the mid evening tomorrow - perhaps later and it seems like she should dock at the Vigor yard in the early AM hours on the 5th.  Possibly morning.  I think shes a few hours behind schedule. because she is scheduled to dock around 7pm tomorrow.

https://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/following-grand-on-her-drydock-journey.html

15 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

Can follow along here with vessel tracking and cams here.  She should show up on the Astoria cameras around the mid evening tomorrow - perhaps later and it seems like she should dock at the Vigor yard in the early AM hours on the 5th.  Possibly morning.  I think shes a few hours behind schedule. because she is scheduled to dock around 7pm tomorrow.

https://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/following-grand-on-her-drydock-journey.html

As of 12:15 pm on March 4 she is just off the coast from Eugene, OR.  You can follow her progress on MarineTraffic: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:370965/zoom:10

Thanks

On 6/28/2018 at 8:22 AM, PoohUnderstands said:

Hopefully they may do some updating of furniture in the Window Suites too!!!!! I can hope!

 

Pooh

I sure hope so.  The couch in our stateroom last time was awful.  And, our jetted tub spewed out rusty water.  Not sure if they will fix that but I did read somewhere that the mini's were all getting new sofas so at least we can hope for that as well.  We booked one for the fall.  

I just got off the Grand Princess on March 3rd. in SFO. She was heading that afternoon to dry dock near PDX.  They were boarding 1500 workers in SFO as we got off. They had put plywood lining in most of the elevators for protection a couple of days before we got to SFO.  As we got off they were loading pallets of tile etc. by crane to the upper decks. We were told that all carpeting was being replaced, some new furniture, all exterior woodwork being sanded and varnished. Exterior of ship being taken down to bare metal, much welding repair, and then repaint entire hull. We were told it would be in dry dock for 20 days.  Most of the crew was to stay on board to act as helpers.  Sounded like of pretty major overhaul. 

The Grand left dry dock on Tuesday was docked at Pier 27 in San Fransisco on Wednesday, March 20.

What a fine ship , she be. An Old Maid of the Princess fleet, now Carnival. Being aboard her a few times with my XYL, and her mum and pop.

It was the largest ever when launched too.

Looking now at booking two cruises on here by a US ASTA Travel Agent.