Alaska on the Grand 6/27-7/7

Just a quick review of our recent (6/27-7/7) Alaska GlacierBay 10 day cruise on the Grand out of San Francisco. We drove the 3 hours up to San Francisco andarrived about 11:00. The guys (2couples) dropped the girls and luggage off at the terminal and drove up twoblock to park the car at the pre-reserved parking garage at 80 Francisco. The girls went immediately upstairs andwaited for the guys. We are platinum sowe processed through before our friends but they processed shortly after us andwe were all onboard around noon. Ourrooms were ready for us. We dropped offour carryon items and proceeded to the Da Vinci dining room for lunch. We had a beautiful sail away under the GoldenGate. The first two days we had some swells that rocked the ship some but nothing that required any anti-nausea meds. The condition of the ship was very good. We were on her last October and it wasevident to us they had done some “sprucing up” during the dry dock in December. This was our 3rd time on her inthe last 4 years. The new beds weregreat and we slept very comfortably. Thefood overall was very good. No bigcomplaints. This ship had probably thebest entertainment of any cruise we’ve been on. Tricia Kelly was a singer/impersonator that had a wonderful voice andwas a real kick. Oscar Carlos is a hystericalcomedian that performed twice. Don’tmiss his shows! There was also a malepiano player/ vocalist that we didn’t get to hear (I don’t remember why). The Voice of the Ocean was a lot more funthan I anticipated. The first nightauditions seemed pretty abysmal so I wasn’t too hopeful about the finals. It was a packed crowd and everyone reallyenjoyed the competition. The new floor show Born to Dance was awesome. The singers and dancers were all very talented. Every live showwe went to in either the Vista Lounge or Princess Theater was packed. Get there early! We had lots of good movies to watch. We didn’t make it to MUTS this cruise eitherbecause of weather or because we were doing a show inside. This was our fourth Alaska cruise and thesecond time we cruised late June/early July. We had lots of overcast and drizzle but no downpours. The weather was cool but because of thehumidity we never needed heavy jackets. We purchased the ship excursion in Juneau that went to Auke Bay forwhale watching and Mendenhall Glacier. We didn’t get much time at Mendenhall because of a late start (bustrouble). We saw both Orcas andhumpbacks at Auke Bay. They say you see Orcasonly 10% of the time. Allen Marine was great! We also purchased the Butchart Gardens excursion in Victoria. We had a beautiful, sunny day there andenjoyed seeing the rest of the gardens we missed on our last trip. The roses were AMAZING. Glacier Bay didn’t disappoint. We saw some awesome calving. We ordered room service lunch to be delivered afterwe had left Majorie Glacier. It wasgreat sitting on our balcony viewing the glaciers we missed on the way in. We really had a great trip and will nothesitate going on the Grand again. Ohwait, we already have two more cruises (Hawaii and Pacific Northwest) booked onher next year J

Thanks for your review. We are taking the Grand in January to Hawaii so glad to hear about the beds and the general condition of the ship. We have never been on her before but looking forward to spending many sea days on her and leaving out of San Francisco!

We've sailed on her before and there is nothing like being within minutes of a pier and then sailing under the GG. Priceless!! But, we thought she was looking pretty tired when we sailed on her just last August. So glad to hear that she was 'spruced up' as we've booked her again for next spring. :)

And .. the staff / crew have always been just amazing on that ship ... so while I am not really all that fond of the ship itself, we've always appreciated all the other things that go along with cruising such as the staff, food, entertainment, etc.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. It's really obvious that you like the Grand, with 2 more sailing on her next year.

Thanks for the review. I will be on the sailing on July 27th. So it was nice to read all the glowing comments. I will also be parking in the garage so good to know it was easy to do. Did you need to find porters or were they readily available? Also what do you pay the porters for their services?

Thanks

There were a ton of porters. Everything is very well organized at the SF terminal. We had 2 bags and a tote and gave the guy $5.

Thanks for the review. We are leaving SF on Sept. 5th for our 3rd Alaska cruise, but the first on the Grand.

Patti

There were a ton of porters. Everything is very well organized at the SF terminal. We had 2 bags and a tote and gave the guy $5.

Cool, thanks for the info

Thanks for the review! We are sailing on the Grand on a 10-day to Alaska out of SF next year. So so looking forward to it!