Grand from Galveston-What a Yawner

[pyro]

Just home from the Thanksgiving sailing. This was our first and will be our last Princess cruise. There were 10 of us total, and we sailed Disney together last year, and collectively have sailed with RC and Carnival in the past. We all expected such great things from this Cruise Line. Not only because of the price we paid, but the reputation that Princess has always had. When we found out during the cruise that Princess had been bought out by Carnival, it explained alot. In the entire week, we could think of only 2 (two) crewmembers that smiled and were remotely friendly. Not one single employee made an effort to give us that special vacation feeling that other cruise lines do, especially Disney. There were numerous other things that we found to be below par, specifically the variety of entertainment, the dining experience, the appearance of the ship, etc, but this was the number one reason that none of us will sail with Princess again. It's amazing that smiling faces and hospitality can make or break a vacation. If we would have had just a little bit of this, we could have overlooked alot of the other things. Sorry Princess, but this is one of the most important aspects of a cruise, and for this reason, we will not be returning.

[dosi]

When we found out during the cruise that Princess had been bought out by Carnival, it explained alot.

 

 

I think that the fact Carnival bought out Princess means that Princess should improve....our two Carnival cruises were better than our Princess cruise in every way.

[Coral]

I am curious about your comments about "the apparence of the ship". The Grand was recently dry docked and I assume should be looking pretty good. Let me know if this isn't the case.

 

As far as Customer Service - one of my friends was speaking to her room steward and said that since Carnival Corp purchased Princess - Princess crew are now going through more Customer Service training than when they did before Carnival Corp was purchased them.

 

Carnival Corp owns some of the best cruise lines out there - Yachts of Seaborne, Windstar, Cunard.....

[bjboothman]

pyro, I hope you have shared your feelings with Princess. If I were as disappointed in a cruise as you and your companions were, I would certainly make my feelings known to someone who has the ability to make the necessary changes. Yes, I know it's too late, but if I felt I'd been ripped off, I would definitely make myself heard.

[Paula_MacFan]

Pyro -- could you elaborate on specifics, ie condition of ship, dining, etc?

[KaC-Cruiser]

Just home from the Thanksgiving sailing. This was our first and will be our last Princess cruise. There were 10 of us total, and we sailed Disney together last year, and collectively have sailed with RC and Carnival in the past. We all expected such great things from this Cruise Line. Not only because of the price we paid, but the reputation that Princess has always had. When we found out during the cruise that Princess had been bought out by Carnival, it explained alot. In the entire week, we could think of only 2 (two) crewmembers that smiled and were remotely friendly. Not one single employee made an effort to give us that special vacation feeling that other cruise lines do, especially Disney. There were numerous other things that we found to be below par, specifically the variety of entertainment, the dining experience, the appearance of the ship, etc, but this was the number one reason that none of us will sail with Princess again. It's amazing that smiling faces and hospitality can make or break a vacation. If we would have had just a little bit of this, we could have overlooked alot of the other things. Sorry Princess, but this is one of the most important aspects of a cruise, and for this reason, we will not be returning.

Sorry to disagree - but we had a great trip!! .... we came off the Grand this morning also, and had a great time. We have sailed 5 times with Celebrity, once with Carnival and this was our first Princess. I think Princess held their own against Celebrity in most areas. Our Cabin Attendant was fantastic, our waiter was terrific, and we met many happy smiling staff members.... the embarkation was a bit disorganized, but once out to sea things picked up. Entertainment on most cruises can be a bit hokey, especially the 'Shows' but the comedian last night was quite funny, and the singer, Darren Lynton, was very good. Although the ship was in dry dock recently, there were still things that had not been redone, and and they were laying new carpet in some of the hallways during our last port day. That seems the norm for most ships I've been on, repairs are always a work in progress. I can say we enjoyed it so much we put down a deposit for another Princess cruise .....

 

Luckily there are still a few different cruise lines to choose from (although Carnival does seem to be buying them all up one by one!) so hopefully we can all still find something that fits what we're looking for in a cruise!! Pyro - hope your next cruise works out better!!

[SWEETSEA]

KaC-Cruiser: Thanks for your comments. Could you tell me what NOT to miss in two weeks when we will be on board? What comedy shows did you enjoy? Did you do Sterling Steakhouse? How was food overall? Oh, and were the hot tubs fixed? Tell us about dis-embarkation. Is is still a mess or have they worked out the kinks?

[KaC-Cruiser]

KaC-Cruiser: Thanks for your comments. Could you tell me what NOT to miss in two weeks when we will be on board? What comedy shows did you enjoy? Did you do Sterling Steakhouse? How was food overall? Oh, and were the hot tubs fixed? Tell us about dis-embarkation. Is is still a mess or have they worked out the kinks?

Sweetsea .... actually disembarkation this morning wasn't too bad, for us anyway. (Much faster than getting on the ship!!) They started by calling each color/number to the Vista Lounge to see the Immigration Officer. The line was a bit long by the time we got called, but it moved fast. A quick check of our passports and our form was stamped and out we went. Since the calling of the color/numbers to disemark was running a bit behind the immagration call, we went up to 14 to the Horizon to sit and have a last muffin .... as they approached our number we headed down to 6 to check on one item with the Pursers Desk, then got in line to exit. Once off the ship we were directed to where our color luggage was. A porter quickly helped us find it all then took me out to the curbside pick-up area. Alan grabbed the shuttle to the lot where our car was. The pick-up area was a bit of a zoo, but we were loaded up and out of the area in about 20 minutes. If you are relying on a cab, the word was there are VERY few and the wait was VERY long. Princess actually makes announcements about how few cabs there are available, so we were glad we did the Cruise Parking. Even at the curbside, most people seemed to be in good spirits, and everyone was very social while waiting.

 

I hope to put together a bit of a trip review, as soon as I can pull my thoughts together ... and we did not go to all of the late entertainment as we did scuba diving in all four ports so we were usually crashing by 11 or so each night. But the piano player that plays on floor 7 of the atrium after dinner each night was a hoot... kind of a whacked out sing-a-long of whatever people request. I think he was Australian from the accent, but not sure. I 'll see what I can find. I'd say the biggest drawback is the ship is HUGE, so I'm sure there were areas I never found ..... and from what I could see, it appeared the hot tubs were all working. And there is a 'over 17' pool area outside the spa that also has a few hot tubs. It was usually a bit quieter there, although kids are allowed from noon to 3. we did not do the Steakhouse - it appeared only about 1/2 full the times I went by. The regular menu was quite good and they have a number of items that are standard every night (like Salmon, Steak, Ceasar Salad, Shrip Cocktail) to choose from if nothing else strikes your fancy. And the creme brulees for dessert were WONDERFUL! The souffles as well!

 

Anyway - hope this helps a bit!!:)

[morganrp]

We will be on the Grand 1/22/05 and have anytime dining. We also had that in August on the Sapphire. We made reservations for each night when we got on board and it worked fine, but I noticed others who came up without reservations, were given a beeper and appeared to only wait 10-15 minutes.

 

What are the anytime dining rooms and what are the ones that you pay extra for?

 

Thanks

Judy

[pyro]

Please don't get me wrong, we had a fun time (but nothing to write home about).

 

Appearance: Our entire week we saw one person polishing a brass flowerpot, and one person dusting the stair rails. On other cruises there were crewmembers everywhere constantly cleaning, polishing, dusting, painting, etc. Sitting at the pool, there was rust everywhere (railings, light fixtures). Walking the promanade we saw duct tape (yes duct tape) holding signs and other equipment together. And it's not like they just put it up, it had been there awhile. Most of the windows were dirty and gritty (never saw anyone cleaning the inside of the windows). I caught my heels on several occasions on pieces of carpet that was loose and/or detatched. I think they only clean up the decks and public areas during the night because walking around the ship we were constantly stepping over empty beer bottles, glasses, coffee mugs, etc. They were shoved in every corner everywhere. Granted, they picked up dishes and trash from tables all day, but would leave them lying on the floor all day. Amazingly it was gone during the night. I guess we had to get up in the middle of the night to enjoy the beauty and cleanliness of the ship! We always had clean towels in the bathroom, but the bathroom itself was pretty bad. For example, black grout between the tiles on the floor. This is something that constant upkeep should take care of.

 

Dining: Our food was excellent. Our servers were friendly, but that was all. We get the same service going to a nice restaraunt in Houston. There was no personal interaction, no making it 'fun' . They always gave us what we asked for, but what we 'paid' for was a memorable experience. We didn't get it.

 

Entertainment: Past experience was that there was so much to do during the day, it was hard to choose which activity to attend. We are a very diverse group of 10, ages 34 to 72, and everyone has different likes and dislikes. To make a point, we spent alot of time sitting at a table by the pool waiting for dinner so that we would at least have something interesting to do. Every show we attended was in the same place, the Vista Lounge. Why? Because they played movies in the big theatre. And no new releases here, only movies we'd already rented at home. Why waste such a nice theatre on an old movie? On a good note, the entertainer "Sarge" was wonderful, and the Bingo games were very fun. But basically we got off the ship in port because we were simply bored.

 

Other: The staff at the Tour desks and Pursers desks were very friendly and helpful. The ship, although nice to look at from the outside, was designed quite poorly. No stairs midship. Everyday there was a broken elevator. Read the signs by the elevators carefully, because only certain elevators go to certain floors. If you are dining in the Botticelli room or going to the Vista Lounge, use the restroom in your room first. There is ONE toilet that is shared by the entire restaraunt and lounge. If you don't like to feel the ship moving DON'T CRUISE ON THIS SHIP. Motion doesn't make me sick, but our entire party ran into walls, miss-stepped, and was actually awoken at night by the rocking and rolling of the ship (and we had calm seas according to the captain).

 

Again, had the staff gone out of their way to make us feel special, gone the extra mile to make a lasting impression, we could have overlooked all these little things. We got the type of service and hospitality one would expect dining at your typical chain restaurant, and sleeping in a Holiday Inn.

 

Just one example of what kind of hospitality I'm talking about. The cruise we took last year, as we entered the ship, they announced our names to the entire lobby, "Mr and Mrs Blah Blah, and their children Blah and Blah" and there was a band playing and waiters handing out glasses of punch and cocktails to everyone. All of this within 30 seconds of stepping foot on the ship. Now that's a lasting impression...

[coiran]

Thank you for your negative review and the fact you will not sail Princess again - this will keep prices down for us Princess cheerleaders!!

 

Thank you again

 

Ron

[laurieb]

I hope that last remark was tongue in cheek. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and to share it. I think there is something useful in positive and not so positive opinions.

[spongerob]

True it's just one person's opinion, but I have to say that most of the comments about maintenance, crew attitude, and cleanliness are completely opposite of what I've seen on the Grand Princess or any Princess ship for that matter.

 

I have to admit, I have seen cups and plates shoved away in unreachable places - usually by teens and children whose parents are nowhere in sight, and no doubt telling others how well behaved their children are. I actually tipped one of the general cleaning people for cleaning up after one such bunch, who thought it fun to shove pizza down alongside the chair cushions.

[dig21]

What was your experience in Belize? I have read some complaints that because of the ships late arrival time, some the shore excursions were taking place in the dark.

[mek]

pyro - Sorry you were disappointed with your cruise. I was on the Grand in June and had a wonderful time and thought the ship was in great shape. I hope you give Princess another try. Unless the cruise was just terrible, one time or ship, really isn't enough to know what any cruise line really is like I took a cruise on Celebrity 7 years ago, and perhaps my expectations were more than they should have been, but honestly I thought the cruise was just average. I never cruised on Celebrity again and I really should give them another chance because most people rave about the line.

[mackie]

...it's hard to understand how one person can have such favorable views about the ship, etc. and someone else can have such negative ones.

 

Oh well, I hope you have a better time on future cruiselines.

[cruise pup]

The cruise we took last year, as we entered the ship, they announced our names to the entire lobby, "Mr and Mrs Blah Blah, and their children Blah and Blah"... Now that's a lasting impression...

 

It certainly is. I would hate that. Please let me know what cruise line does that so I can avoid it...like the plague!

[NoNoNanette]

It certainly is. I would hate that. Please let me know what cruise line does that so I can avoid it...like the plague!

*LOL* That's reminicent of Eliza Doolittle's first "public" appearance in "MY FAIR LADY". Sounds horrid, doesn't it?;)

[KaC-Cruiser]

Don't want to beat a dead horse, or be rude - but were we on the same ship???:confused:

Appearance: Our entire week we saw one person polishing a brass flowerpot, and one person dusting the stair rails. I think they only clean up the decks and public areas during the night because walking around the ship we were constantly stepping over empty beer bottles, glasses, coffee mugs, etc. ...

We consistently saw staff cleaning the public areas, picking up paper, plates, cups, etc. from where ever people left them - not just the tables. I frequently ran into them polishing the glass and railings of all the stairways as well.

 

We always had clean towels in the bathroom, but the bathroom itself was pretty bad. For example, black grout between the tiles on the floor. This is something that constant upkeep should take care of. ...

Our cabin (C239) bathroom, and veranda was very clean with only minor signs of wear. No mold or black grout to be seen.

 

Dining: Our food was excellent. Our servers were friendly, but that was all. We get the same service going to a nice restaraunt in Houston. There was no personal interaction, no making it 'fun' . They always gave us what we asked for, but what we 'paid' for was a memorable experience. We didn't get it....

Our waiter, Jorge (at table 282) was excellent. He was fun as well as fast & efficient, and truly wanted to make sure we were pleased with our meals. We made sure to tip him above & beyond.

 

Entertainment: Every show we attended was in the same place, the Vista Lounge. Why? Because they played movies in the big theatre. And no new releases here, only movies we'd already rented at home. Why waste such a nice theatre on an old movie? On a good note, the entertainer "Sarge" was wonderful, and the Bingo games were very fun. ...

There was a main show in the Princess Theater every night except one. The show that night (Shake, Rattle & Roll) was designed specifically for the Vista Lounge, so a movie (I, Robot) was shown in the Theater that night only.

 

We got the type of service and hospitality one would expect dining at your typical chain restaurant, and sleeping in a Holiday Inn....

Were we REALLY on the same ship? I have no complaints with Holiday Inn, but they sure don't clean my room numerous times a day, bring me ice, turn down my bed and leave me chocolates!

 

Just one example of what kind of hospitality I'm talking about. The cruise we took last year, as we entered the ship, they announced our names to the entire lobby, "Mr and Mrs Blah Blah, and their children Blah and Blah" and there was a band playing and waiters handing out glasses of punch and cocktails to everyone. All of this within 30 seconds of stepping foot on the ship. Now that's a lasting impression...

With what I heard was approx. 2800 passengers (over 500 children on this sailing) if we started announcing who was boarding, we'd never have left Galveston ..... I'd rather get to my cabin, get my luggage and then have the 'social' the night of the Captain's Dinner .....

 

To each his own ......

[Salty Dawg]

Welcome Home KaC-Cruiser!

Thanks for your account of the voyage -- happy to hear that you had a wonderful trip. Would you sail on the Grand again in the future?

[kkorman]

Just home from the Thanksgiving sailing. This was our first and will be our last Princess cruise. There were 10 of us total, and we sailed Disney together last year, and collectively have sailed with RC and Carnival in the past. We all expected such great things from this Cruise Line. Not only because of the price we paid, but the reputation that Princess has always had. When we found out during the cruise that Princess had been bought out by Carnival, it explained alot. In the entire week, we could think of only 2 (two) crewmembers that smiled and were remotely friendly. Not one single employee made an effort to give us that special vacation feeling that other cruise lines do, especially Disney. There were numerous other things that we found to be below par, specifically the variety of entertainment, the dining experience, the appearance of the ship, etc, but this was the number one reason that none of us will sail with Princess again. It's amazing that smiling faces and hospitality can make or break a vacation. If we would have had just a little bit of this, we could have overlooked alot of the other things. Sorry Princess, but this is one of the most important aspects of a cruise, and for this reason, we will not be returning.

 

It appears that you had expectations too high. My Princess expereinces have been quite the opposite, but I was not on your cruise and will not doubt that you were not satisfied.

[KaC-Cruiser]

Welcome Home KaC-Cruiser!

Thanks for your account of the voyage -- happy to hear that you had a wonderful trip. Would you sail on the Grand again in the future?

Most Definitely!! It's a HUGE ship, which does have it's drawbacks .... but I think the positives outweight the negatives. And even the itnerary was not the best - just not long enough in the ports. This was our first Princess (yes, we're Celebrity addicts!) but we had such a good time that Friday I ran to the pre-booking agent about 15 minutes before closing time to put down a deposit on a future cruise. We just have to pick something within 4 years. Normally I would never think of pre-booking on board, but it was a no lose deal. I'm sure others, like Pyro, may not have had a great cruise, but I also think a lot is what you make of it ... our first day started off a bit shaky with a dining assignment screw-up, but we moved on and had fun. Heck, we did one Carnival cruise in August from New Orleans into the Caribbean with no air conditioning in our cabin, and we still tell people we had a good time overall. It's doubtful that I will ever cruise Carnival again because of their attitude about it, but we didn't let it kill our vacation. :D

[Flintstone]

I can understand where Pyro is coming from...and I think its a matter of expectations. Altho we won't sail our first Princess cruise til June...I am pretty sure that Princess will NEVER match Disney for its shows. They do it as only Disney can!! And the boarding announcements are really not "plaque-like" at all...just a little more "Wow factor". I try hard not to compare one cruiseline to another as they are all special in their own way. Altho we are paying more to cruise Princess to Alaska than we would, say on NCL or Carnival...I am certain I would never pay for a week in Alaska for what Disney would charge. If the condition of the ship was as bad as you reported...I would definately send a little letter to Princess. That is certainly unacceptable for a ship that was recently drydocked. I guess we just turn a blind eye to such things because it seems we're too busy having a good time to notice. I hope you find a cruiseline that meets your expectations a little better.

 

Deb

[coiran]

Disney does the thing where they announce your name and family as you enter the ship - for what its worth. Disney cruises also cost about 25% more than a similar Princess cruise. and - the kids are everywhere - had some dive in the hot tub we were in with two other people - they drove us out - also had trouble negotiating the hallways for all the kids darting about.

 

Ron

[davebear]

I don't think the Grand was dry-docked. I believe it was just re-fit. In otherwords, they didn't take it out of the water for major repairs, but just did some conditioning ie; new carpet, fixtures, MUTS etc.

DB