I felt like a Princess...
Written: Mar 25 '00 (Updated Jan 04 '02)
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Pros: Excellent service, beautiful view, great food, tons of activities.
Cons: Flight reservation frustrations...
The Bottom Line: Great food, great views, plenty to do and plenty to see for kids, teenagers and adults. Definitely worth considering for your next vacation!
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| xiphoid's Full Review: Grand Princess |
I was on the Grand Princess 7-day Caribbean cruise in mid-February. I was very pleased with the cruise overall. In fact, I loved it. It was the best 7 consecutive days I've had.
Check-In...
The check-in and boarding was quick an painless. There isn't much waiting, because everyone has specific assignments of where to go. You check your baggage at the beginning, and the crew brings it to your room later in the day. Everyone's baggage made it to their room by dinner time. It was very organized.
Rooms...
There are several different kinds of rooms. There are suites (huge with personal butler) and staterooms (standard rooms). I stayed in a 2 twin bed stateroom with 2 other people on deck 12. Are you wondering what I slept on if there were only 2 beds? Well, some of the rooms have a fold down bunk bed. I was lucky enough to like bunk beds, but I know there are people out there who hate to sleep on them, and I know some people who can't sleep on them. So, be aware of this if you plan to have 3 people in the 2 bed room.
The room was small, but not cramped. If three girls could live comfortably in a room like that, it's a good thing (or a miracle)! We chose an outside room with a balcony, which I highly recommend. You'll of course end of paying more for a balcony and a higher deck, but the view is incredible. I marvel at the ocean, and I love looking out and seeing nothing but a watery horizon. With the balcony, I could do it from the privacy of my room. Plus it's a really nice place to eat my free room service breakfast!
The bathroom was a comfortable size, and the closet was sufficient for all 3 of us to unpack our 7 day clothing supply. There are drawers, shelves a hanging closet and a safe.
Food...
I loved the food! I was in heaven every night! My favorite food is pasta, and the menu offered a different pasta dish each night. They were all delicious! There was much more than pasta though. The menu changed nightly, and everything on it was served beautifully and tasted excellent. The waiters and headwaiters were the best! They were friendly, funny and made our dining experience even more enjoyable.
There are 3 different dining rooms. You are assigned a dining room when you make your reservation, and you have the option of eating dinner there every night. There are also a couple of restaurants on the ship to choose from. There was an Italian restaurant and a Southwestern restaurant. The Italian restaurant was excellent. I didn't eat in the Southwestern one, so I can't comment, but I would assume the best.
If you didn't want to eat in a restaurant at all, you could eat at the pizza place, burger place or the 24 hour buffet. The buffet was great. It had salad, pastas, even sushi! The best thing was that it was open 24 hours a day! You really can't go wrong with the great food on this boat, there's just so much of it! And everything is vegetarian friendly!
By the way, cash is needed on the island, but not on the ship. Everything goes on your 'cruise card' which also serves as your room key. You hook it up to a credit card and that's how you pay on the boat.
Service...
The service is wonderful on this boat. Each room has an assigned person who cleans your room during the day, turns down the bed in the evening (and leaves yummy chocolates on the pillows!) and is available to help you out. You are given his/her pager number so that if you have any problems or questions, you can give them a buzz. They were all friendly and did a great job cleaning up the rooms! Well, he did have to clean up the mayhem that 3 girls in a room can make!
Activities/ Entertainment...
There were plenty of things to keep a person occupied all day in the middle of the ocean. There were pool games, movies, shows, a spa, a gym, scuba lessons, kids club, teen club, several pools, lots of lounge chairs to lay out in the sun, a game room, golf, an ice cream parlor, a salon, plenty of shops and boutiques, a computer/business room...
At night, there was even more! There were places for the kids to go, like the Kid or Teen clubs that had age-appropriate activities for the younger ones. There were broadway-type shows, karaoke nights, magic shows, comedians, art auctions, country dancing, swing dancing, cabaret-type shows, movies, dances, island night, lounges, and a disco night club. Everything listed above gets a five star rating. The shows were excellent, the comedians were funny, the movies were good movies, and everything was as fun and entertaining as possible!
Oh yeah, and there's a casino on the boat!
Island Stops...
The boat stopped at 3 islands. The first stop was St. Thomas. This island was good for the shopper. There were strips of jewelry stores, leather stores, diamond stores and the like. It wasn't my scene. I was hoping more for the tropical island scenario. Nevertheless, everyone else had fun shopping and buying jewelry. Nothing too exciting for the non-commercial fun seeker like myself.
The second island was St. Maarten, a slightly less commercialized island, but commercialized nonetheless. I can't honestly say much about this island, because I didn't get off the boat that day. I was doing fun things aboard!
The last island was the Princess Cays...otherwise known as the 'private island.' Now that was more like it! This island was more like what I was hoping for, a desolate tropical island . Aside from the hair braiders and 2 craft selling tables, there were no stores. There was so much to do. There was snorkeling equipment, sail boats, paddle boats, waverunners, lounge chairs, buffets, and the beautiful crystal clear ocean! It was the best ocean swim I've ever had. With the snorkel, you can see sting rays, schools of tropical fish and beautiful coral. Definitely the highlight of my shore excursions!
The View...
If for no other reason, go for the view! I stood out and watched every single sunset for the entire week. They were the most breathtaking sunsets I've ever seen. The colors of the sky, and the beauty of the ocean were extraordinary. I love the feeling of looking out and seeing nothing but ocean in every direction; it was amazing. I took pictures of several of the sunsets and other happenings, and you can see the pictures on the Cruise section of my website.
Last Notes...
Overall, the cruise was great, the best! It's good for the athletic people (full gym, sports, track), kids (activity rooms for young children and daycare), teens (teen night club and daily activities) and adults (casino, bars, everything else!)
The only drawback, was that the cruise makes your flight reservations for you, and many people were not satisfied with the time and place of departure. They flew some people into Miami and had them leave from Ft. Lauderdale, which many were not pleased with. I, personally, had no complaints about my flight, but I observed it to be a big fuss with many of the other guests. To tell you the truth, I don't know when flight reservations aren't a big fuss. But, I felt compelled to mention it because it seemed to be a problem with the majority. Other than that, I highly recommend this cruise to anyone.
Recommended:
Yes
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