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Name: John D. Meehan
Email: jdmor@prodigy.net
Age: 68
Occupation: Retired Engineer
NumberOfCruises: 12
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Princess-Grand
SailingDate: September 11, 1998
Itinerary: Trans Atlantic
FoodDiningRoom: 95
CruiseDirector: 70
CabinComfort: 80
FoodRoomService: 95
CruiseStaff: 70
CabinAmenities: 50
FoodLidoDeck: 75
DiningRoomService: 80
CabinQuietness: 25
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 100
ShoreExcVariety: 75
FoodVariety: 80
DeckService: 85
ShoreExcValue: 25
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies:
LoungeService: 80
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors: 85
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 90
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 95
EntertShowLounge: 100
OverallPortsofCall: 75
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside:
CruiseActivities: 50
Casino:
AirSeaProgram: 85
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 90
EmbarkDisembark: 85
DiscoNightclubs:
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 95
ShopsOnBoard: 95
SpaceRatio: 95
OverallCruiseValue: 85
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 29 Sep 1998
Time: 16:27:21
Remote Name: 207.115.62.56
Remote User:
Comments
To put this review in context, my wife and I have been on 12 cruises. Three have been on
Princess ships, three on Holland American, one on
Celebrity, two on Royal, and one each on Cunard, Admiral, and Premier. We are not travel
agents or have any connections in the travel industry.
Therefore, I will be as objective as possible and not pull any punches.
The Grand Princess is truly a 'grand' ship. It is quite beautiful and has lots of
advantages due to it size. There are plenty of other reviews around
extolling the virtues of the ship so I will touch upon only a few of the things we
particularly liked. Number one is the entertainment available. The
900 seat Princess Theater is outstanding. Perfect sight lines, no drink service (i.e.
annoyance), and ultra high tech sound and lighting combined
with superb staging (with raising and lowering sections of the stage and some
pyrotechnics) and costumes produced very high quality production
shows. The ship's company of about18 singer/dancers were well rehearsed and hard working.
Two other more conventional lounge type show
rooms gave you a choice of three different events each night. They featured comedians and
individual singers or musicians. Each show was
repeated each night and usually for two days. Therefore, it was easy to take in two shows
each night. We even watched a pre-dinner show and
two after dinner shows one evening. Most of the acts were high quality and I can't say
enough to praise Princess Line's efforts in this area..
In view of the 2600 passenger load, Princess did a pretty good job of embarking and
disembarking passengers with no more than the normal
delays. They even took us directly to ship with no waiting for an arbitrary 2:00PM
boarding time. Even their long charter flight from JFK to Barcelona
was made nearly bearable by above average in-flight service featuring a relatively
uncrowded 747, fairly good food, open bar, and other perks.
The crew generally seemed well trained and eager to please. We had the best cabin steward
ever. He seemed to sense when we left the cabin
and invariably had it made up promptly. The waiters worked hard but were slowed down over
all by the Princess corporate decision to eliminate
wine stewards. The bus boys had to run to the bar each time a wine or drink was ordered.
Service did improve throughout our two week cruise.
Food was good to excellent. It has never ceased to amaze me how they are able to produce
quality in such quantity. However, Princess pastry
quality could use a bit of improvement. Only one type Danish a day and usually dry cakes!
We missed our afternoon ice cream since we never did
patronize the Hagen-Daz ice cream bar ($1.90 a scoop). I think most of the veteran
passengers did the same since it never seemed well
patronized. The alternative Italian restaurant was a nice change pace despite the $3.50
p/p charge. The food was definitely a cut above the
already good restaurant food. The Lido deck buffet food was fair. They have a unique 'sit
down' tablecloth service a night there, but we never tried
it due to the excellent restaurant food. On deck pizza, burgers, hot dogs and fres were
quite good.
We enjoyed the miniature golf course and the four swimming pools (there is even a fifth
one for crew use) and numerous hot tubs. We never
thought we would be sunning in mid-Atlantic in September but we had a least one beautiful
day enroute. There were ample lounges available.
However, I wonder if there are enough to support 2600 souls in sunny Caribbean service.
The biggest downside of the Grand Princess is the cabins. We were quite disappointed
compared to Regal Princess or the HAL Statendam class..
The world's largest ship has some of the smallest cabins. While we understand the suites
and mini-suites were great; all the rest, including all the
verandah cabins, left a lot to be desired. We had a standard outside cabin on Emerald Deck
amidships. We booked it as a queen size bed, but
found that each time we got up out of it, we knocked our heads on the folded up third and
fourth bunks. We immediately had the steward change it
back to twin beds. Storage was barely adequate for a two week cruise. There were only
three small drawers in the desk and a couple in each of
the bedside tables. The closet was too small and did not have a door or curtain, and thus
was visible to the world each time the cabin door was
opened. An inordinate amount of space was devoted to a sizable refrigerator. We found it
practically useless. Mostly it saved the steward from
filling the ice bucket so often. Had a terrible time breaking myself of the 'early-bird'
habit of bringing home a doggie bag from the restaurant.
Unless you are a big in-room drinker, it is a waste of valuable space. The bath room was
quite small and barely adequate. One plus, they seem to
have been able to solve the age old problem of widely varying shower water temperatures.
The worst problem was creaking and groaning walls (all the time underway even in the
calmest of seas). We understand it was not limited to our
cabin and quite wide spread. As on woman put it, it was like being on an old wooden
sailing vessel. The crew attempted to rectify the problem three
times to no avail. They finally reported it would have to wait until dry-dock. Sure! There
won't be any noise when the ship is standing still!
One tip for future Mediterranean cruisers. Beware of the Florence-Rome Over Land over
night excursion. We spent up to 10 hours on a cramped
bus that seemed to be designed for small Japanese commuters. There was no restroom (and
the arrogant Italians are loath to provide any public
facilities). It was a very uncomfortable and tiring trip, but the food served, a five star
hotel, and an outstanding tour of the Vatican and St. Peters
made it all bearable.
In general, it was an enjoyable cruise. The dawn entry to NY Harbor past the Stature of
Liberty with a NYC Police and Fireboat escort was exciting.
Even though it was the biggest ship afloat, we didn't feel any sense of over crowding any
more than any of the other ships we have sailed. Would
we book again on the Grand? Probably not, mainly due to the cabin situation. At least not
until 2001 when there three of them in the Caribbean
and they are offering really outstanding bargains trying to fill them!
Any questions, feel free to e-mail me at <jdmor@prodigy.net>.
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