We chose this cruise as we had not been to any of the Canary Islands before or to Lisbon. We had also not sailed from Southampton. We chose this cruise in preference to the April sailing because it also visited Lisbon in addition to the Canary Islands.
Our transport to the Grand Princess, using Eavesway Travel, albeit at our own expense, was flawless and efficient. We can highly recommend this method of transport to Southampton
The embarkation was not efficient. We were given lettered cards on our arrival and had to wait until our "letter" group was called. This waiting did not apply to Elite and Suite passengers. It was noticed that, most of the time, staff were sitting chatting, without guests to process. The waiting could have been reduced by better management of the queue to available processing desks. As it was, it took us a hour and a quarter to reach our stateroom and we had only 15 minutes before the muster. We were certainly not the last on board so a second muster had to be arranged before sailing.
B339 Standard balcony room. Smaller wardrobe hanging space than Ruby or Emerald. On our sailing, prone to knocking, banging and eventually loud clanging noises due to a dislodged pipe. Shower had more shoulder space than Ruby or Emerald as it is set in the corner. Nowhere near any launderettes or creaky stairwells. If they sort out the plumbing the the cabin location is fine. The balcony does not have any matting to raise you up from any rainwater. This can be slippy. This applies to all staterooms.