We cruised on the Grand Princess on July 6th from Seattle to Alaska on the Inside Passage.

As other reviewers have noted, Seattle is a cute port terminal and it was very easy to board. First, we were taken aback by the procedure for checking your baggage. Instead of handing the luggage to a stevedore, you bring your bag inside the terminal and hand it to a security officer to run through an X-Ray screener, and then it magically disappears. We proceeded up the escalator and checked in with no lines! We were seated for about 30 minutes, and then it was onto the ship.

The Grand Princess is a nice ship, but she is definitely showing her age. There are rust marks EVERYWHERE. The ticketing agent gave us a pocket sized map of the ship which was very helpful. You must remember that when Larry, Curly and Moe were designing this ship, they forgot to put the decks together in a row! So if you want to go to the fixed dining time dining room, which is on Deck 6, you must go UP to Deck 7, and walk around the central elevators, and then DOWN the stairs to the dining room. There are only two elevators that service this dining lobby. Good luck on getting in or out of the elevator if you are physically challenged. We have been on a LOT of ships, but this ship reminded us of Majesty of the Seas in which decks do not run the length of the ship, and there are gaps that make it hard to find your way around the decks. Read more