Grand Princess Review
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On July 27th, 2014 we arrived in the Seattle airport to go on our Alaska cruise. We chose Seattle Express as our shuttle to and from the ship. Going to the ship, it did NOT go well. We waited almost two hours for the shuttle to pick us up to take us to the ship! We had left home at 3am to get to the airport, and we were already tired. The oblivious attitude of the guy at the counter didn't help. Finally, they put us on a shuttle and after dropping the others off downtown, the shuttle took us to the ship. It was a first cruise for our son's, ages 13 and 17. Our 13 year old was so excited as we approached the ship that his legs were shaking! ;) The line to embark was long, but went relatively smoothly and quickly.
When we got to our balcony room, C523, I was surprised how small it was. The balcony, however, was large...........about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of our whole cabin! I was grateful for the tips that I had received here at cruisecritic.com. There was only one plug in the room, so I had packed a multi-plug surge protector (got it at the container store) to plug in our alarm clock, cell phone chargers, hair dryer, and curling iron all at once. Another tip was to bring an over the door shoe holder. I'd packed a cheap mesh one and hung it on the bathroom door. There wasn't much counter space, so the shoe holder held most of our toiletries. My husband and I had to sleep in single beds across the room from each other, with the two boys sleeping above us. We had 7 pieces of luggage and managed to survive the cramped quarters.
Once we were finally onboard and had found our room, it was time to register the boys at the Teen Club. One thing to keep in mind.........the teens are considered "safe" as long as they are with the club, but the teens may come and go as they please. They don't shut down until 1am, so each night I was waiting and worrying about the kids being on their own to come back to the room (my boys have Autism). Anyway, my boys loved the teen club! They made lots of friends, played dodgeball, Ping-Pong, basketball, had a scavenger hunt on the ship, had a "mocktail" party, and a hot tub party.
Cabin Review
When we got to our balcony room, C523, I was surprised how small it was. The balcony, however, was large...........about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of our whole cabin! I was grateful for the tips that I had received here at cruisecritic.com. There was only one plug in the room, so I had packed a multi-plug surge protector (got it at the container store) to plug in our alarm clock, cell phone chargers, hair dryer, and curling iron all at once. Another tip was to bring an over the door shoe holder. I'd packed a cheap mesh one and hung it on the bathroom door. There wasn't much counter space, so the shoe holder held most of our toiletries. My husband and I had to sleep in single beds across the room from each other, with the two boys sleeping above us. We had 7 pieces of luggage and managed to survive the cramped quarters.