Being first time cruisers, we did not really know what to expect besides what we have read and heard. I must admit, that cruising is the way to go for us as we will most probably never go for a resort again unless we plan to read two novels during our vacation.
The Grand Princess is grand and clean. The crew members are drilled to the bones, and to my opinion very discrete. Never were we bothered for taking pictures either on the ship or disembarking at a port for a visit. Lounge chairs were neat and well set in place for whatever they were to serve for, was it for sunbathing, activities or movies under the stars. Being smokers, we thought that the only place we would feel comfortable by not annoying non smokers was to be on the Promenade Deck. I must admit that somehow we did feel more at ease to do so on the Lido deck (left hand side for smokers) and in the Explorers Lounge (right hand side) where it is well ventilated and not in a cloud of cigarette smoke.
Activities on this ship are well diversified and meet all types of people and ages. There is constantly something going on and the Patter (schedule of the day) will inform you of it. The services offered surpassed my expectations in many ways. Crew members do the extra mile to please your requests of any kind (anyways, they did for me - was it because I am friendly and polite?) My teenagers did not sign up in the club as they are not perfect bilinguals; they preferred doing their own things instead of dealing with being understood and understanding others (there was few French speaking teenagers (15-19) as they reported)