Embarkation: First let me say that I had had this cruise planned since March of 2006. I had made reservations through princess for their Love Boat Express. And I truly do not think that any time in the future when I cruise I will use this service. As it was not a good experience and not the best way to start a cruise vacation. I will find another way to get to the port either go the night before and stay in a hotel, drive down the day of, or pay to park at the port for the length of the cruise. Because we (my girlfriend) and I had used them the previous year and no hassles. But no so this time. We had gotten to the pickup location early on the morning of the cruise and it was a good thing that we had. Right after boarding the bus, the bus driver closed the door and we were off. According to my watch he closed the doors 15 minutes earlier than the schedule had stated. Our bus driver was in a big hurry to get to Port Everglades, he stated so over the intercom. He said on this particular day that he had 6 different ships on his bus. I thought he could have kept this to himself. Upon arriving at Port Everglades our ship was the last one to be left off. Before us we had stopped to left people off at the HAL Zuiderdam, Carnival Miracle, Jewel of the Seas, Two other which the names of escape me at this time and then Grand Princess we were last to be left off. When we went to claim our baggage, we were one bag short. A it happened to big a major portion of my luggage. As it contained all of my clothes ( a good portion of them anyway for the 7 days. At least I had my formal clothes (minus my shoes (the shoes where in my major bag). Oh and it had my swimming suits in it so that was going not going to be possible. Even tho I had sorta planned to go swimming at least once during this 7 day cruise. After having the aggravation of trying to find out what happened to my bag before boarding the ship. I was not in the mood to take the embarkation picture other than the one that one must take for the cruise ship card. After having told all the proper authorities about my misfortune. My friend and I went straight to our room. Public Rooms: Prior to this cruise, I had been reading on here (Cruise Critic) conflicting reports about the Grand Princess. Some reviewers were saying she was in bad shape. Carpet and that not being taken care of. Needed to be replaced. Paint on the balconies was chipping and need to be painted. Well, I did not find any public room that was in need of repair. Its either I was not looking for it or I am not that picky of a traveler. All the public rooms that I went to were very well kept up. All the major hallways were very well maintained for a ship that served 2000 plus people on this cruise. Having worked in retail I know that the public can be somewhat not neat. The only thing I encountered was after having played a trivia game I tried to find a ladies restroom I did not really want to walk all the way back to my cabin as I was going to meet my friend for origami and I would be late for that. The aft ladies restroom was out of commission for maintenance work. But other than that every public room seemed to me to be fine.

The cabin: This is one part that I was very happy about. Originally when I had booked this trip the princess customer service agent had told me it was the last balcony that she had available. I thought "oh great last balcony and its probably not in the best place and its no doubt very noise. But this was not to be the case. Our balcony was about mid ship and it was covered. And this was my first balcony. This balcony would be perfect for a Alaska cruise also, As it was a covered balcony and had sliding glass doors with comfortable seating in side. Never had one before first time had a inside room. I don't think I can go back to a inside cabin again. After having gotten settled, we went up to the sail away party. And by that time it was in full swing. Again this was my first time doing this part also. Somehow we missed "sail away" last time. I am very glad that we did this. Tho it was a bit crowded. I would suggest to anyone that if one want to get a good standing place get there on the earlier side. When we got in the cabin they were our coupon books that when I booked the room went with this promotion. So I was glad to see they had been put in our room. When I went thou the booklet, it really didn't have many deals in it. At least none that neither my friend wanted nor I would use. So we both had a passenger saving booklet. I guess if there is a shopper in the party that loves deals on jewelry they will be in heaven. This is the one portion that I thought was way to pushy. But I am not "shop till you drop person" Nor is it the major reason I cruise. Tho I could tell some passengers truly loved this particular service.

Fitness and Recreation: Again my workout clothes were in my big bag so I did not chose to go up to the gym. Tho I did go up on top deck several days to walk around the jogging track. My friend wanted to find the "swim again the lap pool" well we found it. The day we went it was crowded and she said she did not want to go back again. Read more