On a lark, my wife and her brother decided to grab a good deal on this repositioning cruise for the Grand Princess from Fort Lauderdale to Rome. We drove to Ft. Lauderdale and made our own arrangements back from Civitavecchia; so we have no comments on travel arrangements other than the cruise itself. Our travel agency handled all the reservations and documentation requirements with efficiency and courtesy. This cruise planned stops at Devil's Island (French Guiana) and Forteleza, Brazil, necessitating Yellow Fever inoculations and Brazilian visas. Many passengers did not feel they were adequately warned about these requirements, nor about the cost of them. For us, the Yellow Fever inoculation was both hard to find and expensive, eventually $105.00 each person. The Brazilian visa is up to $140.00 per person plus about $50 or so of costs associated with getting the visa from a Brazilian consulate.

Embarkation was chaotic. The agent handling our embarkation did not know how to handle a multiple entry Brazilian visa that had been used once before, causing a lengthy delay in processing our case. The lines at embarkation were long and very slow moving.

Once on board, it was obvious that the Grand Princess is a crowded vessel when carrying her full complement of 2600 passengers. Perhaps this is ok for a week's Caribbean cruise, but became a real drawback over 20 days. The public areas are simply not adequate for the passenger complement, for example the largest theater holds only 900 persons, causing overcrowding for the early shows, and requiring 30-45 minutes advance times to secure a seat for the show. The buffet restaurant, Horizon Court, was woefully inadequate and poorly laid out, with extreme crowding even on off hours such as 10 pm. (The food, however, was very good and well presented within the confines of the space available.) Read more