This was our sixth cruise, the second on the Grand Princess. We chose it primarily because of the interesting Caribbean itinerary, and for the fact that we got to spend both Christmas and New Year on the ship. It was 14 days, visiting 9 ports. This is not a review on our flights or on the islands we visited, this is about the ship itself. It is long, but full of information.

We are not big complainers, and we tend to believe that many cruisers are too picky or expect too much. On this category of ship, you cannot expect 5 star dining. At best, 3+ is our overall rating for Princess, RCCL and Celebrity. But, I do not have to cook or clean, and service is generally good. We are very fortunate to be able to enjoy a cruise, so we always try to look at the positive side of things. This time, it's a little different...

It all started when we arrived at the cruise terminal. Since we flew in the day before the cruise, we arrived at the terminal at around 11:00am. Thank God! We were able to get a seat inside the terminal and have a ticket that should have allowed us to board at around 12:30-1:00pm. We had to wait until 3:00pm to board, apparently there was a coast guard inspection going on, but wasn't this ship on dock for one complete week prior to this cruise? There were about 1500 passengers waiting outside the terminal building, in the sun, for a few hours due to this supposed inspection. Read more