Grand Princess Review

Cruising on up to Longyearbyen

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Grand Princess
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shoreham01
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jun 2011

This was a return visit for us, we sailed on the Grand in September before the refit so we were excited to see the improvements. It was with a little trepidation that we stepped onboard, some of the earlier reviews were really terrible. We need not have worried as most things were up to the usual Princess standard. The new piazza area is 200% better than before, now there is a space for music and cabaret, more about that later. The International Cafe is great, lovely coffee, cakes and snacks at all times. The new Alfredo Pizza cafe is really good, excellent pizza and very comfortable area to sit. The only negative area of the refit is the library/games/tea room called Leaves, this is a miserable dark claustrophobic place with no windows and very dark lighting, such a shame that they got that so wrong. The Horizon Court buffet is improved with better seating and a new island area for desserts. The Horizon is no longer a 24 hour restaurant, it closes at 11 or 11.30. The International Cafe is open all the time. The rooms show no sign of being updated. Rather dull and dated, but of course always kept really clean as usual. The balcony did have rust, and the balcony furniture had been painted up to hide the rust which resulted in paint splashes on the blue part of the chairs. This did not bother us at all. We live by the sea and know how the salt water corrodes metal very quickly. I do still feel that new furniture and balcony partitions would have made it feel better. We were on Caribe deck, these balconies are larger than the ones below on Dolphin and have a semi covered area which is great if it is raining or cold. The food was good in all areas of the ship, and there is a great choice if you are fussy like me. The staff are marvellous, all had a cheery smile and acknowledged us. We found all the staff to be really helpful and friendly - even the pursers desk staff who must take the most abuse on board. Talking about the pursers desk, a word of warning which has been mentioned before. The new accounting system is dreadful, the person who designed the new softwear should be made to return any money paid to them. A child could make a better job of it. Each person who is sharing the room gets a separate account now which is completely stupid if you are sharing the same credit card. If you have any on board credit this is now shared between the two accounts so you must be careful to charge things to both accounts to use this up as they will not refund any unused on board credit. The other word of warning is the price of the tours. Make sure you take a print out of your confirmation if you book on line before the cruise and check your account whilst on board. If they have charged you more for the tour than the agreed price, take your print out to the excursion desk and they will refund to the amount you agreed in the first place. Now unfortunately the negatives. Nothing too dreadful but Princess needs to take note. The sea day entertainment was very very poor. This was a cold weather cruise and so you could not spend all day up on deck sunning yourself. There was very little choice in the way of entertainment which resulted in many people just sitting around in crowded lounges reading. At times it felt like we were spending our holidays in a library. The other thing that needs addressing is the fact that if you are on first traditional dining at 6pm you miss out on a hell of a lot of entertainment. You do not even get the chance to go to the Captains party or the Captains Circle cocktail party as they start around 7pm and it is not possible to get out of the restaurant until about 7.45pm. There was entertainment in the piazza at 7pm such as flamenco dancers, juggler, quartet playing music etc but we missed out on that. We also missed out on ballroom dancing as this was between 5.15 and 7.15 which meant we were either getting ready for dinner or eating. When I mentioned it I was told that we could have 'anytime dining'. We did not want this as we had made friends on our table in the dining room. We like traditional dining so why should we have to change this. Maybe Princess is hoping that everyone will eventually be anytime dining. The shows were of reasonable standard, Bernie Flint was excellent as was Dianne Cousins and Paul Emanuel. We did not see all of the entertainers so cannot comment on them. It was just during the day and in the Explorers lounge at night that were poor. It would also have been nice if the Captain had notified us when there were whales or other wildlife in the vicinity. It would also have been a good idea if there had been an announcement as we crossed the Arctic Circle, infact a 'Crossing the Arctic Circle Party' would have been even better. Instead we just got a short announcement that in a several minutes we would cross the Arctic Circle. This was an event, why didn't they make the most of it. This was a spectacular trip, visiting wonderful places. We could not believe we were only about 600 miles from the North Pole.

Cabin Review

C231 Nice size room with huge balcony. Near the front of the ship but did not feel too much movement even when the sea was rather rough. Small bathroom with corner shower, toilet and sink. Adequate hanging space and roomy shelving units. Small drawers on dressing table and bedside tables. Very quiet. We were fortunate enough to have Alex looking after us. Room kept very clean and he always had a friendly smile for us.

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