Grand Princess Review
Grand Princess Southern Caribbean December 2011
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This review is of the second half of a back to back Caribbean and includes some general things related to both cruises. This week we were mostly in the Southern Caribbean. I understand about 500 of us stayed on for a back to back. We decided to take a shore excursion -- the beaches and canals of Fort Lauderdale -- instead of waiting through the re-embarkation process. The shoreex was very interesting but we did not realize this excursion also included a drop off at the airport for late flights. That part was a major pain. We were supposed to be back at the ship by 1:00 pm and didn't back until 2:30 pm. Needless to say, after being on a cruise ship for 7 days and used to the constantly available food, we were "starving" since we hadn't had any food since 7:00 am -- unheard of on a cruise ship. We stopped at three different airline/terminals and all of the luggage had to be removed each stop!!! Very poor planning on the part of the bus driver. Some of the other back to back passengers told us they were only in the terminal 30 minutes and were back on the ship by 10:30. Oh well, you never know.
We left FLL around 4 pm Dec. 10th. The water was smooth and we arrived at Princess Cays early the next morning and stayed until 3:30 pm. At that time we headed for Curacao. We were at sea the next day and arrived in Willemstad at 1:00 pm Tuesday. We had some late arrivals the first week also and I have to say that I really don't like it. You have to take an afternoon shore excursion since there are no morning ones and you are destined to return to the ship late and hustle to get ready for dinner. Also, it gets dark early in the Caribbean in December so there's little to "see". Curacao was interesting. A combination of St. Maarten and Aruba. We were late getting back to the ship because we were late leaving -- we waited about 25 minutes for a couple who were late and never showed up. Does that bother anyone else?
We left Curacao about 9:30pm and headed for Aruba. We were in Aruba the full day. We've been there several times so we just walked around the downtown area next to where we docked. That evening we left Aruba for 2 days at sea on our way back to FLL -- a really quick week.
Cabin Review
This was a fully obstructed view cabin but near the rear staircase. You may know the Grand doesn't have a staircase mid-ship on the Emerald Deck. We purposely chose this location so we would be able to use the stairs. That way you can have dessert without guilt :) We had the bed on the wall instead of under the window, which I think gives you a little more room. The bathrooms and showers on the Grand are also a little larger than some of the newer ships.