We are a family of 4 (2 adults early 40's 2 kids 9 & 11) who love to cruise, we try to cruise a least once a year, this year we were lucky, this was our second cruise! We hadn't sailed Princess since 2005 and really enjoyed it back then so when looking for a Thanksgiving cruise we looked into Princess. The week of Thanksgiving 2012 the Grand Princess and the Caribbean Princess both sailed a 7 day itinerary to the southern Caribbean. However, since our previous Princess sailings had both been on the Caribbean Princess we decided to give the Grand Princess a try.

The ship was originally scheduled to depart from Terminal 21 at Port Everglades, however, after receiving a call, text, and email from Princess (very thorough!) we left from Terminal 29. Embarkation was a bit crazy, maybe due to fact that Terminal 29 was under construction, or maybe due to fact that Princess had 2 other ships in port that day (Caribbean and Emerald) or maybe due to fact that there were 8 ships in Port Everglades... who knows... but it definitely wasn't one of the better embarkations we've had at Port Everglades... PLUS.. the Grand had just arrived in the US from its summer season in Europe.

We had an inside room on Deck 9 midship. We booked the room thinking we would be in the middle of the ship right near the central elevators so it would be easy to get to everything. FYI - the center of the ship has no stairs!!! So just going a few decks up or down you always had to wait for the elevator or walk to the front or back of the ship and take the stairs. VERY inconvenient. Read more