We just returned from the Jan. 19 sailing of the Grand princess and I have to say that except for the disembarkation process (more later) all the staff on board made this an excellent cruise. In spite of the sad circumstances of the previous cruise, the staff were focused on making our cruise a memorable one.

The food was generally excellent, however I chose fish dishes the first few days and found them overly salted. After that I kept with the meat dishes and they were very good. The buffet was good, with plenty of choices....we limited our use of the buffet to lunches and had our breakfasts at the International Cafe which was one of my favourite places on board. A do not miss place is Alfredo's Pizza on Deck 5, the pizza is excellent with lovely thin crust. We did not use the pay resteraunts.

Entertainment was excellent, good production shows and specialty entertainers. Princess also offered lots of newish movies throughout the cruise without too much repetition. By far the best were the lecturers on board who gave us very good information on the ports and Hawaiian history. We thought the new cruise director was lots of fun as was his assistant cruise director. Read more