Grand Princess Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My two sisters and I chose to go on this cruise because we had never been on a cruise before and we wanted to do so before we got to be too old to enjoy it.
We left out of San Francisco, being raised in California, we didn't do any exploring of the city because we had all previously been there and done that. The first thing we learned about cruising was don't judge the cruise by the disembarkation experience...this was a cluster cram (for lack of a more suitable word).
We got on board the Grand Princess and we were all in awe of the ship its self...It was huge and luxurious. Five swimming pools, six hot tubs, I can't even tell you how many bars. Five restaurants and several other dining options available. There seems to be one employee for every three passengers, so what ever you needed was tended to almost immediately.
Cabin Review
Oceanview (obstructed view)
If I would have known, I would have paid the higher price for the balcony. The window with the obstructed view is good, but the window does not open and the view is quite obstructed. The cabin is surprisingly roomy though and the closet is adequate, but bring along extra hangers.
Port Reviews
Kauai
Kauai was my favorite island. It felt more like an actual island and not so much of a city in the middle of the ocean. We did the Hop on Hop off bus and got stuck at Koa Wood Factory because the driver told us to go to the material store, and we thought that was were the bus would pick us up, but we watched the bus pass us by and realized that we needed to go back to the Koa Wood Factory to get back on the bus. We would have had more chances to get more shopping done had we not missed the bus the first time. We still enjoyed the Botanical Gardens and the Koa Wood Factory though.
Maui
This was the island that we were anticipating the most because my sister used to live here. The tenders took so long to get us to the island, that we missed our opportunity to rent a car and visit her old neighborhood. We were anchored by 8:00, but we didn't get ashore until 11:00. We had to be back to the pier at 3:30, so the cab driver told us that we would never make it to the interior of the island and back in time to get back on board. We ended up wandering down the tourist trap pier area and boarded the ship disheartened.