Itinerary Excellent on a tired ship

Item: Grand Princess
Rating: 2.9
Author: weingartphillip

Grand Princess Cruise Review to South Pacific - Australia

weingartphillip

Contributor Level: Second Mate

20 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 8

Helpful Votes: 221

Overall rating:

2.9 out of 5

Verified Review

13 Night New Zealand (Melbourne Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 08, 2023

Ship: Grand Princess

Cabin number: D418

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

We like the character of these older ships with the caveat they are well maintained. That was not the case with leaking water from ceilings, non functional elevators, broken exercise equipment, and dated amenities. The food was occasionally good but mostly not. Nothing special about the specialty dinning.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

No place to wait to get on ship which delayed boarding to around noon

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Food was great sometimes and poor most of the time. Don’t waste money on their specialty dining … it’s not special.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Hot tubs were mostly only warm water with broken jets, fitness center equipment was old and some not working properly

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Ships production shows were great but we only had two of them. Only one quest entertainer was worth the time to see

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Princess needs to double down on staff training focusing on the customer experience.

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

We really liked all the various bars on older ships like this. However the ship needs a lot of maintenance. Nonfunctional elevators, leaking water from ceilings, hot tubs not hot and jets not working, dated and som no functioning fitness equipment

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Nice cabin and overall clean but dated and could use a makeover.

Ship tip

Look for better ships with better customer service and better food

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Melbourne, Australia

5 out of 5

Cruise Fjordland National Park

5 out of 5

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

5 out of 5

Lyttleton (Christchurch), New Zealand

4 out of 5

Wellington, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Napier, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Limited excursion last due to cyclone damage

Thumbs Up 0

Tauranga, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Auckland, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Limited excursions due to cyclone damage

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

Horrible. We got into port mid morning due to a variety of issues. Was not able to get off ship and get our bags till after 11:15 am

8 Comments

Sirrao 1 year ago

I do appreciate your detailed cruise info here but sometimes things do go out of wack as they say. I believe a bit of patience does go a long way We all have been on a ship or two that have some problems & we try to make the best out of it. I hope you will give Princess another chance to make it perfect for you once again. Happy Sailing next time around!.

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Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Oops sorry 😞

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joandabone 1 year ago

Cruised to New Zealand on the Grand returning on March 8th. Found everything wonderful. The food was great, the specialty restaurants were well worth the cover charge and the staff were fantastic. The entertainment was varied as it should be to try to cater for all tastes. There were some minor maintenance issues that were attended to in a timely manner and the cleaning of common areas was spot on. There was a covid outbreak, and some of the passengers were reluctant to wear masks and that was the only problem I found.

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javawoody 1 year ago

Sad to hear the state of the Grand as it is one of my favorites

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booger1xx 1 year ago

Like JT said the cruise lines are trying to survive. Don’t forget the cruise lines were idle for 2 years and still had a lot of expenses to keep ships and essential personnel going. It’s not like the ships can just be docked and wait for things to pick up again. At one time Princess had 19 ships. Cruise lines are effected by supply chain issues just like everyone else. Patience is in order.

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AuntPinkie 1 year ago

Appreciate your details. Sorry this cruise didn’t meet your expectations.

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41pearl 1 year ago

We were aboard the ship in September and did not experience any of the issues you stated. We thought it was excellent

Thumbs Up 3

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CruzeFan 1 year ago

There have been lots of cutbacks since Covid, including staffing, quality of food, and Maintenance. The cruise lines are trying to survive, and pay off all of the debt incurred during Covid.

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