Grand Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My family, new friends and great food added to a great cruise.  Unfortunately, the Grand Princess is looking "tired"...in appearance, in entertainment selection and in general lack of efficiency in the selection of venues for events. (For example, the piazza at the foot of the grand staircase, is a very poor choice for a popular event the entire ship may be interested in observing!...Scary!...I understand "an obstructed view" is just that, but there should be some rule that SOME light should be able to be seen through the window!   E624 is NOT a room you want...it is dark, dark, dark!  No sky or no water can be viewed AT ALL!!!     It should really be classified as an interior room!   Convenience of San Francisco for us is fabulous...no flights needed!!!

My husband and I chose this cruise for our honeymoon. I have to say, as cheesy as it might sound, we enjoyed every second. It was the perfect combination of adventures (with whale watching/bear sightings/ hiking to waterfalls/ musher sled dog ride) while at different ports, and total relaxation when at sea. The ENTIRE staff was awesome and so wonderful. I was so sad to leave.

This is my second 10 day Alaskan cruise with Princess.  I suggested this one to my friends because of ease of departure from San Francisco, no flights, and that the cruise itself is similar to cruising a lake.  They would have breath-taking scenery on both sides of the ship and the ship docks right up to the towns, with easy on and off for passengers.

Let's see, of seeing mountain goats and bear on the road up the Klondike in Skagway, the glaciers in Juneau and Endicot along with whales, seals, puffin birds, and eagles, beautiful Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C.....what was my favorite part of the cruise?? All of it--no disappointments with what I saw and did!!

Overall, my husband and I had a very pleasant experience during this cruise.  Our dining room stewards Tanya Sergeyeva and Ferdinand Rosalez were both attentive and friendly. Both have a welcoming smile wherever we saw them. Our stateroom steward Jelena Nikolic provided excellent service.  

When i booked this cruise thru Cheap Tickets it was noted that this was an anniversary cruise.  As we boarded and walked thru the hallway to our room I saw anniversary posters on some cabin doors.  When we reached our room i was so disappointed to not see a poster for us. I also requested robes for our stateroom and found none upon arrival.  We had to request the robes from guest services and after a couple of days with still no poster on our door (yes, I kept complaining to him every time we passed by other staterooms with posters and balloons on their doors!) he went to the service desk and told them.

What can you do better?  Attention to details in my situation, I'm not sure who dropped the ball on this one.

There is also a room steward on deck 8, i think her name is Blesinda, she could be a bit more friendly, she avoided eye contact when we saw her in the hallway.

More time in Victoria, Canada.  Joining the excursion does not give time to explore the city on our own.  

Thanks for your attention.

The best part of this was the seamless transition between the airport - ship - airport transportation.  Princess has this down do a science.  Shipboard experiences were  well up to what we have learned to expect from Princess standards.  I would recommend not only an Alaska cruise but any that can be experienced on a Princess ship.

My cabin boy Raymond was the best ever!

Servers Resurection & Katerina & Leito gave the very best service....

The ship seemed tired, lacking sparkle;& storage in the room was very limited.

There were a few great meals in the dinning room but most were just average & not what i expected 

this was a rewarding trip, even for the my third time to Alaska. The Adventure River Trip out of Haines was thrilling with some wildlife thrown in. However, the Tracy Arm glacier cruising was a let down. There was no real announcement as to when the viewing will take place. Had I not woken up at my usual time, I would have missed it. Later I discovered that there was a small byline in the Princess Patter that we would be in the fjord from 6:00am until 10:00 am.

wonderful and exciting tour!

food is very good! I would tell my friands to go!

but ,the cruise did not give me the boat credit $175 to use.

can you give that to me for next?

(when I was booking this cruise ,the price is over $3000/2 people,

and the web page show me: I have the bonus $175 boat credit,

but I didnt get that in end the tour!)

I book it by

Two of the highlights of the cruise were the spectacular train ride up to the Klondike from Skagway, and having cocktails at a former brothel and a tour of the facilities after our return from the mountains by tout-bus.

The main event was seeing a glacier calving - watching a chunk of ice the size of a ten-storied building breaking off and falling into the sea was awesome. Glacier Bay in itself was humbling - nature in its own environment. Great photo opportunities.

Two of the bartenders aboard ship (Rafael  and Lloyd) were very hospitable. They made us feel as though we had dropped in for cocktails at our local pub in San Francisco. The price of libations was also on par. Our stateroom steward was very efficient.

With one exception, the meals were very high quality and of a good variety both in the dining room and the buffet. The one exception was the very tough and gristly baked beef short-ribs - even the waiter couldn't cut through the meat for me - I suggest that this particular dish be prepared in a pressure cooker to tenderize the meat.

In Victoria BC I bought a Havana Cuban Partagas #2 cigar and enjoyed it in the Snookers (smokers) Bar aboard ship while sipping Remy Martin VSOP cognac - the last time that I had this exquisite pleasure was in Japan in 2004. Luxury in its highest form.

Starboard balcony stateroom is the only way to cruise from San Francisco - as in the expression "POSH" which is the acronym for "Port Out, Starboard Home" - because you get to see The City in its early morning panoramic majesty as the ship slips in under the Golden Gate Bridge to our final destination.

The food was good, but the cleanness was bad. The food crew were not washing their hands after collecting the dirty dishes, towels, and cups, which were contaminated with sick people. There were also some sick food crew serving the people.

How welcome the handicap are made to feel..excellent...service...wonderful activities..musical especially...staff treat you like a Grand Princess or Prince...excellent views of ocean..free food all the time..daily itinerary filled with constant choices to participate in..singing..dancing ...teachers for dancing new steps..library..casino..you name it Grand Princess has it...Enjoy....

We enjoyed our trip on the Grand Princess.

The service was great.

The work crew/staff were friendly and very helpful.

The food choices were fantastic. We liked that you could choose fine dining or simple dining.

 The entertainment was fun. Many things to do.

We loved our trip

We loved everything! The ship, the entertainment, the food, the programming!! Alaska was incredibly beautiful, the excursions were awesome! We had a wonderful vacation 

The ship is beautiful, the staff except the room steward were perfect,and the excursions were in general very good except for Cabo tour which had gone down in quality because of overdevelopment of the area and a drastic change in the drink restaurant.  The only problem with the ship was dining.  I chose the anytime not the reservation dining room this trip and found long waits and fellow table mates that were often harsh and critical. It was a drastic change from all my previous cruises where fellow passangers were polite and helpful. 

Single travelers pay double  (100% single supplements), while it is good value for doubles, it is not good value for single travelers. I went because I wish to travel with a small group.

I 'not going to make your 150 word limit. just want to say it was a memorable cruise , we had a good time. Meet a lot of nice people & the staff on the ship could not have been any nicer! I would recommend this trip to any one that was interested in going! Thanks Bob 

We loved sailing out of San Francisco!  First time we didn't have to fly to the cruise ship.  Ship staff was wonderful, especially our waiters Raul and Ferdinand in the dining room, and Giselle Vasquez in the Explorer Lounge.  Fun trip!!

It wasn't about the money, and it was our 3ed time down there. We didn't go on any excursions. We did go ashore and walk around, which was fun. The ship presented itself well and was well maintained. No one yelled at us . The crew was generally attentive, and some even smiled and asked how we were doing. Now the other side:     We have been on 8 cruises, on 4 different lines and  so I feel we have something to base our critique on. The last two days of the trip when everything is suppose to get even better got worse. Their was no joy amongst the crew ( management problem, try to fix that ) It was  the lagging attitude  of  maybe half the crew that was very noticeable by other passengers as well as well as us. We were disappointed and frankly felt that put a wet blanket over the whole trip. Yes, we will try to avoid Princess Lines in the future. And, since you requested 150 words minimum to put this into print, let me point out the language problem, like with our room steward. They do not understand language innuendos and seem to forget personal requests, of which were NEVER attended to. It wasn't the money, in the ending final analysis  IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE 10 DAYS WE LOST ON THAT SHIP WHEN WE COULD HAVE BEEN DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL.  I'm sorry to say all that since it is not in my nature to demean others but it was disappointing and as we left for home agreed that the trip was like a bowl of milk toast. I'm sure others must have  enjoyed the trip, more.    David Shogren  

The staff at the cruise was very friendly especially the waiters a the while house were we enjoy cocktail every night. Our cabin person was the best.       We enjoyed meeting new people. 

The ship as a whole was in disrepair and the elevator lobby close to our room had a very bad smell.  The couch in our room was very broken down and not comfortable to sit.  We had to move around a lot to watch the TV.  Speaking of the TV it seemed to be mostly recorded shows other than news channels.  We liked the Love Boat shows but they played the same episode over and over each day.  With so much time out at sea more variety was in order.  The food was mostly the same each day in the Lido deck.  So much of the food was directed at the oriental passengers we had a hard time finding something we wanted to eat.  The crew members were very nice as expected and the condition of the ship is not their fault.  Carpets besides having a bad smell also were torn in many areas.  One elevator was out of service almost all the trip.  Based on the condition of this ship I will not book another cruise with them unless the ship is almost new.  We were also not happy with one of the stops in a industrial harbor.  The only thing to do if you left the ship was excursions and we don't care for them.  We stayed on the ship.  A crew officer said to request a meeting with the chief engineer because I worked in the engine room of the ships I was assigned too in the Navy.  Did not even get a not thank you note from him.  He could at least have said he was not available.  Enjoyed the art auctions, shows, and browsing in the stores without pressure to purchase.  Not all bad however our least enjoyable cruise so far.