Grand Princess - Western Caribbean Cruise Review
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises
Cruise Ship: Grand Princess
Cruise Dates: November 2 - 9th, 2003
Cruise Destination: Western Caribbean
Guest Contributor: Charlotte
sundance006@hotmail.com
My husband and I decided to go on our first cruise with Princess for my 30th birthday. My parents had been on 2 Princess cruised before and raved about it.
GETTING THERE: We let Princess organize our flight which ended up being a red eye from Edmonton to Toronto (very short layover), then to Miami.
We found our Princess coordinator relatively easy at the Miami airport. We ended up waiting over 2 hours for our bus transportation to our hotel (we arrived the day before our cruise left, which is common for those travelling from North America). When the bus finally showed up, there was some confusion as to which bus we would be on, since many of the people we were waiting with were sailing out that day. We were eventually assigned to a bus, but then had to drop all the passengers off at the Princess terminal before we were taken to our hotel. We decided that we would not be tipping our bus driver. By the time we had reached our hotel, we had been up for 36 hours. We were worried that our luggage would be misplaced in all of this, but it made it thank goodness. The hotel (Marriott Fort Lauderdale) was very nice (included in the package).
EMBARKTION: We again found ourselves waiting for bus transportation from the hotel to the ship, along with 150 or so other people. After 2 hours of waiting for the bus, and the subsequent loading of the luggage, we were on our way to the ship.
The embarktion process was fairly easy, and it was nice to not have to wait in line to check in.
ROOM: Our room was P323 (inside interior room....one of the cheaper ones). It was small, but we didn't mind since we didn't spend all that time in the room anyway. It had a king size bed, a stand up shower, a television, hairdryer, small fridge and a safe to lock up your valuables.
SHORE EXCURSION: The shore excursions were really good and reasonably priced. Some tour guides were better than others, but the buses were all nice and comfortable. Here is a breakdown of what we went to:
PRINCESS CAYS: Very beautiful place to just relax. The water is very warm and clean. The barbeque buffet is excellent. Bring lots of sunscreen and reapply often. They had a few vendor stands that sell the usual tourist merchandise. The sales people were quite pushy. Not lots to do, but relax and enjoy the water and the sun.
GRAND CAYMAN: We decided to take the "Highlights" tour to Hell, the Turtle Farm and Stingray City. Unfortunately it rained on and off while we were in Hell, but it wasn't a big deal since there wasn't really much to see. It poured at the Turtle Farm and so we hardly saw anything, which was disappointing because we were really looking forward to this since we have a pet turtle at home. The Stingray City excursion was excellent. Loads of fun and a once in a lifetime experience. We rented snorkle equipment on the ship, only to find out that they did provide it for free on the excursion. Didn't have much time to shop since the excursion took up most of the day.
COSTA MAYA: We took an all day "Mayan Explorer Tour". It was about a 2 hour drive to and from the ruins. The bus was air conditioned. The long bus ride was worth it as we had an excellent opportunity to take in the scenery, landscape, and living conditions of these people. The ruins were excellent, but we felt very rushed and would have liked to have spent more time there. When we made it back to port, we didn't have any time to shop since the ship was getting ready to leave.
Page 2 > > More on Charlotte's cruise on the Grand Princess > >
Cruise Ship: Grand Princess
Cruise Dates: November 2 - 9th, 2003
Cruise Destination: Western Caribbean
Guest Contributor: Charlotte
sundance006@hotmail.com
My husband and I decided to go on our first cruise with Princess for my 30th birthday. My parents had been on 2 Princess cruised before and raved about it.
GETTING THERE: We let Princess organize our flight which ended up being a red eye from Edmonton to Toronto (very short layover), then to Miami.
We found our Princess coordinator relatively easy at the Miami airport. We ended up waiting over 2 hours for our bus transportation to our hotel (we arrived the day before our cruise left, which is common for those travelling from North America). When the bus finally showed up, there was some confusion as to which bus we would be on, since many of the people we were waiting with were sailing out that day. We were eventually assigned to a bus, but then had to drop all the passengers off at the Princess terminal before we were taken to our hotel. We decided that we would not be tipping our bus driver. By the time we had reached our hotel, we had been up for 36 hours. We were worried that our luggage would be misplaced in all of this, but it made it thank goodness. The hotel (Marriott Fort Lauderdale) was very nice (included in the package).
EMBARKTION: We again found ourselves waiting for bus transportation from the hotel to the ship, along with 150 or so other people. After 2 hours of waiting for the bus, and the subsequent loading of the luggage, we were on our way to the ship.
The embarktion process was fairly easy, and it was nice to not have to wait in line to check in.
ROOM: Our room was P323 (inside interior room....one of the cheaper ones). It was small, but we didn't mind since we didn't spend all that time in the room anyway. It had a king size bed, a stand up shower, a television, hairdryer, small fridge and a safe to lock up your valuables.
SHORE EXCURSION: The shore excursions were really good and reasonably priced. Some tour guides were better than others, but the buses were all nice and comfortable. Here is a breakdown of what we went to:
PRINCESS CAYS: Very beautiful place to just relax. The water is very warm and clean. The barbeque buffet is excellent. Bring lots of sunscreen and reapply often. They had a few vendor stands that sell the usual tourist merchandise. The sales people were quite pushy. Not lots to do, but relax and enjoy the water and the sun.
GRAND CAYMAN: We decided to take the "Highlights" tour to Hell, the Turtle Farm and Stingray City. Unfortunately it rained on and off while we were in Hell, but it wasn't a big deal since there wasn't really much to see. It poured at the Turtle Farm and so we hardly saw anything, which was disappointing because we were really looking forward to this since we have a pet turtle at home. The Stingray City excursion was excellent. Loads of fun and a once in a lifetime experience. We rented snorkle equipment on the ship, only to find out that they did provide it for free on the excursion. Didn't have much time to shop since the excursion took up most of the day.
COSTA MAYA: We took an all day "Mayan Explorer Tour". It was about a 2 hour drive to and from the ruins. The bus was air conditioned. The long bus ride was worth it as we had an excellent opportunity to take in the scenery, landscape, and living conditions of these people. The ruins were excellent, but we felt very rushed and would have liked to have spent more time there. When we made it back to port, we didn't have any time to shop since the ship was getting ready to leave.
Page 2 > > More on Charlotte's cruise on the Grand Princess > >
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