Jeremy Watkins

Age: 30
Occupation: Software Engineer
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Grand Princess
Sailing Date: January 22nd, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was our first cruise and it was a great experience! I would not hesitate to book a cruise with Princess again.

About The Grand Princess:
It is a beautiful ship and we found the rooms to be more than adequate. We had an inside room. We spoke with many people who had been on other cruises and said this was by far the nicest ship they had been on.

This cruise had quite an older crowd with a lot of retirees. So, don't plan to navigate through a crowd very quickly... :)
Some of the features/entertainment we enjoyed the most:

1) Dan 'Piano Man' Mills - he is very talented and funny, puts on a good show, makes for a nice end to an evening
2) The International Cruise show was a lot of fun. Kind of like a talent show for the cruise staff.
3) We enjoyed eating at The Sterling Steakhouse. Definitely a great steak and worth the $15 cover.
4) Don't miss the champagne waterfall. Free glass of champagne! :)
5) Chocolate covered strawberries on the buffet! YUM!

The itinerary was great and we had beautiful weather! One cloudy day, but other than that, nothing but sunshine!

About the ports:

Costa Maya:
We took a cab to the public beach at Majahual. It was beautiful and we had the best Margarita EVER! Not from a mix and made with real limes. If you have snorkel gear, bring it. There is some good snorkeling right off of the beach.

Belize:
Our itinerary was modified and we only had a few hours in the morning in Belize. We decided to check out the city. We did not feel safe and quickly went back to the pier. There was good shopping at the pier, but that was about it. I would strongly recommend that you book an excursion so that you can enjoy your time in Belize.

Grand Cayman:
We went snorkeling with the stingrays and it was so much fun!! Don't miss this opportunity. We wanted to check out the turtle farm, but we ran out of time. We enjoyed shopping at the pier, but the prices weren't very good.

Cozumel:
We took a cab to Chankanaab. They have a beach area and great snorkeling off of the beach. We found the pier area had some good shopping. Then we had drinks and appetizers at 'The Crazy Pelican' before getting back on ship.

Tips for first-time cruisers:
1) Take a cheap water-proof watch (something you could take to the beach and not worry about) and wear to port so that you know what time you need to head back to the ship
2) Walk through the buffet on occasion just to see what they have. We discovered ice cream in the afternoons and chocolate covered fruit on night.
3) Don't really need to plan to much in advance, just the excursions on shore. There are a ton of activities on the ship and we found it best just to plan it out each day and kind of play it by ear if the plan needed to change.
3) Relax, you're on vacation! Don't get stressed out, just have another drink! :)

If you have any other questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Enjoy your cruise!

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