Tiffany Flatt

Age: 24
Number of Cruises: My first, husbands second
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises
Ship: Grand Princess
Sailing Date: June 16th, 2002
Itinerary: Princess Cays, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel

This was our honeymoon cruise and we were very excited to be on the Grand Princess. We opted for a balcony and were very happy we did! We embarked our ship at approximately 12:00 p.m. and found that process to be very pleasing. We came in as soon as the area opened and were on the ship in matter of minutes. My husband who has cruised with another line said this was a wonderful process that Princess had enabled. We were literally one of the first few couples to embark and were very happy because we videotaped the entire ship (almost) without the hustle and bustle of too many passengers. After video taping the ship we decided to check out our room.

THE ROOM

We were in C222 (Caribe Deck). We were surprised to find “Just Married” balloons on our door! The room was a bit smaller than your average hotel room. We did however have a large balcony 5x10 that is if I am correct the biggest other than the huge suites. Half was private and half was exposed. Not much drawer space for a female who packs two different outfits a day but I made due. Closet was big enough for hubby and me to hang all/most of our clothes on hangers that were provided. We did utilize the in room safe often, it is very easy to operate and comes in handy. The bathroom was small, no other way to say it but hey how long do you spend in the bathroom. I utilized the desk area for make-up, hair, etc. The TV gets a few channels and shows some good movies but there are so many activities on the ship that you wouldn’t watch too much TV. You do have a tiny refrigerator and a bottle of water is provided to you. CAREFULL.. you pay for that water!!!! Like 5 dollars or something! The room was very neat and clean. Our steward was Alex and he was very attentive and nice. I did however overhear someone mention that the room stewards laid out the women’s dresses for formal night and found that mine had not been done. Not a big deal to me but it would have been nice. Our room was always taken care of. We would go to breakfast and come back to a clean room, and after dinner come back to a room where the sheets had been turned down and chocolates put on our pillow.

FOOD

We opted for Personal Choice dining and would probably not do it again. My hubby has done both and says that with traditional seating you get more attention and get to know your waiters better and vice versa. With personal choice you had two dinning rooms to choose from Di Vinci and Michelangelo. You would just show up between 5:30 and 9:30 and be seated for dinner. It was just like you would go to restaurant. You could however decide if you wanted to be seated alone or with a table of peers. I would recommend if you do chose Personal Choice that you go to dinner early as the seats fill up and you will have to wait just like in a restaurant with a beeper thing. Formal night gets packed early too! Lunch and breakfast are the same. Food is very good though! If you are a chocolate lover PLEASE get the Princess love boat dream as a dessert is it OUT OF THIS WORLD!!

We ate the first night at Sabatini’s Trattoria (if you plan to make reservations do it early like the first night as they get booked fast!!! They I believe are on deck 7 near the Wheelhouse bar) There is a cover charge of $15.00 for this meal. You must as a requirement be very hungry! This is a 17 course Italian dinner! There is just too much food! They do not scrimp on cheap stuff either some examples were: caviar, mussels, lobster, prawns, oysters, homemade pasta, salad, soup and the list goes on and on!! BEWARE!!! You must be an eater and be very hungry!!!

The buffet (horizon court) was good not outstanding but good. It was nice to grab a snack every now and then. There is enough food for a person to eat an entire meal there but the quality is much better in the dining room.

Trident Grill and the pizzeria poolside are also good for poolside lunch and are free.

COKE CARD

When you get on the ship there will be employees selling coke cards for $20. If you buy one of these coke cards you can get all the fountain coke you want for the entire cruise. We did and sometimes hubby used my card, which probably isn’t ethically right, but he did. We got our money’s worth!

POOLS

There are four pools and two of them are the adult pools. The adult pools are located in the front and back of the ship. They generally don’t get too packed like the others do. If you plan on getting a chair directly pool side then you need to get there about 8:30 a.m. However they do have plenty of chairs ship wide, the one’s by the pools go very fast for obvious reasons.

BAR

There are bars everywhere!! The drink of the day is generally cheaper and is usually a very good fruity drink. We didn’t make it to the disco but heard the first night it is dead.

SHOWS

We made it to one show and found that it had no point and were very disappointed. It was very charismatic but had no plot. It was “lights, camera, action”

EXCURSIONS

I can tell you about our excursions. We snorkeled on Princess Cays and found it to be nice but would have rather had done something else. It was crowded and not a huge area was given.

Grand Cayman

In Grand Cayman we opted to go to the Stingray sandbar and snorkel with them. My hubby is completely infatuated with snorkeling and I am not so much. On our excursion you took a snorkel boat out to the sandbar which took about 45 minutes. Once we got there and got anchored I was not so excited to go in the water. These beautiful animals huge! Anywhere from 2ft wide to 4ft wide. I swallowed my fear and hopped in only to find how docile and playful they are. A word to the wise however if you don’t want them chasing you DO NOT touch the food the tour provides as the stingrays have an amazing sense of smell. I was in the water with them for about 20 minutes when one came completely up on my back and I said well that is friendly enough. It was however a wonderful experience that everyone should see once in their lifetime.

Costa Maya

We didn’t get to stop here because of a life and death situation with one of our fellow passengers. We did a U turn back to Grand Cayman where he/she could receive proper medical attention as Costa Maya could not offer this to him/her.

Cozumel

We did stay overnight due to the previous events. I found the city of Cozumel to be dirty and the natives are very pushy trying to get you to buy something. Oh well that is how some of them make a living right? I do understand that! However Carlos and Charlie’s was quite a fun and crazy place that should be visited by any person wishing to have a crazy time! We did some shopping but found that unless you were willing to spend big bucks you didn’t get much but shot glasses and shirts. I did get some silver for a great price. Make sure if you do get silver that 925 is stamped into it. This ensures that the silver is pure. We took the excursion where we visited the Mayan Ruins of Tulum and the continued on to the ecological park of Xel Ha. The ruins were very interesting and very hot!! You will want to take the trolley from the entrance to the ruins otherwise you will have to walk through some stagnate water and it’s not fun! Once you have been given some historical factoids you are free to roam for a few minutes. Bring plenty of sunscreen and bug spray! Watch out not to step on an iguana as there are many beautiful one’s there. Xel Ha pronounced Shell Ha is the most beautiful lagoon and place I have ever seen!! There you can swim with dolphins and have them play with you and stuff. It is $90 dollars but is worth every penny to dolphin lovers! You can swing in hammocks that are placed between he palm trees or snorkel with a wide variety of what my hubby says were cichlids. This excursion was wonderful and is an all day one however it seems you don’t have any time to enjoy each place to the fullest extent!

DISEMBARKATION

This process was very speedy and organized!

We loved our cruise and would definitely sail the Princess and the Grand Princess again! Be sure to sit back and relax, when it’s over it’s over! We miss it and will soon be sailing again!

Tiffany Flatt

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