Keita Sakon

Age: 27
Occupation: Physician
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises
Ship: Grand Princess
Sailing Date: February 3rd, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Western Caribbean on Grand Princess 2/3-2/10 2002

This is our second cruise and we were on our honeymoon. We went on Carnival Fascination 12/00 for Southern Caribbean, and we loved it, but did not believe that Carnival atmosphere was appropriate for our honeymoon, so we decided to take Princess after some research. I can’t help but to make some comparisons to Carnival, so bear with it. I’ll present this in a chronological order.

Sunday: Arrived at Ft. Lauderdale airport around 1PM. This place is filled with Cruise passengers. Port Everglades is only about 10-15 minutes away on a cab, which is just about $10 with tip. Grand Princess is huge and beautiful. Interior is infinitely more elegant and sophisticated than that of a Carnival ship. We found our way to our mini-suite on deck 9 easily. We were on D222 on the Portside toward the fore of the ship. The room is spacious enough with two TV’s, sitting area with a couch, and a huge balcony. As previous reviewers have mentioned in the past, those balconies on deck 9 (dolphin) have minimal privacy, but it is huge. This lack of privacy didn’t really bother us much. We didn’t feel like people were looking down on us all the time, but the entire balcony can be seen from all decks above us, including the public space on deck 15, although you have to lean out over the railing. The balconies seemed to be more private as you go up, but you get less sun. We slept with our balcony door open every night, which made it great to wake up in the morning to sounds of the ocean. Closet space was ample, and also had a safe that you open/close with 4-digit pin that you choose, and bathroom was spacious with a tub as a mini-suite perk. There was also a small fridge. As you leave Port Everglades, you HAVE TO get out on deck or balcony on the portside. These residents on the portside houses/condos just go wild as we leave. They’re out on the yard, their balconies, they wave at you, ring big bells, blow horns, wave flags, and they really seem to have a good time waving us off as we leave.

SHIP -Let me go over the ship briefly, from the bottom. Decks 5-7 are the public areas where you’ll find the three theatres (princess/explorer’s/vista). Princess theatre at the fore is the biggest and is where the main shows including the production shows take place. It is big, has excellent sightlines, but no drinks are served here. We didn’t spend any time at the explorer’s lounge, but is seemed like they were doing art auctions constantly. Vista lounge at the aft of the ship is more like a traditional cruise ship theatre with bar service. This is where other shows like jugglers and comedians perform in the evenings, and where bingos and dicey horse races take place during the day. I enjoyed all the shows in Princess Theatre, and didn’t get to see any shows in other lounges. Now, GP has three main dining halls named after Italian artists and these are on decks 5 and 6. We had Boticelli late seating. You can also choose to show up at random times if you choose personal choice dining. There are two alternative restaurants; Sabatini’s and Painted Desert, more on this later. Decks 5-7 also include the Grand Atrium which is not so grand for a ship this size and included within it are many stores, which again, didn’t seem big enough for a ship this size. Wheelhouse bar, library, purser’s office, wedding chapel, tour desk, Atlantis Casino, Photo studio and gallery, other lounges, business desk, etc., are all on decks 5-7. Decks 8-13 are passenger cabins. Decks 14-18 include all other public areas. Neptune and Calypso pools are pretty much identical except that Calypso has a retractable roof. There is also terrace pool at the aft which is less crowded. There is also a current pool in the spa. Spa/gym is nice but maybe a little too small for a ship this size. Stairmaster/treadmill were booked up in the mornings. Weight room is adequate, but small. Running track (10 laps/mile) is on deck 16, as well as mini tennis/basket ball court toward the fore of the ship. Horizon Court (buffet restaurant) is on deck 14 aft. Mini Golf/golf simulators on deck 15. Arcade is at deck 15 aft. Skywalker’s bar/night club is on deck 17/18, which is the “spoiler” of the GP. View from there is spectacular, but we didn’t go there late at night when it was operating. Overall, public area is very spacious, and although our cruise was supposedly completely booked, we felt like the ship was half empty. This was a huge advantage over the Carnival ship which always felt crowded. We felt that there were plenty of deck chairs by poolside even on days at sea. Perhaps more people spend time on their balcony since so many people have balconies on this ship.

FOOD –We ate at our assigned dining room every night except for the last night when we ate at Sabatini’s. We like late seating at 8:30PM since it gives us time to wash up, nap, and get ready unhurried after shore excursions. You can also choose personal choice dining and go eat anytime you want. Tuesday/Friday were Formal nights. Other nights were “smart casual”, which supposedly means no shorts/jeans and collared shirts. We liked our table mates, but all of them were close to twice our age. Here, I think Carnival did a great job matching ages in our previous cruise, but I don’t think Princess bothered to do that. Two other alternative dining rooms are Sabatini’s (Italian) and Painted Desert (Southwestern). Painted Desert is located on deck 7 fore and is in a funny place as many people mentioned. It’s between the Princess theatre and the atrium, so you sometimes had to walk through it. Not a good place for a restaurant. I think surcharge was $8 and includes a margarita, but we didn’t eat there. Now, I have something against Cruise ships charging extra for dining, but I heard so many good things about Sabatini’s that I succumbed to the $15 surcharge. Was it worth it? I guess so. It is a 17-course meal with numerous appetizers followed by pasta, and then an entrée of your choice. You need to make reservations and can have a table of two. Food was excellent, plentiful, but was it sooooo much better than the main dining room? I don’t think so. I was happy enough with the main dining room food, but it was a good experience. Main dining room is typical cruise ship food, and was excellent. I think it may have been a bit better than carnival, but I liked carnival too. There are certain things that are always on the menu every night like Caesar salad and sirloin steak. Let’s go to breakfast now. The room service is free, but I didn’t find the selection very impressive and I did not order it. Carnival has a little edge on selection. We went to both Horizon Court and the Main dining rooms for breakfast. Unlike Carnival where main dining room breakfast was much much better than the buffet, breakfast was just as good at Horizon Court compared to the main dining room. This is in part due to the excellent quality and selection at the horizon court, which is open 24hrs. You do have to learn how to zig and zag thorough this place, but food quantity and quality was always outstanding here as well as the service. Princess has a definite edge over carnival in casual dining. What I couldn’t stand was, as many of you mentioned, the big ICE CREAM issue. They sell Haagen-Datz. Yes, SELL. No free ice cream bar. This is a shame and we should boycott this activity although my wife succumbed to this dirty cruise tactic. I really resent this extra charge for food, and I feel that things like Haagen-Datz and alternative dining for fee should be boycotted. Although, yes, I did eat at Sabatini’s. As for lunch, you can either go to main dining room or Horizon court. Food is much better at main dining room for lunch, but this is difficult to do except for days at sea. We got a good use out of soda stickers. You can buy this for $17.50 when you get on the ship, and they put a sticker on your cruise card, which allows you to get unlimited soda at bars and restaurants, unless they are canned (as in room service or princess cays).

ENTERTAINMENT -As I mentioned earlier, there are three main theatres on decks 5-7 area. Princess Theatre at the fore is the biggest and has excellent sightlines, but no beverage service. We saw comedy/music group Kimika twice and they were hilarious, although I didn’t care much for the guitar solos. We saw the production show “rhythms of the city” which was very very impressive. We didn’t see “camera, lights, action”, but I heard great things about it. Princess has the definite edge over carnival on entertainment. Vista lounge hosted comedians and jugglers, but we didn’t see them. We lost some money on bingos there. We didn’t spend much time in Explorer’s lounge but it seemed like they were doing art auctions constantly. It’s fun to see those suckers. Graham Seymour was a funny cruse director, but Peter on Carnival was a few notches above Graham. We also went to cooking demonstration and the galley tour, which was neat. We did wine tasting which was OK. There were showing some fairly new movies but we never went. We went to high tea in the main dining room 3:30-4:30 with biscotti’s and cookies with white glove service. My wife enjoyed it, but I didn’t care for it much. Overall, this cruise has a more sophisticated and laid back atmosphere. We didn’t see a whole lot of people partying and drinking and going wild as in Carnival cruise, but that didn’t bother us. There are plenty of opportunities to entertain yourselves and Princess does a good job of giving a wide range.

SERVICE -We felt that service overall was superior to that of Carnival’s. Everyone smiled and said hello wherever we were and they all seemed very happy working there, not that Carnival ship staff didn’t seem to, but we just noticed that Princess staff seemed more attentive and better trained.

SHORE EXCURSIONS -as most of you cruisers know, it’s much cheaper/flexible to do your own thing as opposed to taking a tour with the cruise ship, and of course that’s what we did. Exception to this is Costa Maya where there is absolutely nothing to do unless you take a tour with the cruise. Many people did do Mayan ruins tour, or sea kayaking tour since that was the only thing you could possibly do there. One other advantage to taking a cruise ship tour is that the ship will WAIT for you if the tour is late. If you’re on your own, you could be in deep shit as we witnessed some people did in Costa Maya, more on this later.

OK, I’m back to Sunday. We looked around the ship, watched super bowl, went to dinner which was excellent, and went to bed early since we were exhausted from our wedding the day before, and then traveling.

Monday-Princess Cays . We arrived fairly early, got breakfast in the main dining room, and then went on a tender to beautiful princess cays. There is not much to do there except to lie around on the beach. There are plenty of deck chairs, although shade could be a little sparse especially on the LEFT side where it’s more crowded. If you go to the RIGHT, there are fewer people, but Barbecue/food/restrooms are to the LEFT of where the tenders arrive. We just had some drinks and lounged on the beach until early afternoon. You can rent snorkel gear/catamarans/jet ski’s but they aren’t cheap. I did go snorkeling with my own snorkeling gear, but snorkeling was not impressive. Again, this is just a day on the beach, not much more. We went to dinner, saw comedy/music show in Princess Theatre.

Tuesday-Day at sea . I got up early and got ourselves a couple of deck chairs by the aft pool. View from there is spectacular as you can see the ship’s wake leaving a white trail in the vast blue ocean. We lounged, we ate, we played bingo and lost (of course), played some video games, napped, read some books, etc. This was our first formal night. I’m so glad that I have my own tux. I was constantly amazed by the way people interpret “formal” attire. I think we saw “rhythms of the city” that night in Princess Theatre. This was a very, very impressive production show, although I’m no connoisseur of production shows. You read these reviews by some snobby people who live in Jersey who put these shows down comparing them to Broadway shows, but hey, we’re on a cruise! If you want to see Broadway shows, go there. I thought that it was impressive and entertaining, far superior to Carnival shows.

Wednesday-Georgetown, Grand Cayman . I have reserved a FULL DAY snorkeling trip through Captain Marvin’s on the internet. If you go here, you have to do Stingray City, but I wanted to do more. This island overall seemed like a very wealthy town. You see so many Lexus’s, BMers, and Mercedes here that you feel like you’re in a nice neighborhood in San Diego. I can’t imagine that shopping here would be very cheap. Anyway, we tendered ashore, then walked a block to Captain Marvin’s office, where we were transported to the boat on a van. I think the cost of this trip was $55 each and it was well worth it, especially when you consider that the ship charges something like $40 for a 2-hour trip to stingray city herded in like a cattle. We had a big boat that could fit about 20 people with a bathroom with only 12 of us, and a guide who snorkeled with us to show us the Good Stuff. We first went to the area where we snorkeled for Conch shells for lunch. It was about 20 feet deep on a sandy bottom and it was actually quite difficult to find these conch shells. Our guide/captain Marlon found 4 of them. 4 guys including myself who tried got nothing, but 4 shells were enough to eat. He then took us to Coral Gardens which was beautiful place with so many fish, and we actually encountered a stingray as well. I thought snorkeling in St. John was good, but THIS was out of this world. He then took us to the yacht club were we lounged for a bit, and had lunch (included), and conch shells were marinated and ready to eat. It was kinda chewy but I liked it. We then headed for the barrier reef, which is just about 100 yards away from stingray city. This was actually the highlight of the trip. There was a 6-foot green moray eel that they’ve been feeding for two years that our guide lured out from the cave with bait. It was an amazing thing. He also lured out a couple of 5-foot nurse sharks that they’ve been feeding and I actually got to swim with them and pet the sharks. That was awesome!! We then headed for the stingray city which was crowed with these huge bus-like snorkeling boats that they herd people in on. I was so glad that I wasn’t in one of those things. Stingray city is amazing! They know that you’re gonna feed them, so they just come charging towards you. We then headed back shore, and they dropped us off right by the pier on time to get on the last tender. It was an incredible day! I highly recommend Captain Marvin’s trip. It was well worth the money and spending the entire day. If you get herded like cattle in one of those 2-hour snorkeling trips, you’ll be missing out.

Thursday-Costa Maya . I read some conflicting opinions about this place. Some say it’s not that bad, and others say it’s a waste of time. I strongly agree with the latter. This place has been there a few months. It has a nice pier for docking, and then some bars and stores, and that’s it!! There is nothing to do here. Vendors are quite pushy, and I didn’t think prices were very good and they were not very amenable to bargaining since they don’t have much competition. I was surprised to find that Monarch of the seas was also docked here. This is one of those places where you might consider a Cruise Ship tour since you cannot arrange a trip by yourself, because there is nothing here. Yes, cruise ship tours are expensive and there aren’t that many to choose from. Jungle beach break, biking and sea kayaking, and Mayan ruins tour. All are quite expensive and I don’t believe that there are any Mayan ruins big or impressive enough there to pay that much money to see, but I could be wrong. There was this Mayan dance thing going on there but it was not worth standing around and watching for. We were there for a couple of hours and then went back to ship. We then saw something sobering here as we’re watching Monarch of the seas leave. Monarch of the seas left before we did and they sounded their loud horns 5 times staring about 30 minutes before their departure. As the ropes were pulled and the ship pulled about 5 yards off the pier, we saw a middle-aged couple dashing to the ship, yelling and waving. Monarch was only about 10 yards off the pier when they got to the ship where the gangway used to be, but all they could do was watch their ship take off… They may have had a good reason why they were late, but I just couldn’t imagine how ANYONE could miss a ship at this port, where all there is a pier and a few stores. They must have been idiots, but there were dozens of us on GP watching this whole scene and we couldn’t help but feel bad. Officers from GP came out, talked to them, went back into GP, and finally let them into GP about an hour later. I later found out the Monarch was heading to Grand Cayman…and we were going the opposite way. They must have flown back from Cozumel, but we learned a good lesson. Know when your ship is leaving, and don’t be late because they ain’t gonna wait for ya. Even if they are 10 yards away. And just in case, you might want to have some extra money/plastic/medications with you. We left this port about 1.5 hours late because one of the Mayan ruins tour was running late due to accident on the road. Again, ship will wait for you if you’re on a ship-arranged tour. We went to dinner, skipped the show and went to bed early this night. There was a champagne waterfall that night but we couldn’t make it.

Friday-Cozumel . Unfortunately, this was our foul-weather day. It did get better as the day progressed though. We docked at this new pier in downtown and it appeared that you could shop all day around this area if you were into that. We were not, and we had a snorkeling trip in the morning booked with eagle ray divers so we took a cab for about $8, close to Chankanaab Park where the marina was. $40 per person and we had the snorkeling boat to ourselves with a guide and a captain. They took us to three reefs and did some drift snorkeling where they dropped us off, and then picked us up down the current as we drifted with a guide. Although it was cloudy and chilly, water was amazingly clear. Amazing number and variety of fish. We had a huge swarm of fish charging the boat as my wife was feeding them some bananas. They dropped us off at one of the hotels on the beach so that we could take a cab back to the pier. We ate lunch on GP, then headed out to Chakanaab Park for dolphin swim. We paid $120 each on the internet, or you could pay $140 through princess for the same thing, your choice. It costs about $8 on cab to get there, $10 each to get into this park, and $120 each to do dolphin swim. Yes, it’s not cheap, but it was an experience of a lifetime. You have to go to their website to see some pictures and read the details. We headed back to pier after this, shopped a bit. My wife bought some ubiquitous silver jewelry, and I bought some cigars. I believe they were Dominican cigars, of course. This was our second formal night. We somehow missed “lights, camera, action”, which I heard good things about. I think we were exhausted and went to bed early.

Saturday-day at sea . We slept in, ate brunch at horizon court. Lounged by the pool, read some books, played video games, lost the jackpot bingo, and can’t remember the rest. I think we did the galley tour that day. We went to Sabatini’s for dinner, which I talked about earlier. We were completely stuffed. We bought our portrait pictures. We finalized our cruise account, which was a big damage, of course. We then completely packed our luggage and left them outside our cabin door. This is always a sad moment-packing to go home from your vacation/honeymoon.

Sunday-Ft. Lauderdale, disembarkation . We went to the main dining room for breakfast and waited for our tag color to be called. This was SO MUCH better than Carnival. We could stay anywhere on the ship until our tag color was called, so we were in our cabin, sitting out on the balcony, watching TV, etc. We were out of the terminal 5 minutes after our color was called and took a cab back to the airport.

IN Summary: It was a great cruise/honeymoon. I do have a few complaints, of course, major one being the itinerary. This was much less exciting compare to the southern Caribbean itinerary that we did before, but that’s the price you pay for not leaving from San Juan. However, I believe that they can pick better ports than Costa Maya. That port is simply a waste of time. It has potential to be a big resort in perhaps in a decade or so as Cancun did, but it’s very far from that at this point. There are other ports that other cruise ships stop such as Ocho Rios or Labadee, which I imagine have to be better than Costa Maya. I don’t know what to say about Princess Cays. I guess it’s ok since people want to relax after a day of traveling. I do have problems with additional fees for ice cream and alternative dining and I’m sure that Princess enough about the ice cream issue. Besides from above, the ship was beautiful, crew was fantastic, and we really had an excellent time there. Will we cruise princess again? Definitely! Will we cruise Carnival again? Well, maybe. I personally liked princess better and I have to try Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and see how they compare. I hope that you find this helpful, and have a happy cruise!!

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