Liz and Scott Wright

Age: 29
Occupation: Process engineer
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Princess
Name of Ship: Grand
Sailing Date: January 5th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Background: My husband and I were married in October 2002 and waited until January 2003 to take our honeymoon on the Grand Princess (Western Caribbean). We live in St. Paul, Minnesota, so we flew from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, January 4. We booked our flights, pre-cruise hotel, and excursions through Princess. We realized that this would be more expensive than booking air and hotel independently, but we didn’t want to have to deal with any stress. On a previous cruise with Celebrity a delayed flight resulted in me missing two days of the cruise, and I was thankful at the time that since I had booked through Celebrity, they were responsible for getting me to the ship. However, that’s another story. Our goal for this cruise was to relax and be pampered. We didn’t choose any strenuous excursions and they all included food and beverages.

Pre-Cruise: We flew through Charlotte to FLL and went to the baggage claim area to meet the Princess representatives. We actually had a difficult time finding them as they were wearing blue business suits and weren’t carrying signs like some other cruise line reps. Eventually I saw a lady carrying a Princess binder so we nabbed her and she gave us directions to the bus that was to take us to the Westin Cypress Creek.

By the time we actually got to the Westin Scott and I were completely exhausted so we went straight to our room and ordered room service. The room looked very plush with nice bedding, etc., but I noticed that the towel rack was coming unscrewed and the tile was chipped in the bathroom. We’re not fussy, though, so we showered and ate in our room. We both thought the food was great but the next day we heard some people complaining about the food in the hotel restaurant. Neither Scott nor I sleep well our first night in a strange place, so we didn’t sleep well that night but it certainly wasn’t because of noise or an uncomfortable bed. Some people complained about the hotel the next day but I’m not sure what the problem was. We thought it was a decent hotel, with decent food and decent service.

The next morning we went to the hotel restaurant for the buffet breakfast. The Westin is situated next to a shortish walking path, so we took a walk after eating as the buses were not expected until noon. It wasn’t warm enough to frolic in the pool. There was a definite foul-up when loading the people on to the buses (300-plus people were leaving on cruises from the West) because the Princess reps were trying to get an even number of people on each bus. By the time they got to the last bus, which we were on, the bus filled up and there will still people waiting. They weren’t very happy.

Embarkation: Embarkation was fine. I had filled out all of our information and booked our shore excursions on the Cruise Personalizer so we basically showed up with our printouts and our passports, got our cruise cards and got on board. Waited in line for about 30 seconds. Our cabin was B720, an outside stateroom with a balcony. We ended up taking the stairs to the Baja deck because the elevators were packed. Our cabin was very clean and seemed to be well laid out. Obviously it was small but we didn’t care because we had the balcony, which we basically used as a living room. After stowing our carryon bags we headed to the Horizon Court for food.

I had cruised once before on the Horizon (Celebrity) but Scott had never cruised before so he was completely amazed by the Grand Princess, her size, and the overall sense of being on such a ship. After stuffing ourselves (a recurrent theme during our cruise), we headed back to our room where we unpacked what bags we had. We then walked around the ship for a bit and did the muster drill, where Scott sat next to Kenny Rogers. Yes, Kenny Rogers was a passenger on our cruise with his wife. I think they had one of the suites at the back. After the muster drill we went back to our room where our baggage was waiting for us. Lee Ann, our cabin steward, had already introduced herself and produced bathrobes for us. Thanks to cruise-addicts I knew to ask for them.

Room: As I said, we had B720, conveniently under the Horizon Court. This was a good location if you wanted to get food from the Horizon Court and take it to your room to eat. We preferred to do this and sit on our balcony rather than eat in the Horizon Court. It was great having a balcony. We are spoiled. Amusingly enough, Lee Ann locked us out on it one day so we hailed a guy a couple of decks up and he came down and told her. She felt bad. One of the other passengers told us she saw a guy in formal clothes and shoes climbing from his balcony to the next because he got locked out. He must have been crazy. Anyway. We got balloons on our door since we were honeymooning and for my birthday (also that week). The only complaint I have with the room is that the vibration when cruising at night was really loud! Our bed was vibrating so much we were joking about the vibrating beds you see in motels on TV! Scott didn’t seem to care, but it bothered me enough that I wore earplugs to sleep. We’ll keep that in mind when picking a location for our next cruise. Scott gets seasick easily so he started on 24-hour non-drowsy Dramamine a couple of hours before we got on the ship, and he was fine the entire cruise. I think he stopped taking them four days in without any problems.

Dining: We picked Personal Choice Dining. Some evenings Scott and I ate just the two of us and other nights we asked to be seated as a group. The only time we had trouble getting a table was on the second formal night. We ended up eating in the Horizon Court, which was a mistake because you couldn’t get lobster tail there. I thought we could probably request some from Room Service, but we didn’t bother. We ordered coffee and rolls every morning and ate them on our balcony. Usually we had a second breakfast on the Horizon Court. We ate lunch at the Horizon Court or had pizza/burgers from by the pool area. Finally, we did the English Tea twice, and I only wish we had gone every day. Yummy! Overall, we both thought the food was very good. I got one of the pop stickers for my cruise card. I don’t think the bartenders were very happy when people walked up with a pop sticker. They seemed nicer to me when I was ordering booze. That’s the only example of bad service that I can think of.

Princess Cays: This day was actually a little chilly – I think it was in the high-60’s or low 70’s for most of the day. We tendered ashore and went to the less crowded section of the beach. It was nice and peaceful, but we went so far to the right there wasn’t any bar service. Bummer. After relaxing on the beach chairs and taking a walk we went to the barbeque lunch, which was very good. It was a pleasant first day of the cruise and we enjoyed it.

Grand Cayman: We had booked a snorkel excursion for this port but bad weather resulted in delayed tendering…so no excursion for us. The weather improved a little and we eventually made it ashore, but since we aren’t big shoppers and didn’t get ashore in time to snorkel through another company, we didn’t really enjoy Grand Cayman. We did buy some rum for some friends.

Costa Maya: I’ve read a lot of reviews of this cruise and most of them have not had good things to say about Costa Maya. After reading that the beach was kind of yucky we decided to book the “Unimog/Private Beach” excursion that started at 1:00PM. We went ashore about an hour beforehand and checked out the beach. The beach was tiny, overcrowded, and rocky. We did walk around a little looking for shells and small sea creatures. We also took a quick pass through the shopping area, where I bought a $5 pair of “Mexican silver” hoop earrings. Then we met our guides for the Unimog tour. The guides were two men from Mexico City who had come down to work in Costa Maya. The Unimogs were WWII 4WD vehicles that had been fancied up with padding, yellow paint, and roll bars. We rode them on some extremely bumpy dirt roads and through Majahual. It was actually very strange because the Mexican government is building a resort in Costa Maya from the ground up, so there are four-lane divided highways and so on near the port, but then Majahual is this tiny town. The guides said they had just gotten electricity two weeks ago. Everyone kept comparing Costa Maya to Cozumel 30 years ago. After riding on the Unimogs through the jungle for 1-½ hours, stopping to look at monkeys, iguanas, etc., we finally got to the private beach. It was gorgeous, and only the Unimog riders were there, so it was practically deserted. Water toys (kayaks, floats, etc.), beer and pop, and a Mexican lunch (fajitas, chips, guacamole, etc.) were all included in the price of the tour. We took a two-person kayak out for a while. After 1-½ hours there, we got back on the Unimog and took the paved highway back to the ship. My only complaint was that the ride out got a little long (I had bruises from bouncing around the next day) so we didn’t have much time at the beach. So, most people seem to detest Costa Maya, but we had a fantastic time there.

I have one other comment about Costa Maya. Scott and I were sitting on our balcony as the boat left port when we noticed a small boat coming up towards the Grand Princess. Scott pointed out a couple of embarrassed looking people wearing life jackets sitting in the rear of the boat. Yes, they had missed the boat, but fortunately got back in time to be taken out to the Grand before we left the area. Everyone on the balconies cheered for them when they got on board.

Cozumel: We signed up for a bike/snorkel excursion. Taxis took about 20 of us to a bike launching station on a highway (that’s the best way I can think of to describe it) where we got on bikes and rode about three kilometers on very flat roads to Chankanaab National Park. We got in some snorkeling, looked at the lagoons, and saw some Mayan ruins. The snorkeling was pretty good. Scott has snorkeled in the Keys and he said the snorkeling was better there, but there were certainly lots of fish to see at Chankanaab. We both enjoyed it and I felt good about the bike ride to and from Chakanaab. A little exercise was needed at that point.

Shows: We didn’t go to many shows. We went to the magician/comedian, who was manic but pretty funny, the Weakest Link, and another comedian who we thought was really funny but some of the older members of the audience didn’t seem to enjoy as much as we did. We did go to the cooking demonstration and galley tour on the second at-sea day and found them quite enjoyable.

Swimming pools: We tried out most of the pools. On the second at-sea day, they opened up the Conservatory roof (imagine gawking on the part of Scott and I as we didn’t know they could open it) so we sat in there and relaxed for many hours. I had brought a few books to read and Scott read for a bit and chatted with other passengers. Apparently he met an assistant coach to the Kansas City Chiefs while watching the Ocean Princess go by.

Workout room: I went up there twice and either rode the Stairmaster or an exercise bike. It was pretty crowded both times.

Debarkation: This was such a sad time for us. We had an 11:15AM flight, so we were in the second group to get off the ship. It was very depressing to be sitting in a lounge watching an analysis of the North Korean situation on CNN instead of relaxing on a deck chair watching the ocean go by. However, everything went smoothly, we got to the airport in plenty of time and got home safely.

Summary: We certainly achieved our goals of pampering and relaxation! All in all, we had a wonderful time and cannot wait to cruise again. The service was great, the ship was beautiful, having a balcony was perfect, and the weather was a lot better than Minnesota in January! The Grand Princess was a wonderful ship and we’ll happily take Princess again. We’re thinking a Mediterranean cruise next…

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