Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Princess Cruise Line

MS Grand Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Joseph Baz
# previous cruises: 4
Date of Trip: August 15, 2006
Itinerary: Mediterranean

The itinerary was phenomenal starting with Venice then onto Dubrovnik, Corfu, Katakolon, Athens, Mykonos, Kusadasi for Ephesus, Rhodes, Santorini and Naples and ending in Rome (Civitavecchia). Each stop was more exciting than the last.

The ship is well laid out and all of the public areas are very comfortable. I preferred the entertainment in the various lounges as it frequently included audience participation and went late into the night.

Deck 7 is the promenade but does not permit a complete walk around as the bow area is closed off to passengers. You can walk around during daylight hours by going up and down the stairs to deck 8 but it is not the same. In the alternative you just go back in forth in a giant "U."

The casino is large and offers plenty of diversion with a good staff. The pools were always busy all of them appeared to be fun although I am not a pool person and did not use any of the four of them.

The most disappointing aspect of the Grand Princess is that after 8 years of service she is in dire need of refurbishment. The public rooms appear a little tired. the carpet in the hallways, especially in the cabin areas, is faded and worn and in some instances, frayed. The same for the cabins. The ship does not look and feel clean with obvious dust accumulations in many places and the sometimes heavy "ship smell" which permeates many areas. I have not witnessed this on other Princess ships and was surprised on this cruise.

The food was always good and I never had a complaint. The wait staff was wonderful and always accommodating and helpful. The food was equally good in all of the dinning rooms and as was the 24/7 buffet. I did not try the extra cost dinning rooms this trip as I was very happy with the food served in the regular dinning rooms which always had varied menus each day. The ships staff in every venue is terrific and matches the quality of the wait staff service.

We had a mini-suite which had more than enough room for two people and sufficient storage/closet space for clothing and luggage without intruding into the sleeping or sitting areas. The bathroom had a full size tub and could easily accommodate a full size person. The cabin was generally very quiet although I am not sure there is enough sound proofing to prevent hearing the noise of children running up and down the halls.

We attended several shows all of which were quite professional and were generally good although not great. We preferred the lounges for light entertainment.

The Med is a terrific cruise and I recommend it to everyone who wants to visit the Greek isles as well as Venice and Italy.

All of the tours sponsored by Princess were pretty good except those out of Naples, although you can do Corfu and Rhodes on your own. Stay away for all day tours and do not try to be too ambitious of Naples and attempt to hit Capri and the main land location such as Almafi and Pompey in the same day as those who tried it found they spent most of the time on the bus and too little at each site.

We met some delightful people and do in fact have dinner plans with them over the next several months a number of whom are hundreds of miles away.