Grand Princess - December 22, 2007

We looked forward to this vacation (family of 5) for a long time, and had been most places the ship went, save Princess Cays and Ocho Rios which were new to us as was the Princess line. Prior to this cruise, we had sailed RCI twice, and loved it, so much of the benchmarking here is based upon our excellent expereinces on RCI.

Cleanliness - not up to par. We own a cleaning company, and so we know what to look for. All of the glass work on the ship was filthy and the crew we did see cleaning one day out of 7 was not cleaning properly. The staterooms (we had two) were dusty and had been quickly readied, without being thoroughly cleaned before we arrived. The ship had many areas that had a foul odor - mildew like and like something was gone bad. I saw a cockroach on a handrail one night during the under the stars movie event.

Food - below par. Corn on the cob was boiled mush. Some foods were far too over cooked, even when made to order. Some had a funny odor like they were about to turn sour.

Staff - so so...about half of the staff would smile or say something, but far too many of them ignored you and went about what they did with a blank look on their faces. They appeared to just not care, and didn't strike me as motivated (see note about room steward - worst we have ever had). We asked three times for robes, and soap. Once should have done the trick.

Now having said all that, we had a great trip. We were there to vacation, to see ports and create memories, which we did and enjoyed doing. We had great weather, and did fun things like swim with the dolphins in Cozumel (this is highly recommended). Went to the Beaches Boscobel resort in Jamaica, another great day.

This is all I have time for right now, email or PM me if you have questions about this ship.