Grand Princess Cruises Reviews

Thursday 24th May 2012

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Princess Cruises

Grand Princess

Satisfaction........yet Again.

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Satisfaction........yet again.

Reviewed By: Lacock, Cheltenham on 19th Nov 2008
Cruise Line: Princess Cruises	Times cruised before: 10+
Cruise Ship: Grand Princess	Sailed: June, 2008
Destination: British Isles	Age: 65+
Cabin: Inside

We live in the UK so why on earth would we want to cruise around the British Isles? Could it have been because we would feel 'safe' on our own patch? No language problems, no currency change, no Bay of Biscay, comfortable amongst our own, eat out safely, cars on the correct side of the road, shop in Marks and Spencer, we'd be able to use our bus pass when we went ashore and if the ship left without us we could always get the train home. Sounds like a pretty good package doesn't it? Actually it was none of these. We had already done around twenty cruises the first time we did the Round UK cruise and to be honest the first time we did it was largely because we got an exceptional deal. Yes, I know some cruisers love to tell you how many cruises they've done and what a great deal they got but it's relevant to this review because you will then appreciate that, although we have been to many exotic destinations with guaranteed sunshine into the bargain, we found a UK cruise attractive enough to repeat the experience. We have now been Round Britain four times. The first and second were on Golden Princess and then in 2007 Grand Princess took on the job. We had been privileged to look over Golden when she first came to the UK and, to be honest, we came away from the visit saying 'she's too big, too many people, not likely we shall be sailing that one'. How wrong our assessment was and how glad we are that we did decide to give it a try. First class staff are crucial to the enjoyment of any holiday and all the staff on these two ships were well up to the standard we had come to expect from Princess. The theatres are fine with comfortable seating and the shows colourful and energetic and if I have to criticise something it would be that I do wish the sound engineers would realise that, whilst it may be true that the average age of cruisers tends to be on the high side, we are not all deaf but soon will be if they persist in blasting out multi-decibels which I swear exceed anything acceptable to health and safety. Perhaps instead of handing out flags to the audience it would be useful to give ear defenders. We have experienced both balcony and inside cabins on these ships and find them perfectly satisfactory. Perhaps I should say that we normally go inside anyway largely because we regard the cabin purely as a place to change, shower and sleep so see little point in paying for facilities which are not essential to our needs and frankly saving a few quid means we can cruise more often. That said we wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and from time to time we meet people who have been upgraded, a privelege which, despite our loyalty to P&O & Princess, we have never enjoyed. As far as food is concerned our experience on both P&O and Princess has been consistently good. The style on Princess is American of course compared with the very British style on P&O which means that vegetables are less apparent on Princess but we have no problem with that and, in any case, a polite request for anything reasonable will surely be met. My wife has to have a gluten free diet, a problem which can be very restrictive in many a restaurant ashore, but one of the huge benefits of cruising for us is the care and attention paid to providing a safe and extensive choice of menu for her. Princess loves to use the word 'excellent' and it certainly applies where my wife's diet is concerned. So what about the ports and what is it about cruising around Britain? Well one of the benefits is that you get to see places at the other end of the country which many of us never do. We live in Cheltenham, very roughly in the middle of England and, although we have travelled around a fair bit, there was still plenty we hadn't seen but over the four trips this cruise has taken us to Guernsey, Falmouth, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Holyhead for Snowdonia, Liverpool, Greenock for Glasgow and the wonderful Lochs , The Orkneys, Invergordon for Inverness and Loch Ness, Edinburgh and Le Havre. The last was so that a trip to Paris was possible. Not all of those ports have been included on each cruise so minor variations have added interest. Each has made interesting tours possible to some very beautiful areas of the UK. In point of fact we generally do our own thing no matter what country we visit. Using trains and buses abroad or at home is generally pretty easy provided you do a bit of research before you travel. To that end the internet can be massively beneficial. But it's not only the ports because the wonderful vistas from the ship sailing between the islands around the Scottish coast, up the Clyde and also the Firth of Forth is an absolute delight in itself. An added bonus at Greenock is that some local volunteers, justifiably proud of the surrounding area, offer some escorted trips in the vicinity for which they make no specific charge but suggest you make a donation. Very well done and in our experience well worth a decent donation to help them maintain an excellent and delightful opportunity to enjoy Scottish hospitality. Every cruise has its own particular appeal. It may be the sunshine in the Caribbean, the stunning minarets or the ballet in St Petersburg, the Casino in Monaco, the beauty of Madeira or the tower of Pisa which sells a cruise but our own country has much to offer too.
Quality of Food

Entertainment

Shore Excursions	n/a
Did our own thing
Staff

Children's Facilities	n/a

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Opinion: Agree Comment by Macro, Reading (21 Nov 08 23:26) about this REVIEW

I too have cruised round Britain - first on Voyages of discovery and second on Grand Princess. The first cruise saw us basking in sunshine on balmy seas from Harwich to Kirkwall (Orkney) the second cruise did not have such great weather ( couldn't get into Guernsey) but it was equally fascinating. I was impressed that princess brought on board a Scottish tour guide for most of the trip and she was a terrific and accurate (mainly Americans on our cruise) host for Scotland. Shame someone of her standard was not more frequently to be seen and heard on cruise lines in general. I also recommend anyone to try visiting our fabulous island kingdom.

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