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My wife, Jen, and I are just back from our winter holiday in New Orleans, Houston, and aboard Princess Cruises' Grand Princess. Following is a review of the trip.
Getting there
Our trip started off with an adventure: a 10-hour layover in Detroit and arriving to a white Christmas in New Orleans without our luggage. Why? We'd arrived at YOW NW check-in counter by 0415 for an 0600 flight, which was delayed to 0730 due to inbound A/C, and were advised would not make our connection in Detroit, but that they'd put us in business class on the next DTW-MSY flight. Well, after 6 hours in DTW we boarded said flight and were in our roomy seats having a pre-takeoff drink when they announced, "due to snow and ice in New Orleans this flight has been cancelled." Five minutes later we were in line to rebook and faced an overnight Detroit and a routing via MSP to get to New Orleans the next evening, but for what it was worth I mentioned being with Expedia.ca and, perhaps by coincidence or perhaps not, we were handed boarding passes for seats that had "just opened up" on a nonstop to depart in a few hours. All was well until we arrived at the MSY baggage carousel to find no bags, and then stood in line another hour to file a claim.
We ended up spending much of our time in the Big Easy at the airport and mall, but were reunited with said bags shortly before departure to Houston. Our hotel, the New Orleans Marriott, was located on Canal Street just a couple of blocks off of Bourbon Street. It was my third time in the Crescent City, and the first time for Jen. My last venture into the French Quarter had been on a hot, humid weeknight, and the place was still packed. Well Christmas and Boxing Days weren't quite as crowded, but were festive nonetheless. We saw snow and ice around the city, even on the lawn of my relatives' home. Of course we had coffee and beignets at Café du Monde, and walked much of the Quarter by day as well. We had brunch one day with family, who were kind enough to drive us all over town schlepping and shopping. And we dined one evening at Commander's Palace, considered one of the best restaurants in the United States. The service was impeccable, everything down to a T. We'd phoned ahead to advise we might not be dressed formally, since the airline lost our bags. They were very accommodating and went out of their way to make sure we had a memorable dining experience.
We finally got our baggage on day 3, as we were leaving New Orleans for Houston. Hassle-free flight on Southwest over to Houston-Hobby Airport, which has recently been remodeled and now shines. We checked into the Doubletree Hotel in the high-end Galleria area, were treated to the famous Doubletree cookies, and found our recently remodeled floor and room to be of a higher standard. The room was spacious, and the appointments (comfy bed & comforter) brand new. We enjoyed sushi at our old haunt, unique items such as spicy crawfish roll that I'd missed for six years.
The next day, after breakfast of coffee & beignets once again (better than New Orleans!) we headed down to Galveston, where Enterprise dropped us off right at the cruise terminal. Embarkation was simple enough, with Enterprise shuttling us to the terminal around 1:30 and our boarding within half an hour of that. And at least we had our bags. We met others aboard who were not as fortunate, and we know others on different cruises who didn't even make their ship in time. No welcome-aboard champagne, but then again this isn't Celebrity. That would become a frequent theme for us, to the chagrin of those around at times, the comparisons between Princess and Celebrity.
The Ship
Grand Princess seemed a bit confusing at first, trying to figure out how to get from the gangway to Deck 11. No white-gloved escorts here, but we survived. Not having the amidships staircase go past Deck 7 was annoying early and often - the cynic in me later on determined that this forced pax to pass thru Princess revenue centres such as the photo area. Our inside stateroom was clean and of the size we expected, and our steward Mike was great from the get-go. In fact we found all the Filipinos and Thais (such as Pong & Bank in the Da Vinci dining room, or Ronald at Explorers) aboard Grand to be smiling, friendly, and ever helpful. Other crew and staff must learn from them... but more about that later.
Grand, as promised, has plenty of intimate spaces, lots of nooks and crannies to discover. And despite being 110,000 tonnes and having 2600 passengers aboard, rarely did we feel the crowds or anything overwhelming. We liked Explorers and the Wheelhouse, and found the aft 'adult' pool (when children were not making their invasion in plain sight of crew) to be a great spot. The spa pool was also a nice area. Skywalkers, which is a decent enough nightclub at the aft of the ship, was a nice space to watch sunsets etc, but takes up a lot of space, casts shadows over tanning areas, and gives the ship that 'spoiler' look in the back that some like and others do not.
Service
Would it pain Princess crew and staff to smile more? And they really must pay attention to that 10-point service credo ("Our C.R.U.I.S.E.® program stands for Courtesy, Respect, Unfailing in Service Excellence and means smiling, caring people wherever you go"). Why have a mission statement in view for the public if you're not going to follow it? Okay, some specific examples of this. We experienced dining room and bar staff walking in front of us, reaching across to place items on the table, interrupting conversations, getting orders wrong, and generally lacking any strong desire to serve their guests, let alone go above and beyond.
In the specialty restaurant, Sabatini's, where we somehow expected a 'special' experience, the waiter actually pitched the Future Cruise Sales office unsolicited, and seemed in a hurry to get us to sign our bill during dessert and coffee - as if we were going anywhere. The photographers were rude and pushy, causing the normally sweet-natured Jen to scowl in a photo and tell a shutterbug to go away. Yes, the ship is their home - at times, however, we felt like uninvited guests who were merely in the way. And the intrusive announcements ("Hey folks, come on down for jackpot bingo!") were too much like a Carnival cruise. As a stockholder of Carnival or Royal Caribbean, I'd want these companies to have viable profit centres -- I just don't want to feel them constantly as a passenger. Thankfully we only paid for an inside cabin - if we'd had a balcony or suite and been treated like this (and it's not like we wore a sign that said "steerage") the disappointment factor would have been huge. As it was, our comparisons to Celebrity were round-the-clock, and when we saw Galaxy in Panama we wanted to jump ship. Fortunately we'll be aboard her for our next cruise, September in the Mediterranean.
Living the Tim Hortons Ad
I'd brought a can of Tim Hortons coffee for a fellow Canadian who's now living in Oklahoma, only we missed the first Cruise Critic group get-together and I had to take the coffee back to our room. On the way back, however, a woman about our age saw the can and said, "Hey, Tim Hortons!" Turns out her name was Mindy, also from the Cruise Critic group, and she & Kevin live right here in Ottawa. So we ended up hanging out together for much of the cruise, having dinner on several occasions and doing ports together in Costa Maya, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Panama.
Ports
On the first full day, which was spent at sea, the captain advised our schedule would change due to "operational requirements", and we'd be stopping in Costa Maya first, then Belize early the next morning. In Costa Maya, which is the name for the cruise port being developed on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula south of Playa del Carmen, we walked half an hour to the sleepy fishing village of Majahual (where the streets are still sand), then hired a taxi to take us to the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben. This was our educational experience for the cruise... well, okay, one of three maybe. As we'd arrived so early the next morning into Belize City, however, we didn't get to go to the ruins at Altun Ha, and instead walked on our own through the capital, which was largely what one would expect from a lesser developed country.
Even with the high winds we were able to get to Grand Cayman, which is sometimes closed when the seas are too rough, but the boats that take you to the popular Stingray City (where you swim and snorkel with the rays) were not operating in those conditions ...instead we hired a car for six of us, and toured the island. We even went to Hell -- a small town on the north end of the island -- where I'd been told to go so many times. In Ocho Rios, Jamaica, we climbed Dunns River Falls, the famous waterfall, twice, then enjoyed some Jamaican jerk chicken for lunch and did some shopping. In Panama we were sure to wake up early and catch our 0645 bus to the Pacific side, where we boarded a boat and traversed the Panama Canal through two sets of locks. Knowing what we did about how this place was constructed and so many lives lost in the process, it was amazing to experience. In Cozumel we did some shopping at the port, and enjoyed a spa and hot-tub day back aboard ship.
Aboard Ship
We also had four days at sea -- one each at the beginning and end of the cruise, and one either side getting to and from Panama. These are great days to relax, walk around the wooden promenade that circles the ship, sit in the hot tub, play chess with the 3-ft tall pieces out on deck, or take in an art auction or matinee show. The shows we saw in the evenings were fine -- the usual variety of comedians, magicians, Broadway fare, etc. Each day Princess featured afternoon tea in the dining room, usually with string quartet playing (as opposed to rap music at dinner on more than once occasion!), always with warm, fresh scones and strawberries & cream. The food in the buffet (breakfast & lunch) was better than on Celebrity -- always a selection of salads, fresh fruits, and seafood, with different themes each day such as Mexican just when we had a craving for it. Princess also has great thin-crust pizza available fresh and practically round the clock near the main pool. The dining room food started out just fair, with prime rib overcooked and some entrees either too cold or too salty. But they did seafood and soups well, and later on we got to ordering more entrees as "backups" for the table. Jen and I both had four lobster tails on the last formal night, and the last few nights the food was much better (as were our newly-discovered Thai waiter team). We'd also spent New Year's Eve with friends from the Cruise Critic group, and toasted in 2005 with Dom Perignon courtesy of Tom & Jodie, two Americans living in Saudi Arabia who'd been married aboard ship earlier in the cruise. Two parties were held, one on deck with a live band and the other a balloon drop in the Atrium.
Stabilizers
These are the things on the side of the ship that lessen the side-to-side motion ("roll"). The "operational requirements" earlier? Turns out our stabilizers broke while leaving port in Galveston. And we encountered Force 7 and 8 winds -- a gale -- for much of the cruise. Fortunately there wasn't much pitch -- up-and-down motion -- and most passengers were only affected in as much as we had to hang onto railings as if crossing the North Atlantic.
Movies Under the Stars
Princess has started to add stadium scoreboard-like screens to their main pool areas. This was a great place to watch my alma mater, USC, win the national championship. Nice way to relax, even fall asleep, in the evening, watching a movie on this screen with a blanket and popcorn. The noise was a bit annoying in the daytime, though, kinda hard to relax by the pool with music and whatnot blaring -- if I want TV I'll watch in the room or at home. And when they played The Wizard of Oz they handed out a 'kit' that included bubbles. Well go figure, some kids put the bubbles in the hot tub, and the crew had to close it down. This was comical the first time, and just plain dumb on the part of the crew when they re-opened the hot tub only to have it overflow with bubbles once again.
Debarkation and getting home
We waited in the room until called for immigration, then nearly tripped over a couple and their son who were camped out on the stairs. They actually expressed shock that we would dare call them on this, so I invited the gentleman to step outside... well not quite. Still, I do think there's something to this whole "decline of western civilisation" thing. We waited in a quiet area until called off the ship shortly before 10am. I was aboard the Lot B shuttle 15 minutes later, then returned with our Texas Cadillac (a pickup from Enterprise) to get Jen and the bags. Had we gotten into the mess at the terminal pickup line, the stress could have kicked in; the $4 and short walk for parking next door at the wharf were a great call, and we were checking into our Galleria hotel (Marriott, room overlooking the atrium, enjoyed the pool and hot tub) before noon for an enjoyable day in Houston. Yes, even after a cruise we ate - Texas barbecue for lunch at the well-regarded Goode Co., and sushi for dinner with Houstonian friends we'd met aboard ship. Sunday we flew back with Northwest, the only baggage issue being our overweight charge - hey, it's a cruise - but be prepared to advise pax that the NW baggage limits is 50lbs per bag; we were charged $20 for two extra cardboard boxes.
Summary
In short, we found Princess to be like a Hilton. Seemed like a known quantity, you know what you're getting, but there's no WOW factor, no legendary service that we experienced. We hadn't counted on so many kids being aboard, and nobody could have expected the amount of damage they ended up doing. Unfortunately a few people from a given country can give all the others a bad name, and that can be any country in the world... we'll all remember that. But back to the Hilton thing. We can get that on land. We want an experience such as we had on Celebrity's Constellation last year, a time from boarding to disembark where we're wowed and pampered. Princess has plenty of followers and surely they're doing something right. And yes, we did put down a deposit and would consider doing a smaller Princess ship in the future. Perhaps right now the company is overstretched and is undergoing staffing issues.
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Click to see the travel destination photos and cruise ship pics
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