Thread: Questions about Grand Princess

Lulu, a big to you and a big thank you for the RIGHT answer

No problem! Glad to help!

We've been sailing on Princess for a very long time and have always been able to smoke inside of the cabins on ALL ships.

Sometimes, folks honestly think you can't because there are no ashtrays. All you have to do is ask for ashtrays. Your room steward will bring them quickly! No Problem!

Yes, you can smoke in the cabins. You can often tell the heavy smokers by walking past cabins -- you can smell the tobacco in the hallway (sorry, Lars, had to get a dig in).

We haven't been on the Grand, but I do believe many of the Princess ships have a cigar lounge so that's one place you can go. Otherwise, smokers on one side (I believe starboard, but I could be backwards on this) up on decks and non-smokers on the other side. You can tell because the tables on one side will have ashtrays and the other side won't and will have no smoking signs.

There is a soda card, I think it's about $4/day plus the gratuity. You buy it on the first day of the cruise, you get a sticker for your cabin keycard. Whenever you want a soda, go to any bar and they'll give you a fountain drink (doesn't cover cans, which I think are $2.50/can plus tip). We didn't get it for the girl on our last cruise as I brought on Pepsi and Mountain Dew (the ship uses coke products, which I don't care for).

I've heard there's a coffee card for the specialty coffees, and an ice cream card for the sundae bar near the pool. But there's free ice cream in the dining rooms at lunch and dinner, and an ice cream bar in the buffet mid-afternoon (on our last cruise, there was unusual flavors, homemade ice cream plus toppings). For some reason, Princess doesn't seem to mention this in the Patters, but it's very popular. Just look for it around 3:30, but you may need to check either side of the Horizon Court for this.

Patty, thanks for the useful info and for the dig

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I noticed the Grand Princess is calling at the port of Alicante a few times this spring. (Alicante is 40 minutes down the road from where we live now) I might write to Princess and request a tour of the ship

Of course they did a refurb. They must have noticed my booking for August 09 and realised they'd better spruce it up for such a VIP

Hey, Julie The refurb was just for you and rightly so - Cant have a shabby looking ships when royality from Austrailia is embarking

Hopefully you can get a tour. Princess seems to be tight with allowing people onboard to check it out, but maybe that's over here.

A further update.
We were on the Grand last week and she will be going into drydock in April 2011. The captain said she will be getting a 50 million dollar refurbishment and a 15 million dollar technology update.
IMHO, she didn't look bad at all for her age. A very clean ship too.

Originally Posted by hanna

A further update.
We were on the Grand last week and she will be going into drydock in April 2011. The captain said she will be getting a 50 million dollar refurbishment and a 15 million dollar technology update.
IMHO, she didn't look bad at all for her age. A very clean ship too.

Thanks for the update!

Just to add to that, I've heard on another forum that the refurb will include removing the 'spoiler' as they are having problems with metal fatigue in the supports that hold it up. And also, that it will include a complete re-model of the interior spaces.
It certainly sounds interesting! (Not sure where it was sourced from though... :S)