15-Day Oceania and Fiji Islands Cruise Aboard the GRAND PRINCESS

So we're currently onboard Grand Princess travelling on the cruise to nowhere. We were supposed to leave San Pedro on the 25th of September, stopping at Cabo (overnight), Loretto (cancelled due to closing the port tocruise ships), Guymas (replacement for Loretto), La Paz, Puerto Vallarta, and back to San Pedro.

Then came the Hurricanes (plural). 2 days prior to sailing, all passengers were notified that Cabo was out, as were Guymas and La Paz and Puerto Vallarta. They would try for Mazatlan and maybe Cabo on the way back. Guests could cancel with a full rebookable credit (no refunds) or take the cruise and get $100 credit pp. Looking at all the empty cabins on our deck and the not crowded venues onboard, I'd guess 30-35% cancelled.

We were originally booked into a mini suite. A couple of days prior to being notified of the change in itinerary, Princess emailed and offered is a paid downgrade from the mini suite to an aft premium balcony and cash (more on that later), as they had massively oversold the mini suites. The cash back came to just shy of $4,000. This on top of our $200 each OBC and $100 shareholder credit. Oh yeah, we're on the Princess Plus pkg.

Fast forward to day of the cruise. We arrived at 12:30 and as we are Elite and my wife is in an electric wheelchair, we literally cruised right onboard. The only stop was to let them run our passports and take pictures. Went right to our cabin. Cabin was half ready, no bar setup, but easy for us to kick back. Looked over the rail at the Vista suite next door and saw it was empty..... as in they cancelled. Called down to guest services to ask if it was available to upgrade. They said someone was getting it and we'd be put on the list and notified asap. No worries. The aft PB was fine. This was #26 for us on Princess and we were already booked on Diamond P in a Vista suite for back to backs in February.

So off we sail........ to San Diego....... for an overnight.......

day 2 wake up to the sight of 3 Navy aircraft carriers and 2 Navy LST's, along with great views of the Coronado naval air station (never saw so many AH-64 attack helicopters in one place before). By afternoon, still no word about upgrading. Went to dinner in the main DR and saw many empty tables and staff standing around trying to look busy.

Day 3 wife again calls down and asks to speak to the hotel manager (shes not playing around anymore), tells him about the non wait list and the no callbacks and the lie about it being taken by someone, says the Vista suite next door is is still empty and can we upgrade?. He says he'll check and see what's going on and get back to her. 10 minutes later he calls back and says we can have it for $840. She asks "per person'?. He say, no in total! BAM! sold. Now remember, they already refunded almost 90% of the money we paid for this cruise (other than the casino voucher for an inside cabin we get for a few different Vegas casinos every year), so $840 for one of the 10 or so Vista suites is a gift. They send down an officer to help us move everything next door. Took maybe 15 minutes. We settle in to our new digs and find yet another full bar setup. 4 times the room, huge balcony and no neighbors other that the50-60 year old party goers in the handicapped cabin across the hall.

So we finally pull out of San Diego and the Captain comes on the PA with the news we're going to try and avoid hurricane Polo, so no Cabo. No La Paz,No PV (even though Polo never gets close to any of them. It goes across Baja along the middle, 125 miles away from Cabo. No biggie, we've been to every Mexican port at least 15 times.

But now we are again Suite occupiers, so Reserved dining.

day 5 we find ourselves hitting the forward bands of ANOTHER hurricane, Rachel. And she;s no playing games. By late afternoon we;re hitting 15-20' waves and a 50-75 MPH wind of the starboard side. By sunset we're pitching up down a good 15-20 degrees and rolling 10-12 degrees

It's starting to remind me on the first Princess cruise we took (early '90's) in the Caribbean where they ordered everyone back to their cabins and people were rolling out of their beds. YeHa!

We manage to survive the roller coaster ride from hell and get safely to Mazatlan, our ONLY foreign port (remember, ships sailing from or to the USA HAVE to hit a foreign port or face huge fines).

Last night, we finally got the compensation offer that people have been clamoring for. All guests (except Princess casino booked) get a 50% discount from their current booking (this cruise) to be applied to a future Princess cruise through the end of 2027. The casino folks got $500 in onboard credit.

So, that's my take on Grand Princess. She's old, but tough. Her next cruise when we get back is a trans pacific to Australia. Then she comes back and is going into dry dock. She needs to work.

I have been on the grand a few times before in the past when she was a young ship and you know they’ve kept it up pretty good being 21 years old or so I expected more wear and tear, but I brought a first time cruiser with me this time and she enjoyed it tremendously never been on a cruise and I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise being satisfied with the condition of the ship, she is still a good ship to sail up the inland passage. We were on there for two weeks though back to back out of Vancouver. The food was fairly good not like it used to be. Seems like they’ve cut back in some areas, but I was satisfied being older, eating less than I used to the meals work seem like less choices in each each part of the meal desserts were just so so but still a good value overall entertainment was a couple nights that were good other nights they could just get rid of those shows and nobody ever miss him. I think when the ship is older, it seems like they don’t put their best productions on just kind of filler type stuff not what I’m used to having cruised almost 50 times I’m various ships.

This will be the last time I sail on Princess. This cruise was just a mess all around and this ship (Grand) needs to be scrapped. First, don't bother with the premier package - this ship cannot accommodate it. They limit the number of drinks you can purchase and there are no suite amenities like a lounge. Ship is understaffed. Good mediocre. Crew seemed unhappy.

The cabins were not ready until around 2pm on embarkation day so the common areas were crowded with bags and people. The casino staff were rude. The activities on board were minimal. They had beer pong - yay - and a presentation on where to eat at the next port. Given the price of this cruise they just simply did not deliver. I've had much better experiences on other cruise lines so we will not be booking with Princess again. Please read the other reviews this seems to be a common sentiment.