Johnny Rock&Roll Goes to Sea

Day One

The Little Shrimp

Well, we've now spent 24 hours aboard the Grand Princess.

We left port in Rome without delay and I found the check-in to be smooth and well organized. We arrived about 4 hours before departure and found that we avoided most of the crowd of 2600 people who would be joining us on the trip. The ship is clean and the cabins are in very good condition for a 10-year-old ship.

The Good News

The crew is friendly and helpful. They arranged to get our whole group seated together for dining the first evening so that we could celebrate my wife's birthday and our anniversary. The selection of food was excellent with choices from fish to prime rib with vegetarian and other options thrown in.

The desserts were tasty. We left port on time and found that all the food stations and bars were functioning well. Although the ship is fully occupied, we do not feel crowded and there are many different entertainment options. We watched a one-hour juggling act after dinner that was fun.

We then headed up to the Karaoke bar to find that it was sparsely attended and the crew had to sing songs to fill in as only a few of the guests there wanted to get up and sing (of course, being Johnny Rock&Roll, I was one of them!)

The Bad News

We started our dinner with shrimp cocktail that was amusingly small. I know they're called "shrimp" but come on, four tiny crustaceans on a few bits of lettuce? It was not a good first impression for the Grand Princess. Another sour note: the pizza bar served up a thin crusted, tasteless pizza.

The golf simulator costs $20 for a half hour and the putting green is a poor second cousin to a mini golf course. They usedsink drains as cups. It was not something a serious golfer like me could enjoy.

Our first stop in Monaco would have been a pleasant enough experience if the walk to the buses had been a bit shorter and the ship's crew could have told us where to catch the bus (or even which bus to catch to get to the casino). We eventually found our way up a long hill and had a nice lunch at the Cafe de Paris just across the street from the Monte Carlo Casino.

The ship anchored off shore so we had to take a tender to and from the dock. This process went as well as could be expected in the slightly choppy seas.

It was great to get back to the air-conditioned ship after a very warm walk around Monaco! We had a little nap and are now preparing for our second evening of dining aboard the Grand Princess.

I don't think I'll be ordering the shrimp cocktail again tonight!

Rock On!
Johnny