Grand vs. Golden princess

[sweetpea]

Hi,

I will be going to the Golden Princess in Oct for the Souther Caribbean route (St. thomas, st. marteen, antigua, st. lucia, barbados) with a group of friends. I have previously been on the Grand Princess. For all the princess cruisers out there, can you tell me if there is any differences between Golden and Grand Princess? Are all the decor the same, or are they different.

If you have traveled to southern caribbean with the Golden princess, can you tell me about your experience.

Much appreciated, thanks!

 

[Cruise cutie]

Been on the Ocean Princess on the Southern and it was great...in fact so good we are on The Golden Princess in February back to backs..Hope you get lot's of info..=welcome :newbie and "nice to meet you"..:wave ask lot's of questions and join us on the main board too..Take care ..:cheers..:daisy..Joanne

 

[CruiseAholic]

The Grand and the Golden are basically the same ship. The Star, while are 'sister' ship has had some changes that are different from the Grand and the Golden.

 

[PeabodyNVL]

There are very few differences. I think on the Golden, there is a passenger staircase midship. There isn't one on the Grand. Some of the bars are named differently, as are the dining rooms.

 

[Lady Jag]

Great question, as we're faced with the same thing! :thumb I just hope the Golden still has it's video game arcade!! :?

 

[CaribbeanSun]

The Golden has a more beautiful atrium then the Grand Princess. There is also an extra set of stair cases on the Golden.

The Golden was built with an internet/computer room --self serve. I believe the Grand now has it but before the Grand was setup that you could only use the internet when the business office was setup.

 

[PeabodyNVL]

Yes, the internet cafe on the Golden is very nice...whereas on the Grand, it used to be just an interior room with a few computers...not very inviting at all.

 

[Gwen]

Just returned from the Grand:
There are 2 internetrooms on the Grand now: the Internetcafé and the library. They are both in the Atrium. Enough space I think. I could get there in my wheelchair so......

There was an extra shop on the Grand: it was called "Red Square" because I was on the Baltic cruise.

 

[Snowblower]

Not much difference, like the other post the difference is with the decor and with the staircases in the center of the ship (not on the Grand). It drove us nuts because we used them all the time on the Star, then went to the Grand and they weren't there. Had to find different routes to the Lido deck all the time. I think the Golden is much better than the Grand in all aspects, service, food & staff. I would go again on the Golden, would have to give it some hard thought about the Grand.

Snowblower

 

[CaribbeanSun]

Service and food can change at anytime depending on the staff on board. Since contracts area always changing, food can be excellent one month and three months later, 1/3 of the staff can possibly be gone. I have found food and service about the same on the Grand and Golden. The Red Square store is for the Baltic cruise only. It is normally not on the ship when the ship is sailing the Caribbean.

 

[Twaincruisers]

My wife and I were on the Golden in May and found it to be poorly designed for passenger flow. Two months earlier we had been on the much larger Navigator of the Seas and had no problems with a larger number of people. The Golden has a real bottleneck with the photo gallery restricting access to the stern show lounge, a bar, and a restaurant. Passage to the main lounge is affected by the steak house being closed in the evening to through-passage between the Atrium and the main lounge. The worst place, however, is the "buffet cove" at the Horizon. The buffet line starts at both ends and then lines crash into each other with it becoming mass confusion.

We took this cruise for the itinerary and to try the Grand-class ships. Antigua and St Lucia were new to us. Being history-buffs we took a tour to the Nelson dockyards...great views along the way. I even remember them pointing out their low-income housing...looked a lot better than the same here in Miami! In 1999 I had the tough job of spending 10 days in Barbados supervising interns installing pcs for y2k...I always managed to spend the afternoon on my balcony overlooking the pool and the beach drinking my Banks beer while reading the papers. So on this latest trip we took the Banks brewery/rum distillery tour. If you eat ashore, try finding a place to try Baracuda (on our previous stop we ate in a second-floor restaurant overlooking the Careenage and the Parliament buildings. On St. Martin I recommend the Americas Cup yacht race...we crewed the Stars & Stripes and won at the last moment against the two Canadian boats. In St Thomas we like to go for the history and the views. On any tour you get beautiful views, but you can get a great one a short distance from the ship at the Tram at Havensight. We always walk around the shops, and take in history like the synagogue, the 99 steps, fort, or legislature. This time I think the liquor would have been cheaper in St Martin (my Pusser's rum, made in the Virgins, was much more expensive than in the past and was a lot cheaper in St Martin). We always "prepare" for St Thomas by watching the video "Weekend at Bernies' II); we watch "Speend 2" for St Martin!

Have a nice cruise.