7 Nights Western Caribbean from New Orleans, LA Cruise

Cruise of a lifetime on the lovely Grand Princess

Had a great cruise! Found the same excellent level of service from Princess I have enjoyed, despite my last sailing being in Aug 2019. Yes the Grand is older, I encountered no issues with HVAC, plumbing, smells or flooding, she is still a beautiful vessel who will take you great places! We were gifted the best weather in Glacier Bay - where we saw 2 bears on the coast! And Ketchikan! I found the food plentiful in choice, and cooked extremely well. Loved dinners in the Main Dining Room, the International Cafe had my favourite breakfast the smoked salmon sandwich. The buffet had some great choices. Alfredo’s and the Salty Dog Gastro Pub pop up we’re both highlight meals for me! I love the pre and post cruise transfers to/from the airport and the service Princess offers. Cruise of a lifetime for me seeing bears, whales, porpoises, otters, eagles and the Northern Lights! I wrote a full review with pictures from my trip on the Princess boards.

Lengthy review

We decided to do our first ever cruise as a way to celebrate our youngest daughter graduating from high school. She wanted to do one day at Disney World, so we chose a cruise leaving from Port Canaveral. We did a 4 night cruise on Utopia that went to Nassau and CocoCay. Since I had read that Nassau was the lesser popular of the two ports, I only booked a catamaran excursion (I think the name on the catamaran was Seahorse but not 100% sure). This excursion took us around part of the island where we saw points of interest and celebrity homes. The tour guide Chris was hilarious. On way back, he played fun music and everbody enjoyed the open bar and dancing along. It is quite a walk to the meeting place but this excursion was something all 4 of us enjoyed (our daughters are 19 & 23). The next day was in CocaCay. We did a Wave Runner excursion. This was fun to be out on the water driving 25-40 MPH on the Wave Runners following a guide (with another one in the back of the group). We did this at 8:30 in the morning... it lasted about 1.5 hours. We then headed to CocoBeach Club to use our day passes. We thoroughly enjoyed looking out and getting in the water. The beach was perfect , the water felt great, and we had a nice sunny day. The day pass included an awesome lunch as well. We had several yummy drinks and really just enjoyed unwinding this day. My only complaint is when the low tide set in, it change the landscape drastically. As for Utopia itself, we enjoyed all the shows offered but our favorites were the Ice Skating and adult comedy ones. We also went to Name that Tune and it was so fun and entertaining both because the singers and dancers from the All-In show were part of the entertainment on this game show. Our girls didn't do the pool or hot tubs because of how crowded they were. I'd rate the cruise a 10/10 for my husband and I and an 8/10 for our young adult daugthers. They aren't much into the party scene and had I been their age, this would have been something I did for sure! I was always willing to stay up much later than them on this cruise to enjoy the live music, etc. They still had a good time but said their favorite was CocoCay relaxing on the beach. The beds in our ocean view balcony were very comfortable and we loved the amount of storage, plus walking out on balcony early morning or at sunset was breathtaking. Our stateman was just super awesome and friendly. We tipped him well. He left cute animals made from towels each day. The service in everything we did was just awesome! We pre-paid gratuities but still decided to tip waitstaff, etc. The food was also fantastic! The Windjammer gets pretty crowded but it was bearable. We did the Main Dining Room for dinner 2 nights and did Mason Jar for one paid meal for dinner and food at both was great! We didn't fully understand until the end by the MDR noticed and maybe seemed disappointed we weren't at our 5:00 showing (we missed it the first night and went later) and had reservations at Mason Jar the secone night) and realized we would have had the same table and waitstaff and the waitstaff probably looks at this as an opportunity to possibly earn more tips by having the same family for multple meals, so we understand now. They were awesome! I've typed a novel, but we'd for sure do a Royal Carbbean cruise again and in fact planning to next. year.

Best trip ever! Viking made it stress free.

Absolutely the best trip we have taken. Service by Viking staff was 5 star. We didn't anticipate how good the food on the ship was going to be! Every meal turned out to be a culinary adventure. Tours were informative and educational. You want to go on the riverboat cruise if you are interested in learning the culture and history of your destinations. We took all of the included tours and several of the extra tours. The extra tours were a very good bargain for the experience. Guides were friendly and engaging. The sail through the Rhine Gorge was awesome. The night time sail out of Cologne was also a memorable time. This was a family trip with my wife, our two adult sons and our daughter in laws. We all came away with the feeling that is was the best trip we have taken so far. It was a bucket list item for me. I'm glad we chose Viking.