This being our virgin cruise, we have nothing to compare our time on board to except we once took a 79' Johnson Palmer charter sailboat from STT with another couple, but this is a different life altogether.
We flew to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and stayed at the AmeriSuites in Plantation, Fl. Was it ok, yes for one night.
We were to call when we got to baggage and they would send shuttle driver. Waited 45 minutes after we got the luggage. Anyway got checked in and realized we were not too close to anything, a few restaurants nearby which serve the usual fare as anywhere in the good ol' USofA. We wanted to take some wine aboard for our own consumption and the driver took us to Publix Market where DH picked up three bottles of his favorite red and I picked up 2 bottles of my Black Opal Chardonnay. We had purposely carried on a nice size backback for him and a small roller for me for just this reason and to fill up with trinkets upon our return. We sgined up at the desk for transportation to the Ship for the next morning which was complementary and took the 10:30am time slot.

Next thing to do was find where we wanted to go for something to eat. Believe it or not, we were both so excited about the cruise that we just wanted something light and there was a restaurant across the parking lot from hotel called J Alexanders. Hubby had a salad and burger and I had a burger and, of course, a glass of wine for toasting. Food was good. We came back to hotel and settled in for the night.

The AmeriSuites serves a continental breakfast and we had a light breakfast Sunday morning before boarding the shuttle with two other couples. We were all going to different ships but they all are in the same area, we were last off and started our embarkation process. The Princess luggage people took our baggage (no tipping necessary, but we did) and headed inside. It was now approximately 11:15 or so. We got in our Baha line for check-in. I had filled out everything on Princess website and voila within 3 minutes were were heading to security with our carryons and on board by 11:30am. We must have looked like two hayseeds, just gawking at this huge ship. The first word that came to mind was AWESOME. Found our deck (Baha) and room with balcony and met our cabin steward. The room was just large enough but having the balcony would really open it up. Plenty of storage space for the overpacked suitcases which had not yet been delivered - it was exactly 12:05pm.

We were on the port side (red rug vs blue rug) and nearby was a set of elevators and the laundry. We decided to start trying to figure out where we were in relation to pools, lounges, etc. To get to the adult pool we just had to go back to the elevator bank, up one flight of steps and out to the adult pool. Very nice area and we spent a lot of our time here reading ,etc. The pool was not heated and this made for some funny grimaces as people would step in. The hotubs were one staircase up. The Horizon Food court was also in this area.

We went to the pursers office and purchased the soda stickers for our cards. That way, no fuss when we wanted a cold soda. The ship is a cashless socitey except for the Casino and you can check anytime with the purser to see how you are doing. Tips are automatically added to your bill at $10per day/ per person. Alcoholic drinks have a 15% gratuity added automatically. Pricess states that at the end of the cruise, if you so desire, you can come down and tell them to delete the automatic tips and you will tip separately.
We chose to leave things as they were (we certainly spend a lot more that $140 on tips in SXM) and personally gave our cabin steward extra. He was wonderful. We had room service one evening and gave the attendant a tip.

We went to the lounge everynight except for one and had drinks - some nights more than others and were very pleasantly surprised at our bill on checkout. Everything was itemized and very clear. I couldn't figure out one charge and we called and within seconds they told us what is was for - our soda stickers.

The Grand Pricess is beautiful. It is set up that no matter where you are sitting, you feel just like you are in someones living room. They have it "partitioned" so you never feel like you are with a huge crowd at any time. Clean, clean, clean.
They are always doing something to keep it in ship shape.

You can do as much as you want - many activities during the day, or as little as you want - sit by the pool, read (there is even a library on board if you want a book). Internet available at .35 per minute, so if you really need to get to that special someone or check on sick family, or wonder if Susie had her baby, it was there. Never used it. I can imagine some of the bills as the young'uns were in there swiping their card and I am sure emailing all their friends.

The food was very good. We chose Personal Choice dining and were very pleased with the selections each evening. One side of the menu shows the meals for that day and the other side shows the "always available" meals. I did not have a disappointing meal. And if you did, all you had to do was send it back and get something else. We would have breakfast in the dining room and share a table with others but decided to have dinner by ourselves each evening. We tried to get the same waiter as often as possible and the last two days just told the maitre de that we wanted Crisan. No problem.

We enjoyed the two formal nights. I brought a long black skirt with two fancy blouses and hubby had dress slacks with nice sportscoat, white shirts and tie. I would say over 90% of those onboard were dressed very nicely on these nights. On non-formal nights, we wore slacks with collared shirts for him and blouses for me.

There are quite a few lounges on board, we found a favorite and stuck to it. Creatures of habit, I guess, but we enjoyed the band and met some nice people.
They have a cigar bar for those who wish to smoke them and even have get togethers for the cigar buffs to talk about their cigars. This is the only place you can smoke a cigar. Cigarette smoking is limited to your stateroom, one lounge and outside. Ashtrays are provided on deck 7 and hopefully all the smokers behaved themselves.
The inner running of the ship is seamless to the average cruiser. i am sure there are problems behind closed doors, but one never sees anything but friendly, smiling and attentive staff.