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The Grand Princess is very poorly engineered. We had a balcony cabin that had such a bad creaking sound, I couldn't sleep in the room. THe ship was supposedly too full to give us another room so they let me use an inside room to sleep in. That room also had (albeit much less) a creaking sound. The food was horrible (I can give you emails from friends we made on the cruise who will second me on this). The layout of the ship (in their effort to make a huge ship "seem small") was very awkward and annoying. If you want a small ship, book one! The Grand also rocked much worse than any ohter ship I have been on. I believe because it is so tall and not wide enough. I almost forgot to mention the entertainment on Grand Princess was painful (with a couple of exceptions)
In contrast, the Voyager was the smoothest ride I have experienced. The engineering is a marvel. The inside Royal Promenade is incredible. The layout is very easy to navigate even thought the ship is immense. The food is not great but good enough (much better than Grand Princess). The entertainment on Voyager is top notch. I don't really care for musical numbers and ice shows but I really enjoyed theirs. Also, the ammenities (rock climbing, ice skating, roller blading, miniature golf, full court basketball/volleyball, golf simulater, etc) are fantastic.
Don't get me wrong, Many people on board Grand Princess have told me that they have had their best cruises on other Pricess ships and I believe them. I just think they are out of their element on the Grand Princess. Although Voyager is not perfect, they are very close to the mark.
Also, I think things improved drastically after Jwine's unfortunate experience with the "unruly kid" problem on their sailing. RCCL corrected that in a hurry....rules were strictly enforced and there was no trouble at all.
Personally, we prefer RCCL to Princess as a whole. We found the Princess ships to be a little "stuffier" and not nearly as much "fun" as RCCL. (We're in our late 20s...Princess' entertainment was a little to "old" and very "dry" for our taste.) We actually had a much better time on HAL even, than on Princess, and HAL is known for attracting an "older" crowd.)
I definitely recommend Explorer! We'll be on her for sure sometime in the future!
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