Lmarie6

What was your opinion of the specialty restaurants, since I think you have now already cruised? Ours in coming up Feb 21st out of Baltimore and just wondered if or which specialty I should book?

Also, do you know if signing up for your roll call is the same as signing up for a meet and mingle?

We dined at Izumi on the first night (sea day) and LOVED it. We each got an appetizer and a hot rock entree, then we shared mochi dessert. Everything was excellent, though services was slightly slow toward the end despite the restaurant being nearly empty (maybe 3 or 4 tables besides ours).

We dined at Giovanni's Table on the night we were supposed to have been at Cococay but ended up in Nassau instead (waves too rough for tenders) and it was amazing! You better be hungry if you go here because the portions are huge and everything was delicious. I had a mushroom risotto that I will remember for the rest of my life because it was so good!

Lastly, we dined at Chops the final night (sea day) and it was good too, but service was very slow and we missed the show that night. Everything tasted good, though.

I hope this helps.

Also, regarding the Meet & Mingle, you can sign up for that through the Royal Caribbean website, but there will likely be a link posted in your roll call.

Ship - Grandeur of the Seas

Deck - 2

Stateroom # - 2086

Stateroom Category - Oceanview

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) - Yes. At times we could hear people talking as they walked down the hall, but it wasn't loud and didn't cause us any bother.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. - N/A

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - N/A

Was wind a problem? - No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - There was a small piece of the shower contraption that kept coming off, like an end cap, but it wasn't functional, just cosmetic.

Any other comments? - This was our first cruise so maybe we're not being critical enough, but we were very happy with this room.

I hope someone comes through with some information here and that everyone/everything is ok. We're also boarding Grandeur tomorrow.

1 day! :D

1 :d

What dining package did you purchase?

Thanks for your response!

3 Night Dining Package for $70... but I found my answer on the website:

"For restaurants with a la carte pricing, package includes a $30 credit towards the food portion of your bill." Was going to let the thread just die, but thought since I found the answer I would post it in case others are wondering the same thing.

Does anyone know how the dining package works if you want to eat at Izumi? Since it is a la carte, exactly what do you get for the price you paid for the package? We definitely are planning on eating at Giovanni's as well as Izumi, so we decided to get the package since it should basically come out as buy two get one free, but I hadn't considered that Izumi works differently then the others... Can anyone here who has done this before offer any advice or comments?

Thanks in advance for your help. We embark this Saturday!

For our first cruise (coming up in just a few days!) we went with a guaranteed cabin to save some money since we were going with inside cabin anyway. Much to our delight, we actually ended up with an oceanview about mid-ship. I will definitely post reviews afterward, but I am looking forward to being able to see the ocean from our room when we had not planned to. :)

FOUR DAYS! I'm a wreck trying to make sure I've thought of everything...

Wow. Thank you all for your judgment and negativity! :rolleyes: Too many on this forum just love to rip people apart and ruin any ounce of excitement a new cruiser may have. I hope this forum is not representative of the actual people on a cruise, or we will have a miserable time indeed.

I meant the ship, not an airplane as we'll be driving to port. My assumption is that he intends to play it on the beach, and none of you need to worry as we don't have a balcony, so if he plays it in the room you should not hear it. (Right? I don't know, this is my first cruise.)

I did not see musical instruments listed under the things not to bring section on RC's website (though I did see handcuffs on there!), so I assumed it would be ok. This is his hobby, and he's actually gotten pretty good at it and I support him in wanting to do his hobbies while on vacation just as he supports me wanting to do mine.

Thank you to those who actually answered the question. I will let him know that he may take it as carry-on as well as his backpack. As for the rest of you, I hope that whatever it is that is causing you to be miserable is soon remedied and you're able to have a happy and enjoyable life someday.

So I knew that my boyfriend was planning to take his ukulele on our upcoming cruise. However, I did not know he was planning on taking it as a carry-on because he's afraid it'll get banged around too much in transit and possibly damaged. He said they're kind of fragile and he'd feel much better about it if he just had it with him (it's fairly new). My question is, will he be allowed to carry on his ukulele? Can he also take a bag with other items in it, such as a change of clothes, bathing suit, meds, bottle of wine, etc, or are we limited to one carry-on bag/item? We'll be on the Grandeur of the Seas.

Thanks.

Thank you all for your responses! I think I will take a pair of lounge pants and comfy t-shirt just in case - could be cold the first night or two. Does RCCL limit the amount or weight of luggage you can bring? Since we'll be driving to port we don't need to worry about airline limits or fees on luggage.

Glad you had an enjoyable trip, and thank you for providing your review here! We'll be on the Grandeur over Thanksgiving to the Bahamas, so you have provided some relief about some of the things I've been worrying about (our first cruise). Hoping our room (2086) is far enough back that the engine noises don't disrupt us but I'm sure we'll have a blast anyway.

Hello! I'm looking for advice on pajamas. We'll be cruising for the first time in about 10 days on the Grandeur of the Seas - are you able to set your own cabin temperature? If not, does it tend to be warm or cool? I don't want to bring a bunch of cold-weather pajamas like I've been wearing at home in Pennsylvania if it's going to be nighties or t-shirt temperature in the cabin. Do any of you have any experience on the Grandeur with pajamas that you'd be willing to share? :)

Thanks!

Just 10! :eek:

My boyfriend and I are taking our first cruise in less than two weeks, and I just wanted to share the reason we chose RCI instead of Carnival. We wanted to leave from Baltimore, so these were our only two options. What it came down to was the itinerary - while Carnival Pride was visiting Charleston on the way out followed by Port Canaveral, Freeport and Nassau, RCI Grandeur is visiting Port Canaveral, Cococay, Nassau and then Key West. We just personally found Key West and Cococay to be more our preference based on research than Charleston and Freeport. We figure we can drive to SC someday if we want to see Charleston and didn't want to waste a port day on that when we could visit Key West instead.

While our TA did call Carnival the "Chuck E. Cheese of the Seas" what it really came down to was personal preference. We also preferred the Saturday to Sunday rather than Sunday to Monday due to work and school schedules. We would have had to take an additional day off to cruise Carnival.

...

 

My fear was taking a cruise and loving it, then having my husband hate it.

 

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This is probably my biggest concern right now, except replace "husband" with "boyfriend." I'm trying to get him involved in the planning and help decide on things to do at port, helping to shop for things we'll want to pack, etc. I think he's getting excited for it now, with less than 2 weeks to go!

My other concern is being "disconnected" because of the expense of the wifi and text/talk packages for cruising. My mother has cancer (we did not know this when we started planning) and is currently getting regular chemo and radiation treatments, and I can't help but worry about her but I also don't want my phone bill to be hundreds or even a thousand dollars because I want to check in with her. If not for worrying about her, being disconnected would not concern me much.

12 days to go for us, first time cruisers :D

I am completely clueless about style, what not to wear, what colors are even good for me. If I could get away with it, I'd wear lounge pants or yoga pants 24/7 with a t-shirt or sweater depending whether I'm warm or cold.

I have been a bridesmaid 8 times and would not have chosen any of the styles the brides selected for the bridesmaid gowns. One struggle for me is that I'm chesty and a lot of cute styles don't look good due to that. I am also constantly struggling with my weight, and even when I'm at my "goal" weight I feel I'm too large for cute styles, being a size 12 or sometimes 14 or 10 depending if I'm doing well or poorly with exercising.

This summer just past, I went out on a limb and bought some of those crop length pants in bright colors (two are somewhat skinny, the other is wider), but I have no idea if they are appropriate for me. I hope so, as I intend to take them with me on my Bahamas cruise.

17 days to go!

We booked maybe 6 weeks out (I realize now this was LATE to book!) for our upcoming Grandeur cruise, and since it's our first time and my sweetheart isn't sure how he'd like it, we went with guaranteed inside cabin. It was only a few days later that the stateroom had been assigned and we ended up with an ocean view port side cabin, about mid-ship. It has not been changed yet, but I guess we'll see what happens when we get on the ship? This is our first time cruising so no idea what to expect! I hope we do end up with the one the site is showing.

Yes. For our cruise Thanksgiving did fall on the second formal night - Day 7. I had to look it up as we do not eat in MDR. Our son (5) loves eating at the Windjammer - there are a few tables just outside where you can sit and watch the ocean (if it's not too cold). If you look at my signature, I posted a review for our Thanksgiving cruise.

Thank you so much for sharing!

I'm glad your review included all of the specialty restaurants and was delighted to find that you enjoyed each one. Much like your son, I'm afraid MDR every single night will just be a bit overwhelming for us - we're cruising to relax, you know? Plus, when we booked the only dining available was 8 pm, which is a bit late for us - my sweetheart tends to get "hangry" by about 7. I think we'll wait until we're on board and see if they offer specialty dining packages, and how the schedules look, etc.

One comment - we sailed on Grandeur last year for Thanksgiving, and we bought our specialty dining package when we were boarding - we got similar discount without having to prepay. We ate at Giovannis on that first night, and the hostess offered us another 20 percent off if we wanted to dine there another night for dinner. We got a similar offer when we dined at Izumi. So, you can get just as good of a deal while you are on board - and we never had a problem making reservations each day for that evening.

Thank you for this info, it is helpful. On your Thanksgiving cruise, was Thanksgiving dinner one of the formal nights?

22 days until my 1st cruise, and I'm so excited! :-D

Hello,

My first cruise is coming up in a few weeks, and I see they're offering up to 30% OBC if you make reservations with at least 3 specialty restaurants. I have a few questions regarding this:

1. Which nights would be best for specialty dining? Is there a way to tell in advance when the MDR formal nights will be? We want to experience at least one formal night.

2. It states the OBC only applies to food purchase (cover or a la carte)... does this mean if we purchase an alcoholic beverage it won't count towards the 30% OBC?

3. Are there any restrictions on what you can use the OBC for? Can we use it for alcoholic beverages? Can we use it at the spa? For excursions?

$. If we make reservations at specialty restaurants and then see the menu for MDR and don't want to miss out on something, can we move the specialty reservation to a different day without forfeiting that OBC?

Sorry for all the questions, but it is our first time. We're sailing Thanksgiving week (Nov. 21 - 29) from Baltimore to the Bahamas on the Grandeur. This seems like a good deal since we don't want to get dressed up to eat in the MDR every single night, but I want to know what I'm getting into.

Thanks!