Grandeur Live Review St. Paddy’s Day March 15-24, 2018, 9 day

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View of the ship in front of The Market.

We visited Charleston before and did a lot of sightseeing. A city not to miss!

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Fleet Landing where we had lunch with family. A short walk from the pier.

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Our view of the Grandeur from our table on the deck.

My brother told us it was a 5 min walk to the ship, door to door, when they were here last month. Jokingly, I said we could take a horse and buggy. He said no, to your cabin door...otherwise 2.5 min walk to the terminal door...lol.

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Trying to put on a happy face after returning home to snow and cold weather. It was in the 40s outside but 52 deg inside the house...ugh!

This is the first time we didn’t book a cruise while on board. We booked Anthem, 12 nt. Caribbean for March 2019 last cruise, so we have another to look forward to. We’ve been on Anthem twice before (our home port) and although the experience is very different from Grandeur, we love it too. I wrote a bit about the differences on my last live review of Grandeur, if you want to take a look.

In a few months we’ll cruise out of NYC on NCL Escape, 7 nt. Bermuda.....can I say that here? We like to cruise different cruise lines depending on the ship, itinerary and price. To be honest, we prefer Royal the most, but wanted to take a 7 nt. to Bermuda again, and Escape is new to us.

I will not write a live review of Escape (internet too expensive with NCL, even with free minutes from high level rewards) but will compare it to Breakaway (cruised 3 years ago) and didn’t like at all and to Anthem (love, love).

Hopefully we can squeeze in another last minute Royal cruise, if everything aligns right. But I really enjoyed writing another live review and certainly appreciate you all following along. Your kind words kept me going and I hope you all enjoy your cruises as much as we do.

I will follow along all your reviews too!

Thank you, TTYL....Dianne

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Dianne, Thank you for the review.

Norwegian2016, thanks for your link.

Thanks for your great review! Now I'm even more excited for our Grandeur cruise on July 5!

Great review Daisy. I enjoyed it.

Your welcome... I can honestly say it was my pleasure. Hope you all enjoy your cruises! We haven’t been on a cruise we didn’t love.

Great review Daisy. I enjoyed it.

Thank you. To be honest, I’ve read your live reviews prior to starting mine, which gave me the courage to try it myself. I figured at worst, it would be a documentation for myself...lol.

Everyone, take a look at Yorkvillain’s reviews..what an inspiration and lots of fun.

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Your welcome... I can honestly say it was my pleasure. Hope you all enjoy your cruises! We haven’t been on a cruise we didn’t love.

 

 

 

Thank you. To be honest, I’ve read your live reviews prior to starting mine, which gave me the courage to try it myself. I figured at worst, it would be a documentation for myself...lol.

 

Everyone, take a look at Yorkvillain’s reviews..what an inspiration and lots of fun.

 

 

 

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Yorkvillain's Live reviews are awesome. Hey, did you ever get those sunglasses from Bermuda? :cool:

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. I still want to do Grandeur and Anthem since they are both about the same distance from me. I am looking to book Anthem before she leaves NYC which I hear is after April 2020. Then Grandeur after. How do you like the small ship compared to the bigger ships? I am worried my husband will be too bored and feel confined.

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. I still want to do Grandeur and Anthem since they are both about the same distance from me. I am looking to book Anthem before she leaves NYC which I hear is after April 2020. Then Grandeur after. How do you like the small ship compared to the bigger ships? I am worried my husband will be too bored and feel confined.

Your welcome!

We find the experiences on each of the ships are very different. Anthem is a large ship with many venues. What we like most are the many entertainment options at the same time. Shows are ‘state of the art’ on Anthem but Grandeur are more of the old type production shows.

For instance this last cruise on Grandeur there was a problem with securing a piano player for 4 days (which we love) but otherwise not much entertainment available (for us). Where, on Anthem when we didn’t care for Schooner we went to Music Hall or the Pub (for the guitar player) or Two70.

Surprising, Solarium was much more crowded on Grandeur (loungers saved at 6:30 am...really) than Anthem, and absolutely gorgeous, although they both get very hot during warm weather.

Other venues are more crowded on Grandeur as well; South Pacific Lounge and Atrium during ‘shows’. Never had a problem finding a seat, with a good line of sight in Two70 and Music Hall for ‘shows’, such as Quest, Karaoke/RockaRokie, Dancing with the Stripes, Love and Marriage, Dance Parties, Tribute Bands, etc.

The quality of MDR meals are better on Grandeur but the Windjammer on Anthem is far better in offerings and quality. We have only dined in a specialty restaurant once, and that was Chops this cruise and was excellent but Anthem has more specialty restaurant options.

Also, food availability outside of buffet and MDR are abundant and varied on Anthem, with extended hours, such as Sorrentos (until 2 am last time) and Park Cafe (almost 24 hours last time), in addition to Two70 cafe and cafe in Solarium. There are times on Grandeur where snacks or meals are either small variety or non existent.

Much more for kids on Anthem but adults too with iFly, Northstar, wave rider, bumper cars etc. Also, Anthem was built for cold/bad weather cruising so always something to do and somewhere to go, even an indoor pool with nice seating. Both of Grandeur cruises had sea days with very bad weather and we found ourselves really bored.

Grandeur has the nicest, friendliest, most engaging crew (and passengers) than any cruise we’ve ever been on, Royal or otherwise. If that is important to you, by all means this is the ship for you.

Overall, if you like a very relaxed, traditional style of cruising on a small ship try Grandeur. If you prefer a more varied experience with high action but larger ship try Anthem.

As you can tell, we love both but depending on what we want to experience, the itinerary and price determine what cruise we book. As I said earlier, we have a 12 nt. cruise booked on Anthem next year but if the time and price are right we will try to squeeze in another on Grandeur.

If you have any specific questions just ask!

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Dianne, great comparison. Thank you.

Hi, was wonder in shower is that body wash, shampoo? Did they offer the 10 drink card? If yes when and how much? Thank you so much, we leave Apirl 5 for 9 days.

Dianne, great comparison. Thank you.

Your welcome. But of course, I invite others for their opinions as well. I like that Royal has the options of cruising on different ships to find the experience that works for you.

We also cruised out of Bayonne on Explorer and Liberty in the past and enjoyed those ships as well.

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Hi, was wonder in shower is that body wash, shampoo? Did they offer the 10 drink card? If yes when and how much? Thank you so much, we leave Apirl 5 for 9 days.

I believe it’s shampoo but I bring my own shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. My husband is bald....lol, but used it as body wash. Soap bars are supplied too.

The 10 drink card was not offered on this cruise but last Nov. it was offered day 4 for $79 plus gratuity.

Have fun!

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Love the color...Purple my favorite!!

Trying to put on a happy face after returning home to snow and cold weather. It was in the 40s outside but 52 deg inside the house...ugh!

 

This is the first time we didn’t book a cruise while on board. We booked Anthem, 12 nt. Caribbean for March 2019 last cruise, so we have another to look forward to. We’ve been on Anthem twice before (our home port) and although the experience is very different from Grandeur, we love it too. I wrote a bit about the differences on my last live review of Grandeur, if you want to take a look.

 

In a few months we’ll cruise out of NYC on NCL Escape, 7 nt. Bermuda.....can I say that here? We like to cruise different cruise lines depending on the ship, itinerary and price. To be honest, we prefer Royal the most, but wanted to take a 7 nt. to Bermuda again, and Escape is new to us.

 

I will not write a live review of Escape (internet too expensive with NCL, even with free minutes from high level rewards) but will compare it to Breakaway (cruised 3 years ago) and didn’t like at all and to Anthem (love, love).

 

Hopefully we can squeeze in another last minute Royal cruise, if everything aligns right. But I really enjoyed writing another live review and certainly appreciate you all following along. Your kind words kept me going and I hope you all enjoy your cruises as much as we do.

 

I will follow along all your reviews too!

 

Thank you, TTYL....Dianne

 

 

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Dianne, we will be sailing this ship in Jan 2019..12 days..We normally do NCL so this will be a first for us. We were in Fla last March out of the NY winter...so we may have to suffer this year :(

Dianne, we will be sailing this ship in Jan 2019..12 days..We normally do NCL so this will be a first for us. We were in Fla last March out of the NY winter...so we may have to suffer this year :(

We have cruised NCL more than Royal and love both...but for different reasons. With NCL we find the ships matter too and our favorite is Jewel class. We found BA too crowded but will be on Escape soon so I’ll be writing a comparison afterwards.

Last year October 28, 2017 we cruised Grandeur on the 12 day so I assume your itinerary may be similar next March. Take a look at my (rather long) live review of that cruise to get an idea of cruising on this small ship. We absolutely loved it although it’s very different from NCL. Most of our enjoyment involved the excellent crew on that ship. They are the friendliest and most engaging group of any ship or cruise line!

Thanks for reading this. Come back and ask questions...I’ll look for them.

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