Just off 12 Day Grandeur of the Seas

Returned yesterday from our 12 day southern Caribbean cruise on Grandeur of the Seas. Group of six of us had a great time! We're all in our 50's so we definitely brought down the average age for the passengers on board this sailing! We flew in the day before and stayed at Best Western in Arundel MD. Met up with two other couples who drove up from Va and Md that day. They have a great park and cruise deal that beats paying $15/day to park at the port. I think it was around $150 for the room and parking for the entire 12 days. That includes a nice continental breakfast and shuttle to and from the port. They even picked us up at the port and took us to the airport. On the day of departure we took the 9 am shuttle to the port and were there in no time. No lines at the port but did have to wait a bit to board. We boarded around 1045 and hit lunch in the Windjammer. Our rooms were ready by 1 PM. Everything was smooth which was great because we had a couple first time cruisers with us.

We had some dreary weather heading out of Baltimore and the first day at sea was a little rough but nothing terrible. Actually got out around the pool for the next two days at sea. Sea was still a bit rough but I had my patch on and did just fine.

FOOD-

We had the 530 seating in the main dining room and enjoyed our dinner mates and thought the food was great. Always had a nice selection to pick from and there was always the "classics" to fallback on if you didn't like anything on the rotating menu. Actually everyone at our table of 10 commented on how good the food was. We did eat at Giovanni's one night and that was outstanding. Food comes out family style so the six of us were served about 8 different appetizers and then 3 or 4 pasta dishes and then each of us selected our main course. Dessert was spectacular and you could have one of everything if you wanted! Try picking between cannoli, tiramisu, and chocolate cake! Another couple with us at at Chops and said it was just as awesome as Giovanni's and was also a family style format even though there was just the two of them.

DRINKS-

We didn't buy the drink package since I don't drink much. We just ordered what we wanted whenever we wanted and spent way less than we would of had to pay for two of us to get the drink packages. All the bartenders were friendly and made a mean drink! My husband drank a lot of Vodka Gimlet's with Grey Goose and they were $11, my Diet and Maker's Mark were $8, our poolside favorite, Miami Vice (half strawberry daiquiri half pina colada) was $11, beer was $6 for domestic's. They did start selling the drink card around Tuesday the first week. Price was $85 plus 18% gratuity for 10 drinks. We bought one and just made sure we used it on the more expensive drinks. They were on sale every day from that day on at any bar. I did see a beer card later in the cruise but I don't remember how much it was.

ENTERTAINMENT-

We thought a couple of the headliners in the theater were good (the comedian, juggler, magician) but others were just ok. Having been on the Oasis the entertainment on this smaller ship didn't compare. They did a lot of stuff in the Centrum which filled up fast. So if you wanted a seat to watch something in the Centrum you had to get there really early or go up to one of the higher floors and look down on to deck 4. They did show a movie every day at sea in the theater during the day and another one at night outside on the pool deck. I remember they were showing Dunkirk, Wonder, Beauty and the Beast, Geostorm and a couple for the kids I just forget what they were.

PORTS-

We used data we found here on cruisecritic to book some awesome excursions! We did an Island tour in St. Thomas with Brenda and Franco and had a wonderful time. We spent two hours at Megan's Bay. The beach was as beautiful as ever but you could see where they'd planted all new palm trees along the beach. In Antiqua we didn't book anything ahead of time and just walked into town and negotiated an island tour with a local taxi driver. He charged us $20 per person and did an excellent job showing us around. St. Lucia was our favorite excursion. We booked Spencer Ambrose Land and Sea tour. Took his boat out to the mud baths and had great views of the Pitons. Actually went to a beach situated between them where we could snorkel or swim. It was an outstanding day! In St Kits' we used Liz from Pereira tours. Again it was an outstanding island tour. Our last stop in St. Maartin we took an island tour with the local drivers right there at the port. They were very informative and we had a great day. Didn't go down to Orient beach as they said it looked like a "war zone" plus there were no facilities there. We saw a lot of devastation around the island but there were many shops and restaurants open for business. Many just opened within the last week and everyone at every stop was very happy to see us!

Disembarkment-

Getting off the ship was a piece of cake. We walked off with our bags at 0800 with no problems. Cleared customs in matter of minutes.

That's my short and sweet summary. If you have any questions let me know, I'll tr and answer.

You mentioned the drink card appeared on Tuesday. How many days into the cruise was that?

You mentioned the drink card appeared on Tuesday. How many days into the cruise was that?

It looks like they left Saturday the 10th so Tuesday would be day 4.

Thank you for your review/report.

Keith

It looks like they left Saturday the 10th so Tuesday would be day 4.

Thanks Tim.

Interested in the age demographics. You mentioned that you’re group was younger than average in your 50s. We’re going next year on this itinerary with my family and our respective mothers, so ages will range from 10-70.

How many formal nights were there?

Interested in the age demographics. You mentioned that you’re group was younger than average in your 50s. We’re going next year on this itinerary with my family and our respective mothers, so ages will range from 10-70.

Usually the 12 night itinerary has an older demographic. We've done that itinerary on GR and will again in March 2019. I'd say the avg is closer to 70, which only means that there are less people in their 50's and below onboard than on shorter itineraries (or holiday ones). What you find is a lot more scooters and a lot of indoor seating (Centrum in particular) is taken up all day long. There will obviously be an age range onboard, usually very few children (last time we did that itinerary I think there were 8-10 kids total and that included a couple of babies and toddlers). DH is 60 and I'm turning 58 next week and we were among the youngest a couple of years ago when we did this itinerary. But, we met some great people. It's just an overall different feel than shorter cruises.

Completely agree with BND. We've done both 12 days on Enchantment and 9 days on Grandeur in the past during the late winter/early spring months with consistent demographics. The longer itineraries, generally, span 2 weeks which makes it difficult for families with kids they have to pull from school. The result is, for those of us DINKs and/or those who just prefer less/no kids, certainly a very appealing trip. As well, being a drive up port for us in the mid-Atlantic region makes this even more so.

So much so, we're looking forward to 1 month from today:)

Jay

Thanks for the review! We are doing the same cruise next Saturday and it's great to hear that all is well on the Grandeur!!

do you remember who your captain was? I want to verify my Current Captains chart.

TIA

do you remember who your captain was? I want to verify my Current Captains chart.

TIA

it was Capt Thordur Thorsson

Thanks for the review! Who was the cruise director and how was he/she?

Can't wait to board Grandeur 4 weeks from today!!!

I guess we’ll be the youngeons on the cruise then. I figured it would be skewed to an older demographic. We’re just happy to not have to fly to the cruise port, and worry about weather/maintenance/any other reason for flight delays/cancelations, and of course added expense of airline tickets and hotel room and taxi, etc.

We were on the same cruise as well...had a wonderful time and pretty much agree with what you observed. We did a self debarkation as well and we were really impressed with that process. We were lined up by 7:15 and thought the lobby was full with others like us, we were off the ship, through customs and in our car by 7:50...very efficient.

We met some wonderful people on this cruise, and as others have said before, the crew on Grandeur are just fabulous. Very friendly and helpful.

We had one complaint regarding boarding, but it was a Port of Balt issue, not RCCL. The folks who check your ID as you first enter only had one employee working. It was cold and raining as you recall and the line was backed out the door and moving like molasses. Rather surprised at that process, not sure if that was the norm or exception.

Interested in the age demographics. You mentioned that you’re group was younger than average in your 50s. We’re going next year on this itinerary with my family and our respective mothers, so ages will range from 10-70.

We were on this same cruise. Wife and I are 62 & 60 and we were easily 10-15 years younger than the majority. The older folks were still quite active and involved. That was nice to see. There were a few families in the 35-45 range with small kids, but very very few. I don’t think I saw any kids over 14 though

Hope this helps you

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Thanks for the info, we’ll be 10, 42, 42, 69 & 70.

Just really looking forward to not having to travel to the port. We’ll probably Uber from our house to the port.

They told us that 75% of the passengers were over 65 on this cruise. Cruise director was Big Bob and you didn’t see him much, but his staff was great. Orlando, Cece, Carolina, Voss and DJ JP did a great job. We were able to do Chef’s Table with our group of 11 and it was fantastic. Ricardo is the sommalier and he is awesome. The crew on Granduer can’t be beat and we bonded with quite a few of them. Entertainment was ok, nothing to brag about, the ship was pretty quiet after 11 pm.

Any shopping tips for the islands?

We'll be on this cruise on March 24. Since it's over Easter break I'm thinking the crowd may be a bit more on the young side, not sure. We're 64 & 70 but on the "young side"! We've only cruised during summer months in the past, so it will be interesting to see how we like it with fewer young people around. Could go either way I think.

Anyway, I was wondering of all the islands take U.S. currency. I don't want to use credit cards on the islands if I don't have to.

Thanks!

We'll be on this cruise on March 24. Since it's over Easter break I'm thinking the crowd may be a bit more on the young side, not sure. We're 64 & 70 but on the "young side"! We've only cruised during summer months in the past, so it will be interesting to see how we like it with fewer young people around. Could go either way I think.

 

Anyway, I was wondering of all the islands take U.S. currency. I don't want to use credit cards on the islands if I don't have to.

Thanks!

US cash is accepted on all of the islands

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Thank you so much for the review! We'll be taking a different itinerary next month on the Grandeur -- which will be our first time on the ship.

Really appreciate the small details, like the sampling of drink prices, your thoughts on the food, and so forth. I'm in my mid-30s, so we're also likely to be much younger than the median age of the ship.

Thanks again!

They told us that 75% of the passengers were over 65 on this cruise. Cruise director was Big Bob and you didn’t see him much, but his staff was great. Orlando, Cece, Carolina, Voss and DJ JP did a great job. We were able to do Chef’s Table with our group of 11 and it was fantastic. Ricardo is the sommalier and he is awesome. The crew on Granduer can’t be beat and we bonded with quite a few of them. Entertainment was ok, nothing to brag about, the ship was pretty quiet after 11 pm.

We were on this sailing too. Don't think Big Bob made many fans. Blew through the meet & mingle in record time. Said he'd been working cruise ships 20 years then had to ask for explanation of how Cruise Critic works. Also made comments indicating he was unhappy to be working Grandeur instead of one of the big ships.

Didn't think the average age was that old for 12 night sailing in February. Not too many walkers and scooters

We saw a few more kids than expected. Later learned NYC & NJ schools were on break the second week of our sailing.

Kudos to Rahul the diamond concierge (now en-route to Symphony). We had 600 D's and higher aboard with DL expanded to include South Pacific lounge. He worked his butt off every night chatting with every guest, securing drinks, busing tables and making sure everyone was happy.

I heard Bob will be leaving end of March. Anyone know exactly when? Our cruise is 3/24-4/5. Wondering who we'll have.

Thanks

I heard Bob will be leaving end of March. Anyone know exactly when? Our cruise is 3/24-4/5. Wondering who we'll have.

Thanks

Rumor is... It will be either Bob Leininger or Paul Rutter. We sailed with Paul last year. While somewhat low key, he was always out and about the ship saying hello to guests.