Grandeur of the Seas Family Review 9/11/10 - Captain Rob's Last GOS Sailing

"Well I have some good news and some bad news....which would you like first?"

To those of you who have had the pleasure of sailing with Captain Rob - you have heard these words uttered many times on your cruise. To those of you who haven't had the chance to sail with Rob yet - then you are missing out.

I had always believed that the Captain didn't make a difference in a cruise. I didn't care if it was Johnny or George -- it never mattered to me. That was until I heard these words come over the loud speaker "LADIES and Gentleman, this is your Captain speaking. Today's weather forecast calls for a period of light, followed by a period of darkness, followed by a period of light, followed again by a period of darkness and the extended outlook shows much of the same." :p

So over the next couple of days I will review this cruise. Post the compasses and share the photos. But I wanted to start out by saying that after sailing on many ships with many different captains, we had the pleasure of sailing with the best and most memorable.

Captain Rob will be heading to Baltimore to sail the Enchantment. John Blair (Cruise Director) and his wife Katrina will also be joining the Captain soon.

I wish him all the best!

Looking forward to the review. We are sailing on the Grandeur next month.

Captain Rob is utterly fantastic! Sorry to hear he is leaving the Grandeur after so many years but the Enchantment will greatly benefit from having him at the helm!

So sad to be missing Rob!

Pre-Cruise

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Let me start by saying to anyone with kids, if you have a chance to fly Jet Blue - do it! The kids were entertained the entire flight with the Direct TVs and XM Satellite Radio installed into each seat back (headphones sold for $2.00 or bring your own). You can't beat 36 TV channels including Nickelodeon to keep the kids occupied.

We flew into Fort Lauderdale on Friday, one day early so we could have a day to relax. We arrived at the airport at 10:30am - grabbed a taxi ($15) to get to the Sheraton (formerly the Yankee Clipper).

They said that we could have the "Beach Tower" rooms. If you are looking for the best view, you want the Beach Tower, Ocean Front Corner Rooms. One of the people in our group snagged one - so I got to see it.

As far as a hotel, it was nice for the kids. The pool was nice - an infinity pool. They had a nice sand play area. And the employees brought out pool toys for the kids.

The things I didn't like about it -- the food was very expensive at the hotel. (Hamburger was $17.99) It was to be expected I guess. So we left the hotel for dinner and walked to the boardwalk for food. And for lunch, we called for pizzas.

Another issue with the hotel, the front desk was understaffed and they often simply ignored the guests when you walked up to it.

The last issue with the hotel -- I should have known better. I broke one of my own rules. I know never to get into a shuttle van or a car that isn't a taxi. And on the day we were leaving, I told the front desk that we needed a taxi. They said "No problem, I will ring the the guys out front and they will take care of it right away. How many are in your party?"

Well at this point, there were 9 of us - which I told her.

We walked out front and the guys said "9 right- to the port - here you go" they grab our luggage and start loading it into these Black Suburbans. Two of them. I am in the middle of a swirl of activity, half of my luggage is in one car, the other half is in the other. Everyone is jumping into these Suburbans. The drivers say "In the back please" And I get in. I hear the worker from the hotel say to the driver "See, I told you I take care of you. I give you business."

And I think to myself -- this is NOT a taxi -- this is going to be a PER PERSON charge instead of a $10 taxi charge. So I start texting everyone in the group. And I say to the driver "How much?" and she replied "I give you a good deal - $8 per person"

Um, yeah. I just went from paying $10 total for my family of 4 to $32 for my Family of 4.

The group, normally would have paid $20 for 2 taxis, but paid $90 for 2 Suburbans. And I should have known better. I arrive at the port, kicking myself.

Pretty, pretty pictures, Michele. :)

Is this the cruise with the 'girlfriend' that her doctor husband had to cancel? Can't wait to hear how this trip went. :eek:

More, more, more!! :P

We're waaaaiting....:D

Looking forward to the rest of the review, and yep, I'm dying of curiousity about the outcome of the girlfriend/doctor/insurance debacle;)

Welcome back Michele! I can't wait to read your whole review!

Sorry, I needed sleep...lol.

The Doctor's wife became a running punchline all week for the rest of us. She ended up coming with just the kids. And she used the excuse "But my husband is a doctor" for EVERYONE. Our personal favorite was when she used it with CUSTOMS. They asked her why she was traveling alone with children - instead of remaining CALM with them and pulling out the notarized letter from the father (which she did have) she started yelling in her thick Phillie accent "What!? My husband is a surgeon! He had to do surgery this week and couldn't come! That's a problem?????"

Um, yeah ok - way to handle that one.

DAY 1

So we arrive at the terminal at 10:30am. We were so early that we were directed to an "early check in area" -- this area had about 5 agents checking in. In this area there wasn't a separate check in line for D/D+ or suite guests (it wasn't needed) but after we were checked in, they sat the Plats/Ds/D+ away from those who weren't.

By 11:00am they allowed us to start making our way to the ship. They said the Windjammer would be open for lunch at 11:30.

We started at the Purser's Desk for what would be one of many visits there. I stopped to check on my onboard credit - which they confirmed. And I set up my cash account (which I always use and that was pretty easy). A little about this Purser's Desk - it was the most unorganized and I don't know why. Usually they are on the ball. I saw my OBC change to a lesser amount on Day 2 - I stopped in to ask why, was told they had a "computer glitch" they would take care of it by 5pm that day. By the next morning it hadn't been changed. Asked again, was assured again, it would be changed that morning, it wasn't until the next night. I was ok with that, a little nervous, but ok.

When I turned in the paper for tips (On Day 3) -- I had all 4 of us on it (me, my hubby and 2 kids). During one of my OBC checks I noticed that they only charged me for 2 people - so I went and had to fill out another paper to make sure they added the kids in.

Oh and the Doctor's Wife said "Why did you tell them about the missing the kids on the tips? You could have gotten away with it! The tips are too expensive anyway. They make too much money off of us" Yes, here is where I snapped, it was a nice dinner conversation and I had about enough of her at this point, I said "You mean screw dining staff and the cabin attendant who have been falling all over the kids all week long? You have got to be kidding! Too expensive! Three measly dollars each????"

Ok, so back to this review, we move on to lunch in the Windjammer. Nice selection as always. We had no problem finding a table. The food was great (more on that later)

We wait till 1pm to go check out our cabin - Corner Aft Junior Suite 7650

We open the door and are hit by a sewer smell. Uh oh. Not a problem. I can deal with that. So I start to hang up a few room decorations and I kick off my shoes to get up on the bed -- the floor is soaking wet - BIG UH OH.

We hand picked this cabin. I didn't want any other cabin. I LOVED this cabin. I didn't want to be moved and my fear was that if I went to the purser's desk that they would attempt to move me. UH OH!

So I headed back to the Purser's Desk - big line this time -- people in front of me had an Osmosis filter in their cabin and it smelled like smoke in their OV, they weren't happy, they wanted to be moved (upgraded), it was their first cruise. I knew I didn't want to be moved. So I told the purser's desk what was going on and they said they would send someone right away.

These maintenance guys get a HUGE THANK YOU from me. I know I have seen posts around here where the person has said "We've had blowers in our cabin the whole cruise and it ruined our vacation - we want another one" blah blah blah. I have to say "We had blowers in our cabin the entire vacation and guys scrubbing our carpets every day and checking in with us EVERY DAY and it SAVED our vacation!"

These workers were meticulous. They made sure the area was clean. They made sure it smelled nice. They made sure it was dry. And they always made sure never to bother us when we were in there....and that leads me to our next meeting....

Our cabin attendant AL from St. Vincent -- he was FABULOUS! We hear a knock at the door on the first day and it's the maintenance worker sent there to check on the carpet cleanup and Al jumps into action. He shoos him to the side for a second and asks him to give us a minute to make sure he isn't bothering us (which I assure them they aren't)

Al said that he had been "hearing about our family and the two little girls coming to that cabin for the past couple of sailings" -- thanks to CRUISE CRITIC and the people who were in that cabin before us...LOL! He said that he was told that he needed to "take care of us and how upset he was when he saw the blower in our cabin" The guy had been warned! HAHAHAHAHA I assured him it was fine. We were fine and the workers were doing everything they could, they weren't bothering us.

Al was on his last sailing before going back to St. Vincent for 2.5 months. He was a wonderful cabin attendant who treated my children well. We had towel animals every night (except for the first night because of the luggage delivery). Everywhere on the ship, he called out to the kids and remembered their names, even after the first day.

And actually, we had ANOTHER cabin attendant sending towel animals down to our cabin from up the hallway. His name was Oscar. Every night when we went to dinner, we would stop to say hello to Oscar. He remembered our children and started sending them towel animals as well.

Here are pictures of the cabin - Corner Aft 7650

The blower was a permanent fixture the entire sailing but it didn't put a damper on our cruise ; - )

Walk In Closet - I needed it for the mess of clothes we brought.

Coffee Pot

Did I understand you right and you had blowers going during the whole cruise? Never mind, You just posted the answer.

If so, was it loud in there?

On Day 1, Deck Patrol was in full force for the no babies in diapers in the pool rule. (By the last day, there were two babies hanging out in the shallow end and either the patrol didn't see them or were just ignoring them)

It was kind of funny how this picture happened. I was just taking a picture of the entire pool when my husband came running over and said -- look they are telling those people to get their baby out of the pool, take a picture of it. They are not happy! And in the next breath he said "You can post it on Cruise Critic when you get back" -- oh what a boring life I lead...lol. ; - )

So here are those pics....

Deck Patrol is on the far right hand side. White Shirt.

Did I understand you right and you had blowers going during the whole cruise? Never mind, You just posted the answer.

 

If so, was it loud in there?

Yes the blower was there the entire cruise. And actually, if you see where that strip of carpet is on the wall, they came and pulled that back by Day 3. So for the next guests, I hope they nail it back because it didn't look that great...lol.

It was sort of loud. But we turned it off at night -- Al showed us how. It was like ambiant noise the rest of the time. Not a big deal. :D

I had visions of being crammed into an inside or an OV with the 2 kids because the ship was full. I was so worried they would make us move.

I am thinking it was a water pipe. The water in the cabin was HOT. Like steam would pour from the sink even when it was on cold. The person in the cabin before us warned the cabin attendant (she was on a back to back cruise so she told me about it). So I don't know if the line leading to the cold water was leaking or not. :confused: All I know is that we had no cold water.

No wonder you didn't want to give up your cabin; the balcony looks wonderful!

Just curious,is it a tight squeeze to get around the sofa bed out to the balcony?

Oh ... this is what it was waiting ... Your Review !!!

Beautiful pics !!! One show new flat TV !?!?

We depart in Nov from Colon and i am anxious waiting everything what you must to show.

I know that change te captain, change the crew, because in Colon embark people who speak spanish (like us from Argentina); but i can`t wait !!!

I agree, awesome balcony!!! ;)

I saw the picture of your coffee set up. Just have to ask-folks have said that the coffee provided doesn't fit in the pot. Have they now got the correct coffee?

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

I agree with you Michelle ... Captain Rob is the greatest Captain, ever!!

Captain Rob is great. Once had an interesting elevator conversation with him. ;)

Great review as always Michelle! Can't wait to read more :D

Had a little snicker at the "Pool rules sign" that said "no glassware or food in the pool'. While the lady with baby was being escorted away, there was a guy lounging on the side of the pool with a glass (making an assumption here) beer bottle in hand. :D

Enjoying your review, looking forward to more. You've had enough sleep now.:)

you didnt by chance run into a lovely woman in the dining room by the name of Ava did you? i did a 6 day on the GOS out of Tampa and it ranks up there in the top 3 ive sailed. beautiful ship, fantastic crew...

Love the pics,Michelle:):):)

and HELLO Weary!!:D:D:D