Grandeur, May 27th Cruisers, we have ?'s

[gambler]

Hi, sounds like it was a great cruise from what we have heard so far. The Grandeur June 24th cruisers have a few questions for you.

 

1. How many formal, smart casual and casual nights were there and on which nights?

2. How was the food in the main dining room?

3. if anyone took the ships excursions, were they well organized, were they a good value for the money?

4. Was the pool water warm enough for swimming on the first day?

5. Do they have a wine and dine package in the dining room?

6. Did you have to go through customs on the ship in Key West and Port

Canaveral?

7. What time were you able to board the ship?

8. Did you stay on ship time the whole cruise?

9. How was the onboard entertainment?

10. What Theme nights did they have and what percentage of people participated?

 

Thanks in advance

[JeffHatfield]

We're still wanting some answers.

[debg917]

I cant speak for your exact itinary exactly but I can answer a few questions in general for you....I was on the Grandeur the last week of June last year....

 

Food in the main dining room was very good....extra lobster for everyone....

 

Yes customs in Key West and Port C.....I believe that once you leave the US you have to go through customs to get back even if youre back and forth...

 

I think we were on board by 12:30 or so.....

 

You'll love the Grandeur.....have a fantastic trip!!!!

[bigreid07]

What sucks is that being on a 5-nighter, we won't have lobster.

 

Gambler~ When are you going?

[JeffHatfield]

June 24, along with me.

[gambler]

We are on the 9 night, June 24th

[PAFamily]

We are going on the 9 night leaving this friday, I will try to answer your questions when we return!

[gambler]

Thanks PAFamily.

[tropicalsunset]

I'll answer what I can.. my husband and I were on this cruise with our 22 year old and 17 year old sons

 

1. 2 formal.. on first 2 sea days... one smart casual and rest casual...

2. food was overall good... some better than others.

3. we did the ships excursions in Cozumel- Dune buggy tour.. and Port Canaveral to Universal... both were great excursions... and we felt well worth the money.

4. Didn't swim the first day-- probably could have. gotta really watch the sailaway!!!!

5. There was a wine package.. we are not wine drinkers..

we did order champagne one night..orders go through

waiter.

6. Customs in Key West and Port Canaveral... Key WEst was forever.. some reason Port CAnaveral was faster.

7. The ship was 2 hours late getting back from Bermuda due to bad weather... we got to the pier just after noon... checked right in and just waited maybe a half hour and then went right aboard... many check in stations and helps to preregister on the RCL sight in advance.

8. Ship time the whole cruise... we did not change in Cozumel..

9. They had 3 comedians, a male vocalist and a magician for headliners and several shows by the RCL singers and dancers... 3 bands in the various lounges... Newlywed game and Quest Game... most events were very well attended...get there early for prime seating... all the headliners were great!

10. Not alot of Theme nights... I know they had a Caribbean night...but we didn't miss these as there were the headliners and the dance bands going on and alot of options.

 

Interesting that they receive provisions for the 2 weeks in PC. I did notice that they ran out of the individual packets of butter a couple days ahead and we had hand cut butter. :rolleyes:

 

Enjoy... we had rain the last few days and heavy fog on Saturday... but it was a great cruise and Capt SVEN will give you his daily updates!!!

[JeffHatfield]

The part about the butter reminds me of our Imagination cruise. There were alot of kids on board and on the last day of the cruise, there was only one bottle of ketchup in the dining room. If you ordered fries the waiters were passing it around and there were no packets left.

 

One other question Tropicalsunset. How was the fruit? When we sailed on the Galaxy a couple of years ago, in early June, the fruit wasn't ripe when we got on board in Baltimore, but it was replenished in Charleston on that cruise. From that point on, it was good.

[tropicalsunset]

fruit was good.... some of the fruit just after Pc wasn't totally ripe.. as you say...

 

Wow.....HOLY KETHCUP!!! :D :D

[fflady]

We also sailed on the Grandeur 5/27. We parked at the port and got there at 11:30. Check in was quick at that point. There is a separate check-in for Platinum/Diamond members. We waited approx 30-45 minutes before we could start boarding. When we got there, they were still disembarking from the previous cruise.

 

We had to go through customs in both Key West and Port Canaveral. Because of early tours at Port Canaveral, customs/immigration were pushing people through a little quicker. In Key West, the ship wasn't cleared for quite some time because, of course, there were those who refused to check in with immigrations in a timely manner. I was glad to hear that those who refused to check in got a $100 fine.

 

The food in the dining room was just fine. But, then again, I am not that fussy when it comes to food quality. I felt they had a problem with food in the Windjammer. There seemed to be a lot of food trays that were empty and need to be replenished. We didn't have too much problem finding a table in the Windjammer. It didn't seem like there were too many "table hogs" as there are on the Radiance Class ships (it seems like a lot of people like to sit at those nice tables outside/aft on the Radiance class ships to play cards and read books).

 

We didn't go to too many of the shows. I wasn't overwhelmed by the shows I saw, but they weren't bad.

 

The "hole" on the side of the ship didn't look too bad. It looks like they did a lot of work on it. We could only see it when at CocoCay. You can tell there is a dent there, but it is smoothed over pretty good.

 

The staff was very friendly, everybody had a smile and a "good morning/good afternoon" for you.

 

Weather was hot in Key West and Cozumel. Rain for the remaining 3 days.

 

We didn't see the captain around the ship quite as much as we did on the radiance last October (Panama Canal), but he was around for the different parties.

 

Grandeur was a nice ship, but probably is soon due for a drydock session. You could see some wear/tear on her. I actually prefer the Radiance class ships over any of the other ships. Of course, it really doesn't matter what class ship, as long as I am on a ship.

 

Hope this helps answer some of the questions. If you have any other questions, let me know....I'll answer them as best I can.

 

FFlady

[silverhuntress]

Hi, sounds like it was a great cruise from what we have heard so far. The Grandeur June 24th cruisers have a few questions for you.

 

1. How many formal, smart casual and casual nights were there and on which nights?

2. How was the food in the main dining room?

3. if anyone took the ships excursions, were they well organized, were they a good value for the money?

4. Was the pool water warm enough for swimming on the first day?

5. Do they have a wine and dine package in the dining room?

6. Did you have to go through customs on the ship in Key West and Port

Canaveral?

7. What time were you able to board the ship?

8. Did you stay on ship time the whole cruise?

9. How was the onboard entertainment?

10. What Theme nights did they have and what percentage of people participated?

 

Thanks in advance

 

1. As Sarande said, there were 2 formal nights on the sea days...there were actually 2 smart casual nights however. The rest of the nights casual

2. Food in main dining room was overall good. I had something one night I didn't like and sent it back for the mahi mahi and enjoyed that very much.

Things that stood out as being excellent as far as I'm concerned were:

 

Entrees

a) Roasted Duck with Currant sauce that came with croquettes and braised red cabbage.

b) Osso Bucco with a nice polenta

c) Tenderloin with bernaise sauce

d) Seafood pasta with white wine sauce

e) shrimp scampi

The other things I had were all good. Although I did not care for the pasta with lobster sauce and salmon and the Shrimp Ravioli with lobster sauce

 

Soups

These have suffered a little since my last cruise 4 or 5 years ago. They are still quite tasty but are not made with alot of real cream. It seems they are thickened with corn starch instead. Some pretty salty. The best soups were the lobster bisque and the crab and shrimp bisque.

 

Appetizers

The best here were the esgargot of course...the vidalea onion tart, smoked duck with walnuts and some kind of orange dressing, house terrine(excellent),

mushrooms in puff pastry(although I felt the sesame seeds on the pastry didn't really fit the taste of the mushrooms and cream so I only ate the bottom half of the pastry). I did not care for the seafood salad.

 

None of the desserts thrilled me. I had a couple that were quite good and a bunch that were not thrilling. Once I unpack everything, I have a list of what I ate each night and can go into more detail on the food once I write a review.

I TRIED to take pictures of the menus each night. None came out. :( They are printed on a coated stock of paper that reflects the flash...sorry to all who were looking forward to seeing them.

 

ABOUT BREAKFAST

If you like eggs benedict and you like them prepared the way they are supposed to be, you need to request the egg yolks to be runny, otherwise you will get them hard! I guess they are doing this for health reasons.

Most days we ate breakfast at the windjammer because we slept in...the omlette station was good, and the bagels with lox and cream cheese, red onions and capers were my daily delight. (they did run out of capers after three days though...got them back after PC)

 

3. We only took one excursion, to the Tulum Ruins in Cozumel. It was very beautiful and VERY HOT. A word of advice, bring hand sanitizer and a spray bottle with ice water so you can mist yourself. I had wished we brought those things. Another note of advice on shore excursions....we met a couple who bought a self guided tour in Key West for 20. a piece. They were given two maps...I think that's a rip off considering you can go to the visitor's center and get free ones.

 

4. Didn't go in pool first day. Went in the second day though and all the days to follow...kind of cold but once you're in it's nice. NOTE: No chair hogs on our cruise!!!!!!!!

 

5. They do have a wine and dine. I did not purchase it. I brought two bottles of my favorite wine and paid a 12. corkage fee. My husband does not drink so the night I didn't have my bottle of wine there, I bought a glass...plus my very nice friend, Diane had a bottle sent to us one night...so we were set with dinner wine.

 

6. Yes. Yuck.

 

7. We got to the port at around 1 PM and due to my Platinum membership were able to board immediately and did not have to stand in line. Sign up for that crown and anchor...the benefits are nice. Plus we got coupons, robes to wear in cabin, a special party for platinum members and most importantly a private disembarkation lounge (nice and quiet and not crowded) with nice coffe, tea pastry and danish.

 

8. Yes

 

9. Entertainment was great!

 

10. Theme nights were, 70's disco night(very crowded), country line dancing party(didn't attend), caribbean night on the pool deck with a buffet(fun and crowded), 50's and 60's dance party(did not attend). There may have been a couple more...can't remember. I'll have to scan my compasses soon. I was going to scan some for someone a while back that they sent me and my scanner was not working. It's working now. =)

Also there was a chocolate buffet one night and a gala buffet.

 

Hope all of this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Saranade: It was so nice to meet you and spend some time talking!

[tropicalsunset]

Tammy: I should have ordered what you ordered.... it sounds better!!! :D I am terribly hurt.... we are Platinum and didnt' get robes or the disembarkation lounge!!! whattup with that??!! I hope you had a wonderful honeymoon...!! and best wishes for future happiness to you both!!!

[carocourt]

Thanks everyone for such thorough answers & recommendations! I'll also be on the June 24th cruise & was wondering if Grandeur has a theater. If so, which movies were shown.

[VABeach]

We're going Friday. Thanks for the info. :)

 

Glad Everyone had a great time.

[tropicalsunset]

No theater.....the movies on TV were "Meet the Fockers" and "National Treasure" --

[silverhuntress]

No theater.....the movies on TV were "Meet the Fockers" and "National Treasure" --

 

Tropical, make sure next time you get your robes, disembarkation lounge, and priority boarding. You also should have gotten a book with coupons for all kinds of things on board. They also had a party for platinum and diamond members(FYI caviar tasted better than the other parties..lol) Thanks for your good wishes...

Take care

Tammy

[silverhuntress]

No theater.....the movies on TV were "Meet the Fockers" and "National Treasure" --

 

Hi Tropical. Why did I refer to you as Saranade? In any case...I enjoyed meeting both of you very much. LOL

Still getting back into shifting gears for work and obviously it's messing with my wits.

We are pretty sure we're going back on Grandeur next year, Aug 27th for 5 night Bermuda cruise. =)

[487]

Did they offer the beer "bucket" specials during the cruise ?

[mdmourges]

Off point but my fiance and I live on the Chesapeake bay, a few miles south of the bay bridge (Chesapeake Harbour). We see the Grandeur sailing down the bay on most Fri and Sun evenings. It is a beautiful site as if crosses under the bridge. We are always envious of those aboard.

 

Mark & Janet

[tropicalsunset]

Mark and Janet... Its a beautiful trip down the Chesapeake-- I highly recommend it.!! Is it you that we waved to???!! :D

 

Tammy, I got the booklet- just not the rest and we were at the brunch and met the captain and all.. This was our first RCL cruise in 6 years... we've been sailing Celebrity in the past few years so we weren't sure all the benies!! You will LOVE Bermuda .... I am going to Cape Cod with Friends on June 18 & 19!! doing a whale watch and checking out the sights in Provincetown.... Say "Hi" to JT... tho' I think he's out touring!! ;) :D

[mdmourges]

We sailed on Galaxy a few years ago. Problem was that the ship left late and it was a hazy so by the time we got to the bridge, it was dark. Bummer! They need to bring more ships to B'more.

 

Mark