Just off April 28 Grandeur 10 night cruise

[pxy cda]

Overall a great cruise. We had some issues with our aft JS cabin :mad: and some of the specialty dining venues :( but the ship herself is great, wonderful crew, well maintained and great sail.

 

Chefs table is a must do if you enjoy food. I would do this and then stick to MDR for future. MDR is some of the best food we`ve had in recent sails and our staff were impeccable - they earned a 10 out of 10.:)

 

Cabana at Nellies Beach in Labadee was worth every penny - we had a great day!

 

More details in my formal review but let me know if any questions and I will do what I can to answer.

Edited May 10, 2015 by pxy cda

[bubba83]

Overall a great cruise. We had some issues with our aft JS cabin :mad: and some of the specialty dining venues :( but the ship herself is great, wonderful crew, well maintained and great sail.

 

Chefs table is a must do if you enjoy food. I would do this and then stick to MDR for future. MDR is some of the best food we`ve had in recent sails and our staff were impeccable - they earned a 10 out of 10.:)

 

Cabana at Nellies Beach in Labadee was worth every penny - we had a great day!

 

More details in my formal review but let me know if any questions and I will do what I can to answer.

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to the formal review!

[pxy cda]

Looking forward to the formal review!

 

Submitted yesterday - just waiting for CC to post in member reviews and I will link it! :)

[ihopfar]

Overall a great cruise. We had some issues with our aft JS cabin :mad:

 

 

Can you please elaborate on your issues with your aft JS? We have our first aft JS booked for our next cruise on the Grandeur, so you got me curious.

 

Thanks!

Brad

[pxy cda]

Can you please elaborate on your issues with your aft JS? We have our first aft JS booked for our next cruise on the Grandeur, so you got me curious.

 

Thanks!

Brad

 

Here is the excerpt from my review. If you can, I would recommend a hump JS or one further up the middle - even with the plumbing issues - the smell of diesel was very strong throughout the cruise and we had unprecedented amount of soot making the balcony fairly unusable.

 

""NOT SO WOWED" We had issues with a broken plumbing pipe leaking

onto our stateroom floor (#7152) that continued over several days of our

cruise spoiling the use of our room (the carpet as you entered was soaked

through over a 3 square foot area). Although it was reported on our first

day to our stateroom attendant, Ricardo and twice to the CS desk staff, it

took several escalating conversations to have the issue acknowledged,

addressed and resolved. Gerardo at CS is to be commended for pushing to

have the issue addressed - without his commitment; we doubt the leak would

have been addressed at all. Throughout this issue, communication was

always instigated by us as the guest - at no time were we provided any

update on a plan or progress of solution. We were moved to an inside for

one night as 7152 was unusable - air blowers ran constantly for 2 full days

of the cruise. The room smelled of damp and welding residue for the

remainder of the cruise (We expressed concern there may be mildew resulting

from this problem but it seemed to fall on deaf ears). We typically enjoy

balcony rooms and were looking forward to the sea days on this particular

cruise- especially the aft and are happy to pay the premium - we were only

able to use cabin 7152 for sleeping and our usual enjoyment of our cabin

was spoiled by the plumbing issue - certainly not worth the price

difference we paid. The Stateroom Manager, Reuben, offered to have our

upcoming dinner at Giovannis removed from our bill as consolation - this

did not begin to compensate the premium we paid and loss of room benefits.

 

Giovanni's was insult to injury. It took several requests to have our

waiter, Kenneth, offer a glass of wine (no wine list for a glass of wine

was provided and I was told white wine is not served). He was very

aggressive with the sale of bottles of wine. We finally managed to order

just a glass of red. He returned shortly after only to be brow beat us

into the purchase a bottle at a discount. The bottle was good but not

really needed. When our bill arrived Kenneth advised the "consolation

compensation" from Reuben (stateroom manager) would cancel our discount for

the dining package (the $96 package for Chops, Giovannis and Chef Table)

and that our discounts would be reversed if we took the compensation. Both

this and the wine felt like a bait and switch. It left a bad taste and

spoiled our 19th wedding anniversary dinner. We were advised the bottle of

wine would be at our table in MDR the next night. Again we had to ask

about it and it had to be retrieved last minute by our MDR wait staff - who

were incidentally head and shoulders over the service we received at

Giovanni's. Apparently Giovanni's "forgot" to bring it up to the MDR.

 

Final issue was the IZUMI sushi making lesson - I registered early in the

cruise (during a cooking demo for specialty dining) for 1130 lessons late

in the cruise (this info was printed on the sheet provided to me). From

what I can gather, they split this into 2 sessions 1030 and 1230. I

attended at 1130 to be told my session started at 1030 and that I had

missed it. An Izumi staff person ran after me and advised that apparently

my stateroom "phone was not working" to notify me of the change.

Interesting to note - our friends were able to leave messages but no one

from GOS seemed able to do so. We received the written notice of change

at 1pm in our room (I suspect as a result of my visit at 1130). I was very

disappointed but at this point not surprised as the only specialty dining

reservation that was confirmed in writing was the Chef’s table."

 

 

Before I get flamed by a bunch of people, my formal review includes a number of kudos and where we were wowed - food was great - I highly recommend chefs table. MDR staff was amongst best we've had. Cruise activity staff are high energy, well organized and very engaging. We had a great time. Just these issues were disappointing and aggravating to deal when all you want to do is relax on vacation.

 

Just be sure to confirm and reconfirm times/dates of anything you sign up for as communication needs work. I doubt you would encounter the plumbing issues but floor 7 seemed to have some issues with other cabins also (we noticed the blowers were out in other rooms too).

[dixieva]

We were also on this cruise and had aft stateroom 7650 (this was a corner aft and on the opposite side of the ship from 7152). Sorry we didn't get to meet at the M & M. And so sorry you had so much trouble with your room. I would have been kicking and screaming for a credit on a future cruise for all the trouble.

But I did want to say that we had no trouble in our room. The plumbing issues must have been on your side (starboard) because we didn't see any fans in rooms or in the hall on the port side. No soot at all on our balcony and we used it every day (a lot). The fuel smell was bad from the first bank of elevators all the way down the hall to the aft rooms. We called about it and were first told that they were refueling the ship, this call was made on a port day. Ok so maybe that made sense. But the smell continued even on sea days so I doubt they were refueling:rolleyes:!

I think Grandeur is having a make over sometime next year and hopefully they will fix the fuel smell and plumbing issues.

We had a great cruise and agree that the food in the MDR was much better than last year when we were on the ship. We tried My Time Dining for the first time and loved it!

Edited May 14, 2015 by dixieva

[pxy cda]

We were also on this cruise and had aft stateroom 7650 (this was a corner aft and on the opposite side of the ship from 7152). Sorry we didn't get to meet at the M & M. And so sorry you had so much trouble with your room. I would have been kicking and screaming for a credit on a future cruise for all the trouble.

But I did want to say that we had no trouble in our room. The plumbing issues must have been on your side (starboard) because we didn't see any fans in rooms or in the hall on the port side. No soot at all on our balcony and we used it every day (a lot). The fuel smell was bad from the first bank of elevators all the way down the hall to the aft rooms. We called about it and were first told that they were refueling the ship, this call was made on a port day. Ok so maybe that made sense. But the smell continued even on sea days so I doubt they were refueling:rolleyes:!

I think Grandeur is having a make over sometime next year and hopefully they will fix the fuel smell and plumbing issues.

We had a great cruise and agree that the food in the MDR was much better than last year when we were on the ship. We tried My Time Dining for the first time and loved it!

 

Hi Dixie, As I said above, we didn't let it spoil our cruise and we had a fabulous time. I have sent an email to Michael Bayly and his assistant has contacted me so we will see what they can do. We are actually sailing with X on the Summit in November so maybe they can do something for us there.

 

Food was amongst the best I've had - Chef Shemar has an amazing passion for food and it shows in the dining room.

 

We were port side aft (left side of ship) and we did see blowers in other rooms and other guests on other nights also moved to the spare inside we were moved to for one night so there are clearly some issues - I hope they either fix her up or find another smaller vessel to sail out of Balt as it is a great port and itinerary.

[dixieva]

I'm glad your issues didn't spoil your cruise. We also had a fabulous time.

 

A few years ago we were staying in 7150, the corner aft next to your room, and had some issues there. One night my daughter decided to take a bath and that was a big mistake. When she pulled the plug water began spurting out of the drain in the bathroom next to the toilet. It started as water and ended up as sewage!:eek: Luckily she had made it out of the bathroom before that happened. So then we had workmen and our room steward trying to clean up the mess. There were also a couple of other small issues we had which I don't remember and we ended up getting a generous amount off our next cruise. We were pleased with that so I hope they do something similar for you.

[albether7]

Hi!

 

Wondering about the Grandeur's current drink prices:

 

I know gratuities are increased to 18%

 

What was your experience of the price of beer, simplke mixed drinks, drink of the day, etc?

 

Also, has the atrium's aeriel performance returned ?

 

Thanks

Al

Edited May 15, 2015 by albether7

[dixieva]

There was no aerial show on our cruise. Apparently the equipment has not been repaired because we had calm seas so that was not the reason for no shows.

Can't help with the drink prices.

We had a wonderful cruise!

[not2old]

There was no aerial show on our cruise. Apparently the equipment has not been repaired because we had calm seas so that was not the reason for no shows.

Can't help with the drink prices.

We had a wonderful cruise!

just got off Grandeur/Bermuda cruise today. Drinks were very good, we had the premium package and definitely got our money's worth! Our favorite bartenders were Noel at the pool bar, Aaron (I think that was his name?) in the Solarium Bar and Stephen at the pool bar. I believe Aaron also was a bar server in the Concierge lounge in the evening cocktail hour.

no aerial show yet :-(

Edited May 16, 2015 by not2old

[ciadriamom]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. Were there drink menus on board?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pxy cda]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. Were there drink menus on board?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Drink menus made an appearance on day three but they will make you anything you ask for. Martini's were on special in Schooner and Crown from 5-7 (I think). I think $15 but 1/2 price on special so we made use of that.

 

Wine range from $8-over $15 for a glass. Basically city bar prices. They are adding a pretty high gratuity (I think 18%) so it can get pricey.

 

I was good with my 2 bottles of wine (cabin) and the odd cocktail here and there. You can always get the low rent bubbly at the art events and captains party if you can stomach it.

 

Best night of the cruise was the chefs table. Worth every penny. Wine was paired to 7 courses and poured freely. Food was amazing. Best dining of the cruise.

[pxy cda]

I'm glad your issues didn't spoil your cruise. We also had a fabulous time.

 

A few years ago we were staying in 7150, the corner aft next to your room, and had some issues there. One night my daughter decided to take a bath and that was a big mistake. When she pulled the plug water began spurting out of the drain in the bathroom next to the toilet. It started as water and ended up as sewage!:eek: Luckily she had made it out of the bathroom before that happened. So then we had workmen and our room steward trying to clean up the mess. There were also a couple of other small issues we had which I don't remember and we ended up getting a generous amount off our next cruise. We were pleased with that so I hope they do something similar for you.

 

They did make us whole - a nice future credit that will cover at least one of us on a future cruise so we are very happy with that. Looking forward to the Summit in November now. :)

[dixieva]

Very happy to hear that you were compensated for all the trouble you had on your cruise!

[FMB]

Overall a great cruise. We had some issues with our aft JS cabin :mad: and some of the specialty dining venues :( but the ship herself is great, wonderful crew, well maintained and great sail.

 

Chefs table is a must do if you enjoy food. I would do this and then stick to MDR for future. MDR is some of the best food we`ve had in recent sails and our staff were impeccable - they earned a 10 out of 10.:)

 

Cabana at Nellies Beach in Labadee was worth every penny - we had a great day!

 

More details in my formal review but let me know if any questions and I will do what I can to answer.

Hi, I am staying in a aft JS on Grandeur, deck 7, corner, sailing this weekend (June 5th) Last year I also stayed in aft JS and enjoyed it, so am curious about your issue with the aft JS. I also did the Chef's table lat year, and loved it! I couldn't believe I ate everything, and wasn't even full after a 4 hour meal! Looking forward to reading your full review.

[FMB]

Also, I booked a meal for sail away at Chops. You mentioned disappointment with other dining venues, so I would appreciate more detail. Thanks.

[Merion_Mom]

Hi, I am staying in a aft JS on Grandeur, deck 7, corner, sailing this weekend (June 5th) Last year I also stayed in aft JS and enjoyed it, so am curious about your issue with the aft JS. I also did the Chef's table lat year, and loved it! I couldn't believe I ate everything, and wasn't even full after a 4 hour meal! Looking forward to reading your full review.

 

S/He posted the details in post #5 above.

[Merion_Mom]

Hi, I am staying in a aft JS on Grandeur, deck 7, corner, sailing this weekend (June 5th) Last year I also stayed in aft JS and enjoyed it, so am curious about your issue with the aft JS. I also did the Chef's table lat year, and loved it! I couldn't believe I ate everything, and wasn't even full after a 4 hour meal! Looking forward to reading your full review.

 

Also, I booked a meal for sail away at Chops. You mentioned disappointment with other dining venues, so I would appreciate more detail. Thanks.

 

Here is his/her/their review from the review section:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=503342