Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Grandeur of the Seas Review (November 1st sailing)

Adam0626

By Adam0626,
in Royal Caribbean International

 Share

Recommended Posts

Adam0626

Adam0626

Posted
Posted

Just returned from a 10 day cruise out of Baltimore on the Grandeur of the Seas that visited Cozumel, Georgetown, Falmouth, and Labadee. We had a great time and like to share my experience.

 

Embarking: Going out of Baltimore was a breeze, We came down a day early since we are from PA. We stayed at a hotel that offered a snooze and cruise package. It wound up being cheaper to do that instead of parking at the port. We were dropped off by the hotel shuttle at 11 A.M. and we were on the ship in less than 25 minutes.

 

Condition of the ship:I found the inside of the ship to be very clean and well kept up. The outside could use a little cleaning up but after all the ship is almost 20 years old.

 

Food: We typically ate breakfast and lunch in the Wind Jammer. If you go to the Wind Jammer for breakfast I would recommend going to the egg bar to have your eggs freshly made. It's well worth the wait. We did venture into the main Dining room for breakfast and lunch once or twice and it very good. The Park Cafe is an excellent alternative for breakfast and lunch if you want to beat the crowds in the Wind Jammer. We ate dinner in the main dining room every night (Bernie was great!) with the exception of the last night. We went to Giovanni's Table. The food was incredible there. With that said I didn't appreciate the constant up selling of specialty dining packages. I understand the food is delicious and is worth the extra fee but I found it rather rude to have people come to our table while we were eating our lunch and breakfast in the Wind Jammer. Or while relaxing poolside.

 

Entertainment: We saw the production shows every night as well as the welcome back show and the Crown and Anchor Society show. Both featured Steve White who was hilarious. There was show featuring a violinist who was great, There was a singer from Australia, a tango show, there was a Broadway variety show, a piano rock and roll show. There were more shows but I can't think of them right now. The singers dancers and orchestra do an amazing job.The cruise director Jeff was also awesome.

 

Other Activities: We attended the several game shows. There was the love and marriage game show which was hilarious. The Quest was a lot of fun too. They had adult scatagories for the first time which we enjoyed. There were several cruisers who were offended by the content of the game. But they stated over and over and over that the game would be containing adult content and that if you are easily offended to not attend.

 

Stateroom: We booked an inside cabin.Our room steward Gama was amazing. He went above and beyond. Our room was always kept clean. He even lined up our shoes! We were in stateroom 2059 which I'm assuming is over the engine room. There were two separate occasions where we heard a loud constant hammering sound from down below. It actually woke us up. We notified guest services and they gave us a credit towards our next cruise.

 

Cozumel: We ran into heavy rain and as a result we really weren't able to do much . Getting off of the ship you walk into the shopping district. The merchants are very pushy. Didn't care for that at all. We went to Mr, Sancho's. Which was a $20 cab ride each way for 2 people. The beach was beautiful but due to rain we really couldn't stay and enjoy the beach. They offer a free section that includes WiFi. On that section of the beach you order all of your food and drinks ala cart. There is an all inclusive section and that was 55 dollars per person. Before heading back to the ship we had lunch at Senor Frogs. It was very good.

 

Geogetown: We were supposed to arrive at 10:30 but due to storms we didn't arrive until 11. It also took an extra 20 minutes than usual to clear us.We were delayed even more when we learned that we had to obtain a tender ticket. Somehow we missed the announcement. We didn't see it listed in the cruise compass. The ariel show was cancled the previous night. I'm assuming that's where the announcement would have been made by the cruise director. They may have made the announcement over the intercom but we didn't hear it since they don't do in room announcements anymore. We didn't make it to land until 1. We decided that we wanted to go to 7 mile beach. We got into the shuttle and had to wait for them to pack us in like sardines. That was $10 each way. Despite the setbacks the beach was beautiful and worth it. We stopped in the Ice house on the way back to the ship and had a drink and used their WIFI.

 

Falmouth: No announcement to leave the ship. But we were up and ready to go so no issues there. We shopped the craft market. They had some very nice things. We then took a shuttle to Montego Bay. That was 20 each round trip. Issue with that was we had to wait 45 minutes for the shuttle to fill up. We all walked off after waiting for so long and they then decided to take us. We went to Dr's Cave Beach. Wow was it beautiful. After that we went to Briggs BBQ. Very good food that is reasonably priced and had WIFI.

 

Labadee: This is the Private Island. When RCI builds something they do it right. We went to the beach. I suggest walking to the other side of the island. There it's not as rocky. The first sections you can go in are filled with rocks. They had a nice BBQ lunch. The line for that was long but it was good. We also went to the shops they had.

 

Disembarking: Same as getting on. Super easy!

 

Final thoughts: While the cruise wasn't perfect we had a great time. With a little better planning it would have been great. The cruise director Jeff stressed that port visits need to contain structure. I know he's saying this so you will book an excursion through RCI, But he his right in the aspect. Have a solid plan going into port. Also have a back up plan in case it rains. I would definitely sail with RCI again and I would also go on the GOTS again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lmarie6

Lmarie6

Posted
Posted

Glad you had an enjoyable trip, and thank you for providing your review here! We'll be on the Grandeur over Thanksgiving to the Bahamas, so you have provided some relief about some of the things I've been worrying about (our first cruise). Hoping our room (2086) is far enough back that the engine noises don't disrupt us but I'm sure we'll have a blast anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BunkerVA

BunkerVA

Posted
Posted

Thank you for your review! I'm glad you had a good time! My family is sailing Grandeur in March on the eastern itinerary and we are so excited! I love the ease of Baltimore and I'm so ready to go. Glad to hear she's ship-shape!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mek

mek

Posted
Posted

I was on the same cruise and have a few comments.

 

I thought the food was just average at best - a handful of hits, a lot of just OK and several misses. I would rate it overall a C+. I did order the Chops filet in the MDR 2X and it was very good. The first night it was $16.95 and one night it was on special for $10. I had lunch at Izumis one afternoon and it was delicious.

 

Entertainment was excellent - definitely an A+. The tango show was beautiful.

 

The new outdoor movie screen is great - a nice clear picture with a good sound system. NFL and college football games were shown on Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday - A+++

 

I thought the ship was in excellent condition for one that is 20 years old. I was on Grandeur in 2004 and I didn't notice much of a difference except for the upgrades. The outside was being painted during the 10 days we were on the ship.

 

Too bad it rained in Cozumel - I felt sorry for people who had never been there and had planned on going to the beach. This was my first time to Falmouth and it was a fun place to just hang out. I went outside the secure area and shopped with the local vendors. I felt perfectly safe and everyone was friendly. Love Labadee - we had been there once before and it is a beautiful relaxing place.

 

Drinks - well, they are overpriced and IMHO, not the best. For $12 I think the drink should be wonderful and they were just average.

 

Solarium - the perfect place to relax and play cards, but the chair hogs were out in force and nothing was done about them.

 

Spa - a special package was offered the first two days - $139 for 75 minutes, massage, scalp, foot, hand massage and a facial. It was the best promotion offered during the cruise and I thought it was very relaxing and a nice package.

 

Service on the ship - great in the MDR, good in the Windjammer, and our cabin attendant was excellent.

 

Overall, we had a great cruise, but have decide that the smaller ships just aren't for us - we hadn't been on one for a while and thought we would try something different. We have a cruise on Serenade OTS booked for April, but have decided to cancel and we will book a larger ship.

 

We liked sailing out of Baltimore, although we flew in this time, it is close enough that we could drive to the port. It would be great if a TA would leave from there.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Waterfront and had a beautiful view of the harbor and the Ravens stadium - very cool at night with the purple lights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
starlake

starlake

Posted
Posted

We were on the same cruise and had a great time. We were also on the Oct. 24th cruise.

 

It is always interesting to see the different opinions about the same cruise. :)

 

I thought the food was was fine, anytime I don't have to cook or clean up, I am in seventh heaven.

The staff is fabulous, they can't do enough for you. Big cheers to our stateroom attendant Dennis, miss him a lot.

 

We enjoyed all the entertainment on both cruises, but I thought the cruise director was like watching paint dry.

 

As others have said, Baltimore is by far the easiest port to get in and out of and we will sailing on the Grandeur again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sparks1093 Great Review Rare

sparks1093

Posted
Posted
I was on the same cruise and have a few comments.

 

I thought the food was just average at best - a handful of hits, a lot of just OK and several misses. I would rate it overall a C+. I did order the Chops filet in the MDR 2X and it was very good. The first night it was $16.95 and one night it was on special for $10. I had lunch at Izumis one afternoon and it was delicious.

 

Entertainment was excellent - definitely an A+. The tango show was beautiful.

 

The new outdoor movie screen is great - a nice clear picture with a good sound system. NFL and college football games were shown on Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday - A+++

 

I thought the ship was in excellent condition for one that is 20 years old. I was on Grandeur in 2004 and I didn't notice much of a difference except for the upgrades. The outside was being painted during the 10 days we were on the ship.

 

Too bad it rained in Cozumel - I felt sorry for people who had never been there and had planned on going to the beach. This was my first time to Falmouth and it was a fun place to just hang out. I went outside the secure area and shopped with the local vendors. I felt perfectly safe and everyone was friendly. Love Labadee - we had been there once before and it is a beautiful relaxing place.

 

Drinks - well, they are overpriced and IMHO, not the best. For $12 I think the drink should be wonderful and they were just average.

 

Solarium - the perfect place to relax and play cards, but the chair hogs were out in force and nothing was done about them.

 

Spa - a special package was offered the first two days - $139 for 75 minutes, massage, scalp, foot, hand massage and a facial. It was the best promotion offered during the cruise and I thought it was very relaxing and a nice package.

 

Service on the ship - great in the MDR, good in the Windjammer, and our cabin attendant was excellent.

 

Overall, we had a great cruise, but have decide that the smaller ships just aren't for us - we hadn't been on one for a while and thought we would try something different. We have a cruise on Serenade OTS booked for April, but have decided to cancel and we will book a larger ship.

 

We liked sailing out of Baltimore, although we flew in this time, it is close enough that we could drive to the port. It would be great if a TA would leave from there.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Waterfront and had a beautiful view of the harbor and the Ravens stadium - very cool at night with the purple lights.

 

Appreciate your thoughts as well!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
omalley16

omalley16

Posted
Posted

Glad you enjoyed we! We really loved the Grandeur in June when we went to Bermuda. Our age crowd was also around 50+, and I at the age of 19 was the only person under 50 in our muster station. At least we didn't have any kids running around at all hours of the night! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Adam0626

Adam0626

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Glad you enjoyed we! We really loved the Grandeur in June when we went to Bermuda. Our age crowd was also around 50+, and I at the age of 19 was the only person under 50 in our muster station. At least we didn't have any kids running around at all hours of the night! :)

 

Same here. Im 24.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pathandpattie

pathandpattie

Posted
Posted

Other Activities: We attended the several game shows. There was the love and marriage game show which was hilarious. The Quest was a lot of fun too. They had adult scatagories for the first time which we enjoyed. There were several cruisers who were offended by the content of the game. But they stated over and over and over that the game would be containing adult content and that if you are easily offended to not attend

 

 

 

Although I agree with your review of this trip I need to clarify something. We were part of the group that walked out of the scatagories game, not because we were offended, we knew it was adult content. We felt it was poorly run and we couldn't hear most of the answers passenger's answers from the other side of the room. What did offend us was the fact that the host, Big Mac found it necessary to point out that people were walking out because they were offended. Not true at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Adam0626

Adam0626

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Other Activities: We attended the several game shows. There was the love and marriage game show which was hilarious. The Quest was a lot of fun too. They had adult scatagories for the first time which we enjoyed. There were several cruisers who were offended by the content of the game. But they stated over and over and over that the game would be containing adult content and that if you are easily offended to not attend

 

 

 

Although I agree with your review of this trip I need to clarify something. We were part of the group that walked out of the scatagories game, not because we were offended, we knew it was adult content. We felt it was poorly run and we couldn't hear most of the answers passenger's answers from the other side of the room. What did offend us was the fact that the host, Big Mac found it necessary to point out that people were walking out because they were offended. Not true at all.

 

Hmm I was in the front. I agree with it being sloppy. Especially the scoring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Adam0626

Adam0626

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I am going on this itinerary in 2 weeks. Where do we get the tender tickets? We are due to dock at 10:30 in Georgetown & our RC excursion is at 11:00. I don't want to miss that first tender.

 

Donna

 

If you have an excursion booked through them you are first off at any port. But the south Pacific lounge is where you get them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...