I was there too,Granduer 4/6-18

[suesnake2002]

The mist beautiful site to see. A big fat zero on the count down. Me 57 and hubby 47, drove down from long island NY. We left at 6am, and arrived at 10:30am, with 2 stops. They were doing a coast guard inspection, so we recieved the letter stating boarding would begin at 12. But here in cruise critic we know better. Was on board around 11:10. 

First let me say coming from the north, it was such an easy drive. Straight down 95. The cruiseport is literally right off the interstate. Easiest port to navigate. Found the port staff very friendly, and helpful. Check in quick and easy. 

We had a junior suite, aft starboard corner. As a suite person you are ushered thru frosted glass doors to a private waiting area. There they had water,juice,coffee,danishes. I'm not sure if they did all these extras cause the b2b people had to disembark, and waited in the suite lounge. 

[breezy_carol]

Great balcony.

[BND]

We were also onboard but we only live about an hour away.  We were also in a JS (8564) but only got to sit in the waiting area for 5 minutes.  We arrived by 11 and were onboard at 11:10 since this isn't our "first rodeo" (if you saw the last comedian you'd have heard that on Wed night) we knew better than to wait til 1230 to arrive.  We went straight to the DL to read, but ended up talking to a couple of people.

[sandebeach]

Your balcony looks awesome!

[suesnake2002]

With the coast guard inspection rooms were ready at 2. Since we stopped for breakfast, we didn't eat lunch when it boarded. We were too excited. We walked around the boat, getting our bearings. And well since we had the deluxe bev package we jumped right into the cocktails. Muster drill was held outside. 

At two we went to our room. We noticed our luggage on the metal racks, so we just grabbed them and took them to our room. This way we could unpack and get this cruise going. 

I had a mid ship js on rhapsody once. I felt this room was a little smaller. But unlike rhapsody, we had a huge walk in closet. We did show our room to friends we made on the ship. And they referred to our closet as another cabin. Lol

Before we knew it we were sailing away and time to dress for dinner. 

I had emailed to ask for a two topper about 2 weeks before the cruise. I guess with the ship being so crowded that request couldnt be filled. 

Here we had a pleasant surprise. We were seated with two other couples who knew each other. Sue and Tony,Patty and Tom. Best tablemates ever. They had to practically kick us out of dining room each nite. We had the best conversations. Patty was gluten free, and they really went out of their way to take care of her. Even getting her mashed potatoes from chops one nite for her. Sue wanted lemons for her water and after the first nite we always had a plate of lemons. 

Me and hubby love the sunflower seed rolls. We asked if we could have them every night. And you guessed it. There was a big basket of them on our table every night. Melvin and anton took great care of us with top notch service. 

[suesnake2002]

When we boarded there were alot of offers for drinks and dinning. I was surprised at the value of them. I know it's hard to see, but the deluxe bev was being offered at $63( higher than what i paid) But the dining package i felt was a good deal. I had bought the 3 night package before the cruise. 

[suesnake2002]

I really enjoyed having the 3 sea days before the ports. Gave you a chance to really unwind and get into the cruise mode of relaxing. On the first nite i was able to get a nice sunset shot. 

I enjoy bingo. At home i go once a week. So of course on the ship i would play. The first day of bingo i did win. In fact i had two bingos, for a total win of $184. 

[SRF]

1 hour ago, suesnake2002 said:

With the coast guard inspection rooms were ready at 2. Since we stopped for breakfast, we didn't eat lunch when it boarded. We were too excited. We walked around the boat, getting our bearings. And well since we had the deluxe bev package we jumped right into the cocktails. Muster drill was held outside. 

At two we went to our room. We noticed our luggage on the metal racks, so we just grabbed them and took them to our room. This way we could unpack and get this cruise going. 

I had a mid ship js on rhapsody once. I felt this room was a little smaller. But unlike rhapsody, we had a huge walk in closet. We did show our room to friends we made on the ship. And they referred to our closet as another cabin. Lol

 

 

 

 

OK, we met at the slot pull.

 

I wish I had realized who you were, as I would have liked to see your cabin.

 

My girlfriend, Rossy, was the one who won the most in the slot pull.

 

GREAT cruise.

 

We arrived at the port around 11:30 and boarding was already in progress.

 

We had a mixup with check in.  They could not find our SeaPass cards, so they made new ones, then found the original ones.  They when we got in the ship, there was something wrong, so they had to make new ones, which were the wrong color, so had to Guest Services and get the 4th set. 

 

But the rest of the cruise went well.  

Edited April 19, 2019 by SRF

[suesnake2002]

Srf. I would have gladly shown you my cabin. And I'm glad they straightened out your sea passes. I know when we disembarked there were 2 lines. A couple who were first in one of the lines was having trouble dinging out. It seemed one them wasn't in the system🤤

[suesnake2002]

Just some pics from around the ship. I did not take pics of all our food. The main dining room,service and food was excellent. I believe hubby had the prime rib 2-3 times. He said it was excellent. He is a big meat eater. All our meals were good. I ventured out this time and tried steak Diane, and the turkey dinner. I really enjoyed both. Along with all our favorites. I ate dessert only twice,molten lava cake and cherries jubilee. I tried to be good. With six sea days we had lots of opportunities to eat lunch in the main dining room. But we only ate there twice. We got the tutti salad,a seafood orzo, and open steak sandwhich with a fried egg ontop. The lunch menus always had alot of great choices. And very different choices. We hit the buffet for a few breakfasts, and even fewer lunches. Everything was good, at least what we ate. My favorite is to make blt sandwhiches on the english muffins for breakfast. 

We bought the 3 nite dinning package before the cruise. And we ate at chops, giovannis, and izumi. 

We like chops. Hubby gets the 9oz filet and i get the 6oz filet. We share multiple appetizers, and gotta love the gouda stuffed tater tots. We got one dessert to go. 

Giovanni's changed their menu. And not for the better. Gone are all my favorite appetizers, like the scallops,  prosciutto wrapped mozzarella. So we ordered a few apps and the osso bucco to share. Yup we ordered only one dinner. For the pasta we ordered the mushroom risotto. We also recieved the clams on linguini. The waiter heard us trying to decide so he brought both. We got dessert to go

Next Izumi. We love sushi. We each got an app, pork dumpling for me,tuna for hubby. Then 3 rolls. One being the futomyko (or something like that)pic to follow. And we ate dessert there, green tea and mango ice cream

[suesnake2002]

The first pic is that roll from izumi. And if your in the centrum you gotta get a red velvet cake drink. Debbie makes the best. The other drink is a chocolate martini, with spider web. 

[Arzeena]

Yayyyy! Another Grandeur review! Please keep them coming, it almost feels like I am on a B2B2B2B cruise.😁

[suesnake2002]

Venues on the ship. For a smaller ship there was plenty to do. One of our favorites was to hang in schooner bar and listen/sing along/and just act silly with Giovanni. That poor man never knew what we were gonna do. He would just laugh and kept playing. 

We actuall had a few late nites in the viking crown lounge. With all those sea days we could sleep in. 

There were just alot of nice different activities. Katrina had an egg drop from deck 8 down to 4. It had to float, and not break. It was so much fun. 

[theknittinglibrarian]

We're going to be in the opposite JS (7150) soon - hoping for a similar balcony!! A couple of questions - 

1) Any noise coming up from the lounge on deck 6?

2) Any soot issues?

Thanks!!

[suesnake2002]

We love 70's nite. And it did not disappoint. We saw the beatle maniacs. 

They had so much. From big band sounds in south pacific lounge,different theme dj nites in viking crown lounge, comedians(awsome),musical acts. There was so much to do

[suesnake2002]

6 minutes ago, theknittinglibrarian said:

We're going to be in the opposite JS (7150) soon - hoping for a similar balcony!! A couple of questions - 

1) Any noise coming up from the lounge on deck 6?

2) Any soot issues?

Thanks!!

You will not hear anything from the south pacific lounge. At least we didn't. And there is no soot. 

I had read about these issues, they must've been one offs. 

Now the suite above us, a 2 bedroom family suite. They heard noise from the viking crown lounge, which is right above them

[suesnake2002]

First port, St. Croix. It seemed everyone was out on the top deck to watch us sail into St. Croix. After three days at sea. 

Since it's the USA. I was feeling very comfortable about just venturing out at this port. The plan was to grab a shuttle to rainbow beach. 

Just inside the port area exit to the right. There are pop ups set up selling tickets for shuttles. It seemed that everyone was going to sandcastles or rainbow beaches. The word on the street was sandcastles sold out of chairs and umbrellas early. It was $6 round trip. They give you a ticket for the ride back. 

When we arrived at rainbow beach we rented an umbrella and two chairs for $20. 

We had brought our snorkel gear. There are rocks by the restaurant with lots of sea life, and a small underwater jetty with lots of fish. The water felt great. We ate lunch, and had drinks at the restaurant. Only bummer was during our visit a huge party catamaran pulled up, anchored up, and then crowded the beach. 

[suesnake2002]

[suesnake2002]

So i had shrimp tacos with spicy ginger aioli,  and hubby had pulled pork. I had one drink a pain killer and hubby two beers. The domestic beer only $3.50. I felt the prices reasonable

[CruisinCons]

10 hours ago, suesnake2002 said:

Venues on the ship. For a smaller ship there was plenty to do. One of our favorites was to hang in schooner bar and listen/sing along/and just act silly with Giovanni. That poor man never knew what we were gonna do. He would just laugh and kept playing. 

We actuall had a few late nites in the viking crown lounge. With all those sea days we could sleep in. 

There were just alot of nice different activities. Katrina had an egg drop from deck 8 down to 4. It had to float, and not break. It was so much fun. 

 

So glad to read that the Schooner Bar has a good entertainer!  Our last two sailings they were not good.  We had 12 nights on Serenade with Danny who was the worst we've ever heard.  On Brilliance there was a woman from Ireland, I think, who had a pleasant voice but didn't offer a sing along or fun environment.  More of sit and listen to her calm music. 

 

[suesnake2002]

I forgot to mention on the sea days we went to our first art auction. I had promised hubby he could buy a goddard. He loves the olive guy. 

The people at park west was awsome. Shout out to Adrian. Very personalized service, and walked us thru the whole process. Wound up with 2 goddard, and i bought 4 mcmanus. Now the goddards are prints on canvas, we paid $1250 and $750. Everything is included in that price. I bought a set of 3 mc manus for i believe $160. And a single print for $60. Now with the prints you have to pay extra for framing and shipping. Approximately $189 each print. In the future i gotta limit myself to only one thing. They give alot of prizes out at the auction. I won a bottle of champagne. 

Thèy even invited us to a private wine and cheese party, with viewings. We did enjoy it very much. 

I have been able to buy a print at an estate sale for $25. That on line goes for $300. But thats a rarity

[suesnake2002]

CruisinCons, What made giovanni so much fun is he did take requests, and he laughed along with our antics. 

He is from Hungary, and yes sometimes his accent came thru in his singing. And maybe on some of his songs the tempo was off. His strong suit was elton john, and beatles. But we would request lots of country to sing along with. Which were his weakest of songs. Lots of laughs. I even asked for janis joplin, and he played it. 

One nite he teased we are gonna have a quiet nite. Then proceeded to play sweet caroline. As he was playing he kept looking over at us smiling, knowing full well we were gonna sing

[CruisinCons]

2 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

CruisinCons, What made giovanni so much fun is he did take requests, and he laughed along with our antics. 

He is from Hungary, and yes sometimes his accent came thru in his singing. And maybe on some of his songs the tempo was off. His strong suit was elton john, and beatles. But we would request lots of country to sing along with. Which were his weakest of songs. Lots of laughs. I even asked for janis joplin, and he played it. 

One nite he teased we are gonna have a quiet nite. Then proceeded to play sweet caroline. As he was playing he kept looking over at us smiling, knowing full well we were gonna sing

 

So nice to hear!! Or read!!  LOL  

Danny took requests, invited folks up to his mic where he gave prizes for singing with him, and honestly tried very hard.  He just was HORRIBLE.  Terrible singer.  Said he had been sick and was still recovering, but after 12 nights he got worse and worse.  We've been fortunate to sail with Billy Pando singing in the Schooner - no one is better than him and we are so spoiled! 

[SRF]

Nice review.

 

I had the prime rib on lobster night (along with a lobster tail) and it was very good.   All our meals were very good.  Probably the weakest was at Giovanni's table.  They pre-make the carbonara sauce, and that just does NOT work.  And the grilled shrimp were not grilled (but they replaced the plate with actual grilled shrimp).  It seems the second was due to RCCL's confusing info to the staff.  The menu says grilled shrimp, but the pictures RCCL sent to the staff are not grilled, and the written info says, that there is to be no browning of the shrimp.  How to you grill something without getting some brown?????  That is the POINT of grilling.

 

We did excursions at every port.

 

St. Croix - We did the ship excursion to snorkel Buck Island.  The only underwater US National Monument.  Very good trip, AMAZING snorkeling.

 

Antigua - We the the ship excursion Buggy Drive.  It was a BLAST.  The location is walking distance, and then you drive.  We were out for over 5 hours.  Both on the road and off road, with a stop at a nice beach resort with food and drink available.

 

St. Lucia - We did a 3rd party tour with Cosol tours (thanks CC).  Nice bus tour of much of the island.  One caveat, to not take this, if you are prone to car sickness.  LOTS of switchbacks up and down the mountains.  First stop was a roadside stand to sample fresh off the tree bananas and spiced rum (the home made spiced rum was GREAT, I bought a bottle).  Next stop was for "breakfast" which was a number of local foods.  Then to the beach for a bit.  Then up into the volcano.  There you had a choice of a tour or bathing in the volcanic and smearing yourself and your partner with volcanic mud.   Next was a waterfall, where you could go and stand under the falls.  Then a final stop for fresh baked bread and local cheese.

 

St. Kitts - We did the RCCL Mini Speed Boat excursion.  You take a bus ride to a resort where you get a short briefing, then a nice run in the mini speed boats.  They are RIBs (fiberglass hull with inflatable tube around).  You side on a long seat like a wave runner, but you have s steering wheel and a normal boat throttle/gear shift.  25 hp motor.  You go to a very nice snorkeling location for about 45 min - 1 hours snorkeling and then a fast run back.  Great fun, but the shortest excursion of the batch.

 

St. Maartin - Set up a tour to Orient Beach and Maho beach.   It turns out, we ended up with a private tour.  So we went to Orient Beach and checked out the nude beach, then a couple of other spots.  No snorkeling right there, but there is a small island that supposedly has some.  $10 boat ride out and back, but we decided to pass.  Looked at renting a wave runner ($60 half, $100 full hour) or a Hobie Cat sailboat.  But ended up just driving around and seeing the sights.  Have lunch at a nice spot in Marigot, then to Maho Beach.  We enjoying seeing the places, then headed back.  I wanted to stop a liquor store that someone on the ship told me about with a good selection of whiskies, but all the shops were closing or closed by 2:30 (All Aboard was 4:30).  Oh well.

 

I agree that Giovanni in the Schooner Bar was great.  And Danny, last Aug, was painful to even walk through.

 

All the shows were very good.  But Rookies and Beatlemanics stand out.  We did miss the comedy duo on the way back.

 

70s party was great fun, much better than last Aug.

 

Also, the late night adult comedy was very good, both the first and last nights.

[BND]

We were in the Schooner Bar the first few nights for a bit and there was a couple of times a lot of us felt sorry for Giovanni and felt his pain/embarassment.  One woman took it way too far and if it had been reversed, (female pianist and male guest) I think there would have been complaints.  He was a great player, but he didn't sign up to be draped over or touched.  Another guest was reprimanded by another guest for getting in her face and dancing and touching her.  It was the most interesting experience we've ever had in a Schooner Bar.

Edited April 21, 2019 by BND