Comparing RCL Grandeur of Seas and Celebrity

[Denny01]

Thought I’d add my biased views from a Celebrity-focused cruiser who took a Royal Caribbean cruise.

 

Took the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore for a 7N New Years cruise with our daughter and her friends. Yup, went north to take a cruise south!

 

     The Grandeur of the Seas is an older, smaller RCL ship less than 2,000 passengers built in 1996. Refurbed in 2012. She is being sold to the RCL Spanish-based line in 2021. RCL will add the Enchantment of the Seas, same class, to the Baltimore runs.

 

     I’ve been on a few other RCL ships, but enjoyed this one much more. The Oasis of the Seas types are way too large for me (5k+) - don’t even feel I’m on a cruise at sea on it so I’ll stick with the ‘smaller’ RCL ships. This ship is in great shape and the staff was excellent. Enjoyed the cruise a good deal. Very family oriented but didn’t feel I was overrun with kids. Lots of activities for them. Heck, the kids were more well mannered than some of the adults!

 

Positives:

Entertainment: Outstanding shows with what I considered some of the best I’ve seen. Unlike the larger RCL ships, it didn’t have a Broadway play, diving or ice show and so on, but had a Tango demo I thought was fantastic, and along with a funny juggler/magician I was well entertained. They also had a full live band that rivaled the Celebrity bands. Love live music.

Common Areas: Adult-only Solarium pool and area. Much like Celebrity’s where I spent most of my time. Warm saltwater pool and healthy food. Nice lounges.             

Dining: Not quite up to Celebrity, especially the 4 dining rooms on the Edge, but met my needs. Did one specialty restaurant, Giovanni’s - it was great. Not quite as expensive as most of the Celebrity restaurants.

Diamond Status: the Diamond social area was small so they expanded it into a lounge and allowed us 3 free drinks on our cards anywhere 4:30-8:00pm. This allowed early diners to enjoy Diamond happy hour longer. My experience was they didn’t count the drinks that much and all the bars were open for use and free drinks at dinner, unlike Celebrity which restricts some bars and none at dinner. Not nearly as many goodies with Diamond as you get with Elite but sufficed.

 

Not Quite as Nice:

SR: Being an older ship, it had few balconies which were quite expensive. Our Oceanview was OK. Definitely smaller than the standard Celebrity SR, as was the BR which had shower curtains instead of enclosures - I’m spoiled. Beds are lower so can’t store most luggage under the bed. Storage space was fine. Our bed was against the outside wall and faced the door which let in light around the hinges when closed so had to keep the closet door open to block the light. Also got rammed more than a few times by the BR door when at the closet. tricky. SR sufficed for the 7N cruise. Very small safe.

Announcements: Drove me a bit batty. Classic early, mid, late announcements on what-to-do’s.

No Lectures: No lectures on various good stuff we always get with Celebrity. Love the traveling speakers that are booked, but none on this cruise and it had 4 sea days.

Noise: The band/entertainment in the foyer was even louder than what I experience on the Solstice Class - all over the decks above. And was awoke by more than a few engine/generator noises and vibrating window. Probably due to being older.

Ports: This isn’t an RCL vs Celebrity issue. Just not big on Nassau and spend the day onboard. Cape Canaveral is OK, but had 5 ships in and was told the NASA tours were long lines and tiring. No tours of interest on this cruise. But did go to Coco Cay, which I’d been to many years ago. It was just a beach layabout then but it’s very impressive now. I’m not a beach guy much but Coco Cay was fun to experience. And the kids went crazy there.

Spa: Wife and daughter had an inport massage. Ok but had big issues with charges. Was charged full price instead of inport rate; they failed to mention the Diamond discount. Fixed by Customer Service. Other vendors such as photo people immediately identified we were Diamond and gave discount without us asking. This was ELEMIS which was on Celebrity and was replaced.

Misc: Coffee was terrible. I’m not that finicky but it was bitter and went from dark oil-black to I could read my paper through it. For Texed: the Belgium Waffles made up for it!!

 

Do it again? Yup. Probably different itinerary but enjoyed it and very relaxing. Will keep an eye out for RCL itineraries on their mid/smaller ships. I don’t care what the ads say about the large ships, there are 5K+ passengers who want to do many of the same things at the same time.

 

Den

   

[cyntil8ing]

Thanks for the review. My family generally cruises with Celebrity. We were on Edge for Christmas and loved it.

 

We have been on RCCL a few times, but just booked our first time on Grandeur to Bermuda in August. I am looking forward to leaving from Baltimore, a quick drive for us. We have sailed from Baltimore multiple times, but it was always on that other ship from that other line.

[TeeRick]

30 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

Thought I’d add my biased views from a Celebrity-focused cruiser who took a Royal Caribbean cruise.

 

Took the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore for a 7N New Years cruise with our daughter and her friends. Yup, went north to take a cruise south!

 

     The Grandeur of the Seas is an older, smaller RCL ship less than 2,000 passengers built in 1996. Refurbed in 2012. She is being sold to the RCL Spanish-based line in 2021. RCL will add the Enchantment of the Seas, same class, to the Baltimore runs.

 

     I’ve been on a few other RCL ships, but enjoyed this one much more. The Oasis of the Seas types are way too large for me (5k+) - don’t even feel I’m on a cruise at sea on it so I’ll stick with the ‘smaller’ RCL ships. This ship is in great shape and the staff was excellent. Enjoyed the cruise a good deal. Very family oriented but didn’t feel I was overrun with kids. Lots of activities for them. Heck, the kids were more well mannered than some of the adults!

 

Positives:

Entertainment: Outstanding shows with what I considered some of the best I’ve seen. Unlike the larger RCL ships, it didn’t have a Broadway play, diving or ice show and so on, but had a Tango demo I thought was fantastic, and along with a funny juggler/magician I was well entertained. They also had a full live band that rivaled the Celebrity bands. Love live music.

Common Areas: Adult-only Solarium pool and area. Much like Celebrity’s where I spent most of my time. Warm saltwater pool and healthy food. Nice lounges.             

Dining: Not quite up to Celebrity, especially the 4 dining rooms on the Edge, but met my needs. Did one specialty restaurant, Giovanni’s - it was great. Not quite as expensive as most of the Celebrity restaurants.

Diamond Status: the Diamond social area was small so they expanded it into a lounge and allowed us 3 free drinks on our cards anywhere 4:30-8:00pm. This allowed early diners to enjoy Diamond happy hour longer. My experience was they didn’t count the drinks that much and all the bars were open for use and free drinks at dinner, unlike Celebrity which restricts some bars and none at dinner. Not nearly as many goodies with Diamond as you get with Elite but sufficed.

 

Not Quite as Nice:

SR: Being an older ship, it had few balconies which were quite expensive. Our Oceanview was OK. Definitely smaller than the standard Celebrity SR, as was the BR which had shower curtains instead of enclosures - I’m spoiled. Beds are lower so can’t store most luggage under the bed. Storage space was fine. Our bed was against the outside wall and faced the door which let in light around the hinges when closed so had to keep the closet door open to block the light. Also got rammed more than a few times by the BR door when at the closet. tricky. SR sufficed for the 7N cruise. Very small safe.

Announcements: Drove me a bit batty. Classic early, mid, late announcements on what-to-do’s.

No Lectures: No lectures on various good stuff we always get with Celebrity. Love the traveling speakers that are booked, but none on this cruise and it had 4 sea days.

Noise: The band/entertainment in the foyer was even louder than what I experience on the Solstice Class - all over the decks above. And was awoke by more than a few engine/generator noises and vibrating window. Probably due to being older.

Ports: This isn’t an RCL vs Celebrity issue. Just not big on Nassau and spend the day onboard. Cape Canaveral is OK, but had 5 ships in and was told the NASA tours were long lines and tiring. No tours of interest on this cruise. But did go to Coco Cay, which I’d been to many years ago. It was just a beach layabout then but it’s very impressive now. I’m not a beach guy much but Coco Cay was fun to experience. And the kids went crazy there.

Spa: Wife and daughter had an inport massage. Ok but had big issues with charges. Was charged full price instead of inport rate; they failed to mention the Diamond discount. Fixed by Customer Service. Other vendors such as photo people immediately identified we were Diamond and gave discount without us asking. This was ELEMIS which was on Celebrity and was replaced.

Misc: Coffee was terrible. I’m not that finicky but it was bitter and went from dark oil-black to I could read my paper through it. For Texed: the Belgium Waffles made up for it!!

 

Do it again? Yup. Probably different itinerary but enjoyed it and very relaxing. Will keep an eye out for RCL itineraries on their mid/smaller ships. I don’t care what the ads say about the large ships, there are 5K+ passengers who want to do many of the same things at the same time.

 

Den

   

Den,  we used to sail RC a lot and Grandeur was a short easy drive from Philadelphia to Baltimore.  Old ship but a lot of class.  We took this grand old lady to and from Bermuda.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and the service across the ship was very friendly and overall outstanding.  Love the aft Diamond Lounge. It seems that the crew members tried harder than newer ships and were proud.  The captain came to the Diamond Lounge on several nights and just hung out there with all of us.  A true gem!  Glad you enjoyed her too!  We are heading out on Eclipse in Chile tomorrow.