Grandeur of the seas Review 9/1-9/10

[unforgiven]

Hello all just got back from the 9/1-9/10 western Caribbean sailing of the Grandeur of the Seas from Baltimore. This was the third cruise my wife and I have taken; we are both in our mid to late 20’s. Here is our review of our wonderful trip.

 

 

Embarkation: Well considering tropical storm Ernesto made the ship two hours late into Baltimore I think this went very well. We arrived at 11:00 and did have to wait until 12:00 to board, but considering the circumstances I thought it was very good. RCCL docs say that 12:00 is the official boarding time anyway. I like the new cruise terminal in Baltimore; while not as fancy as those in Florida it is a big improvement over the old one. RCCL of course had tea, lemonade, and cookies while you wait to get on board.

 

 

The Ship: This was our second time aboard the Grandeur; our previous cruise was in May of 2004. We had an ocean view room on deck four and generally liked it. One thing to consider with this room was we was right above the promenade deck and could very often hear chains being slid over the deck, at times a minor annoyance. Otherwise we enjoyed the room and it’s location. We have never sailed on one of RCCL bigger ships, but usually found plenty to keep us busy and occupied during our trip. The general condition of the Grandeur in my opinion was very good. All week they were re-carpeting areas of the ship; rarely did this affect us much, except for the strong glue smell. The glass-enclosed solarium was very nice on a couple of the cooler days going up and down the eastern seaboard. We never smelt any of the offensive odors that have been reported here for any length of time, the carpet glue odor was much worse. Of course as many of you now know the Grandeur experienced problems with it’s starboard rudder and caused us to be late into Baltimore on our return trip. The majority of the delay was caused by us needing a tugboat escort up the Chesapeake Bay. Not that the tugs actual did anything they just was a precaution the coast guard wanted. The tugs could only achieve around 10 knots and we needed 18-20 up the bay to be on time, per our captain. Then next time we book an RCCL cruise we would like to try a Radiance or Voyager class ship for a change, as the ship is a destination unto itself.

 

 

Food: Now to one of the most subjective subjects in cruising. For the most part we was happy with the food. Our experience with most of the dinning room entrees was generally very good. On a couple nights some of the menus items were a little harder to pick an enticing entree, on others I could have picked several. Generally the food temperature was good I don’t remember too many cool items, but found the spinach dip in the dinning room VERY hot! This was the first time we had the new menu for the lunch in the dining room. We don’t like the fact only one-item changes for lunch and the dining room was not open for lunch while in port. This was likely because my wife and I quickly got tired of some of the Windjammer food for lunch. Now don’t get me wrong we always found something to eat and it was usually good. We just needed a better variety, and a little more quality. We never ate any of the midnight buffets but took pictures and they looked good. We were fortunate enough to have dinner with Captain Hempstead and found that to be one of the highlights of our trip.

 

Beverages: We enjoyed a drink in about every bar and always had a good time. We did a bar crawl with Cruise Critic members and had a great time, we meet some great people to hang out with during the week. The alcoholic drinks were usually mixed nice and strong (a good thing). We were also glad to see the addition of the café-lattatudes coffee bar on board. Not that we didn’t drink enough of the free stuff, it was good to be able to get better coffee. One thing we did notice was the inconsistent pricing of mixed cocktails. Such as Crown and coke from 5-6 $ per drink to a bellini from 7.99 –9.99 $ per cocktail. I’m not sure if the bar tender ringing up the drink was the difference or just a little higher price in certain bars.

 

 

Service: Overall the service on the ship was very good, only a couple of experiences where it wasn’t the best. Our cabin steward did appear overworked and on several time outright told us that, although we was very candid talking to her so I’m sure this is why she told us these things. However we could always count on a clean, made-up room, with fresh towels, and turn down service every time. Our dining room waiter Yogi and assistant waiter Oswald was the best we’ve had so far of our three cruises. If you get Yogi be sure to ask him for a magic trick or two though the week.

 

The entertainment: We didn’t hit every show so I’m not an expert here. But found most of the entertainment to be good. With the Magician and Mario and the karaoke to be very entertaining. The two guys in the Karaoke finals both were in my opinion very good. One of the biggest reasons why we didn’t make as many shows was we remembered them from two years ago. I guess I would have thought they would switch the shows around every year or so. I guess that is one downside to sailing on the same ship without more time in between.

 

 

Ports of Call:

 

Miami: We arrived on time at 4:00 pm, anyone who has been following this knows about the changed itinerary and times, so this was good. We took a 7-10 dollar cab ride to bayside market place. If I remember it was 15$ per person for the ship transfer. Cabs are available by walking a short distance from where you exit the pier. It was pouring down raining so we really didn’t stay long at bayside. Went to dinner in the dining room to find out it was open seating and your could come in and dine anytime between 6:00 and 8:30 pm. It stopped raining before our sail away from Miami and it was very nice to see the lights of the city of Miami from the top deck as we sailed away, a highlight of the trip.

 

Key West: This was our favorite port of all of them. We did the Pub-crawl tour from the RCCL excursion list. My wife and I both enjoyed this even though at one point during our walking tour it poured down raining. I read a few comments about doing this on your own and you could easily do so, however the tour guide gave us plenty of great Key West history and we made friends on the crawl. I never did see any of those all out great beaches in Key West, as the coast is rocky, however to us it just had a neat feel is the reason we liked it so much.

 

Cozumel: This was our second trip to Cozumel and we enjoyed it just the same. You can definitely tell this island was hit by a hurricane a little over a year ago. I think considering the fact they are doing well in their recovery process. We did the RCCL Mexican cuisine and cooking class offered at Playa Mia Beach Park. We both loved this, as we got to make a tasty meal and drink plenty of good drinks while preparing and eating our food. Afterwards we were able to use the beach and all of it amenities. Our captain informed us we was going to dock in Cozumel and then at the last minute the Mexican government closed the pier to do more work to it. We of course had to tender which is more of a hassle than being able to dock.

 

Costa Maya: I loved the beauty of the area but overall it was just ok. The complex they build for the cruise ship passengers to use is nice and if you’re looking to not spend any extra money where you can use the pool and beach area for free. We went to Majahul via the shuttle bus and rented jet skis and ate at the cat’s meow. We enjoyed the Food there and would recommend them. We’ve been to several places in Mexico and found the people in Majahul as pushy as any in we’ve encountered. We were told it’s a very slow off-season for them right now.

 

Port Canaveral: If the space shuttle had taken off as scheduled this would have been the ultimate bonus to a great trip. However it didn’t and we settled for a day at Coco Beach, and had a good time. The shuttle to the beach is right our side of the port exit and cost 8$ per person for both ways.

 

 

Debarkation: This was very impaired by the late arrival of the Grandeur because of the Rudder problem. We arrived at the pier at 2:30 but we didn’t get out of the parking lot until 5:00 pm. I feel the RCCL crew and the port crew did all they could given the circumstances, but after sitting around waiting it was very nice to be off. We were very late getting home and is making for a long day today. I feel real bad for the people that had to change their plane flights, as I know that had to be a major pain and inconvenience.

 

 

Thanks for reading all in all we had a very positive RCCL experience. We hop RCCL keeps investing in home porting, as we love the fact we don’t have to fly. We would love for more cruise lines to come into Baltimore for a better variety of ships. As you can tell we had a good Cruise Critic meet and mingle turn out and group on this trip. If you have any question I will try to answer them.

[It'sRC4ME]

Thanks for the review - we're sailing Grandeur to Bermuda on 9/24 and it's nice to see current info from people who are roughly our age.

[wrp96]

Thanks for the review. I'm glad you had a good cruise and didn't let the delays get you down. Hope you get some good rest tonight!

[R'man]

Glad you had a nice cruise. I have been intrigued by the up-and-down nature of food reviews on GOS. What dishes did you most enjoy for dinner, and which were something less?

[Radio]

<SNIP>

 

Food: We were fortunate enough to have dinner with Captain Hempstead and found that to be one of the highlights of our trip. <SNIP>

.

 

WoW ...how did you arrange dinner with the Captain ?

 

Radio

;) ;)

[bobavel]

>> Miami: We arrived on time at 4:00 pm, anyone who has been following this knows about the changed itinerary and times, so this was good. We took a 7-10 dollar cab ride to bayside market place. If I remember it was 15$ per person for the ship transfer. <<

 

What's the difference between the Ship Transfer and the cab ride? I don't understand what the ship transfer is all about.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Bob and Kathy

[wrkfire911]

Hello fellow Virginian!! What time was your M&M set up for? there is an active thread going around asking the same and there are a variety of times being listed-however it's on a number of different ships..was just wondering what they schedule on the Grandeur for your cruise...we will be sailing her on Oct 13th!!

[unforgiven]

Radio- We got dinner with the captain because My wife remembered our head waiter from another cruise. We talked with us a bit, and asked if we always dressed up for formal night, we said always. That was when we where asked if we wanted to have dinner with the captain.

 

bobavel- I never did look into the ship transfers in miami, I've been there before and figured we could find a cab. I saw many people buying the 15 $ pp to Bayside vs. 10 Max for four people to get there. Maybe the transfer is worth it if your going to South beach, It was raining pretty good so we decided not to do that.

 

wrkfire911- It was on Saturday our first sea day at 1:30 pm.

 

R'man- I liked the Tempura mahi mahi , the steak Oscar, the prime rib, and most of the dishes with fish. Most of the appetizers was also pretty good. My wife didn't care for the Gray Goose pasta and a couple of the Asian inspired dishes. I didn't have too many complaints with the dinning room food, it's not quite the variety it once was but normally found something I liked. Our biggest issue was with the lack of variety in the Windjammer and some of the quality. We only ate in the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch, never did dinner there.

[jjdc]

Thanks for posting your review so quickly. I'm glad you enjoyed the cruise. I plan on going to the Mexican cuisine and cooking class. Glad to hear that you liked it. How many people participated in the class? Did you have much free time at the beach after the class?

[Gypsea]

Thanks for taking the time to review. We leave on the 24th sailing also.

 

Just once it would be neat to end up at the Cptns. table. I am happy you had the experience.

 

Was your stateroom nice? A balcony? I am in the forward area of deck two but that's fine. At least it's an oceanview.

[unforgiven]

We had a plain oceanview cabin on deck 4. It wasn't huge but the location wasn't bad right off of the champagne lounge area.

 

jjdc- We had just eight people in our cooking class, all from our ship. They had an earlier class also for the other ships in port, and just finished cleaning up when we arrived. We didn't take the bus back with the group and instead took a taxi to the pier, so we had a little over two hours until they closed. The taxi was 15$ to the downtown pier where we tendered in. If we had taken the bus back it would have only been about an hour, one reason we had a shorter time was a mid afternoon rain storm and we stayed under the canopy area for a while.

[SilkieGirl]

Hello all just got back from the 9/1-9/10 western Caribbean sailing of the Grandeur of the Seas from Baltimore. This was the third cruise my wife and I have taken; we are both in our mid to late 20’s.

 

Thanks for the review! My husband and I are in our 30's and it was nice to see a review from someone in our age range. :cool: We are going on the Grandeur at the end of the month to Mexico and we are really excited. It will be our first (pleasure) cruise.

 

It sounds like you had a good time. I'm wondering what I'll do on the sea days to keep busy. Were there a lot of people in their 20's and 30's????

 

Thanks!

Mary

[jjdc]

Thanks for the added info on the cooking class!

[unforgiven]

SilkieGirl- It seemed to be enough people in our age range. We had four total in our party and hung out with some CC'ers so we never was too board. We went up to the viking crown lounge most nights it was usually open to at least 3 a.m. There was more night life on this cruise than our last 9 night repositioning aboard the Grandeur.

[lszu]

Unforgiven - Thanks for the review. It helps to pass the time until our Grandeur cruise. We're doing the cooking class in Cozumel, too, and are really looking forward to it.

[yj2cute]

I'm curious about the cooking class. Was that a RCCL ship excursion? It sounds interesting. I'm going to Coz on the Enchantment next week and didn't see that listed in the excursions for Coz.

 

Would appreciate any info. Thanks.

[lszu]

yj2cute - Yes, it was offered by RCCL. Wonder why they'd offer it for one ship and not the other.

[lszu]

yj2cute - Yes, it was offered by RCCL. Wonder why they'd offer it for one ship and not the other.

[zebra36]

Thanks for the review,

 

"The majority of the delay was caused by us needing a tugboat escort up the Chesapeake Bay. Not that the tugs actual did anything they just was a precaution the coast guard wanted. The tugs could only achieve around 10 knots and we needed 18-20 up the bay to be on time, per our captain."

 

though I think the captain was trying to put the best light on a bad situation.

 

The Grandeur may have needed to do the 18-20 knots up the bay to make it back on time they would have gotten a speeding ticket as the ship channels in the bay have speed limits I believe as low as 6 knots in some places.

[dad son team]

Sounds like it was a good cruise. I was getting off the ship when you were getting on and want to apologize for returning it late. I will agree that the fumes from the carpet glue were very strong. They were replacing carpet on the stairs on our sailing as well. I also found discrepancies with the drink pricing on my sailing. When I got home and took a closer look at my seapass account, I realized that I bought a drink or 2 for someone in the theater. I would get a Margarita for me, and the non-alchoholic drink of the day for my son during the show which should come to around $10-$12. I was charged $23 on one receipt and can'tfor the life of me think when I would have spent that much in the theater bar. I guess I need to look more when I sign the receipts, but that night I remember doing it in the dark because the show already started. Oh well.

[AdamOfCanaveral]

We were on the same cruise with Sherri and Adrian (Unforgiven). We had a great time and I agree with just about everything that Adrian said. (I think it was Adrian that wrote the review - could be wrong.)

 

We bought the excursion for the cooking class in Cozumel, overslept that morning and looked out and saw that it was raining and decided the heck with it and went back to bed for another hour or two. Sounds like we should have forced ourselves to get up.

 

Enjoyed meeting you Sherri and Adrian. Hope you will think about joining us next September on the 9 night cruise to New England and Canada.

[unforgiven]

fnb218- I'm sure if he could put some blame off RCCL plate, he would do so. I overheard more than a few people who where very mad with RCCL for not telling us of the problem sooner, they felt it was a safety issue. I never felt unsafe while being a board. Maybe I'm naive here and should have been. As I had in my review we only had to wait until 12:00 to board like the RCCL docs said, no biggie. We it rough coming in from Bermuda that Thursday night?

 

AdamofGaithersburg- We did really enjoy the cooking class, the wine didn't hurt either. We did have a great CC group this time, and I felt we had a good one on our first cruise. If we cruise next year it will most likely be on the Explorer out of NJ. My wife and I agree we want to see a different ship next time, even though we thing the Grandeur is great.

[zubey]

Hi Mary,

My husband and I are in the 30s and on your cruise departing the 29th. Look forward to meeting you!

Danielle and Hector

[GoNavyBeatArmy]

Danielle and Hector - Hi there! Looks like we are on your same cruise. My husband and I are also in our 30s...glad to see some other thirtysomethings onboard!

 

Mary - Hello! Looks like you are Navy too. Look forward to meeting everyone soon.