This is not a great port unless you have PLENTY of time to either visit Orlando theme parks or the JFK Space Center. That would mean being off the ship at the crack of dawn and having until late at night to return. We spoke to families that took an excursion to Disney. They ended up only having 4 hours to spend at Disney, so for the price of excursion (bus ride) and admission ticket to Disney Park, they felt they had wasted their money. It took a very long time to disembark from the ship. PC is not set up well for taxis, etc. and is very confusing. We rented an Enterprise car in advance and called the shuttle to pick us up. Time consuming, but worked out fine. We attempted to go to the Brevard Zoo; it was too crowded to even park the car, and was 30 minutes outside of Cocoa Beach. So we turned around and went back to Cocoa Beach. The town of Cocoa Beach is a bit tacky, but the beach is pretty. Just way too cold and windy to consider the beach on the day we were there. We had fun at Gator Golf, and we stopped at the Lori Wilson Park—a free public beach with nice facilities and a nature trail. if I could talk to the Florida Board of Tourism, I would recommend that they make PC more tourist friendly (how about some signage?) and run regular shuttles into town to the rental agencies, restaurants, etc. A lot of tourist dollars are staying on the ship.

Port Canaveral (Orlando)

Absolutely lovely. We were there on a sunny but chilly day, so we did not swim or try any water sports. We did wade out to the sand bar to enjoy the stunning views. Friends form the ship did the Glass Bottom Boat tour and LOVED it. Facilities were clean, lunch was fine, and there were plenty of beach chairs and coves to explore. Could have stayed another day! Note: my sister signed up for the Beach Massage through the shop's spa. She said it was terrible. She had envisioned a relaxing outdoor massage; instead the massage was in a shack behind a bar and was noisy. Better to have a massage onboard the ship o a sea day. Tender process was fine, but departure-time preference is given to guests with excursions.

Perfect Day at CocoCay

Ah, Nassau. Each time we go to Nassau, we like it more. Our port time was not as long as we would have liked; not sure how anyone could justify Atlantis prices unless they had a much longer day. We had pre-booked day passes at the British Colonial Hilton (walking distance from ship) for $60 each and arrived there around 9:30 AM. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed their exquisite pool and beach. The fee comes with beach towels and $40 pp to spend on poolside food and drinks. That is a good bargain as we all had sandwiches and a couple of excellent tropical drinks. Try the Mojito! Service was very good, fast and friendly. Facilities are very clean and up to date. We felt fortunate to nab a few lounge chairs; people who arrived after us were not so lucky. Nassau could get one more star from me if the locals did not harrass you as you walk through their quaint downtown. It made us avoid stopping and shopping. A little subtlety could go a long way to encourage commerce.

Nassau

We had looked forward to this port, so we very disappointed. Partly it was the rainy, cold and windy weather, but mostly it was the tediously slow and inefficient immigration process that ended up taking 2 hours as we stood in lines that snaked back and forth on Deck 5 of the ship. Just crazy; people were beside themselves. So, that made us late getting off the ship and then the captain announced we had to make an early departure due to impending weather. So, we ended up with a short port time. We rented a golf cart and drove around to see the sights. Enjoyed Key Lime pie and stopped at one store, but it was much to cold to see beaches, etc. This experience would have been much nicer on a sunny day. We ended up cutting our losses ($110) and returning the cart early. We went back to the warm ship for lunch. When we saw the very long lines of passengers on the windy dock an hour later, we were glad we had returned early.

Key West

We liked the location, midship on Deck 3. So glad we were midship as we encountered very rough seas on two of the days. Sometimes we could hear music for the Centrum; glad we were not any closer to the Centrum as the music was loud until about midnight. Stateroom was fine, but smaller compared to Carnival's staterooms. The beds were too low to store suitcases underneath, so we had to have them out in the room. Our two rooms should have been the same but had different amenities. 3074 was missing a painting, just had a dark rectangle on wall were one had once hung. 3074 also did not have hangers for the lower closet bar. No ice buckets. Beds were comfy. Pillows were thin, but our steward brought us some extra ones. Flat screen tv is nice, but there's nothing to watch unless you want like sitcom reruns in Spanish. Bathroom is small, but has good storage for toiletries. Hand-held shower head kept falling off its bracket. Steward kept us supplied with fresh towels and serviced the room often. For some reason, there were housekeeping carts blocking the hallways all day every day. Have never noticed this on another ship.

The weather in the Bahamas was nice but all of our sea days were too cold and windy to be outdoors, so the pool decks were closed.That said, we had lots of fun and escaped much worse weather back home.

Grandeur of the Seas Review

Too Many Sea Days, Not Enough Sunshine!

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Large Ocean View Stateroom

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