We traveled from our home on Long Island to Baltimore by Amtrak, which wasn't bad, total time about 4 hrs and, stayed overnight at the Residence Inn Marriot ,than took a cab to the pier , I little bit of a pain because of hauling the luggage ,but doable. Since we were cruising in a suite and are diamond members embarkation was painless, no waiting in line we were on the ship in 10 minutes.
This was our 34th cruise ,so I guess you can call us veteran Cruisers. 2nd cruise on the Grandeur ,which I consider an elegant ship ,but it's getting time to be refurbished ,as a lot of the areas appear dirty and or faded .
The quality of the food in both the main dining Hall and the pay extra restaurants was good to excellent . One thing I can say that they go out of there way to make sure your satisfied ,more so than most of the other cruises we've been on.
Nice sized suite ,showing its age , the Balcony ,which is a decent size was filthy and the furnishing were worn with numerous burn marks ,I guess from other passengers [lazy rude slobs] throwing their cigarette butts off their balcony's . We would normally have room service breakfast served on the balcony but it was so dirty my wife refused to even sit there.
After complaining to the hotel Manager ,the balcony was cleaned up and furniture washed ,they even brought extra towels to use on the lounge chairs .[ normally you shouldn't have to ask for this]