We selected this cruise because it sailed from Baltimore which is about 1.5 hours from each of our homes. We were a family of 4 sailing in a grand suite. My Mom 82, My brother 62, me 59 and my 39 year old daughter. My Mom doesn't like to fly so we needed to find a cruise that we could drive to. We considered a larger ship sailing out of Cape Liberty, but we were drawn to the smaller size of this ship and the ease of the Baltimore port. Plus the grand suite was about a thousand dollars less expensive on this older, smaller ship. We loved the entire experience.

Embarkation was a breeze, we got to the Windjammer very early and there wasn't even a crowd there yet. It was easy to find a table with a view of the water. After lunch we went on deck had vacation drinks and waited for our suite to be ready. Beautiful day/pleasant experience. Promptly at 1pm they announced the rooms were ready and we made our way to deck 8. We loved our suite, plenty of room to unpack all of the stuff that the 4 of us brought. It is wonderful to be on a cruise and have a large deck. I had pre-ordered the water package and 12 bottles of Evian were there when we arrived. We explored the ship, found the concierge lounge along with the amazing Francis had a private "sail away" party and then at 5:30 made our way to the main dining room.

We had scheduled the 5:30 dining (my Mom's request) and Kenneth was our waiter. We had a table for 4 and ate every dinner in the Main Dining Room. Also Mom's request, she said that she wanted to eat all of the food that she had already paid for. We all enjoyed the menu and still to this day are talking about the great food on the Grandeur of the Seas. I ordered the cold soups every night and by the end of the 5 days I was ordering multiple appetizers. On Lobster night Kenneth made sure that we all got seconds, such a nice treat. Some things that were so special about this cruise, on formal night every single person was dressed beautifully, even families with children were totally dressed up. Everyone wanted to have the full cruise experience. We went to one game show and loved it. We tried to do as many activities as possible during this trip. We saw the aerial show twice from 2 different decks. Wonderful both times. We thought the cake decorating contest was a hoot and this time we sat close enough to get samples of the cake. Read more