Hello fellow cruisers or soon to be first time cruisers. This was my first cruise. I(with my hubby) went for 7 days on The Grandeur of the Seas out of baltimore to free port, key west , cococay, and port canaveral.

First embarkation: It was a very rainy day (we saw three accidents on our drive to the port) I wanted to leave by 11am but my hubby putzed around and we left at 1230, hit traffic accidents and bad weather but arrived at 2pm. The arrangement of drop off luggage and one of you drives the car to the parking lot and gets a buz ride back was ok. The line in was not too long, so I was in before hubby got back, I waited for a bit then went through without him. As the lines were getting long, the port authority person took his name so he was able to jump in and come through the line marginally faster. Then lines were long but moved well. I had hopes that the junior suite would allow us to go through the empty "suite and diamond, platinum members line" but I made the mistake of asking first and the guy said no. I could have just went through. In any case we met nice people in line and saw them throughout the cruise. Hi Ed and Barb. It was nice to "know" someone.

Things I didn't use: insulated cups, once or twice only lunch bags they wouldn't let you take food off ship, numerous bathing suits only wore two, balcony dries em, great anti-bacterial hand, wash didn't use it or the clorox wipes, didn't need night light but didn't bring one, flashlight didn't use but will probably bring one again just in case. Things I didn't bring that I wish I had: clock, though wake up call feature worked fine. Read more