Grandeur of the Seas Review

Great staff and shows, the ship shows its age though

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Grandeur of the Seas
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MDtechiecruiser
6-10 Cruises • Age 40s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Mar 2017
Cabin: Interior Stateroom

We're a couple in our mid- to late-30's, have cruised Royal 5 times now and have been on Norwegian, Princess, and Carnival in the past.

This ship leaves the Baltimore cruise port, one of my favorites. It's so easy to get in, park, and get on the ship in a short time period. We showed up around 11:30, and didn't have to wait at all to park and only waited about 20 minutes for security and checking in. The port staff are friendly.

The ship is old, one of the oldest in the Royal ships. You can see this in the rust and wear on the exterior, the creaks of the ship in the waves, and the maintenance issues that arise. However, the size is quite nice where it doesn't take long for you to get from one venue to another, and it has lots of glass everywhere with wonderful views of the ocean and the signature Centrum. Biggest complaint about this ship is that, as it is small, there's really only four lounges: Viking Crown (at top), South Pacific (looking out back), Schooner Bar, and the Centrum. On our 12-night cruise, the Viking Crown was closed at least 8 times for a special event, and the South Pacific was closed each early evening for Diamond Club overflow. Then there were many activities in the Schooner and Centrum, leaving no lounge to just sit and read and chill in peace all day.

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin Q

Noise: Deck 2 is a complete cabin deck (unlike other ships), so no noise from crew activities and spaces. Even though it's a connecting cabin, we never heard any noise from adjoining cabins. Being the lowest deck, you don't often have traffic through the halls.

Space, furnishings, and storage: The cabin is well arranged and has lots of storage. It was easy to walk around the bed on the right side (but very tight on the left side between the bed and desk) and had a big open space in the middle. Even for a 12-night cruise, we didn't use but 3/4 of the available storage space. The closet had more than plenty hangars and it's easy to put your suitcase under the bed. The bed was comfortable to us both and the linens soft. You do get two pillows each, with different firmness levels. Because it's a connecting room, you only get a chair (instead of a loveseat) and a small side table (instead of a coffee table) and there's no reading light at the chair.

Bathroom: There is only a shower curtain, not the hard doors. We bring extra-large binder clips to weigh the bottom of the curtain down, but not as effective as the hard doors. The bathroom has 3 storage shelves, a drawer, and a cabinet that often has extra supplies but you can reapportion. I don't have a lot of makeup, but we never felt we needed additional storage there.

Ship quirks (not just this cabin): There is no minibar or fridge (you ask the room steward for minibar items). There were less TV channels available than on other ships, and no channel for ordering room service or seeing your current Sea Pass account. The Space channel was great for action movies, and also watched TCM, TBS, and TNT (no Dreamworks channel). However, we couldn't find a way to turn on subtitles when needed.

Port Reviews

Baltimore

Great cruise port to start from. It's cheap to park (compared to other ports), and easy to drive to. It takes less than 30 minutes to park, get through security, and check in.

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