Grandeur of the Seas Review

Grandeur of the Seas - 2nd times a charm from Charm City!

Review for Bermuda Cruise on Grandeur of the Seas
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crookedhalo
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Sep 2009

GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS - BERMUDA This was our second trip on GOS, and the second time we've departed from Baltimore. We are from Southern Maryland, in our mid-40's with two children in college (we were celebrating having survived to this point on this trip). This was my 7th cruise (4th on RCCL) and my husband's 6th cruise (3rd on RCCL). If it was possible, this embarkation was even smoother than the one in 2006. When we arrived at the terminal around 10:30, there was virtually no line. We stopped at the tent for people who didn't have tags for their bags (our GTY wasn't assigned until about 2 weeks before sailing), dropped our luggage, paid for parking, parked and were walking into the terminal by 10:55! As we entered the terminal, they were announcing General Boarding for all passengers. Within probably 20 minutes we were posing for our welcome aboard shot and on our way to Bermuda! I am going to break this down into several sections, hopefully I'll address all the important things that you want to know ? EMBARKATION: Baltimore's cruise terminal is very easy to find. We did, however, notice that some of the signage on southbound 95 directing you to the terminal has been removed. If you don't see the signage just north of Rt. 97, you'll probably miss the terminal. We didn't have any problems, but then again, we live in the area ? Parking is $15 per day, payable before you park by cash or credit card (this is a change from 2006, and it's a good one?). Parking is plentiful, as they have obviously expanded the lot since Carnival is also home porting out of Baltimore now. The terminal is very basic, but does the job. There were plenty of agents and the line went very quickly (except for the couple traveling with us - the systems went down as soon as they got to the desk and it took about 10 minutes to come back up - we joked that Homeland Security obviously knew something we didn't !) and we were in the waiting area enjoying lemonade and cookies (another change from 2006) while we waited for our friends ? TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS: I used Cruisecompete to find the travel agent we booked this cruise through. For the most part, they were very good, they were just slower to respond then I would have liked. When I called to make a payment they returned my calls very, very quickly. Price drop - now that was a different story! I probably will not use this agency again - I had to make multiple calls and finally call a supervisor to make sure that I got the price drops that were available (and believe me, they were worth the trouble!). We originally booked an Inside GTY for around $650 pp. We wound up changing to an OV GTY when they dropped the price to $450 pp. We were assigned the very last OV cabin on the port side of the ship. It was quite a walk to our cabin - extra exercise! A perfect excuse to consume extra calories ? The cabin was as expected, a little worn but with plenty of space for two people. The cabin actually had two Pullman berths, but I don't think I would ever try to put that many people in that cabin - it would be positively claustrophobic! Bathroom was the same as the one we had in our balcony on GOS in 2006 - very small, but efficient. Only ran into the extra friendly shower curtain a few times during the trip ? MUSTER DRILL: I am happy to report that GOS no longer makes you wear a life vest during the muster drill ? The drill itself was held at your muster station and was wonderfully short! No announcements in multiple languages etc. Capt. Rob was a hoot with his portion! PUBLIC SPACES: GOS is an aging lady. The public areas are a bit more worn then they were in 2006, but none were so worn they were unattractive. Sort of like a genteel old lady - still shows her splendor, it's just softened around the edges. I love GOS purely because of the intimate feeling you get on the smaller ships. She's easy to navigate and you don't get lost too often! DINING ROOM: The Great Gatsby was as spectacular as I remembered! The servers seem a bit more rushed than in 2006, but I think that the assistants are helping more servers than before, which might account for that. Both of our servers were from Jamaica, and since my husband and I had been there last year on another trip, we had a lively conversation with them about their homeland. Both the server (Althea) and assistant (Terry-Ann) were wonderfully attentive and picked up on our needs and routines very quickly (they stopped trying to take my leftover entrees until my husband got what he wanted from my plate!). The food was pretty much unchanged from our last RCCL trip (2008), and I must say, I would like to see RCCL change up the menus a bit. The food itself was flavorful and beautifully presented. The lobster was done to perfection (my husband and another member of our party requested two tails and had no problem getting them). The desserts (especially my favorite - the Grande Marnier SoufflE) were very tasty. The bar service in the dining room left a bit to be desired - it took a while for your drink order to reach you (hope you still want it when it gets there!), so a few nights we stopped at the champagne bar and got what we wanted before we went into the dining room. WINDJAMMER: I am just not a fan of buffet food, so I don't spend a lot of time in the Windjammer - basically eat lunch there the first day and then breakfasts for the rest of the trip. The breakfasts are very good - I usually end up getting an omelet made to order @ the deli counter, so it's always warm and tasty. The eggs that they have on the line are very gloopy and unappealing to me, so I skip them. The waffles and pancakes are never truly hot enough to melt butter so I usually only give them one try during the trip. I love the fact that there is always plenty of melon and fruit available - I have some every morning! SOLARIUM CAFÉ/BEN & JERRYS/ROOM SERVICE: The Solarium Cafe serves burgers, dogs, pizza and fries until around 3am each night, so we visited a few times during the cruise for those late night munchies. The food satisfied a need. That's about the most I can say for it (though the fries are usually good). Ben and Jerrys - you'll pay extra for the shakes, ice cream and coffee in this area, but when you buy one of the above, you can get the most delectable pastries for free (the cranberry scones are yummy!) - I actually think they're better than the desserts in the Windjammer ? Room Service - we used this only once during our trip, again for those late night munchies and the Solarium Cafe just wasn't what we wanted. We ordered the Chorizo queso w/chips and a cheese tray. Both were delivered very promptly (probably within 10 minutes) because of our proximity to the kitchen I think. Food was good enough for what it was ? ENTERTAINMENT: We had two different comics during our trip. The first was pretty unimpressive. The second, Kelly MacDonald, was funny in a kind of quirky way. His whole thing was about being caught between your kids and you parents and not knowing which way was up ? You could take a child to his shows - even the late one had no bad language in it, very refreshing! Los Pampos Guachos also preformed two times - I loved their show, it was very energetic and lively. The rhythm was great. They were also behind the other main show (Flourescense I think it was called) which used some black light technology to put on a really neat show. The production shows were average - something to do, nothing to write home about. The black male lead singer and the white female lead singer were both standouts. We didn't participate in any of the hairy leg contests, Quest (our traveling companions wouldn't have gone for it - hubby and I would have) or shopping shows, so have nothing to add about them. CASINO/BINGO: Casio seemed to be pretty tight most of the trip - I heard about a few people who won 4 or 5 k on the slots, but not much more than that. Husband said the tables just weren't 'hot' the entire trip (not that it stopped him from trying to heat them up!). Now Bingo - that's a different story ? I only played two times - both on the last sea day. I decided to spend the extra money and get one of the tracking devices ($67 - loaded w/30 cards for each of the 4 games). Do it - almost everyone I saw who won had one. I won two of the games (total of about $250), so I made money on the deal ? I also did fairly well with the jewelry raffles ? They raffled of three pieces of jewelry - I am now the proud owner of a pair of 14k gold diamond chip/dolphin earrings, a gold chain anklet and a pair of genuine amber earrings ? The trick is to get to the drawings early - for both pairs of earrings, I swear only about 10 people actually showed up for the drawing! BERMUDA: Okay, this is (next to Freeport) the most disappointing port I have ever visited. It's very pretty but, much like Nassau, it's geared for shoppers. If you're a big golfer, diver or beach person you'll probably like Bermuda more than I did. For me, this was the low point of the trip ? My husband chose a dive excursion offered through RCCL. Apparently the excursion was cancelled for lack of participation (husband didn't find out until about 15 minutes after the excursion was supposed to leave!) and according to them, they sent a letter to our cabin (never got it) and left a VM on our phone. We got a VM, but when I tried to retrieve it, following the directions posted on the phone, it would never set up. I later spoke to the pursers desk (while I was checking to make sure the credit posted to our account) and found out that the ship had recently changed from "1111" as a password to VM to your cabin number - oops, guess our cabin missed the instruction sheet change. My husband, luckily, was able to get onto another dive trip, so the day wasn't a total loss for him ? I went to Horseshoe Bay beach with the couple travelling with us. It is a very beautiful beach (as beaches go), and I enjoyed just laying in the sun and reading. It was quite fun getting back using Bermuda's bus system. We had to wait while two busses passed our stop (with probably 40 or 50 peoplewaiting) and finally caught a #7 to the dockyards. It took a while to get back to the dockyards, and the bus dropped us off a bit away from the cruise terminals, so we had a nice stroll back to the ship ? BUT we were onboard by 'all-aboard' time, so I was happy? DISEMBARKATION: Disembarkation wasn't quite as smooth as embarkation, but it wasn't as bad as some I've been through. We obviously had some problems with clearing customs, because disembarkation began a full hour behind schedule. Our color group was waiting in the Palladium Theater, so at least we were comfortable. The poor guy who was in charge of our area was asking lame trivia questions while waiting for the okay to let certain colors go. Once our color was called, it was hurry up and wait. We got to the gangway and just came to a complete halt.....GRRRRR! Once through that jam we made our way into the terminal and went through customs - much better than 2006! They had all 6 customs windows open and rolling, so it moved very quickly and smoothly! Found our luggage in a few minutes, passed it off to a porter and were on our way to the car to begin the trip home. Our vacation was over ? I enjoyed GOS as much this time as I did in 2006 and am actually looking at another trip on her next fall, before she moves to Panama. You won't regret booking GOS - she doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the radiance or freedom classes, but she is a wonderful classy lady who delivers a great trip ?

Cabin Review

Cabin OV

Last OV on the port side, deck 3. Right next to a crew area and the kitchen. Heard a bit of noise late a night from crew members on the other side of wall - not enough to disturb us. You could hear the chairs being moved around in the dining room above us in the morning, but again not enough to disturb us.

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