Embarkation We embarked the ship after flying from Washington Regan Airport to Tampa on March 27 and visiting with family in Punta Gorda for two days. Embarkation could not have been easier. Since we rented a car from National, we were expecting to have to give back the car, go to the airport, and get a taxi to the ship. As it turned out, National provides a taxi straight to the port, which was very convenient. Out of my cruises, this was the quickest embarkation. We jumped off the bus to the port, gave our luggage to a porter, and walked in. After filling out the compulsory CDC sheets, we got into the priority embarkation line, which had one other group in it, and got our SeaPass cards immediately. This was a great perk of being in a junior suite, since most other lines don't offer priority boarding to their minisuites. We stopped to grab refreshments on the way into the SeaPass picture line, got our pictures taken, and walked right onto the ship.

Cabin The cabin that we were staying in was a junior suite on the eighth floor right next to the main staircase. This turned out to be an amazing location. After getting on the ship, we actually came up the main stairway and then took a bit of a roundabout path to it, only to find that the cabin was about 10 steps from where we came up. Naturally, due to the Grandeur's size, the cabin was a bit on the small side, but it was nice enough, had a good sized balcony, and fit the four of us comfortably. On the first day during departure, it was a bit worrying because the balcony doorway seemed to creak while the ship moved, but it went away that evening and never came back. It seemed like the shower had a bit of a problem keeping a constant temperature, but otherwise the bathroom was good. Our stateroom steward was nice, though less personal than the one on Princess. Towards the end of the cruise, some cool towel animals started showing up. The location was one of the best parts of the cabin. Being right next to the stairs, we could get anywhere on the ship in just a matter of seconds, with the pool deck being just one deck up. In regards to this, we could hear some clomping and very light music from upstairs every so often, but normally not at night, and certainly not enough to be a bother.

The Ship The ship was great, even despite being by far the smallest that I've ever sailed on. There was nowhere that I noticed any signs of the ship's age. Certainly Royal Caribbean has been doing a great job of maintaining it. One area that I especially liked was the Viking Crown Lounge. During the daytime, there were almost never any people there, except for when teen activities were hosted there, making it a great "secret" place to just relax, play cards, or watch the ocean go by. A couple members of our family made frequent trips to the gym while on the ship, which they seemed to enjoy well enough. There were no fitness classes in the gym, since there was no instructor aboard the ship, but I assume that this is temporary and it wasn't a problem regardless. Unfortunately, even with how small the ship was, none of us managed to make it to the rock wall at all during the cruise. I guess that's something to do in the future . At some times, the forward part of the top deck got windy, especially on sailaway and during the sea days, but the aft of the ship was well protected from the wind, as was the "observatory." The front of the ship was a great place to watch the departure from Tampa, and it was surprisingly not crowded at all. Three of the four of us stayed out there all the way until we passed under the Skyway Bridge about two hours into departure. Read more