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My wife & I have recently returned from a Spanish Mediterranean cruise (departure date 23/10/2011)aboard RCI's Grandeur of the Seas.
We had booked the cruise some months previously, but were quite apprehensive as the departure date approached as we had read a number of negative reviews about the ship.
We needn't have worried - the ship (although showing a few signs of her age ) was fine & the levels of service and friendliness of the crew were exceptional.
We had spent a few days in Mallorca prior to embarking in Palma, so we were at the cruise terminal at midday & were quickly aboard and enjoying lunch in the Windjammer buffet restaurant.
Our cabin (inside midships) was smallish, but very clean & with lots of wardrobe space and perfectly ok for our needs.
The cabin stateroom(#3569) appeared to be flanked by storage/utility units and we had none of the noise often associated with adjoining cabins.
The ship is beautifully appointed - and will be even better after the planned refit this Spring - and the public rooms are well planned & spacious.
Our favourite bars were the Schooner Piano Bar & the South Pacific Showbar(which is like a mini theatre)and there is also a disco bar (Crown Viking) & casino.
The Great Gatsby main restaurant has the choice of early & late sittings with the option of "My Time" dining (on the upper floor).
The restaurant is very well furnished, the dining room staff are fantastic (our waiters, Lichenerie & Kelroy were very efficient & friendly) and the food is varied & well prepared, although not always as hot as we would have liked.
Drinks are very expensive, but we pre-ordered the Gold wine package(7 bottles) which worked out at approx £18 per bottle and was quite good value.
We did not attend many of the shows - we opted for late dinner sitting and the timings of the shows was difficult - but the ones that we saw were very good although we were not too impressed by the tennis racquet juggler !!
The ports of call were good (Palma , Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga & Gibraltar), but the port shuttle & excursions are a rip-off.
We walked quite easily into the various towns (average 15 mins)even though RCI were charging $10 per passenger for the shuttle and we could replicate the RCI excursions ourselves at a fraction of the cost.
However, that is only a minor gripe on what was a very enjoyable cruise.
We also had 2 medical emergencies on board, the first of which required the ship to turn around & return to Malaga and the second involved the patient being evacuated from the ship by helicopter.
Both incidents added a little excitement to the cruise & I hope resulted in prompt treatment & recovery for those concerned.
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