At the last minute, my husband and I got a really good-deal cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda for a week; probably would have spent more staying home! Instead of the usual multi-hour airplane nightmare, this time it only took a short 40-minute drive to get to the Port of Baltimore. We got rid of our bags, parked the car, and boarded the ship within the next half hour--incredibly efficient! After seeing the Baltimore-based cruise ships pass our house every weekend, we finally experienced Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas for ourselves and were impressed with the newly refurbished ship's layout, decor, and service; the cuisine was also surprisingly excellent. The buffet set up was well organized; the dining room had excellent meal choices; the shows were entertaining; and the coffee--important to my husband--was good. Our cabin was fair-sized, but I didn't care for the recessed port holes, since we were only two cabins from the bow. But we had lots of storage space. Trivia--essential to me anyway--has been fun; we met several interesting folks from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida and won a few more key rings and luggage tags--essential to nobody.

After two days at sea, we got to Bermuda on the afternoon of day 3. It was warm, a bit humid, and full of busy tourists, of course. We spent the first day at the Royal Dockyard on the island's north-western tip poking about the small shops. We spent all of the second day riding the ferries and doing a bit of shopping. We took a bus to the beach at Horseshoe Bay the last day and the water was fabulous. We didn't want to do any shore excursions since we had been to Bermuda and spent a week doing everything. This time we got the 2 day pass for unlimited ferry and bus transportation.

We plan to return on the Grandeur of the Seas and do more sailings from Baltimore.