My wife and I took a scheduled nine night cruise on Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore leaving May 16, 2008. It was supposed to leave May 15 but because the previous cruise encountered unusually high seas and went one day longer, ours was shortened by a day. St. Thomas was cut out which was no problem for me because that is a shopping port primarily, but my wife would have preferred another port to be cut. Anyway, to me, being on a cruise is great and this was no exception.

Embarkation: We live a half hour away so we did not have to stay in a hotel overnight. We got into our car around 1, parked our car at 1:30 and by exactly 2 we were through the check in and seated at the Windjammer Cafe on Deck 9 for a nice buffet lunch. We have checked in now on two cruises in Baltimore and it has to be the fastest, friendliest and quickest check-in that we have gone through and we have embarked in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Philadelphia. They don't come close to Baltimore for ease of getting on a ship.

The Ship: The Grandeur is like many other Royal Caribbean ships we have sailed. Other people in their reviews give a much better description of all the amenities than I could here. I will talk about my favorite features and less than favorite features. Read more