Grand Time on the Grandeur

We just returned from our 10 night cruise to the Caribbean on the Grandeur. What a wonderful cruise. First, we spent the night before in Baltimore prior to the cruise. Embarkation was a breeze. We drove to the port, parked the car, dropped off luggage, and literally sailed through the on-boarding process. From hotel to ship only took us about a half hour. We found lunch in the Windjammer and a table in the Solarium where we relaxed until our cabin was ready. Our luggage had already arrived so we unpacked right away. The easiest boarding ever.

We had a balcony cabin on deck seven. It was surprisingly spacious and had more storage than we needed. We met our outstanding cabin steward, Collin. He took great care of us throughout the cruise. His cheerfulness and humor, along with his competence was impressive.

We're diamond club members and went to the daily cocktail reception and was amazed at what was provided. A lovely buffet and complimentary drinks - and every day of the cruise. It was certainly a much appreciated benefit of loyalty to RC.

Then on to dinner where we met our waiter, Jorge and his assistant, Barrington. We've been on 20 cruises so far and Jorge and Barrington were the very best wait staff we've ever had. And Delroy, the head waiter was equally impressive. For one thing, we rarely have ever seen a head waiter on other cruises but Delroy made it a point to chat with everyone at every table nearly every day. And he was so extremely helpful. Oh, and the food was very good. I had the rack of lamb one evening and it was delicious. There were no real misses at dinner, everything was tasty and well prepared.

We ate breakfast and lunch most days in the dining room as well. The lunch menu varied by day. My favorite was the build your own salad bar - staff was behind the counter - you selected your items and them made it into a huge salad with large selection of items and dressing. Really nice. The few meals we had in the Windjammer were quite good as well.

Can't comment much on the shipboard activities as we rather like to take walks around the deck, read and relax.

Ports were all familiar to us so nothing much to report there. Labadee is a beautiful spot with plenty to do if you want it or you can just sit on the beach and go for a swim. Old San Juan is always worth a walk around and a stop for a snack and some sangria. We rented a car in St. Thomas and hit the beach. In St. Maarten we walked off the ship, made it as far as the shopping area at the pier, bought a couple of souvenirs and then returned to enjoy the empty ship and the lack of crowd around the pool.

Back in Baltimore, we took advantage of walking off with your luggage and were in our car and on our way home by 8AM.

All in all, this was a really wonderful cruise with plenty of relaxation time, great meals, exceptional service and meeting some great new people at the daily cocktail hour.