Grandeur of the Seas Review
Tante9701
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s
Rating by category
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Additional details
Sail Date: Aug 2015
Cabin: Family Ocean View Stateroom
Traveled with children
We chose this cruise for the departure port (only 1.5 hours from our house) and the availability of a large room that would sleep our family of 5 comfortably. We sailed out of Baltimore where parking and boarding was very easy and efficient. This is one of the smaller ships, but there was still plenty to do. We were in Cabin 8000 which was perfect for our family, very large and in a quiet part of the ship. Because this was a family cruise, our kids did not spend large quantities of time in Adventure Ocean (AO), but they had a great time when they were there. On one of the formal nights they had dinner there with the other kids. The other nights we had dinner together in the Main Dining Room and then they went to AO after so my husband and I could see a show or just relax for a while. AO also had some family activities that we all did together including a science time where we all got to make our own slime and a Scavenger hunt where they give you a list of photos that you need to take in places around the ship - the kids LOVED that and we won 2nd place!
We went on the Kennedy Space Center Tour excursion when we were docked at Port Canaveral which was both educational and fun for all of us. The tour guide was exceptional, fun, kind and very knowledgeable. At Nassau, we ventured out on our own to the Pirate Museum and Senor Frogs (where they made awesome gigantic hats for the kids out of balloons). At Coco Cay we walked to the far side of the island and had a nice quiet day on the beach. My only frustration there was that the hours for the lunch that as served there were not posted anywhere (though it might have been in the Compass and I missed it) and we missed out on getting any food which made for some very cranky kids.
I would definitely recommend this cruise to others, especially families with kids aged 3 (and potty trained) and up. Our children were 9, 7 and 4 hen we went and it was a great experience for them. As I said our room was perfect for us and a great value. There was a nice balance of days cruising and days in port. Overall, a great experience!
Cabin Review
Family Ocean View Stateroom
Cabin FF
This cabin as absolutely perfect for our family! We are a family of 5 (My husband and I and our 3 ids ages 9, 7 and 4) and there was a ton of space. There are a lot of questions about this room as it is the only one like it on the ship. There is no balcony, but it has two large windows. You enter into the main room which has a king sized bed (2 twins pushed together) pus a pull out couch, a desk area, a coffee table and 2 chairs. There is a bathroom with a shower and 2 large closets in this part of the room. At one end of this large space is a smaller bedroom with a door and a private (2nd) bathroom that has two lower twins and 2 upper bunks (one above each twin)...the twins could be pushed together to make one large bed, but then the upper bunks would not be usable as it would be very difficult to get in and out of the large bed. This was awesome for our 3 younger kids - they could go to sleep before us and we could stay up and not disturb them. The small room also has a television.
This room is super quiet, at the end of a hall of suite rooms. This room is larger than some suites, but is not considered a suite and does not entitle you to any of the perks that suite guests receive. Our stewards name was Stewart and he did an excellent job taking care of our room and helping us with the one issue we did have which was the toilet in the main room's bathroom started making some horrible sucking noises. It was very loud and, of course, happened at night when we were trying to go to bed. On two different nights we had to have maintenance people come to our room to fix it. It had something to do with the toilets working on a vacuum type system and our toilet not being properly pressurized. Obviously, I wish there had been no issue at all or that it could have been fixed the first time, but I was pretty satisfied with how it as handled.
This room has bed space for 8 (2 in the bed in the main area and 2 on the pull out sofa, plus 4 in the "bunk" room) and 2 full baths so it would be great for a large family.
Port Reviews
Baltimore
Super easy parking and quick check in...the only slow down was during the security check of our passports and paperwork.
Nassau
We ventured out on our own to the Pirate Museum which was in easy walking distance from the port. It wasn't the best museum I've ever been in, but it was fun for the kids and did have some interesting displays. I wouldn't go a second time, but it was a good experience. We had lunch at Senor Frogs. The food was pretty good, the view was great and it was a lot of fun as they made huge balloon hats for the kids. I will say that I was slightly uncomfortable walking back to the ship...in order to get to the ship, you have to walk through a vendor area. When we came off the ship it was fine and nice to see things from local artisans and I bought a Christmas tree ornament. On the way back, most of the vendors had closed up for the day but there were a few still open. I had gone ahead of my husband and kids to find a bathroom but I got disoriented and couldn't figure out how to get to the gate leading toward the ship and there were a couple men hanging around who would call out things like "Hey, pretty lady, come over here!" I think that's probably just normal behavior around there and in other cases when people approached us selling things on the street a simple, "No Thank you." was enough for them to move on, but I kept going in circles in the vendor area passing the same men and I was entirely by myself, so I started to feel a little nervous. Otherwise, everyone we met was very kind and welcoming.
4 Helpful Votes
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