We selected this cruise to see the leaf color in New England and to celebrate my wife's birthday which occurred on the cruise--12 October. We've sailed from Baltimore before and it is one of the more convenient cruise ports from our home in Wake Forest, NC. We drove up the day before and spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Glen Burnie, MD. They offer a sleep, park, ride package that includes shuttle to and from the cruise terminal. Several days before leaving for the port, it became obvious that Hurricane Michael was going to affect our cruise in some way. RCCL sent us an email telling us to arrive early at the port so that we could sail two hours early to get out of the Chesapeake Bay and ahead of Michael. Embarkation at Baltimore went very smoothly. We all boarded early and were ready to set sail 2 hours early but the Captain announced that Michael was moving too fast so we were going to sail at the original time of 4pm, but would only sail for 2 hours and then drop anchor in the Chesapeake and wait for Michael to pass early the next morning. This now caused us to skip Boston and proceed straight to Bar Harbor, ME. We took the Best of Bar Harbor excursion which was very nice. Our tour guide was very good, a former teacher, but the highlight was the lobster bake! Best excursion meal we've ever had! Next port was Portland, ME where we met my wife's sister for sight seeing and shopping in Portland. Then on to St. John, New Brunswick which we had to sail by because of very high winds (50 its plus) so we could not dock. This was our second missed port due to weather. We then proceeded to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we took the top 10 tour. Again a very good tour with a very knowledgeable guide.

The Grandeur was nice but is showing it's age. Our cabin was 3098, slightly aft of center and very convenient to the aft stairs and elevators. The cabin bed was lower than those on other ships which meant we could get our luggage under the bed. We had to stack the luggage in a a corner which cut down on our already limited space. We like early dining but could not get it so we dined 2nd seating at 8PM. Our wait staff was excellent. Nickolas, our head waiter, discovered we both like escargot so he arranged to have it for us every meal, even when it was not on the menu. The evening entertainment in the Palladium Theater was at 7:15 and 9:15PM. Since early dining was 5:30 and late at 8PM, this resulted in the 7:15 show being packed and the 9:15 show being sparsely attended. It would have been better if the early show was at 7 and the late show at 9, then more of the early diners would have attended the later show. Entertainment was top notch. The RCCL singers and dancers were superb and the guest entertainment was also excellent.

Scheduled activities on sea days were for the most part disappointing. Only on the last day were there sufficient activities to keep us from being bored. Read more