We chose this cruise for the itinerary, the reputation of the Grandeur and for timing around the end of school. We cruised with a family with two pre-teens with whom we are essentially family and both families live near Baltimore. We arranged private transportation to and from the port due to the party size of six and the amount of luggage. Upon arrival, the Port of Baltimore did itself no favors as our driver was directed to one line where the luggage carts were being locked and when attempting to ask for direction to another line we were met with incredible indifference and ineptitude. Once we finally offloaded our luggage, we were then met with yet more confusion as we had booked the Royal Suite and the other members were Diamond members. Port staff had no idea where to direct people for security screening and actually dumped both parties into different, yet packed and slow moving, lines. We met at the screening and went through together. By that time we had been able to identify ourselves to Royal staff and our concierge, Carlington Berry (more on Carlington later) was waiting for us on the ship side of security. That was the last of any bad issues for embarkation. Carlington whisked us directly to check-in and then around all other lines directly to a private elevator (one woman decided to latch on and was with us all the way to and pushed into the elevator with her husband by pure hubris) and then to our suite. All of the features of the suite were discussed and our attendant, Fernando Dierra, was introduced to us. The staff of the Grandeur truly earns their reputation as the friendliest in RCI's fleet, the food was superior to other RCI ships (Majesty and Monarch) we have cruised on and the itinerary delivered. Finally, the staff in the Great Gatsby dining room was top notch, with our table's servers, Deepshika and Mary Ann, being the best we have ever had by far. Deepshika especially, as our head server, was organized efficient and catered to our party's every request. The only average part of our experience were the shows in the main theater. They were at best average, with a hypnotist and a comedian being each an hour we will never get back.

We chose private tours we arranged separately and all were excellent. Specifically, Jolly Breeze Tour's jet boat whale watching tour from St. Andrews-by-the-Sea (St John port stop) was in the top 5 of all excursions we have ever done, including seaplane snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and a helicopter into the Grand Canyon for lunch below the rim. We had been concerned about a rough ride in the zodiak for the girls but they actually wanted more wake jumping as the tour went on. The shock-absorbing seats helped a lot.