just back of Grandeur italian cruise,

[trinitytrees]

Hi, just back today of Gos the italian leg, i am happy to answer any questions.

 

one thing I would recommend is check your bill, there was a huge line this morning to get items removed from guests bills, especially cost of pool towels.

[mfinnis]

Hi - did you have a good time - we are off later in the year....I have a few questions....

 

Did you buy the drinks package - how much were the drinks normally -beer/cocktails....

 

did you do a rome or monaco shore excursion - who with and was it worth it?

 

any tips/hints for us?

[mfinnis]

sorry - forgot to ask how many formal nights you had (we are doing 7 nt italian med)

 

thanks!

[wrisberg]

Hi

 

I'm doing this cruise in October,surely they are not charging for pool towels? Is there enough entertainment on board for teenagers,what's the food like, what's the casino like, how expensive is the alcohol. Thanks

[Missus Makkem]

Hi

 

I'm doing this cruise in October,surely they are not charging for pool towels? Is there enough entertainment on board for teenagers,what's the food like, what's the casino like, how expensive is the alcohol. Thanks

 

no they do not charge for pool towels but they do fine you if not returned by the end of the cruise.

[Merion_Mom]

sorry - forgot to ask how many formal nights you had (we are doing 7 nt italian med)

 

thanks!

 

There are two formal nights on a 7 night cruise.

[Fran Harp]

Hi, just back today of Gos the italian leg, i am happy to answer any questions.

 

one thing I would recommend is check your bill, there was a huge line this morning to get items removed from guests bills, especially cost of pool towels.

 

It is now standard on all the ships, I believe, to have your seapass card checked when you get pool towels. If you don't return them, you get charged. That's fair, imo. Faster and easier to check your bill on the TV/computer system in the room - and check as you go. Saves frustration later.

 

Fran

[Merion_Mom]

It is now standard on all the ships, I believe, to have your seapass card checked when you get pool towels. If you don't return them, you get charged. That's fair, imo. Faster and easier to check your bill on the TV/computer system in the room - and check as you go. Saves frustration later.

 

Fran

 

Fran, I don't think that Grandeur has interactive TVs.

[glittergal1]

I have also been told you cant check your bills on the tv so keep all your reciepts

[trinitytrees]

sorry been in work so only just able to get back to you, but can see some questions been answered. there is no interactive tv on GOS so you cant check bill unless you go to reception and ask for print out. we did and found we had been charged a few times for beer even though we had beer package. we had to see bar manager to get it removed. on morning of departure we found we had been charged $50 for pool towels, went to reception. there was a large queqe and nly 6.15am lots of people had also been charged, we had returned towels, has had others but it had not been taken off, so keep all receipts for everything.

 

re teenagers they seemed to be having a good time, they had there own area, never saw any lost with nothing to do, so presume well catered for.

 

beer package cost $249 in total, bottle beer around 4.25 to 4.75 dollars plus 15% fosters 8 dollars, wine from $9 a glass.

 

cocktails seem to be around $8

 

food ....we were very disappointed with food in MDR we found it only just warm and not well presented, we have cruised before and we did compare with other ships and found it lacking. we dined only twice in MDR the waiters I have to say were lovely, not there fault, we decided to try WJ and found food choice better and food hotter, but we hated using plastic plates, glasses for evening meal. but prefered to warm food not well presented, we were on 8.30 sitting, someone told us the 6pm sitting food was hot enough, maybe we were unlucky, but lack of presentation would not have been resolved on earlier sitting.

there was a late evening buffet one night held in centrum again for us very poor in comparison to other cruise lines, we laughed at the fact there were sculptured melons that were cling wrapped all week! very cheap offering on buffet. on formal nights we have been used to higher quality food to make it seem special, not so on GOS.

there were two formal nights, both the sea days, that is day 2 and day 6 there were quite a lot in tux. my hubby would not dress to go to eat in WJ, on second formal night but went smart and then got changed into tux.

we did our own thing in Rome went by train cost 9 euro for ticket that you could use on bus, underground and train, there was ample time. we got train to rome at 9.30 they run about every hour.

we also did our own thing in La Spezia, got train (20 min walk to station) you can get train to florence/pisa. we wanted to tour Cirque terre it cost 10euro and was excellent. I can thouroughly recommend.

[trinitytrees]

sorry forgot to say I had the soda package, i was told diet sprite was included, we found some bars let me have it some didnt, but then a strange rule came in, they gave me the can of diet sprite then when i showed my soda pass card i was told i couldnt have the can, but could have the contents, they insisted they poured it out, or if there was too much ice in the glass filled it as far as they could and then left the rest in the can, but they "couldnt give it to me" how strange. the drinks packages do seem to carry odd rules interpreted different at different bars. be warned!

[IwannaGo Now]

WHAT??? You were disappointed with the food in the MDR..how dare you??...Better put on the asbestos suit, and prepare for the flames........damn, I'm still smoking from the flaming I got when I said, in my opinion, the food quality, well there was very little quality....on RCCL, when I wrote about the Grandeur. I also ate mostly in the WJ, as the MDR did not impress me at all...maybe it's just the European menu???

No, they don't have interactive TV on the GOS. I never received a printout at the end of the cruise (and I was not the only one, as I talked to others too).....and there was no way I would try to stand in line on disembarkation morning. I waited for the Credit Card bill, and it looked to be reasonably correct, with what receipts I had.

[trinitytrees]

sounds like you echo my feelings, is it like the story wth the emporer not wearing clothes we are only ones willing to voice it?

[cbbelfast]

We done the same cruise and we loved the MDR. The food was good and the staff couldn't have been any better, they made us feel very special every night.

[Delbankin]

I have to respond to the posts so far on this topic having recently returned from a 7 night Grandeur of The Seas cruise.

 

Firstly, I think people should take some time to reflect what they paid for their cruise. If like us, you didn't pay 5 star prices then you shouldn't expect 5 star food. We paid 3 star prices and the food that was available on board matched or exceeded that on every occasion. The service in the restaurants (and the ship in general) was always excellent.

 

As far as IwannaGo now is concerned I think if you look back on your previous posts about the food, it wasn't the fact that you chose to be critical of it that generated comments from other board users, it was the fact that your every post seemed to be a commentary on the food that you consumed during your cruise and not a great deal else. I have no problem with that and in fact read all of your posts and the various replies you received which were all very interesting and entertaining.

 

I prefer to report on my cruise as an overall experience rather than be a detailed critique of every meal. I will be posting a review of our recent cruise shortly for anyone that wants to read it.

 

The great thing about these boards is that everyone is entitled to their opinion therefore it doesn't matter if some people choose to take a different view from the one that any other individual may have. As long as everything can be conveyed in a civil manner that is OK in my book. All of the information conveyed helps inform other people about future choices they might care to make.

D.