Grandeur of the Seas March 13–31

[CarolRoy]

We were on the first leg of your cruise - March 13-21. We have not been on RC in the last five years and thought we would give RC a try. Things have changed on RC since then. No more toiletries,no chocolate on the pillows at night, not too much food venues opened during the day or late evening, no self-service ice cream 24 hours (out of the two machines, only one was ever operational).

 

Cruise was way overbooked. Close to 3,000 pax. At double occupancy, ship would hold 2400 pax and not the normal 2,000 pax. It was like putting 10# of sugar (you can change this word, if you like) into a 5# bag.

 

I would definitely cruise out of Baltimore again. But I would do the Carnival Pride as we have sailed her sister ships the Miracle twice from NYC and the Legend out of Tamps and would not hesitate to sail the Pride, Legend or any other Carnival ships.[/color][/size]

[rafinmd]

CarolRoy, I guess it's different strokes for different folks. I have sailed the Pride and thought it was a somewhat nicer ship physically than the Grandeur but I've preferred almost everything else on the Grandeur, food, entertainment, and culture. I do somewhat miss the pillow chocolates (and I think I heard Carnival is stopping them), but I just brought my own. Where the difference really strikes me as critical, however, is with very few exceptions, the Pride basically visits 5 ports. I did better than that in my mere 18 days on the Grandeur, and much appreciate the Grandeur changing it's itineraries seasonally with many cruises to Bermuda and New England/Canada.

 

It's great that we have a choice in Baltimore again.

 

Roy

[CarolRoy]

Roy: As you can see from my signature, I have been on all the major main-stream lines in our 30 cruises. I have no favorites. We book by the itinerary. In Sept. we will go on the NCL Breakaway from NYC as they do the full 3 days in Bermuda. We are only an hour from NYC or Bayonne by bus (with reasonable fare). Have been on Princess out of Brooklyn on their New England cruise. One line we would probably NOT do again would be Celebrity. Did two on them and both times we were not impressed with service and food.

 

Happy cruising and maybe we will cross paths again if we sail out of Baltimore.

[ihopfar]

 

Cruise was way overbooked. Close to 3,000 pax. At double occupancy, ship would hold 2400 pax and not the normal 2,000 pax. It was like putting 10# of sugar (you can change this word, if you like) into a 5# bag.

 

 

I was on the 8-night cruise as well and I thought there was closer to 2400 pax not 3000. We did not feel it was overcrowded. What areas did you find crowded?

 

Roy -- I take it there were probably fewer folks on the 10-night with less spring breakers, etc. filling up the 3rd and 4th berths. Did you notice a difference in how crowded the ship felt between the two sailings?

 

Brad

[rafinmd]

From my March 13 report.

There was 1 welcome aboard show in the Palladium Theater. It may be random but it seemed seating was easier to find than on the stretched Enchantment. After a prelude by the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers Cruise Director Dan Whitney and Activities Manager Andre gave the breakdown of our 2200 passengers by country. There are 16 countries represented, 8 with just 1 person each. Comedian Kivi Rogers closed out the show.

 

https://getawaysfrom21044.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/danandre.jpg

 

I am feeling less than prime and did pretty much nothing after the show. As a parting shot today I noted that 2 special ships arrived in Baltimore today. The USS Constellation has returned to it’s Inner Harbor berth after an extensive renovation. Welcome home.

 

Roy

 

I was on the 8-night cruise as well and I thought there was closer to 2400 pax not 3000. We did not feel it was overcrowded. What areas did you find crowded?

 

Roy -- I take it there were probably fewer folks on the 10-night with less spring breakers, etc. filling up the 3rd and 4th berths. Did you notice a difference in how crowded the ship felt between the two sailings?

 

Brad

 

Brad, I think the number from the first cruise was about 2200 passengers making a total of 3000 people with the crew. I believe there were about 2000 passengers on the second cruise, and overall the crowd load did not seem that different. I did not find overcrowding to be a big problem on either segment, although I think on the first segment there were some crowded spots, with the hot tubs being the one I noticed most. Sometimes there seemed to be shortages of tables in the WJ but I preferred to eat out on the pool deck most of the time and if that was crowded I would continue through to the Solarium. I think once or twice in the 18 days I ended up just using a regular chair in the pool deck.

 

Roy

[scorpluvsdolphins]

I think you went to Cocoa Beach, NOT Cocoa.

For those not familiar with the area there is a big big difference. Cocoa is on the mainland and Cocoa Beach is obviously on the beach. The two cities are nothing alike.

 

 

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[JadeB]

Thanks for sharing. We are going on the Florida and Bahamas Cruise on that same ship October 2015. It was nice to read up on what things were like, and what you did on the ship and off. Thanks for sharing. (: