Grandeur of the Seas Photo Review 6/9-18

[RRFPresident]

Okay, now that the suitcases have been unpacked, the laundry started, the fridge restocked, and the pictures uploaded, I can now fathom working on a cruise review for you all. As most of my usual circle knows, I can be pretty sarcastic and funny but also honest. My experiences may not have been your experiences even on the same cruise. You may have thought the dining room service was top notch, I found it lacking except for one waiter and assistant waiter. These thoughts are my own as a first time Royal Caribbean cruiser but not a first time cruiser in general as we will be taking our 10th this fall. I will be making several comparisons between how I found RCL to do things versus how they were done on my Carnival and Princess sailings in hopes that others will find that helpful. Feel free to ask questions along the way. I've done my best to keep notes on things like our activities, what loads of food porn pictures were listed as on the menus, and what certain things cost that we used on our trip.

 

Without further ado, let me introduce the cast of characters. For some reason whenever I plan to start a review like this, the theme song from the Jetsons comes to mind – meet George Jetson, Jane his wife... On this sailing from our household was me, Danielle (36), and my Dad, Al (69). I say “from this household” because we ended up sailing with the best group of Cruise Critic roll call people I've ever had. It's one thing to be active on your roll call online prior to the trip and all say they'll meet up at sail-away but never show. On this trip, not only did we have a great crowd join up at sail-away but we frequently hung out together at the activities or simply ran into each other throughout the ship. Last summer when we did a cruise tour via Princess in Alaska, it was so nice to have bonded with people on the land portion first so that there were some familiar faces on the cruise. If you recognize yourself or your cruising companions on any of my pictures feel free to give a shout out. I also apologize to any nearby dining companions who might have been put off by my constant food picture taking. I did it for my Cruise Critic people! Thank you to the one young college student who even offered to have me photograph her dish for you all as well.

 

This cruise was on the Grandeur of the Seas from 6/9-6/18. We visited Bermuda for an overnight stay, then Nassau and Coco Cay. We've been to Nassau a couple times before and we didn't find after some research that Coco Cay was going to be worth getting off not being beach people so we planned to stay onboard those days.

 

Onto day 1 with the start of any cruise – working your way through embarkation. We are “those suite people” since our second cruise (with the exception of getting neighboring balconies for each of us during a rare Carnival single supplement waived sale). While the Grandeur lacks a handful of things that one of the bigger ships would have provided in suite perks (i.e. no Coastal Kitchen, no extra seating when Windjammer was full, no helipad to be invited to stand on during sailaway), we took advantage of the priority embarkation this day. The Baltimore cruise port is one we've used multiple times and always found it relatively easy and quick but this time it worked out perfectly. We showed our suite marked sail pass and bypassed the line leading to security. We got a little stalled at security because the couple they had just pulled from the regular line had multiple wine bottles and had to have lots checked. I handed off my camera bag to Dad and was able to walk through the scanner ahead of the couple getting checked. Several minutes later, we both were through security without incident and were directed to fill out the health questionnaire. Some places I've seen just ask if you've been sick lately when you go to check in, others have you fill out the little form. We filled out our little forms and asked the next attendant about the suite line. We were directed past the long winding crowd to the next available check in staff member. Took all of 10 minutes to scan our passports, confirm the credit card we'd entered online, and take our picture for the cruise card.

 

I had decided before the cruise to pre-order the soda only drink package called Royal Refreshment as I calculated that drinking 1 a day of the virgin fruity frozen drinks wouldn't be worth bumping up to Royal Replenish. As it was, I only ever drank one such frozen drink the whole cruise. The Royal Refreshment package cost me about $84 after gratuity and we certainly made use of it possibly drinking more soda than we normally would have at home. We aren't really alcohol drinkers so we only imbibed during the nightly happy hour perk in the concierge lounge where it wouldn't matter if we took one sip and hated it. Dad did grab a beer here and there and I enjoyed a mudslide one night in the theater. My cruise card was printed with the Coca-Cola logo showing my drink package purchase but I'd brought the printed confirmation page just in case. I found the fully enclosed thermal cup in our cabin the first day but was surprised to see that others had soda cups that looked more like the old school drink cups with bendy straws emblazoned with a Labadee or Coco Cay logo. Thanks to Lisa from our roll call who had such a cup, I learned that they'd actually run out of the insulated cups like mine but eventually delivered one to her cabin several days later. One of the things I noticed throughout the cruise is that some machines run out of certain flavors so if you're really jonesing for a certain kind, check the other machines. I never had any problem with a time limit whether it was hitting the button again after letting the fizz settle or actually taking the cup away and letting the machine reset before trying again. I did notice that while most of the cruise, the screen read “unlimited refills until 6/18” when it sensed my cup, the last sea day (6/17), the message changed to say “unlimited refills for the next 16 hours.”

 

We'd planned our short ride down to the port for 11:30AM and with the whisk through the lines that our suite sail pass supplied, we were walking toward the ship by noon. As we left check in, we passed several tables offering sales of packages and stopped to consider the dining package. The waiter manning the table informed us that booking a specialty restaurant for tonight would give us a 20% discount. We opted to wait until we got on board and could see what the schedule read as to whether we could fit in a lengthy dinner. Having read and searched the world of Cruise Critic over to help prepare me for my first RCL cruise, we headed straight to Park Cafe avoiding the Windjammer completely. On other lines, the theory for embarkation day lunch seems to be that the dining room is open but if you ask a staff member about it instead of just going directly, they'll insist that it's only the buffet available. We did ask the first staff member we saw and got the buffet response. We went to the dining room and got the buffet response. Off to Park Cafe we head and I see the infamous pork sandwich everyone recommends. I order it and I get a very thin slice that was part rare and the other part fat that barely covered half the roll. I was offered mustard to which the waiter put a dollop into the side of the bowl. Personally, I would have thought to put the mustard somewhere on the sandwich itself but to each their own I guess. Dad ordered a three cheese panini and a turkey panini. He was given the cheese panini and a tuna fish panini, discovered after we had stepped away to eat at one of the tables in the solarium. He ate it anyway as he likes tuna fish too. I gave up trying to eat the pork sandwich after a couple of picked at bites and returned for a cubano panini which was good. Ready for my first flash of the soda package logo on my cruise card, I watched several bar staff wander close and then turn tail and wander off the other way never bothering to even acknowledge my attempts to call them over.

 

My pitiful pork:

 

My tastier cubano:

 

After lunch, we wandered up to check out the Concierge Lounge where we'd spend a good bit of time in the late afternoons as they offered beer, wine, soda, and cocktails with finger food style snacks for free from 4:30PM to 8PM. The lounge on the Grandeur is tucked away and lines 1/3 of the front edge of deck 11 so there's only about 15 seats with small tables in between that the chairs face. During the happy hour time, they did open the far door to the Viking Crown Lounge and marked the main path leading down to the front windows as for a “private party” to handle the overflow of suite guests. I loved that the doors to both the Concierge and the Diamond Lounge (which we did try and find our suite cards worked there as well. One time we asked when the concierge for the Diamond Lounge was there and she said it was fine to be in there. Personally, if our card worked to open the door, then the answer was yes in the first place) were self opening once you unlocked them with your card or pressed the button from the inside. Quite a few times I pretended like I was magically opening the door with an open sesame simply for my own amusement. :) Only once though did Dad visit the Diamond Lounge in the evening during their happy hour time and took advantage of getting a can of soda to bring back to the Schooner Bar for our trivia session. We watched the occasional person sit at a table in the Concierge Lounge until they got their drink and then walked out with it. Our suite concierge, Francis, never said a word about it.

 

Concierge Lounge set up for evening snacks:

 

Diamond Lounge had essentially the same food set up though seemed to be more frequently stocked as I'd find juice and lemonade here when sometimes there'd be no pitchers sitting out in the Concierge Lounge. The Diamond Lounge was more square shaped:

[RRFPresident]

More of the concierge lounge:

 

The one tough thing about RCL suites is that the larger suites are not conducive for two adults who aren't married that are traveling together as they have beds that can't be separated. We booked a grand suite cabin 8010 as it did allow for twin beds and wasn't a connecting cabin. One thing I found odd was the lack of a sink in the bar area like Princess has. We've never actually used the bar sink on Princess but the fact that the clothing drawers etc were mostly around the bar area, I felt like I was getting dressed in the kitchen every day. Our cabin did offer a sofa bed but I don't think anyone over the age of 15 would find that comfortable. As it is, there are times when sitting on the edge of the couch we'd feel the cushions slide around underneath us. Even though my own shower at home is a bathtub with curtain, I think on a cruise ship I prefer Princess' style of having a separate shower stall glass enclosure and tub wedged along the wall next to it. I would have even preferred Carnival's shower stall with the gynecological curtain. This tub was very high to step in and out of and thanks to Cruise Critic, thought ahead to bring a bathmat as there was no traction for the bottom of the tub. A few times I did have to fight off this shower curtain but it did a perfect job of keeping the water in the shower. Now if only I could have had more water pressure, that would have been better.

 

Bedroom side:

 

Vanity/desk (safe is inside the cabinet (locked with a code), next to the top of the chair is the only available outlets outside of the bathroom)

[14Terry]

Loving the pictures and review!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[RRFPresident]

One TV (Princess has a smaller one on the bedroom side and a TV like this one on the living room side), the coffee maker, the playstation, and our one living room style chair:

 

The large sectional sofa bed that took up the rest of the living room space:

 

Bar, floor to ceiling closets with full length mirrors on the doors, a wall that was just a full length mirror between the last closet and bar. We had a cake stand full of fresh fruit, a glass bottle of complimentary water, an ice bucket and lots of different drinking glasses. Had to leave a note to point out that our fruit was growing fuzz before our steward John removed the rest of it.

 

The mirror along the far wall made it look like you could just keep going and going:

 

The vanity mirror opened up like a medicine cabinet:

 

Non tub half of our bathroom (trash can hidden inside the cabinet doors on each side of those drawers and that mirror too opened up to reveal storage behind it):

[RRFPresident]

Straight on look at the sink (ignore the mug shot in the mirror)

 

Inside the bathtub shower we had one dispenser that said "body gel/shampoo combo" and a handheld showerhead that thankfully I could pick up and hold over my head or I'd still be sitting here with shampoo from that weak water pressure. Lots of safety/hang up items rails inside the shower. We did get small bottles of shampoo/body gel/lotion left on the sink countertop as well as two bars of soap.

 

Other side of bar where the fridge (farthest to the right before the curve) and drawers were:

 

Looking back into the room from the bar area (that footstool used to be perfectly placed in front of the queen sized single bed but with two twin beds, it was just in the way:

 

Upon arrival this first day, our balcony was soaked from the runoff of having washed the outside of the Windjammer windows. I was also curious to see that the balcony glass doesn't go all the way up the railing and there is a small gap between the bottom and where the glass starts that I was able to stick my foot up through and view my toes on the other side of the glass. Just a note for parents with young ones whose appendages would be right at that height. We also had a physical door between our balcony and the one closer to the front of the ship that did connect to the one cabin on its other side. The opposite side of the balcony was the usual partition like the one we had moved back to allow for a larger balcony when we had 2 cabins on Carnival. Interesting though how even the partitions on RCL were shorter than the ceiling and curved in on the railing side. Not sure I'd want the option of being able to reach over to my stranger neighbor's balcony to borrow a cup of sugar. Since we were directly below the Windjammer, the two far ends of our balcony were obscured by the overhang of the Windjammer seating and thus the steel piping that runs along them that connects with a rod just above my head level. A few days in, I discovered that this piping was for the window washer as he moved along the exterior in a little box cage. I figured this out because they left the little cage there the rest of the cruise. A fair amount of my pics were taken by reaching my arms out beyond the railing but rest assured my feet stayed firmly on the ground so no risk of falling overboard. Looking straight down from the balcony is partially obscured by the left edge of a lifeboat on the lower deck.

 

 

Weird door (there was a small gap if you got close to it where you could see the sunlight coming through from the neighboring balcony):

[RRFPresident]

The previous post's picture was the Windjammer overhang if you looked forward. Here's the view looking aft:

 

Our table and chairs (we loved having room service dinner on our balcony on Princess so we tried it here too)

 

Looking the other direction - you can see our two loungers and the curved balcony partition:

 

I took pictures each morning of how the water looked from our balcony to show the progression of our journey.

 

That's not just a really dark picture - that's Baltimore's water color:

 

Also a side effect of being directly under the Windjammer, we did have the noise of rolling carts and the occasional scraping chair. We soon got used to these noises, for they never were while we slept, and I even started making light of them by likening them to watching bowling and critiquing whether the sound was fantastic enough to earn a strike. Our steward, John Gosden, was quick to stop by and introduce himself. He gave the usual speech about tending to our room once after we'd left in the morning and again when we left for dinner in the evening.

 

We had stopped off at the dining package booth as we wandered the ship and decided to book a 3 night package in addition to booking Giovanni's for tonight taking advantage of the 20% off discount. Our aim was to try all 3 specialty restaurants on board (no interest in the Chef's table as we don't drink wine but that was an option in the package) making a total of 4 nights during the cruise in specialty restaurants. When we first met our steward John, we told him that tonight we'd be heading to dinner at 5:30PM so anytime after that would be great for evening cabin service.

 

Also, once the beds were separated, instead of moving the 2nd nightstand in between the beds, John left both nightstands on the far ends. Each time I crawled in and out of bed, I either had to walk like an Egyptian along the narrow gap in the middle scratching up my legs on the frames or shimmy along the curtain lining our balcony windows serving as a constant reminder that my bum and belly stick out just enough to move the curtain hands free as I walked by.

[RRFPresident]

We then tried to check out the Cafe Lattitudes to see if I'd have liked any of their frappacino flavors, another con for upgrading my drink package, but chose the one path that was intercepted by a crew member directing everyone super early to their muster stations for the drill. We ended up in the 2nd line and at the back standing outside on the deck. Not only were we stuck there so long my legs started to ache but we were repeatedly dripped on by what I'm hoping was water leftover from washing the decks above. A necessary evil for the enjoyment of cruising.

 

We ventured to the pool deck bar for the chance to first meet our fellow roll call members during sail-away. It was great to chat with the large group that showed enough to push two circular tables together and especially to discover how many of us shared similar careers and interests. I stepped away as the meet up was winding down to get great photos of our pass under the first bridge.

 

Will this huge mast fit under the bridge?

 

Doesn't look like it:

 

Getting closer:

 

Hmm, did we shrink?

 

Oh no, we're gonna chop off that pointy thing:

 

Hmm..still a little too close for comfort:

[RRFPresident]

I think we can..I think we can:

 

Umm lady..there's a bridge over your head:

 

Last to clear is the Starship Enterprise. No, wait I'm getting some new information from the control room. Not the Starship Enterprise? Nope, seems to be what the Concierge Lounge/Viking Crown Lounge looks like from the outside.

 

Now how did that thing fit under that bridge so easily?

 

 

When I returned, only a few people remained and it was almost 5PM so we said our goodbyes to head back to the cabin and get ready for dinner. We arrived back at our cabin to find our steward John in the middle of cleaning our cabin and separating the beds. Unfortunately, we had to ask him to leave as soon as the beds were done so we could change clothes. I know it's gotten to be a steward's choice whether he leaves towel animals or not (Princess doesn't at all usually), but I assumed we didn't get one this night because we'd interrupted his efforts.

[RRFPresident]

Once at Giovanni's, the service started out good but got really slow near the end of our meal despite only a few tables being in use. Our waiter recognized us as the people who had stopped by his table before getting onboard. Guess he didn't have many people who showed an interest. We had mentioned plans to attend the Welcome Aboard show right afterwards so I was a little surprised when despite the slow service to get our dessert order taken, our waiter assured us that he'd get them to us right away because he knows we want to get to the show.

 

Olive oil and vinegar with a little parmesan cheese for bread dipping (the smell always makes me think of dying Easter eggs):

 

Giovanni's is so packed tonight!

 

Giovanni's menu:

 

Insalata di rhugetta e bresaola - really tasty but also really salty

 

Antipasti (for two):

Edited June 20, 2016 by RRFPresident
Changed to call dish pictured by its fancy menu name

[RRFPresident]

We went under the 2nd bridge while at dinner so I had to settle for shots out the window:

 

The Gamberoni al forno - served completely in their shell and I had the hardest time actually getting the meat out so I barely ate any of this:

 

Dad's entrée was the Bistecca di manzo and he loved it so much he told everyone we encountered about it:

 

My pasta choice was Pappardelle alla crema - reminded me of stroganoff. Dad tried it the next time and liked it too:

 

Dad's pasta choice was Crespelle de Ricotta e spinaci - Tried this as well and it was tasty:

[RRFPresident]

What's a proper food porn laden review without dessert?

 

Dad had the chocolate cake and a chocolate cannoli:

 

He loved how each piece said Giovanni's in icing that I was made to take a picture of that too:

 

I just had the chocolate cannoli - very tough shell so I had to smash it into pieces and eat it like a broken cookie:

 

We did make it to the show on time though and always took advantage of the reserved suite seating area in the back on the lower level of the theater. The seating area was opened for all 5 minutes before showtime so it was rarely ever really empty by showtime. One older lady leading her group of friends to sit in the theater got super snotty with the cruise staff member manning the suite seating area because he wouldn't let her in until it opened to all. She literally blocked the area insisting on standing right by the entrance until she was let in. Kudos to the cruise staff member for standing his ground but it bothered me to see how her antics caused those in wheelchairs trying to get to the handicapped seating area right in front of our section to be denied access to their set aside space.

 

This is the reserved suite seating area in the theater. Where those ladies are standing is where one of the chains was pulled across with a sign explaining that a "gold" card was needed to enter. We once considered sitting up front but found that we preferred the couch style seats.

 

Two of the dapper looking cruise staff policing the area (we soon got to know them as Tony from Croatia (left) and Brandon "Bingo" Bear on the right):

[RRFPresident]

This was our first time experiencing the dynamic duo of Cruise Director and Activities Director John and Katrina Blair. John opened the show with a nod to Sweet Caroline and moved throughout the audience getting people dancing, singing along and joking around at one point even jumping up on a railing near the back. He got big laughs engaging the audience in a game of Simon Says even enlisting one man to come on stage during the game and coax him into hugging Katrina. The man didn't do it at first because John didn't preface it with Simon Says leaving John to joke that this was a hell of a time for the man to get good at the game. The man did eventually get his hug and returned to his seat. John joked that one way to get the game to end fast is to say “Simon Says everyone jump up!” As everyone jumped he joked that they were all out because he never said “Simon Says, come back down.” The rest of the show was a comedy act by Joe Yanetty. He made all the classic jokes about life on a cruise ship.

 

One of my few chances to photograph a sunset:

 

After the show, we went to the Majority Rules game show in the South Pacific Lounge. We played as just a twosome and didn't fare well. It took a few days for us to notice how often not only the same games were held but also the same tasks. I can see how that would be beneficial for anyone who chose something else the first time the games were held and it helped make our decision later in the cruise to skip the second Battle of the Sexes round in order to make it to the next trivia in time.

 

Here's what the Diamond Lounge looks like from the South Pacific Lounge. Heard many a fellow cruiser inquiring as to what was inside but no one took us up on our offer to show them.

Afterwards, we went back to the theater and sat in the now no longer reserved seating area to watch the movie Ride Along 2. I was getting bored after the first hour so I left Dad to finish the movie while I went back to the cabin and unpacked. He was surprised to see how many people came in to watch just the last 5 minutes of the movie.

 

[RRFPresident]

One of the things I prefer about Carnival over the other lines is that they feature a tear off sheet on their daily schedules with just the list of activities, places, and times. We loved being able to tear off that sheet and carry it around instead of a wadded up whole brochure. Once we did tear off the whole back page of our Compass and made do that way. Only trouble was that I kept calling it the Patter which Princess calls their schedule. If I slip up and call it the Patter somewhere down the line in this review, please don't roll out the RCL police to flame me.

 

I did like how there were these interactive touch screens throughout the ship. These let you check the restaurant menus:

 

These were by the elevator banks in case you were feeling a little lost:

 

While Dad loaded lots of books onto the iPad and is always happy heading back to the cabin to read and rest in his down time, I usually want to always be doing something and soon learned that aside from the rerunning of cruise events and the morning show, our cabin TV channels were comprised of a few cartoon/Disney shows, a couple of sitcom reruns of current shows, one music video style channel, and the rest were those same sitcom reruns dubbed in different languages. Listening to Sophie from 2 Broke Girls's Polish accented whines and put downs dubbed in everything from French to Spanish/Portuguese was quite interesting. This was the first of many nights we were in bed by 11PM for lack of anything else we felt like doing.

 

One of the other things that I noticed on this sailing is how Captain Ante always kept the ship going around 19-20 knots resulting in a deafeningly loud ocean when out on the balcony and lots of foamy waves surrounding the ship. Sounded a lot like the noise plane engines make when taking off.

 

Hope you enjoyed reading about our first day onboard. Day 2 coming soon to a Cruise Critic post near you!

[webteach]

"We watched the occasional person sit at a table in the Concierge Lounge until they got their drink and then walked out with it. Our suite concierge, Francis, never said a word about it."

 

That's because the lounge is also for diamond plus and pinnacle who have drinks loaded on their cards every night so what's the sense of saying no carrying drinks out? Francis does play by the rules but he picks his battles.

[sellwingri]

Really interested in your review. We're on Grandeur in August in the next cabin-8012. Unlike you, this will be our first cruise in a Grand Suite so I'm very interested in all the perks you're discussing and showing. Your pictures are amazing! Can't wait to see more.

 

However, even though you haven't said it, I can tell that you're first Royal Caribbean experience wasn't a good one. We too have cruised on Carnival (only once and we still laugh about because it was so bad) and Princess. We've found that the activities on Royal Caribbean were extremely enjoyable and are diamond.

 

It all comes down to personal preference.

[RRFPresident]

Really interested in your review. We're on Grandeur in August in the next cabin-8012. Unlike you, this will be our first cruise in a Grand Suite so I'm very interested in all the perks you're discussing and showing. Your pictures are amazing! Can't wait to see more.

 

However, even though you haven't said it, I can tell that you're first Royal Caribbean experience wasn't a good one. We too have cruised on Carnival (only once and we still laugh about because it was so bad) and Princess. We've found that the activities on Royal Caribbean were extremely enjoyable and are diamond.

 

It all comes down to personal preference.

 

I got a chance to peek in to 8012 as we passed. Your cabin will basically be the mirror image of ours with the couch on the right as you walk in and the bathroom to your left.

 

My first experience on RCL wasn't all bad. I've never seen or gotten to play so much trivia (at least 4 sessions a day) and loved it. I also really stepped out of my comfort zone and participated in several of the game show style activities. I recall one lady leaning over to tell me I was so brave to join in because she could never bring herself to get up there. If only she knew how out of character it was for me too.

 

More review to come when I have more time to edit my notes tomorrow. Spent all day today trying to catch up on that pesky paying gig that helps me escape on these cruises.

[Philly Steve]

Thanks for the review and all the pics! :)

[Clarea]

Very nice photos, thanks.

[RRFPresident]

Day 2- At sea

I'm always an early riser, even if I went to bed late. With Dad still sleeping, I took advantage of some quiet time on our balcony and admired the sun shining on the water. I love just watching the endless water during the day and how clearly you can see the stars at night when on a cruise.

 

Our water is already getting bluer:

 

At 7:39AM we had cleared the bay and were officially in the middle of the ocean. I like how the "you are here" icon is a triangle. Fitting for Bermuda:

 

One side note: our steward John asked that first night whether we wanted one or two Compasses. I love getting two copies so we can make notes on what we chose to do on one and keep a clean copy for the memories. First time we haven't had to ask the steward first. However, there's always extra copies available by the passenger services desk and in the Concierge Lounge if you want more. Also, Princess provides monogrammed stationary and a pen in their suites. I don't usually care about using it for letter writing but I love using the paper to keep notes on our day and notes to leave for the steward. We had to ask John when we couldn't find any in our suite on this trip and he said they don't offer that anymore. He was nice enough to dig up some horizontal note paper with the ship's name and a regular pen for me. Later on I discovered that the Concierge Lounge has slightly different vertical note paper with the ship's name by their computer for guests who need business services so I swiped several pages. Could have also easily swiped some computer printer paper from there too. We didn't know yet though how we would soon be swimming in pens.

 

Our first morning on the ship so our first chance to experience the suite perk of breakfast at Giovanni's. Giovanni's is slightly different than the Sabatinni's breakfast we are used to on Princess in that except for hot griddle items, everything else is for you to retrieve off their buffet. I also missed the nicer touch of Sabatinni's where while they got to remember us throughout the trip in both places, Sabatinni's would always remember we don't drink coffee and have our orange juice delivered within seconds of sitting down. Giovanni's is also the first suite breakfast I've seen to include an upcharge for choosing an item off their menu. In this case, it was the “Chef's special” of steak and eggs.

 

Breakfast menu:

 

Buffet as a whole:

 

Apparently suite people are supposed to be healthy eaters who need help staying regular, only non fiber based cereal I could find in either Gio or Concierge continental was Froot Loops. Who does this grown ass lady need to see for some Lucky Charms?!

 

This basket had ice cubes lining the bottom so the milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and butter stayed fresh. Had to visit Windjammer early one morning though just to find a yogurt flavor that wasn't plain or blueberry.

[RRFPresident]

Certainly not lacking in fruit choices, some even cut up in expectation of adding to your cereal bowl:

 

The cantaloupe on this end frequently found its way on our plates. Perfectly ripe and soft to eat. One of dad's favorite breakfast items on Princess is the bagel and lox. The lox and a sampling of deli meat is on the left side of this photo but the bagels proved elusive to us until 2/3rd of the way into the cruise. The back row on this side had toast, muffins, and danishes for those who needed to get their carb on:

 

I rarely treat myself to donuts so I love getting one at the suite breakfasts where Princess comes around each time with a tray of pastries. Here, we saw lightly dusted donut style pastries on the buffet and the occasional chocolate frosted one. Dad and I both took advantage of the fresh melon slices nearly every day. Dad loves ordering a simple plate of melon as his appetizers at both breakfast and dinners.

 

 

This morning Dad got a cheese and onion omelette with bacon and sausage. Every day, our griddle item plates featured a pile of potatoes in some sort of gravy and a little tomato stuffed with melted cheese. We'd joke that they must be trying to get rid of those little tomatoes.

 

I ordered the french toast. On the menu, it says that the griddle items are served with strawberry compote, whipped cream, and syrup. I was served two triangular wedges of french toast and a cup of syrup. To be fair, I've seen french toast served as full pieces of bread and as even smaller than RCL's triangular wedges on two different Princess ships. All were still tasty and I happily cleaned my plate.

 

[RRFPresident]

With some time to kill, we walked along the pool deck and stopped to sit under the cover of the 10th deck to people watch. As we sat there, several ping pong balls rolled past that had gotten away from the kids playing across the way. We watched two of the balls rotate in unison though not connected as they rolled around the deck and it struck up my weird sense of humor. We started acting like we were watching these ping pong balls compete at their own sporting event and providing commentary and judges' remarks. A third ping pong ball came rolling along to join his friends but got stuck in a hole in the grating. A little bit later someone walked by and unintentionally kicked that third ball down the deck back toward the ping pong tables. Oh sorry competitor, you've been ejected. Be sure to try out for next year's games!

 

Meet our first two competitors, I shall call them the Ballsey Twins:

 

What style! What form! Imagine with me as we pretend that in a still picture you can see how they moved like synchronized swimmers:

 

Oh no! Ping Pongita tried to come up the middle and got tripped up in the grate hole hazard on the par 5!

 

Disclaimer: I promise we weren't drunk then or as I write this now.

 

Many decades ago, my mom and I were at an event where we sat outside during some down time to chat with friends. All of a sudden, another lady looks over at my mom and screams out “Oh my God, you have two ladybugs screwing on your arm!” After which, this lady promptly dropped to the ground laughing so hard no sound was coming out. Sure enough, two ladybugs were enjoying their own date night under the stars on the poofy sleeve of mom's coat. To this day, whenever we come across a ladybug themed item we crack up. As we walked along the pool deck this day, I felt something drop onto my face. As I brushed my had across my face, a tiny ladybug dropped to the floor. They say that little moments like that are signs from loved ones in a form you'll recognize like finding random pennies or a butterfly that always seems to follow you around outside.

 

Today we had our Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle and a Suite passenger gathering scheduled for the same place right after each other. Invitations for both were left in our cabin on embarkation day.

 

 

However, being trivia buffs (I promise we do get sunlight occasionally), we opted to attend the first session of Progressive Trivia this morning at 10:00AM. The CC M&M also started at 10:00AM so we walked in to that a little late. At this first Progressive Trivia, Dad and I formed a team with a woman named Debbie and her teen daughter Elizabeth. When we had to think of a team name, I suggested Team Dade because it was the initials of Danielle, Al, Debbie, and Elizabeth put together. While Elizabeth was a great help in providing a more sci fi novel themed answer, we never saw these two back at trivia again. The rest of the week, I had to explain where the name Team Dade came from as everyone was either pronouncing it as Team Dadday or Katrina's favorite joke of asking if we were from Dade County Florida. We did fairly well and turned in our team paper before rushing up to the Viking Crown Lounge to join the CC M&M already in progress.

[RRFPresident]

The CC M&M was honestly one of the best organized CC gatherings I've attended. Not only did we have the proper looking invitation to bring for admittance which they did collect but there was a nice coffee bar set up and a couple staff members came to help host, including our first introduction to Katrina in person. When we arrived, we were handed some nice RCL notepads on a string and two raffle tickets as they were in the middle of giving away ship themed prizes.

 

I feel an old Romper Room reference coming on. I see Don and Lisa and Dave...

 

 

Katrina opened up the floor so to speak and our trusty roll call leader Bob stepped up to the microphone to share who all was celebrating an occasion on this trip.

 

 

Bob then drafted a few of our fellow roll callers to join together and sing “Going on a Sea Cruise” which was great fun and laughs, especially with the addition of a can can dance sequence. We enjoyed getting the chance to mingle and chat with our fellow roll callers.

 

[RRFPresident]

Ooo ee baby oo ee, won't you let me take you on a sea cruise:

 

Everybody sing now!

 

Your Cruise Critic singers - perhaps performing soon on a cruise near you:

 

Right after in the same place we attended the Suite passenger gathering and this was very nice. Dad thinks there must have been such a party offered on our other cruises but we never bothered to attend. Honestly, you would have thought we were a group of dignitaries the way they pulled out all the bells and whistles. A lovely female duo provided live music on keyboard and violin.

 

We had free drinks flowing, both alcoholic and not per your choosing, and so many fancily dressed waiters circulating with snacks I would have needed a few extra tables to hold it all. Tried my first “try without monetary consequence if I didn't like it” cocktail of a Cosmopolitan and it wasn't bad. Dad had his first rum and coke of the cruise here.

 

[RRFPresident]

Representatives of the various crew departments showed up to not only introduce themselves and share their backgrounds but also took the time to move through the crowd and mingle with everyone. We got to talk one on one to Captain Ante, John and Katrina, the hotel services manager Adrian, and the guest services manager Devika. Dad had a lengthy chat with several of the service managers present about how while we'd like to experience the bigger suites, they don't offer anything other than a king size single bed unless you expect the 2nd adult to sleep on the sofa bed.

 

John introducing the department representatives - the blonde in glasses is Captain Ante. The man to his left is the hotel manager, Adrian Theodoru.

 

 

No Captain, this is how you do the Royal Caribbean Wave! The very nice woman in the far right of this picture is Guest Services Manager Devika.

 

 

John and Katrina mingled while joined at the hip. The bartender passing behind them, Patricia, turned out to be our favorite bartender throughout the cruise:

[RRFPresident]

As if we hadn't had enough food between our Giovanni's breakfast and the party snacks, we went to the dining room for lunch. We were seated at a large table with several other couples including one young man who was dining solo because his new bride was stuck in the cabin with seasickness. We had a very nice chat with an older couple from Williamsburg who'd also done group organized land tours like Road Scholar. One thing I noticed differently about main dining room lunch on RCL is that they have you order your entree and dessert at the same time.

 

I ordered the Grilled Open Steak Sandwich and the Decadent Chocolate Slice as did Dad. Our entrees arrived relatively quickly and were tasty.

 

This was where the service first failed as we sat and we sat and we sat waiting on the dessert to be delivered. Finally, Dad called over one of the senior staff nearby and inquired about the delay. This senior staff member turned out to be the manager of all My Time Dining and soon we magically had our desserts delivered. This manager took our cabin number and the number of the previously mentioned Williamsburg couple.

 

 

Then I elected to participate in the first slot tournament. While other lines just hand you a ticket and you choose a machine out of the bank of usually six machines, RCL insisted on using my cruise card for the entry fee as it would be my name displayed on the machine they chose for me to use. I had hoped to use Dad's card to purchase the tournament entry because he had gold C&A status and supposedly that lent to a tournament entry discount according to our in cabin paperwork. Dad stepped away to watch a couple of the game shows in the Centrum while I played in the tournament. This bank of machines also featured a webcam so that in the bottom corner of your machine, you could see you and your fellow players as it rotated amongst all the machines. Not sure I'd want to be looking up the noses of people's crazed faces while we're all trying to smack the hell out of the spin button. These slot machines also featured touch screen symbols that popped up randomly over the actual slots spin results and they gave you extra bonus points if you could touch them in time. One was an image of a little man and if you hit that, you automatically got moved to first place for a short time. The machines also displayed a real time account of where your point level fell in the current rankings. At the end of the time limit, the lady's face next to me was revealed in everyone's webcam as the winner! I did get a little slip of paper when I bought my entry that allowed for keeping track of further tournament entry purchases leading to a discount after you'd accumulated enough. I never did bother to enter another tournament given how dismal my efforts were playing the slots normally.

 

The cool looking buried treasure glass designed see through floor at one end of the casino:

 

What's your gambling pleasure:

 

For those working to accrue points in the casino:

 

And I ain't ligh-en: