Grandeur of the Seas Photo Review 6/9-18

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Usually true:

 

Something tells me this control box wasn't really supposed to be left open revealing all those tempting buttons:

 

 

Why hello justification for walking the deck at 6:30AM:

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There's that Beaches movie playing again:

 

Love the curvature in this pic:

 

Deck 9 pool and hot tubs:

 

Viking Crown Lounge:

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More Viking Crown Lounge:

 

The bottom half of this picture is the VCL bar, the top half is the top floor seating of Izumi:

 

The Concierge Club is just to the right as you step off the elevators onto Deck 11:

 

Here you can grab extra copies of the Compass, future cruise brochures, and menus for the restaurants on board:

 

The Concierge Club also offers use of 1 computer (though you still have to use paid internet) for business services. Just to the right of the monitor in this picture is where I grabbed several pages of notepaper during the cruise:

 

Chairs and table set up inside the lounge:

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The mechanism they use to suspend the aerialist performers above the Centrum and provide the multi colored spot lights onto the dance floor and musicians below:

 

If you just keep walking out of the buffet, you eventually end up at the entrance to the Solarium. Big thanks to the completely oblivious guy walking in front of us ever since we left Quest and nearly slammed said door into my face. These doors are not sliding doors like the buffet ones.

 

And as far as we saw, this rule was abided by:

 

Solarium loungers and pool:

 

A large amount of tables and lounge chairs were along the outer area of the Solarium and was a frequent hangout for kids playing cards etc. There is a solarium bar to the left of this photo:

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Solarium tables and not as padded loungers along the sides:

 

Park Café:

 

Entrance to the spa was also through the Solarium:

 

Stairs leading up the gym once inside the spa (and yes even though I brought workout clothes, this was the only gym exercise I got):

 

An early morning yoga class was in session:

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There was also weight machines and free weights if stationary bikes, treadmills, and elipticals aren't your thing:

 

Passing back by the Solarium pool:

 

As a Baltimorean, I'll forgive this towel's owner since they did leave it hanging upside down:

 

Look out Solarium roof, there's a giant radar ball coming at you:

 

Sign down, I repeat sign down! When they say you should watch for signs from loved ones, I don't think they meant you had to dodge falling ones whenever the doors opened and the wind blew in.

 

Here's the other statue for the starboard side of Deck 8's Centrum overlook:

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Decks 8 and 7 are solely passenger decks so let's move on to Deck 6. If you take the midship elevators (or at they technically the aft ones too?) you end up with Chops on one side and you first approach the Schooner Bar on the other side:

 

The little hallway leading to Giovanni's:

 

Past the Schooner Bar you dead end into the South Pacific Lounge:

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In the far corner of the South Pacific Lounge is the Diamond Club:

 

I liked that several of the main area hallways were lined with windows that looked like portholes. Just wish they weren't mostly obscured by lifeboats:

 

As you walk along deck 6, there were chairs and little tables overlooking the Centrum and chairs, coffee size tables, and small couches lining the outside windows:

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Chops Grille:

 

Middle of deck 6 had the art gallery on one side (though all art talks and auctions were held in the South Pacific Lounge):

 

Directly across the art was the combo Café Lattitudes/Ben & Jerrys:

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Enjoying the photos...thanks.

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On the other side is the Photo Gallery:

 

Both sides converge on the shops area which also formed a circle with both sides after this dead ending at the Palladium Theater:

 

This center store space was a little obnoxious to walk through, especially during sale times:

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Deck 5 - the casino:

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Moving on to Guest Services which featured a display case on the wall for anyone who wanted extra Compasses:

 

 

Loyalty Desk:

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Where we spent a good deal of our lunches:

 

Deck 4 - R Bar

 

Next Cruise desk:

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Even the ship's godmother, Aviva Ofer, wants you to remember to sanitize:

 

Centrum stage:

 

RC Online:

 

What RCL calls "The Library"

 

I was so shocked to see not only so many but the fact that these playing card decks were readily available for the taking. On other ships we've been on, it's like Fort Knox if you ask to get a deck of cards. This box however, was empty by the last day and we saw lots of groups playing cards all over the ship, including even on the floor in front of this library:

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Looking back at some of the conversational groupings of furniture in the Centrum. Those little half backed dark brown chairs in front looked so weird to me:

 

Many of our neighbors were celebrating anniversaries or birthdays and got this kind of inkjet printer banner taped to their doors:

 

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the ship's public areas. We now resume our regularly scheduled review:

 

Then I rejoined Dad for breakfast at Giovanni's. Today, I ordered a cheese omelet, sausage, and a bagel. What came was a plate containing a cheese omelet, 2 sausage, half the plate full of bacon, and no bagel. This was the only morning though that the wait staff remembered we don't drink coffee and confirmed that we'd want orange juice.

 

Later when we returned to our cabin for a moment post morning steward cleaning, I noticed that the door to our bathroom on the side facing the bar was all scratched up. The cabin entrance can bump into the bathroom door or it could have been from a myriad of carts/repairmen's tools that did it:

 

At 10AM, we made the long exhausting lean over to the Schooner Bar to participate in our 5th round of Progressive Trivia with our new set team of Dad, me, Sue, Wayne, Denise, and Bob. We fared pretty well and Team DADE held 1st place by 2-3 points in anticipation of tomorrow's final session.

 

Left to right: Me, Wayne, Sue, Bob, Denise, and Dad in the back. No Dad and I did not color coordinate our shirts this day, and yes we were asked if we had:

 

Here's me and our favorite cruise staff member Amy:

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At 11AM, Dad went to check out the Adult Ultimate Bean Bag Challenge which he said also featured of a progressive theme since the players moved up the different decks in an attempt to toss a bean bag over the railing to a target on the Centrum floor.

 

I reported back to Giovanni's for the “A Taste of Tuscany” pasta cooking class and lunch. I was the only solo person attending, everyone else was either a couple or friends.

 

We were ushered in, led to the initial kitchen area for Giovanni's to wash our hands, and seated along one side of the smaller two person tables that had been arranged in the shape of football goal posts without the center post. Each seat had a good view of the head chef from Giovanni's who stood at a table and took the time to explain how each kind of dough is made and how each kind of pasta is made.

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He was very charismatic and told funny stories about buying his mom the same kind of pasta making machine as he was using now only for her to wait until he came home to use it. While he talked, the waiters came around to each person and offered a peach bellini. When the waiter we'd met that first day selling dining packages came to me, he asked if I was even “allowed” to drink. I jokingly responded that he was the first to question whether I was of drinking age, so far it's been asking what I'm studying in college. I must be aging backwards, where's that residuals check from Benjamin Button?

 

I took a sip of the bellini and that was all I cared for of it. The waiter noticed I wasn't drinking and offered to get me another drink so I got my first and, as it turned out only, real Pina Colada of the trip. He didn't even charge me for either drink!

 

Another shot of Dad at the adult bean bag toss (do you feel like you're in two places at once yet?)

 

The classic bread dipping plate - I can't stand the smell as it reminds me of easter egg dying:

 

As we watched the chef lecture and demonstrate how to form, cut, and fill the various pastas, waiters brought us dishes of caprese salad, cheesy potato gnocchi breadsticks, lasagna, risotto, pappardelle, spaghetti with meat sauce, and eventually tiramisu. The dishes were designed to serve 2 so while each couple polished their plates clean, I was served all of the plates just for myself. Felt so self conscious about being expected to eat it all myself that I only nibbled at each thing except for the spaghetti and tiramisu.

 

Caprese salad:

 

Our chef talking and working with his hands:

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Explaining the different types of dough:

 

Chef made a fresh batch of dough from raw ingredients to the thinning out and cutting of the actual noodles:

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Potato cheesy bread:

 

Egg wash on the ravioli:

 

Squeezing out the filling:

 

Showing how to pinch the filled pasta into different shapes:

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The strip of cut off dough after one pass through the machine:

 

I kept trying to nudge some of my leftovers (we had to actually sign a release saying we were okay with going in to a possibly treacherous place like the galley and that we knew there'd be no ability to take the dishes out of the restaurant) to the very nice couple seated next to me because they'd polished off their plates but no takers. It turns out they recognized me from the Concierge Lounge so we had a nice chat about the specialty restaurants and how much they liked the Chef's Table. The chef offered anyone who wanted to step up and try to replicate what he'd just demonstrated. The nice couple next to me went up and got some good natured teasing from the chef despite the husband being a home cook.

 

 

Risotto and lasagna:

 

Spaghetti and pappardelle:

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Another couple went up and picked separate types of pasta to try and make and everyone got a good laugh as we watched the husband keep messing up.

 

Too bad they didn't allow for a doggie bag:

 

Mmm, now this pina colada is more my style:

 

As our tiramisu dessert was being served, the chef handed out certificates with our names printed on them and recipe sheets with the recipes we'd tried today. He joked that his mom back home is so proud of him that when he went into his old bedroom, he saw that she had put up every certificate he's ever gotten on the wall, including ones for simple things like remembering to wash his hands.

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As we filled up on dessert, the wait staff came around and took our cruise cards to run for the bill. I confirmed that we'd been given the 20% off discount and threw in a little extra tip as I signed the receipt. After everyone had finished eating, we were led downstairs to the main dining room where one of the staff showed us the computer monitor they use when a guest orders their food in the dining room. They plug in the guest's number, choose the button from a list of current menu items, and that lets the kitchen know what to set out. Apparently, there's also a button for letting the kitchen know that the guest is done eating their appetizer and is ready for the next course to be sent.

 

We were then escorted into the less busy galley as it was explained that the other galley down a deck would be too busy as its open for guests who are having their lunch right now. We moved past dish washing stations, produce and salad prep, bread making, freezers, and where the waiters line up to pick up the orders.

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Our guide explained that the waiters have to line up behind this yellow line and wait for their turn so if your waiter is late it's because he's in line waiting behind someone who is picking up something that has run out and needs to be made again. Somehow I doubt that that was always the case when it came to our slow dining room service, especially since the manager was able to make whatever we were missing appear instantly.

 

 

In case they forget what the food was supposed to look like:

 

The waiters don't go far when you ask for a soda refill:

 

And perhaps more important for those into vinticulture:

 

After the galley tour, we were returned to the main dining room and bid goodbye. Quite a nice setup with what we got for essentially the same price as a night of dining in Giovanni's.

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After I met back up with Dad at the cabin, I learned that he hadn't had lunch yet so I accompanied him to the Windjammer. As we sat to eat, we overheard two teens at a nearby table lamenting that RCL doesn't have chocolate milk and they miss the chocolate milk they could get on Carnival. I'm well out of my teens but honestly, I enjoy getting chocolate milk sometimes as well. Dad missed being able to get chocolate milk to enjoy with this cookies and we finally asked our Giovanni waiter the next morning. He was completely baffled as if the idea of offering chocolate milk was absurd but did offer to get regular milk and put chocolate syrup in it.

 

A friend of mine was counting down days to her next RCL cruise not simply because she was excited for a vacation but because she was excited to be able to have Windjammer fries again. So, Cathie, this afternoon we had a plate of fries in your honor:

 

Afterward, we went to the Centrum to attend Family Friendly Feud hosted by Makiva. We joined up with Barbara, Rick, and Dave expecting to be our own family. Since there was a large group assembled to play (or at least just sitting there), Makiva split the room in half and made everyone a member of two “families” based on where you had chosen to sit.

 

Looking up from the Centrum floor:

 

Our side of the room had a few kids and their parents but mostly comprised of a group of 20 somethings who were also very nice. One of them suggested we call our side the “Friendly Family” as a take on the game's title. The other side, with lots of kids, decided to name themselves after unicorns. Each family had to pick an animal noise to serve as their “buzzer” sound and we went with the ca-caw of a bird. The Family Unicorns went with ruff ruff. Makiva had one representative from each team come up and face off with a question, just like on the TV show. When it came my turn to be on the spot, the question was “at what age do men start losing their hair?” We did fairly well with our answers but Makiva considered it one of our three strikes because I asked if we'd said a certain number already and we had. The other team didn't get their steal answer right and I won a highlighter as the rep of the team that won that round according to Makiva's initial rules. Then as the game went on, Makiva got really turned around and began giving out said highlighters to reps from the losing team (and sometimes not the winning team's rep unless the rep spoke up) and then to any kid she thought was cute. We avoided a few answers we debated amongst our group because we didn't think they would be considered family friendly only to have them be answers on the list. Our youngest rep went up for his turn against a slightly older young girl from Family Unicorns and their question ended up being “Where does a woman dress sexy?” Not only did I find that interesting as the two kids' question for a family friendly game show, but our young rep instantly answered with “at the nightclub!” This young boy had spent the other rounds yelling out random words as answers we should consider like “refrigerator” to be funny. Makes me wonder what kind of shows the Disney Channel is airing these days? Family Friendly lived up to their namesake and won the most rounds.

 

Already having seats in the Centrum, we watched the crowd descend for Levent's magic class showing how to do simple tricks with household items. Several rows of kids moved in to sit on the Centrum's dance floor and nearly every chair was still taken. Levent really played his class to the kids mostly using the same few volunteers to demonstrate over and over. The kids seemed captivated but I must admit I was fighting the urge to nod off.