Grandeur of the Seas Photo Review 6/9-18

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

We stepped away as it was ending to go back to the Schooner Bar and play Nature Trivia. A quick pit stop to the casino to cash out the couple little slips of papers I had leftover from my few slot playing attempts and we returned to the cabin to relax.

 

A quick visit to the Concierge Lounge for happy hour where I took Dad's suggestion of trying a screwdriver because it was mostly orange juice. While honestly, I'd still rather have just had the orange juice, this was one of the best drinks I tried during our visits to the lounge. It was mixed just right to taste more like juice with only a little alcoholic taste.

 

Tonight was an evening scheduled general knowledge trivia so we headed back to the bar to play with Rick, Barbara, Sue, and Mary whom Rick knew from his progressive trivia team. We sat in the corner next to where Amelia and her family came to sit so it was nice chatting with them while we waited to start. Amy was hosting this trivia and when we mentioned something happening the next day (our final full day on board), she replied “No, tomorrow is debarkation and it sucks that I have to get up at 5:30AM to help.” We explained that there was still one more day before that and she was so relieved that she wouldn't have to get up so early the morning after the 70s theme party. Amy had come to the trivia dressed in an oversized flowy top for her figure and our new buddy Barbara wasn't shy about pointing out that it wasn't flattering. Amy agreed and lamented that she was stuck picking from the last thing that was left in the costume pile. The next night at another trivia hosted by Amy, she was dressed in a very nice fitted black dress so we teased Barbara about approving of this outfit change.

 

We scored 19 out of 21 on this trivia and won lanyards (yay, something to hang our pens and highlighters off of) and once Amelia saw what we'd won, she defected from her own family's team in hopes of getting a lanyard. Once I made sure the pile of lanyards we'd been handed was enough to go around to our 6 players, I had one leftover so I gave it to Amelia. Her mother jokingly tried to swipe it for herself proclaiming “I gave one of the answers!” Umm yeah, for your team, not ours! Amelia left to go get her cruise card punched so she could put it on her new lanyard and her family left the bar without her. She came back to show us having gotten it punched and how grateful she was to finally get one because she kept losing her card. She went off to find her family and our team sat around chatting to kill time since we all were interested in seeing the later headliner showtime with Finis Henderson.

 

We were one of the first to arrive up at the suite seating area so we chatted up Brandon who was now donning the afro style wig for the 70s theme party that Makiva had been wearing during the day. One of the people we sat nearby earlier in the day questioned whether that was Makiva's real hair since she usually wears it pulled back.

 

By show time when the suite seating gets opened to everyone, we had a group to our right that spent the show yelling back and hollering like we'd been transported to a Baptist church service. To our left was a group of teens who alternated between casting an ambient glow in the corner from having their nose in their cell phones and constantly rearranging how they were sitting leading to our row of seats being constantly kicked and jostled. We didn't much care for the show itself and would have left early if we hadn't been stuck between these two groups in the dark.

 

Our towel animal that greeted us upon returning to the cabin tonight:

 

Knowing that we wouldn't have been able to fit in a visit to the dining room for dinner given all the activities we were interested in this evening, we waited until we returned to the cabin after the show to try and order room service. Since the dining room itself was now closed, we couldn't use the suite perk of ordering off their menu even if we wanted to. Once we picked what we wanted from the regular room service menu, I tried to make the call. It rang and rang and rang about 15 times before I finally gave up. I called guest services to make sure we had the right number and they assured me that we were correct and to just try calling back in a little while. Dad tried to call room service again and this time got through. Our order took about 50 minutes to show up and our poor waiter seemed really thrown for a loop when Dad asked that it be set up on our balcony table. He was also really shocked when Dad handed him a tip and had to be reminded that we needed to sign for receipt of the order.

[RRFPresident]

Past cruise room service experience has taught us that portions are usually small and to order a couple of something you really wanted. Dad ordered two turkey paninis and one cheese plate. I ordered the honey stung chicken as so highly recommended on here and the steak sandwich, throwing in a plate of cookies to have on hand for Dad's later cravings. While ordering, we were told that they didn't have whatever one of my entrees was listed as coming with and would have to make a substitution which we said was fine. In order to even see on our balcony as it had long since gotten dark, we had to turn on the main cabin lights and leave the curtain wide open. Another plus for Carnival who has outside balcony lighting. We used the loungers to hold the plates we weren't using yet in order to have room to eat on the little balcony table.

 

Fried Honey Stung Chicken:

 

Steak Sandwich:

 

Turkey and Swiss Cheese Panini:

 

Cheese Plate:

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

 

As it turned out, Dad was glad he ordered two sandwiches because between them, he literally only found one slice of turkey. He mostly just nibbled at the cheese plate but said it was because he wasn't that hungry. I tried the honey stung fried chicken and I think the bees took one look at this plate and flew off because it had no flavoring whatsoever and was barely edible. I gave up after a couple bites and set about eating the Windjammer style fries it came with only to find them ice cold. The steak sandwich came with a little dish of barbecue sauce and once I gave up trying to dip and just spread it over the open faced sandwich, it was decent enough cut up with knife and fork. The same Windjammer style fries on this plate were also ice cold and tasted stale. Tried the cookies and they were rock hard and essentially inedible.

[RRFPresident]

Day 9 – Final sea day and then debarkation morning:

 

Also got up early today to make sure I didn't miss the towel animal pool deck invasion but it seems to have rained during the night and the animals stayed in hiding.

 

Used the extra time instead to grab a shower before Dad woke up. While in the shower, I was lightly tossed against the shower wall as it felt like we made a sudden sharp turn. From inside the bathroom, I could hear drawers opening and just assumed Dad was awake and getting dressed. Once I was done, I stepped out of the shower and literally felt like I was being pitched forward and had to force myself back upright. Was surprised to see that Dad was still in bed when I came out of the bathroom but a couple of our drawers under the bar were wide open. Dad soon woke up and told me that we'd had drawers fly open. I assumed he meant the ones by the bar until he went to get dressed and said “oh and there's open drawers here too!” Perhaps we have angered the RCL poltergeist?

 

Our last shot of blue water before we'd wake to the greyish green that is the Inner Harbor:

 

Our disembarkation information and luggage tags had arrived the evening before:

 

Off to Giovanni's for our last suite breakfast to stock up on brain food for our final progressive trivia session this morning. Right afterwards, we worked off our food by walking those long 10 feet to the Schooner Bar for a round of general knowledge trivia.

 

Then it was time for our final round of progressive trivia and thankfully everyone showed up on time! It came down to a few teams with the highest score of 15 this round but since we were already a couple points in the lead from yesterday's session, Team DADE (Daday, Dade County, B-DADE) won! They really raided the prize closet for this one because they brought enough pens, highlighters, lanyards, backpacks, hats, shopping bags, keychains, and water bottles for each of us and a single bottle of Brut Champagne. We divvied up the stuff to make sure everyone got one of everything and left Wayne and Denise to enjoy the champagne as half our group doesn't really drink. We also got some very nice certificates. We each donned our hats and posed for a group picture holding something from our prize loot. I also thought it would be cute to fill our backpacks with our winnings and take a picture with our backs to the camera but that was vetoed. It's a good thing no one requested a speech because mine would have started with “We'd like to thank all the little pencils...”

 

After dropping off our stuff back at the cabin, Dad and I headed to the theater to attend the Captain's Corner talk featuring a panel with John, Captain Ante, the hotel services director, and the chief engineer. Katrina and Makiva served as runners in the audience bringing the microphone to people who wanted to ask a question. There were a lot of technical questions and John joked that his microphone must have been turned off for lack of questions when Dad got picked to ask about whether the guest lecturers got paid or simply got to enjoy the free cruise. The answer was that they are booked via an agent like any other performer so they do get paid.

 

I know the Captain can be a little long winded but you don't have to look so bored, John:

[RRFPresident]

Not everyone found the Captain's answer interesting:

 

Yay, they finally turned my microphone back on:

 

I had planned to ask about whether John and Katrina got to enjoy a cabin like the passengers do since they're married but John covered that in his personal introduction at the start of the talk. He explained that they were one of the few married couples both working for RCL so they had to change berthings multiple times at first but now RCL employs multiple married couples and have found a solution for their lodgings. During the talk, Captain Ante revealed that he'd only become master recently and the rumor was that this was his first sailing. Dad thought I should change my question to ask how John and Katrina met but one of the other guys in the audience beat me to it. The answer was that John had gone to an audition in hopes of becoming a famous actor but walked away not having gotten the job. Katrina was also at that audition and made the first move by calling him afterwards.

 

SHE called me!

[RRFPresident]

When the talk was over, we made our way to the dining room for lunch and ended up seated with two guys who'd asked the most technical of questions during the talk and a nice couple. I decided to finally try the Tutti salad bar and Dad had me get him some more of the better bread. Even though both sides of the salad bar are set up to take passenger requests, I found some toppings were only on one side. Also, they give you the bare minimum of each item unless you ask for more. I didn't realize that and was surprised to bring back a half filled bowl when I'd seen everyone else's bowl overflowing.

 

Dad ordered the Royal Beef Burger again and once again it came with no mushroom confit and regular fries. Dad realized about halfway into eating it that it was also not even fully cooked! We had pretty regular drink refills but once again we sat ignored when it was time for dessert to be delivered. The two guys left without even caring about their dessert focused on going to find their friend up by the pool. An assistant waiter rushed over, confirmed that they weren't coming back, and whisked away their dirty dishes. We continued to sit and wait watching tables around us being seated after us and now already finishing up their meals. We had been seated near a waiter station so our waiter was literally 2 feet away from us with a huge tray piled high of food containers and we still were ignored. The couple decided to leave because they didn't want to be late for their next activity. Shortly after that, we gave up too and stood to leave. The waiter looks over and says “Oh you didn't want dessert either?” My patience had already worn thin and I simply told him that we would have but it took too long to arrive. He simply shrugged and went back to delivering food to everyone else's table. Of course this was the one time our stalker, I mean the MTD manager, didn't bother to come check on us.

 

I decided to kill some time heading up to where the crack in the deck was that they described in the Captain's Corner talk before we headed to a second general knowledge trivia.

 

Pool deck (deck 9) looking up right over that life jacket return trash can sits:

 

The patchwork job on Deck 10:

 

By this time it was like we were running our own RCL swag yard sale and were gifting our excess prizes to anyone we overheard lamenting that they never got any or all of the above. I even joked at one point of setting up a table outside the Schooner Bar and giving away the extra stuff to fellow trivia players as they came and went to the games.

 

And in case anyone is looking for a nice paperweight, I've also accumulated a fleet, as my mother calls them, of Carnival Pride ships on a stick.

[RRFPresident]

The sun came out in preparation for tonight's Farewell Party:

 

We wandered by the next round of 60 seconds or less game but decided not to stop when we saw that it was the same exact games being played. Later we stopped back at the Centrum to see about participating in Battle of the Sexes again now that my bruises were healing (trim those nails ladies!), but once we saw Makiva laying out the same exact props, we bailed early to attend 80's fun facts trivia back upstairs in the Schooner Bar. We stuck around for Guess that 80s tune and pretty much the only one I could give a name to was Belinda Carlisle's “Heaven is a place on Earth” because I used to be obsessed with that song when I was a kid.

 

Our final afternoon treat cabin drop off:

Once the game was over, we made a mad dash back to the cabin to change clothes as it was almost time for our final specialty dinner reservation to round out our purchased dining package. Apparently we are quick change artists because we had time to spare to pop into the Concierge Lounge for one final happy hour. We took the opportunity as well to tip our favorite bar waitress, Patricia. I ordered another screwdriver but this one did not taste very good. An orange slice was stuck inside the glass and it was so imbalanced with vodka that it was nearly a clear drink. I left it behind after a couple sips.

 

We'd debated during the week about which restaurant would get our business this night because after trying the only 3 on board earlier in the trip, this one would have to be a decision on which one was worth going back to for a repeat visit. Even though Dad had flipped the days we'd do Izumi versus Chops with the idea that he expected Chops to win for tonight and didn't want to visit the same place a couple days later, we ended up returning to....Giovanni's!

[RRFPresident]

Might I digress for a moment in this narrative to say what the hell were they thinking when they designed the public ladies' restrooms on this ship? This weird octagonal cocoon shape would make you think that a regular cabin's shower stall was as big as the Grand Canyon!

 

From the doorway:

 

With my back to the sinks:

 

3 stalls and anyone who wasn't tiny trivia pencil thin had to form themselves into an octagon to climb in:

 

Little tip for the ladies - public restrooms with access from the outside pool deck have just 2-3 stalls that are straight across. Guess someone thought of how much room we need to shimmy out of a wet bathing suit!

[RRFPresident]

And now back to the show:

 

When we arrived, the waiters remembered me from the pasta lunch and we had a nice chat. The staff was preparing for a large group to come dine at the restaurant and busied themselves pulling the little two person tables away from the bench seating to form one long banquet table in the center. We asked if there was a big party coming in and the waiter scoffed and laughed as he answered yes. Walking by the restaurant later that evening, we saw several ship officers in dress uniform dining at that long stretch of tables. One of the tables they took was the one between us and a couple from Virginia who later came in for dinner. There wasn't much of a crowd there to begin with and we were still close enough to enjoy a nice conversation about the couple's hometown, their frequent trips on Cunard, and lamenting that the higher level RCL suites don't have separate beds for non couples. The seas were a little rough this night and we were rocking so much that the little mixture on our bread dipping plates was sloshing around and thus I feared would drip off the plate.

 

 

When it came time to order, I was glad for the second chance to order the other pasta I had considered that first night, the Maryland crab ravioli. As I mentioned it however, the waiter explained that they were out of everything from the middle to the bottom of the list, including the ravioli. Dad chose the caesar salad for his appetizer but threw the waiter for a loop for a second when he asked to get it with ranch dressing instead of caesar. The waiter soon seemed to understand and offered to get the ranch dressing from the dining room. I got what was called the Mozzarella in Carrozza Alla Giovanni which basically translates to little mozzarella balls wrapped in bacon and centered on crusty bread pieces. Salt, cheese, and bread in little bite size portions, what's not to love? Definitely a winning choice future cruisers!

 

With my preferred pasta choice gone, I went with the pappardelle again. Dad ordered the crepes again but this time, only 2 crepes were on the plate. As if you didn't already guess, Dad ordered the same steak he loved the last time and loved it again this time. It's listed as Filetto Di Manzo Alla Griglia on the menu in case anyone else wants to try it. For my entree, I chose to try the chicken version of that, the Filetto Di Pollo that was listed as being stuffed with ricotta and mushroom and wrapped in prosciutto. The chicken was okay until I got to the little ball of “stuffing” that looked more like the risotto from our pasta lunch than a mix of ricotta and mushroom. We never touched the crepes but Dad finally got to try the pappardelle and liked it.

 

Yes, that thing sticking out the back was the little wing bone:

 

When it came to desserts, Dad went right for the chocolate cake he had that first night and insisted I try some to. They were out of half of the dessert choices as well including the cannoli I'd had the first night. I settled for the tiny cups of custard with fruit and took about two bites of the cake. The custard was as good as you'd expect to get from the dessert section of the buffet but I didn't care for the crunchy texture of the cake.

 

The last remnants of our final sunset balcony view:

[RRFPresident]

We returned to the cabin after dinner to start packing but had to bail in the middle to attend “The Farewell Trivia” in the South Pacific Lounge. Amy was hosting and explained that it was called “The Farewell Trivia” simply because it was the last one and she'd be bidding us all goodbye when it was over. A couple Rick and Barbara had met earlier in the cruise joined us to play and we fared respectfully given the fact that we second guessed a few answers. Amy was so shocked at the end that we didn't do better and came over to see what score we got. It was nice to end with our favorite cruise staff member and she gave us each a hug as we said goodbye.

 

Back to the cabin to finish the last of our packing. After setting out our luggage in the hallway, I chose to go down to the Farewell party in the Centrum.

 

The saddest sight:

 

I got a pat on the shoulder and a “Good to see you sweetie” as Katrina passed me after introducing the first performers. I'd hoped to use the opportunity to grab a picture with her but she channeled her inner Jane Fonda power walker and was down the hall and out of sight before I could even get the words out, much less be heard over the music.

 

Instead, please get lost in the dreamy nature of this white piano bathed in swirling colorful strobe lights:

 

Dad had headed down to the casino in hopes of finding an active craps table and found one other guy there playing. After a short time playing, Dad joined the now long line at the cashier to cash out his chips so I told him I'd wait for him by the exit. A free trivia point to whomever can remember what is at that casino exit, that's right, the quarter pushing machine! This night there was a large group surrounding the key game and as I stood there waiting, the unattended quarter machine dropped just one quarter into the bin on the bottom. A fitting sign for our one remaining night on board.

 

We officially retired for the night in our cabin and relaxed watching a soccer game on TV before falling asleep. Around 3:15AM, I woke up to the sounds of Captain Ante calling teams to certain decks. I moved to the doorway to try and hear the announcements from the hallway. When there was a break in the announcements, I stepped in to use the bathroom. I turned back to shut the door so as not to wake Dad and stepped my bare feet directly in about an inch of water as our bathroom floor was completely flooded. After checking to make sure that the toilet wasn't actively leaking, I used it and washed my hands. Thankfully we had already showered because it took every towel we had in that bathroom to line the floor and they instantly became soaked through. By the time I came out of the bathroom, I heard Captain Ante call for “Team Bravo stand down.” A couple minutes later, the Captain broke into the cabin intercom to apologize for waking everyone, that they'd had “a little excitement but all was good now so go back to enjoying the cruise.” Glad there was a little lip to the bathroom doorway or our whole bar area could have flooded.

 

We returned to bed but slept fitfully until about 6:30AM. We continued to use the bathroom as we got ready and everything worked fine with the exception of having to step on soaked towels. This wasn't quite the final morning water view I had expected however.

 

I took the opportunity of having tossed and turned enough to pull off the sheets and grabbed a picture of the "mattress topper" you get upon request:

Edited July 4, 2016 by RRFPresident

[RRFPresident]

A few shots of the Baltimore port before we finally left our cabin:

 

Hey warehouse, you got a little something..umm...all over:

 

One of the final suite perks offered is priority disembarkation provided by the Concierge. However, it also translates to being up and ready to go super early to report to the Concierge Lounge where we're asked to gather. A continental breakfast is provided and we sat chatting with another couple while we waited for the self disembarking passengers to be finished. They had no bathroom flooding issues overnight so I don't know whether the Bravo call was related or not. A lot of people questioned Francis about the call and all he would or could tell us was that it was a call for a fire.

 

Once it was time for suites to go down, Francis loaded all of us gathered into the two elevators leading down from deck 11. He used his key card to force the elevators to go directly down to deck 1 for the gangway and rode down with the group in the other one. Both elevators arrived at relatively the same time and Francis greeted us with a direction to turn the corner for the gangway. We turned the corner and ran into Devika so we were able to say a quick thanks and goodbye on our way to that final ding. Once off the ship, we were directed back into the covered tunnel we'd walked out of 9 days ago to board the ship. At the end of the tunnel we spotted the long out the door line for customs but a port staff member at the doorway was calling for those with the red suite/pinnacle tags to walk past everyone and enter so we followed her direction. I entered the building with Dad close behind and soon realized that the man who had entered before me and of whom I only was as tall as his waist, had a crew tag on his luggage. I did that slow scan up to their face and realized I'd been walking behind our cruise director John all this time. I started to say hi and John immediately ducked behind the closest rope to step out of our way and to wait against the wall with the other crew. A few steps forward and I paused behind Katrina who was working to get her suitcase to fit under the ropes so she could stand against the wall waiting as well. Unfortunately, the customs line was not the place to stop for a lengthy chat or picture request so I just wished them both a good trip as they headed to join the Anthem and wound the rest of the way through the empty side of the roped off path. When we reached the staff member who was keeping crowd control for those on his other side coming off of self debarkation, he confirmed we were red tag holders and directed us to the next available customs agent. Once past customs, the next staff member tried to send us outside until we asked about suite luggage so she directed us to the pile of lined up luggage she had been standing in front of. We each found our respective suitcases on opposite ends of the pile and headed out to grab the next available taxi. All in all, physically off the ship by 9AM and home by 10AM.

 

Thank you all for your interest in my Grandeur review and sticking with me till the end! While I certainly wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of hopping on the Carnival Pride again since it's so easy to get to, I also wouldn't turn down the chance to hop on the Grandeur either, especially if John and Katrina return. Feel free to ask any questions you may still have and I'll be working to post the Compasses shortly.

[RRFPresident]

I'm not sure why these scanned so tiny but hopefully you can zoom in:

Day 1 at embarkation we were handed this single 2 sided sheet as our Compass until we got in the cabins:

 

The full Compass for Day 1:

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

[MGlyder]

Thank you for posting the Compasses. They are pretty blurry when I try to zoom in but I do appreciate you taking the time to post them. And thanks for the great review!

 

Matt

[RRFPresident]

Thank you for posting the Compasses. They are pretty blurry when I try to zoom in but I do appreciate you taking the time to post them. And thanks for the great review!

 

Matt

 

I messed up scanning in Day 6's middle page which I'll be fixing soon but I added the compasses to a blog so they can be displayed bigger. Hopefully this is easier to read.

 

http://grandeurbermudacompass.blogspot.com/

[Porcupine123]

Thank you!

[sellwingri]

I absolutely loved your review and pictures. I'm so looking forward to our upcoming cruise in our first grand suite in 8012.

 

Thanks for all the information!

[MGlyder]

I messed up scanning in Day 6's middle page which I'll be fixing soon but I added the compasses to a blog so they can be displayed bigger. Hopefully this is easier to read.

 

 

 

http://grandeurbermudacompass.blogspot.com/

 

 

That works great! Thanks so much for posting them and again, thank you for the great review.

 

Matt

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RRFPresident]

Compass for Day 6 has now been fixed!

[joker381]

"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.

 

We will be sailing on the Graneur for the four time next Dec and the first Concierge was absolutely worthless, never told us anything about the benefits that we could have go but never did. The second Concierge was just as bas as the first, he was in the Concierge Lounge but never very friendly. Franis our third Concierge and Inna our fourth are the great people fit to be a Concieger. Hopefully when we travel on board in Dec 2017 or both of the will be there. It dont' matter to us because we will be moving up to Dimond so we will have our choice of lounges

[kmdreamcatcher]

Thank you for the report, photos and funny commentary at times! :D Loved the report and glad you had a great time! Now I am looking even more forward to my trip in November.

[Philly Steve]

Amazing and entertaining review. Thanks! :)