Another Grandeur review, 2/25/06-3/2/06

[beachgirl8078]

Well, its my turn to pay everyone back for the great advice I got planning this trip!

Grandeur review~

The Ship: beautiful, very well taken care of and easy to get to know your way around. Some wear, but not unless you're really looking for it. I was surprised at the smallness of the pools, esp. the ,main pool, very small. Otherwise, I thought it was in great shape and well laid out.

The Food: Hit or miss, but overall pretty good. Dining room dinners were very good, desserts were very average. Lots of choices, all entrees I had were very good. Windjammer offered a LOT of choices for lunch and breakfast, no one will go hungry. Much of it never changes, so it gets a little boring, but you will not starve at all! Lunch-- several entrees, sandwich fixings, salads, big dessert bar, always ice cream, taco bar a couple times. Breakfast had a huge selection, meats, eggs, all sorts of breads/bagels/doughnuits/etc., potatoes, biscuits/gravy, etc. plety to choose from. The Solarium grill offers pizza, burgers and hot dogs all the time basically. Room service we had twice was fast, efficient, hot, and pretty good.

Kids Program: We had 2 boys 7 and 9 in it and they had a great time! ( year old isn't too social so we were a little worried about whether he'd go or not, and most of the time he wanted to go. The group sizes were small, less than 20 in each age group, so often they were combined. The leaders were very energetic and kept them busy with lots of activity. My 7 year old even opted to stay in AO during port one day and had a blast with lunch with the group in the dining room, ice cream party, etc. Vey well taken care of!

Activities/ STaff: Ashley (?) was the cruise director and very fun without being overdone. We liked her. Didn't see her except at scheduled activities like Quest and the shows at night. Staff was very warm and friendly for the most part. Our room steward, Harvey, was attentive and seemed to move like a phantom. We'd leave and something new would appear done when we got back. Kept our cooler stocked with ice all the time with just one request the first day. Skippy the bibngo boy was funny but tiring by the last day. Boy, bingo is a huge money maker for them!! It's fun, but $$ and if you sit in this big room doing the math, you'll see why they push bingo so hard! Yes, you can will pots of $150-200 each time and the big pot at the end was around $3900, but do the math and you'll see that bingo is a HUGE money sucker!! Quest was ablast, our team won! Definietly go, even if just to watch! Entertainment was above average and family oriented. We had 2 nights of the singers/dancers shows (fair), an olympic gymnast who did a wonderful gymnastics show dispite rocking seas, comedian Steve Thomas (funny) and an impressionist we did not see so can't comment.

Ports: We did Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Tender process getting off the ship to Cozumel was a train wreck-- very disorganized, everyone shoving into the loading area, cutting in line, no communication from RCL regaring what was taking so long. We stood in line an hour and fifteen minutes before anything moved. People all around us were on a 9am tour and they were still standing in the line to get off the ship and onto a tender at 9am! In Grand Cayman they gave out tickets starting at #1 with the people who had ship shore excursions and going on up to #10. It was much more orderly as not everyone was trying to get off at the same time. Not sure why they couldn't do the same at Cozumel. Both tender rides very short. We had a tour upcoming and needed to get off in order to make it and they let us go on an earlier tender # than we had a ticket for in order that we'd not miss our tour.

Overall: Great time. Lots of activities to get involved in if you want but no pressure to do anything at all. Lots of loung chairs, good drinks (albeit kind of expensive-- get the drink of the day NOT in a souvienier glass for $3.95). They definitely make their money on all the "extras"-- bingo, the shops, the driinks, prices of wine, etc. All things you don't HAVE to add on, but probably will indulge in. Pretty pushy in the spa. Shope will have a 1/2 off sale on the last night, so wait till toward tthe end of the cruise to shop.

We were new to RCL and will cruise with them again, had a great time!

[mrsrosner]

Glad you had a great time! I am going 3/11 same route! This will be my second time on the Grandeur and I can't wait. I need a BBC! Thanks for the review and the warning on the tendering in Coz!

[SUZCRUZ]

We did Cozumel on the 4dayer.

Not sure if there were less ships in when we went or because we got off the ship around 10am and avoided the crowds.

Our tender was way cool. Felt like we were on an airplane.

Off the topic recommendation.

From this board, we decided to go for lunch for some local fare, to PanchosBackyard. What a delight. It was so much fun. Felt like we were in Mexico, reverse osmosis water used for preparing food and great music, food and atmosphere. Price and location were also good.

Our seas were flat, so don't worry if your sailing will be rough. It's really hit or miss.

Great ship and want to sail her again. ( We've been on alot of RCCL'S ships)