Cruising on "The Grandeur"

[travelagent1]

I have friends cruising on THE GRANDUER in January. Has anyone been on lately? These folks are frinds and family...Do they have "concierge" service. It's been awhile since I was on her and I don't remember? What do they have for Diamond and Diamond Plus members? What's good to do at Progresso, Yucatan? How are the beaches? How's the service, food, entertainment, etc....Thanks!!!

[baileyadog]

Good luck with information regarding the Grandeur. I have posted a couple of times with limited replies. I cruised on Mariner last year and got tons of information. It seems that info is more difficult to find for the Grandeur. I have looked everywhere for menus but have not been able to find them for this ship. Good Luck and I look forward to hearing the information that you get.

[MrsCorL]

we were on her this past april. there is no cl on her. we stayed in a gs and with just a few days of getting fruits, cheese etc, there was nothing else special. my dsil's family, i believe is diamond, but they just got the same as we did. did you try to go into the m and m section of cc to talk to the ppl in the granduer thread? they would be able to help you with the other questions you had.

[cravingacruz!!]

my family sailed on the granduer 2 years ago and absolutely loved it! the service was wonderful. Our waiter at dinner was very prompt with taking orders and getting everyone settled. Our head waiter was also very nice and took the time to come talk to our table a couple of times. The ship its self is in good condition. Although it is one of the older ships, it didn't show any signs of wear and tear. The entertainment was awesome! One night we even got to see Mickey Dolenz!!!! (from the monkies) and that show was the best! The comdedians and production shows were great- some of the comedians tricks were lacking to say the least :rolleyes: , but still very entertaining. The food was plentiful and good. The WJ has the same old WJ food everyone talks about- repetitive and at times a little cold. The food in the WJ i found, was not bland in taste at all- jmo. They offer a lot of activities for families and for adults and children. They are typically well organized and fun. My favorite was the daily trivia in the schooner bar ( free prizes and lots of laughs from ppls anwers:D ). All in all the cruise was wonderful and i think that your friends will really have a great time! Happy cruising.

[baileyadog]

Thanks for the info!!! Any idea where I could find some menus for the ship?

[jned]

Our family (including sons 22 and 20 and daughter 17) cruised on the Grandeur over Thanksgiving. Our only complaint with the ship was the limited number of activities for young adults. We would have liked to have basketball and volleyball available.

[TPKeller]

There is actually quite a bit of information on the Grandeur, although I don't recall seeing any copies of the menus.

 

My Albums page has two albums from Grandeur trips, and if you check out Radio's page, Cruising With Radio, you will find links to his LIVE post threads, several of which have been on Grandeur, as well as links to his videos and photo albums.

 

She's a good ship, with many repeat passengers, which does say a lot!

 

Theron

[krmlaw]

We sailed her last December. She was a nice ship, but we much prefer bigger ships. We liked EOS post stretch and Adventure much better.

[0ldog]

Best thing about Grandeur is She's just a Good Ol' Cruise Ship. No frills or fancies and doesn't cater to the "Elite". You'll quite often see the Capitan eating in the Wind Jammer with the of the passengers. His wife travels with him and they are often seen shopping in port.

[tomatopa]

Check out Tuggers posts live from the grandeur

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=667722

 

hope the link works if not look uner Celebrity posting "Comparing RCL to X.

 

they are fun to read and informative.

 

Judy

[sabast1]

My wife and I sailed on her back in May for the repositioning to Baltimore. We felt the service was excellent but the food was fair at best.

 

The food in the windjammer was some of the least appealing food we've had on a cruise. Everyday (at breakfast & lunch) they served pretty much the same "bland tasting" food except for the "theme of the day" food (which always seemed to be something too unusual for us to want to try).

 

The worst food on the ship was the hamburgers/hotdogs/pizza that was served in the solarium. The pizza was served out of a "7-eleven like" pizza rotisserie and tasted about as good as you'd get at a convenience store. The Hamburgers and Hot Dogs were all precooked and tasted like cafeteria food....we ate from there once and never went back. I'm used to having a "grill" area on cruise ships were the food is made fresh to order (maybe I'm just spoiled by X).

 

The food in the dining room was actually pretty good, however the selection to choose from seemed lacking. Each night we'd look at the menu and nothing would catch our eye.

 

As far as copies of menus...the best place to look is here (however they don't have any from the Granduer)

 

http://cruiseclues.com/menus.htm

 

Even with the so-so food, we still had a great time and would sail her again.

 

Scott

[collegemom912]

We cruised on Grandeur in October to the Eastern Caribbean. We loved the ship. Our outside cabin on deck 3 was very comfortable and our stateroom attendant terrific. The service far exceeded the service we experienced on Legend a year prior. We received excellent service every evening in the dining room. The food was very good. As others have said the food in the WJ was just OK. Unlike the previous poster I loved the burgers in the solarium. Maybe we lucked out and got them when they were fresh...didn't try the pizza. At the time of our trip we had already booked a New years cruise on Mariner for 2008-09 or we would have booked a cabin on Grandeur for another cruise. We loved it. Great entertainment too!

[basketsuze]

Hi!

 

We've been on the Grandeur 3 times so far out of Baltimore - most recently this past Halloween! We love going on this ship!

 

Bear in mind that we are both cooking hobbyists, and already know the food on this ship is not that great. We don't let it spoil our great time!

 

Here's what we love:

 

* It's very easy to get around! Last year we had a balcony cabin on Deck 7 in the front of the ship and LOVED it! Went out our door, turned the corner, went up 2 flights of stairs, and voila! We're at the Windjammer and the Pool Bar!

 

* We love Captain Rob! He mingles around and is very funny in his announcements!

 

* The people tend to be from the Baltimore Metro Aread and are very friendly and non-pretentious. I have never seen a problem on this ship as described in a previous thread where Captain Rob had to put two families off the ship.

 

* We love leaving from Baltimore, which is 1/2 hour from home!

 

* Based on experiences from other cruiselines (have been on NCL and X), I think the cruise director's staff is very energetic and engages people! I don't know how they do it! No way could I be that perky 24/7!

 

* The magician and his wife were outstanding! We could not figure out how they did what they did!

 

* Quest was, as always, very fun and entertaining!

 

* Bar staff, room steward, waiters, well, to be accurate....ALL the staff were friendly, courteous, and could not do enough for us!

 

The thing I DO NOT LIKE, AND IN FACT, ABSOLUTELY HATE ABOUT THE GRANDEUR:................

 

* The ship will not be sailing out of Baltimore starting in 2009.

 

Hope this helps!!

 

Suze!

[bike1964]

Ditto to Suz's post.

 

Captain Rob was the only captain we have ever had that kept the pax informed about weather/times in port.... Also saw him shopping in Key West. He likes to get out and mingle. We took an awesome photo with him @ the repeat cruiser's party.

 

Granduer is a great ship. Perfect size. Not too big, not too small. We sailed on her in Feb of this year out of new Orleans. We liked the Solarium adult pool. Nice and quiet. Burgers/fries/pizza could use some work, but we liked the buffet food, and the food in the Dining Room and the service were excellent. Wish she was still there. We talked to Captain Rob about RCCL pulling out of New Orleans, and he said that they (RCCL) have no plans on returning to New Orleans in the future. can't go wrong with the Grandeur.

 

We have a sailing booked on the Navigator leaving on 2/11, and we are seriously considering switching it over to the Grandeur after all the comments I'm hearing about embarkation/debarkation in Ft Lauderdale. We have never sailed out of Ft Lauderdale, but lately I have been reading that it sounds like a mess.

[0ldog]

I almost forgot the little Chinese girl that spoke what she called "Chinglish", she was super and I'm sure will make a great CD some day. She had just started hosting the Adult Karaoke Contest when we were on the end of August. She was from Beijing and learning English for some job that she was to have when they host the Olympics next year.

[MonDreamr1]

Sorry no CL lounge,

 

Shows:

 

We were on the last Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Baltimore, before Grandeur repo'd to Fl. The entertainers they brought on board were very good, with one exception- the one guy they didn't bother to introduce so you had no clue what was going on and the RC band behind him was over amped so I have no clue if he was good or not.

 

We were on the 9 night cruise, so we had 3 RC production shows, and I think- 3 comedians, 2 musical acts, and 1 magic act- but I'd have to go back to the compass to make sure that's right.

 

The RC singers and dancers from our cruise were signing off at the end of our cruise and a new cast was coming on. Ours were great, not sure about the new set.

 

Food:

Windjammer was hit or miss, dinning room was normally good for dinner, but I had major issues with the lunch service on several days, we ordered room service once- they screwed up the entire order with the exception of the drinks, we skipped the buffets- they moved our one because of weather and I hate the lines, and the midnight strolling waiters normally had fun treats.

 

 

Captain Rob is great.

 

For the overall the younger set of kids (AO age) were very good- it was only several of the teens that were causing problems for the most part this group was very well behaved at least towards us.

Putting people off the ship- it was interesting- it was several people in San Juan and then the idiot kid and parents in Labadee. But, with the number of announcements and reminders about the conduct policy if you didn't hear it at least once you had problems beyond what ever you were doing to violate it.

 

Only major complaint I have is the fact our loyalty ambassador signed off in San Juan and we didn't get a real replacement. They put some random guy in her place from somewhere else on the ship who didn't even have a password to login to half of the things he needed. There were some major screw ups with C&A things on that sailing. Hopefully they have a new real one back onboard.

 

Overall condition- she shows her age in some places, but with the recent drydock she looks great for her age.