Good tip! We always make sure we’re back on the boat at least an hour and a half to two hours before it is suppose to set sail. Our last cruise had to leave an hour earlier than originally planned due to a storm that was rolling in.
I had a cruise booked tomorrow on this ship but because of Hurricane Milton, Royal Caribbean approved a refund. Now I get to re-book on a bigger ship, Wonder of the Seas (but double the cost) 🙂 Can't wait!
Cruised on the Grandeur in June and it was neat hearing your perspective. I loved every minute of it as i am not interested in waterslides, etc. I sat on deck 5 reading and watching the ocean go by. Nirvana for me. I agree with you on the Carib in the summer. NEVER AGAIN. i thought i was going to melt. But loved the ship and would 100% sail on her again.
That sounds like a perfectly good way to enjoy the cruise as well. I wish I (Gary) was able to do that as well, but I have trouble sitting still for very long, so I like to go, go, go. It drives Jenn nuts because she is very laid back and could sit the entire cruise just reading a book.
We see the good side and bad side of the smaller ships. Had our cruise been a 4 or 5 night it probably would have been much better. The staff on Grandeur of the Seas was phenomenal!
Been on the Granduer twice a very nice ship..NOT A BOAT!!! Was just on the Quantum of the Seas...was not very rough and we rocked for days on the inside passage to Alaska...our last Enchantment of the Seas cruise was awesome too on this smaller ship!
Sorry for the delay in responding. TH-cam hasn’t been giving us notice of new comments. We think the smaller ships are great for more niche cruises, but not so much when there are a lot of sea days during the cruise.
I kinda prefer the smaller ships. If you get the right group of passengers, it’s a lot of fun meeting new people if you’re into social interaction lol. Made some great friends on the Vision. Larger ships have all the bells and whistles, but they lack the interaction with other cruisers. Larger ships are about packing in people to increase profits. Awesome ship tour and recap! Best Grandeur tour I’ve watched. I’ll be on her next month. Fair review too-except for specialty restaurants. A steak in the MDR is TOTALLY different than a Chops Grille filet. Some of the dishes have same names, but executed differently. I’d encourage you guys to try one, then judge it before you dismiss them. I just hope the AC is better and my cabin doesn’t smell of poo lol.
Thanks for the kind words! One of the biggest reason for not trying one of the specialty restaurants on Grandeur was that most of the restaurants served dishes that we could go to a restaurant at home and get similar food. For paying extra, we kind of want it to be a unique experience that we can’t easily find. We’ve talked about, when going on one of the bigger ships, trying the specialty restaurant Wonderland. That would be something unique for us.
@@garyandjenn That is a very fair point and makes complete sense. I can find a nice steakhouse or Italian restaurant at home. Wonderland and even the new Train Car on Utopia are different unique experiences. Thanks for the additional perspective and looking forward to more videos!
Nice review, but "not a lot of thrilling things to do" ?? The smaller, older ships are not there to provide thrills !!! They have huge, thrilling ships that provide that. Grandeur & the rest of the older, smaller ships are for those who enjoy a drink, a meal, and some R & R on a lounger. Perhaps catch up on some reading or card games. And an inexpensive way to get to the islands.
Thanks so much for this review. I planned on booking grandeur of the seas for next year but have changed my mind. Will probably try the celebration out of miami.
Thanks for your review! I'm going on Grandeur in summer 2024 and wondered about the amenities. I'm older and will be fine without the water slides, etc. I just hope the AC works!
You definitely don't have to worry about water slides because there aren't any on the ship. The closest big thing is the rock climbing wall. During sea days they show movies in the theater, and in the evening they show one on the "jumbotron" by the pool. They also have a decent sized casino and they have some very good production shows. The do bingo one day, which was very popular, and multiple bars around the ship. In general your time on the ship is more relaxing than you would find on the much larger ships.
I was on this ship last August for 5 day cruise out of Galveston. Comparing my experience to other many cruise ships and cruise lines I’ve been on, I’d say it was just ok and at times was very boring (I can’t imagine being on her for 7 days lol). You’re right, ship seemed well maintained for age, but I noticed on check in, my cabin was very dirty. I noticed this especially when I moved the little end tables and under the bed (food crumbs, hairballs and wrappers). Bathroom had hairs on floors and walls, plus dried something smeared on wall. Shower had old style shower curtain that never kept water from flooding floor. I’ll be on Allure of the Seas in September and Regal Princess in November; both 7 day cruises out of Galveston…can’t wait to try both those ships!
My parents were on this ship years ago ou of Baltimore. I took it with my wife a few times, before I realized going out of Bayonne could give me a bigger ship. This ship was supposed to be retired. It should be sunk at sea and used as a reef.
While compared to Margaritaville at See that we went on in January, Grandeur of the Seas is still an upgrade; however we do agree that it probably won’t be around many more years. We took it because we had never cruised on Royal Caribbean before, and our cruise hit the locations Jenn was wanting to visit.
We travel in a group of 50 to 60. When we cruise, we've been to Greece, Italy, France all over Europe. And we always cruise listening to this video. We will be changing, are cruising. We have no intentions ongoing on an older ship. That is out of date is too hot to handle. If that is the case of this ship, then you owe it to put this thing in The Dry dock and decommission it, but we were going to go on this cruise now. We will not. We'll go back to something. Like the Empress of the seas which is what we did last time? I really appreciate this video cuz. I would've been mad at 50 of us. Spent the money to go on a cruise like this. And was just boring and just does not seem like worth the money.I really do appreciate the people that put this video together.Thank you
love your video way you presented it. We did Radiance of seas -older ship also, this time we did the grand suite cabin 1060 larger balcony than others got sweet deal, buffet was almost better than MDR yes I agree some of the mdr foods were bland not that great, but staff/crew was amazing. Shows did not impress me as I am a musician vocalist ..I knew the band from Cebu they were called "Top Notch" and they were top notch the keyboard player did horns/strings/piano made it look easy, lead vocalist front gal was probably the best singer I've ever heard & I did Princess/carnival lounge singer musician keyboardist. Our cabin was huge, our bathroom had nice tub, dual sinks beautiful, had island view from balcony was amazing, suite lounge was super nice. I was considering grandeur of seas 10 -12 day southern caribbean but yes small ship with not much to do and if we did do it I'd probably chose jr suite this time, I loved gs room service was nice able to get anything we want breakfast then lunch went to buffet dinner at MDR. My husband doesn't wake up til noon unless we were in port so I ate breakfast myself didn't want to leave cabin. GS are very expensive going to so carribbean so think we will go with Jr suite next time. We have done Harmony, Freedom, Miracle and other ships can't remember, the newer one ICON of seas I was asked to do performance as solo artist musician but being married couldn't do it. Icon and Utopia are the newest and most expensive being newest think that would be awesome but i will wait til prices comes down. I cannot believe prices are insane expensive. But loved your video . how was ports? did you like western car?
Had a support pole right thru middle of room. Wife made a joke of it and did not realize how upset she was. I have never gone to customer service and I am a diamond member. Should have gone for this issue. Also, curtains in shower instead of glass.
😮 We saw some photo of the Junior Suite rooms that had the support pole right at the foot of the bed. That was one of the reasons we didn’t try to Royal Up. The bathrooms are definitely the worst part of the room on Grandeur!
My wife, 2 kids (19 and 21) and I are thinking about booking a 5-night Caribbean cruise on the Grandeur of the Seas. Sailing in early July. Itinerary: Day 1 Tampa Day 2 at sea Day 3 George Town, Grand Cayman Day 4 Cozumel, Mexico Day 5 at sea Day 6 Tampa Any hot tips to share? We are still deciding on drink packages and WiFi. Does the main pool deck area and pool get overcrowded? We like to layout in the sun and go in pool to cool off. Do people play the towel game like they do at all-inclusive resorts?
Sorry for the delay in responding... we didn't get a notification from TH-cam that you had posted, so we just saw it. To answer your questions, we think 5 nights is probably the perfect amount of time on Grandeur of the Seas. Our cruise was 7 nights and we started getting a little bored towards the end because a lot of the activities were repetitious, and other than a rock climbing wall, they didn't have other "exciting" activities, like the water slides and such, that the newer, larger ships have. We see Grandeur as a great option if your main goal is relaxation. The main pool area gets pretty crowded, so you would have to get there early. There is an issue with people going really early and holding chairs. The staff does try to keep an eye out for it, but we did see it happening quite a bit. They do have the solarium area which is for people 16 and over, which does have another pool, hot tubs, and chairs, but since it is glass enclosed it gets pretty warm in there during the day time. I don't recall seeing the towel game played, but it's entirely possible. They did a lot of deck games, but we both burn pretty easy, so we didn't spend lots of time out there when those were going on. As far as the drink package, they are pricey, so you really need to do the math and see if it is worthwhile for you, especially since, if one person in the cabin gets it, the other(s) have to as well. For use, it was worth it because it not only covers alcoholic beverages, but sodas as well. It's nice to be able to just go up and get drinks, or order a glass of wine for dinner, and not have to worry about what your tab is going to be at the end of the cruise. For us it worked out to about 7 drinks per day, which seems like a lot, but when you think about the amount of time you are on the ship, especially on sea days, it is not really as bad as it seems. We did not do WiFi package when we went. For one it is pretty expensive, and if the performance we were getting on the app was any indicator of how the WiFi was, then it is horrible! Plus, we sort of enjoyed the disconnect from real life while we were on the ship, and limited our checking of email and Facebook to when we were in a port. Probably the biggest issue you might experience going in July is with the air conditioning. It was really hot and humid when we went in June, to the point that the A/C on the ship was having trouble keeping up, especially on the sea days. The public areas were miserably hot since people were constantly going in and out of doors, so the A/C just went out the doors with the people. Gary thought he was going to pass out from heat exhaustion during formal night in the Main Dining Room. It was really warm in there, the sun beating through the window, and then him wearing a suit and tie. We spent a lot of time in our cabin because it was a lot cooler than the rest of the ship. We highly recommend keeping the blinds to your cabin closed as much as possible and getting a portable fan to help keep the air circulating. We brought one (that can run off of a rechargeable battery or plug directly in), and ran it the entire cruise. It helped keep the cabin a lot cooler, and when we started getting warm, we just pointed it at us and it helped cool us down. Probably one of the best things we brought, and now it goes on every cruise with us.
No worries at all. Wow, thank you for the very thorough response. I haven’t been on a cruise in over 20 years, so this is all new’ish to me. We ended up this booking cruise for July 6th. We always go to Caribbean all-inclusive resorts to relax, but the kids have been getting bored of them, so we decided on the cruise. I am an early riser so will most definitely be holding chairs at the main pool. Same thing that goes on at Caribbean all-inclusive resorts. I like to lay out and tan, and participate in most of the deck activities. I can see the Solarium being useful for getting out of the sun and quiet time away from the main pool. We are not doing the drink package at this time. We are bringing bottles of wine onboard and will buy a drinks here and there. We are okay with the basic free drinks…water, brewed coffee, iced tea, lemonade, juices, milk, etc. We purchased the Key VIP pass, which includes internet. Grand Cayman is a tender port, so we would benefit from priority ship-to-shore departure at tender port. Priority access boarding with lunch and departure with breakfast seem like great benefits as well. Oh boy, the AC could be an issue for me. I tend to run hot. I was cheap and selected the inside cabin guaranteed option, so no blinds. I don’t plan on bringing a suit. Short sleeve polo or button down and lululemon khaki pants is the most I’ll be getting dressed up.
My first ship I been on in my cruise life in 2001 I been on it 1 other time I thought it was a wonderful ship and I do like those smaller cruise ships the ones that carry around 2500 guests, and 1200 crew members....I been on those big ones that hold around 4000 to 6000 guests, and 2500 crew members there just too big to see everything on just a 7 day cruise.... You need at least double that time...
Love Oasis class ships. Not a fan of small ships, and we are in our 70s. Central Park is my favorite area of the sip, other than the suite lounge, and we are far from snobby people. We like quiet away places.
We’re talking about going on one of the larger ones… maybe Icon of the Seas sometime next year. We’re looking forward to the neighborhoods concept, but is kind of intimidating that the ship will have almost as many people on it as the town we live closest to.
We are booked for Oct on Grandeur 5 day last cruise we’ll ever take on RC. We are diamond members but fed up with what RC is doing gouging their cruisers in pretty much every way. We only cruised with RC up to this point but no longer. In less than 6 months they took a cruise we booked at $5300 and same ship, cabin, date, cabin type was inflated to $11,000! Their gratuities are now higher than anyone elses and they’ve raised prices on everything trying to convince people it’s because of the pandemic. Really then why do you have at least 5 new ships contracted (saw the article yesterday?) We’ve booked 2024 with Holland and 2025 with MSC.
Wow! We are sailing with Virgin Voyages in February. Really looking forward to trying out their concept, where pretty much everything is included in the price (except alcohol, and some fancy coffees and fresh squeezed juices). No additional gratuities, and no extra fee specialty restaurant. Plus it’s no one under 18 on board, so that will be a totally different experience!
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
Do you prefer a bigger ship or a smaller ship? Let us know in the comments below.
Smaller ships...Less crowds more relaxing!
I am dying laughing about the opening joke gone wrong.. and the little whisper 😂😂😂 so funny
Did you see the very end (right after where the end card starts?) I wasn’t wrong. 😂 - Gary
A simple hack, whenever I leave the ship, I set an alarm on my phone for two hours prior to on board time and I have never had a problem.
Good tip! We always make sure we’re back on the boat at least an hour and a half to two hours before it is suppose to set sail. Our last cruise had to leave an hour earlier than originally planned due to a storm that was rolling in.
I had a cruise booked tomorrow on this ship but because of Hurricane Milton, Royal Caribbean approved a refund. Now I get to re-book on a bigger ship, Wonder of the Seas (but double the cost) 🙂 Can't wait!
We hope you have a blast!
Cruised on the Grandeur in June and it was neat hearing your perspective. I loved every minute of it as i am not interested in waterslides, etc. I sat on deck 5 reading and watching the ocean go by. Nirvana for me. I agree with you on the Carib in the summer. NEVER AGAIN. i thought i was going to melt. But loved the ship and would 100% sail on her again.
That sounds like a perfectly good way to enjoy the cruise as well. I wish I (Gary) was able to do that as well, but I have trouble sitting still for very long, so I like to go, go, go. It drives Jenn nuts because she is very laid back and could sit the entire cruise just reading a book.
Smaller ships are the best, no waiting in lines, the service is impeccable,.
We see the good side and bad side of the smaller ships. Had our cruise been a 4 or 5 night it probably would have been much better. The staff on Grandeur of the Seas was phenomenal!
Been on the Granduer twice a very nice ship..NOT A BOAT!!! Was just on the Quantum of the Seas...was not very rough and we rocked for days on the inside passage to Alaska...our last Enchantment of the Seas cruise was awesome too on this smaller ship!
Sorry for the delay in responding. TH-cam hasn’t been giving us notice of new comments. We think the smaller ships are great for more niche cruises, but not so much when there are a lot of sea days during the cruise.
I kinda prefer the smaller ships. If you get the right group of passengers, it’s a lot of fun meeting new people if you’re into social interaction lol. Made some great friends on the Vision. Larger ships have all the bells and whistles, but they lack the interaction with other cruisers. Larger ships are about packing in people to increase profits.
Awesome ship tour and recap! Best Grandeur tour I’ve watched. I’ll be on her next month. Fair review too-except for specialty restaurants. A steak in the MDR is TOTALLY different than a Chops Grille filet. Some of the dishes have same names, but executed differently. I’d encourage you guys to try one, then judge it before you dismiss them. I just hope the AC is better and my cabin doesn’t smell of poo lol.
Thanks for the kind words! One of the biggest reason for not trying one of the specialty restaurants on Grandeur was that most of the restaurants served dishes that we could go to a restaurant at home and get similar food. For paying extra, we kind of want it to be a unique experience that we can’t easily find. We’ve talked about, when going on one of the bigger ships, trying the specialty restaurant Wonderland. That would be something unique for us.
@@garyandjenn That is a very fair point and makes complete sense. I can find a nice steakhouse or Italian restaurant at home. Wonderland and even the new Train Car on Utopia are different unique experiences. Thanks for the additional perspective and looking forward to more videos!
Nice review, but "not a lot of thrilling things to do" ?? The smaller, older ships are not there to provide thrills !!! They have huge, thrilling ships that provide that. Grandeur & the rest of the older, smaller ships are for those who enjoy a drink, a meal, and some R & R on a lounger. Perhaps catch up on some reading or card games. And an inexpensive way to get to the islands.
But this ship is affordable
These videos are cool! What's the 2 hidden videos?
Thanks so much for this review. I planned on booking grandeur of the seas for next year but have changed my mind. Will probably try the celebration out of miami.
We hope you have a great trip on any ship you choose!
thanks for all the information ;-)
Glad it was helpful!
Great review! Glad the embarkation process was so quick… The team in Tampa works hard to make it as smooth as possible…
It was amazing! Probably the best embarkation process we have ever had!
Thanks for your review! I'm going on Grandeur in summer 2024 and wondered about the amenities. I'm older and will be fine without the water slides, etc. I just hope the AC works!
You definitely don't have to worry about water slides because there aren't any on the ship. The closest big thing is the rock climbing wall. During sea days they show movies in the theater, and in the evening they show one on the "jumbotron" by the pool. They also have a decent sized casino and they have some very good production shows. The do bingo one day, which was very popular, and multiple bars around the ship. In general your time on the ship is more relaxing than you would find on the much larger ships.
I was on this ship last August for 5 day cruise out of Galveston. Comparing my experience to other many cruise ships and cruise lines I’ve been on, I’d say it was just ok and at times was very boring (I can’t imagine being on her for 7 days lol). You’re right, ship seemed well maintained for age, but I noticed on check in, my cabin was very dirty. I noticed this especially when I moved the little end tables and under the bed (food crumbs, hairballs and wrappers). Bathroom had hairs on floors and walls, plus dried something smeared on wall. Shower had old style shower curtain that never kept water from flooding floor.
I’ll be on Allure of the Seas in September and Regal Princess in November; both 7 day cruises out of Galveston…can’t wait to try both those ships!
Our stateroom was clean, so we’re thankful for that. We’ll be going on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady in February. Really looking forward to that!
We're going to be on grandeur in October!! Itll be our first cruise ❤❤❤❤❤❤
We hope you have an incredible time!
Really me too🎉
My parents were on this ship years ago ou of Baltimore. I took it with my wife a few times, before I realized going out of Bayonne could give me a bigger ship. This ship was supposed to be retired. It should be sunk at sea and used as a reef.
While compared to Margaritaville at See that we went on in January, Grandeur of the Seas is still an upgrade; however we do agree that it probably won’t be around many more years. We took it because we had never cruised on Royal Caribbean before, and our cruise hit the locations Jenn was wanting to visit.
We travel in a group of 50 to 60. When we cruise, we've been to Greece, Italy, France all over Europe. And we always cruise listening to this video. We will be changing, are cruising. We have no intentions ongoing on an older ship. That is out of date is too hot to handle. If that is the case of this ship, then you owe it to put this thing in The Dry dock and decommission it, but we were going to go on this cruise now. We will not. We'll go back to something. Like the Empress of the seas which is what we did last time? I really appreciate this video cuz. I would've been mad at 50 of us. Spent the money to go on a cruise like this. And was just boring and just does not seem like worth the money.I really do appreciate the people that put this video together.Thank you
love your video way you presented it. We did Radiance of seas -older ship also, this time we did the grand suite cabin 1060 larger balcony than others got sweet deal, buffet was almost better than MDR yes I agree some of the mdr foods were bland not that great, but staff/crew was amazing. Shows did not impress me as I am a musician vocalist ..I knew the band from Cebu they were called "Top Notch" and they were top notch the keyboard player did horns/strings/piano made it look easy, lead vocalist front gal was probably the best singer I've ever heard & I did Princess/carnival lounge singer musician keyboardist. Our cabin was huge, our bathroom had nice tub, dual sinks beautiful, had island view from balcony was amazing, suite lounge was super nice. I was considering grandeur of seas 10 -12 day southern caribbean but yes small ship with not much to do and if we did do it I'd probably chose jr suite this time, I loved gs room service was nice able to get anything we want breakfast then lunch went to buffet dinner at MDR. My husband doesn't wake up til noon unless we were in port so I ate breakfast myself didn't want to leave cabin. GS are very expensive going to so carribbean so think we will go with Jr suite next time. We have done Harmony, Freedom, Miracle and other ships can't remember, the newer one ICON of seas I was asked to do performance as solo artist musician but being married couldn't do it. Icon and Utopia are the newest and most expensive being newest think that would be awesome but i will wait til prices comes down. I cannot believe prices are insane expensive. But loved your video . how was ports? did you like western car?
Had a support
pole right thru middle of room. Wife made a joke of it and did not realize how upset she was. I have never gone to customer service and I am a diamond member. Should have gone for this issue. Also, curtains in shower instead of glass.
😮 We saw some photo of the Junior Suite rooms that had the support pole right at the foot of the bed. That was one of the reasons we didn’t try to Royal Up. The bathrooms are definitely the worst part of the room on Grandeur!
My wife, 2 kids (19 and 21) and I are thinking about booking a 5-night Caribbean cruise on the Grandeur of the Seas. Sailing in early July. Itinerary:
Day 1 Tampa
Day 2 at sea
Day 3 George Town, Grand Cayman
Day 4 Cozumel, Mexico
Day 5 at sea
Day 6 Tampa
Any hot tips to share? We are still deciding on drink packages and WiFi.
Does the main pool deck area and pool get overcrowded? We like to layout in the sun and go in pool to cool off. Do people play the towel game like they do at all-inclusive resorts?
Sorry for the delay in responding... we didn't get a notification from TH-cam that you had posted, so we just saw it. To answer your questions, we think 5 nights is probably the perfect amount of time on Grandeur of the Seas. Our cruise was 7 nights and we started getting a little bored towards the end because a lot of the activities were repetitious, and other than a rock climbing wall, they didn't have other "exciting" activities, like the water slides and such, that the newer, larger ships have. We see Grandeur as a great option if your main goal is relaxation.
The main pool area gets pretty crowded, so you would have to get there early. There is an issue with people going really early and holding chairs. The staff does try to keep an eye out for it, but we did see it happening quite a bit. They do have the solarium area which is for people 16 and over, which does have another pool, hot tubs, and chairs, but since it is glass enclosed it gets pretty warm in there during the day time. I don't recall seeing the towel game played, but it's entirely possible. They did a lot of deck games, but we both burn pretty easy, so we didn't spend lots of time out there when those were going on.
As far as the drink package, they are pricey, so you really need to do the math and see if it is worthwhile for you, especially since, if one person in the cabin gets it, the other(s) have to as well. For use, it was worth it because it not only covers alcoholic beverages, but sodas as well. It's nice to be able to just go up and get drinks, or order a glass of wine for dinner, and not have to worry about what your tab is going to be at the end of the cruise. For us it worked out to about 7 drinks per day, which seems like a lot, but when you think about the amount of time you are on the ship, especially on sea days, it is not really as bad as it seems.
We did not do WiFi package when we went. For one it is pretty expensive, and if the performance we were getting on the app was any indicator of how the WiFi was, then it is horrible! Plus, we sort of enjoyed the disconnect from real life while we were on the ship, and limited our checking of email and Facebook to when we were in a port.
Probably the biggest issue you might experience going in July is with the air conditioning. It was really hot and humid when we went in June, to the point that the A/C on the ship was having trouble keeping up, especially on the sea days. The public areas were miserably hot since people were constantly going in and out of doors, so the A/C just went out the doors with the people. Gary thought he was going to pass out from heat exhaustion during formal night in the Main Dining Room. It was really warm in there, the sun beating through the window, and then him wearing a suit and tie. We spent a lot of time in our cabin because it was a lot cooler than the rest of the ship. We highly recommend keeping the blinds to your cabin closed as much as possible and getting a portable fan to help keep the air circulating. We brought one (that can run off of a rechargeable battery or plug directly in), and ran it the entire cruise. It helped keep the cabin a lot cooler, and when we started getting warm, we just pointed it at us and it helped cool us down. Probably one of the best things we brought, and now it goes on every cruise with us.
No worries at all. Wow, thank you for the very thorough response. I haven’t been on a cruise in over 20 years, so this is all new’ish to me. We ended up this booking cruise for July 6th. We always go to Caribbean all-inclusive resorts to relax, but the kids have been getting bored of them, so we decided on the cruise.
I am an early riser so will most definitely be holding chairs at the main pool. Same thing that goes on at Caribbean all-inclusive resorts. I like to lay out and tan, and participate in most of the deck activities. I can see the Solarium being useful for getting out of the sun and quiet time away from the main pool.
We are not doing the drink package at this time. We are bringing bottles of wine onboard and will buy a drinks here and there. We are okay with the basic free drinks…water, brewed coffee, iced tea, lemonade, juices, milk, etc.
We purchased the Key VIP pass, which includes internet. Grand Cayman is a tender port, so we would benefit from priority ship-to-shore departure at tender port. Priority access boarding with lunch and departure with breakfast seem like great benefits as well.
Oh boy, the AC could be an issue for me. I tend to run hot. I was cheap and selected the inside cabin guaranteed option, so no blinds. I don’t plan on bringing a suit. Short sleeve polo or button down and lululemon khaki pants is the most I’ll be getting dressed up.
My first ship I been on in my cruise life in 2001 I been on it 1 other time I thought it was a wonderful ship and I do like those smaller cruise ships the ones that carry around 2500 guests, and 1200 crew members....I been on those big ones that hold around 4000 to 6000 guests, and 2500 crew members there just too big to see everything on just a 7 day cruise.... You need at least double that time...
We enjoyed Grandeur, and would probably sail on her again, but on a shorter sailing the next time.
🥰❤️
Love Oasis class ships. Not a fan of small ships, and we are in our 70s. Central Park is my favorite area of the sip, other than the suite lounge, and we are far from snobby people. We like quiet away places.
We’re talking about going on one of the larger ones… maybe Icon of the Seas sometime next year. We’re looking forward to the neighborhoods concept, but is kind of intimidating that the ship will have almost as many people on it as the town we live closest to.
We are booked for Oct on Grandeur 5 day last cruise we’ll ever take on RC. We are diamond members but fed up with what RC is doing gouging their cruisers in pretty much every way. We only cruised with RC up to this point but no longer. In less than 6 months they took a cruise we booked at $5300 and same ship, cabin, date, cabin type was inflated to $11,000! Their gratuities are now higher than anyone elses and they’ve raised prices on everything trying to convince people it’s because of the pandemic. Really then why do you have at least 5 new ships contracted (saw the article yesterday?) We’ve booked 2024 with Holland and 2025 with MSC.
Wow! We are sailing with Virgin Voyages in February. Really looking forward to trying out their concept, where pretty much everything is included in the price (except alcohol, and some fancy coffees and fresh squeezed juices). No additional gratuities, and no extra fee specialty restaurant. Plus it’s no one under 18 on board, so that will be a totally different experience!
Royals beds are awful!
We agree they weren’t the most comfortable, but we found Virgin Voyages beds to be worse!