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Name: James Lackey
Email: trooper@bluegrass.net
Age: 32
Occupation: U.S. Army
NumberOfCruises: 3
TravelAgent: No
Ship: RoyalCaribbean-Grandeur
SailingDate: 28 NOV-5 DEC 98
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 93
CruiseDirector: 88
CabinComfort: 99
FoodRoomService: 90
CruiseStaff: 98
CabinAmenities: 97
FoodLidoDeck: 88
DiningRoomService: 92
CabinQuietness: 99
FoodMidnightBuffets: 85
CabinSteward: 89
ShoreExcVariety: 93
FoodVariety: 95
DeckService: 94
ShoreExcValue: 90
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff: 99
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 95
LoungeService: 97
TenderService: 98
GoodForSeniors: 97
BeautySalonStaff: 93
EntertainmentLounges: 100
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 99
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: 93
EntertainmentPoolside: 95
CruiseActivities: 98
Casino: 99
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 99
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 94
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 93
ShopsOnBoard: 90
SpaceRatio: 96
OverallCruiseValue: 99
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 07 Dec 1998
Time: 21:25:09
Remote Name: 206.84.49.115
Remote User:
Comments
I have read alot of reviews about the Grandeur of the Seas and I thought I would put in my
two cents worth, maybe I can answer
some questions that I had. Let me first start off by telling you that I am in the army and
I have to save two years to take my
family on a cruise. The last cruise we were on was the Premier ship SeaBreeze and before
that was the Oceanic. The Grandeur
is in a class by itself, the brass, glass and marble everywhere you looked gave it the
atmosphere that this is the grandest ship in
the world. The crew's meticulous attention to detail is seen everywhere. Never a day went
by when we didn't see the crew wiping
down the brass, cleaning the floors and painting the ship. My mother lives in the Miami
area so we made our own flight
arrangements and stayed at her house until time to cruise. We flew down the day before
Thanksgiving, we bought our ticket in
June and the price was $197.00 on Delta Airlines. We checked before we left and the same
flight was over $800.00 so book
early. As I said before we are not the richest people in the world so I booked a cat. O,
inside lower level cabin, then we got an
upgrade to an inside cabin of the 4th deck (main deck in the brochure Cat N.) When we
looked at our tickets at my mother's
house we noticed that the cabin numbers were not correct. We had booked in January for the
28 November sailing so we had
routes all plotted out in the brochure. Our inside cabin was 4513 so when we read that the
room was 4032 I had thought
something was wrong. I looked in the brochure and found that we had gotten a 6 category
upgrade to a cat. F, larger outside
stateroom, on the main deck (deck 4). Our price was $802.00 per person for the inside
cabin and we got the outside. Pays to
book early. Debarkation, we got to the port of Miami and were met by the porters who took
our luggage to the ship. These porters
are 'tipped' about a dollar a bag. I gave them a little more. We rode the escalator to the
check in point and found a large line and
alot of people milling around. We got in line to check in. Make sure you have all the
paperwork that comes with your tickets filled
out. You would not believe the amount of people that didn't have this filled out and that
took some time waiting for them. It's funny
to see how many are frantically triing to fill them out while in line. We checked in and
then we were shown to another line. This
second line is the line to go through customs and get on board. Be advised that this does
not open until 12:30 p.m. and will not
open earlier for any reason. At 12:30 prompt they opened the gangway and we walked down a
long walkway to the ship. The
photographers stopped us at the end of the walkway to take our pictures, this
signifigantly slowed things up. Be advised that
there are two lines on this walkway and they will tell you, a line on the left and a line
on the right. All in all it took about an hour
to get checked in and get on board. We walked in and found we were on the 4th deck (main
deck) in the middle of the Centrum
and were greeted by members of the staff. We walked across the Centrum and found a desk
where a crew member looked at our
ticket and handed us an envelope, it contained our room keys. They use a card system, you
put this atm looking card that they
give you in a slot and pull it out and the door is unlocked. We lost one of our keys
during the cruise, not to worry, we went to the
purser's desk and showed them our I.D. and they programed a new key card for us. We walked
down the left side of the ship in
this hallway and found our room, WOW! The room was very good sized, we had a 14"
color t.v., vanity area, love seat, huge
closet with alot of hangers in it, two end tables and twos beds which we had put together
by the steward to make one bed. The
window in our room was a picture window, not a porthole. It was a very nice sized window
that both my wife and I could look out
at the same time with room to spare. We found our way to deck 9 (sun deck) and all the way
forward is the Windjammer Cafe
where they were serving lunch. It is a buffet style lunch with chicken, rice, mashed
potatoes, vegetables and a fella carving
corned beef. Get ready to get corned beef to death, every time I went to a buffet there
was corned beef, sheesh. When you first
walk through the door a person hands you a tray with a plate, silverware, and a cloth
napkin. Walk through the whole line first
and make your way to the front of the Windjammer, I went through the line and then went to
look around and found that they were
making sandwiches to order. There was no signs or warnings that they were doing this, I
told my family that they were making
sandwiches and they went and got one too. In the mornings they have an omelette bar in the
front of the WindJammer too, at
lunch they have burgers and a taco bar in the front also. Don't be fooled by the buffet
line, take the time to walk to the front of the
restaurant. I would like to go through room by room and tell my impressions of these.
WindJammer Cafe: Like I said, go to the
front first and see what they have and then you can go back. Beautiful huge windows all
around the cafe, wood rails and floors
leading to carpet where the sitting area is. They have an ice cream bar there also, great
place to eat on the run. We never went
there for dinner just breakfast and lunch.
Viking Crown Lounge: WOW! What a sight to be at the top of the ship with huge windows
surrounding the whole lounge that give
you views of the ocean or ports. It doubles as a disco at night. One night was 70's disco
night and the place was packed and
they even had dance lessons that taught you the "John Travolta". After that
night the place wasn't nearly as crowded which
makes me think that they should have had more disco nights.
ShipShape Center: I just passed through here as I am on vacation and I do enough working
out in the army. I did get my
grandmother a 50 minute massage here. It is $75 for 50 minutes and then a $10 tip. If you
book for a day that you are at port it is
$10 off the $75. I wish I would have known that because my grandmother didn't get off the
first two stops.
V-Deck: Video games for the youngin's my son loved this place. He is 11 and found about 6
others kids his age that were always
there. We just turned him loose and he had a great time, we only saw him during dinner and
then when it was time to go to the
ports. We did see them a couple of times going through the midnight buffets. We were
complimented on how well our son acted
so I guess he was okay.
Main pool: nice and big with a bar at one end and a calypso band playing all caribbean
music, they were a hoot and everyone
seemed to enjoy them. The pool had two whirlpools on both sides of it that always had
people in it. The pool itself had a shallow
end and then sprinklers that went all the way across the pool and then a deeper end for
swimming. They even had a belly flop
contest one afternoon.
Solarium pool: This is a very nice place that had a hot tub on both sides of it. It is
roman decor and really made you feel like
Ceasar sitting in the hot tub with those surroundings. There was a bar at one end of the
pool and a pizza, hot dog, and seasoned
french fries at the other end. You should know that there are no "regular" fries
on board, only seasoned fries, but boy are they
good. The pizza is okay as far as frozen goes. There is plenty of cheese on it. The hot
dogs were good too and a welcome
change from gourmet food, if you know what I mean.
Palladium Theatre: This is very very nice with marble floors at the front and before you
get to the carpeted walkways there is a
green glass portion of the floor that shows the theatrical frown and smiling masks. There
is a balcony that had great views of the
stage. The chairs were very comfortable in a tan and brown cloth. Each seat also had a
drink holder in it. No smoking in the
theatre. We only made it to one show and it was the Newlywed and not so newlywed game.
What a riot, do not miss it. There
was a group called Rain that did Beatles songs, it was standing room only so we didn't go.
Casino: This was a place where I spent alot of time, I love blackjack and only get to play
when I cruise. The casino was done in a
Egyptian theme. There is a sphinx at one end of a row of slot machines and a lion head
sphinx at the end of another row of slots.
The slots were very very tight, wait till you get to San Juan if you like the slots. The
majority of the blackjack dealers were from
England and they very funny to lose to..haha.. Three dealers in particular were very funny
and we would actually wait until they
dealt before we played. The pit boss would switch them out from the craps table if he saw
us come in and wait. My whole family
played except my son, too young. Paul ( the red head) would say, 'very nice, very nice
indeed.' in his british accent. Declan
would say, 'smashing' in his british accent and Kevin was an all around hoot. You'll know
Kevin because he has a goatee and
looks like the devil himself, but don't be fooled these three made it very enjoyable
loosing our money. There is a glass floor at one
end of the casino that you walk across, under the glass is pirate bones and old coins and
chalaces all under lights, it looks
great.
Schooner Bar: Very nice little bar on deck 6 (Mariner deck) on the right side of the ship
near the back. It is a piano bar and has
big glass walls that give you a view of the ocean while you sip on your Pina Colada. The
first ngiht they had this jazz band there
that was way too loud, they never came back after the first night. All the rest of the
evenings there was a piano player that played
soothing music and this seemed to be a great meeting place for people to relax.
South Seas Lounge: This is where bingo is played and the Captain's cocktail party, and in
the evenings they have this four
person band that was outstanding, they played 50's and 60's, country and western, and some
rock. This was definatly the place
to be in the evenings. One night they had kareoke in this lounge from 7:30 to 8:30 and
then again then next day for an hour. The
place was packed and some great singers, they were hard acts to follow so I stayed put in
my chair.
Singin' in the Rain Lounge: In my opinion this was a great waste of space. There was
nothing there except for big comfortable
chairs and walls of glass showing the ocean. We found this place to be very quiet and we
played cards there. I felt they should
make this a kareoke bar and they wouldn't even have to change the name of it.
The Great Gatsby Dining Room: The dining room is huge with the main floor on the 4th deck
(main deck) and the balcony on the
5th deck (promenade deck). It has green carpeting and accesories and alot of dark
varnished wood. The main staircase leading
up to the balconey has a statue of an elegant lady at the bottom of it, what an added
touch of class. We had our meals in the
balconey at table 5, by a window. It was very nice. I am a simple person and felt a little
uncomfortable when the waiter would
take my napkin from the plate and lay it across my lap, I thought I should be doing this
instead of him. The waiter and asst.
waiter were very eager to give us the best service and they really did. The food was great
and I never had a complaint. I don't care
for chilled soups or very many soups for that matter, they have chicken noodle soup if you
don't like the selection. It's not on the
menu, it's on the childrens menu, that's how I knew. I don't care for alot of different
salads either so I would order heart of lettuce
and tomatoe and they would bring iceberg lettuce and tomatoes and cut it for me. If you
don't care for what's on the menu they
always have steak and chicken breast available. I have been on cruises were you couldn't
get another lobster tail if you wanted it.
One person at our table ordered THREE lobsters and he got it without a second thought.
The Centrum: Glass, marble, brass. The glass elevators were very nice. This was the place
to be and the place to be seen during
the formal nights. They were taking formal pictures on deck six on both formal nights and
on deck 4 one night. There are palms
around the centrum, no words can really explain this beautiful place, you'll just have to
see it for yourself and then try to explain it
yourself. I'll bet you can't put it into words. The Centrum goes from deck 4 (main deck)
all the way to deck 10 (compass deck). I
took alot of pictures and video of this as I found I couldn't get enough of it. To look
down at the person playing the grand piano
and the guests in thier gowns and tuxedos dancing in the middle of the centrum was like
being in a dream.
Champagne Bar: This is the bar at the beginning of the Centrum it was very nice with very
comfortable chairs. They had caviar
and wines and of course champagne. We were a little disappointed because we had seen a
picture of the champagne fountain
and thought it was as tall as us, in reality it is about 2 1/2 feet high and the fountain
didn't work.
You pay for purchases and shore excursions on what's called a supercharge card. We opened
ours with cash, no where have I
read that they took cash, only charge cards. For those of you, like me, that don't use a
charge card you may use cash. I opened
my account and they didn't take any cash then. I was a little scared about this because I
was afraid I would spend more than I
had with me. I played some black jack and put thier money on my charge account later that
day..haha.. Anytime you wish you
can go and put cash on your account at the pursers desk which is on deck 6 at the front of
the Centrum. They even take your
Super Charge in the casino which I thought was very sneaky. A person could get into
trouble doing that if he wasn't careful. We
bought our son a Coke stamp that they put right on his own Super Charge card, it entitled
him to as many fountain cokes as he
could drink. This was a great option. You could get this started at any bar on the ship.
We started our son's at the Champagne
bar. They put a red Coke stamp on the card. The cost was $15.00 plus 15% gratuity, so it
was over $17 overall but still a great
bargain. The Cokes on board were $1.73 a can after gratuity added. ($1.50 plus 15%) The
mixed drinks were $5.95 in a Royal
Caribbean glass that you could take home with you. The drink specials change from day to
day and are $2.95 but they don't
come in the keeper glasses. You have to add 15% to each of those prices. There are sodas
in your cabin and a bottle of water
also. There isn't price list but we did have to buy a Sprite and a bottle of water, they
even added 15% to this, I wondered who I
was tipping since it was already there. We brought our own sodas on board, I can hear you
wanting to faint now, but that could
quickly add up and noone said a thing to us about it. We packed a suitcase with sodas in
them. We've done that on all our
cruises. With the extra money we saved we had a good time with instead of paying $1.73 for
one soda.
Labadee: I didn't care for this place. It rained while we were there and I realize that
this isn't thier fault but it really put a damper
on things. I'm not much about going in the water but I did get a paddle boat for my wife
and I. It was $10 for a half hour, you
charge it to your super charge account. I know why they put it in 1/2 hour increments.
After 5 mins of paddling I was finished and
wanted to go back. I was worried about the Haitians charging me for a full hour, I checked
at the pursers desk after I got back to
the ship and found that they charged me $10, BONUS, I thought it was $10 a person but it
was $10 for the whole boat. They had
banana boat rides also for $8 a person and that looked fun, we were going to do that later
on but the rains came. We headed
back to the ship. We heard while on the tender back that they had opened the bar on shore
for free drinks and shrimp cocktails
to try to keep people on the beach. Too late, we were soaked and already heading back to
the ship. After we left Labadee we ran
into some rough seas there were 18 foot swells that went splashing up the side of ship. My
mother got very sick and I got sick
also. I didn't feel too bad until about two hours from San Juan and then it was too much
for me to take I had to go lay down. I
couldn't wait till we got to San Juan and then I felt better after that.
San Juan: It was okay, we wanted to go to the Bacardi Rum Factory and to Arecebo, the
world's largest telescope, but we had
some bad weather and didn't get in until late so we missed both. We took a tour of old and
new San Juan including San
Christobal fort. It was a very nice tour. Make sure you shop around if you didn't get a
tour from the ship. The same tour started at
$25 and then the farther down the pier you went it got cheaper, we got it for $10 a person
and the fella was outstanding. He didn't
get paid nor did he ask until after it was over. We went to Mcdonald's for lunch and had a
Big Mac, welcome change of pace
again from gourmet food. Note, Aracebo is not offered as a shore excursion. We knew about
it by getting ready for our cruise.
The cruise line does not even mention it so you'll have to rent a car or pay for a taxi to
see it. It's only open one hour a week and
it's between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, the day you get to San Juan.
St. Thomas: This was our favorite stop. We took the tram to the top of Paradise Point and
got some great pictures of the pier
with our ship and an added bonus was seeing the Grand Princess there also. What a huge
ship it is, I talked to some people that
said they didn't care for it because it was too big to get around and the service wasn't
as personal. The Tram cost $12 per adult
and $6 for children. It's a little scary being that high hanging from a wire but it's
worth it. We didn't take any snorkeling tours or go
to the beach, we did walk to K-mart and buy some t-shirts that said St. Thomas, I figured
they would be better than the ones
being sold by the side of the road. We had a pre-paid phone card and used it there also.
My mother in law got a kick out of us
calling her from St. Thomas. When we left St. Thomas we were heading into bad weather
again, we could see that there were 3
other ships with us all in the immediate area and the captain made an announcement that we
would all be running together in
case any of the ships needed assistance. That kind of made me nervous but it turned out
not too bad. The seas were better than
before we got to San Juan.
Nassau: We didn't go to CocoCay because there was an engine problem. I had heard from one
of the black jack dealers that
they haven't been to CocoCay in two months because of the problem. We were told that the
wouldn't be going for another 6
weeks either, so if you are going between 5 Dec and 16 January, don't plan on going to
CocoCay and start to plan on Nassau.
We weren't told about it until Thursday, the day before getting into Nassau. Nassau was
fine, I had been there 20 yrs earlier and
found it dirty, it was cleaned up and the people didn't seem as pushy for you to buy thier
wares. We walked to the British
Colonial Beach, it cost $5 a person but that included all snorkeling gear, floats, paddle
boats, towels, security guards, and a
great view of the ship. You see the British Colonial as you are pulling into port. Its the
only beach that's close to you and I mean
close. We walked through downtown and took a picture of a policeman with my son. We bought
some t-shirts there too and then
headed back to the ship.
The t.v. in our room had four movies to choose from and one in spanish. It had a picture
of the view from the bridge too. It had a
channel that showed the weather report and how far we have traveled and our position in
the Caribbean. We also got CNN,
Headline News, ESPN. There were channels that showed the port talks from the Palladium
Theatre and the shows that they had
so if you missed it you could watch it on the t.v. later. There were channels that had
caribbean music on it and another that had
spanish music on it.
We didn't buy any shore excursion because we found that it was cheaper to do it yourself.
I suppose if you wanted to go
snorkeling you should get the excursion but for us to take a tour of old San Juan it was
cheaper to talk to the tour cabs at the
pier. The tram to Paradise Point at St. Thomas was the same price on the ship as at the
starting point. The starting point was
easily within walking distance of the pier.
The midnight buffets were outstanding but again with the corned beef being carved. They
had sandwiches, chicken, rice,
vegetables. The deserts were the best I've ever had. There is this chocolate cake there
that was about 4 layers with creamy icing
and then on the top and sides was this hard chocolate shell. WOW! It was sooooo good. I
looked for it everytime I went to the
buffet. During the Captain's Gala Buffet there were so many ice carvings. There was one
smack in the middle of the buffet that
was the Royal Caribbean Crown and Anchor with a blue light shining in it. The Capt's
buffet was a let down for me. There was, of
course, corned beef, and so many plates of pate. It was all gorgeous but nothing looked at
all good except for the deserts which I
had three, yes three, I was on vacation. We ended up going to the solarium pool and got
pizza and hot dogs and fries. Some
midnight buffets were in the WindJammer and there was one in the Galley, note that there
are two lines, one for looking and the
other for eating.
The Solarium pool serves pizza from 11:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. and then from 1:00 a.m. till
6:00 a.m.
I was afraid about the traditional speech from the waiter and the cabin steward about
getting an excellent rating and the tips. This
was surprisingly pain free. The Steward talked to us and said that if we felt he did an
excellent job to please indicate this on the
comment card, if not please indicate this also. I was shocked. He got an excellent rating.
The Waiter said he tried to do
everything in his power to satisfy us and that if were happy to please say so on the
comment card and if he needed any
suggestions to put that on there too, again shocked. He got an excellent rating.
Negatives: We had ordered the Royal Occasions package for my mother and her husband. It
included a bottle of champagne that
is in your cabin when you get there. We got to thier cabin and found that is was not there
waiting, so I waited for a while and it
never showed up. I went to the pursers desk and told them what had happened and they were
very apologetic and called the
head wine steward from the dining room while first sitting was eating. The head steward
came and was very apologetic, he got on
the radio and the bottle was delivered to the cabin while I was standing at the purser's
desk. The package is outstanding, you get
a full bottle of champagne to start the cruise off with and then another full bottle that
comes with your breakfast in bed and desert
in your cabin and a large silver engraved picture frame. This package is $79 and well
worth it.
Debarkation: It was a little bit of a headache, we had second seating so we sat in the
dining room for most of it. The pursers kept
calling peoples names off to come to the purser's desk. Be advised that they don't let
anyone off until they talk to everyone they
call. I figured it was people who hadn't settled thier bill. I went to settle my bill and
they couldn't find my name anywhere. They
checked the last page of thier record and found that only myself and one other person got
a refund from thier charge account. We
were very careful what we spent our money on. I guess if you have a high paying job and
can afford to do whatever you want with
your money, more power to you, but we are on a tight budget. Once everyone's bill was
clear and customs cleared us they start
calling off colors, the night before they give you colored markers to put on your bags
depending on when your departing flight
was. We were staying an extra day in Miami so we were the last to get off.
We were off the ship by 10:30 and on our way to the terminal. The amazing thing is that in
two hours there would be another
2100 people on the ship and started thier vacation.
It is quite hectic trying to find your bags in the mass of people all trying to find
thiers and then getting out and finding your ride to
your destination. We had put orange strips of yarn on our luggage to identify them and
found this system to work great. The
orange strips stood out in the crowd so we easily found them, remember that alot of
luggage looks alike and you should consider
using this system yourself. We found our bags in nothing flat and we had a car waiting for
us to take us back to my mother's
house.
I have copies of all the daily bulletins called the Compass that shows what is going on
for the day, these are quite helpfull and I
would be glad to send copies to you. I also have the a couple of the kid's Compass too.
Send me an e-mail at
trooper@bluegrass.net and I'll give you my address for the self addressed stamped
envelope. I wish I had one of these before I
came on board. Feel free to e-mail me with any specific questions and I'll be glad to
answer them for you. Happy cruising.
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