Anthony Klang

Age: 38
Number of Cruises: 11
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Grandeur of the Seas
Sailing Date: December 31st, 2001
Itinerary: Circle the Caribbean

Cruise Review: Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas 12/31/01 11 night Circle Caribbean

Introduction

This was our 9th cruise together, but my 11th in total. We were originally going to go on an Asian cruise, but after September 11 decided to stay a little closer to home, and go on a long cruise-previously seven days had been the longest for either of us. This was our fourth time sailing with Royal Caribbean, and our fifth (my sixth!) cruise in 2001. This was our second experience on a Vision Class ship; we had previously sailed on the Enchantment of the Seas in July of 2000. I will say up front that we had a great cruise on the Grandeur of the Seas.

Pre Cruise

We spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriott MIA Airport South, which is our usual Miami pre-cruise hotel. This property has three of Marriott’s brands: Marriott, Courtyard, and Fairfield Inns. We can almost always get a free night using our Marriott Reward points there, plus they have an airport shuttle and are only a few minutes away from the pier. On sailing day, we got a taxi at the hotel and were at the pier by 11:15 AM.

Embarkation

Check-in was very easy. There was very little wait, and we were checked in within a couple of minutes. We were given a letter saying that we could board right away, but that our cabin might not be ready yet. One quick stop to get our photo taken for our Super Charge card, and we were on board. Our cabin was actually ready when we boarded, so we put our things down, went to the Windjammer for lunch and then explored the ship. Our bags all made it to the cabin by 3:00 PM.

Our Cabin

We had cabin 8030, a Category C cabin, with a balcony right in the middle of the ship on deck 8. The cabin itself was a good size, very functional, and had plenty of storage space. We are now totally spoiled with balconies, and we really used this one on this 11-night cruise. The only thing strange about the cabin was this one support that was almost right in the middle of the cabin at the end of the bed. It was padded (I suppose so you wouldn’t be hurt if you ran into it), and made it somewhat awkward when my wife was sitting at the dresser, and I was trying to get by. All in all though, we really liked this cabin and it’s location.

The Ship

The Grandeur is a little over 5 years old, and recently came out of a dry dock. She was in good shape and we witnessed a lot of touch up painting and varnishing while we were on board. Here is a quick tour of the ship from the bottom up. The ship’s layout is very easy to navigate. The bottom two passenger decks have staterooms only. Deck 4 has staterooms as well as the Champagne Bar and the lower level of the Great Gatsby Dining Room. Deck 5 is the Promenade Deck and has the Palladium Theater, the casino, the purser’s desk and the shore excursion office as well as the upper level of the Great Gatsby Dining Room. Deck 6 has the upper level of the Palladium Theater, the shopping area, photo gallery, Schooner Bar, conference center and South Pacific lounge. Deck 7 has staterooms as well as the library and card room. Deck 8 has staterooms along with the Explorer’s club lounge (internet center) and the Crown and Anchor study. Deck 9 has the Windjammer café, the main pool area with Jacuzzis as well as the pool bar. The Solarium pool, spa and Shipshape center are at the aft end of deck 9 as well. Deck 10 has the jogging track, and the children’s area, and the Viking Crown Lounge is on Deck 11. Also above Deck 10 is the observatory where there are star charts that you can look at while stargazing at night. In the middle of the ship is the 4-deck atrium called the Centrum. It is a very beautiful part of the ship, and one of the things we like most about the Vision class ships.

Service

The service that we experienced on this cruise was excellent. Foster from St. Vincent was our Cabin Steward and did a great job of cleaning the cabin, keeping the ice bucket filled, and we even had the occasional towel animal at night. Our food service team was also top notch. Nihat from Turkey was our waiter and Marlene from Honduras was his assistant. Nihat always had good suggestions for dinner, and knew what choices to steer us away from at night. Marlene was always around with our Diet Cokes when we sat down, and with my wife’s Earl Gray tea after dinner. She also made sure that there was at least one salad dressing that my wife would eat at night. Dominic from Ireland was our Head Waiter, and he checked on us nightly and made sure that the service was up to par. I also want to give a round of applause to the room service team. We had breakfast in the cabin on many mornings that was always delivered right when we wanted. There was also one night where very late, my wife was in the mood for ice cream. Even though it wasn’t on the menu at the time, the staff had no problem finding the flavor she liked and delivering it with a few Chocolate Chip cookies for a great late night snack.

Food

In the main dining room, the food was very good. We ate dinner there every night, as well as quite a few lunches and one breakfast. We noticed improvement even from when we sailed on Explorer of the Seas this past summer. My wife had some very good fish and lamb dishes, and I enjoyed quite a few of the beef dishes. We also had some really good pasta as well. We used the Windjammer for lunch a few times and the food was good, not great, but that is what we expected. We had hamburgers and pizza at the Solarium grill a couple of times. The pizza could use some major improvement, it was a little soggy, but the server was always pleasant and accommodating. Overall, we noticed a nice improvement in the food on RCCL.

Spa

I did have one massage and one reflexology treatment at the Spa. Both treatments were well done and relaxing. To my great surprise, I was not given a hard sell after the service either time. My wife had her hair cut, and the stylist did a very nice job on her hair as well. A good job by the Steiner folks on this cruise.

Ports of Call

We had a good selection of ports on this cruise. Since we had been to all of them before, we did not do any shore excursions, but did our own thing instead. On Key West, we walked all around the island, making a long stop at the Hemmingway house, as well as walking the length of Duval Street. That made for a fun, but tiring day. Considering the fact that we were there on New Year’s Day, we were surprised by the amount of shops that were actually open. Our next stop was Cozumel. When we docked, an announcement was made that most of the water excursions were cancelled due to high waves. We took a taxi to Chankanaab Park anyway, and even though the waves were choppy, I did get in some good snorkeling. Afterwards we strolled along the shops before heading back to the ship. The high waves followed us to Grand Cayman, and unfortunately, we couldn’t get in to port. The waves were actually higher than the tenders. Five ships were diverted away from Grand Cayman that day. Our next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We had been to Jamaica before, so we decided to stay on board and relax all day. We did get off briefly to walk and stretch our legs, but that was it. Aruba was our next port and we had great weather and a great day. We hired a taxi for a two hour tour, and he took us to a couple of spots we hadn’t been to before, such as the California Lighthouse, as well as a couple of familiar spots such as the Natural Bridge. We did a little shopping in town then came back to the ship for dinner. After dinner we went back out and went to the Crystal Casino where after two hours I was $5 ahead. The next and last port was Curacao. We took a taxi to the Seaquarium, and stayed there for a couple of hours; it was very enjoyable. Then we went back into town, walked around, had lunch, did a little shopping and finally walked back to the ship. We were expected back on board at 4:30 PM and made it back at 4:27 PM. We had another great weather day and enjoyed our time at Curacao.

Entertainment

The entertainment was very good. The ship left on New Year’s Eve, and there were parties at various locations on board ship. We celebrated with most of the ship in the Centrum area (it was raining outside) and had a fun night. The champagne was definitely flowing. We enjoyed both comedians that we saw as well as the stage shows. My wife actually won a game of bingo, but had to split the prize with four other lucky winners. We were not as lucky in the casino; our money seemed to go awfully fast in there. The on board entertainment is always one of RCCL’s strong points.

Debarkation

We thought that debarkation was handled well, especially for a ship the size of the Grandeur of the Seas. Our color was one of the first to be called and we were off the ship and had our bags by 9:00 AM. One of the things we appreciated was the baggage carousel. It was much easier than searching through mounds of similar black bags spread around a warehouse. We got a taxi and were at the Miami airport at 9:20 AM.

Conclusion

We had a fantastic cruise experience. It was nice to be spoiled by a longer cruise, and we have to give lots of kudos to the staff of the Grandeur for spoiling us as well. Would we take Royal Caribbean again? In a heartbeat. Even though there are some things about the line that annoy us, (the singing waiters, for example), we are usually pleased with their overall product and greatly enjoy their ships. We look forward to another cruise with them one day soon.

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