Granduer of the seas 12-17 4 nighter

[dappledumpling]

We just got off the Granduer this morning. Over all had a wonderful time. Will give a quick overview and will be willing to answer any questions I can. Let me forewarn
:these are my opinions some good, some bad. I am going to discuss dining quite a bit as that was where most of our issues arose

Embarkation: easiest we have ever had. From Valet drop off to on the ship in 15 minutes. We arrived at 12:15
Roamed around the ship and my daughter(18) was fussed at by a barserver for walking to slow around the pool. Unfortunately I was not there or i would have confronted the server. We met up at the windjammer ate a nice lunch and went to the room. All the luggage already there. Unpacked , relaxed and headed to the muster drill (yeah without life vests)
Dinner that night: we had the Pork medallions and was it the best meal of the week. Service was horrible, (Second seating dinner) Attended the show and it was the normal welcome aboard show nothing great but bearable (we had a newbie with us who wanted to see it)

Day 2 SEA DAY
Ouch a cold front is upon us, Seas rocking some, nothing to bad but our newbie is feeling it
Slept in, My wife and I went to lunch in the main dining room. Lunch came out quickly I had chicken yakatori ,my wife had a chicken pasta dish (which had no chicken). both had little flavor (comparable to a TV dinner) 2 others at our table not with us took a couple of bites and got up.. we followed out. Went to the windjammer and I hate to say it had a better meal.
I went to the solarium. beautiful area and relaxed & had a few drinks
Met up with my wife and we donated some money to the casino.
Dinner:Formal Night:Service once again slow... S..L..O..W.. My daughter a cute 18 yearold blond got OK service, her boyfriend was always getting skipped or brought the wrong thing.
Filet was ok 1 out of 3 cooked correctly. the duck was good but brought out about 5 minutes after the rest of the table served...
The table next to us (from England) got a hold of the head waiter and told him how bad the food was and the only thing worse than the food was the service. I left before they were done complaing as I wanted to catch the comedian. (barely made the 10:45 show after the 2 plus hour dinner)
Wow, the comedian was great...did a good job of heckling the audience and kept everything flowing...
Called it a night as tomorrow is cozumel......

I am going to finish this later... need to get some dinner now...

[andrzej5914]

We will be on the ship at the end of JAN for 4 day cruise out of Tampa.

What's the overall condition of the ship?

We have a JR Suite in the back of the ship on the 8th deck. Can you tell us anything about these cabins?

What would you recommend and what should we stay away from?

What's the average age of the cruisers?

Are the nightclubs/bars active in the evenings on these short cruises?

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

[dappledumpling]

The ship is a very pretty design. You could see wear and tear if you looked but overall she shows well. (never been on a ship that creaked as much as this one)

We were on 7th deck mid ship in a balcony. Thoroughly enjoyed the room.

I would stay away from the production shows.. The specialy shows las gauchos and the comedian were well worth the time. Also the wheel of fortune slots paid well for my daughter (about $340 on 2 hits) (not so well for me) Room service chicken drummettes were really good.

This cruise being right before christmas had a large mix... alot of families and alot in the upper 20's to upper 30's.. I was pleasantly shocked.

With the younger than expected crowd the casinos and bars were quite active.

Hope that helps
bottom line.... nice ship (minimal bells and whistles), had alot of fun, lousy main dining room

[newcruiser80]

Sounds like you might be a better fit for Celebrity. They have better food. Doesn't sound like such a wonderful time to me...

[andrzej5914]

Originally Posted by dappledumpling

The ship is a very pretty design. You could see wear and tear if you looked but overall she shows well. (never been on a ship that creaked as much as this one)

We were on 7th deck mid ship in a balcony. Thoroughly enjoyed the room.

I would stay away from the production shows.. The specialy shows las gauchos and the comedian were well worth the time. Also the wheel of fortune slots paid well for my daughter (about $340 on 2 hits) (not so well for me) Room service chicken drummettes were really good.

This cruise being right before christmas had a large mix... alot of families and alot in the upper 20's to upper 30's.. I was pleasantly shocked.

With the younger than expected crowd the casinos and bars were quite active.

Hope that helps
bottom line.... nice ship (minimal bells and whistles), had alot of fun, lousy main dining room

Thanks for the info

On a short cruise I can live with average food, so that's not a problem, besides, we can have a nice dinner in Cozumel (any recommendations?). Knowing that the ship is an older ship, we were concerned with the state of the rooms and public areas. After reading your reply we feel better about chosing this cruise.

Nothing beats an hour drive from home to the cruise ship....

Plus a day in Busch Gardens, and a dinner at the Bern's Steakhouse the day before the cruise and cheap Pricelined stay at the Westin Harbour Island... We're happy!

[dappledumpling]

I think you will have a wonderful time, I don't cruise for the food but I was shocked finding better food in the windjammer.

Please don't get me wrong, This was my 7th cruise on RCCL and i already have the navigator booked for early Febuary. My last 3 cruises have been on carnival and I found the food to be better there compared to the Granduer. I am truly hoping it was ship specific problem involving management rather than a company wide direction.

I will take your advice and look at celebrity, I always thought they were for an older stuffier crowd . Is my perception wrong? Weactually discussed going on the solstice...

[dappledumpling]

Day 3. Cozumel:
We booked the Dune buggy/snorkel through RCCL. We met at the pier at 8:45. A short walk up the road to where the Dune buggy's were kept and we are off....it was a very scenic drive around the island (reminded me alot of what we remember of Cozumel back in the late 80's) Peaceful and relaxing.. stopped for a picture break and quick haggling if you wanted.. then off again we stopped at Puerto Moreno (I believe) to snorkel and have lunch. Then we drove back around to the ship. Put on fresh clothes and jumped into a cab for downtown.. after shopping ended up at Senor Frogs.

Back to the ship by 6:30 after one of the nicest days I have had in a long time. My wife and I headed to the windjammer for dinner, my kids headed to the main dining room. My daughter said the service was good that night as the other couple of tables were no shows and the chocolate cake was very good.

We headed to a bar for a night cap then turned in early after a long day.

Day 4 SEA DAY
We spent a relaxing day bumming around. Solarium, our balcony a little shopping in the stores ended up sitting in the cabin watching a movie eating room service (I loved the chicken drumettes) headed to the casino and my daughter hit 160 bucks.Show was real good Las gauchos stopped by the casino on the way to dinner my daughter hit for another 180 dollars.
We went as a family to the main dining room. We were told that our waiter was ill and other servers just added a table to thier regular workload. There were no wine menus to be had so we asked for a glass of merlot and a glass of reisling (Head waiter covering wine orders for the tables) he said no problem and left a little while later the assistant waiter shows up with a zinfindel and merlot. Not what we ordered but I try to go with the flow as my wife likes zinfandel too, but would have prefered to make that decision ourselves. My wifes french onion soup shows up and the waitress says shell be back in a minute with the cheese and crouton for it. The rest of the table is served and waitress disappears. 20 minutes go by and i have an unhappy wife. I get the head waiter he offers to fix it but my says no as dinner is coming out. Everyone at the table gets thier order except my wifes dinner wasn't ready yet & will be a couple of minutes. They eventually bring out the turkey dinner for my wife. After dinner i had a nice chat with the head waiter and he said he has received alot of complaints this trip about food quality and that every table (both seatings had complained about the service from this wait team)

Debarkation was a breeze. Called our color at 8:40.. in my truck on the road at 9pm

Overall a nice cruise.. Could have been an outstanding cruise if it wasn't for stupid little issues. There were a few quite good menu items. But overall I felt they looked far better than they tasted. I am looking forward to Chops and Portofinos on the navigator.

[AtascaMom]

Hi Dapple,

I was on the Ecstasy, docked next to you in Cozumel. Weird, huh? I feel like a stalker.

I heard that someone was presumed to have drowned that day and was a passenger on your ship. I came to Cruise Critic to see if the lady was found. You didnt mention anything about it in your posts so I am hoping it was a rumor. Do you know anything about it?

Thank you!

[dappledumpling]

Hi AtascaMom,
I didn't hear anything about a drowning. There was a celebrity ship parked next to ours..
maybe they were on that ship.. I will email my neice when I get home tonight and see if she heard anything... (funny thing we went on differant cruises and ended up at the same port)
if I hear anything I will post it

Hopefully it was just a rumor
Rick

[MaryZ]

Thanks for your review. I hope there will be a younger crowd the first week of Jan also. Our college aged kids and their gf/bf will be in Tampa, visiting family over new years ,so as part of their Christmas gift we gave them this cruise.
If not, they'll have fun anyway, the four of them.

And for sure, RCCL is NOT the line to choose if food is important to you.

[Luv2Cruise525]

Hey!

I just got back from the same cruise with my family and pretty much had the exact opposite opinion! haha This is our 5th with RCCL and second time on the ship.

We always go to the dining room and really love taking 2 hours to dine and really relax. We had second seating and had the best waiters (Romar and Natalia)! They actually served the captains table so we knew we got lucky! We never missed a show and we were always early. We thought that the shows were below par, in relation to other RCCL shows, especially the first show. It seemed like it was thrown together at the last minute and a complete waste of time.

There were a lot of younger couples which was very surprising and a lot of teens (15-17 years old). The club was always busy with a variety of age groups.

The weather wasn't the best and I definitely felt sick every night. The combination of a small boat and rough seas doesn't make for the best trip. That would only be the main negative aspect of our trip!