Grandeur of the Seas, January 14-23, 2017

I’m in the final stages of packing and keeping a close eye on the weather (with a possible wintry mix on Saturday). Fortunately, I don’t have too far to go and it’s mostly on main roads so I’m not too worried. This will be my second time on Lady G (after a B2B 2 years ago) and hope to come home with my first Crystal Block. My cruise line of choice is actually Crystal but I love the variety of itineraries RCI offers so close to home.

Most of my pictures (along with menus and compasses) will be posted to my companion blog:

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/

I will be linking to selected photos on this thread and will also be posting compasses and menus via tabs at the header on the blog.

The itinerary is:

Saturday: Embark Baltimore

MLK day: Charleston

Tuesday: Port Canaveral

Wednesday: Miami

Thursday: Nassau

Friday: Coco Cay

Monday: Disembark Baltimore

2 more sleeps

Roy

Looking forward to your blog. Happy sailing!

I just got off the grandeur on Jan 3rd! I hope you enjoy her as much as I did :) can't wait for you blog

Oh and if you happen to run into a bartender named Maks, thell him hi from jenn!

There was another thread on here about the Charleston stop being cancelled - has that been settled?

I’m in the final stages of packing and keeping a close eye on the weather (with a possible wintry mix on Saturday). Fortunately, I don’t have too far to go and it’s mostly on main roads so I’m not too worried. This will be my second time on Lady G (after a B2B 2 years ago) and hope to come home with my first Crystal Block. My cruise line of choice is actually Crystal but I love the variety of itineraries RCI offers so close to home.

 

Most of my pictures (along with menus and compasses) will be posted to my companion blog:

 

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/

 

I will be linking to selected photos on this thread and will also be posting compasses and menus via tabs at the header on the blog.

 

The itinerary is:

 

Saturday: Embark Baltimore

MLK day: Charleston

Tuesday: Port Canaveral

Wednesday: Miami

Thursday: Nassau

Friday: Coco Cay

Monday: Disembark Baltimore

 

2 more sleeps

 

Roy

I have to follow this. I'll be on the Grandeur at the end of next month.

Thank you dnllk and easyboy. Rougeperson and thetrail it won't be that long before you're on one ship or the other.

I stopped for lunch at McDonalds Fort Avenue and was on board just before noon. There was a bag check in the South Pacific Lounge that made my first hour a lot easier. I got coffee at Park Cafe and looked through a VERY crowded WJ, feeling a bit smug about getting lunch first. Walking across the pool deck sleet was starting to form about 12:30; it was easy getting to the ship when I did.

A nice feature over the Anthem was that I was given my wifi password in the terminal rather than waiting for the room. I didn't use it but it was still nice to have.

Biker19, there was a Charleston shore excursion ticket in my papers when I got to my room; I consider that pretty conclusive that we're going there.

I just heard a thud outside my door; I think it's time to stop typing and start unpacking.

Roy

Looking forward to the menus as I will be sailing on Lady G in Feb. :)

Following

Looking forward to this. Have a great time.

My first cruise on the Grandeur is in 6 months. I am looking forward to following along.

Can't wait to read your updates! We'll be sailing on Grandeur on March 6!

We are doing this same route in April. Very interested to hear about your adventure!

Oops, I thought I posted this earlier. Thank you all and a lot of people can look forward to upcoming cruises on Lady G.

I left home about 9 and stopped at my local Mall to walk. Today’s predicted weather asa a “Wintry mix”, but as I left the house it was dry with temperatures just above freezing. As I left the mall just after 10 there were a couple drops of drizzle. Roads were in top notch shape for my drive into Baltimore and I stopped at the shopping center near the pier for a couple last minute items and lunch at McDonalds. Parking at Cruise Maryland was a snap, and it was a short walk to the terminal. For the most part I do not post actual photos on Cruise Critic. The blog is set up so there is a predicable link to the photo and I give the photos cryptic names that give you an idea of what the photo is. If it interests you simply click on the link; otherwise scroll right past it.

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There was a line for security entering the terminal but a separate entrance for Diamonds and suites. On local cruises I normally use a NEXUS card as my ID. It often requires education of terminal personnel of what it is but today’s clerk handled it with ease. There is an elevated boarding ramp at Baltimore but it was hit by the Carnival Pride 9 months ago and still awaiting repair parts. Boarding goes through a little canvas tunnel and then enters the ship on deck 1.

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Rooms on the Grandeur open at 1PM. A nice service on this ship is a staff member in the South Pacific Lounge who will check carry on bags until the rooms open. After checking my bags I went up to the Solarium for coffee, and walked through the WJ which was pretty much a zoo. While the roads had stayed fine for my trip to the port, by 12:30 a layer of sleet had built up on the pool deck making it very difficult to navigate.

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The Diamond Lounge on the Grandeur is at the Aft of the South Pacific Lounge. It was the perfect area to hang out until the rooms opened.

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I’m in an oceanview room midship on deck 2. My first checked bag showed up about 1:30 and the second after the muster drill. There was an informal Cruise Critic meeting at 2:30 in the Schooner Bar with probably 15 people stopping by. The muster on Grandeur is normally under the lifeboats but was moved inside due to the weather. My station was the Centrum on deck 4. Attendance was taken by scanning cards and life jackets were not required. At the end of the drill we were escorted to our “real” muster stations. When I returned to my room Prasadha had separated my beds so I could see the window.

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Sailaway was 4:00 but we didn’t leave until 4:45, likely because of the weather. It was also a very slow departure as a freighter was docked close behind us. It was about 5:15 when we passed Fort McHenry.

I am early (5:30) seating at table 218. It is an 8-top with an extended family of 6 and 2 solos. Our waiters are Antonio and Rausch (I think) and head waiter Pedro. The menu’s are essentially the same as my previous Grandeur cruise, starting with Mojo. I went for the Raspberry Soup, Pork Chop, and ended with Carrot Cake. I’m not a foodie and don’t really do “food porn” but on my last cruise I tried a little collage of dishes which seemed to work well, and I’ll try it again.

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There was one show the first night with Cruise Director Bobby Broughton introducing comedian Steve “Mudflap” McGrew. I called it a night after the show, unpacking and writing.

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Parting shot: This weekend coincides with 2 significant birthdays. Those who followed my Northwest Passage Cruise know I love organ music. Saturday’s birthday boy started his career as a promising organ virtuoso and scholar. At the age of 30 he changed course and pursued a medical degree and founded a hospital in central Africa where he practiced as a medical missionary until his death in his late 90's. Happy Birthday Albert Schweitzer.

Roy

There is an elevated boarding ramp at Baltimore but it was hit by the Carnival Pride 9 months ago and still awaiting repair parts.

 

And people thought it would be fixed in a few weeks. :rolleyes:

I hope they never fix it. It's so nice to just walk on to the ship instead of all of those ramps.

Following

Thank you biker19, nivrag4511, and cincicruisers. I expect the port is eager to get the ramp back because I think a lot of the luggage normally passes under the ramp.

I’m currently wrestling with a combination of cold and allergies and held my walk down to a modest 30 minutes, mostly inside the ship. When I stepped on deck about 6 we were abreast of Kitty Hawk, NC, and it was cloudy but not otherwise a bad morning with an early temperature probably in the low 40's. It was quite a busy morning with the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle at 9:30 in the Viking Crown Lounge. There were probably about 50 people present, and a number of door prizes. That was followed by the Top Tier (C&A event) party at 10:30 in the theater. The counts were 259 Platinum members, 117 Emerald, 217 Diamond, 121 D+, and 26 Pinnacle. The band played for much of the ceremony; at the close a pair of assistant waiters who won a recent crew talent show performed.

The crew sales person had a presentation in the South Pacific Lounge after the Top Tier Event. I only attended a bit as I wanted to be on deck for the noon report. There were some nice itineraries but nothing I can do as I’m pretty booked up through the end of the RCI schedule.

At noon Captain Tron reported we are more than half way to Charleston,21 miles off the coast at Cape Hatteras. Winds are from the north at 20 knots just about cancelling our speed of 15 knots. We will dock in Charleston about 7AM. It has warmed up greatly from Baltimore. The Compass indicated a high of 64F; when outside I wore a light jacket. While up on deck 10 I noticed an enclosure where the scrubbers are being installed. When on the Grandeur first I found a “speed bump” on the jogging track where a crack had developed in a severe storm in 2014. The bump now has a partner, just about at the opposite corner of the pool area, starboard side near the Centrum. They are due to be permanently repaired at drydock later this year.

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My afternoon was pretty relaxing with not much activity planned. Lunch was a little late, a roast beef sandwich at Park Café. I did not feel they merited the accolades they have gotten but were at least in the upper half of my ship’s lunches.

We lost half our party at table 218. There was no formal religious service on the ship but 2 of my remaining tablemates are clergy. One is a youth pastor and the other a retired Army Chaplain. I went for the banana soup, the steak, and pistachio ice cream.

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Captain Tron’s Welcome Reception was held between seatings. At the end he introduced the senior officers. We have 2019 cruisers on board. About half are first timers, leaving about 400 people at the lowest level of the loyalty scheme.

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The featured entertainment was singer Stephani Parker with a tribute to Whitney Houston. She was good but not great.

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I’ll take my parting shot from the Top Tier party. Grandeur of the Seas was just voted the friendliest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. Congratulations!

Roy

I have posted the first 3 Compases to the blog:

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/programs/gos2017/

I have also posted the first 2 menus:

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/menus/grandeur17/

The menus are basically the long standing Royal Caribbean menus with spice names but there are a couple of changes. Last night was the Formal night and the Saffron menu, but the duck entree has been changed with a Rotisserie Chicken dish. I've heard of lamb being dropped, time will tell if that's true for us. The other change is that the display boards now include the lunch menu for the sea days. I'll pick up most of the menus from the display boards but they have very limited desert information so I'm waiting till dinner and pho tographing the actual dinner menu.

Roy

PS: It's very foggy in Charleston this morning.

I hope they never fix it. It's so nice to just walk on to the ship instead of all of those ramps.

I would agree with that except it was pouring rain when we boarded and we all got soaked....of course that didn't matter a whole lot because the rain was so heavy there were buckets over-flowing in and outside of the Windjammer!! Not a good start to our first RCI cruise.....but once the rain stopped we were very pleased with the food and the people and everything else.....but this ship is in desperate need of refurbishing. :D

This virtual cruise is better than not being aboard, however, I can't wait until I am actually aboard again in 69 days!:D Happy that things are going well and that you are enjoying your time on Lady G. If you run into CD Bobby, please give him my best regards.;) Will be cruising along with you.

Thank you Hydrokitty and Deltablue.

The main thing I noticed going up for coffee this morning was that in addition to being quite chilly it was FOGGY, with the horn sounding regularly. I did not bother going on deck for our arrival to Charleston as there was nothing to see.

I have a bit of a history with Charleston. I have cruised from here on the Carnival Fantasy and had 2 intended port calls on the Crystal Symphony (one became the embarkation port when Superstorm Sandy hit New York), but my primary relationship is that my brother was stationed at Charleston Navy Yard and I enjoyed several holiday meals in his submarine’s wardroom.

We arrived at 7, and after stopping in the Diamond Club for breakfast I was off the ship about 8:15 (before the clearance announcement). With an afternoon tour my morning plan was shopping. I made the rounds of several pharmacies for forgotten items (most Benedryl) and am now feeling significantly better. On my rounds I passed a Panera store I hadn’t noticed before and stopped for a fruit cup. My morning walk and shopping session took me about 2 miles.

My walking tour, “Pirates and Patriots” left at 12:45. There were about 50 of us divided into 3 groups. My group’s guide, Kim, took us out of the terminal and we paused in front of the Customs House, just across the street from the pier. She explained that Charleston was once a walled city, and one of the corners of the wall was where the Customs House now stands. The wall was in use from about 1704 to 1720.

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We walked along the sea wall towards the ocean. Kim explained that much of the Charleston peninsula is reclaimed land and the area we were walking had formerly been part of the Cooper River. Our one stop was at the Old Exchange, now a long block from the water but originally built on the sea wall. Part of the bottom level was used as a prison by the British during the Revolutionary War, with the prisoners living in extreme squalor. Archaeologists have identified a section of the original sea wall in the dungeon, a curved brick wall where a cannon once stood.

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The top level of the Exchange was a hall where Washington was feted when he visited Charleston after the Revolution.

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We continued walking towards the sea for another few blocks before turning inland past some of Charleston’s historic homes. Along the way we paused at Washington Park, site of both a statue of Washington and a replica obelisk replica of the Washington Monument. We walked along the aptly named Church Street, until we got to Market Street.

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The market dates to about 1807 and is built on a stream bed and is prone to flooding. The donor granted the land to the city with a provision that the land must always be used as a city market or it returns to the family. We returned to the Customs House and back to the ship after walking about 1 ½ miles.

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I hadn’t really paid attention to the time but I think we returned a little after the 3:30 All Aboard time. It turned out not to be an issue as there had been an “incident” with lifeboat 3 and it was dropped into the water. The Captain came on the PA at 4 and indicated we could proceed safely without the damaged boar but were awaiting final clearance from the Coast Guard. I learned at dinner that there were no injuries in the incident but still we did not leave until about 7:30,

We had the now usual 4 at dinner. In addition to the Blueberry soup I went for the Steak Caesar Salad and 2 deserts, Fruit Napoleon and ice cream. We finished just in time to make the 7PM show of All Access by the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers.

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My parting shot will be a note of thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. for his contributions to the growth of our nation.

Roy

Thanks for the review and all the info so far. I had wondered where they kept checked carry on bags aboard Grandeur. Always a hassle to deal with that "light" luggage during the first stop in the Windjammer!

We are leaving on the Grandeur next Monday,Jan. 23. I will report back. I am happy to go before dry dock. We went on the Infinity just when it came out of dry dock. What happened there is that they still weren't finished and lots of work was still going on. The ship was really dirty from all the refurburishment.

I will report back after Feb. 4. This is a 12 night Caribbean cruise that we are going on,

Just FYI, as a result of our delayed departure we will be roughly 2 hours late at Port Canaveral. I expect my Kennedy Space Center tour will be cancelled; they are still checking on tours.

Roy