Just Back from Grandeur-Wrong Choice For Us

You'll get flamed, no doubt, as it seems a lot of folks on CC are here just to be snarky and cause problems.

 

Sometimes it's all in the delivery and I think the OP laid it out without piling on the hyperbole. We'll see.

OK so I was wr...wr...wrong. Thankfully I don't have to say that often. :D Thank you OP for your review. I had no problem reading it. Hope your next cruise is better.

Thanks for your review OP, we are going on Granduer in 6 weeks for our 22nd cruise on a variety of lines and thankfully, none of your issues should affect our cruise as we don't mind brighter lights at dinner, have no issues opening our own lobster, know that the service can be hit or miss especially with My time dining, and on these older smaller cheaper cruises we have no expectations on having good entertainment. Finally since we are born and raised on the east coast, we do not mind cruising with people in the same time zone, if we did we would cruise out of Texas or California.

My worst day on the Grandeur is still better than my best day in the office.

Bon Voyage.

My worst day on the Grandeur is still better than my best day in the office.

Bon Voyage.

Cute! :)

Thanks, teacherman, for posting a very balanced and thoughtful review.

Having taken several cruises on different sized ships, I agree that Grandeur is an acquired taste. DH and I really enjoyed our time on it, but we have found we do enjoy a larger ship. I didn't notice the lighting in the dining rooms, but our cruise was two years ago and that may have changed. DH and I had the smallest room ever- 124 square feet- and the furnishings were old and worn. The only thing that made the room acceptable was the rock bottom price we paid. I would have been disappointed not to have the aerial show as it was great fun and really did add to our cruise experience.

We were also lucky enough to have wonderful table mates who really enhanced our enjoyment of the cruise. I think the composition of passengers does influence the ambiance of a cruise. I avoid holiday and school vacation times for those reasons. It is not that I am not kid friendly, I just prefer them in smaller doses.

I have noticed a change in staff attitude over the last year on the three cruises I have taken on two different ships. I do believe the staff is working harder than ever with fewer resources. I also find the wait staff asking for us to give them a "10" on the ratings to be annoying, but people may not realize how much influence even a 9 has on their overall performance score, which contributes to their ability to get better assignments. They are under constant pressure and work long hours so they can support their families who they see very rarely.

Thanks for your review OP, we are going on Granduer in 6 weeks for our 22nd cruise on a variety of lines and thankfully, none of your issues should affect our cruise as we don't mind brighter lights at dinner, have no issues opening our own lobster, know that the service can be hit or miss especially with My time dining, and on these older smaller cheaper cruises we have no expectations on having good entertainment. Finally since we are born and raised on the east coast, we do not mind cruising with people in the same time zone, if we did we would cruise out of Texas or California.

ROFLMAO -- thanks a bunch!

Thanks, teacherman, for posting a very balanced and thoughtful review.

 

Having taken several cruises on different sized ships, I agree that Grandeur is an acquired taste. DH and I really enjoyed our time on it, but we have found we do enjoy a larger ship. I didn't notice the lighting in the dining rooms, but our cruise was two years ago and that may have changed. DH and I had the smallest room ever- 124 square feet- and the furnishings were old and worn. The only thing that made the room acceptable was the rock bottom price we paid. I would have been disappointed not to have the aerial show as it was great fun and really did add to our cruise experience.

 

We were also lucky enough to have wonderful table mates who really enhanced our enjoyment of the cruise. I think the composition of passengers does influence the ambiance of a cruise. I avoid holiday and school vacation times for those reasons. It is not that I am not kid friendly, I just prefer them in smaller doses.

 

I have noticed a change in staff attitude over the last year on the three cruises I have taken on two different ships. I do believe the staff is working harder than ever with fewer resources. I also find the wait staff asking for us to give them a "10" on the ratings to be annoying, but people may not realize how much influence even a 9 has on their overall performance score, which contributes to their ability to get better assignments. They are under constant pressure and work long hours so they can support their families who they see very rarely.

Shame on Royal for a cruiser to be able to say 'the furnishings were old and worn' -- regardless of the price you paid, there is no excuse for old and worn furnishings. As a stockholder in the company, that should not be....the company can spend a few more dollars each year on furnishings and it won't affect the stock value much.

From a different POV, there are many companies that use a survey/rating system...unfortunately, if the rating is anything other than a 10, it is as if the rating were a Zero....and that is the unfair part -- which is why so many of the wait staff bring up the issue of 'please remember to give them a 10' on the survey. Just sharing this.

After reading this post a lot of people sail out of baltimore that live close because it is a way to escape the cold and not have to pay for airfare. Also Granduer is more economically priced then Quantum or Liberty when she comes back to NJ. My parents who are travel agents have noticed more people driving past the quantum to get to grandeur because of the price point. So once anthem comes to NJ full time I expect you will see a lot more people local drive to baltimore and more "exotic" people from other parts of the country will go to nj for anthem.

this is the reason why we tried granduer last month...

my take on the ship was it was an ok time.. nothing really great nothing really bad, just ok.. would i go back on the ship again, yes i would...

and i wholeheartedly agree, most of the staff seem tired/stressed.. not to say they don't have a reason to be but this was the first time i never tipped out extra cash except to one of the specialty restaurant staff. Zero WOW factor...

Thank you for your review and taking the time to write one. I had no problem reading it as one paragraph. People can be so rediculus on these boards. Everyone is entitled to their opinion as far as cruise experiences go. Hope your next one is better.

Wow lots of nasty posters/cheerleaders on here.

Thanks for your review, not every cruise can be a WOW experience, stuff happens.

Thanks for your honest review. Little annoyances can add up but some of the issues you identified, including food quality, were major.

WOW!!!! People......OP had a BAD cruise.

It's bound to happen.

Didn't live up to his expectations.

Why all of the flaming??????:mad::mad:

 

He has a right to come here and let people know....

Geez. Rough crowd.

I learned a LONG time ago not to make any bad comments about any cruise.

You will find far and few bad reviews here for that reason. BUt I like to know the bad with the good. We had one bad cruise from start to finish and if that was my first cruise it woulda been the last.

to the OP-- regarding your dining-- did you have traditional dining or anytime? I find that with anytime the waiters are just trying to get through the service. With Traditional the waiters get to know what you like and dislikes. Cutting my lobster away from the "skin" is not that important. Nor is putting the sauce on my food. I can do it myself. But these waiters sound like they are overworked with too many tables.

Gone is the personalized service of a few years ago.

If a person posts something that is negative and maybe it was not the best experience, if no one comes along to say they had a different experience, someone could get the impression that it's the norm for things to always be bad on a particular ship.

That's my beef with the member reviews. I'm not saying by any means that this is the case with the OP but, I've seen some outrageous claims in those reviews and there's no way to correct wrong information or counter someone's "one off" bad experience.

Once again, not singling out this particular OP but, anytime anyone posts that they didn't encounter the same things as the OP, they are immediately called cheerleaders.

We were on the same Grandeur sailing, and I have to ask, were we on the same ship?

We thoroughly enjoyed it - weather except for the first day was wonderful, we had excellent service throughout, and we enjoyed the MDR. We were on the Adventure in Feb and we thought the food was rather poor, but this time enjoyed the MDR very much ( other than the fact we were the only 2 at a table for 8!) Our HW came around on lobster night and shelled the lobster for us.

Our meal this time in Giovanni's was wonderful - a far cry from the one we had on Adventure. We enjoyed Chops as well.

I did miss the aerial show though - but there was a variety of other entertainment such as the standard 2 production shows, Tango Buenos Aires, Beatles cover, comedians, etc. etc. (the usual stuff)

Lots of pool side activities - Chili cook-off, crew vs passenger volleyball, and the other traditional belly flop, sexy legs stuff.

Yes, most of the passengers we ran into were from the area, (including NY state and PA) but I never saw that as a problem with variety(?)

We are back on her in December and looking forward to it!

We were on the same Grandeur sailing, and I have to ask, were we on the same ship?

We thoroughly enjoyed it - weather except for the first day was wonderful, we had excellent service throughout, and we enjoyed the MDR. We were on the Adventure in Feb and we thought the food was rather poor, but this time enjoyed the MDR very much ( other than the fact we were the only 2 at a table for 8!) Our HW came around on lobster night and shelled the lobster for us.

Our meal this time in Giovanni's was wonderful - a far cry from the one we had on Adventure. We enjoyed Chops as well.

 

I did miss the aerial show though - but there was a variety of other entertainment such as the standard 2 production shows, Tango Buenos Aires, Beatles cover, comedians, etc. etc. (the usual stuff)

Lots of pool side activities - Chili cook-off, crew vs passenger volleyball, and the other traditional belly flop, sexy legs stuff.

 

Yes, most of the passengers we ran into were from the area, (including NY state and PA) but I never saw that as a problem with variety(?)

 

We are back on her in December and looking forward to it!

What is usually always is. When you many many good reviews on a ship and one bad review what does that tell me?....That sometimes folks like to rant, rave, moan and will never be happy no matter what you do or don't do. Not saying this is the case in this post, but more times than not this happens. Some folks just are miserable....:o

I kind of agree with you on this. My problem with some of these bad reviews lately is that the review is packed full of bad things about the entire cruise. There was nothing at all good about it at all. Food is not good, entertainment is not good, embarkation process is not good, debarkation process is not good, waiter were bad, room steward was bad, customer service people were rude and not helpful, the excursions were bad, drinks were too much, specialty dining was bad, not enough servers on the pool deck and so on! After all that they will then say ...."We have two more cruise booked"! Geeze....If it was all of that the is no way in "H-e-double hockey sticks" I would ever step foot on another RCI cruise or any other cruise line for that matter!

When I write a review, there are things I don't like that is incled in the review and there are things I like, so it's not an all "I just Love RCI" or "I hate everything about RCI" type of review. I can imagine what some people that have never cruised before think when they are looking at some of these reviews. They probably run for the hills! The reviews I read about my first cruise ship Sovereign Of The Seas was mostly bad and I thought in my mind "Am I making a mistake because these revies of this ship make it seem like I would be just misreable. I went anyway in spite of the reviews I read and had the time of my life and wanted to do more after that! Now I don't worry about any bad negative reviews and I book and go on cruises and make my own opinion and if it turns out bad.... then oh well...but that hasn't happened yet and I don't believe it will! :cool:

This thread does a good job illustrating that the negative crowd are very, very sensitive.

The only think that people are being even the slight bit harsh over is the single paragraph. And I, too, found it hard to follow. My screen I read here is pretty wide, and the print is small- so it is not the easiest thing to read a wide paragraph in small letters. Took me a few tries to read through it- I'm being honest here- which normally is taken well.

But the rest of the "critizisms" are people who have done the same cruise and felt differently. More correct- positively.

So many appreciate the honesty of negative reviews, but apparently do not appreciate the honest of positive reviews.

I would be bummed if there were no ariel shows- since the Grandeur was the first ship to get those in the Centrum. And the ones we have seen on other ships were really cool.

As for the NCAA BB- OP- you say you are a diamond member, right? Of all of those cruises, was there any other choice besides ESPN for sports? The one CBS channel is clearly taped- the only "live" channels are the two news channels and ESPN. So since the NCAA BB championship was only on the CBS family, did you really expect to see ESPN to cover that? Just wondering.

Still, interesting to see that so many people think that the OP is being harshly attacked... Vs. honestly reviewed to suggest that they format their writing so that more can read the entire review.

This thread does a good job illustrating that the negative crowd are very, very sensitive.......

 

As for the NCAA BB- OP- you say you are a diamond member, right? Of all of those cruises, was there any other choice besides ESPN for sports? The one CBS channel is clearly taped- the only "live" channels are the two news channels and ESPN. So since the NCAA BB championship was only on the CBS family, did you really expect to see ESPN to cover that? Just wondering.

 

.......

Just to bolster your point, I was on an Allure sailing and the World Cup Soccer matches were everywhere....and I don't like soccer -- since I don't understand it at all.....so I could have reviewed the cruise as 'disappointing to awful' since everywhere I turned on almost every TV around the ship, they had on soccer, when it was being played. Yet, it had almost not impact on me.....I could always find what to do -- I could not engage in my sports conversation on the soccer subject --- but no matter.

Teacher,

I read your OP with interest as we are sailing in a couple of weeks on GOS.

Although many of the issues you seemed to have were subjective and unique to your expectations (demographic etc.) - I appreciate you having taken the time to share your experience.

A couple of comments:

Dining room - its amazing how good servers add to the enjoyment of your meal. We had a VERY BAD wait team on Majesty a few years back (waiter was rude and berated us the entire cruise about his rating; we couldn't figure out who our asst waiter was). One example: I had prime rib that was raw - I like my meat rare to blue so for it to be too underdone for me is not easy to do - I was verbally and publically challenged by the waiter and he brought two plates back and gave me an education on how meat is cooked. I was mortified and my table mates were dumbfounded. Our next cruise on Majesty - we had great staff, wonderful food and an amazing experience. In future if we encounter staff that was not attentive, we will ask to have my table moved now rather than enduring a lower standard.

Aerial: that is disappointing - hopefully they will get their rigging issues resolved in time for our cruise. I am easy to entertain though and will enjoy the live music or shows. Performers try so hard to entertain and I always appreciate the effort even if not to my taste.

Staff complaints: many staff see greener pastures or want contracts with the "newer ships" - and with a staff that large you will always find malcontents. What isn't acceptable is conveying their issues to guests. I try to discount and ignore negative people in general so this will not carry much weight with me. If it was prevalent to the point that it was impacting my enjoyment, although its never been necessary, I would take it up with the officer in charge as an opportunity to improve the overall experience. NOTE: I have in the past highlighted exemplary service with officers - it is equally important to give laurels to those that go above and beyond

This must be one of the most interesting critiques I have ever written on these boards because it has generated 4 pages of comments and almost 5,000 people have viewed it so far. I went back and read it again to see if I was as negative as some people seem to think I was.

First off, I think I began by saying it was not a good choice for US. That does not mean other people do not have a good time on the ship. Some nights we laughed until tears came to our eyes during discussions with other folk in the Diamond lounge. Good times.

I did not mean to denigrate those folk of the local area, but we like to have discussions with people who have cruised to many parts of the world, and get some ideas of things we can do if we are fortunate enough to get to cruise there. Even the people we spent much time talking with, and laughing with, had done almost all cruises out of Baltimore. That is not a bad thing, but it was a total contrast to our December Celebrity cruise where we met so many people who had cruised all over the world, and picked up some great tips. We are planning our first TransAtlantic cruise because of so many suggestions we received for fellow cruisers.

In the Diamond Lounge, there was a group of about 10 people who sat together each evening, and were visited by many officers. When I inquired who these "important" cruisers were, I was informed that they were Pinnacle, and many of the crew knew them because they spent almost the entire winter on the ship. One couple had been on since November. So, obviously, some people love the ship, or at least find it a good escape from the cold winter.

In my review, I think I mentioned 7 or 8 positive things about cruising on the ship, and also said that there were probably more, but the negatives were sticking in my mind. I then mentioned about 8 negatives that were my opinions. We always have My Time Dining, and this is the first cruise EVER that I have not given additional tips to the dining room staff, although I did tip extra in Chops, a lovely experience, and to the servers in the Diamond Lounge. I hope that all Diamonds tip those servers because they really hustle.

As far as my mentioning the "ambiance" of the dining room, there has been much discussion on the boards of the way people dress for dinner. I don't really care how they dress, but softer lighting seems to indicate a more "special" type of dining room, as opposed to bright lights. On some other ships, I have even seen those little electric candles on the table in the Windjammer at dinner. Presentation is a big part of a dining experience. These are MY opinions, which is what a critiques is supposed to be.

I have been on several different ships during "important" sporting events (NCAA BB, NFL play-offs, world series, etc.). If the ship had a big screen, the events were always shown, many times accompanied by popcorn and hot dogs served on deck. The BB games were shown on the TV in our cabins, or in the Schooner Bar, where many people were trying to watch it. (ESPN furnishes the CBS coverage) I honestly feel if Maryland or Virginia had been in the games (not a slam) the games may have been on the big screen. I do understand that not everyone is interested, but many people are.

Would I cruise on Grandeur again. Maybe. We want to do another Bermuda cruise. If so, we might have a completely different experience. This was one critique of one experience. I did not blast RCCL. They generally offer a good experience. It was just that this one did not meet our expectations.