benevempress

I was looking at pictures of the inside cabins on the Vista, and mysteriously the couch that is on all of the other Carnival ships we've sailed seems to have disappeared and the cabin looks much smaller (like RCL's 140 sq feet). At least one travel booking site is still saying the square footage of an inside cabin is 185 (like the other ships) but I'm suspicious that they've just copied that from other Carnival data and not confirmed.

I did not see square footage information on Carnival's website, even when going through the booking process. I know no one has been on the ship yet, but has anyone seen square footage information for the various cabin types inside/outside/balcony?

For those of you that have specific bags that did (or did not) fit, what is the side dimension of your bag? 28" or 30" is the length, but what is the depth?

We're boarding Grandeur of the Seas on Sunday (YAY!) so I'm packing tonight and tomorrow. I thought I read on one of these boards that the beds are low to the ground to the point that some past cruisers had trouble stashing their empty bags underneath them. We're squishing 4 people in a tiny inside cabin, so leaving the luggage out on the floor or in the closet is not an option!

Does anyone know how many inches of space are available below the beds?

Thank you for posting this. As you may recall, I was looking for something inexpensive for my family to do March 24th in Charlotte Amalie, and this might be it!

Now the Blackbeard castle website says Tuesday and Wednesday only. GRR. I'll be there on Thursday, so I guess I'm back to looking for something inexpensive for my family to do.

Hi, we won't be in St. Thomas until March 24th so I can't verify yet that it is open. I'm sure I'll need the exercise after all the cruise food, so as long as it isn't raining I plan to walk into town from the ship and check it out.

Funny (not really) that the link on the cruise line's official website has a PDF that isn't current. Sorry about that. Thanks to the OP who pointed this out.

Rather than posting a picture, I'll tell you where you can find it in case the prices change. You can find the price schedule for laundry on the cruise line's website. RoyalCaribbean.com, then Already Booked, FAQ, then under Onboard "Onboard Extras". The second question is Are laundry services provided? Hopefully this will allow me to post the link.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/onboardExtrasFaq.do

"Are laundry services provided?

Self-service laundry facilities are not provided onboard our ships, but we do offer full laundry and dry cleaning services. We do not provide irons in the staterooms as they constitute a fire hazard.

View our Shipboard Laundry Service price schedule.

* All prices are in US. Dollars and are subject to change without notice."

On the website, the price schedule is a hyperlink to a PDF file with the prices.

Thank you, everyone. Your replies will help me manage my family's expectations about what is and is not available since they are already asking the "is there an ice rink on the ship?"-type questions and I was having a hard time answering the questions before your help.

For the poster who said you've been studying the Compasses, do you have a link that you can share so I can look at some too? We'll be on the 10-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary and I'm hoping there will be many planned activities since I really enjoy having the choice to be busy (especially on sea days). We've mostly cruised on Carnival since our children were born (due to cost and very young childcare availability), but I've found that over time it seems the amount of activities on that line has decreased and more of them are profit related (i.e. Bingo, spa talks to sell you something, shopping "sales"). I'm hoping that RCCL will have more going on.

Thank you! Anyone else remember something that hasn't yet been mentioned?

How about a library with board games or books to check out?

On Royal Caribbean's website, when you look for onboard activities, you see amazing things like ice skating rinks, flowriders, Northstar, Ripcord, SeaPlex, Zipline, etc. Wow! However, most of these things are on the newer, larger ships, and not on Grandeur, right? I called RCCL this morning to ask if there is somewhere on their website where I can find out the specific activities (such as mini-golf, shuffleboard) available onboard Grandeur of the Seas. Her reply was, "You'll have to wait until you get on the ship."

So I turn to you, the experts, with the same question: What specific activities will I find onboard Grandeur of the Seas? My question is about things with physical facilities or equipment, like mini-golf, shuffleboard, swimming pools, arcade, table tennis, rock climbing wall or a walking track, not activities led by the Entertainment team like a "Sexiest man Competition" (of which I'm sure there will be many).

Thank you in advance!

Okay, sorry. When I searched the boards here for Blackbeard's Castle, I only found the ones saying it was closed, and did not see a new string announcing it being open. In case others (like me) were interested and only saw posts saying "permanently closed", I posted here what I found.

According to their website, Blackbeard's Castle is open seasonally from October to the 1st of May, and only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I think we're going to check it out as it is not too expensive and my two daughters are of an age to still be free!

According to their website, Blackbeard's Castle is open seasonally from October to the 1st of May, and only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I think we're going to check it out as it is not too expensive and my two daughters are of an age to still be free!