"Live" From the Grandeur of the Seas 7-22-05

[TPKeller]

Welcome to Port Canaveral !!

 

I found out that the Grandeur loads food and supplies every 2 weeks from here. There may be some supplies loaded at other ports...but most of it is from here.....(maybe they will get some Half and Half...there is none on the ship, not even at the Coffee Bar)

Hi,

 

I'm curious to know if you could tell a big difference between before and after you loaded new food here. On both of my previous cruises, both 7 days, I noticed a definite decline in quality of the fresh fruits (I don't eat a lot, but I do like my pineapple!) as we neared the end of the cruise. I also noticed an immediate improvement the last morning of the cruise, I assume because they loaded fresh as soon as we arrived in port.

 

Anybody have any comments on this?

 

Thanks!

 

Theron

[NormanW]

Did you note the speed as you passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?

 

Average speed along the bay before reaching CBBT?

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

[TPKeller]

Did you note the speed as you passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?

 

Average speed along the bay before reaching CBBT?

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

I took pictures of the ship as it approached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It wasn't moving very fast. You can take a look at the picture at http://members.aol.com/cruisetip/grandeurpan.jpg It's a very big picture, but you will see that there is very little bow wave.

 

Theron

[NormanW]

Looks like ~10 knots.

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

[TPKeller]

Looks like ~10 knots.

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

I would also guess somewhere around that, but it is just that, a guess. We need a former submariner to take a look at that picture... They got pretty good at estimating speed by the bow waves, I bet! :)

 

If I were a little bit more talented, I would have thought to time how long it took from the first picture to the last picture. (I took 5 or 6 shots with my camera mounted solidly on a tripod, so each "shot" is actually the exact same spot, with the ship moving through the frames. A co-worker pointed out to me yesterday that there are several instances of the same crab pot or fish net float bobbing in the water.. :D) If I had that time, simple math would yield the result, as the ship is 920 feet long.

 

Another clue, Radio told me that they left port pretty much right on time at 5:00, and they didn't get to the bridge until almost exactly 6:30. Quite a bit longer than I thought it would take. I was watching seagulls for a while.

 

Theron

[Fury1995]

DH and I are leaving on the Grandeur 9/11, do they serve chai tea?? Seriously, I have one of these every morning before work.

 

b5ver, were you on Sovereign of the Seas this past April by chance with your sister (from Georgia) and your Mom knicknamed "crazy lady"? the Tea thing jogged a memory.......

[Radio]

Hi,

 

I'm curious to know if you could tell a big difference between before and after you loaded new food here. On both of my previous cruises, both 7 days, I noticed a definite decline in quality of the fresh fruits (I don't eat a lot, but I do like my pineapple!) as we neared the end of the cruise. I also noticed an immediate improvement the last morning of the cruise, I assume because they loaded fresh as soon as we arrived in port. Anybody have any comments on this?Thanks!

Theron

 

I really couldn't tell any difference...but I noticed there were about 20 trailers of stuff that were unloaded......along with about 25 slot machines that were being replaced in the casino ( They said that the last time they were in PC, that brought on 20 new slots also....)

 

There was no Half and Half on board, even on the first day,,,and they were going to load it in PC.....I never saw any H/H. The head waiter was able to provide me w/ a thermal picher of H/H that was taken from a 5 Gallon jug though:)

 

There were a few pallets of things that were loaded at Baltimore, Key West, and Cozumel....But the main things were at Port Canaveral.

 

Radio

;)

 

Loading Supplies in Port Canaveral

 

[Radio]

Did you note the speed as you passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?

 

Average speed along the bay before reaching CBBT?

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

 

I had my GPS on the entire trip, and the speed while in the bay never exceeded 11 kts. At the Bay bridge we were sailing at 9kts.

 

Radio

;) ;)

[TPKeller]

On Port Canaveral supplies:

 

I guess that makes it very unlikely that they would ever skip that port even if the weather were less than desirable...

 

On speed:

 

:) NormanW is a pretty good guesser!

 

Theron

[ranwun]

Hello everyone...we made it under the Bay Bridge....for thosw who want to track it, we sailed under right at 6:30pm....

 

Bonnievoyager......She loved it ! She wishes it was a longer cruise...

 

mdmourges.....We couldn't see anyone on shore...It was too much haze...TPKeller was able to get a shot of me waving up near the Viking Crown Lounge...

 

The welcomeaboard show is at 7:30, and late seating at 8:30....Time to get ready !

 

Today's TV Movie's are Channel 20- "The Pacifier" and Channel 21 "Ladder49"

 

The Captain is Sven Steinmoen, the Cruise Director is Duane Davis...

 

See you soon....

 

Radio

;) ;)

 

 

 

 

.

These photo's are great!!! I will be on the Grandeur on 9/2/05 out of Baltimore. My 1st RCCCL cruise. I am so interested in what you think. I have so many questions but I will limit it to a few. How's the entertainment? Comedy? My finance is chocolate crazy, I heard there is a Chocolate buffet, is this true? I'm in an inside cabin (K) on deck Seven, so I know the room is small. Did you make it to both Key West and Cozumel? What is a must see or do in Freeport? Anything and everything good I want to know. I'm am so excited and almost in tears after seeing your photos. Thanks so much!!!!

[AdamOfCanaveral]

Hi ranwun -

 

I hope you'll check out the Roll Call thread for the September 2nd sailing of the Grandeur. We've got about 27 people signed up for our Meet and Mingle.

 

Please check us out...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=161254

[AdamOfCanaveral]

Radio -

 

A question came up from one of our Meet and Mingle group on the September 2nd sailing. How were time zone changes handled during the cruise? I guess between Baltimore and Cozumel there must be about 3 time zones.

[MisterBill99]

The ship stays on the time zone of the originating port. This can be a bit confusing if you book your own excursions. I know when I last took a cruise and booked our own Grand Cayman Stingray trip, we rushed to the place only to find that we were an hour early (my friend had booked it and either they did not tell him about the time difference or he just forgot). For my dolphin swim, I know they are one hour behind the cruise, so my 12 noon swim is actually at 1pm ship time.

[Bonnie Voyager]

Grandeur didn't stay on "Baltimore-time" when we sailed to Bermuda. The Captain had us all change our clocks/watches ahead one hour the night before we arrived in Bermuda and we changed them back again the night we left Bermuda.

[floodcity cruiser]

The ship stays on Eastern Daylight Savings Time. Cozumel is on Central Daylight Savings Time. So at 10:00 am ship time it is 9:00 Cozumel time.

[MisterBill99]

Radio -- you didn't say anything about the buffets and lines (or at least not that I saw). Are they as bad as people say? Did you go to the chocolate buffet?

[Radio]

Radio -- you didn't say anything about the buffets and lines (or at least not that I saw). Are they as bad as people say? Did you go to the chocolate buffet?

 

The lines were never bad.....except when the Windjammer was 5 minutes from closing...People seemed to be coming from everywhere ! !

 

The Chocolate buffet was on day 2 and the Gala Buffet was on Day 8......I saw somelines waiting to get into the Great Gatsby Dining Room...but they weren't very long...

 

Radio

;) ;)

[Sallysail]

Radio, Thanks a mill for the great pictures, I felt like I was on my cruise already. Grandeur 9/16. Are you going to do a reveiw? I have a few questions I hope you will answer. How early can we board the ship in Baltimore? Did they have theme nights, like country/western, or 50-60's? About what time should we have our ride pick us up? Thanks again for everything.

[akeka]

I really enjoyed your pictures and commentary about your cruise. Do you have any plans to scan the daily programs? That would be great if you could.

[Stephanie6481]

Hey Radio those pics were great and were familiar the day I boarded. I noticed you were on the 7th deck. My stateroom was on the Deck 3 (3513 to be exact) and I would have loved to be on 7. They have a sailing to Bermuda next June that leaves on my birthday so I am going to try and book that one. Hopefully this time, the weather will be much better.

[Radio]

Radio, Thanks a mill for the great pictures, I felt like I was on my cruise already. Grandeur 9/16. Are you going to do a reveiw? I have a few questions I hope you will answer. How early can we board the ship in Baltimore? Did they have theme nights, like country/western, or 50-60's? About what time should we have our ride pick us up? Thanks again for everything.

 

They did have several events in the Viling Crown Lounge that were them driven....50's, 60's, disco, country. I have been so busy at work, that i have not been able to scan the compass's. I think hope that my Trip Report from the Grandeur (with pics) will suffice for a review.

 

The ship docks at abot 8AM....They will let the self assist passengers off at 8:30AM. The 2 hour debark process ends at about 10:30.

 

Thanks for the nice comments.....:)

 

Radio

;) ;)

[Radio]

I really enjoyed your pictures and commentary about your cruise. Do you have any plans to scan the daily programs? That would be great if you could.

 

I will try to scan them....if Mrs.Radio hasn't thrown them away......

Give me a few days....

 

Radio

;) ;)

[TPKeller]

I will try to scan them....if Mrs.Radio hasn't thrown them away......

Give me a few days....

 

Radio

;) ;)

That would be great, I know I and my group would be interested in seeing them! :)

 

Theron

[Sallysail]

They did have several events in the Viling Crown Lounge that were them driven....50's, 60's, disco, country. I have been so busy at work, that i have not been able to scan the compass's. I think hope that my Trip Report from the Grandeur (with pics) will suffice for a review.

 

The ship docks at abot 8AM....They will let the self assist passengers off at 8:30AM. The 2 hour debark process ends at about 10:30.

 

Thanks for the nice comments.....:)

 

Radio

;) ;)

Radio, I'm dumb, what are self assist passengers? How early can we board? Again thanks for the pics & all you are doing for us future cruisersof Grandeur.

[Radio]

Radio, I'm dumb, what are self assist passengers? How early can we board? Again thanks for the pics & all you are doing for us future cruisersof Grandeur.

 

"Self Assist Express Debarkation" allows you to be the first passengers off of the ship. You must NOT leave your luggage in the hallways the night before debarkation. You will carry your luggage with you off of the ship.

 

If you do not carry off your own luggage...you can expect to be off of the ship no later than 11AM.

 

When boarding the ship...the Passenger Terminal will open at 9AM. Passneger should expect to board the ship no later than 12PM (usually at 11AM)

 

Radio

;) ;)