Grandeur of the Seas 1/11/14 Photo and Video Blowout Review!

[DEIx15x8]

Entertainment

This was an interesting area. Last time I mentioned that the aerial show was incredible. I can say once again that is 100% true and I would still consider it to be the best show I’ve seen at sea. Since May it appears that every member of the singers, dancers, and aerialists have changed. Considering that I loved the aerialist show then this could be a bad thing but the new team did just as good, actually a little better even. Last time the aerialists rehearsed every single morning, this time I only saw them practice once the morning of day 4. I’m not sure if they simply were more experienced and knew the routine better or more likely were just not allowed to practice due to the rough sea conditions.

During the captain’s reception they did not have any aerial elements and didn’t even hook the cages up. In May the aerialists really helped to enhance the event and make it more exciting. I’ve seen some people complain that it made it feel drawn out, but I personally thought this one without it felt too short and dull (it’s always dull with or without aerialists but I still enjoy hearing who they are and where there from every cruise). In May though they did have some swaying and the one aerialists actually hit the screen next to the elevator so the second one wasn’t listed up for safety reasons, so in comparison it was certainly the right move to cancel the aerialists. A few days later (before the practice session) I saw them hooking up the cages. I assumed they were going to do the routine as a stand alone event since they had them fully hooked up and were placing the final screws on but I went to breakfast and when I came back they were then taking them all apart. I can only assume that they wanted to do it but had too much swaying when they attempted to lift them.

 

They did get the full aerial show in on day 6 though after Grand Cayman. That night it was held twice and featured as the main show. There was a dedicated one listed for second seating during their normal show time that conflicted with main seating’s dinner and a second one listed for main seating during their usual show time that conflicted with second seating’s dinner. They then had a single headliner show for both seatings to attend right in the middle of them. This seemed to balance the crowds out much better than in May when they were additional shows on top of the 2 showings of the headliner which resulted in everyone attending the first showing and few people going to the second one. The headliner surprisingly was also not as packed as I executed with only one showing, still not sure why that was.

I can’t comment on the first showing since I was in dinner, but it seemed to end on time. The second showing for main seating was significantly delayed. I was watching from next to their main staging area and they were all concerned about the ships swaying. It had significantly increased from the first sailing. They kept sending up an umbrella and would hold it still and then let go. They would then time and measure the swaying of it and use that to determine if it was safe.

Each time it would have a very mild sway and then the ship would have a severe shutter and it would start swinging out of control. The stage manager seemed pretty concerned and they were discussing canceling the show but after the aerialists discussed it they decided to give it a shot, but setup a signal to stop the show if needed. As each set out over the edge of the platform you could see that they were noticeably concerned and some made comments about this one being a tough one. They did great though. With the aerial shows and ice skating shows I always expect a couple goofs and under these rocky conditions a higher number was to be expected but they managed to do even better than I was expecting possible in perfect conditions. There were very few goofs, less than in May when the conditions were better.

[DEIx15x8]

Following the show the entire team of singers, dancers, aerialists and stage crew gathered on deck 4 for some photos. This is not something done every week so I think some of them were likely on there final sailing of the contract and going to be moving on.

 

They also did the sun standalone song on the 10th and final evening of the sailing. It was not listed on he compass but was announced as a surprise during the Sexy Man contest that afternoon. They did 2 showings of it which aligned with the end of each seatings headliner show and they were announced as an “aerial show” in the closing remarks of those shows. In May it was placed at the end of the Summer Breeze singer set and perfectly flowed into. They only announced it once again as a surprise but did so during the morning show. Later in that sailing while talking to the cruise director, John Perry, we discussed the aerial shows and the handling of this event. Originally it was designed as a unique standalone surprise that would randomly occur during the sailing to create little wow moments that people would stumble upon while passing through the centrum. It resulted in complaints about people missing it and not knowing when they occurred. Scheduling it though resulted in complaints from people unhappy about it not being a full show and worth the wait. He said that attaching it onto another event was the only way that seemed to work and it did on that sailing. This sailing though with them handled as standalone occurrences and everyone being directed to them it generated crowds as large as the full aerial shows and people arrived just as far in advance.

This of course resulted in many complaints after the show. I attended both and after each showing you could hear everyone questioning if that was it, complaining that it was too short, and just simply not happy about the amount of time they wasted waiting for it. Considering that it was John Perry’s first sailing in May and he had that deep of an understanding of how to handle this show, I was honestly shocked to see that after months onboard Jefferey had essentially handled it exactly how John had said it did not work. The show is not in any way up to par with the full show because it isn’t a complete show, but as a standalone song it is enjoyable and unfortunately I think many left with negative feelings about the handling rather than enjoyment of how well the aerialists had performed.

[DEIx15x8]

Expanding beyond the aerialists to the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers as a whole I was once again impressed. If you read my May review you know that the shows are not up to today’s standards so I won’t go into that again. I can say though that they have made improvements. In May the set seemed a bit warn with some of the set lights not working properly and things just needing some extra attention. This time it appears that those issues have been taken care of, probably during the fire downtime. The two show from May were once again shown. All Access is supposed to have a concert vibe with all different songs from the past few decades. This one I found more enjoyable than in May for some reason. I could get into it because the songs are more modern and appeal to my style and this time I think the dancers looked like they were a level up from the ones in May.

The second show was Broadway Rhythm and Rhyme featuring broadway songs and dances. This one was good from a quality standpoint but I can’t get into that music so I found it a bit boring again.

They had a third production show onboard though this time known as Tango Buenos Aires. This featured a pair of dedicated tango dancers in addition to the royal caribbean singers and dancers. Like the broadway style show the talent and skill was clear in the performance, but it was simply not my style and didn’t appeal to me. It is a full third production show on the Grandeur but it is not hers. Unlike many production shows that are created for a ship this show it a traveling show and is only on the Grandeur for 6 months during the winter when she does longer itineraries. It will then go to another ship during the summer when Grandeur switches back to 7 night itineraries. I know that we’ve seen it once before, I can’t remember the exact ship but I’m thinking it may have been the Voyager of the Seas 9 night western caribbean sailing all the way back on June 16th, 2004.

So if your keeping track that’s 4 full production shows by the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers during this 10 night sailing. The singers also had 2 song sessions, each done as a pair. The first took place prior to the 70’s Centrum Party.

The second was of course the more traditional Summer Breeze that occurs on nearly all Royal Caribbean sailings.

 

Beyond the actual performances though the singers and dancers as a group just seemed to be a great group of individuals. Perhaps it's that they seemed to be on the younger end of the ages I've seen, especially the singers. During the sun aerial performance the non aerialists could be seen watching both showings. The same with each of the singer sets, the other pair were present to watch and cheer them on. They seemed to have a tight nit group that really supported one another but they expanded into the passenger events and could be seen all over the ship always willing to talk to guests. They all attended both centrum parties as well and were dancing with all the passengers, trying to get more people involved. That’s one of the things that some people don’t like, and I have seen crew attend passenger events and act as though they were superior, but that was not the case here. I personally love to see this. I always find that when the crew interact with passengers more and that barrier is broken down everyone becomes like one big family and the experience gets all the more enjoyable.

(bottom left corner are the singers)

 

 

Beyond the production shows, the headliner shows were also top notch. A lot of this seemed to come from the fact that the shows seemed to speak to all age groups. Prior to so many of the shows I would read the compass description of the act and think it was going to be targeted to the ships older audience and complete torture, only to have the show end and love it. This started the first night with comedian Jeff Jena who’s bio read like something out the archives. Surprisingly though despite his age, his style spoke to all generations and was more of a family comedy than all about old age.

Edited January 31, 2014 by DEIx15x8

[PuterMonkey]

Really enjoyed your review. That wave picture says it all! Thanks for posting :)

[DEIx15x8]

The next night we had Glenn Smith who was advertised as a variety act featured on yet another list of shows nobody under the age of 30 knows. Yet, once again he walked out looking like another practice in the art of torture only to turn out to be a great act. His comedy was hilarious and the variety of his music was impressive. It once again came from an old guy, but seemed to appeal to everyone’s tastes.

At this point I was just plain confused, lol. We had 2 acts that were clearly booked for the older crowd onboard but turned out to be great for everyone. The third headliner we had was then a group called Horizon who does Motown music. Royal Caribbean seems to have a standard recipe of what style of acts each cruise gets and motown is always in it. I’m not a big motown person, so I usually don’t enjoy these acts. But once again I was surprised. They were young, as most of these groups tend to be, but rather than being a stale “we’re going to come out and sing your favorite songs” band they were more of a comedy group singing motown. It was a bit like the Harlem Globetrotters of Motown bands and once again I left having really enjoyed it after entering expecting to hate it.

The next headliner was Adam Kario who had a single showing since the aerial show was considered the main show on his night. He filled the usual juggler spot and was the first act that I was excited for going into since he was younger and did not seem targeted towards the older audience, and as I expected he was once again a great act with a heavy dose of comedy.

The next headliner was Chad Chesmark to fill the magician slot of the usual formula. I love seeing magic, but have found these to be hit or miss in the past. I would put him once again in the good group, party because his tricks were good but also because he had a very good stage presence with the use of heavy comedy.

The main overarching theme in all of the entertainment of this sailing, and what likely made it so good was the use of comedy with every act. So it was fitting that things then ended with the return of a comedian with James Stephens III. I’ve been on many sailings, and it’s hard to declare a best headliner since the type of act can be so varied but he was without a doubt the best comedian I’ve seen at sea and in the running for best overall act. The last three acts clearly had broken the old age lock the first three acts had, but he still seemed to appeal to all ages. He had great jokes, he sang songs, played the piano, did impressions. It was really a comedic variety act even though the compass advertised it as more of an impressionist with some comedy.

Our final headliner as part of the farewell show was another comedian, Billy Washington. He had done a late night adult comedy act prior to his headliner show, and it was terrible IMO. I’m young and love Family Guy and SNL. I consider myself conservative but am a fan of raunchy stand up comedy as long as there is intelligence behind it. Wanda Sykes is my favorite comedian and she’s about as bad as the main stream ones get. But his adult comedy show was nothing more than shock value. There were no real jokes, there was no humor. It was basically I’m going to say these inappropriate words and there going to find it hilarious. So I expected this show to be stupid. He did better though. He told actual jokes that were funny. I enjoyed the show. I cannot consider it a great show but it was good. Surprisingly though, and I really don’t understand it, I think some of the older crowd loved both his shows more than anyone.

 

So overall, we had 7 headliners, 3 production shows, 1 production aerial show, and an aerial song. All were top quality. As I said before I did find 2 of the production shows boring, but that’s a tastes thing rather than quality issue. The headliners though were a perfect set. Regardless of cruise length I have never had a sailing where every act was great so this was a truly top notch lineup that Royal Caribbean booked and 10 solid nights of shows.

[jo24]

Still a brilliant review and fantastic pictures!

 

Thanks for taking the time

[DEIx15x8]

Really enjoyed your review. That wave picture says it all! Thanks for posting :)

 

Still a brilliant review and fantastic pictures!

 

Thanks for taking the time

 

Thanks for reading, there's still more to come and then all the videos!

[97t-bird]

Great review.....I am planning on taking a ton of photos on my first cruise, which will be on the Explorer of the Seas (end of March). What camera/cameras or equipment did you take with you to take these photos? I am having trouble deciding on what to take with me, Also for the panoramas were you using a mode on the camera to produce them or stitching photos together in a program like photoshop?

 

Just trying to pack light, If I can get away with taking my entry level body and a small kit lens, I'd rather do that then taking a pro body and fast glass....Thank you

[cruzinlady1947]

Great review and pictures. I have been on the Grandeur and will be on it again in March (Eastern Caribbean) and November (for the Western Caribbean). Thanks so much for doing this.

 

Gwen :)

[DEIx15x8]

Great review.....I am planning on taking a ton of photos on my first cruise, which will be on the Explorer of the Seas (end of March). What camera/cameras or equipment did you take with you to take these photos? I am having trouble deciding on what to take with me, Also for the panoramas were you using a mode on the camera to produce them or stitching photos together in a program like photoshop?

 

Just trying to pack light, If I can get away with taking my entry level body and a small kit lens, I'd rather do that then taking a pro body and fast glass....Thank you

 

I take a few devices along. I have a Sony HDR-XR500v video camera that I bought for the Oasis in 2009 that I use for all my video and photos. It has a nice zoom on it and takes great stabilized photos in windy conditions. It also allows me to take photos while recording video and everything is geotagged so I get a nice map of where we went afterwards.

 

I also take a GoPro Hero3 Silver along that I attach to the balcony or window with a suction cup mount to record all of my time-lapse footage.

 

I also bring my iPhone5 along to take pictures (the 4 as well as a backup and I used it to help with filming theCruiseView). This has a built in panoramic photo mode that I used to do all the panoramic images.

 

For this last sailing I also brought a tripod along for the first time in order to set the camera up for filming theCruiseView each night. It also came in handy for filming other ships passing in the night. I was able to zoom in the entire distance and get clear pictures since the camera was steady.

 

When planning what to bring you need to remember that the ship is rather dark inside. Before I bought this camera I had a travel zoom camera and could never get any of my inside pictures clear because of the low light. Some of the best inside photos actually come from the iPhone, the only issue is not having any zoom. So I do not think you need any kind of huge or high end camera, just something that can handle low light well and has some stabilization to counter any wind outside while taking photos.

[DEIx15x8]

Cruise Director Team

This is another area that is often subjective as it comes down to preference, and I can say from reading other people’s review it certainly is a varied subject.

 

Cruise Director: Jeffrey Arpin

For this sailing we had Jeffrey Arpin as the cruise director. It was the second to last sailing of his first full contract in a decade. He made his return on the Independence of the Seas as a fill in last Spring and googling him turned up many positive things from his previous times at sea. So going into this there was a lot of hope and mystery in how he would do. I normally judge a cruise director based on three skills; 1) Spontaneity, there is nothing worse than a CD that can’t survive without a weekly script of jokes to read. 2) Presence, a great CD needs to have a presence throughout the ship. 3) Team, a CD is supposed to be the leader of the cruise director’s staff and as such has to be seen as a part of the team.

With regards to the first requirement Jeffrey did incredible. I can honestly say that he was the best host I’ve experienced. Everything he hosted from the belly flop competition, to the Love & Marriage Game Show, and even just the evening show messages were all spontaneous and building off of the crowd at the time. His farewell show was simply perfect. That’s one of the events that even the best CDs often fall short with because there isn’t much they can do with it. They ALL seem to love there list of funny questions that they claim to have been asked during this sailing and most do it with the same stock powerpoint that Miami sent them. The entire sailing Jeffrey never used visuals and for his farewell he just naturally riffed on the stage. It wasn’t until he had finished his tails that I realized that he had just gone through the stupid questions, partly because they weren’t even the usual questions but ones I honestly believe he really received during his long CD career. When it comes to his presence though he starts to slip. While he was not Joff level presence where you see him every time you turn around, he did still have a presence. Rather than constantly passing him as he moved about the ship he would often hang out before and after different events and talk with guests. I never ran into him here, but others have said that he was eating in the Windjammer each day and would sit with random guests. I know I ran into him while getting ice cream on the pool deck one afternoon and he started up a conversation. So while he was not everywhere, he was still around and very social with the guests. The third skill though is where he seemed to fall short, and where most of the other reviews seem to judge him on. He really never was a part of the team. Normally the centrum/promenade party’s are when you get to see the unity of the cruise director team and how they work with the CD, but he was never present for any of the cruise director staff’s parties. During these event’s it was often Daryl who took up the lead role. So overall I really enjoyed him and would love to sail with him again. I think he would probably be the best CD you could have on a B2B as he’s guaranteed to be different one sailing to the next. He was clearly an old school CD and I think that is why he was so great at being a host but the parties just weren’t his style. Those seem to be more of the younger generations thing, it still would have been nice if he at least shoed up though. Even if it was only to make some obvious joke about the fact that he was not hip enough for the parties. That would have shown him as the leader of the team. His history and wealth of stories did make every event he was out entertaining, he just needed some more events.

 

Activities manager: Darryl Dyball

So while Jeffrey was the old Italian father of the ship, Darryl was the hyper child. I have no idea where he gets his energy from but he never stops from morning to night. He was about as opposite from Jeffrey as you could get and watching the morning show it was obvious just how great of an odd couple chemistry they had going on. Darryl was the true leader of the cruise director staff. In all of the events it was clear that they fell behind him and worked off of him. Unlike the cruise director though I really don’t have any special skills I look for to make a good activities manager. It’s really just about how friendly they are and how they fit in with the rest of the team. He excelled at both. He was always running around the ship and saying hi to everyone. He loved making up nicknames for people and really building a personal connection when ever possible. What really surprised me though was that he seemed to know everyone on the ship even if you didn’t interact with him. While on Labadee I was walking back towards the pier area and passed him with one of the other members of the cruise director’s team and he said high and asked about my day. We were not alone on Labadee (Explorer was with us) and I had attended his events but in 10 days that was the only time I ever spoke to him so it was rather impressive that he knew I was from his ship. So while he was not a CD if I were to grade him as one I would have to say he excelled at all three skills and as an activities manager he obviously did above and beyond what you would expect from that role. It will be really interesting to see where he goes from here. He’s young, hip, and energetic but dealing with an older audience and still pulled it off. I’m sure he’ll end up with his own ship some day. The only thing I can say his did wrong was some of the comments he made during the morning show when talking about doing his lifeboat training. That’s the kind of area that he probably shouldn’t be joking around especially when on a ship that did have an incident recently and some of those passengers were on our sailing.

[DEIx15x8]

Cruise Director Staff

This is where things fell off a bit. While both Jeffrey and Darryl were top of their game every moment they were out, the rest of the team really wasn’t. I don’t want to name any names so I’ll discuss in more generics.There was one individual who seemed to be into it the entire sailing and really knew how to get things going especially at karaoke (those on the sailing know that for sure). There was another who was on his last sailing, not just of his contract, but ever and he really felt like he had checked out and didn’t care the first few days. It was as if he had realized that nothing mattered any more since they couldn’t do anything to him. Following the 50s & 60s Sock Hop though it was as if he had realized though that it was his last sailing and his last chance to do anything. He suddenly became alive and was almost at Darryl’s level when it came to energy and enthusiasm. When it came to any social event he became the crowd getter running around to every, and I mean every person to try and get them out and involved. Beyond those two the team was really rather cold and distant feeling. It seemed as though they knew there moves and were just going through them on auto pilot. Typically events like the 50s and 60s Sock Hop are great at showing off a teams unity and fun side, but this sailing seemed to actually hurt them. The stars were Alycia from the sports staff and Darryl the activities manager. The sports staff is typically involved in these events but usually at smaller roles, not the core ones. During the 70’s Disco Inferno party there were even some members missing and replaced by individuals in other departments of the ship. During that party the cruise directors staff did take the main roles though. The main thing they had going for them was a strong team attitude within their group.

^50's & 60's Sock Hop

^70's Disco Inferno Centrum Party

^Dancing Under the Stars: Cardio Dance Party with Darryl

^The Quest

 

Bands

Carnival just announced that they are going to start the process of adding a house band to all of the ships in there ships. My first reaction when I heard this was, what was the Grandeur’s house band. There were simply too many bands, lol. I don’t think I’ve seen so many bands on any other ship but the Grandeur. There were 5 bands onboard! Honestly, I jest went through the compasses and found 5 distinct bands listed with events:

• Riddim Wave
  
• The Evergreen Trio
  
• Locomotion
  
• The Roasario Strings
  
• Grandeur Musicians (Grandeur of the Seas Orchestra)
  

In addition to that they had piano player Kenne Ledford in the Schooner Bar most nights and DJ Terry in the Viking Crown Lounge each night as well as the Centrum some afternoons.

 

I made a comment on Locomotion in my May review and I have to make some changes to it. I had thought that the Centrum was a great venue with music always playing and because of the location I found myself stopping and listening. I still believe the centrum is a great venue and loved the live music playing in there, but it was not the venue but Locomotion that made me stop. I never sit and listen to music in a club, it’s simply too slow for me and feels like a waste of time. So I can’t say which bands are and are not good with one exception. Every time Locomotion was playing I once again found myself stopping and listening. Contrastly when some other bands were playing I actually fled the area not because I didn’t like them, but I simply didn’t care and felt no reason to stick around.

So hopefully Royal Caribbean will keep Locomotion around for a long time, because there is certainly something special about them and I really can’t say what. It’s certainly not the songs, one of the other bands played songs more my style, most of Locomotions songs I’ve never heard of before.

 

Overall the music were very nicely spread out between the Schooner Bar, South Pacific Lounge, Centrum, Viking Crown Lounge, and Pool Deck at different times of the day and night. There was always something playing it seemed and it never really interfered with other things going on. The only one that seemed to be a problem was DJ Terry in the VCL late at night. The VCL was not designed as a night club, that’s why the Voyager class and up have the Vault to seal the sound in. As a result when near the centrum the music was always very loud on deck 10 and still audible on deck 9. Lower than that you couldn’t hear it. The couple times I went up to the VCL though it was empty except the DJ and bar staff so I’m not sure who it was played for. A few times he got carried away though and made it even louder. The one night I was sitting on deck 5 at about 1:30am and the music was very loud all the way down there. It was loud enough that the women at the guest services desk actually got up and walked down to deck 4 to check the sound panel. She even asked the cleaning workers if they heard that and where they thought it was coming from. She could not believe it was from the VCL and thought for sure it was from the Centrum’s system it was so loud. She then went up to the VCL and took care of the problem. I was on deck 5 near the guest services desk and know she did not receive a call complaining about it so it was nice to see her take the initiative and stop the problem before people complained.

Edited February 1, 2014 by DEIx15x8

[DEIx15x8]

Sports Staff

They aren’t part of the entertainment staff specifically, but they do participate in the centrum events so they can go under this section. The Grandeur of the Seas does not have flow riders or mini golf, it doesn’t even have a sports court. All it has is a rock climbing wall so the department is much smaller than on the larger ships, consisting of just Alycia and Dymmy. I was lucky enough to meet Alycia on the Independence of the Seas transatlantic last year and instantly recognized her while walking around the ship shortly after boarding. Both of them were incredibly personable and always had a smile while around the ship. In all my sailings I have never done the rock climbing wall (never done it anywhere land or sea before), but since Alycia was on and I knew how well she handled the flow rider I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did because both Alycia and Dymmy were incredibly supportive and really made it fun. I even came back the next day to try and go farther. They were certainly in the group of exceptional crew members onboard the Grandeur.

 

Captain Trond Holm

There are all sorts of captains. If they work for Royal Caribbean you can be assured that they know how to do there job. Some are more present than others and some have an impact on your trip while others don’t. Captain Holm would fall in the group that really doesn’t have an impact. He attended the welcome reception, C&A loyalty events, and the Captain’s Corner but didn’t have a visible presence around the ship. It’s hard to say if there is a relation between a captain’s presence and the quality of the rest of the crew though.

 

Loyalty Ambassador

While discussing crew there is one last person that has to be mentioned, Danney League. He was the loyalty ambassador in May and was once again onboard this sailing. Just like last time he was a great spirit to have onboard. Everytime he gets up in front of a crowd he goes into cruise director mode and really knows how to entertain and show his Royal Caribbean pride. He is without a doubt the best in the fleet.

[DEIx15x8]

The Grandeur Itself

So now onto the ship itself. In May I said that I could not believe she was so old because she felt so new and fresh. She still was feeling modern this time. But with some short term issues.

 

Changes

To start with I want to discuss what has changed since May. The biggest change was that they obviously rebuilt the stern of the ship. Along with rebuilding it they have now opted to not include any lounge chairs in that area. They even went further and do not have any in the back area on the sides either, most likely to prevent people from dragging them back. This area is now wide open:

^January 2014

Another change was in the location of whatever this metal box is:

^May 2013

^January 2014

Beyond that it was pretty much an identical rebuild of the space. Another small change was the fire hose nozzle direction is rotated 90º but that was likely not a conscious decision.

^May 2013

^January 2014

[DEIx15x8]

The South Pacific Lounge was also rebuilt. All of the furniture was identical to the old ones in structure and layout. They did change the color scheme though when they renovated the venue. As well as enhanced the lighting equipment in there. The color scheme is very similar to the old, but a bit lighter in color giving an overall brighter and more welcoming feeling to the venue.

The chairs to the right remained the same, as well as the benches:

^May 2013

^January 2014

The chairs in the center area are now entirely blue on the inside and beige on the outside, rather than blue with a green top.

^May 2013

^January 2014

The chairs on the left are now beige inside and solid red outside rather than a few beige with red patterned outside and the majority solid green.

^May 2013

^January 2014

[DEIx15x8]

The only other change that I noticed was that all automatic doors in heavily trafficked areas are no longer automatic. Instead of sensing someone walking near and opening which almost always happens from someone simply passing by, you must now either press a button on the door frame or bring your hand up to a sensor on the door itself. This certainly fixed something that was a problem but seems like a rather unusual direction for a cruise line to move in with all the norovirus concerns.

Look close and you’ll see the circle censor to touch to come in and the button on the right side to get out. It did also help with the gap issues that I mentioned in my May review so it was overall a positive improvement.

 

The one non changed item that did surprise me though was that the doors leading to the youth area on deck 10 are a bit weird and never functioned properly in May. They were not touched in any way and still do not function, requiring you to manually force them open most of the time. It seems like it’s more of an issue with the location and wind than the door itself but I’m sure a more modern system could handle the conditions with more success. The doors themselves look like the original though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone chimed in to say they’ve been an issue since day 1 because it does seem like that kind of situation to me.

 

Cleanliness

The inside of the ship was always spotless. The crew would go through and rearrange the chairs each night and make sure things were tidy in the Centrum. Cups are always left on tables or in the elevator lobbies but I rarely saw them before they’d be cleaned up. Every time you turned around it seemed like someone was vacuuming. Oddly though it was a rare occurrence for someone to be spotted cleaning a railing in the stairs or the elevator buttons. They always had you sanitize before entering the MDR or Windjammer but there wan’t much concern with norovirus prevention and they rarely even mentioned the word. It was a bit unusual. They also seemed to keep the venues locked up but didn’t clean them which really made no sense. Typically I’ve only seen that when they would close them for sanitizing, not just to simply close.

 

Maintenance

So this is where things really turn south for the review. There really was no maintenance work and the ship was left to rot away. When we were on in May everything was white and areas were constantly being painted and stained. They had an extensive refurbishment project going on to replace all the window trimming along the promenade deck. This time there were large areas of discoloration and you could see rust spots all over the place. Most surprisingly though was the amount of wear on the new stern of the ship.

The extent of the maintenance work I saw was a guy with a can of white paint in one hand and a brush in the other going around painting rust spots. Only problem was that I watched him multiple times on different days and never once saw him cover a single spot with paint. He just went through the actions and things looked identical after he was done. Further more if he really was painting, some of the spots were along the railing in popular areas and he was not putting any wet paint signs up so he either knew he wasn’t really painting or was negligent enough to risk guests getting paint on themselves. This is the first sailing I can think of where there was not a single major project going on. Even the Liberty of the Seas on it’s 4th sailing had a major project to replace the floor entering Cleopatras Needle.

 

But the lack of maintenance work was not the worst part, they weren’t even trying to prevent the further decay of the ship. We had storms during our sailing which meant the ship was covered in sea spray. All the way up on deck 10 you could get misted on several days. With these kinds of conditions the crew should have been working overtime to keep things clean but they weren’t. They weren’t even cleaning to the extent they should be daily on a perfect sailing. On deck 3 our cabin window was dirty the day we boarded the ship. With each day it continued to get worse until it was impossible to see out when the sun was shinning. Each day we were in port I expected them to do some cleaning. They even had the hose out to take care of it in Cozumel, but never used it.

It wasn’t until Labadee, the last port, that they finally did a very minimal amount of cleaning to the bow (especially compared to the work the Explorer’s crew was doing to clean every inch of her).

 

With each day that passed you could actually watch the railings wearing down. You could not touch anything on the outer decks. Not the railings or the chairs or you’d get dirty. Everything felt rough to the touch anyway so you weren’t even tempted, if you forgot and leaned on it your clothing would get ruined from all the salt. Here is a picture on deck 10 from day 6 showing the dried salt that covered everything and could have easily been wiped off, but never should have been left on long enough to get to this point anyway.

By day 7 the railings started to flake there layers of varnish off (deck 10 on the pool side!).

By day 9 the railings were down to the wood (Observatory above deck 10 at the front).

[DEIx15x8]

On day 10 they finally decided it might be a good idea to do something, most likely so the next guests would think things were cared for like we did.

I’m sure somebody will try to make an excuse about the weather being bad and that it was acceptable to let it go because it would only get dirty again, but that is not the way they are supposed to be doing their job and there were plenty of days with good enough weather in the middle of the sailing. Last year on the transatlantic the weather was terrible nearly every day. The crew still cleaned the entire promenade deck every single day before reopening it to the passengers. They even did it twice in a single day sometimes. In addition to that they would clean the entire outside of the ship including all balconies at each port of call using the dock area and lifeboats to spray water from. To top it off though in addition to the outside conditions they had to deal with we had an elevated norovirus level that they were dealing with inside so every single venue was cleaned before and after each event. Through out the ship the crew was talking about how they had received orders from the top that the ship must be spotless or they may not be allowed into the US and Miami was going to be boarding when we arrived. So for them to do all of the work they did both inside and outside while already having harder days (25 hour days), there is absolutely no excuse for the crew on the Grandeur to only clean properly once in 10 days. As someone who loves watching the sunset and just staring out at the ocean a ships outside decks and there cleanliness weighs heavily in my opinion of a sailing.

[DEIx15x8]

Final Thoughts

So now that I’ve gone through all the major elements in a rather lengthy but visual way, here’s the quick breakdown. I don’t like using grades because pretty much everything tends to get an A so I’ll be talking more comparatively. To put things into perspective A typical cruise would be great.

Horrendous - Terrible - Bad - Poor - Neutral - Good - Great - Awesome - Spectacular

 

Ports

• Baltimore: Spectacular - It doesn’t move an Oasis of people, but it is more organized and efficient at handling what it needs to.
  
• Cozumel: Neutral - Since the weather was poor I really can’t judge this port. I enjoyed what I saw as a ship lover and didn’t see anything I didn’t like. But I never did or went anywhere that would allow me to make a real decision.
  
• Grand Cayman: Awesome - We didn’t tender to where we were supposed to, but it was the right choice and better than missing the port. Seas did not cooperate, but we enjoyed what we saw on land and never felt in danger or uncomfortable.
  
• Falmouth: Great - I’ve never liked Jamaica, but this new port is gated and separated from Jamaica so it feels safe. Only reason I can’t score it higher is that outside the gates still looked unsafe and not much to do beyond shopping, drinking, and eating. If it had a beach or other activity it would likely jump to spectacular.
  
• Labadee: Awesome - The improvements were incredible. Some area felt crowded but if you just looked you could find plenty of space. The peninsula itself is spectacular, but the food issues were Horrendous so I have to nock it’s rating down.
  

Cruise

• Ship Layout: Great - Easy to get around and no dead ends or blocked paths. Only issue is that some paths do pass through venues such as the Schooner bar or Casino.
  
• Ship Features: Great - She doesn’t have as much as the bigger ships, but she knows how to get the most out of what she has and the Centrum is incredible.
  
• Maintenance (Interior): Awesome - The ship was well maintained, you really had to search for something that was damaged.
  
• Cleanliness (Interior): Good - I would rate it as awesome because the ship did seem spotless, but it seemed like they were not up to the standards for preventing norovirus. There were no cases that I am aware of but they still should have been cleaning and disinfecting handrails, arms rests, door knobs, and elevator buttons more. If not just to ensure they are clean.
  
• Maintenance (Outside): Bad - I would consider it poor simply because there was a lot of rust and discoloration in public areas, but the fact that no major work was done during the sailing and the little touch ups that were seemed faked I have to lower it.
  
• Cleanliness (Outside): Horrendous - They simply did not clean. You really can’t give any credit for what they simply chose not to do. Even the bridge cam on the TV was nothing but a blur of grey and blue all cruise so you couldn’t even watch on TV to avoid the outside.
  
• Food: Spectacular - The food on both sailings of the Grandeur were the best I’ve tasted. Appearance declined just a hair but all of the non MDR food seemed better.
  
• Wait Staff: Awesome - I would mark them as great, but Stipe was so much better than any other head waiter that he increases the overall score.
  
• Cabin Stewards: Awesome - Wasn’t sure on this one, but the stewards as a whole were incredibly friendly and helpful. I recorded each noon captain’s announcement from a passenger hallway and was asked if I needed help finding something nearly every day.
  
• Production Shows: Great - The aerial show is the best show at sea. The Singers and Dancers as a whole were spot on with there performances, but some of the theater shows weren’t to my tastes.
  
• Headliners: Spectacular - Never had a lineup of guests performers where every single one was entertaining.
  
• House Bands: Spectacular - With the amount of variety it’s hard to say they were anything less than awesome, but locomotion was just incredible once again.
  
• Cruise Director: Awesome - A truly talented host with a great history of stories and information to pull from in his jokes. Jefferey Arpin was a very friendly and down to earth person but he is old school and does not participate in the party events.
  
• Activities Manager: Spectacular - So much energy, so friendly, and doing so much more than his job usually requires. Darryl Dyball was an incredible energy that really helped save the activities side of things.
  
• Cruise Directors Team: Poor - A tight nit team but most did not mesh well with the passengers. It was certainly not all, but there were enough that did not seem into it that the overall score has to take a major hit. It really felt like Darryl and Jefferey were often dragging the others along.
  
• Sports Staff: Spectacular - I knew Alycia was spectacular from the Independence but Dymmy was right up there as well. Both were very friendly and made the Rock Wall fun.
  
• Captain: Neutral - Captain Trond Holm seemed nice when he spoke at the welcome reception, C&A event, and Captain’s Corner. But he didn’t have a presence outside of the designated ones so it’s hard to say anything either way.
  
• Loyalty Ambassador: Spectacular - Most loyalty ambassadors would be rated great, hard to not be. Danney League on the other hand takes the job to a whole new level, often coming off as a CD while hosting the various events and looking after the return cruisers.
  

 

So overall based on these ratings I would rate this cruise as neutral. There really were so many elements that were simply spectacular but some with major impacts that were just horrendous so it really did fall in the middle. This would be considered my lowest ranked cruise, but I still would not say it was truly bad. When there are so many elements that were the best it can’t be bad, it just unfortunately did have some elements that were no where near up to the standard Royal Caribbean has set over the years. If I were to not consider the outside maintenance/cleanliness issues it would easily jump to great, almost awesome.

 

Now stay tuned, the review may be over but the videos are just about to start. As always if anyone has any questions please feel free to post them and I’ll try to answer them.

[PTAngel]

We are going on this ship on March 18 for our first cruise. Thanks for all the information. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I found your thread and then lost it. I just found it tonight and sat here for 5 hours reading and looking at everything except the last videos which I will look at tomorrow or Wednesday (during another storm and before a worse storm on the weekend). I really am looking forward to this cruise!! Thanks.

[Philly Steve]

Great, balanced review. Thanks for posting.

[DEIx15x8]

We are going on this ship on March 18 for our first cruise. Thanks for all the information. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I found your thread and then lost it. I just found it tonight and sat here for 5 hours reading and looking at everything except the last videos which I will look at tomorrow or Wednesday (during another storm and before a worse storm on the weekend). I really am looking forward to this cruise!! Thanks.

 

Great, balanced review. Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks for enduring the entire thing. As I was writing it I was slowly getting more and more in detail with each post and they just kept going, lol. The videos will start coming in the next day. The snow day yesterday was great, got the Cake Decorating, Port Timelapses, and Captain's Corner videos edited and exported. They were uploading over night so I just have to do the annotations and write my informative descriptions before setting them live. Luckily there is another storm coming tomorrow so hopefully it'll include another snow day and I'll be able to get more done. If not there is always the third on Sunday/Monday, lol. Gotta love this year's northeast winter.

 

The May sailings are available in the first post along with all the photos from both sailings to check out while waiting.

[DEIx15x8]

I've got the first video up, it's the GoPro time-lapse port arrivals and departures. It also has a time-lapse of the Explorer of the Seas departing from Labadee. Hope everyone enjoys, I should have a second tonight to share and a few more are already uploaded but waiting on annotations and descriptions.

 

[sj25]

I have to thank you....was nice to see a review with someone before and after being some changes made. Has been 3 years since I have been on the grandeur so looking forward in March for the ship ...and first time going out of Baltimore!

[DEIx15x8]

The second video is the Cake Decorating Demonstration. This took place on day 3 at 9:30am! It was an early time slot and I think the crowd was much smaller as a result.

[DEIx15x8]

Time for a great video, the Captain's Corner session featuring Captain Trond Holm, Hotel Director John Rae, and Chief Engineer Harri Kulmajärvi. Hear about the fire, safety at sea, and a rather vocal audience when the question of removing the smoking ban is brought up.

 

 

*) Introductions (01:26)

1) Penalties for skipping Muster Drill? (07:34)

2) Compliments on handling the fire. (09:24)

3) Are there any female captains? (10:44)

4) Did you rebuild the engine after the fire? (11:58)

5) What type of fuel is used? Is it flammable, and was it part of the fire? (12:32)

6) Are they building ships bigger than the Oasis Class? (14:08)

7a) Carnival leaving Baltimore, and Royal Caribbean's plans. (14:41)

7b) Could the Celebrity Summit fit? (15:59)

8) What redundancies does the Grandeur have? (17:03)

9) Where was the Grandeur built and what kind of engines? (18:21)

10) Why is the bridge language English if the company is Scandinavian? (19:16)

11) Is someone on the bridge at all times? (20:51)

12a) How long does it take to build the ship and the cost? (22:01)

12b) How do you get it into the water? (23:28)

13) Did they figure out how the fire started? (24:10)

14) Is there a pilot in Labadee? (24:31)

15) Where does Royal Caribbean have ships built? (25:51)

16) Do ships get cut in half and lengthened? Was that the cause of one of the recent accidents? (26:33)

17) Is there a pitch stability system onboard? (27:38)

18) How many nationalities in the crew? How are they kept happy? (28:47)

19) How are the laundry services operated? (30:13)

20) Do cruise ships hit whales? (30:39)

21) When Enchantment was extended was the engine room increased? (32:01)

22) Does the ship have to refuel mid sailing? (32:35)

23) Who is the major stock holder? (33:28)

24) Captain, how long have you been on the Grandeur? (34:28)

25) Displeasure with the smoking policy changes. (34:39)

26) Is all of the food loaded in Baltimore or along the way? (35:54)

27) What percentage of aluminum and steel is used in the structure? (37:48)

28) How many chefs are on board and what is done with the leftovers? (38:31)

29a) How is this ship setup compared to the Carnival Triumph? (41:11)

29b) How are the captain's living quarters? (40:12)

30) No 24 hour coffee and tea availability? (42:06)

31) What is the pay structure for stateroom attendants? (42:58)

32) What services are available to crew to adjust to life at sea? (43:38)