I was there too,Granduer 4/6-18

[tcmagnum]

Food looks amazing!!!

[CarpeCerevisi]

Thanks for the review. I'll be sailing on Grandeur next month after a hiatus of three years. I always took the train from Long Island - LIRR to NY Penn, Amtrak to Baltimore Penn (with a stop at Newark Penn) then a short cab ride to the port.

[suesnake2002]

If you look closely at my pics of giovanni, you will see in the pics the three woman who hung all over him. One nite he even set up a camera and videotaped. I don't know if people realized that. On the last nite we spoke with him, we are back on granduer in nov. He won't be there he is returning to european cruises.  

[suesnake2002]

Next stop is Antigua. I use an app to monitor my cruise SHIP prices MATE. Within this app you can book shore excursions. Garuntee to get you back to ship on time. This was the first time I've booked with them. And lets just say never again. Lesson learned. I have in the past booked directly with non rccl vendors, and no problems. But using a third party vendor is a no go. We had a private island adventure booked. They were a no show. Our instructions were to meet in front of post office. We were the only ship, and the only two people waiting there. 

I will also skip ahead to st kitts where i had a mad max dune buggy tour booked with them. I basically booked a year prior. 2 weeks before cruise they said vendor overbooked, and we were cancelled. They could give us a similar tour. I said no refund me. A little pissed i tracked down vendor of the tour and complained to them direct. Their answer shocked me. The don't do that tour on weekends, and they no longer do third party bookings due to problems they had with vendor.  The kick was tour was still showing on app as available. So never book SHORE with this app FOX. 

The locals were parading and protestingin the street, upset about the deal the govt made with the port. Very peaceful, never felt uncomfortable. Walked right amongst them. 

So after waiting almost an hour, we just walked around the port and had a day on the ship. 

[suesnake2002]

Our next stop st lucia. Here we booked the mud bath excursion direct with rccl. St lucia is a beautiful, mountainous island. Translation, lots of narrow winding roads. With lots of switch backs. If your prone to car sickness,take meds. It was about a 2 hour drive to the baths. With a bathroom stop. And many sights along the way. When you get to the baths there are alot of stairs down to them. You get in the black warm water, then get out rub mud on yourself. Let it dry and rinse off in baths. It has a sulfur smell. One thing they don't tell you is anything white will turn grey/black. And even after one wash at home still has a smell. So don't wear your nice new bathing suit. Glad i did it,  but it was a one and done deal. On the way back they stopped for lunch. Great local food with an even better view

[suesnake2002]

Some more pics of our mud bath tours

[BND]

17 hours ago, suesnake2002 said:

If you look closely at my pics of giovanni, you will see in the pics the three woman who hung all over him. One nite he even set up a camera and videotaped. I don't know if people realized that. On the last nite we spoke with him, we are back on granduer in nov. He won't be there he is returning to european cruises.  

Oh yeah, that's them all right.  It was kind of pathetic that he had to deal with that.

[suesnake2002]

Up next was St Kitts, like i said earlier our dune buggy tour was cancelled. So two weeks before we sailed we book the rum tasting tour thru rccl. We didn't have to meet til 1:30 pm. So we got to sleep in, have a relaxing morning and shop before the tour. They first did a little drive around town pointing out sights then off to the plantation house. Were we got our first taste of rum. With a very informative tour of the house. Although it wasn't really brought up, along the walls in one room it gave more history about the slaves. How badly abused they were, at the mercy of the master. And the laws they tried to pass to protect the slaves. 

At the end we were brought to a nice air conditioned room to taste lots of rum. And after that to visit the gift shop. Yes i bought 2 bottles of the coconut cream rum. It was do good

[suesnake2002]

[suesnake2002]

And finally our last stop. St Martin. Having never been here i was interested in seeing both sides of the island. So we took a RCCL bus tour. I don't usually like just sitting in a bus taking a tour. But this was a good way to see both sides of the island, with a few stops. Our guide pointed out the differences of the two sides. And our first side would be marrigot on the french side. There were public bathrooms, and some pop ups and tables for shopping. Hubby got a fresh coconut milk shake. And it was delicious. There were a few stops for pictures. And then a stop at a carousel, that sold ice cream. We walked down the street to a bakery to get a pastry each and they were very good. When we got back to town. We had the option to get off in town or back at the boat. We opted for town. Walked around and shopped. And took a cab back. 

[suesnake2002]

[suesnake2002]

Still alot of damage to be seen around the island. 

[suesnake2002]

In summary, loved loved this cruise. Yes it was all new stops for us. But what really made it was the ship, crew, and even the fellow passengers. 

It really is the friendliest crew. And i mean everyone. Even all the passengers were friendly. I can completely understand why people have been on this ship many many multiple times. The activities were so much fun. And there were things new to me. Like the egg drop. I really enjoyed john and katrina. Katrina was there for disembark, organizing the lines, giving us updates. And when the one line instantly stopped and some one complained. She smoothly merged us to one line. Letting a few people at a time merge to the one dinger. There were a million little things that made it so great. This was our longest cruise, and hubby said he didn't want to get off. 

We have 4 cruises booked for the future, including nov on granduer again. And i can't wait to return to the old grand lady. And i know if we have an opportunity to squeeze a cruise in, it will be granduer