Grandeur of the Seas Review
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My family and I decided to give RCI a try this summer. We have been on 20 Carnival cruises and 2 Princess cruises since 2001. We picked this cruise strictly on the itinerary. My teenagers were doing a DC trip with their school so we met them at the end and then came on this cruise. Coming Jon the ship we had high hopes for a great cruise. We had purchased the Key which was quite expensive for a family of 4. The only amenity we even used was the internet. RCI claims you can stream with it and you can if you sit in the Internet cafe. On your personal device in your room - nope, could hardly even play a game without your connection dropping constantly. The internet is not good at all. With the key and with a suite, you get to have reserved seating for shows. On some of the ships, this may be a benefit but on this ship - the shows were hardly attended. The broadway show was awful. I admit that I am picky about shows because I am a huge broadway fan and have attended many shows in NYC and in London but this was the worst show I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. The All Access show was better until they got to the Madonna part and then it was a train wreck. The first comedian was great - my favorite show by far. He was good in the Welcome Aboard show and not too terribly raunchy in the adult show which was a pleasant surprise. Sometimes on Carnival, they can be just disgusting. The hypnotist show was ok and the juggler was ok. The rest, meh, Rey disappointing. The ship just doesn’t have much to do or to choose from to do. There were a couple of trivia’s per day but that was about it. The only cleaver things they had was the egg drop and the Royal Fair.
Food - if you love buffet food, this is the ship for you. I however, do not. If you don’t eat on a buffet there really isn’t any other choices. They do offer lunch in the dining room on sea days but on port days - that’s it. The buffet is not appealing, food has been sitting for a long time, the hamburger buns are hard as a rock and the patties are burned to a crisp.
The main dining room was good, the servers were great but there aren’t too many choices every night, just a couple. They push the specialty dining almost to the point of irritation. They even push you to pay for a specialty add on meal every night when you are about to order in the dining room. They must get a bonus or something if they can upsell you.
Cabin Review
Royal Suite
The room was the best part of the cruise. The room was extra spacious. We actually travel with a fan and had to use our extension cord so that we could feel the air while in bed. Anyone who cruises knows this is not typical of a cruise ship cabin. The suite had a few nice amenities. We had a lounge that you can have a continental breakfast any morning or we could go to the steakhouse (Chops) to have a full breakfast any morning which was open about an hour to an hour and a half each morning, The lounge had snack as and free drinks for suite guests every evening from 4-8pm. We don’t drink but there were many throwing them back during that 4 hours every single day. The have PS3 games to borrow but only one actually worked because they didn’t have the right controllers to play to games. There were some movies to choose from but very few appropriate for teenagers. Most were young kids or rated R.