Overall nice but wouldn't pay more than a similar cruise from other cruise lines

Our experience could be quite different from others on the same cruise and I am just passing along our experience. The cruise was very nice overall, but was middle of the road when compared with our past-other cruise experiences. (This was our eight cruise and first time on Royal Caribbean.) I guess part of the problem is that my wife and I bought into the hype from all the "Loyal Royals" and went in with high expectations.

Dining - food and drink:

The "Great Gatsby" sit down restaurant was on par with the other cruises...very good with excellent service.  We did the "My Time" dining but it really wasn't since they required you to reserve a time. This is problematic since we were not aware of the schedule of activities for the next day. (In consequence we conflicted with a few desired activities)

The Windjammer buffet was just so-so and we did not like the layout relative to other cruise lines. It was also apparant that the staff could use a lesson or two on how to wipe a table and chairs.

The Park Cafe had decent soup and sandwiches and was adequate but doesn't even compare to the available food on other cruise lines... (Guy Fieri Burgers and the Blue Iguana were awesome on the Carnival ships)

Ice cream was only in one spot and only available in the afternoon and shut down too early.. Why? Also, they had two machine but only utilized one.

Drink: OK, I'll admit it, I can't see paying the bucks for a soft drink package so we stuck with the ice tea, juice and water... This may sound trivial, but there were basically only three drink dispensers. It was somewhat pathetic because only two of the stations had an ice machine but were often out of ice or broken down.  Juice enhanced water was only available at the park cafe in the back. (Each dispenser had four heads, one would be ice tea, the other three water. (Why couldn't they have all three choices available at each machine.

Stateroom:

We decided to go last minute on the cheap and had chosen an inside stateroom. It was smaller than the other I/S staterooms on other ship, but was functional and was clean. The Bathroom was by far the smallest with the smallest showers of any other ships previously. Small is one thing, but not really a complaint. There are three main bathroom issues... 1.)Toilet placement - too close to the wall and had to sit side saddle and not easily fixed.  2.) Shower size - The shower could be corrected easily by adding a bowed upper curtain guide to move the curtain out and away and use a better- heavier-weighted grade shower curtain. (The curtain was very light and kept pushing in.)  3.) The sink faucet was not tall or long enough for the vessel style sink... Easy fix to replace faucet with a teller, better sized faucet.

Entertainment - Activities:

It seems that everyone is cutting corners and my wife and I have noticed a progressive cut in entertainment and activities over the past several cruises. With that said, the entertainment and activities were the worst of any of our previous cruises. The only jewels in their entertainment were the ships singers, dancers and ship's orchestra. The Comedians were OK, but a very short shows... Matt Yee was terrible so I wouldn't call him a comedian.  Other activities... trivia, etc were few and ill timed with dinner times etc. The two band that were playing in a few locations around the ship were mediocre at best.

Time in Port (Bermuda)

Bermuda was a fantastic and is now one of our favorite places. There are many things to do and see... very picturesque with dramatic shorelines with perfect white sand and blue water.  With that stated, it would have been nice to spend a little more time there. OK, when we booked the trip, we got mixed up with the celebrity schedule and were disappointed when did not arrive in Bermuda until after 3pm the first day and found out we had to be all aboard by 5pm the last day. The Grandeur of the Sea puttered across the ocean at a slow 12–13 knots and could have easily added time in port by going a little faster. One other issue was that we arrived on a Sunday and Monday was a Holiday so we were limited on our activities since most shopping etc was closed on those days.(Still found pleanty to do.)

Bottom Line:

We would do Royal Caribbean again but would not pay anything extra for the privilege.