Kids, Cruising, Cursed on the Caribbean

Grandeur of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 39

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Grandeur of the Seas

8 Night Bahamas (Baltimore Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 13, 2015

Ship: Grandeur of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

Royal Caribbean's policy manual allows minors to roam the ship until 1 a.m.  We received prank phone calls, jarring encounters in the common areas, dining room, Windjammer, theater and hallways.  If we had known that upper NY state gave their students a week's scheduled vacation, we would have taken this anniversary cruise on a different week. We have adult children and have cruised with RC many, many times and wonder why RC can't tighten their policy of allowing minors in main dining and to be out so late unaccompanied by parents???

Checking passports for security clearance after returning to Key West from Nassau to avoid a logjam in Baltimore upon returning to port is a great idea, but taking far too long to do this while visiting Key West allowed us only 3 hours off the ship.

The quality and variety of food in the Windjammer on this ship and on this cruise was disappointing.

 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Fabulous entertainment and cast!

Children's Programs

1 out of 5
We didn't bring children; ours are adults now. But children are allowed free reign on the ship until 1 a.m. and disrupted the dining room far too often.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Morning room service staff never got our orders complete and correct.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
The Grandeur is past her prime. Very clean but showing her age.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

The shopping on board is very limited. We have heard that RC is considering selling the Grandeur in a year or so. It's a great vessel for an intimate cruise experience, but she's showing her age.

Ports of call

Baltimore, Maryland

5 out of 5

Port Canaveral, Florida

5 out of 5

Cococay (Cruise Line's Private Island)

5 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

5 out of 5

Key West, Florida

5 out of 5
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3 Comments

kristysmom224    3 years ago

I just installed this app and was curious about what people thought about this cruise. I took my daughter and a friend on this cruise for her 16th birthday. I totally agree about the unruly kids. I know exactly what group of kids you were referring to. They were rude to my daughter and were obnoxious during the whole trip. It was not one of my favorite cruises.

DiamondClubDiva    9 years ago

I should have described the shopping on board as a lower standard of quality of the goods offered.  It's true: shopping aboard a ship isn't supposed to be an equal experience to wandering the port shops.  As for staff dealing with kids, we did ask for assistance a couple of times, but by the time staff responded, the problem kids were long gone and out of sight.  Family-friendly cruises abound.  We understand the need for kids' programs on cruises.  But when parenting skills and attention "go on a vacation", the net result is often a bad experience for the other adults on board.  Cruise companies really need to take a more proactive step in assuring that kids have earlier curfews and aren't allowed in main dining until they're over age 6, at a minimum, to avoid the tantrums and loud bellowing during meals.

glomarrone    9 years ago

Shopping is always limit on ships unfortunately.  Unruly kids is another matter that staff needs to address.