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Grandeur of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

KingdomCAPT

Contributor Level: Second Mate

110 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 7

Helpful Votes: 174

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

9 Night Southeast Coast & Bahamas (Baltimore Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 08, 2017

Ship: Grandeur of the Seas

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 8044

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

We booked this cruise almost 2 years ago. Unfortunately, we did not realize it fell over spring break. We shared the ship with almost 600 children. We love children, but Grandeur is not really set up to handle large numbers of children or their families. The cruise line didn't do a good job of keeping the adult areas (such as the Solarium) adult areas. Although there is a main deck pool, it's not really laid out as a family pool. No water slides or other water park features. Grandeur is a small and older ship. Although elegant, it is really set up for mature cruisers. So families weren't happy, and although our 5th cruise aboard this wonderful ship, it wasn't our best cruise with Royal. This was an anomaly, so we'll be back when we back to back on Oasis this fall.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Junior suites are very nice. Not our first stay in one.

Ship tip

Beautiful ship, but meant for mature cruisers.

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Ports of call

Baltimore, Maryland

2 out of 5

Charleston, South Carolina

3 out of 5

Port Canaveral, Florida

3 out of 5

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

2 out of 5

8 Comments

jilesgulf 7 years ago

We sail up until June & after Sept. That way we miss the kids & the hurricanes! We made the mistake of going on a June 20th cruise one year & the teenagers ran rampant. Lesson learned! We're making an exception this year by going on a cruise to New England/Canada leaving on Sept. 7th. Don't want it to be real cold when we go, so we're taking a risk that there won't be hurricanes stirring up the water.

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jsabina816 7 years ago

We sailed the Grandeur a couple of years ago in mid-September right after schools started. We were told there was a total of 13 minors on board.

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cruiserdh 7 years ago

Bigger vs smaller ships: In my opinion, each size has had positives & negatives. We tend to truly enjoy the midsize ship such as the Voyager class. We don't travel with children and tend to prefer cruising during off seasons as well. We have found in general, that the smaller size ships have less activities, but superior customer service. Our motto is we are on vacation and will enjoy the cruise regardless of what is going on around us! ð¢ð

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phoenixraquel 7 years ago

By the way, how is it going from smaller ship to big ships like the Oasis? I heard a lot of people say that once you go on the larger ships it's harder to go back on smaller ships. We're trying the small ships first so that won't happen. Just wanted to hear your take on it since you go back and forth from the big ships to the small ships? ð¢

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phoenixraquel 7 years ago

Oh wow. That's always our fear so we try to only book cruises in November or December before the holiday breaks, hoping that kids will be in school. So far our strategy is working. Went on the Grandeur in early-mid December 2015 it was only a handful of kids, and you're right it's not really a kid ship.

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jib614 7 years ago

we were on the cruise right before yours and the crew were preparing for all the kids on board too. I feel for you!

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granny1857 7 years ago

I was on there, too. My third time on that ship but first time with all those children...never again. I'm also doing a back to back in October on the Allure. Did it three years ago and loved it.

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spacecowboy 7 years ago

Yeah, we were there too. I agree.

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