Good cruise, but hiccups out of Baltimore

Grandeur of the Seas Cruise Review

Patrick4

Contributor Level: Third Mate

113 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 6

Helpful Votes: 113

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

5 Night Bermuda (Baltimore Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 12, 2019

Ship: Grandeur of the Seas

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

We were emailed and told the ship was late. We arrived at the port at 1:00 and turned away. My family of 4 had nowhere to go so we sat outside at a strip mall w our luggage and prayed it didn't rain. We finally got on and the cruise was wonderful. For an older ship, it was clean and beautiful. Our bar service folks, stateroom attendants and waiters were top notch. Activities on the ship were well run and the director was great. I know it couldn't be helped, but in the centrum main area to hang out, they had construction crews using Jack hammers, saws and power tools every day fixing damage from the previous cruise. Hard to relax with that. I do feel they compensated us well for cruising out several hours late, no complaints. We got an entire day back on the room, drink packages and cancelled excursions. My main issue is I went daily to the front desk explaining we had flights at noon. I always was told no problem. Day 3 we learned we would dock at 10 AM or shortly after arriving very late. I went multiple times to the front desk and they would not even take my name to get us off first. We were put in the dining hall begging anyone we could find to get us to the front of the line. Ship docks and nobody will listen and even get us in the centrum. My wife found a captain of all people and explained our situation. He personally escorted us off the ship w many apologies. It was the most stressful situation I've ever experienced on a ship. I've cruised many times w RC. The communication was horrible and no plan in place for a late arrival relatively small number of guests. We had our kids w us, it was scary. With that said, the cruise itself was wonderful!

Embarkation

2 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

Drive and don't fly. Getting on and off this ship was extremely stressful.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

King's Wharf, Bermuda

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

6 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing.

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Patrick4 4 years ago

Lincoln, the ship tiles on 2 floors cracked in the same spot on each side because of bad weather the week before in Canada. The crew said it was the scariest situation they had ever been in.

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lincoln 4 years ago

What was damaged in the Centrum?

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Patrick4 4 years ago

I'm a pretty experienced cruiser as you can see. The ship was super late and did nothing to accommodate us. I even tried to be proactive going to the desk every day and several times when I knew we'd be late. That's the issue at hand.

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cruisereckoning 4 years ago

Glad you enjoyed the cruise. We never book a flight before 2 PM as you just never know. We usually have to sit in the airport 2-3 hours but better then missing our flight.

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maryred 4 years ago

Cruise ships like planes, trains, and buses can be late getting to the dock. That's why most cruise lines want you to book your air from them if you plan to arrive or depart on docking day at the homeport. If there is a cancellation ordelay of the plane heading in or the ship arriving home, the cruise line will take care of making the alternative arrangements. If you want to save money by booking your own air then plan on spending at least 12 hrs prior in your departure city or nearby and book your flights home for the evening or the next day. First off airlines know the cruise schedule and factor that into their supple/demand pricing making day of flights more expensive than ones 24 hours to either side of that date. (Big exception is MCO since you have ships leaving Port Canaveral almost everyday and the theme parks.)

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Other reviews of this sailing

Beautiful Bermuda

Food was awful: VERY limited selection. Chops Grille good food. Too few free activities.

Cruise with the worse logistics ever