Royal Caribbean International
Grandeur of the Seas Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Ken Rosa
Age: 41
Occupation: Police Officer
Number of  Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: January 28th, 2006

My family, My wife and I and two kids (7 & 8) sailed on the Grandeur of the Seas for five nights and stopped at Cozumel and Grand Cayman. This was our second cruise so there may be a few comparisons to our first cruise, which was on Princess.

Let me start by saying that the Guest Reservation Specialist that we booked our cruise through made a very good cruise a little less enjoyable. After we booked our cruise she advised us to call HER directly with any changes or other concerns. We did this four times with changes and questions and left four messages with our names, phone number, reservation number, and brief description on what we needed and she did NOT call us back one time.

Also when we booked the cruise she asked us if we wanted 6pm dining or 8:30pm dining. We asked for 6pm and it was not available so we readily took the 8:30 dining. At no time did we request to change if a 6pm space became available. To our suprise when we went to dinner the first night at 8:30pm we were sat at a table but then had to be moved because we were given the 6pm dining and not told about the change.

Another dinner problem was that when we booked the cruise, we were asked if we wanted to sit together as a family or at a large table. We remembered how much we enjoyed meeting people on our last cruise, so we asked to be sat with other people. This did not happen. We were put at a table for four. I have no idea if this was because of our younger kids or not, but nothing was mentioned of this during booking. Our specialist was Barbie Garcia at extension 30787. Avoid her at all costs!!!

The cruise itself was very enjoyable. The staff, especially the wait staff, was much more friendlier then the Princess staff (although that might've been because of our kids). The food was extremely good in both the formal dining room and the buffet dining room.

The rooms were comfortable but the furniture was a little dated and older looking. The beds were basically cots. Princess had real beds in their staterooms with much more comfortable mattresses. The room was far from dirty, but not nearly as spotless as the room on our Princess ship. The cleaning staff made towel animals for our kids every night and the kids absolutely loved them.

The excursion we went on went very smoothly and both island stops went without a problem, even though they were both tender stops.

The pool was nice although we were not happy that it was a salt water pool. Princess had a chlorine pool and my opinion is that they are much more enjoyable when pool swimming.

Getting on and off the ship was much easier then Princess. We were on the ship in ten minutes and off the ship in fifteeen minutes. Not the extremely long line we had to deal with last year.

Overall a good time was had by all except getting frustrated with Barbie, and we would probably cruise Princess again if we go on another cruise, but this is not because of Royal Caribbean being bad, as much as our Princess experience just being awesome.

 

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