Living 20 minutes from the port makes for an easy drive down and we always have someone drop us off even though you can pay for parking at the port. This time we relied on our great neighbor who thankfully knew of a detour when construction backed up 695 all the way past the on ramp. Left our house around noon (our plan anyway even though they'd told passengers to delay early morning arrival due to a Coast Guard inspection) and once we got through the detour, our only hangup was the crawling pace of porters unloading cars full of people being dropped off. It's never that slow but it always feels like an eternity when you're steps away from getting on your cruise and the line of cars isn't moving. Once unloaded and porters tipped, we watched our bags get laid next to each other in the same compartment before heading into the terminal. Here you must first go through security (carry on bags scanned and you walk through a metal detector) in the same line as everyone else regardless of cabin or loyalty level priority. This time I had no issue but Dad was made to take off his belt and pass through the metal detector again. No clue what made the difference because I was wearing a belt as well.
We showed our set sail passes to the first port employee directing people into lines based on priority. She saw our Platinum status and sent us into one line until we realized it and pointed out that we were also suite passengers. She redirected us into the top priority line which was silly after all since both lines were essentially the same length. We only waited a couple minutes before getting called up to an available check in agent and was done with them in minutes. Boarding had already commenced so we were able to just walk right on. Cabins weren't scheduled to be ready until 2PM so we smartly avoided the Windjammer buffet and headed to the Park Café within the Solarium. The Solarium loungers and pool are only for cruisers 16+ but passing through, using the dining tables and chairs, and visiting the Park Café itself are for all ages. This confuses some people who've given families a hard time for being at the Park Café since it's physically inside the Solarium. The Park Café had a limited set of options for our first lunch onboard (more available later in the cruise) so Dad went with the prepackaged sandwiches and I tried the sliced to order turkey sandwich. This is where you get the famous Kummelweck or roast pork sandwich most RCL cruisers rave about. I tried it on my first Grandeur cruise and wasn't impressed. This time the roll on my turkey sandwich was tough so I just ate the carved turkey on its own.
We had pre-purchased the soda package for $9.99/day plus gratuity before the cruise as it goes up to $12.99 once on board. As a result, our cruise cards had the Coca-Cola logo printed on the bottom and no bartender or waiter ever needed to take or scan our cards once they spotted the logo. We also never got a paper receipt for our sodas so no chance to keep track or add an extra tip without handing someone cash directly. Unfortunately unlike last time, we had hit or miss bar service so there was no one we felt deserved extra tipping. Sitting down to lunch and our first sodas by 1PM and just as we get tired of sitting around 1:40PM, the announcement comes about the cabins being opened.
The nice thing about our cabin location is the quick paths to get to our main haunts. Turn right towards the open centrum space to reach stairs and elevators to take us to the concierge lounge, the specialty restaurants, and the Schooner bar/South Pacific lounge for trivia games. We reunited with our old statue friend (whom I later learned was named Phil dubbed so by a young man with down syndrome traveling with his family. According to his mom, he'd named the sleeping man statue Phil and has to pass by it each evening to say goodnight.) and he served as a great landmark for us to always know which side of the ship to head down once we got off the midship elevators. Turn left and then right (after passing the one passenger corridor also on your right) and you reached the front elevators and stairs that carried us up one floor to the Windjammer. Great for a quick breakfast run to bring back to the cabin and a few times even rushing up to fill our cups at the Freestyle machines after ordering room service. At the start of the cruise, we agreed on following the personal mantra of "If our destination is within one floor up or two floors down, then we take the stairs." We both have our physical limitations and going downstairs for me is easier than having to walk back up. This was helped by our cabin location and how often the stairs were simpler given how many older and disabled passengers we had on this cruise who needed the elevators. We kept to this effort I'd say about 90% of the time give or take a few moments where we'd had no time to rest in between tour walking and getting to something on board. I'm proud to say that despite eating whatever we pleased and having 85% of our meals in specialty restaurants, I broke even on pre and post cruise weights thanks to the walking and taking more stairs.
One immediate downside we found upon arrival at our cabin (which had the door wide open at first making us call out wondering if our steward was still working inside) is the limited US outlet choices for a cabin that is meant to sleep several people. Dad likes darkness and quiet when he sleeps so he already planned to take the smaller second bedroom but found only one European outlet in that room. We had pre-arranged through RCL's special needs form online to have distilled water and an extension cord for Dad's CPAP machine in our cabin.
Both were there as promised but there was no place to plug it in within the room. There is a set of both kinds of outlets along the desk area in the hallway, a European outlet in the living room space, and a set of both kinds of outlets along the vanity inside the bigger bedroom. Those outlets are across the room so even if I switched and let him have the bigger bedroom, we'd still have to leave the extension cord dragged across the floor. Once we met our steward, Dominic Moses (who introduced himself as Moses), we asked about finding another plug. Moses told us later that he looked but there was no other plug. He ended up having to get a secondary extension cord so that it stretched from Dad's CPAP machine, around the perimeter of his bedroom, under the door, across our little hallway/entryway and up onto the outlets along the desk space. He taped the cord down to the carpet but it was only one of several issues we had with this hallway space.
One of the new additions we noticed that was different since our last suite stay on the Grandeur is that instead of having a filled mini bar and a sign about the extra charges, the cabin fridge was empty and we had a form we could fill out at any point to request in cabin beverages at an extra cost. Dad considered taking them up on the offer but I never felt the need.
We also had a good chuckle at discovering that our breakfast room service door hanger form was one that had been previously filled out - apparently by an angry lactose intolerant constipated cruiser who crossed out the milk option and chose oatmeal with their blueberry pancakes. If we were going to get a used menu, at least have it be from someone with better taste. :) The room service fee of $7.95 per order is waived for anyone staying in a grand suite or above on RCL. I believe ordering from the "Continental Breakfast" side of the menu is still free for all but if you want the hot items on the other side, it will cost extra.
While we sat checking out the slew of paperwork left in our cabin (which is where we also found our cups for the Freestyle machines that got tons of use. If you buy the package on board, you get handed the cup right then), our fruit plate was delivered by room service. This would start a daily tradition of random snacks on plates being delivered as a suite perk. Only once did we come back to something perishable so that's definitely an improvement in my book! Kudos to the fruit still being fresh when I finally bothered to eat some several days later.
While there, we noticed that there was no card in the cabin telling us what of the three specialty restaurants we'd been assigned to dine in this first night as part of pre-purchasing the Ultimate Dining Package for $239 per person. It averages out to $20 a person per night for our 12 night cruise and you can dine in any specialty restaurant for dinner every night and any sea day lunches as long as that restaurant is open. There's also the perk of getting a discount on the cupcake decorating and/or sushi making classes that are an extra fee. We'd had bad experiences using the main dining room (MDR) on our last Grandeur cruise so we found this to be a great opportunity. Normally, booking a single night could run you around $40 per person. We called the dining reservation line to ask where we would be assigned and while they had record of us buying the package, they had not assigned anyone to a specific restaurant yet. We were able to reserve Chops Grille (the steakhouse) for this first night at 6PM and it became a standard time for us throughout the cruise. If you'd rather not spend that much or devote all meals to such heavy fare, there are smaller dining packages and individually booking the actual restaurants as options pre-cruise. Some people choose to wait until they are onboard because there is often someone offering a deal or discount the first day.
Stay tuned to see if I ever got my suitcase and tons more food pics to come!
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