Grandeur of the Seas - Day 12 - Sea Day (Part 1)

Our final full day onboard has arrived. That day every cruise where part of you is ready to get home, another part of you is sad vacation is ending, and another part of you is determined to squeeze in everything you've been meaning to do all trip long just in case you never got the opportunity to do it again.

It would be a busy morning today as we had several activities scheduled right after one another. No time to sleep in or sit in Chops waiting on them to figure out which eggs I actually ordered. Left Dad in the cabin getting dressed while I channeled my inner speed walker to dart in and out of Windjammer and back to the cabin with breakfast for both of us. Dad lives on bagels in all forms so if he couldn't get his usual bagel and lox (there was some for you to assemble on your own in the buffet) from Chops breakfast, he's just as happy with a bagel and a schmear from the buffet. I too went with a bagel this time and was glad to find regular hash browns. I also went semi-healthy and picked up a yogurt but alas soon discovered that those wrapped napkin bound silverware packs don't include spoons. I was too lazy to go back up again just for a spoon but hey, it's the thought that counts right?

We had an important place to be by 9:50AM today but decided we still had to attend the last session of Progressive Trivia. Thankfully by now, Jeff had heard back from Melissa and could correctly tally everyone's scores. Bob and his wife joined us again and we ended up sitting right behind The Troublemakers. I think by now we had a sort of mutual respect since right after playing, we joked with each other about the questions we both got wrong. It was making us a bit nervous before today's session started though because Jeff announces that he'd run into a team on the way here that asked him to wait to start until they arrived. Now, I'm not so cutthroat that I'm going to insist that team get thrown overboard if they can't be here on time but when 5 minutes turns into 10 minutes turns into 15 minutes, I think one can break their promise. I'm not sure if they ever actually did show up but eventually Jeff started the game. We gave a decent final effort with contributions from all team members present. The anxiety again started when Jeff took his dear sweet time to calculate the final scores. Now, if it was me personally, I would have taken the time to calculate everyone's tally from the previous games so that at the end of today's session, I only had to do one addition problem per team which at this point was only about 5 teams. I don't know if it was my impatience or what but it seemed like Jeff was trying to do Calculus and Trigonometry in a foreign language up there. 

We were almost to the point that we would have had to just walk out when he finally read off the rankings starting with the lowest score first. Shout out to Team Betty White for having an awesome name! If I recall correctly, third place team got highlighters. Our team, The Made Up Team, took second place and got pens. The Troublemakers won by at least 10 points and won backpacks. We didn't stick around long enough to see if they accepted them. Once I collected our group's pens and brought two over to Bob and his wife, we hightailed it back upstairs to deck 8. One final note about this last session of Progressive trivia in contrast to how it was on our first Grandeur sailing when our team of 6 won - our prize was a highlighter, a pen, a keychain, a hat, a backpack, a lanyard, a water bottle, shopping bag in a pouch, and a certificate for each of us. Plus one bottle of champagne that we actually had a hard time finding someone in our group who wanted it. The point of Progressive is to be cumulative and to make the end be something a little more than you could get at any other activity. On the flip side, I'm glad to have won the pens since I use them all the time versus the backpack which we donated last time to a group putting together school supply kits. 

So what activity was so contingent on a certain time to be there or risk missing out? Thanks to being a little proactive pre-cruise in emails with Carlington, we got invited on this morning's free bridge tour with mostly Diamond loyalty level cruisers. This is also known to be a suite perk on RCL & Celebrity depending on whether the concierge is willing to arrange it. Sometimes they'll do a visit just for suite guests like we did on Oasis arranged by the genies to take all of their Star Class guests at once. Our first trip on the Grandeur, we waited until we were onboard to ask and the concierge then, Francis, claimed it was only for those with a high loyalty level. This time from the start, Carlington's only condition was to pick which behind the scenes tour we cared the most about to which he'd give priority in scheduling. 

We rushed back up to the same elevators on deck 8 that I'd used to run up to the Windjammer of course only to realize we had plenty of time to spare by the time everyone else and the loyalty ambassador, Marcus Cabral, showed up. On the invite sent to our cabin, it says that you can't wear shorts, skirts, flip flops, or open toed shoes but we had several people show up in shorts. We were allowed to bring cameras in and take all the pictures we wanted but weren't allowed to take video. They had a list of everyone's names that we had to sign next to and then be wanded by security before being escorted to the bridge. I never intentionally watched Star Trek but that's what I picture whenever I think of "going to the bridge."

They did have part of the bridge roped off, I think mostly to keep us from going button pushing happy. Marcus gave us a good explanation of the radar systems and jokingly showed us the teddy bear that was the real Captain on the bridge. Then showed us the Captain dressed Barbie doll sitting in front of the bear as the true Captain. We then got a great explanation of the deck map where they mark off any issues onboard.

The bridge has a dry erase board printed to show a tally of the number of each voyage, the amount of passengers onboard, the amount of crew onboard, and the total to ensure that they never go higher than the 3200 max supported by the life boats.

Unfortunately, due to the windy weather, Marcus didn't want to open the door to the side wing the bridge crew uses to look out while docking. He did explain the area and let everyone get a glimpse out the window.

I thought this was a really interesting setup - rest assured those "need assistance" buttons in the handicapped cabins really do work.

How would you like to have this view everyday?

I can see why Carlington was saying that a lot of the Diamond and above loyalty cruisers will often opt out of doing these offered tours because once you've seen it, the exclusivity of the experience loses its luster. I feel the same way about backstage theater or galley tours. However, I've had the privilege now of seeing the bridge on four different ships and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

As soon as we finished with the bridge tour, we bolted down to the shops as the "Ultimate Clearance Event" had started at 10AM. If you ever want to experience Black Friday style madness on a cruise ship, go to this sale. Especially on the Grandeur where that open area in between the shops creates a huge bottleneck when they put sales stuff out. You'd have thought one of the shirts on the tables held Willy Wonka's missing golden ticket!

Above - this lady came prepared with a big purse and a hubby to carry it! Below - I know what that lady in the center's entire family is getting for Christmas this year!

The line to checkout wrapped around the store and out the door.

The shirts on sale were all either Royal Caribbean themed or had cruise/vacation themes in general. The sale offer was 2/$20 which is consistent with what other cruise lines offer at some point during the cruise. Usually the other lines have the shirts out with the chance to pay full price until the time of the sale, not this keep it all in hiding until a certain time like this cruise did. They had various tables spread around the open area with signs labeling certain sized shirts were to be found on certain tables. However, it always pays to check every table because by now people had picked up and put back shirts all over the place. I was a lady on a mission though to find this RCL only shirt I'd seen tons of people wearing so I dove into the crowd and started checking every pile I could. One of our former trivia teammates spotted us and pointed out the other tables around the corner. What do my eyes spot on the middle table but a single shirt matching the design I wanted. It didn't match the sizing listed for the table so I considered myself very lucky that someone changed their mind and dumped it. It wasn't quite the size I would have hoped for so I searched every other table, including the 2x-3x table, and found no other shirt with the same design.

I had found a similar shirt that says "Cruising through Paradise One Port at a Time" on last year's Carnival cruise but I really liked this saying better. I gave Dad the option to pick out a shirt for himself to complete the 2/$20 offer but he vetoed my suggestion of a shirt with a big photo of a ship's wake that said "Wake View is the Best View." Instead, he liked my second suggestion of a shirt with an anchor cutout pictured on the back and the inside of the anchor is all the names of the RCL ships. I particularly liked how the Grandeur and the Oasis' ship names are printed squarely in the center right on top of each other. 

Dad stood in line for us while I went to the theater to get seats for the Captain's Corner event. If you've never heard of this event, it's basically what RCL calls a Q&A session with some senior people and the Captain. Last time, the panel was John Blair, Captain Ante, and I believe the chief engineer. This time it was Captain Thor, Zoe the Hotel Manager, and probably another chief engineer whose name I don't recall. Dad said it took about 20 minutes to get through the line but he had plenty of time to run the shirts back to the cabin and get to the theater before the panel started. 

I really wonder whether the same guy that was on our last Grandeur cruise was on this cruise because he asked the same technically based question with all the same terminology as last time. And as usual, there was the few people who raise their hands to comment simply to praise the hardworking crew. Every cruise there's also someone who asks about the rumors that the Grandeur is being sold and every time they get the same no answer. My favorite though was the man who asked about hearing the fog horns on night 1 and wanted to know if they were really being sounded because of the fog. Nope, Captain Thor was just playing Marco Polo with the dolphins. In the words of Bill Engvall - Here's Your Sign! This event can not only be humorous but rather informative as the crew on the panel will likely be very open with sharing how things are for them on board.