Since this was our second cruise on the Grandeur of the Seas, we had ‘grand’ expectations that this recent cruise would meet and exceed what we had been planning for and dreaming about since our last cruise in November of 2001. It did. This was our 27th cruise, 11 on RCCL, and each one truly does get better.

Two parts of cruising I don’t enjoy at all are the embarkation and disembarkation, but this time – both were a breeze. From the time we entered the terminal, until we were in our cabin was less than twenty minutes. An additional treat was our luggage arrived even before we had finished unpacking our carry on luggage. The disembarkation process in Miami is much enhanced with their relatively new conveyor belt system. Instead of walking into a sea of thousands of pieces of luggage, all come out on a conveyer belt by colored tag. We had our 4 pieces of luggage and were in a cab on the way to the airport in less than 10 minutes.

After one of the longest, coldest and snowiest winters in Michigan’s recent history, we were looking for a relaxing cruise, with lots of sunshine, time for the beach and leisure time to do anything we wanted. This itinerary started with a relaxing day at sea so we could familiarize ourselves again with the ship, and a nice surprise – meet and greet staff and officers that have been on other RCCL cruises with us. How they remember passengers from previous cruises is remarkable, but we immediately felt right at home.

Our first port was Cozumel where we enjoyed an excellent authentic Mexican lunch at Poncho’s Backyard – we would highly recommend. We had time for a little shopping and a short stop at a beach – a nice mix of activities for our first stop.

The next stop was Grand Cayman, which I believe has some of the prettiest beaches in the Caribbean. We went as far out on 7 mile beach as we could and found a nice hotel that allowed cruise passengers to use their facilities (I’m sure in hopes they’ll return another time for a land vacation at their property). It’s great way to get away from the cruise ship crowds and enjoy all the facilities of a nice resort. We didn’t take time to shop in Grand Cayman as I feel their prices are significantly higher than most other islands we were visiting this trip.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica was next, and since we’d been there a number of times and didn’t have a particular shore excursion we wanted to do, we again spent the day at one of the all-inclusive resorts. This one charges a ‘day fee’ but it was well worth it as included food, drinks, water sports and beach chairs and towels. If this is something you’d like to try, I suggest you have your travel agent make arrangements for you prior to your cruise. As an outside sales rep. for my sister’s agency – this was easy for us to arrange. 

Finally – another nice day at sea, to rest up for the exhausting three days of port calls, and have the opportunity to enjoy all of the amenities provided on the ship. There’s plenty to do, but what is nice --- you can do as little or as much as you feel like doing. We spent time at the pool, in the spa, tried our luck in the casino and had a relatively quiet day. Our last two ports were Aruba and Curacao – two of my favorites. We shopped, spent time at the beaches and had plenty of time to leisurely walk around the ports. These are wonderful ports because of the variety of the activities that are offered and the ships seem to stay longer in these ports than the others we visited. 

The last day two days were spent at sea – giving us time to gradually adjust to going back to the reality of the real world. How we miss the chocolates on our pillows, our beds being made every day …napkins folded at each meal, and no grocery shopping, meal preparation and clean up. The officers, staff and crew were friendly, customer-service oriented, and went out of their way to make our cruise a pleasurable experience. Within a day or two of being on board, we had a good feeling as we walked about the ship, called by name by most everyone on the staff we had encountered. 

Our waiter and cabin steward were top notch, though they did turn down our offer to come back to Michigan with us. Our dinner experience each night was one of the highlights of the cruise – we had great dining companions at a table for 10. A family of four from Virginia – Roy and Debbie and their two teenage daughters, Erika and Emily. And then a trio of comedians from Connecticut – Arthur, and his son, Andrew, and Andrew’s friend, Chris. There was a nice gentleman, Mark, from England who may never be the same. The age span at the table was somewhere between 16 and 70, but we seemed to have a lot in common and had a wonderful time. In conclusion, I believe what made this cruise a true ‘grand’ experience is that RCCL had the concept of excellent customer service, attentiveness and courtesy prevalent throughout our cruise experience. They certainly understand that their best asset is the respect and loyalty of their passengers and treated everyone accordingly. I believe their goal is to assure a vacation on their ship(s) is like not other on earth – and for us, this goal was exceeded. A testament to that is that we have 4 more RCCL cruises booked between now and next March!