Baltimore Cruise Port
I've heard many negative things about this port in the past. The main negative being the poor system for boarding the ship which required walking through the rain if the weather was poor. Recent enhancements were too have taken care of these problems and IMO they have. As I passed through the terminal it was really obvious that Royal Caribbean had worked closely in the upgrade process as it very closely resembled Terminal 18 in Port Everglades. It was incredible smooth to get through with plenty of room and when it was time to disembark at the end of the trip it took less than 5 minutes to go from the ship, through customs, get out luggage, and walk to our car. I love Terminal 18, but this was even better. The only negative to sailing from Baltimore that I could find was that traffic patterns in the city can sometimes get messy when trying to get to and from the port.

Grandeur of the Seas
Having been built in 1996 I had rather low expectations of the Grandeur but with the recent Oasisizing I had hopes that she wouldn't feel so old. She was well maintained, everything felt clean and new. Never would have been able to guess she was nearly 17 years old. The additions of the interactive TVs in all of the lobbies were just like those found on the Oasis and the only option for viewing the dinning room menus. The Oasisizing updates include adding interactive TV systems to all cabins that can be and iPads to the ships that are too difficult to wire. This ship was to receive the iPads but due to technical difficulties they haven't been implemented yet and at the moment still have no scheduled time frame.

The new centrum or "Centrum Wow" as it's often referred to as, really did wow. I love the Royal Promenades that Royal Caribbean's ships feature. The only reason I was willing to give this ship a shot was to see how the new "Vertical Promenade" concept really plays out. This is a point that I really have to give Royal Caribbean some credit for investing in. It not only impressed, it may actually be better than the Royal Promenade. It may be a result of only experiencing a centrum on the Disney Magic, Carnival Victory, and Nordic Empress over a decade ago; but I don't remember any of them really taking advantage of the area beyond a piano bar and welcome receptions. The Grandeur's centrum was active nearly all day. I remember catching a violinist playing on the floating bridge just before dinner in the Independence of the Seas promenade one night during the transatlantic and thinking how nice it was. It really made the area feel more alive and made you want to just hang out. The Grandeur seemed to have a band playing in there anytime an event was not going on and by the end of the cruise I found myself intentionally passing through the area just to take a moment to listen, something I've never done at any bar or club on past cruises. In the afternoons it felt like nearly every event that would have been held in the lounge in the past was now using the centrum. This included activities like the Chef's Bake A Cake Challenge, sushi demonstrations, towel folding demonstrations, and even when it rained on the last day the Sexy Man Competition. When not in use as a music venue the Centrum was still alive with the new lighting system that allowed the ship to change it's atmosphere with the mood of the passengers just like the normal Promenades. Anytime I was looking for something to do it could often be found here, even when nothing was going on it would then be used for the aerialists to do rehearsals which are just as exciting as anything else going on.

The ship felt like it was listing a bit more than I'm used to, mainly at slow speeds near port. My best guess is that it was related to the ship making steering adjustments while maneuvering. Not sure if this is a result of the ship having a prop and rudder system verse the azipods used on all the larger Royal Caribbean ships. Maybe someone on here knows something.

Weather
The departure had some great weather, smooth seas and warm conditions. The next day things got windy and remained that way through the 4th day. Even once we reached Bermuda on the 3rd day the high winds remained making what were warm temperatures still feel rather chilly. On the final day in Bermuda the winds finally died and the seas went smooth giving us a great beach day and then departure. The first day of the return trip to Baltimore was equally nice with calm seas, warm temperatures, and light winds. The second half changed to rougher seas, high winds, and rain though.

Food
I lucked out on this sailing. Royal Caribbean has been rolling out a new menu to it's fleet of ships that focuses on the appearance and quality of ingredients. The cruisers on the repositioning sailing were told a date of 5/24 for the new menu but before we left I tweeted Royal Caribbean to ask about our sailing and was told it would be onboard. To my delight it was, along with a team of the executive chefs from Miami to ensure the new menu was properly implemented for the first time. I've never had a problem with Royal Caribbean's dinning room food in the past, but this menu still managed to make the old one seem incredible old and cheap. I did not have a single bad meal the entire sailing. The only issues we had with the menu were on the very first night when out 8PM dinner did not finish until after 10:30pm! Without a doubt the longest meal I have ever experienced on land or sea. This was mainly due to the Executive Chef from Miami requiring his team to approve every dish before it being sent out and if it was not up to par it was thrown away. They also implemented new rules that mandated that no hot and cold food may be carried together. This complicated things for the waiters as a single course for one table often now required 2 trips to the kitchen. Desert was even more complicated as meals that include hot and cold such as ice cream on a pie now require the ice cream to be in a separate dish and retrieved separately before being served together at the table. It sounds like a ton of work to pull off, but the new menu really does taste a lot better than the old one and it looks like it cost a lot more as well.

(I have each days menu and meal photos in each days photo album)

Entertainment
The entertainment was another area where the ships age was of concern. Royal Caribbean has really evolved it's entertainment offerings over the past decade. The Liberty of the Seas added aerialists, the Independence added stories, the Oasis gave us Broadway, and the Allure added massive moving sets. Going back to before all of that I was expecting to be rather disappointed, and I'm not going to lie I was. The production shows were little more than singing and a few dance moves. Like I said, a decade ago I'm sure this would have been on par with any other ship, but not compared to Royal Caribbean's other ships. The Aerial show on the other hand blew me away. I watched them rehearse every morning so by the last day when the showtime finally came I expected that there would be no surprises left and it would be no different. I could not believe how much the costumes, lighting, and sound added to the performance. It was a full third production show complete with the singers and dancers on the ground and the aerialists in the air. It was so good I watched both performances, the first from deck 5 where I got a great appreciation for the story and elegance of the show, and the second time from deck 7 where it had a completely different feeling as you could fully appreciate the effort and art of the aerialists but lost some of the show part. This performance was the greatest show I have ever seen at sea, easily putting anything the Oasis offered to shame. The aerialists could have come off as gimmicky but Royal Caribbean managed to integrate them perfectly where ver possible, including for the Captain's Welcome Reception.

This was the third sailing from Baltimore and as a result many of the crew were being swapped out from spanish speaking members to more american members. This included the cruise director who was replaced by John Perry on this sailing.

Final Thoughts
I entered this sailing wanting a quick cheap getaway that would hopefully help prepare for Quantum (not royal promenade). To my surprise what I got was an incredible cruise that could compete with any other. Royal Caribbean loves to say "Now Every Ship is Our Best Ship" thanks to the Oasisizing that they are doing. This seems stupid, no ship can compare to the Oasis. After this sailing though I have to say they are not lying, the Grandeur of the Seas at 17 years old truly could stand up to the Oasis of the Seas in the experience she offered. She may not have had the sports deck to compete but the many other features she does have, the food, and the centrum entertainment could easily give her a fighting chance. If this is what Royal Caribbean can do to an old ship I cannot wait to see what they accomplish with a brand new ship for Quantum. The ship may not be an Oasis, but the added features like the Aerialists and centrum entertainment could make her even better.

Media
I have uploaded all of my photos from the trip organized by day:
Day 1: Departure
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: Bermuda
Day 4: Bermuda
Day 5: Bermuda
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: At Sea
Day 8: Debarkation
Day 4 includes photos of the Prinsendam in Hamilton and her departure. The Norwegian Dawn was also in port with us at the Dockyard.

I am al so working on videos form this trip, they will be as follows:

• GoPro (time lapse video of Baltimore departure, Bermuda arrival, and Bermuda departure)
• Arrivals/Departures (video from Baltimore and Bermuda arrivals and departures)
• Grandeur of the Seas Tour (Deck by deck tour. I'm trying to use a new pan and pass method for this one with an occasional walk through where logical.)
• Daily Weather (Video showing daily shots of the seas and other weather conditions. Should be a nice way to use some of my extra clips)
• Captain's Welcome Aboard (Welcome aboard reception complete withe aerialists performance and practice footage)
• Summer Breeze Aerials (Not sure if I want to include the full 20 minutes of singing or just the aerialists performance part)
• Aerial Performance (Full performance 1 and 2, as well as practice footage. Originally intended to use the 2 recordings to allow for multi cam editing but the aerialists swapped roles. Anyone have an opinion on if I should edit together anyway. It's the same performance just different people doing different things)
• Captain's Corner (Captain and other officers answering questions)
• Norwegian Dawn Departure (Video of the Norwegian Dawn in Bermuda and her departure)
• Prinsendam Departure (Video of the Prinsendam in Hamilton and her departure)
  

I'll post the video links as I get them done. You can also get them if your subscribed to my youtube page: Youtube Page

[ 05-27-2013: Message edited by: DEIx15x8 ]

Did the centrum feel overly crowded for the shows? How did they manage to get people split up between the two shows?

quote:

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Originally posted by hydrojim:
Great review Derek. I look forward to seeing your videos.

Did the centrum feel overly crowded for the shows? How did they manage to get people split up between the two shows?

Jim

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We were under capacity on this sailing, only 1981 passengers rather than the 1992 double occupancy rate or even 2446 max capacity. That probably helped her feel empty. During the aerial shows she wasn't too crowded. People filled all of the decks to watch but the times were a little weird or great depending on how you look at them. They had two shows, the first was timed just between dinner and the production show for first seating guests which also meant just between the production show and dinner for second seating guests. Essentially everyone had to pass through the centrum at that time anyway so most stopped to watch. The second was right after the production show for first seating and right after dinner for second seating. This meant that there really wasn't anything that dictated which show you attended since everyone could do both (as I did). As a result the first was pretty full 30 minutes before it started already while the second show was empty right up to the show.

Captain's Corner Video

[ 05-31-2013: Message edited by: DEIx15x8 ]

If you can remember back to my Oasis series I did a video on each zone and it was entirely made up of walk through clips that tried to pass to each other. With a more linear deck plan the pan and pass seems to work well so depending on the feedback I'll probably use it for the Quantum of the Seas. Not having a Youtube time limit also allowed me to keep the entire ship in a single video.

Complete Grandeur of the Seas video series:
GoPro Arrival/Departure Timelapse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHU0aGaY6B4
Arrivals/Departures Videos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-5S-1RYv_s
Grandeur of the Seas Tour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osBfZOItcZU
Captain's Corner - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6IfRPZX8Qk
Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awc1t0cZzKQ
Summer Breeze Song Set & Aerial Show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVvrR4XGo1Q
Aerial Performances
--Practice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=466HPHTfPro
--8:15PM Show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thA5oXHku0s
--10:15PM Show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ns6hgdtygc
--Bonus: Multi-Cam Edit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffw7g3cmA3k
70's Dancin' in the Street Party - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUxYphAb9es
Crew International Flag Parade - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2UFg_EsTOU
Norwegian Dawn Departure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kosxB-axYpM
Prinsendam Departure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WEq-w6wzD0
Streamlined Playlist Viewing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtA0CtdOmopWD0WB3q_Zwii1p1oZ58Lwf

Complete Grandeur of the Seas Photo Series:
Day 1: Departure
Day 2: At Sea
Day 3: Bermuda
Day 4: Bermuda
Day 5: Bermuda
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: At Sea
Day 8: Debarkation

Hope everyone enjoyed the videos and pictures. My next sailing will actually be my first return to a ship as I sail on the Grandeur of the Seas again on January 11th for a 10 night western Caribbean sailing. Since I've already toured her that video series will be much smaller showcasing just the welcome aboard reception, captain's corner (if done), port timelapses, arrivals/departures, and if there is anything visibly different I'll do one on the area that suffered from the fire (aft of deck 5 and South Pacific Lounge). November 2014 will be the next big series as I'll be on the Quantum of the Seas 8 night Inaugural to the Bahamas followed by my first B2B with the 11 night Southern Caribbean sailing. It's sure to be a massive video series after all of that!

[ 06-17-2013: Message edited by: DEIx15x8 ]