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Grandeur of the Seas – 9 Day Bahamas Cruise December 13-22, 2018


DandA

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Next up was Fort Montagu; as a retired Marine I was interested in seeing this fort as it’s the first amphibious landing by the newly formed Continental Marines in 1776.  Captain Samuel Nicholas led 200 Marines to take the fort; while the landing was successful the munitions that they sought had been moved to Fort Nassau and spirited away during the night.  In the park adjacent to the fort. they had a stand offering drinks, one of which was called sky juice.  A mixture of gin, coconut milk and condensed milk; according to our tour operator so named because after a few you find your self flat on your back looking up at the sky.

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The Queen’s Staircase was next, the stairs were carved from the limestone by slaves to allow easy access between Fort Fincastle and Nassau.  We opted to drive around the Fort Fincastle in lieu of walking up the staircase.  This was a mistake because when we got up by the water tower our driver didn’t want to get rapped up there by the buses.

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Leaving the Fort Fincastle area we made our way to a where wine was offered and a chocolate store.  Not one to pass up chocolate the wife purchased a small batch to take home.  Off we went to John Watlings Distillery; it was an interesting history filled tour of rum making in Nassau.  As our three hours was nearly up, we had our guide drop us off at the Pirates Museum.

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Went into the Pirates Museum, it was fun and interesting; I love the lore of the pirates.  Whether what we saw was true or not is anyone’s guess.  So much of what we know of the pirates is woven with truth, legend, lies and myth; never the less I found it interesting.  We also checked out the Anglican Church across the street from the Pirates Museum.

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Leaving the Pirates Museum we went to the Pompeii Museum.  The Pompeii Museum tells the story of slavery in the Bahamas and throughout the world from ancient times to today.  We started walking back to the ship in search of conch fritters.  Only place that I saw was a Greek restaurant offering conch fritters.  Didn’t seem like an authentic place to try them.  Unfortunately we found our self at the port area and decided to just get lunch on the ship.  I know many dislike Nassau but I did find quite a bit of interesting things to see and do; next time I go I’ll just walk around to see what I want to see without the detours.  I will say that traffic is horrible and the few people I engaged were friendly and hospitable.  We did get the travel advisory in our cabin the night before that caused a ruckus with the tourism board; I didn’t see it as more than a heads up to use precautions and be aware of your surrounding when out in town. 

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Thank you for the refreshing look at Nassau.  I am one of the recent Nassau-bashers and I thank you for reminding me that there ARE a lot of interesting and worthwhile things there.  I particularly liked the Pirate Museum.  That looks like fun.  ...and I had forgotten how really beautiful Atlantis is.  It has been many years since we visited Atlantis and I enjoyed your visit there.  

Semper Fi !

 

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28 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Thank you for the refreshing look at Nassau.  I am one of the recent Nassau-bashers and I thank you for reminding me that there ARE a lot of interesting and worthwhile things there.  I particularly liked the Pirate Museum.  That looks like fun.  ...and I had forgotten how really beautiful Atlantis is.  It has been many years since we visited Atlantis and I enjoyed your visit there.  

Semper Fi !

 

Thank you, I can see how port fatigue can set in after you've been to the same port over and over.  While this is only my second cruise I have been to many other countries and most of the states in the US.  All have their ups and downs and if you travel with the buddy system and maintain situational awareness most of the time you will be fine.  Semper Fi

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Day 8 &9 - Sea Days

I really love sea days, as they are so relaxing.  Up early to grab a cup of coffee and up to the pool/track deck to catch the sunrise, then off to a leisurely breakfast in the MDR.  Day 8 started with the Captain advising us that the seas would become increasingly rougher throughout the day.  True to his word by the time the second formal night the ship was rolling side to side.  It became a challenge walking trying to anticipate the ships movement before you stepped off.  After dinner it was off to the Headliners Show featuring Marcus Terell; songs and dancing to Motown, Soul and Pop Hits.  He and two ladies that accompanied him put on a pretty good show.  To end the evening we were back in the Schooner bar for music, talk and drinks.

 

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Day 9 the ship was still rolling but not as much as the day before and it gradually ended with calmer seas and us reaching the mouth of the bay at around 3:00 pm.  One final dinner in the MDR to say so long to our table mates, waiter and asst. waiter.  After dinner we went to the Parade of Flags in the Centrum; several of the countries represented put on a show as their country was called.  We missed the Farewell show as we were just finishing up our dinner.  They evening was capped off with a few drinks in the Schooner bar and saying goodbye to two of the wonderful waiters we had there.

Managed to catch us sailing over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

 

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Day 10 – Debarkation Day

After our last breakfast in the MDR, it was back to our room to pick up our carryon bag.  One final check of the room for forgotten items and it was up to the South Pacific Lounge to wait for our departure number to be called.  We were scheduled for an 8:45-9:15 departure, at 8:45 they called our number and it was down to deck 4. Embarkation was painless, once we hit the gangway it was a brisk walk to customs, a quick glance at our passports and we walked into baggage claim.  We walked toward the pickup area and waited for our son to pick us up. Soon we were heading up the ramp to I95 South and the cruise was over.

I’m going to do a summary of the ship and cruise to finish up the review, thanks to everyone who followed along.

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Well time to wrap this one up.

Summary

Grandeur of the Seas was our second cruise, with the first one being the Oasis of the Seas.  Everyone told us we did it backwards, as we were supposed to start small then go big.  I booked this cruise for the cost and also everyone I talked to spoke highly of the ship and its crew.  She had very few detractors so I booked her even before we set sail on our first cruise.  I’m going to touch on various aspects of the ship and give you my/our perspective of it.  If I don’t touch on a subject/aspect you have questions on ask away.

The ship:  Launched in 1996, she has quite a few nautical miles on her; she shows her age in a few places.  I observed a few areas on deck 5, where corrosion has eaten away a few doors/panels; but everything was freshly painted.  Now that the bad part is out of the way; I found the ship to be tastefully decorated, clean and well maintained.  It was very easy to get around to the various portions of the ship.  The ocean was visible from many venues on the ship from the Centrum, all the bars, and restaurants, something that was missing from the Oasis.

The room:  We had and ocean view room on deck 3 directly across from the forward elevator lobby.  The room was clean and everything worked.  I experienced the clingy shower curtain, first shower it reached out and caressed by backside when I wasn’t looking.   Thanks to hints I received on the forums, a few binder clips at the bottom put a stop to our affair.  The bed was firm and we found it comfortable.  We asked our room steward for ice on the first day and she dutifully provided fresh ice twice a day.  I did hear noise from kids running in the hall several times and one night I could hear sounds from the storing of gangway equipment above us for about 20 minutes when we left Port Canaveral.   

Dining:  Most of our meals were taken in the MDR.  Seating at breakfast we had a short wait on a few occasions, but most of the time we were escorted right to the table.  We had early traditional seating at a six top table; our waiter was Salmen and the assistant waiter was Jely.  Salmen was charming and engaging constantly checking to make sure our meals were good.  Jely was very sweet and her primary job was keeping our glasses full and clearing the table.  Dining took anywhere from 1-1.5 hours from start to finish, although the 1.5 hour could have been partially due to the pleasant conversations we had with our tablemates.  We did find out that the dining room opens 15 minutes before the assigned time.  One couple liked to make the early show so they would take our orders first and usually got us out by 6:30. Were pretty easy to please and always found one or two things we’d like to eat.

We had a few meals in the Windjammer; I found the organization in this one much better than the one on the Oasis.  The food was typical buffet food, never had too much trouble finding a seat.  I had a few lunches at Park Café, both times I tried the soup and carved meat sandwich.  Both of those meals were light and the hot soup hit the spot on the couple of cool days that we ate there.  Café Latitudes was a good place to get our morning coffees; we also had a muffin there one morning that was pretty good.

Entertainment:  We watched several shows in the Paladium Theater, and enjoyed all of them it was never hard to find a seat.  In fact there were always plenty of open seats at each show.  Mike was an excellent CD and CC was also very good as the AD.  The Schooner bar was our favorite go to spot whether it was playing trivia or listening to the piano player or string duet.  Two waiters were standouts in the Schooner bar and they were Kadek and Leslie.  Whenever they saw us they greeted us by name and remembered our favorite drinks.  The Centrum had a few good shows; however it was difficult finding seats at times and twice we found seats just off the stage area on deck 4 and when the show started our view was blocked by people standing in front of us or once everyone started dragging the chairs into the walkways to sit where they could see.

Pool deck:  Mostly due to the cold weather there were always plenty of chairs available.  Finding chairs in the Solarium was a challenge a couple of times; all but one time we were able to find a lounger for a couple of hours, that one time we had to take a table and chair off to the side.  The Solarium was open to all on the first and last sea day.

The crew:  Outstanding, excellent and superb are words that describe every crew member we engaged on the ship.  We have already mentioned several of them here by name but there were many more who we met that were just as pleasant and great to engage.  I don’t think we ran into a single crew member who wasn’t friendly and upbeat.

Okay that’s about all I can think of to comment on if anyone has any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.  Thanks for following along and oh yeah we booked the Majesty this April while on board the Grandeur.  Next cruise incentives were reduced deposits ($100 pp) and they were offering onboard credit up to $600.  FYI we got $50 for and ocean view on the Majesty, not much but $50 bucks is $50 bucks that wasn’t offered before we cruised.

 

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2 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Well shoot, now I wanna sail on her, too

That is one of the major disadvantages of reading live blogs.  The ones by @twangster cause the most damage!  Many have come out of reading those with less money than they had prior. ?

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