Cindy Sergent's Caribbean Cruise Page 1

Grandeur of the Seas
(22K)

Once you have gone on a cruise, you would want to do it again, and again. This is my very first cruise, fortunately or unfortunately, I have chosen a brand new cruise ship that is built with the state-of-the-art technologies and first-class interior decoration. I had a wonderful time, but, my next cruise will have to be at least as good as this ship, or better. The inaugural cruise with Royal Caribbean's "Grandeur of the Seas" has set a very high standard for me.

Let me give a little stats of the ship:
Length -- 916 feet
Height -- 165 feet
Draft (portion that's under water) -- 25 feet
Maximum Speed -- 24 knots
Diameter of propellers -- 15'6"
Guest Capacity (Double Occupancy) -- 1950
Crew Capacity -- 760
Fresh Water Consumption -- 194,000 Gallons/24 hours
Place Built> Helsinki, Finland

Motion Sickness

I have always suffered from acute motion sickness. That's what concerned me the most when I signed on the cruise. Many friends has been telling me "the ship is so big, you won't feel a thing". "yes the ship is big, but, the ocean is even bigger" I countered. However, I figured that in Caribbean there are so many islands, the water may be calmer, but, I was leery about it. It turned out, it was very smooth. I didn't feel the ship moving at all. Well, the first 2 days I wasn't able to look out the windows. I felt dizzy watching the water move. But after a couple of days, I was adjusted. I only had problem in one out of the 7 days and that was because a storm was approaching. Actually, even on that day, the water wasn't choppy, it was a gentle wave rocking the ship left and right, most people would enjoy that, except me.

Food

The main dinning hall served 5-star food and first class service. It was a thorough pleasure indulging yourself. It was 5 course dinner every night. You can have say, 2 appetizers 2 main course and 2 desserts. No problem, whatever you want, you get it. The ship was fully booked to it's 1950 guest capacity. With that many people, even with a huge dinning hall, they have to split the meals in 2 shifts, main and second. We have signed up for the second shift, so the dinner didn't start until 8:30 p.m. Actually, sometimes the first shift didn't clear out until 9 p.m. So, most of our dinner didn't finish until 10:30 p.m., sometimes close to 11. Then, there was midnight buffet an hour later. Food is my main obsession, with 5-star dinner like that I just couldn't miss any. So, I never get a chance to go to any of the 5 lounge/bars to dance or the casino to play. I took pictures of all the rooms, but just didn't have time to do anything else there.

Dress

One difference between cruising and traveling on your own is that you will be dinning with the same people every night. So, one nice outfit that's sufficient for traveling alone will not work very well here -- if you care showing up with the same outfit every night. Ladies, bring your best evening dresses to the cruise! There were two formal and one semi-formal dinning on this 7 nights cruise. When they say formal, they mean black-ties and beady dresses. I wasn't aware of this and only brought one evening dress, not gown, on this trip. I'm sure you ladies would understand how upsetting this was. When you have those nice clothes at home that you seldom have chance to wear, now that you have this opportunity to show them off, you don't have them with you! .

In 2003 I started designing jewelry using Swarovski crystals and other high quality material. If you need jewelry to accessorize your outfit, check out my jewelry site here.

Money

Anything you buy on the ship shop, casino, photo shop, alcoholic drinks or tour desk are all charged to your room card. Cash is required for bingo, horse race and tipping the room service when you order food or morning coffee. On shore, most store accept credit cards. You might need cash for taxi, food and small items. Most importantly, you need to reserve at least $200 cash for tipping all the servers on your table, wine steward if you drink, and your room steward. This is done the last night onboard.

Let me take you on a tour of the ship the next few pages...

You can click on the pictures to get a better view.

You can click on the pictures for a closer view.

Motion Sickness
I have always suffered from acute motion sickness. That's what concerned me the most when I signed on the cruise. Many friends has been telling me "the ship is so big, you won't feel a thing". "yes the ship is big, but, the ocean is even bigger" I countered. However, I figured that in Caribbean there are so many islands, the water may be calmer, but, I was leery about it. It turned out, it was very smooth. I didn't feel the ship moving at all.		Well, the first 2 days I wasn't able to look out the windows. I felt dizzy watching the water move. But after a couple of days, I was adjusted. I only had problem in one out of the 7 days and that was because a storm was approaching. Actually, even on that day, the water wasn't choppy, it was a gentle wave rocking the ship left and right, most people would enjoy that, except me.
Food
The main dinning hall served 5-star food and first class service. It was a thorough pleasure indulging yourself. It was 5 course dinner every night. You can have say, 2 appetizers 2 main course and 2 desserts. No problem, whatever you want, you get it. The ship was fully booked to it's 1950 guest capacity. With that many people, even with a huge dinning hall, they have to split the meals in 2 shifts, main and second. We have signed up for the second shift, so the dinner didn't start until 8:30 p.m.		Actually, sometimes the first shift didn't clear out until 9 p.m. So, most of our dinner didn't finish until 10:30 p.m., sometimes close to 11. Then, there was midnight buffet an hour later. Food is my main obsession, with 5-star dinner like that I just couldn't miss any. So, I never get a chance to go to any of the 5 lounge/bars to dance or the casino to play. I took pictures of all the rooms, but just didn't have time to do anything else there.
Dress