Bermuda

[heidiboo]

Has anyone sailed on the Grandeaur of the Seas from Baltimore?! If you have can you tell me what you thought - the good and bad!!!
Thanks.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

No, but I just got off an anthem of the seas cruise to Bermuda...so if you have questions about the island, I might be able to help

 

[moericus]

Grandeur is an older smaller ship. That hardly means it's the SS Minnow, but still go in with that expectation and you will have a great time. I have never been but friends are happy with the short cruises for a quick getaway without the kids.

It is also ridiculously convenient if you live in the Mid-Atlantic area. The Anthem in NJ is also a great option for the area. Anthem is a bigger ship but it is 'different', certainly not for the worse, just different.

 

[SDJEL]

We sailed on Grandeur out of Baltimore several years ago. We really hated that cruise. It was 5 more years before we would get on a Royal Caribbean ship again. We just did Anthem and enjoyed that much more. Grandeur is cheap though.

 

[Gayle C]

No, but I just got off an anthem of the seas cruise to Bermuda...so if you have questions about the island, I might be able to help

 

[Gayle C]

Hi I'm sailing on the anthem next Saturday. Can you fill me in on some info.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Hi I'm sailing on the anthem next Saturday. Can you fill me in on some info.
[/QUOTE

We really enjoyed anthem and Bermuda both. Cape liberty was so easy and convenient. We waited for literally nothing at both embarkation and debarkation at that port. We arrived around 10:30 AM and were eating lunch on the ship by 11:05.

1. We did the Windjammer buffet on both sea days for lunch and found it didn’t get crowded until about 12 or 12:30. We skipped a big breakfast on sea days in favor of a big lunch, and did the WJ before noon both sea days. It wasn’t empty, but I imagine it’s as empty as it gets. On embarkation day, I hear WJ can be a mess, so we had sandwiches at Cafe 270 which was empty and relaxing. WJ was also crazy on debarkation day, but we just got our food and took our plates outside. Overall, we really liked the food at WJ for breakfast and lunch (and I usually hate buffets)

2. I couldn’t get reservations for ifly or North Star before getting on the ship but had no problem once on board right away on embarkation day at the iPads in the shore excursion area. We did North Star around 6:00 the first day we were docked in Bermuda and the view of the island was neat, even though the weather was overcast. North Star rarely had a line, so I’m sure you can do that standby anytime. IFly was full the whole cruise.

3. We did horseshoe bay in Bermuda the second day. We got to the beach a little before 9 AM via the $7 minibus, and had the place to ourselves for an hour or so. It got crowded fast, so it was nice to have a few empty beach pictures. We left by 1:45 so as to avoid any crowds headed back to the ship and to have time to buy our kids some souvenirs in the dockyard area. We took bottled waters that we had brought from home and muffins from Cafe Promenade to snack on the beach. We ate at the WJ beforehand so we didn’t have to hike to the beach bar at horseshoe bay and buy food there.

4. On our first day in Bermuda we took the ferry to St George on the opposite side of the island and explored the area, and walked to two beaches - one of which (St Catherine’s) we had completely to ourselves. We enjoyed the cruise, but found that when we were off the ship we wanted to be as far away from crowds of people as possible, so going to the far side of the island helped us accomplish this.

5. Anthem had a lot of entertainment and activities. We had my time dining, and ate around 7:15/7:30 in the main dining room each night. We were a party of 2, and always got a table by ourselves - 4 nights out of 5, right by a window.

We really enjoyed watching the end of karaoke in the music hall each night after dinner, which was usually followed by some sort of funny game show. We also liked the love and marriage game show toward the end of the cruise and the farewell comedy show. We didn’t see the bigger shows but we heard we will rock you was great, and the gift was weird.

We had a lot of fun on our trip. It was my husbands first cruise, and only my third, and we both said we’d definitely do another. We loved the ease of driving to and parking at Cape Liberty.

 

[richmo]

No, but I just got off an anthem of the seas cruise to Bermuda...so if you have questions about the island, I might be able to help

I did too! Were you on the Aug 10-15 out of Bayonne?

 

[DizneyLizzy]

I did too! Were you on the Aug 10-15 out of Bayonne?

Yup!

 

[Gayle C]

Thank you for all that great information

 

[Gayle C]

Thank you for all that great information

I did too! Were you on the Aug 10-15 out of Bayonne?

Hi can you tell me about your trip

 

[richmo]

Thank you for all that great information

Hi can you tell me about your trip

I won't get into too much, except to say we had a great time! The weather was nearly perfect; I think we had one 5 minute rain shower at sea and one more about that length at the Dockyard (although some folks we ran into on the Norwegian ship also there said it poured the day before).

The first day in Bermuda we walked over to "Bermuda Fun Golf", which is a mini golf course along the lines of Fantasia Gardens at Disney, except its in even better condition and some of it having beautiful views of the ocean. Lot of fun at $15/per. The second day the kids (adult) did an excursion thru Royal (I think called "Devils Triangle snorkeling", or something like that). They really liked it a lot and it wasn't terribly expensive. I know they snorkeled out near a shipwreck. DW and I walked over to "Snorkel Beach Park", which is next to the golf course and sat on the beach for a few hours. (That was $5 admission, between $5 and $15 for a beach chair and I think $10 or so for an umbrella). The Anthem staff was very nice, ship clean...only time it felt crowded was the pool area on "at sea" days. If you're so inclined, I'd recommend getting to the pool early...and yes, staff took stuff off unattended chairs. The first at sea day a lady came up to us asking where "her" stuff was (chairs had nothing on them when we took them); I guess she was gone too long so the pool staff took her things back to the towel station. Oh...they also showed "Avengers:Endgame" at the pool the night it went out to disc; also had "Captain Marvel" another night and I forget what else...Also, make sure you see "We Will Rock You", "Spectra's Cabaret" and "The Gift" (in descending order). If you were not able to make reservations for any of those, there's a good chance you can get in as standby about 15 minutes prior. One complaint: balcony seating on Royal Theatre on Anthem is lousy...not well designed at all as a lot of it cuts off much of the stage; much worse than other RCCL ships I've been on. Also: wife and daughter did RipCord by iFly and loved it. I tried and tried to get NorthStar reservations but never was able too, but the good news is standby works fine too. We went the last evening and got right on...