Cleanliness precautions:
1) NCL Crown
2) Maasdam
3) Grandeur
The Crown had the alcohol hand sanitizers at the entrance to all food
venues and when returning from port from the very beginning of the
cruise, and they strongly encouraged their use. The Maasdam did
require that all buffet food be served - it was not self service, but
they were somewhat lackadaisical about hand cleaning for guests.
GOTS did not have any sanitizing stations until apparently someone got
seriously ill and then they suddenly were handing out alcohol wipes to
you as you entered the dining room or buffet. At that time the
captain's recorded speech on the TV was all about washing your hands.
Incidentally the 'trash cans' that they had for us to put the used
wipes in would
have been better if we could have dropped the wipes in rather than
bending down
and sticking them into a hole about knee level.
Captain
1) Grandeur - we had Captain Rob, and he was funny and informative
2) NCL Crown
3) Maasdam
Port/excursion and supplemental lectures
1) Grandeur and Crown tied.
2) Maasdam. The man who gave the extra information lectures on the
Maasdam had an attitude,
and his area of expertise was not in our location. The GOTS guy was
better, but he put me to sleep.
Cruise director and port shopping
1) NCL Crown
2) Grandeur
3) Maasdam
The cruise director on the Crown was a young enthusiastic guy, and
that was true for Simeon Baker on the GOTS also. I found the
Maasdam's cruise director REALLY irritating, especially as he was
touting for good ratings for the ship and making old not-too-funny
jokes.
The lady port shopping person on the Maasdam looked like she had a
birds
nest on her head instead of hair and she appeared as though she was
half drunk most of the time.
I did think that Grandeur's disembarkation information was less
intrusive as they didn't have a mass meeting like they did on the
other two ships, but just had it broadcast over the TV. Which brings
me to the TV
TV in the cabin
1) Tie Crown and Maasdam
3) and a LONG way behind - Grandeur of the Seas
With an inside cabin, I have in the past relied on the bow camera to
tell me if it was day or night - rainy or sunny outside. Both the
Crown and the Maasdam had a really good bow camera broadcast. I only
saw GOTS camera four or 5 times (in a 13 day cruise) and those
pictures were out of focus about half the time, and the maximum amount
of time that they showed was about two minutes. I kept going to that
channel, but to no avail.
Most ships appear to have their satellite receivers at a high point of
the ship. The broadcasts were sometimes interrupted, but not that
often. On the Crown and Maasdam, they had appropriate programming-
some ESPN, CNN, replays of the Newly Wed Game or dance contests on the
ship, movies, information from the port shopping person and travel
channel re-runs. Not much, but enough so that you could look at the
TV and not see something that you'd seen 6 times before. We watch a
lot of TV at home, and do so on the ship also.
Did Grandeur have something similar? No. We had CNN, and
occasionally ESPN and Spanish ESPN. There were reruns of old TV shows
(A-Team) , a movie channel in 6 different languages (with the movies
repeated many times on some indecipherable schedule), a melange of
CBS programming (repeated over and over), and FOX (also repeated over
and over). The satellite receivers were not mounted on the highest
point and sometimes the broadcast would be frozen for long periods of
time. For instance they had the Dallas Green Bay football game, and
at the 4th quarter two minute warning with with the score 34 Dallas to
27 Green Bay,
the satellite went off, and never came back.
Also on the ship information channel the information was WRONG a lot
of the time. At embarkation, it showed that the water temperature in
the Port (Baltimore in late November) was 82 degrees F. NOT.
It also showed that our first port was San Juan Puerto Rico until
about day 5, and this cruise did not go to Puerto Rico AT ALL. The
map that they had was also wrong (it showed Puerto Rico also).
[Incidentally the map that was posted in the atrium area did not go
farther south than St. Maartin.]
They showed a stupid graphic with the Grandeur sailing across the
screen
changing the color from blue to red multiple times and then the map
and then that graphic again, and then time zones, etc.
Excursions/Ports - only the ports that Maasdam and/or NCL Crown had in
common with Grandeur
A) Bermuda
1) Crown
2) Grandeur
Massdam did not go to Bermuda
Bermuda is always wonderful of course, but the Crown was small enough
to dock in St. Georges and Hamilton whereas on GOTS we were stuck out
at Kings' Wharf. Also GOTS did not give us correct or appropriate
port information. I know Bermuda well enough to know where to go and
what to ask, but not everyone did.
Cruise information people didn't know that the ferry from Kings Wharf
to St. Georges didn't usually run after the first part of November,
and they told a man at our table who uses a scooter that he could take
the ferry to St. Georges, when he couldn't, or could only if he rode
the special ferry that they ran just for the ship which went once. If
he did not come back on the same ferry he'd be stuck out there with
his scooter.
They did not explain to us that there was a shuttle bus to the ship
from the Bermuda bus stop, which meant that I did a lot of extra
walking.
One thing in favor of Grandeur of the Seas is that they sold bus/ferry
passes for exactly the same price as if we had bought them from the
Bermuda transportation department. The last ferry from Hamilton on
the first evening got in to King's Wharf quite late and they went
first to let us get off at the ship before going to the regular ferry
dock.
Incidentally BERMUDA security would not let you back on the ship
without a photo ID. We did not have that at any other port. All we
had to show was the ship card.
St. Maartin
1) Grandeur
2) Crown
Maasdam did not go to St. Maartin
The reason that Crown is second I took excursions from the Crown
(which
was there on a Sunday when the shops on the French side were closed),
and the first tour ran long and all they did was stop at various
roadside stands to shop. I loved the second tour (to the zoo and all
about the natural flora and fauna).
I didn't take a tour from the GrandeurOTS. I rented a car and
unfortunately I did not realize that some car rental places have
kiosks at the pier and I rented from one that did not (Alamo). We
had fun
with the car (it isn't a big island and it is hard to get lost), but
the traffic was terrible in town, and there was a lot of construction
where the roads were closed. I did get a chance to do the water taxi
to town.
C) Curacao
1) NCL Crown
2 tie) Grandeur and Maasdam
The Crown is first by a long way because they went into the harbor and
docked right behind the ferry dock. We took two tours there and one
was the trolley tour of town, and the other was of the museum, caves
and Curacao factory. My only disappointment was not seeing the
pontoon bridge which was out being fixed.
Both the Maasdam and the GOTS docked outside of the harbor. I wanted
to see the Queen Emma pontoon bridge and it was hard for me to get to
town to see that from so far out, and even harder to get back without
paying a large taxi fare. I also lost my good sun hat in the taxi.
When Grandeur was there it was a Sunday and most of the shops were
closed, plus I think the trolley tour of town was not able to go on a
lot of the regular streets. The Curacao factory was also closed on
Sunday, so those people that had never been there - it was a bust.
I took a tour that went to the botanical garden (among other places)
and apparently the RCCL people did not tell the port excursion people
that anyone was coming or how many there would be. I liked the tour,
but someone else who was on it didn't think much of it.
Aruba:
This is basically a wash for all three ships. On the Crown, my
husband couldn't go on the snorkeling trip because he had a skin graft
after they removed a melanoma and couldn't get in the water, so I went
without him, and didn't think much of it. He went on a land trip to
the usual areas.
The second time we went, we rented a car (from Hertz
right at the dock) and drove all over the island and had a really good
time. From Grandeur OTS we didn't get off the ship because I had
a vertigo attack when I was in Curacao (I still have residuals of
that)
and didn't really want to do anything.
Two of our table mates were left behind in Aruba. This is because
when we got the Cruise Compass for Aruba when we were in Curacao, it
had on it that we should turn our clocks back that night - meaning
after we left Aruba. The lady turned her clock back BEFORE Aruba, and
they were in a casino (no clocks), and they came out in time to see
the ship sail away without them.
He was on a scooter. They had to spend the night in Aruba, fly to
Miami, spend the night in Miami and fly to Grand Cayman and spend the
night there. Fortunately, they had their passports and credit cards
with them. She said she considered bagging the rest of the cruise and
just telling them to pack up their stuff and send it home, but his
sleep apnea machine was on board and he needed that.
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