Grande Caribe Review

Good itinerary, cramped rooms, bad food, friendly service

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Grande Caribe
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eshulman
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jun 2017

My wife and I have been on many cruises over the years, both on major ocean liners and small ships, including catamarans. We have certain expectations, base on these prior experiences. Unfortunately this cruise did not meet those expectations in many cases. We'll start with the food. The breakfasts were served family style, which we knew up front. However the way they do this is to put the food on the tables before guests arrive in the dining room. So the food is ice cold when you get there. Lunches were again family style and uninspired. We just skipped it one day and ate at a restaurant on land. Dinner was served smorgasbord style, you took your plate and went up to a table where they scoop the food onto your plate. Again, nothing exciting there. Overall the food was uninspiring and in some cases, barely edible. Then there's the cabins. Ours was exceptionally cramped and uncomfortable for the two of us. We were on a Viking River cruise in Europe last year, so we know what is possible on small ships, and this just didn't come close to matching up. The cruise director was very nice but totally inexperienced. Clearly they did not train her properly, she tried to direct us to things to do and see on the shore but she really didn't know much about the attractions. Fortunately we checked on the internet ourselves and figured it out. She also generally was not prepared with maps of the area. This is not the fault of the cruise line, but at times the water was very rough and caused my wife to get seasick. In hindsight we would have been better off going on our own, taking ferries to the various locations and staying at inns.

Cabin Review

Cabin Standard

This is a tiny room with a full size bed. The room can barely fit the bed, my wife had to climb over me to get to her side (I tend to get up multiple times a night for the bathroom, so this was the only thing that made sense to us). Separate small shower and toilet. You just can't spend any waking time in this room. Everything was kept very neat and clean and we were able to take good, hot showers.

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