Grandeur of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,829 reviews

Boat broke ... minimal refunds?

Review for Bermuda Cruise on Grandeur of the Seas
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bigpig59
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Aug 2019
Cabin: Ocean View

I chose this particular cruise to take my son for his birthday/Christmas combined as his present. I had also booked him to do the deep sea fishing in Bermuda. We were both super excited as neither of us had been to Baltimore (so we arrived a day early to see some sights) and neither of us had been to Bermuda. We arrived on 8/30/19 and checked into a hotel, walked to the Inner Harbor for dinner and see some sights. The next morning we got to the terminal to check onto the ship and so far so smooth ... I had also purchased "the key" for us which expedited our wait with other perks as well. We were on the ship around 11 am. We had taken a tour of the spa area and had both booked services for that day. The ship was set to leave port at 4 pm, which is did. Once away from the dock I noticed that we appeared to be going in circles then we went back to the dock. We were told the propulsion system was not working properly and that it was being looked at. Fast forward to approximately 8 pm. The captain came over the PA and stated that the ship was broke and the cruise was cancelled. We had two choices leave the ship by 11 pm that evening or we would not be allowed to leave until 6 pm the following evening but all must be off by 9 pm the following evening. Our mouths dropped open .. like is this seriously happening??? Yep, it sure was. We were told there were letters in our stateroom explaining what their compensation would be, they would be reimbursing each guest up to $200 per person to change their flight plus up to $200 if you needed a hotel the evening of 8/31/19. I immediately went to our room and began calling the airlines to see about changing our flight and explaining what had just happened to our cruise. The airline we flew in on wanted $383 per person to change our flight! I went to guest services and they stated there was nothing they could do that everyone was getting the same amount and no exceptions would be granted. I went back to our room and started looking at all other flight options. Around 10:30 pm I told my son we either get off now or we're stuck until the following evening which would potentially mean we wouldn't get home until Monday as there were no evening flights to get us home the following evening. We decided to leave the ship. At that time we did not have a flight booked nor did we have a hotel for the night. I had been on the phone for approximately 45 minutes with Travelocity at this point. We walked off the ship me with my suitcase in one hand and my phone in the other. There was a park bench outside the terminal that my son and I sat on while we made arrangements for both flight and hotel. To reschedule our flight for the next day cost $349 per person (trust me I tried to find a cheaper one but it didn't exist!) and we found a hotel near the airport for just under $140. Remind you at this time I was still out the cost of the cruise, shore excursions we had booked, the drink package we had, the "key" we both had, spa services we both had done prior to the cruise being cancelled, our hotel the night before, our original filghts, etc... totaling nearly $3000! So on top of this I am now out an additional $850 (rescheduled flights, hotel, Uber) that needed paid that day! So far I have received some of the money but not all that they have agreed to reimburse me. RCs ship broke, 100% their fault 0% my fault thus I should have $0 out of pocket for this. I shouldn't have to wait 2+ weeks to be reimbursed nor do I feel I should be out any money at all on this. If I tried to find cheaper flights and couldn't I feel I should be reimbursed the entire $349 per person, not just the $200 per person. I am not very happy right now. I feel like I was abandoned and left to fend for myself with zero help from RC. While I would love to comment on the ship, cabin, dining, entertainment, ports, etc... I cannot as there was not much open during our few hours aboard the ship.

Cabin Review

Ocean View

Cabin 2N

The cabin itself felt spacious and the window for viewing the oceanview was large. Because we were only on the ship a few hours and weren't granted access to our room for part of those hours it's hard to give a more in depth review of the cabin itself.

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