We took a cruise in an inside room on Royal Caribbean’s oldest and smallest ship, Grandeur of the Seas. We’re talking no mini-golf. No water slides. No in-room refrigerators. Tiny pools. Shower curtains! It was mortifying! Here’s our Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas Review.
It’s no secret that like many other ships, Grandeur of the Seas has had its share of problems over the past 27 years.
On 31 October 2000, Grandeur of the Seas lost power for 5.5 hours with power to lighting, plumbing and air conditioning restored by 10:45 a.m. The ship was towed to Willemstad, Curaçao where repairs were made and got back underway 12 hours late.
On 20 April 2005, while docking in Costa Maya, Mexico, a 42 ft (13 m) long hole was torn in the hull of the ship. The hole was located on deck one of the ship approximately 5 ft (1.5 m) above the waterline and 5 ft (1.5 m) wide at its widest. The company said that 15-knot winds (28 km/h; 17 mph) and a 3-knot (5.6 km/h) current contributed to the accident. The next seven-day cruise was shortened to five as the ship had to remain in Costa Maya an extra 2 days awaiting materials to patch the hole. Royal Caribbean offered guests transportation back to New Orleans or onboard credit if they chose to stay with the ship. The ship was later dry docked and the damage was repaired.
On 27 May 2013 at 2:50 am EDT, a fire broke out on the third deck of Grandeur of the Seas. The fire was extinguished within three hours, and major damage was limited to the aftmost sections of decks 3, 4, and 5. As a precaution, all passengers were required to report to evacuation locations for several hours. No evacuation was necessary, and the ship was able to continue under her own power to the Bahamas. The remainder of the cruise was canceled and passengers were flown back to their point of origin from Freeport, Bahamas.
On 16 January 2017, a lifeboat fell off of Grandeur of the Seas while it was docked in Charleston as part of a 10-day Bahamas cruise. The fall wire of the lifeboat was undergoing scheduled maintenance and the wire slipped during retrieval, causing the lifeboat to fall into the water. The lifeboat subsequently capsized. No injuries were reported and the cruise was not delayed after Royal Caribbean consulted with the US Coast Guard.
In the early hours of 9 January 2018, Grandeur of the Seas experienced a loss of port side steering while on its way from Nassau, Bahamas to Baltimore, Maryland. The ship was able to travel safely, and turned around towards Freeport, Bahamas, but arrived in Port Canaveral on 10 January 2018. The detour and repair work ultimately added 2 nights to the 9-night cruise, with the ship arriving back in Baltimore on 13 January 2018 instead of the originally planned 11 January 2018. As a result, the subsequent cruise was shortened by two nights.
