Overall great cruise!
MSC Grandiosa Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 6
Helpful Votes: 197
7 Night Western Mediterranean (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 02, 2020
Ship: MSC Grandiosa
Cabin number: 10292
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
The ship was beautiful, clean and easy to navigate. The itinerary was great, although we enjoyed some ports more than others, which is probably natural. Our only problem was that our luggage was lost. However, we did our best to not let it ruin our trip, and it didn't. Btw, we received our luggage when we got home!Embarkation
Great!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The dining rooms were beautiful and our service was outstanding. I didn't give it 5 stars because the food options could have been better. There were a couple of dishes we really liked, but most dishes were fairly ordinary, which I suppose when you serve to so many people at one time, it is probably difficult to make every dish stand out. As for the buffet, it was always very crowded. It also did not have a very good selection of items. I felt we saw the same things every day. We purchased the non-alcoholic drink package, which we found to be very expensive, and may have done better to pay per drink even though I noticed they were very expensive individually too.
Onboard Activities
This ship was very family oriented, which I think is great. And if you are a family there are many activities. Water slides, arcade, kids program etc. However, we did not travel with children this trip and found activities very slim for adults unless you gamble, which we don't. We did use the walking/running path and did enjoy that. Plenty of pool and spa space since they have both indoor and outdoor available. However, due to our luggage being lost during our entire cruise, we were unable to take advantage of these amenities so we really missed not having many other activities to choose from. Thank goodness for excursions during the day to keep us busy.
Entertainment
The ship only offered one show a night and gave you two opportunities to see it. The shows themselves were pretty good. The same singers and dancers put on a different show every night. If you choose to pay for a show, which we did, you have the option to view a Cirque de Soleil show at sea, and we really enjoyed their Ekcentrics show. Other than these shows, there were bands and dancing. We did enjoy one band very much and watching others cut a rug as we don't dance much. I did appreciate that they had crew members dancing with the passengers to keep things entertaining. I was surprised there were no comedians or other acts though.
Service and Staff
Our dining room attendants were awesome! Myra and Dexter gave wonderful service with a smile and professionalism. Our room steward was so efficient we never saw him except when he picked up and dropped off our laundry.
Ship Quality
Beautiful, clean, new ship! The Swarovski staircases are one of a kind. The layout was so easy to learn in a day as most common areas and shopping were all in one area.
Cabin / Stateroom
We purchased the Fantastica balcony experience. The room and bed were very comfortable. Nice bathroom too. Plenty of storage. The balcony was a little small, but we definitley ejoyed it.
Ports of call
We visited Rome after we returned from the cruise. We took the "fast train" with a few other passenger friends we had made, to the Termini Station, where our hotel was about a block away. We purchased a Hop On Hop Off bus ticket directly from our hotel and jumped on one right away. We were able to make it to the Colosseum (bought a private tour at the site and got right in), the The Forum, Circus Maximus, Saint Peter's Square/Vatican (did not get to go inside as it was a Sunday and the museums etc were closed), Castel Saint' Angelo, Trevi Fountain (took a taxi here at night), eat at a local diner and gelato spot, and have time to shop a bit too. One day is not enough time for Rome, but it's all we had so we made the most of it.
Thumbs Up
3
The city was dirty and busy. The drivers are crazy! I'm grateful we were on an excurison and someone else was driving for us. Our excursion started on a bus and then we walked about 3 miles all over the city to visit beautiful cathedrals and other sites. All of the cathedrals/churches were breathtaking! We stopped in front of the opera house for some free time where we enjoyed some gelato at an outdoor cafe. The bus picked us up once again and took us back to the ship.
Valletta, Malta Did not visit port
We were very much looking forward to this port and had an excursion planned. However, the captain changed our itinerary due to high winds and chose to stop at Palma De Mallorca, Spain instead. I don't know what we missed in Malta, but Palma De Mallorca ended up being one of our favorite ports. We took the shuttle to town and hired a taxi driver to take us around to the different sites. We visited a castle (don't remember the name) with a moat and tower. There were fantastic views of the city from it. She also took us to a bull arena where we actually went inside it. The acoustics were unreal. Next a pearly factory and then through town to several other attractions. We had our personalized tour for 2 hours and enjoyed every minute of it.
Barcelona is definitely a big city! We took an excursion to see the city sites and shop. We viewed a beautiful cathedral being built and the Christopher Columbus monument among other things. Lots of shopping here, just didn't have enough time on the excursion to do much and didn't want to get lost on our own. Did manage to pick up souvenirs though.
Loved this beautiful little city! Our excrusion took us around the city and along the seashore where we ended up having lunch. Our favorites were the beautiful fountains and the Basilica.
Genoa was our favorite city of Italy that we visited. A small ferry took us to meet our tour guide where we did a historical walk through the city. Loved the small streets, squares, and fountain! We were given taste samples of wine and breads along the way and thoroughly enjoyed everything.
Disembarkation
Easy!