bigblue1952

Looking forward to your review. We have enjoyed your observations of all your cruises.

Enjoyed your cruise. Great to hear a positive review. Thanks.

Apparently not. I have used a US travel agent and have logins for both the Canadian and US MSC sites.

I found this to be fairly normal after pricing out several cruises. I now book on the US website for better pricing.

I certainly hope that this is an aberration and not the norm from now on. So sorry you are experiencing this.

Wonderful review. We were in YC on Seashore in April and totally agree with your assessment. We had a wonderful cruise also.

There were four of us, myself and DW and my sister and BIL, travelling from Toronto to Barcelona and then on the cruise. We are between 68 and 73 years old. This is the first MSC cruise for my sister and BIL and the third for us. We originally booked this cruise for April of 2020. Due to Covid we moved the cruise to September of 2021 and then September of 2022. Needless to say that we were really looking forward to Barcelona and this cruise. DW and I had been to Barcelona before but my sister and BIL had not. We left Toronto on Sept. 18th and landed in Barcelona on Sept. 19th at noon. We had arranged for Barcelona Day tours to transfer us from the airport to our hotel, H10 Montcada. We had to contact them as our driver was no where in sight. He was waiting at the wrong terminal. He came right away and drove us to the hotel. The H10 Montcada is a beautiful hotel right on the edge of the Gothic Quarter and El Born. This is a perfect location to explore two of the best sections of Barcelona. We checked in, unpacked and had a rest. We had a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter at 4:30 that afternoon. We left the hotel at 4:00 and walked the 10 minutes to Placa Real where we met our guide from Runner Bean Tours. We had a wonderful tour and saw the highlights of both the Gothic Quarter and El Born. This was a great way to familiarize us with the areas surrounding our hotel. That night we ate at Arcano. This is a great restaurant. We had the 45 euro tasting menu. We did not realize that the meal came with all four appetizers per person. Needless to say we were stuffed by the end of the meal. The next day we were picked up from the hotel by Barcelona Day Tours for a tour of Monserrat. Our guide Ricardo was knowledgeable and funny. We really enjoyed our tour. We then went to a cava winery for a cava tasting. This was interesting and the cava was plentiful (6 bottles for 10 people). Thursday we were picked up by Barcelona Day Tours for a half day tour of Barcelona and a guided tour of the Sagrada Famiglia. This was a terrific tour. Our guide Paula was knowledgeable and interesting. I would recommend Barcelona Day Tours for anyone traveling to Barcelona. Later, we tried to do the proctored Covid tests but could not do so due to being in Europe I think. We went to the front desk and the lady sent us by taxi to a test sight where we had our tests within 15 minutes. We received our results in an hour and the front desk printed them for us. The tests were 30 euros each. That evening we had reservations for Can Culleretes, the oldest restaurant in Barcelona and the second oldest in Spain. We had a wonderful meal of chicken, paella, lamb and seafood. Everything was fresh and cooked perfectly. Friday we were on our own. We had preordered the Barcelona cards and were able to ride the metro and visited the MUHBA (museum of history), Picasso Museum and the Museum of Chocolate for free with the card. The museum of history was mostly underground where the ancient Roman ruins were displayed. This was well preserved and fascinating. The Picasso museum was interesting but we are not really art lovers. The Chocolate museum was very interesting. The entry ticket was a chocolate bar. At the end of the tour, we had hot chocolate which tasted like a melted chocolate bar. Wonderful. Saturday, September 24th we packed, ate breakfast at the hotel and got a taxi to the ship at 9:45. We walked to the Yacht Club tent and waited for the family before us to be checked in, maybe 5 minutes. We had our paperwork ready, our Covid vaccination certificates, our negative test results, our MSC health forms and our cruise ticket. We were in the Yacht Club lounge within 10 minutes (most of that time taken up putting on luggage tags). Here we were given cava and our documents were rechecked. We were then given our bracelets and our cruise cards. A butler then escorted us to the Top Sail lounge. I would estimate we were 30 minutes from arrival to sitting in the Top Sail lounge on the ship. Our butler escorted us to our cabins, 16010 and 16012, a short time later. We explored the Yacht Club area before lunch. Instead of giving a day by day summary, I will give my observations of our Grandiosa cruise. Food I should mention that we travel for the food. The food in the Yacht Club restaurant and the Yacht Club pool grill was outstanding. The food was well prepared, fresh and cooked perfectly for the most part. The only complaint was DW’s chicken Kiev was somewhat tough one dinner. Otherwise, everyone raved about the food. Our filets in the Yacht Club Restaurant were just as good as in Butchers Cut. Besides the filet, my favourite meals were the lasagna and the cioppino. Our Diamond specialty dinner in Butchers Cut was really good. The filets were cooked perfectly. Ship The ship was very clean and sparkly and beautiful. This was the first time for us on a Meraviglia class ship so we got to see the open atrium area with the dome shows. For the most part, the night time atrium area was way too loud for us. The casino was very smoky which we did not enjoy. We spent part of every evening in the Top Sail lounge enjoying the music and a nightcap. Yacht Club interior cabin The cabin, although small, was spacious enough for us. The drawer space was half of what it was on the Seaside and Seashore. We made do with the shelves in the closet. We also had the coffee machine removed for more space. The bed was very comfortable and the bathroom was small but the shower seemed larger than on our other ships. We did not spend that much time in the cabin so the size was not a problem. The location was excellent. There was a “secret” door opposite our cabin door that was right at the entrance to the Top Sail lounge. The Concierge desk was a 1 minute walk in the other direction. Shows The three shows we saw were enjoyable. The Abba show was the best with the music being first rate but the costumes were very odd. Service The service was first rate everywhere on the ship except for our butler who was nonexistent. He escorted us to our cabins on the first day and then came by the third day to tell us he was leaving the ship. On the second last day his sister came by and told us she did not know she was supposed to take over from him. On the other hand, our assistant butler was great. Our cabin was spotless. The butlers in the Top Sail lounge were amazing Also when we came back to the ship after Cinque Terra, a butler found us on the pier and escorted us to the front of the line to get back on the ship. Our wait staff in the Yacht Club restaurant were the best we have had on any ship. Ports Day two we arrived in Cannes, France. We did not take a tour as a Cruise Critic member mentioned that the lavender fields would have been harvested earlier and that is the one tour DW wanted to see. We walked around Cannes and were not impressed. Day three we arrived in Genoa. We booked a walking food tour through our TA. This was a really good tour with all kinds of food samples followed by gelato. What can be better than that. We really enjoyed this tour. Day four we arrived in La Spezia. We had a Cinque Terra tour booked through Bellaitallia tours. Our guide, Luca, rearranged our tour so that we could take a ferry to Portovenere. Storms and high winds were coming so the ferries did not run later in the day. We toured three towns by train and saw much of what we wanted to see of Cinque Terra. Our guide would have kept going but we were pooped out and took a taxi back to the ship from La Spezia train station. Day five we arrive in Civitavechia. There were buses and trains to Rome, but since we were her more than once before, we opted to stay on the ship. We enjoyed the water slides and hot tubs and the Yacht Club pool area. Day six was a sea day. Day seven we arrived in Palma di Mallorca. We took the Hop on Hop off bus. We had an informative ride around Palma and then enjoyed the ship for the rest of the day. Debarkation We left our cabins by 8:00 and went for breakfast in the Yacht Club restaurant. We stayed in the Top Sail lounge until 9:30 when a butler escorted us off the ship (of course to the front of the line) and to the luggage area. He then continued escorting us to the taxi line. It does not get much better than that.

Looking forward to your daily reports. Thoroughly enjoy them.

We did the ship tour.

No. You pay the full price of the drink.

We did the Green Grotto Caves in Jamaica in March 2022. We really enjoyed the tour. It was very interesting and informative.

Looking forward to reading your review. Have a great cruise.

Have a great cruise. Looking forward to your trip report.

We were back to back on the Seashore out of Miami a few weeks ago. On the Thursday of the first week we were tested for the turnaround. On turnaround day, we had to leave the ship, clear customs and then return to the ship.