Anastas617

I got multiple starters several times on the Rotterdam last month, no problem at all to do that. I also got two mains once, which didn't work out great because the portions were not as small as I expected.

The ship itself is beautiful. A few minor things I didn't like was the bathtub/shower combo and the minimal clothing storage in my studio balcony room. It was much different than on Meraviglia (almost identical) since it was a port intensive cruise, so I didn't have as much lounging time, but I still never had a problem finding loungers on the Horizon deck (aft pool area) and they had plenty of entertainment during the day around the Lido Pool. One thing that stood out to me was the hot tubs...seems like every time I walked through the enclosed pool area there was a line of people at least a dozen long waiting to get into the hot tub. Not sure if this is a European thing, but I've never seen a queue of people hovering over people in hot tubs before this cruise. Went off-tangent, but based strictly on ship itself Meraviglia/Grandiosa are excellent if you are okay with larger ships (5,000+ guests). It's the other little things that seem to bring negative reactions rather than the ship. *as someone that dabbles in the casino, I found Grandiosa to be very poor in slot selection, but it was also noticeably less popular than on any U.S. based cruise I've been on.

NY Pizza had the full menu up until 11:30pm when I was on the cruise before yours. I went up for a late night pizza a couple of times. (Actually, I can't speak for the deli sandwiches as I didn't look for those as I was pizza focused). I got fries and cheese nachos one night from the movie snacks menu and both were huge disappontments.

If you do end up on NCL in May, I'll look forward to seeing your thoughts or non-live postings as I have my first NCL cruise scheduled next February. I enjoy your trip reports for being informative and mostly rational. It's obvious you enjoy MSC (as do I), but you come across as fair and not a cheerleader.

When I embarked (started my cruise) in Barcelona I went through the line, got my cruise card and was walking onto the ship with less than 10 minutes. This is what I wrote when I started a trip report (that I never finished because I lost steam and got busy with work stuff): "Embarkation in Barcelona: This could not have been any easier or quicker. From the time the taxi dropped me off ~11:45am to stepping on-board was less than 10 minutes. In fact, embarking was quicker than returning to the ship at most of the ports. I think Palma de Mallorca (replacement port for cancelled La Goulette) was the only port I'd say was a quick return to ship."

In addition to many of the other great tips provided, I would add that the events in the Mediterranean tend to happen on a later schedule than the U.S. sailings. I have no experience with Carnival, but a couple of examples are the "Silent Disco" started at midnight on Grandiosa, but 10pm on Meraviglia. Similarly, the White Night and other parties (I think one was neon or tropical themed?) start a bit later in the evening. Barcelona was super quick to embark from, but a couple of the ports (most notably Genoa for my cruise) you may want to ensure you are budgeting some breathing room time-wise for getting back onto the ship. Lastly, I'm a big fan of Hola! Cantina on both Meraviglia and Grandiosa. It's not included, but is relatively cheap for a different lunch/dinner option (I think you can get AYCE for 16.99 Euros on Grandiosa). Also, the British Pub has some bites you can grab for fairly cheap as a lunch or quick snack. They don't really do a good job of advertising that. Oh, I almost forgot. Highly recommend the gelato shop. I had never had gelato before, but it was excellent. I think it's like 3 euros for a small cup or 5 Euros for an extra scoop (apologies if I'm getting my dollars and euros mixed up because the ships are almost identical)

Yes. I did Mediterranean cruise on Grandiosa this past October. Reservations for the free theatre shows opens at 6pm (If I remember correctly) the evening prior to the show so that the newly boarded passengers have a shot at reservations. Almost every performance eventually "sold out" when I was on the ship.

I was on the cruise before you and I can't say enough about how much I loved being on Rotterdam. I'm hoping to be back on it in August if things line up right. I laughed at your comment on the hangers. I swear I had twice the amount showing in your photo. As a solo traveler the amount of storage was more than I would need on a World Cruise if I never sent out laundry! I am kicking myself that I didn't explore enough and find that Crow's Nest/Explorations Cafe. Would have been a great afternoon spot to get some reading done while having a few drinks. Now I know for next time. Looking forward to the rest of your report on my new favorite ship.

You can look at the customer service line and come to a conclusion on how many are there to remove tips? Do you take a survey? I've been in that line quite a few times for various reasons unrelated to tips and nobody has ever volunteered this info nor have I overheard anyone discussing tip removal while I was waiting.

I think there is a lot of mob mentality when it comes to MSC which leads to a lot of hyperbole in the reviews. I always discount any review where the reviewer obviously has an axe to grind or is being overly dramatic. I'm taking my third MSC cruise next month (Meraviglia). It's on a casino comp, so I have the Bella experience which I am not particularly enthused about as I have no control over my dining time (I don't know if Bella customers can get it changed, but I will certainly try if they stick me with 17:30). I thoroughly enjoyed my first Meraviglia cruise. My Grandiosa cruise in the Mediterannean was a bit less enjoyable for a number of reasons (mainly rudeness of other guests and everything on a later time schedule), but I will still quite satisfied based on the price I paid and would happily go again. My biggest gripes on MSC have been the buffet* (both food and the crowds), the $&%^! photographer set-ups**, the cocktails***, and the lack of any casual complimentary eatery**** *I am up eating breakfast as soon as buffet opens, so that keeps me away from the crowds. I rarely will go to buffet for lunch or dinner, but if I do I will try to avoid the prime times. **Minor thing, I'm sure, but the photo nights created a big logjam in foot traffic as they seem to set-up in the most common walking areas. ***I do not drink a lot of cocktails, but my daily bloody mary and pina coladas were decidedly inferior to anything I've had elsewhere. ****At the price point, I understand and don't mind paying a few bucks to eat at the Mexican joint or British pub (based on the ships I have been on). The MDR was perfectly fine for me. Was it great? No, but it wasn't bad or much different than what I experienced on Princess (HAL was another level food-wise, imo). I'm a solo traveler that is fairly easy to please, don't get riled up too much, don't need to make friends on a cruise and therefore do not care if they have solo events. The studio interior cabin was perfect for my needs on the Meraviglia, the studio aft balcony on Grandiosa did not have as good a bed and I hated the bathroom (or bathtub more specifically). I look forward to my first experience in a full size room next month. I got way too wordy, but bottom line is to not buy a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black and expect it to be equivalent to a Johnnie Walker Green and when it's not try to label it as some $5 rotgut. Temper your expectations because Black can be quite enjoyable for a large percentage of folks. (Or I think, I don't know, I don't drink whisky 🙂 )

I am not the one that posted, but I can tell you this isn't necessarily true. My first sailing on Meraviglia did not have my assigned dining time or MDR on my card when it was issued during the embarkation process. I asked about it and was told to see the Maitre D' when I got on the ship to get an assignment. When I arrived, I was given options for dining times and he hand-wrote my selection on my card. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the assignment isn't made automatically. It worked well for me; I was only the 2nd person waiting to talk to the Maitre D' and I got to pick a time I wanted.

I was on the previous cruise and the current cruise is her last one (for now).

I can't seem to sleep in when I'm on vacation, so I was always one of the few at the breakfast buffet when it opened and also one of the first to grab a lounger on the Horizon deck during my sailing this past July. That being said there always seemed to be available space, though admittedly I was done with my lounging time by 11:30am.

This was fixed for me when I was on Caribbean Princess. One of the staff that sits right outside the Internet Lounge/Library area worked diligently to get it resolved. She even went out of her way to find me on the ship a couple of times to continue helping. It took a full 24 hours to finally get fixed, but she got it done. I wish I could remember her name, but I gave her a glowing review in my feedback to Princes. But, no, I had absolutely zero progress before I boarded. On-board I felt like a valued customer, on the phone I felt like a nobody.

Thanks! Hmmm, that Painkiller sounds interesting. May have to check the couch cushions so I can get one of those, too. 🙂

My first HAL cruise is next month. So I'm understanding from this thread that we only pay the overage costs? I mostly drink beer, but probably indulge in one pina colada and one bloody mary per day. Not worth upgrading but would just switch to a daiquiri if I was expected to pay the full $11.50.

I'm planning to see both again when I return to Meraviglia in March. Hopefully will get full experience. Those drinks are not really what I would normally drink, but maybe I'll give them a try.

Theater shows: I was unable to take in as much of the entertainment on this cruise. Being port intensive, I didn't get in any afternoon naps and I was flat-out exhausted in the evenings. Main theater: On Meraviglia I booked all my shows as soon as I got on-board. On this cruise you could only book after 6:30pm the night before. I assume this is because there are different embarkation ports and they don't want shows sold-out before people even get on-board. I booked almost every night,but ended up canceling all but one reservation. Unlike my other cruise where there were empty seats usually available right up until show time (I went to the 3rd show every night on that cruise and at least 20% of the theater was empty seats each show), these shows were all sold out for all three performances. I went to "Rock It" which was a tribute to Rock N' Roll. Interestingly, of the 7 or 8 songs they did I would be hard-pressed to classify three of them as "rock n' roll". The theater was packed and the show was probably the best of all the theater shows I've seen on MSC. Though I am still trying to figure out why the dancers had a big Lion's face planted on the front of their costume when they performed "Eye of the Tiger". Carousel Theater: Conversely, the Carousel shows were quite popular on Meraviglia, but on this ship the inner bowl wasn't filled and nobody sat in the outer section. The second show I saw was "Sweet" and that one was glaringly not well attended during the performance I attended. I missed the live music performer before the show as it filled up the time. Here was just 30 minutes or so of waiting for the show. I can understand them not opening the bar in the theater for the show, but I am not able to understand why you can't bring a drink in with you. It's not like they don't want drinks inside since they include a pr-made drink with your ticket. The drink options are never something I would want. I can't do a direct comparison of the shows to the Meraviglia because the Meraviglia shows did not have aerial or stage movement due to safety concerns with rough seas. That being said, both "Strings" and "Sweet" were enjoyable, but Strings was probably a bit better because it had a more cohesive story to follow. I would guess that I might have preferred the Meraviglia shows had I seen the full experience as intended. Either way, I think it was money well spent and I enjoy these shows more than the free offerings.

Buffet: I only went to the buffet for lunch once because of the port-intensive itinerary and my desire to stay out of the crowd madness. On that day I went to the back and grabbed a couple of slices of pizza (the white pizza and a plain cheese slice, both of which I knew I liked from Meraviglia) and round 2 was some rice and with a piece of fish in curry sauce. I really liked that. Breakfast buffet was an entirely different experience on this cruise. On the Bahamas cruise I was up and entering the buffet right at 6:30am and there were very few people there during my 30-45 minutes of breakfast and several coffees. On this cruise it was not quite the madhouse as at lunch, but it quickly became what I would call fairly busy soon after 6:30am. As for the food, it had most of the basic staples one would expect as far as breads/muffins/pastries, fruits, eggs (scrambled, fried or omelettes), waffles/pancakes, potatoes and breakfast meats. As an American I can admit that we tend to overcook eggs, particularly scrambled. The scrambled eggs on Grandiosa are the opposite end of the spectrum where I think many Americans would be turned off with how much less cooked they are comparatively. They were okay for me, but I'd prefer a happy medium between the two. I tended to just get a ham and cheese omelette unless the wait was long. I think the waffles and pancakes are as good as I've had on a buffet, but I did not see any maple syrup anywhere. They did have multiple types of fruit syrups, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce with and without bananas and whipped cream so you could turn your breakfast into a sundae. I opted for the caramel sauce with bananas which was quite good even though it would not be my preferred topping for breakfast. Sauteed potatoes were good, sausage links were meh and bacon was...well, I'm just not sure they know how to cook American bacon. It was somehow overcooked and undercooked at the same time. In my mind I thought it was like eating rashers that had the appearance of American bacon. I also love the chocolate croissant things, though that probably isn't the proper name for them.

Room service: This probably should have gone under budget paid dining, but I forgot. I had the Fantastica experience, so I had asked the steward for room service door hangers so I could request some coffee for early morning. Alas, 7:30am was the earliest option which was well after I would want that delivery. Meraviglia started at 6:00am and this fit the trend of everything being on a later schedule in the Mediterranean. There was one evening I skipped the MDR due to a late lunch and ordered a pizza (6 euros?). It came very promptly, maybe a few minutes less than the 20 minutes I was quoted. Super pleasant delivery person and the pizza was hot and tasty. So, there were a number of different pizza options ranging from 5-9 euros. There was also a separate room service menu that was reasonably priced (I think it was 4 euros for one item, 5 or 6 euros for two items? I failed and didn't take a photo. Not sure how much you get charged if you order more than two items because it didn't list that info.)

Thanks. Wasn't sure if it was throughout Spain or not. Below is what took over an hour for me to get picked up to go to cruise terminal. It's a long read, but maybe helps someone else new to cruising out of Barcelona. Explanation of why things took so long for me. So, my hotel was not in a good location for taxi or Uber pickup and I walked down to a little park area where there happened to be a taxi stand. Well, there were no taxis waiting and I gave it a few minutes before deciding to use Uber. After the 15 minute wait I got to choose the method and they had more options than I'm used to. Two of those options were for "flat rate taxi" or "metered taxi". I chose flat rate taxi since I had no idea what a metered taxi would cost. After 10 minutes of searching I got a message that there were no flat rate taxis available and I needed to choose a different method, so I then chose a metered taxi and went through this whole rigamarole again. Now, this is probably where you ask why I waited for them to search for so long instead of choosing a different option and the truth is that I just wasn't sure if I would need to do the 15-minute wait again if I canceled the search because it wouldn't allow me to simply back-up and change methods, I had to cancel the order. During this time I also did not see any taxis arrive at the taxi stand, so I figured I had to stick with it. After the two timed out attempts, I switched to a regular Uber. It searched for a few minutes and I got a prompt that I could be made a "priority" for another 4 euros and I took that option..Almost immediately a driver was found with an estimated 11 minutes until pick-up. As I'm waiting I should note that taxis starting picking up other people around me from the street (not the taxi stand). My Uber went well past me in the opposite direction and veered from the route the map showed, so I assumed he was dropping off a passenger he already had when he accepted my call. We are well past the 11-minute mark at this point and the time on the app keeps increasing. Finally the Uber is coming back towards me, I note the car and license plate and stop watching the screen. After what seems like too long I look at the map and the driver has gone past where I am and into a completely different area withg my wait time now showing 20 minutes and increasing. I had turned down two taxis already that pulled up to me because I didn't want to get stuck with the Uber fare, so I messaged the driver asking why he is driving away from me and he replied he was in traffic. Having familiarized myself a bit with the area, I knew the driver was on a direct route to where I was when I turned off my screen and there is no way he went that far out of his way without intention. I don't know how Uber works, but my best guess was that he stacked multiple pick-ups if that's possible. Anyways, a taxi showed up asking if I needed a ride and I jumped in and cancelled the the Uber. I was assuming I would need to fight Uber on the charge (I think in US you only have a certain amount of time to cancel before being charged whether you take the ride or not?), but I was never charged. The taxi was less than half what the Uber would have cost anyways. Lesson learned. I fully intend to cruise out of Barcelona again and will make sure my hotel has street access and will just have a taxi called to the hotel.

(Budget) Paid Dining: I don't do the upscale specialty dining, but I did eat at Hola!, Masters of the Sea (Brass Anchor) and I grabbed some gelato. Hola!: Menu is identical to Meraviglia and food was just as good. The Dulce de Leche dessert cemented itself as definitely one of my favorite desserts ever. Masters of the Sea: They only had 4 items which were two burgers, a hot dog and fish & chips. All were 5 euros. I had the fish & chips and thought they were really good, though the tartar sauce has a bit something different in it I wasn't a fan of. The Meraviglia menu was at least twice the size and more appealing overall. Gelato: I got a scoop of Dulce de Leche and a scoop of Oreo. Both were fantastic. Ok. That's all I have time for tonight. Will pick up tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me know and now I know to make sure I pack my own washcloths or loofah when crossing the Atlantic. Seems like it is a sensitive subject and I apologize if I offended anyone with my American expectations of a good scrub.

Included Dining: As I said, I had a 6:30pm dining time which I was happy about because I didn't want the dreaded 5:15pm time. No reason to worry, though, since I believe the first dining time was 6:00pm. There were four MDRs with seatings ranging from 6:00pm to 10:00pm (could be 9:30, but I think it was 10). The menus offerings were not as enticing to me on this cruise, but I did manage to find two entrees to order for every dinner. A few nights I skipped a starter because there was nothing I wanted. The "always available" options were extremely limited and consisted of just four items: Gardener's Minestrone, Pasta with tomato/basil sauce, Pasta with Bolognese and “side dishes” (vegetable of the day/steamed veggies). I believe Meraviglia always had a fish (salmon) and meat option in addition to soup (French onion), salad and pasta. Elegant Night did not have steak and/or lobster, so that was a bit disappointing. That being said, I was relatively happy with everything I ate. 2-3 of the entrees were very slightly overcooked. That's better than undercooked and fairly understandable in my opinion in that environment. So, that's a bit nitpicky. I'd say the Duck a L'Orange was underwhelming and maybe my most disappointing entree while Escargots in puff pastry was not something I loved. I have never had Escargot, but I was determined to be risky and try them on a cruise. These were not the drenched in garlic and butter type I always see in videos and I just was praying I wouldn't humiliate myself and vomit in the dining room. Well, I got through it fine and still want to try the other kind because those look better. Also, the Osso Bucco which was my favorite meal on the Meraviglia was not as good on the Grandiosa. That may be the only dish I had that I could compare between the ships. I have the food porn photos and menus that I can add if anyone needs to see them. There are a lot of photos and they are on my phone and couldn't do that right now.

Embarkation in Barcelona: This could not have been any easier or quicker. From the time the taxi dropped me off ~11:45am to stepping on-board was less than 10 minutes. In fact, embarking was quicker than returning to the ship at most of the ports. I think Palma de Mallorca (replacement port for cancelled La Goulette) was the only port I'd say was a quick return to ship. Side note for Barcelona: Uber is kind of a pain due to regulations requiring a 15-minute wait before they start searching for a driver. I also chose a bad hotel location (entry was in an alley and I had to walk a bit to get to a spot where I could be picked up). After an hour of aggravation with Uber, I cancelled my so-called "priority" Uber that I paid extra for and took a taxi off the street. I could go into what happened in that one hour, but don't want to bore you any more 🤣. By the way, the taxi was about half the cost of what my Uber would have been and is what I would recommend.