Anastas617

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.

I forgot the "general solo stuff", but honestly not much to say. I was assigned a 6:30pm dining time and was seated alone (as I was on Meraviglia) which I was happy about. The "singles meet-up" was nightly at 7:00pm which seems like an awkward time. Maybe not, though since I quickly learned this cruise was on an entirely different time rhythm than U.S. based cruises. I may or may not have attended anyways as I'm not the most outgoing person, but I will certainly chat if someone else initiates.

Studio Balcony (Aft): So, on Meraviglia I had an interior studio and I really liked it. This studio balcony room was more of a love/hate relationship. There was a bit more free space in the room, but the “bed” was smaller (the interior room bed was 1.25 – 1.5x bigger, I would estimate). It was a couch that could be used as bunk beds, but for my purposes was just a couch twin bed. I'm assuming the purpose is that it could be packaged with the adjoining room for families, but since there are so few of these rooms I'm not sure that happens (?). I hated the bathroom. I feel like the interior on Meraviglia had a better set-up and a stand-up shower while this one had a tub/shower. I’m 5’8” and overweight, but have no mobility issues and I did not feel entirely safe with this tub; getting in was okay because there was a spot to grab and the tub was dry, but getting out had very little to grab, the tub floor was wet with no skid things or whatever are often on the bottom of tubs, the height of the tub wall is pretty high and the floor of the tub is actually a good 3-4 inches higher than the floor of the bathroom. Anyways, I that I was going to slip a few times getting out. The balcony was nice to have and I did spend some time out there, but I usually find the price difference not worth it for me because I just don't get a ton of use. In this case the price was only $100 more than I paid for my interior on Meraviglia, so I would likely choose this room again, but I would not pay much more than that for the upgrade. Being on Deck 14 was great because I rarely need to use the elevator during peak times, but I definitely got my steps in since it is so far from the elevators/stairs. Probably the least positive service experience from the steward in that I had to ask for things multiple times that I shouldn't have; pool towel, washcloths, room service door hanger, bed covering (originally the mattress pad was the only thing on top of the bed). He was very responsive and a nice gentleman when I asked for these things, though. By the way: Is it a European thing to not have washcloths in hotels? I'm not being a wise guy, but honestly asking. I went to two hotels in England and one in Spain this year and none of them had washcloths. Ireland is the only other place in Europe I have had a hotel (so far), but that was a few years back and I don't recall.

Hello all. I’m back from my Mediterranean Cruise on the MSC Grandiosa. I didn’t write a full trip report as I did with my first MSC cruise on the Meraviglia, but I thought I’d give some thoughts on the ship and the experience overall. I'll try to break up specific areas in separate responses for easier (and hopefully, shorter) following. Quick details on me: Primarily solo traveler, male, late 40s. I'm pretty easy to satisfy, for the most part, and don't personally find value in things such as Yacht Club or the higher-priced specialty dining. That being said, for the price point of MSC, I find great value in paying for the Carousel shows and lower priced add-on dining/treats. This was my third cruise and my first not focused in the Bahamas/Caribbean. My second MSC cruise, so I will likely make a lot of comparisons to the Meraviglia. I'll start with my studio room and general solo stuff.

I'm in the midst of writing up my thoughts from my Grandiosa cruise last week. I also had a studio balcony and I absolutely hated the bathroom, particularly that tub/shower. I really thought I was going to injure myself getting out a couple of times. I preferred my studio interior on Meraviglia, though I did spend a bit of time on the balcony and enjoyed having the ability to look outside. (Interestingly, my couch bed did not actually fold out. I think it could become bunk beds though I had no reason to ask).

Enjoyable review @CruisingWalter. I had seen your channel come up in my feeds before, but now that I know it's from a helpful CC poster I'm subscribed 🙂 . I do really appreciate how there were a number of items that were subpar, but you had a good attitude about it when stating the flaws. There are too many overly dramatic reactions to food that didn't meet someone's expectations and I discount those opinions immediately. Thanks for sharing @Stockjock

My bad! For some reason I thought it was this upcoming January. Fifteen months away is a whole different ballgame than three months. So, now I have egg on my face 🙂 . I shouldn't read forums and work at the same time as I miss some details! 🤣

My first HAL cruise is in February on the Rotterdam and I'm just wondering if it's a normal thing to cancel an existing cruise so a group can charter it? Everyone seems so nonchalant about it in the responses and I'd probably be pretty PO'd if that was the reason and it was just a few months away. I understand nothing is guaranteed, just wondering if this is a very rare circumstance (if that is, in fact, the reason for the cancelled cruise).

Thanks. I might have missed it on the Aerobus site, but another Tourist site had it at approximately 35 minutes from City Centre. I was planning to head to stop about 14:00 anyways, so sounds good.

Looking forward to the report. I will actually be on the Grandiosa in a solo balcony next week. Very much looking forward to the experience.

Thank you so much for this valuable information. This is exactly the information I needed. Do you happen to know the time estimate for the Aerobus to the airport? I have booked my luggage pick-up time as 15:00. Many thanks.

Yeah, I don't know. This is what I have on my reservation, so maybe they improved it to 2 or reduced it to 1 at some point. I booked a few months ago. Either way, the Plus is definitely a benefit if you will take advantage of the perks.

I only have 1 free specialty restaurant meal on a 7-day cruise, so not sure if they lessened or bettered the offer at some point (for the basic Free at Sea). It's definitely something to look at, but not for me. Everything I drink is already covered, but if I could stack the $50 excursion credit it would make sense as that would pay for half the upgrade. If I decide to upgrade to unlimited WiFi it's only $109 vs $294 for the Plus package. The specialty dining doesn't matter to me either and even if I wanted to grab Starbucks it wouldn't come close to the upgrade price. It's why I always chuckle at the Princess Plus posts/discussions/arguments. Just do the math based on how you want to cruise. Worth noting that the gratuity charges for the drink package and specialty dining are not included in the package pricing.

I booked a cruise on NCL for Feb 2025 mostly because I wanted to check out another line, and price was fair (imo) for the studio room with Free at Sea. That being said, I definitely am wary of some aspects I've seen in vlogs and on CC; the tiny venues top the list for me. I chose NCL because I really have no interest in Carnival or RC. RC seems to have to worst pricing for a solo traveler and the fluctuating pricing on drink packages is annoying (and they seem overpriced comparatively). I'm glad to get a review like this from somebody that appears rational and not agenda-driven. The info about the buffet having mostly pre-made items is perplexing and disappointing, though.

I have had multiple casino offers for HAL from a land-based casino. My first HAL cruise will be a casino comp in February.

Unfortunately, AFAIK you won't know the times until you get your excursion ticket the night before. I'm on a Mediterranean cruise soon and I've been told they organize many of the excursions by language, so on a 4-hour excursion French and Spanish speakers may have morning tours while Italian and English speakers may be in the afternoon for the same tour. I think it's great to cater to different languages to make things easier, but it's also maddening to try to plan your free time in advance. Not sure if this is the same for a Caribbean-based cruise.

It is possible, but I was informed it was only for flights after 3pm. Here is what I wrote in my trip report: "On my way to lunch I stopped at Guest Services to inquire about transfer services to LaGuardia airport. I was told that they had them, but only for flights after 3pm. I was a bit confused and told them I didn’t want the excursion in NYC + transfer, just asking if they had a direct shuttle to the airport. Well apparently, her first answer was for the direct shuttle. I thought that made no sense because I would expect folks with earlier flights would want their transport arranged and I told her that. She got into something about possible immigration hold-ups and I just said ok and left. (My flight was 2:15pm and I knew I’d get there plenty early anyways, just figured the transfer might save a few bucks)"

Ahh! The "I'm happy to share info with third parties" box? That would be the most likely reason I have never seen anything. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks. I don't think I did online check-in until a few days before my July cruise and I haven't done it for my October cruise yet. I guess I thought it was weird to check-in so far in advance. I'll take care of that tonight. EDIT: Sorry. I didn't mean to hijack the thread.

I booked direct with MSC. I searched through my emails and spam folder in case I missed something, but there was nothing.

When do the upgrade bid emails go out? I don't think I ever received one for my July cruise and I haven't received one for my October 23 cruise. Do they usually not send them to solo travelers?

Interesting. I found that area to be terribly congested during photo nights and wonder how this will possible make things worse (?) (one of the few complaints I had on my Meraviglia cruise was the disruption to the flow of foot traffic on the photo nights). Thanks for doing another report @JamieLogical. I found your previous Meraviglia trip report very entertaining and helpful prior to my July cruise. I'm actually booking a repeat NYC/Bahamas cruise for March on this ship that I loved.

Thanks for posting this. I'll be on Rotterdam for my first HAL cruise in February. I really like this itinerary and will keep it in mind when shopping for 2025.

From my lone experience, I did not notice a lot of obvious solo passengers. The solo meet-up in Wheelhouse appeared to be be people my age (mid-40s) and older. Again, just one cruise and I wasn't actively looking for other solos. The number of folks I would consider younger (under 35?) in general was a pretty small % of cruisers overall from my observations.

Something that popped into my head that I didn't touch on was the layout of the ship. The ship is beautiful, and I don't have a lot of negatives. The steak house and sushi restaurants on deck 7 led out into the walkways and had tables on the railing. This meant if you were walking towards aft on Deck 7, you ended up walking right through people eating dinner. I tried to remember to go down the stairs before heading that way, but if my destination is on Deck 7 (casino/carousel lounge) I wouldn't go downstairs only to walk back upstairs because of how they designed the restaurants. I suppose Brass Anchor fell into the same situation, but with a pub it didn't seems as intrusive. One thing on Caribbean Princess I enjoyed was hanging out on a chair or bench in the covered walkway (Deck 6?) that went around the ship. You could enjoy the breeze, relax and be out in the ocean air without being directly in the sun or on the busy upper deck. Small thing, but I'd have liked some sort of respite like this that was outdoors on Meraviglia. Perhaps there was and I just didn't discover it.