Live from Virtuosa June 2024

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, alserrod said:

BTW, can you post some dinner menus and daily program?

 

Thanks

Menu for today attached. The food so far has been good with sufficient choice, for me anyway.

Edited June 6 by Eglesbrech

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, 8420PR said:

I remember one cruise where there were lots of people complaining (for no apparent reason) - and that cruise was my husbands favourite one.  Sometimes he likes nothing more than to have a good moan, and he met a lot of new people, making friends through their shared experiences of "terrible service" and "disastrous embarkation" and everything else.   So my take (from living with a moaner) is it is how some people enjoy their holiday and meet new people, and it doesn't really matter if they knew in advance or it's wildly exaggerated and so on.  

I recognise your observations in some of the people we have spoken to 😀

[showingdiva]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Menu for today attached. The food so far has been good with sufficient choice, for me anyway.

 

Good to see the always available spaghetti olio e aglio - my favourite MSC dish

[perakcruiser]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Not much opens until 10 am but we got off, had a walk and headed up the hill to El Cortes ingles (it has a lovely fancy food hall there so we pop in to see what we can find to take home).

A nearby Corte Ingles is the best attraction in many ports, for example it is the by far best sight in boring Palma de Mallorca, only reason to leave the ship there for me 😄 Also great to buy the gifts for friends and family. In Tenerife it is located at the bus station for the bus to the airport. Also strategically good.

 

Vigo I have been in my student days when I liked to do the "Interrail" in Europe. Remember that I went to the ticket counter in Madrid to buy a ticket to "Celta". I only knew the football club and thought the name of the city is "Celta" not "Vigo". It really was a long discussion to get the ticket in these pre-internet-days 😄

 

The only other thing I remember from Vigo is the fish market where I ate wonderful fresh clams on a Sunday morning after arriving with the night train from Madrid. 

 

 

[Eglesbrech]

[alserrod]

11 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

A nearby Corte Ingles is the best attraction in many ports, for example it is the by far best sight in boring Palma de Mallorca, only reason to leave the ship there for me 😄 Also great to buy the gifts for friends and family. In Tenerife it is located at the bus station for the bus to the airport. Also strategically good.

 

Vigo I have been in my student days when I liked to do the "Interrail" in Europe. Remember that I went to the ticket counter in Madrid to buy a ticket to "Celta". I only knew the football club and thought the name of the city is "Celta" not "Vigo". It really was a long discussion to get the ticket in these pre-internet-days 😄

 

The only other thing I remember from Vigo is the fish market where I ate wonderful fresh clams on a Sunday morning after arriving with the night train from Madrid. 

 

 

 

Lol.... full name is "Real Club Celta de Vigo" (almost half of Spanish teams have the word "real" in the name, not only one team from Madrid).

And almost all teams (even football, even basketball) have their city name inside their name.

Main exemptions are Osasuna (Pamplona), Real Sociedad (San Sebastian) and Athletic club (Bilbao).

In the case of Vigo, it usually appears as "Celta de Vigo"

 

For fish market, Vigo  is wellknown in Spain

 

 

 

[CruisingFox27]

18 hours ago, amurray88 said:

Gutted about the daily planners...will make sure to pick them up each day at reception. It's sad...but I keep them. When friends come round and ask about cruises - "stuck on a boat all day", "nothing to do" ...or even "what do you do during the day", I bring these out...

Not sad at all, not in my world, anyway. I always keep ours too. I have often referred back to them for our future cruises or looked up a detail in response to a CC question. I'll see if we have them delivered next week, if not I'll certainly be asking for them each day. I love getting back to the cabin and seeing the planner for the next day. Building excitement for the next days adventure. 

[alserrod]

24 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

A nearby Corte Ingles is the best attraction in many ports, for example it is the by far best sight in boring Palma de Mallorca, only reason to leave the ship there for me 😄 Also great to buy the gifts for friends and family. In Tenerife it is located at the bus station for the bus to the airport. Also strategically good.

 

Vigo I have been in my student days when I liked to do the "Interrail" in Europe. Remember that I went to the ticket counter in Madrid to buy a ticket to "Celta". I only knew the football club and thought the name of the city is "Celta" not "Vigo". It really was a long discussion to get the ticket in these pre-internet-days 😄

 

The only other thing I remember from Vigo is the fish market where I ate wonderful fresh clams on a Sunday morning after arriving with the night train from Madrid. 

 

 

 

 

And about El Corte Inglés, it will be a nice option may anyone wanna buy some Spanish wine (or even Spanish olive oil)

 

I wrote about it here

 

[morpheusofthesea]

7 hours ago, 8420PR said:

I remember one cruise where there were lots of people complaining (for no apparent reason) - and that cruise was my husbands favourite one.  Sometimes he likes nothing more than to have a good moan, and he met a lot of new people, making friends through their shared experiences of "terrible service" and "disastrous embarkation" and everything else.   So my take (from living with a moaner) is it is how some people enjoy their holiday and meet new people, and it doesn't really matter if they knew in advance or it's wildly exaggerated and so on.  

This is one of the best posts I have ever had the pleasure to read. Thank you !

[showingdiva]

I've never understood the relentless moans across social platforms about Virtuosa.  The product isn't perfect, but considering the size of the ship, the number of passengers and crew etc, she does well, especially some of the favourable prices of mass market cruising on a relatively new ship.    She's not Regent, Seabourn or Viking (aside from anything else, MSC now have Explora to challenge them).

[Peanut006]

Hi Eglesbrech, I am really glad I have found this thread to read about your experience on MSC. I have not sailed with MSC since 2017 when we were on Divina in the Caribbean.

 

I booked an MSC cruise yesterday on Grandiosa, Feb 2026 out of Port Canaveral.

We are going with my daughter and her hubby, his parents and our grandchildren.

 

The grandchildren are so excited to be going to the Caribbean. We intend to spend a few days before in Florida.

 

Thank you for writing daily updstes

 

Michelle

[fabnfortysomething]

I agree about lack of live music-on final night we discovered guitarist/vocalist in masters of the sea bar-wish we had found earlier

[Eglesbrech]

Day 4 At Sea

 

Went for breakfast and they have now opened the Opera restaurant  in addition to Minuet. Apparently yesterday there was a 45 minute wait for a table and a lot of very unhappy people. We avoided that thankfully.

 

I have discovered that the bar on deck 5 has a pastry display in the morning and serves good coffee so that’s breakfast sorted, I’m not a big eater in the morning. 

 

There are some daytime activities but the permanent offering like the Himalayan walk, the splash pool and slides, sports area and the arcade are all well subscribed. There are a lot of younger children on here, I have seldom seen so many babies and toddlers in one place. MSC seem to be able to produce high chairs etc to accommodate from what I have seen.

 

I continue my exploration of the cocktail list and have found another nice one, a raspberry mojito  which is lovely and sharp (only to discover that it is about to be taken off the list!). 

 

The weather is perfect for us,  not too hot but the real sun worshipers are less happy. We visited the Aurea solarium area, it’s a nice space with both open and shaded areas to sit or lie and a a large jacuzzi for those who like them, that looks towards the jumbo screen so you could take in a film. It also looks over towards the area where they are doing some of the filming for the Good Ship Murders on the other end, which is interesting to watch

 

We have managed to get seats for our preferred theatre performances easily enough. The middle show seems to be the most popular and is “sold out” every evening. The shows are fine, nothing like as good as on some other lines but every cruise company has its strengths and weaknesses.

 

I have managed to get them to deliver a daily programme but only after a little push back initially (I use an iPad so I don’t want to carry that around with me). There is a QR code in the room to download this electronically which OH uses for his phone.

 

Interestingly OH scanned the QR code for the restaurant menus on day 1 and it automatically updates each day (breakfast stays the same). Quite nice to see what is on offer in advance and decide if you want to go to the MDR or a speciality restaurant instead. We have been to a couple already and both were very nice.

 

Just a word about dress code, it appears that there is not one at all. Personally I do my own thing and OH and I still dress more traditionally for dinner. Others choose their own style. Many of the gents wear tailored shorts and collared shirts, they look very smart. Others are shall we say less stylish, that’s about as kind as I can get. No one bothers so basically do what you are comfortable with. Interestingly when we were on MSC in November when there was a greater mix of European passengers the dress was much more traditional, this cruise is mainly Brits (and in November we dined in YC).

[Eglesbrech]

6 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

Hi Eglesbrech, I am really glad I have found this thread to read about your experience on MSC. I have not sailed with MSC since 2017 when we were on Divina in the Caribbean.

 

I booked an MSC cruise yesterday on Grandiosa, Feb 2026 out of Port Canaveral.

We are going with my daughter and her hubby, his parents and our grandchildren.

 

The grandchildren are so excited to be going to the Caribbean. We intend to spend a few days before in Florida.

 

Thank you for writing daily updstes

 

Michelle

That sounds lovely Michelle. If there is anything specific you want to know I’ll help, if I can,

[Peanut006]

9 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

That sounds lovely Michelle. If there is anything specific you want to know I’ll help, if I can,

Just about the standard of the food in the dining room and in any speciality restaurant really. I know not to expect Celebrity standard!!! 
 

Thank you 

 

Michelle

[Eglesbrech]

6 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

Just about the standard of the food in the dining room and in any speciality restaurant really. I know not to expect Celebrity standard!!! 
 

Thank you 

 

Michelle

The food is perfectly nice, significantly better than we had on Aurora in April. The service is a bit slow, particularly at breakfast time.

 

The quality of produce is good. Decent liconshire sausages, thick bacon, fresh pastries etc.. The omelettes are fresh made to order and excellent. The orange juice is horrible, far too sweet and the coffee undrinkabke IMO (we use our package to get freshly squeezed juice and fresh expresso). They offer decent tea or hot chocolate.

 

The choice in the buffet is every bit as good as Celebrity but you need to pick your time to visit carefully as it is very busy and messy at peak times with massive queues. The food is however a very good standard and lots of choice of fresh items (they even make their own mozarella and pasta onboard). You must try the pizza which is also made fresh, we grab some and eat it on our balcony.
 

Lunch in the MDR has been enjoyable and we have always found something that suits us.  Not a lot of choice for veggies (unless there is another menu, as I’m not vegetarian I have not asked). For example today I had a veg samosa,  black turtle bean burrito with all the trimmings and floating island pudding all of which was very good. There is a selection of fresh made bread with every meal and it is really excellent, foccacio, rolls, brot, grissini etc.

 

We have enjoyed our dinners and as we are in Il Campo the Aurea anytime restaurant we have had the same waiter every night. He now knows I like my food hot, some of the food was a bit on the tepid side. It’s not fancy food but it’s all good fare and while it is laid out as three courses you can have a starter then soup, main dessert cheese etc if you want to. The Italian choices are always really good as you would expect, if in doubt order the pasta or risotto. There is always a fish / meat/ pasta/ veggie main as a minimum.

I don’t know what the main dining room is like at dinner but at lunch on sea days it’s a bit noisy but then I don’t like noise, so probably just me.

Been to two of the speciality restaurants and we enjoyed them both. Great steaks at the butchers cut and really good Mexican at Hola (lots of it, we didn’t even get to the main course!). They are significantly cheaper if you book as a package before boarding, as are the drinks packages.

 

To summarise there is little to complain about concerning the food but the service can be slow and the buffet is chaos if you go at the wrong time.

[Eglesbrech]

@Peanut006

[Eglesbrech]

Day 5 Madeira

 

For those who have not been before the ship docks right in Funchal about a 15 to 20 walk from the town. It’s a lovely compact city with lots to see and do, there are regular festivals and today it was culture week so we were treated to public art “cubes” and children’s choirs on every corner. Just lovely.

 

We did our usual round of shops and OH bought (more) stylish Madeiran shoes. We visited the amazing Fabrica St Antonio biscuit factory to stock up, these are more than just biscuits they are just amazing so look it up. Next stop Blandys for Madeira wine (this is why we drive as we can stop up on goodies).

 

We set off early and so got back onboard about 1.15 with no problem. Having coffee after lunch looking outside the  queues to get back on were horrendous. People as far as the eye could see. That’s one criticism of this ship, too many queues. I’m used to following the YC blue paddle and frankly on a day like today that’s when it is essential.

 

There was a regatta in the harbour so we sat on the balcony and enjoyed that.

 

The show and dinner tonight were both very good. We seem to have found a pattern to avoid the worst of the crowds onboard so it is possible.

 

As a point of interest MSC still do an evening turndown and tidy the cabin.  Our cabin is extremely well kept as a result.

[Peanut006]

Thank you for posting the menu, there looks to be some good choices 

 

Michelle

[TheJester]

Thank you for the updates so far. Is there any chance you could post a planner from a port day? Interested in the bar times as they usually differ from a sea day. 

 

Thank you!

[Eglesbrech]

6 minutes ago, TheJester said:

Thank you for the updates so far. Is there any chance you could post a planner from a port day? Interested in the bar times as they usually differ from a sea day. 

 

Thank you!

 

[TheJester]

Thank you!

 

We’re joining her in 3 weeks so getting some planning in. 

[Eglesbrech]

Day 6 Tenerife 

 

The ship is docked near to the town, around a 15 to 20 minute walk which is flat most of the way then there is a large ramp to go up from dock level to street level (there was a lift around to the right which was not very visible).

 

This is not my favourite port, just a bit grubby. There are however some good shops and Museums. There is a lot to do around the island but we have done it while staying in hotels here in the past. There is a large music festival on later today so we heard some of the acts practicing, very entertaining.

 

Entertainment is lacking on this ship (for this cruise, it has been better in the past) and what they do provide is over subscribed. We went down for the Pm quiz and it was full for example, no tables left. There still seems to be a lack of musicians around the ship in the evenings and the guest acts in the theatre are repeated a couple of nights later so if you didn’t like them first time round then there is no other show that night. I never noticed this quite so much before as YC has additional entertainment in Top Sail.

 

The ship seems to work on two levels. People like me get up and about early, visit the port and come back onboard. We have pre dinner drinks when the bars are quiet, see a show, eat dinner, hot chocolate then bed.

 

Meantime some are rising late, going into port as we come back, partying to the early hours etc.,  it works for all preferences.

 

The two groups merge in the evening about 8pm onwards and that’s when the bars etc are swamped with too many people (and when we head in to eat in Il Campo). There are definite peaks and troughs as dining sittings or theatre shows begin or end. One minute no seats and crowded, 5 minutes later take your pick.

 

We have never had issue asking for and getting a table for two at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Some of the tables however are very close together! We have chatted to some really lovely people as a result (and left those who wish to eat in silence to their privacy).

 

The food continues to be very good. The coffee from the bars is excellent and the choice of wines included in the package perfectly acceptable (and I’m quite fussy about wine).

[Eglesbrech]

Day 7 Grand Canaria

 

Again we are berthed right in town just a short walk from the HOHO buses, aquarium and main shopping area.

 

Today it’s hot, hot, hot. We headed out quite early for a long walk along the pretty beach front (straight forward from the ship about 15 minute walk). There was a surfing contest on so lots to see. The beaches are clean and very accessibile from the port so no need to book transfers if you like a decent walk.

 

As it’s Sunday the main shops are closed but tourist bars and shops are open.

 

There is a boat show on in port, we have been lucky with lots of local events on this cruise.

 

I have to say a word about lunch today: it was excellent. I would have happily paid a lot for the sole meunière they served and the wine was first class as well. Many dishes at lunch and dinner are just adequate but to be fair some are above and beyond, for a cruise ship.

 

There have been a lot of complaints onboard about soot damaging people’s clothes at the aft of the ship. We don’t tend to sit there so have not been affected so this is just for information.

 

Another nice little touch onboard is bar snacks. Every night we have crisps or nuts served with our pre dinner drinks (some other lines don’t do this anymore). While we don’t need the calories, this is a nice gesture. 

 

Another general tip. Bring all the medications you need eg paracetemol, sea sickness meds etc (which we did) as basics onboard are eyewateringly expensive

 

The ship is like a brick in the water, we have experienced zero swell onboard even when there are waves outside in the Atlantic. Great for those who tend towards seasickness  (like OH).

[Ryan82]

Enjoying this thread. Am also onboard. Agree with most of what you said but boiling hot food is mainly  a British thing 😀