Grandiosa from Marseille 10-17 January 2020

[alicat58]

 

This seems to be the sum total of my Barcelona photos. The Picasso museum is supposed to be no photos and I did not take any though we saw lots of people snapping away and the staff did not stop them.

 

This is it for now. I'll post my last few later in the week. Some random sunset pics and maybe some more food and drink photos.

 

Riana

[lovetoholiday]

Thank you for sharing your photos.

[tcmagnum]

20 hours ago, alicat58 said:

 

I am no artist but I think the detail on some of these are absolutely amazing. So even if you think it is creepy to wander around a graveyard, this is more of an art gallery.

Amazing detail in these statues.  You have a way with taking pictures...

[alicat58]

Thank you.

[alicat58]

Some last random photos.

Sunshine on buildings in Genoa.

Cat in Civitavecchia. I love cats. I am sadly down to one old boy now.

Sailing into Palermo. So pretty with the light on the buildings and the dark mountains behind.

 

Valetta sailing in.

And out. I hoped to add some of DH's photos but I think they are to big to upload.

A sunset or sunrise one. No idea where this was taken, lol.

Chocolate dessert lunch time.

Coffee-not the small cup at the back. Just to give you an idea which Italian coffee is used aboard when you have a drinks package.

More chocolate pudding. I love pudding. We don't eat any at home for a very good reason.

Espresso and a Baileys to wash it down. Nice little choccie with the coffee.

This is one of the €12 cocktails. It is called Fizz la Poire. Amongst other things Pear vodka and clearly Fizz. Prettily presented with a massive block of ice with some sort of berry in it(We had blue berry and strawberry). Very nice indeed.

This was one of the courses at Hola Tapas. Very nice but we were already so full that we could not do it justice.

Devilled egg starter in Butchers Cut. Could happily do without those bit of chicken skin. Will know better next time if I order that.

The prawn starter in Butchers cut. hey sit on ice which we thought took away from the flavour.

Snacks in the Skybar(lounge). We had these nice ones two nights in a row and there after the usual crisps and stuff that you get in the other bars. Nice touch we thought.

This on is for Bea. The cheese cake in Butchers cut. DH thought it was nice.

DH took this in a restaurant in Valetta because Sophia Loren is the godmother of the MSC ships.

 

So, that is it.

 

Some final thoughts. We loved this cruise and would go on the Grandiosa at the drop of a hat. The ports are changing in a few months and she will be going to Naples and Messina. I might twist DHs arm to do that later this year. We won't bother with the dining package again and just enjoy our freebie. If we have the Premium package included in the deal we might upgrade again but to be honest I did not have as much champagne as I thought I would have, most of the wines we liked were included in the premium package anyway and though we enjoyed those purple cocktails, I won't spend the extra cash just for those.

 

We thought the lunches in the MDR were good and despite being very busy the service was fine. We learnt after the first day to take a glass of wine in with us as there was a bit of a long wait to get a glass. The puddings were to die for.

 

We enjoyed the breakfasts in the buffet as well as the MDR.

 

The only speciality restaurant we really enjoyed was Butchers cut. The Bisto was fine but the choices for main courses were limited and so-so. Hola tapas was OK but just that. DH loves sushi and  don't. He did not enjoy the Sushi place and I was starving. We ended up in the buffet in formal clothing having pizza(good) and hot dogs(I only had the sausage).

 

So that is it.

 

Riana

[CelebrationFamily]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review and pics! We sail the Grandiosa on the 8 night itinerary in March...can't wait! 😎

[Number34]

Riana,

really enjoyed your review, thanks.

We are on Grandiosa in April when it visits Naples and are looking forward to it very much.

With regards to your dinner package I am tempted but, like you, do not fancy the sushi! Would it be better to just pay to visit Butchers Cut and the Bistro? Where there any offers once you were on board?

[Juicebuster]

Hi and thank you for the excellent review. We are travelling on Grandiosa in July Genoa B2B and have a balcony aurea class. One question do you know where the exclusive Sun deck is located this is only for Aurea guests. Think it might be the place to go when you want some peace and quiet

[alicat58]

Hi

 

Number34 they were punting the speciality restaurant packages on all the boarding days but I did not look to see if they had any specials. We prebooked the 4 meals deal from home. We did have a bit of an issue with it. You have to prebook the dates from home but still have to confirm once aboard. There were large groups of Asian passengers who also did this and their cruise planners booked all the early tables. Yet if you got there a bit early the restaurants were deserted. This was really frustrating because we do not like to eat very late.

 

Juicebuster I have no idea about the private pool deck and I did not keep the ships map which you can get from guest services. I like to have a paper copy to see the whole thing in one go. What I can tell you is that the Aurea restaurant is on deck 7 opposite the Butchers cut(across the dome area). Being January all the outside decks were quiet. The indoor pool area was a different story.

 

Scary about the Costa Smerelda. We are supposed to board 4weeks on Saturday.

 

Riana

[CelebrationFamily]

Again, thanks for answering our many questions about the Grandiosa!

 

And, yes, very scary about the Costa. It's certainly not the main point, and I don't mean to make light of those affected directly by the virus, but it looks like travel this spring is going to be a "challenge." 😷