MSC Grandiosa, Western Mediterranean and Atlantic
2
MSC GRANDIOSA
All in all a nice ship, this was our 1st time on an MSC Cruise, our only other cruise was with Royal Caribbean which I have to say is so much better,
STAFF
Most of the staff are very happy & helpful, as with any work place there are a few that stand out for being miserable & on this cruise it was the staff behind the bars, after 7 days on here there has only been 1 member of staff behind the bar who was happy to help, by far the worst is the adult only bar next to the kids club, they refuse to serve you at the bar you have to wait to be served, after sitting in the bar for over 20 minutes waiting to be served we decided to leave, all the waiters & waitresses in the restaurant were very happy & helpful,
HOUSEKEEPING
The ship is clean & well maintained, & all the cleaners were smiling & talkative, we had Glenn who was permanently smiling, the towels were changed daily if required, the beds were rolled down at night, & each day we docked the maintenance team were immediately doing more sanding or painting, my only gripe would be the balcony was only cleaned once in the week we were on board which after spending a day on the beach meant there was sand on the balcony for a couple of days,
FOOD
Food was plentiful & always hot, there was always a good choice of options, the snack bar was always busy & well stocked, unfortunately the safety briefing tannoy announcement could not be heard at dinner times due to the amount of people rushing to eat, you have to be prepared to walk around looking for a table at busy periods as the Market place canteen has more people eating than the tables & chairs therefore becoming a bit of a scrum to sit down, if you have small children its worth sitting them 1st & choosing their food for them as in the rush to eat kids will be pushed & bumped, my little one was shoved about 10 times in 1 lunchtime, if however you prefer the more relaxed option you can go to your assigned restaurant for breakfast & lunch which avoids all the crowds & shoving, however the menu is limited to the choice on that day,
KIDS CLUB (under 7)
Our youngest who is 6 visited the kids club & loved every minute of it, the staff are very good with the children & they can even take them to dinner should the child want to stay there for dinner, on a really negative point immediately after picking my son up from the kids club my son cut his finger whilst showing us how he was dancing, in doing this he jumped dropping a small bottle of juice which broke & sliced his finger, my wife took him to the toilet to wash his finger & see how bad the cut was, I walked to the kids club which was approx 50ft away, I explained what had happened & asked for a plaster, I was given a huge dressing pad, gloves & a tissue, after again requesting a plaster I was advised the kids club first aid box does not contain plasters, hearing my son screaming from the toilets a cleaner offered to take us to the medical centre, she took us through the staff only route which was quicker, on arrival the medical centre was closed so she called the number & explained the situation, we was then advised if we wanted the cut to be examined out of hours we would have to pay €160 up front plus any medication, or we could go back after 09:00hrs the next day, i was fuming that a child had cut himself & the medical centre would not see him without us paying a fortune, clearly the medical centre is run as a business first
TEENS CLUB
My eldest son (14) visited the teens club, its basically kids ignoring each other for hours, the entertainment crew for this club advertised a Switch game competition so my son asked for all the details, he was advised turn up, but I doubt we will run it as the kids do what the kids do he said it was advertised as a competition & the leader replied we have to advertise something there is a football/basketball area which is chaos, on 1 day there was approx 40 kids of all ages trying to play football & basketball on the same floor space which was an accident waiting to happen
GAMES AREA
The games area is clean, there is a bar & a small amount of seating, on our week on the ship the following games were not working, skee ball games x 2, bowling alleys x 2, all star basketball shot x 2, all not working, the only games in this area working was formula 1 driving, the virtual maze, the interactive cinema all I believe €10 euros per person, or air hockey which was €4.50 per go & always had a queue because it was the only thing working
Overall the cruise was good, however the negative points have left me feeling I could have spent a little bit more money & gone on a Royal Caribbean cruise which was more luxurious,
Would I go with MSC again? Probably not,
Tom
Post Date: 26/08/2023
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