We took a Grimaldi overnight boat from Salerno to Catania. It’s a 13 hour trip, 9PM to 10 AM. Was nervous about this because online it had more bad reviews than good ones. That’s tough to ignore but 2 things made me decide to go for it: 1. The savings — more than half of other boat lines/ modes of transpo. 2. Most of the bad reviews seem to be because of timeliness and service (we weren’t in a strict schedule & as for the service, I’m expecting to be sleeping most of the time so…) –
In trying to manage expectations or maybe because I wasn’t expecting much, lol, it ended up becoming a really cool experience. A big part of that is because of Nick’s enthusiasm about seeing the logistics of how things work. This was a legit container boat and they were loading and working things out while we watch from the deck. It felt traditional and old-school. Like we were in a tour of a container ship — added bonus? Oh yeah. ? There was nothing fancy here but everything was nice and clean and comfortable — and we did sleep well in the cabin. The crew didn’t speak much English but we might have been the only people there who needed it anyway. They were kind & answered our questions/ helped us out as necessary. There was 1 restaurant and 1 cafe and food was pretty good and inexpensive. –
So…other people rated this a 2-3 star, but I’d totally give it a 5. With a disclaimer: not a fancy, romantic cruise. It’s a very comfortable, affordable mode of transportation + a possibility of being a cool experience of seeing things in action, if you’re into that stuff. –
This was also a lesson for me. As I’ve planned and researched, I’ve often relied on reviews to figure out where to eat/stay, what brand is good,etc. “Strength in numbers” and all that. Or maybe it’s just me, grasping for control in unfamiliar or unknown territory. But, depending on the area/city you’re in, you maybe missing out on hidden gems if you rely heavily on reviews. I’ve noticed this to be true esp on less popular destinations/cities. You’re better off walking around + letting the energy of the moment guide you. Allow yourself to not know what to do.
