Grimaldi Lines

[hhvferry]

For no obvious reason the Cruise Bonaria has been seeing use as a ro-ro on Grimaldi's Genoa-Porto Torres route for the past couple of weeks.

She's now in Civitavecchia ready to pick up the start of seasonal sailings on the Civitavecchia-Olbia line (until the start of those sailings the longstanding winter season agreement incongruously sees Grimaldi's booking engine divert you to the Tirrenia website).

[ManiaNave]

For no obvious reason the Cruise Bonaria has been seeing use as a ro-ro on Grimaldi's Genoa-Porto Torres route for the past couple of weeks.

She's now in Civitavecchia ready to pick up the start of seasonal sailings on the Civitavecchia-Olbia line (until the start of those sailings the longstanding winter season agreement incongruously sees Grimaldi's booking engine divert you to the Tirrenia website).

the cruise Bonaria was used on Genoa-Porto Torres to replace Eurocargo Sicilia which had gone to Turkey for construction
 

[ManiaNave]

Problems for Cruise Europa.

The ferry “Cruise Europa” will remain stationary for a few days following an engine failure most likely occurred in the last days during the arrival in Livorno coming from Olbia, the ship in fact after reaching the island of Elba went 13 knots to Livorno arriving late

[ManiaNave]

Cruise Europa will be out for a while and in its place on Liv-Olbia there is Cruise Bonaria

[dogan]

Here are a few pictures of Grimaldi (Minoan) Lines "Zeus Palace" exiting Palermo Harbour.
Pictures were taken in the evening of 16th May, from "Foro Italico" park at the entrance of the harbour.
(I took a lot of pictures, it was hard to select just a few ones... sorry for the long post !)




with Siremar 'Sansovino'






Such a long and elegant bow !!

[dogan]

A few more pictures of Grimaldi Lines ferries in Palermo (although not as good as previous ones) : 

Catania, running between Salerno - Palermo - Tunis, seen arriving in Palermo on 14th May 2023 from Tunis.


Cruise Ausonia in Palermo harbour on 12th May. She's on the Palermo - Napoli line, as well as GNV Aries and Vincenzo Florio which can be seen behind her.


 

[Risberg]

Here are a few pictures of Grimaldi (Minoan) Lines "Zeus Palace" exiting Palermo Harbour.
Pictures were taken in the evening of 16th May, from "Foro Italico" park at the entrance of the harbour.
(I took a lot of pictures, it was hard to select just a few ones... sorry for the long post !)




with Siremar 'Sansovino'






Such a long and elegant bow !!

How utterly sad!
 

[Risberg]

Catania in May

[SilverDot]

Article about Grimaldi starting the summer season on the Naples - Palermo route with Francesca Marino, passenger department manager of Grimaldi Lines (translated from Italian).

Fall asleep in Naples, wake up in Palermo. Or vice versa. A new challenge for Grimaldi Lines, which starts its first summer on the route between the two ancient southern capitals, aboard the next generation ferry Cruise Ausonia. A ten hour crossing linking two destinations united by centuries of history and cultural traditions, secular and religious icons.

Inaugurated last October, the sea connection departs from Naples on even days and from Palermo on odd days excluding Sundays. For the summer season - from 17 July to 17 September the frequency is increased with daily departures.

Cruise Ausonia. Photo: Grimaldi Lines.

On board Francesca Marino, passenger department manager of Grimaldi Lines, talks about 2023 as the year of the consecration of ferries for passenger transport. "If ten years ago we had one hundred thousand users, last year we reached three million and now we aim for five . We are at 60% more bookings than in 2022. And all this in a very competitive market, in which we have carved out a central role for ourselves. We started very strong with sales this year. At the moment there is a physiological slowdown in booking after bridges. Summer is going, but we need to appeal to the market to adjust for seasonal adjustments.

The turning point for Grimaldi in terms of numbers and knowledge of the market was 2016, when we consolidated our strength with the routes to Sardinia. We now count a total of 20 maritime connections, including connections to Sicily, Spain, Greece and Tunisia. We were in the competition for the tender on the Civitavecchia - Arbatax - Cagliari route. In the meantime, we are increasing our routes to Sicily, choosing modern, elegant and comfortable ships such as Cruise Ausonia".

The ferry has a gross tonnage of over 32,000 tons, sails at a maximum cruising speed of 19 knots, houses 198 spacious cabins with private bathrooms divided into internal, external double suites (for four people in separate high and low beds) with TV and mini fridge, plus two cabins for people with reduced mobility. In addition we have the pet cabin service that allows pets to travel with their owners.

The swimming pool dominates the external deck, while inside there are spaces dedicated to children with games, slides and swings, boutiques for adults to shop, entertainment until late with the stern bar which becomes a disco. The gastronomic proposal allows you to choose between self service, bar service and à la carte restaurant with typical dishes of the Campania and Sicilian culinary tradition by the chef on board.

"Passengers choose us both for the pricing and for the service. What matters most to the new customer is the price lever, but after that it is the quality of the service that makes the difference. The journey begins on board, the ferry is no longer just a means of transport".

Returning to our two capitals, destinations - both - of the journey, the company adds to the ferry network with the Grimaldi Lines Tour Operator - either ship + stay, or with city breaks, and offered at any time of the year, a day to get a taste of Naples and/or Palermo.

Original article (in Italian) https://www.lagenziadiviaggimag.it/grim ... i-palermo/

[hhvferry]

Grimaldi, the incumbents, were the only bidders for the extended three year subsidy to run the Civitavecchia-Arbatax-Cagliari route.

Their bid was €26.9m.

The tender specifications called for a minimum frequency of a thrice-weekly service and detailed timings and duration of crossing. The ship needed to be a ro-pax under 30 years old with capacity for at least 900 pax & 1,200 lane meters of freight, the vessel must be called Corfu and owned by Grimaldi Lines. OK the last two were not part of the spec but, in the sort of behaviour we're seeing across southern Europe in an illusion of free competition, the tender was drawn up so tightly that only one bidder was likely to be able to participate in the available timeframe.

Source for the basic news bit: https://www.shippingitaly.it/2023/05/22/grimaldi-euromed-unico-offerente-per-la-linea-civitavecchia-arbatax-cagliari/

[Greekferryadept]

From today, Monday, June 26, the regular ro-ro service between Venice, Bari and Patras will be served by two of the "green giants" of the Grimaldi group, as they say, the modern hybrid ships Eco Catania and Eco Malta.

Article (in Greek): https://ellinikiaktoploia.net/ta-prasin ... -grimaldi/

[martupls]

There are rumours that Trasmed could operate the Europalink from Finnlines next winter (technically it's not a charter because both companies are from Grimaldi).

This could be a curious thing because some years ago Balearia had the Finnclipper (now Igoumenitsa) chartered as the Rosalind Franklin with very good results.

[hhvferry]

Yet another Grimaldi fire, this time one of their car carriers in New Jersey. Sadly two fire fighters were killed trying to combat it.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/ ... new-jersey

The fire on board the Grande Costa d’Avorio appears now to be under control although the ship looks likely to be a loss.

For the record here's a quick and probably incomplete list of fires on Grimaldi ships over the past decade or so.

01/05/2013 Atlantic Cartier Hamburg, Germany
All crew safe; ship resumed service after repairs (Operated by ACL, part of Grimaldi Group)
10/04/2014 Repubblica di Roma Lome, Toga
All crew safe; ship was a total loss
28/04/2015 Sorrento off Palma de Majorca
All on board safe; ship was a total loss (Chartered by Grimaldi to Trasmediterranea)
28/10/2018 Cruise Ausonia NW of Ustica, Italy
All on board safe; ship resumed service after repairs (Engine room fire)
10/03/2019 Grande America Bay of Biscay
All crew rescued; ship subsequently sank
09/04/2019 Grande Sao Paolo Santos, Brazil
All crew safe; ship resumed service after repairs to minor damage (fire broke out after the ship was hit by a runaway truck)
15/05/2019 Grande Europa off Majorca, Spain
All crew safe; ship towed to Palma & subsequently repaired
21/11/2019 Eurocargo Trieste off Livorno, Italy
All on board safe; ship resumed service after repairs
04/06/2020 Höegh Xiamen Jacksonville, Florida, USA
All crew safe; ship was total loss (Vehicle carrier chartered by Grimaldi Deep Sea)
18/06/2020 Cruise Bonaria Olbia, Sardinia
All on board safe; ship resumed service after repairs (Vehicle deck fire broke out as the ship approached port)
18/02/2022 Euroferry Olympia North of Corfu, Greece
11 passengers killed; ship was a total loss
01/08/2022 Ciudad De Alcudia Valencia, Spain
All crew safe; ship resumed service after repairs (Vehicle deck fire whilst in port)
18/02/2023 Grande California off Vigo, Spain
All crew safe; ship continued voyage after fire extinguished
05/07/2023 Grande Costa D’Avorio Port Newark, New Jersey, USA
All crew safe but two firefighters killed; ship a probable total loss

[SilverDot]

There are calls in the US for a deeper investigation into Grimaldi, not just into this incident.

For the Höegh Xiamen the NTSB (US National Transportation Safety Board) found Grimaldi was not following their own procedures in securing vehicle batteries (12V not EVs) on a single vehicle. She was transporting used vehicles from the US. Also the fire detection systems remained deactivated after loading, the delay in activating the CO2 extinguishing system, and the ship's master did not have the correct information or procedures for reporting a fire to the local authorities.

Be interesting to see what comes out of Grande Costa D’Avorio investigation.

[Greekferryadept]

For the record here's a quick and probably incomplete list of fires on Grimaldi ships over the past decade or so.

A bit further back in history: 14 May 2002 - Silver Ray - Antwerp. Ship was a total loss. 

[fabthi]

My two cents.
From what I have experienced traveling with Minoan/Grimaldi and Greek companies ships between Italy and Greece in the last 20 years, I'd say that Grimaldi is a company that runs the business on a harsh cost savings basis.
Dirty ships, very poor maintenance, many inexperienced crew members, and long delays.
The vessels on service from Ancona, while newer than the competing Anek and Superfast ones, are in much worse condition: rust everywhere, carpets and fabrics ripped and stained, smelly common restrooms, doors often not working, and air conditioning system inefficient.
I see they have dropped the Ancona-Patras route, in a period of the year when there is usually a rather high demand of holidaymakers.
What's the reason for this choice? Low bookings perhaps? The company has gained a very bad reputation among traveler communities.

[andreg]

My two cents.
From what I have experienced traveling with Minoan/Grimaldi and Greek companies ships between Italy and Greece in the last 20 years, I'd say that Grimaldi is a company that runs the business on a harsh cost savings basis.
Dirty ships, very poor maintenance, many inexperienced crew members, and long delays.
The vessels on service from Ancona, while newer than the competing Anek and Superfast ones, are in much worse condition: rust everywhere, carpets and fabrics ripped and stained, smelly common restrooms, doors often not working, and air conditioning system inefficient.
I see they have dropped the Ancona-Patras route, in a period of the year when there is usually a rather high demand of holidaymakers.
What's the reason for this choice? Low bookings perhaps? The company has gained a very bad reputation among traveler communities.

I agree, it's no coincidence that Grimaldi has crazy profitability compared to its competitors, because they gradually integrated Ro/Pax services within the already developed Ro/Ro commercial network. 
They understood before others how and where to cut costs, for example, it was the first to operate ships at 20 knots, when competing companies such as Moby and Sardinia Ferries still operated their services to and from Sardinia even at 26/27 knots on daytime crossings in the high summer season.
In the first few years, there was a perceived lack of professionalism in all aspects of the passenger service, even in the maintenance of the ships (which in fact stopped very little in the shipyard, like the RoRo fleetmates).
Today they seem much more organized on the technical management of the ships and on branding, but the selection of hotel staff (and, consequently, the quality of the service offered on board) is still very poor in my opinion.
 

[SilverDot]

The Grimaldi Terminal in Barcelona is 10 years old. In that time the terminal has handled nearly 5 million passengers and 1.5 million lorries.

Grimaldi Terminal in Barcelona With Cruise Barcelona. Photo: Grimaldi.

[fabthi]

Please forgive my naivety if so, but I really don't understand where all this freight traffic is bound.
There's nothing in central and south Italy, from my point of view, that could justify this amount of traffic.
On the other hand, Civitavecchia is 350 km away from Bologna, the nearest industrial hotspot. Milan 550, Turin 650, Padova 450.
Where are all these lorries from Spain going once disembarked?

[SilverDot]

Please forgive my naivety if so, but I really don't understand where all this freight traffic is bound.
There's nothing in central and south Italy, from my point of view, that could justify this amount of traffic.
On the other hand, Civitavecchia is 350 km away from Bologna, the nearest industrial hotspot. Milan 550, Turin 650, Padova 450.
Where are all these lorries from Spain going once disembarked?

Most freight by volume is for consumers, not only goods but food and drink as well. There is a also lot of air shipped around in the voids and packaging of consumer goods. Civitavecchia primary market is Rome with a population of 4.5m which by any standard is a sizeable market.

The trade between Italy and Spain is worth around €34bn per year in each direction.

[fabthi]

There is a also lot of air shipped around in the voids and packaging of consumer goods.

Not sure to understand what you mean with this
 

[zuludelta]

There is a also lot of air shipped around in the voids and packaging of consumer goods.

Not sure to understand what you mean with this

SD means that, for example, in the packaging of products like auto parts from Spain to Italy there will probably be a lot of "free space" or air in the boxes. This basically means that in the average transported box only 70% of its space will be used. The rest will be just air - bubble rap, pre-inflated packaging wraps or just empty space. I hope that explains it.

[Appia1978]

Below is a short translation of my trip report with "Igoumenitsa" in early July that I published on Shipfriends.gr If you have trouble understanding something because of the translation, don't hesitate to ask 😉


After searching thoroughly how to return from the "Banana Republic 2.0 = Germany ..." to Greece, the final options based on the total cost were two:
1) By road through Yugoslavia or
2) from Brindisi with Grimaldi.

Venice and Ancona were no options due to the total cost and cabin unavailability for the next two weeks. Eventually we ended up with Grimaldi, mainly because of the long traffic jams at the various borders through Yugoslavia. To reduce the cost, we chose the daily itinerary with departure at 13:00 and arrival in Igoumenitsa at 22:00. For more comfort (and as a precaution measure!) we chose the business armchairs (€3 more than the standard ones). Car, 2 people and 2 armchairs €199 in total.

The trip on the Italian highways was as always, boring ... at least this time we didn't have a traffic jam in Verona. After sleeping between Pescara and Termoli, we arrived at 11:00 in Brindisi. Camomilla and European Star were waiting for us there. One characteristic of Italy that surprises me time and time again is the poor state of the secondary road network. As good as the highways are, so bad is the rest of the roads, to the point where you honestly worry about your car! Brindisi as a city is indeed more beautiful than Bari, but the passenger ports do not compare. Bari is infinitely better. Third world conditions prevail in Brindisi. Everywhere very aggressive street vendors, dirty passenger station, indifferent and rude staff, no signage and information.

Anyway, after getting our boarding passes we entered the supposedly guarded port to get to the car loading lanes. Absolutely no control at the gate. You could bring whatever you wanted in. About 1 hour before departure, the ship started loading. The procedure was as follows: The 5 loading lanes were simultaneously signalled to start without any guidance. You can imagine what a mess it was... Then they put 5 trucks, 5 cars, 5 trucks, 5 cars, etc. in the garage of the ship. The cars shared the ship's garages with the trucks. I couldn't see if the lower garage was also used. The ship was completely full. Not even a pin could fit in the garages, and the same in the common areas. The passengers were overwhelmingly Romanians, from Skopje and Roma with many small children. Of tourists, there were Italians, Czechs and groups of young people in a total of 5 coaches. The ramps are very wide and the ship in general is comfortable for manoeuvring the cars and trucks.

Regarding the ship now. I like the ship as a ship. It has a nice exterior, is solid build, with a beautiful forward saloon on deck 7 that doubles as a self-service dining room, several cabins and lots of outdoor space with access to the bow. Walking from the fore saloon towards the stern on the port side of the ship (looking backwards, towards the bow 😜), one now encounters on the right a small shop with a very wide range for its size, the entrance to the port stairwell followed by the toilets and two rooms with the business armchairs. To the left is the ship's only bar, the self-service serving area, followed by the lounge with the standard armchairs. On the starboard side of the forward saloon, looking forward, a small but beautiful space has been set aside which is used as an a la carte restaurant. On our trip it was closed. All common areas bear Greek names. 

On departure the ship was clean. It was the cleanest Grimaldi ship I've been on. Even the toilets were clean with plenty of toilet paper. No damage is seen on the ship, neither inside nor outside. Overall, it is in very good condition. Unfortunately, the cleanliness issue took a turn for the worse with each passing minute due to the passengers. Especially the toilets were hard to go after a while...it started to smell bad even outside in the corridor when you walked past them. Of the crew, only the two bar people were constantly visible throughout the trip. During the meal there were three others at the self-service and someone at the reception. The crew consists of Italians, but there are also Greeks. Due to the hustle and bustle that prevailed, a large Italian family had locked the room with the business armchairs where we had our seats from the inside. Because they didn't know how to open the door from the inside, we had to get a person from the reception to open the door for us, in order to take our seats. The business armchairs as well as the standard ones are fine. But personally, I think that the armchairs in Fior die Levante or Andreas Kalvos are more comfortable, and with more legroom.

Fortunately we had booked business armchairs, because the standard armchairs were suboptimal, with children playing, too loud music from the literally hundreds of Smartphones and snoring... Something that many passengers complained about was the air conditioning. While you usually freeze on ships, in this particular case it was non-existent. You burst from the heat inside the ship. Imagine what was going on and how it smelled with so many people inside! I can't comment on the food, because we didn't eat. The portions seemed very large. However, it was the first time I saw so many half-full plates of pasta on the way back. A big advantage is the affordable prices at the bar. A cappuccino e.g. 2.5 € while at ANEK during my trip a month ago it was 4.5 €. Ice cream rocket, from the very large ones, €3, at ANEK €5.

If one looks, one still finds several signs on the ship in Swedish and Finnish, as well as other signs of its former life in the Baltic, most prominently the saloon tables, with the printed map of the Åland Sea between Sweden and Finland. In general, the ship has a serious disadvantage in this particular line: It is not suitable as a day ship!!! His single saloon was immediately filled, as were all other common areas, stairwells and corridors. And not only from people sitting, but also from a crowd of people who spread blankets on the floor, ate and then fell asleep. In the Baltic, the vast majority of passengers stay in the cabins. They eat, and then disappear into them. Therefore, very few people stay in the saloon and there is no such problem. In the Adriatic, unfortunately, things are very different. My personal opinion is that the ship is particularly suitable for the transport of goods and for night routes where people stay in their cabins, but not for day routes with only one lounge and about 180 seats for a total of 800 people. Do you remember when we said at the beginning, that the cars were shared in all garages among the trucks? Well, this resulted in classic Grimaldi style disembarkation with no crew in the garage, absolute chaos. While we arrived at the minute in Igoumenitsa, we got off the ship after 1:45 hours and to think that the outer garage had not even started to empty yet, since the ramp could not go down if the upper garage was not emptied first! An impressively large number of trucks and cars were waiting in Igoumenitsa. for boarding. Looks like the line is doing really well!

A few more observations regarding unloading and more:

1) The ship has a bow ramp. This does not require any special infrastructure. Why is it not used? With the help of it, the ship would be empty in less than half an hour. I have experienced it in Sweden.

2) A question I have about all Greek and Italian ships.

Why don't cars already park properly when boarding, so that no manoeuvers are required when disembarking? It's easier to manoeuver when boarding and definitely costs less time!

3) Because the cars were parked in small groups between the trucks, it was quite difficult, narrow and dangerous for people to get to their cars.

4) At one end of the upper garage, there were stored bottles on the floor, like gas bottles. Anyone could approach them. I don't know what they contained, but it's not the best thing to be in the garage and have a vat of strange bottles half a meter in front of you.

5) And as always, there was welding, drilling and painting throughout the voyage, both inside the ship and in the garage...

In conclusion, the ship is in very good condition and a trip with it is worthwhile. However, it is better if someone prefers the night route from Igoumenitsa to Brindisi and not the daytime route from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa, to travel with it.


 

[hhvferry]

Thanks for the report, she's a ship I've thought about doing if she made a useful connection but I've always been put off by the Grimaldi side of things.

Passing through Brindisi port (for Vlore) a week last Thursday when the Igoumenitsa's current route mate the Kydon Palace was loading I was struck by how busy the ship looked, especially with what looked to be Italian tourists on coach trips. I'd not seen Brindisi ferry terminal that busy in literally decades. What a shame A Ships and the Golden Bridge didn't settle down long-term on the Brindisi-Igoumenitsa route like it looked they might do in 2020/21 (but they never settle down to anything long-term I guess). A bit of competition on the route would benefit everyone, apart from Grimaldi.

[Appia1978]

Exactly, the traffic between Brindisi and Igoumenitsa is buzzing.
I also don't understand why there is no competition.
Only 2 reasons come to mind:

1) Secret agreements with Grimaldi. None come to Brindisi and he does not go to Albania.
2) Too afraid of Grimaldi and his far-reaching influence.