Grand Austria Hotel: Let's Waltz!

Additional ways to play and expand in the hoteling business.

I just want to say Thank you to the previous reviewer Christopher Parr for his excellent review! We had no idea about the icon changes. We'll wait for an upgrade pack (if ever available in retail) before purchasing!

If BGB could add a thumbs up option for reviews, that would be great!

I didn’t realise that this expansion DOESN’T include a lot of the upgraded pieces I saw while watching YouTube reviews and tutorials. For the price, they could have at least included the wooden dancer meeples. Everything is just cardboard. I also don’t like how the iconography on the cards doesn’t match the old edition of the base game (by Mayfair Games). It only matches the more recent re-print by Lookout games. Apparently they reprinted ALL the cards to replace those ones, but only if you bought the upgrade pack (which doesn’t appear to be available through retail). Only kickstarter buyers got that option.

Other than the mis-match iconography and cheap cardboard bits, the new modules do add more depth and decision making to the game. We played with all 5 modules together, but you can play with as many or as few as you want.

The addition of the ballrooms and the extra “champagne” resource makes things a bit more interesting. The celebrity guests didn’t really feel that valuable or do much, unless luck paired you with an available guest whose power matched the action you wanted to perform on your turn.

The starting bonus and ongoing special abilities provided by the hotel entrance module were fun and useful. Everyone liked that module the most.

The new turn order module also made things more interesting, as you know longer play 1-2-3-4 4-3-2-1. Now you go in clockwise order, so the first player doesn’t have to wait forever before getting their second turn. And you can take start player as a dice selection alternative, making you start player the next round.

Overall, I found it more fun with the added modules. Some of my group thought it detracted from the smooth, streamlined feel of play in just the base game, and found the new modules too fiddly.

I ordered upgraded mini champagne bottles to replace the cubes, as all my other components have been upgraded in the base game. Will be keeping an eye out for the upgrade pack as well, if it becomes available through regular retail.

Love the expansion to this game. You get more options without it becoming overwhelming.