Jan Shaughnessy
Sailing
Date: April 24th, 2010
Itinerary: Bahamas
Occupation: Cruise Professional
Number of Cruises: 70+
INTRO - There has been so much
negative written about the Italian style MSC Cruise Lines.
So when the opportunity arose for a special three day
cruise, I decided to try them out and see for myself.
I flew out the same day as the cruise.
I usually try to fly out a day prior to a cruise in the
event of delays, which on this day did happen. I was
scheduled to leave Nashville at 6:15AM and just as we were
to pull away from the gate they announced a "Ground Stop" in
the connecting city of Atlanta due to severe thunder storms.
We sat on the plane for over two hours waiting for the storm
to pass and clearance to take off. Once in the air things
went smooth, I connected in Atlanta and arrived in Ft
Lauderdale approximately 12:30PM. I found my travel
companion Deb, another Travel Agent, reading a book by the
taxi stand. We arrived at the pier at 12:50PM and found no
lines waiting to check-in. We were greeted by friendly
staff who quickly checked our passports, swiped our credit
cards, and took our picture for the boarding card. It was a
quick procedure. Even the dreaded embarkation picture
(which I usually skip), went quickly. MSC uses a scanner
gun on your Boarding card for quick embarkation/debarkation
instead of the kiosk most cruise ships use. We were
stepping on board at 1:00PM and was greeted by a smiling
white gloved crew member. He asked our cabin number and
pointed us in the right direction. Other crew members were
also in the stairwells to offer assistance along the way.
The first order of business was
dropping off our carry on luggage and going up to the Lido
deck for lunch. In this case the Lido deck is the Foscolo
deck. We would check out our balcony cabin later. The
Villa Pompeiana Cafeteria was busy, but I noted it was
spacious and still had plenty of seating . It was a bit
congested as the buffet was one long buffet, instead of
separate islands as on some ships. People have a tendency
to stop at the first line they see, when in fact the buffet
had a second side. The buffet consisted of a grill area
with hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, and delicious
looking Italian sausage. It continued with a variety of
salads,fresh fruit,rolls and bread, carved meat, several
pasta choices, and several hot dishes. A separate dessert
bar completed the buffet. A self-serve ice cream machine
could be found else where on the deck. There were many ice
tea/punch/coffee stations around the buffet area. I chose
some fresh cut up fruit and a pasta dish and found it tasty.
After lunch we explored the ship until the mandatory
lifeboat drill at 4:30PM. The drill required you report with
your lifejacket at a designated lounge on the ship. The
drill only took about 20 minutes. The ship departed for
our first port of call Key West, at 9:00PM.
THE SHIP - The MSC Poesia came out in
2008. She is 89,000 ton and 964 feet long. The Poesia is a
beautiful ship with a combination of soothing and very rich
colors of turquoise, browns, blues, purples and red. She is
very rich looking with lots of marble, brass, windows, and
mirrors. The mirrored walls throughout the ship added to an
expansive appearance, and could easily and often were
mistaken for a walk through area. Most areas are spacious
and open and gave the ship an appearance that it went on
forever. The ship was sparkling clean. I noted no room
service trays laying around in hallways, and no ashtray
stands cluttering the elevator areas. Hand sanitizer
dispensers could be found throughout the ship and not just
at the dining venues.
The ship consists of 16 decks. Entrance
to the ship was on deck 5 which also has some passengers
cabins, the reception desk, Le Rendez-Vous Bar, and one of
the main dining rooms. Decks 6 and 7 were the main
entertainment and shopping decks. On these decks you will
find the other main dining room, the Teatro Carlo Felice
main show lounge, the Casino Royale, internet cafe, a small
library with books in several languages, photo shop, duty
free shopping, and many different bars and lounges. My
favorite lounge was the Zebra Lounge. The decor of this
lounge was exactly as it's name indicates; everything
Zebra! While it may sound over the top, it was not. The
lounge is expansive and mirrored walls make it seem even
larger. The black and white decor flowed well. The Teatro
Carlo Felice main show lounge also amazed me. The rich
deep purple seats were contrasted with wall and ceiling
twinkle lights that changed different colors. The casino
had all the normal slots and table games. What I noticed
most about the casino was the layout. Table games were
centered together with slot machines on the outer rims.
Short divider walls seemed to help cut down on noise. The
casino also had wider aisles for a clean walk through the
casino to other areas of the ship. Casinos on some other
ships make me feel like I'm running a mine field, zig
zagging to walk through.
The MSC Poesia Swimming
Pool
Decks 8 through 12 are all passenger
cabin decks. The corridors had very good lighting. Deck 13
has the pool, bars, spa, buffet cafeteria, and an ala carte
restaurant. A large theater screen was above the pool, but
the volume was never on and I only saw MSC Cruises being
shown on the screen. Deck 14 has some cabins, a jogging
track, disco, and the children's area. On this three day
cruise I didn't notice a significant amount of children.
MSC does offer children sail free specials on many of their
sailings. Some of the children's areas were being worked on
during this sailing. Deck 15 has shuffle board and mini
golf and Deck 16 has a sport center and Solarium.
Elevators were plentiful and quick on
the ship. Some stair wells had sets of four elevators and
some had three. There were times the ship could be a little
tricky to get around as all elevators didn't go to the top
floors. The ship also had a few dead ends where you would
have to go up one floor and back down.
ENTERTAINMENT - I found the
entertainment in the main show lounge each night to be very
good. It was different in that there was no live orchestra,
and out of three nights only one song was sang live. The
songs for each act were pre recorded music. I wondered if
the reason for this was because of the large mixture of
nationalities. The acts consisted of a lot of dancing,
acrobats, and Cirque du Soleil. The costumes, stage props,
and backdrops used in the acts were fabulous and creative.
I give a lot of credit to the young entertainers who were
very talented. Each show we saw had a theme, they were
"Island", "Atlantis", and "Euphoria".
Entertainment in the other bars and
lounges varied in music style. Closing times of these
places varied with the latest being 1:00AM (depending on
attendance). I never saw any of them overly crowded. The
casino was popular. Smoking was allowed in the casino but I
didn't find it overwhelming as on some ships. In fact, I
barely smelled much smoke at all. Smoking was restricted to
certain open deck areas, certain lounges, and was forbidden
on balconies and discouraged from smoking in your cabins.
Day time activities on this three day
cruise were very minimal. I don't know if that's normal for
MSC, or if it was due to the fact this was a special cruise
with no sea day. We had two port days of Key West and
Nassau, where most people went ashore. I saw very little
planned activities in the daily program. Not even the ever
popular Bingo. Some activities that were scheduled were
morning stretching and aerobics, a morning and afternoon
dance lesson, and a couple quiz/trivia games. The Balinese
Spa ran daily spa specials. Unlike other cruise lines that
have European operated spas, this spa had Indonesian's.
FOOD - This was the part of the cruise
that I was most interested in checking out for myself. I
had heard and read so many reports that the food was bad on
MSC cruises. I didn't find the food to be bad at all - just
different. Different doesn't mean something is bad.
Admittedly, everyone's taste is different.
I didn't make it down to the main dining
room for Breakfast. The buffet breakfast was typical of
most cruise lines. A variety of fruit, pastries, cold
meats, cereals, and the normal hot items of eggs, sausage,
bacon, pancakes, and french toast. I didn't see anyone
making made to order omelets. There were some small
pre-made cheese omelets.
The lunch buffet was similar as I
described on embarkation day. The grilled items were the
same each day, hotdogs, sausage, fries, and hamburgers. The
carved meat changed, and the hot dishes changed in the
variety of veal, beef, chicken, fish. I think what I
noticed most about the lunch hot dishes was they were more
like casseroles. Instead of individual pieces of broiled or
baked fish,poultry,or meats; most were mixed with
vegetables and sauces.
Dinner was where I noticed some
differences also. The number of choices of appetizers,
salads, and desserts seemed more limited. Main entrees
offered Vegetarian, a pasta dish, beef/veal/, fish, and
poultry. The first night I ordered a chicken filet dish.
It came with a large, thin, lightly breaded piece of chicken
with steamed vegetables. It reminded me of the delicious
Wienerschnitzel that I had in Vienna. The chicken was
moist, and the breading was not heavy. It was very good.
For dessert I tried Blueberry Cheesecake. It too had a good
flavor and was very good. The second night I ordered Prime
Rib medium. This was probably the only item that I was a
bit disappointed with. It wasn't tough, but it was overly
tender either. It was a bit bland. It lacked the tasty
seasoning and flavor I am used too with Prime Rib. The
third night I ordered a pork chop dish. It too came lightly
breaded. It was thick and moist and very flavorful. I
assessed the breading must be more of a European way of
cooking since two of my three entrees came breaded. On most
cruises I've been on these same items would be baked or
broiled.
Bar prices seemed reasonably and on par
with other cruise lines. I did notice they used Pepsi
products instead of Coke. The soda and beer cans were also
only 11oz versus 120z. Each day they would have a drink of
the day and coffee drink of the day at special prices.
Casual dinner buffet was only offered on
the last night from 6:15-8:15PM. Pizza was offered each
night from 6:00-10:30PM. The second night was formal night
and a "Buffet Magnefique" (Gala Buffet) was held from
11:45-12:45. Picture taking was allowed for 15 minutes.
The other two nights light sandwiches were served during
this midnight hour.
CABIN - I had a balcony cabin forward
on deck 10. The cabin location was quiet. The cabin was
152sq ft and the balcony 40 sq ft. The cabin had two twin
beds which convert to a queen, two very small three drawer
night stands with very shallow drawers which were hard to
open, a small round table and one small stuffed chair.
There also was a small vanity with two small drawers. The
hair dryer took up one drawer. The closet was adequate and
had more storage with larger drawers. We never could
program the safe to work. The cabin also had a flat screen
interactive TV with internet access. The TV could be used
to order room service, excursions, and check your on board
account. The bathroom seemed slightly larger than most
bathrooms I've seen. It had two small corner glass shelves
to store bathroom necessities. The shower had shampoo and
body gel dispensers and still had a cloth curtain. I was
very pleased to always find hot water in the shower. A
flyer in our cabin informed us that balconies were hand
cleaned every day by the cabin steward. It informed us on
Port days a more thorough cleaning was done to remove salt,
and to keep our curtains and balcony doors closed. A large
oversized floor to ceiling mirror on the wall helped give
the cabin a larger appearance. The cabin also had lots of
overhead lighting.
ITINERARY - This short three night
cruise made two stops. Key West and Nassau. The ship
offered several excursions in each port ranging in price and
activity level. Prices ranged from $30 for a 1 1/2 hour
glass bottom boat ride to $87 for 4 hours of Kayak and
Dolphin Watch. Deb and I had both been to Key West before
and chose to explore on our own. The ship docked at the
Navy base pier know as "The Mole". You must take the
complimentary Conch Train from the pier to Mallory Square.
You aren't allowed to walk off the base. Once off the Navy
base some passengers opted to be dropped off at Fort Zachary
Taylor State Park. We learned the State Park played an
important role during the Civil War and Spanish-American
War. It has a beautiful beach for picnicking, swimming,
snorkeling and fishing. The beach has a refreshment stand.
It is the preferred beach of locals. The park also has a
Fort with guided tours. Mallory Square is the meeting point
for drop off and pick up of the Conch Train to go back to
the ship. Tickets can also be bought for the Conch Train to
explore Key West further. A trolley is also available. Key
West is an easy walkable town. Duval Street is approximately
one mile long. Strolling down this street you will find a
variety of shops, bars, and restaurants. Popular places in
Key West are the Hog's Breath saloon and Sloppy Joe's; a
popular hang out of the famous writer Papa Hemingway.
Renting a Motor Scooter or golf cart are other means to
explore. Walk along the water front at Mallory Square and
you'll find more shopping and restaurants. We enjoyed
sitting on the waterfront while sipping on a drink and
eating Conch Fritters and Quesadillas. Other activities you
might enjoy in Key West are Golfing, Kayaking, Fishing,
Museums, and the Butterfly Conservatory.
Our next stop was Nassau, Bahamas.
Again, Deb and I had both been there before. We had heard
that the famous Straw Market may have changed so we wanted
to check it out. We discovered Nassau is building a new
Straw Market where the original one had been many years ago
before burning down. No specific date was posted for
re-opening. For now the present Straw Market is further
down Bay Street and is crowded and hot to walk through.
Many people like to visit Atlantis Resort and Casino on
Paradise Island when visiting Nassau. It is a quick taxi
ride or water taxi ride from the pier. Nassau has many
other activities of snorkeling, glass bottom boat rides,
power boats, Pirate's Museum, and Botanical Garden and small
zoo that may be of interest to first timers.
SERVICE - Overall service was very
good. Crew was friendly and accommodating. On the first
day of the cruise we met our cabin steward and asked him to
separate our beds. He quickly attended to our request. One
thing that was noticeable was the crew were unobtrusive.
Waiters weren't pushing drinks by the pool or in the main
show lounge. In fact; you probably would have to flag them
down if you wanted a drink or go up to the bar yourself.
Waiters also left you alone at dinner. They were quick to
take your order and clean dishes away, but they didn't come
around asking if everything was alright. I didn't attribute
this to rudeness or lack of attentiveness. I concluded it
was perhaps the European style to not intrude.
OVERALL - I would definitely sail on
MSC Cruises again. This was only a short three day cruise
in the Caribbean and some things I experienced may be
different when they sail on longer European itineraries.
One complaint I had often heard about MSC concerned the
announcements in so many languages. I didn't find this to
be a problem. Announcements were kept to a minimum. They
were given in five different languages and English was
always first. The other major complaint I had heard before
sailing was about the food. I found it different, but
definitely not bad. The lack of planned activities also
didn't bother me. I found it made for a quieter ambiance,
relaxing and refreshing. This may be different on longer
cruises. I think if anyone sailing on MSC cruises is
briefed on the differences and knows what to expect, then
they should have an enjoyable cruise.
