PistolPete13

MSC Day 12 Day 12 Arriving back in NYC I’m now back home and looking to get as many of my thoughts down before they begin to fade. I also want to do this before I lose myself in my photo and video editing. The last sea day was a quiet one. With the sun out and the wind finally reasonable, I was able to sit outside until about 10:30AM when I felt the first chill in the air. Spent some time in the now empty gym before lunch. Yesterday and today they had the normal end of cruise sales at some of the shops in the Atrium. It pains me to learn (via the facial group) that apparently it was almost a full blown riot of pushing and shoving to get at some of the items that cruise critic pros like us don’t care two cents about. More about this later. In the buffet for lunch they rolled out the fancy chocolate desserts and had some low quality seafood (shrimp and seafood ceviche). I happened to get there just as the lines opened at high noon and was caught in the middle of the chaos. The only word that could describe how I felt was incredulous. I didn’t see anything that came close to this on my NCL trips. Plates were piled high and items hoarded like there was no tomorrow. I saw some uniformed ship crew try to remove some of the larger serving lunch serving places from those waiting on the chocolate dessert line which had their own smaller plates. It took me over 30 mins to get a sample plate of chocolates and some of the shrimp. It was totally not worth the effort. The chocolate was nice, probably straight from the fancy chocolate specialty shop down in the atrium, and the shrimp was barely edible completely overcooked to the point it had the consistency of mashed potatoes. The main dining room dinner and show afterwards saved the last day for me. The MDR entree tonight was swordfish and I enjoyed spending one more evening with my interesting table mates. I even managed to help out with a unique solution to a much more experienced traveler at the table who ran into a last minute snag with his plans. The last show of the cruise in the main theater was a mixture of all of the entertainment acts on the cruise minus the comedians. It was great with a lot of energy and left me on a high note for the trip. I didn’t record this show because I decided to put my camera away at this point and just enjoy. It was good enough that I had to use the phone to record some bits of it but I’m not sure if the quality will be good enough to post. I woke up around 5:15AM and checked the external cameras just in time to see us going under the Verazzano Bridge. I headed up to the buffet around 5:45 hoping for a cup of coffee and was surprised that had everything up and running already! Someone ahead of me hoarded all of the hockey puck hash browns (sensing a theme here?) and I only got one half broken leftover (at least it wasn’t half chewed). My designated departure time is based on my deck and was scheduled for 8:10AM. I will scan and post the full schedule in a later post. Meanwhile, “walk-off” folks who are carrying all their luggage were allowed off starting around 7AM. I knew my room steward had 20 rooms to turn around so I decided to vacate ASAP to make his busy day a little easier. It was a bit of a walk to get off the ship and you actually had to walk UP the gangway a bit due to the timing of the tides I guess. There was no immigration check at all. I guess that was all done after our Miami stop. Soon enough I was one the rainy sidewalk. I made my way to the NYC Ferry stop right outside the gates of the port. The cost of the quick 10 minute ride to the Wall Street stop in Manhattan was $4. Once there, it was just a short walk to the Staten Island ferry terminal for me and my normal commute home.

They had an initial solo meetup set up with the staff during the second day and an independent solo get together daily. My table consisted of other solo travelers, most likely on purpose.

Day 11 Sea Day The gym finally cleared out this morning. I think everyone just gave up, best intentions and all that. Saw another show last night and I thought it was very good. I got some good 8K video of the performance and will post some highlights if my home computer can process the files without melting down. The atrium party was a Gatsby, roaring 20’s themed event and everyone was having a lot of fun. Can’t compliment the entertainment staff enough for creating a great atmosphere for people to let loose. The restock stop in Miami seems to have restored some more food variety in the buffet. For the first time this cruise we saw mussels being offered. You’d think they were giving away lobster tails with caviar the way they were being hoarded up. My final weigh in at the gym this morning was still 154 lbs. I was a bit shocked because I jumped from 150 to 154 after the first day and basically stayed there for the rest of the cruise. The MSC mobile app has been stable and updates quickly with all my excursion cancellation credits due to the weather. Quite a contrast to the confusing NCL accounting on their app during my last sailing. Departure instructions were received via the mobile app. It seems that we will leave in groups based on your deck number. No early departure for those hand carrying all their luggage like with NCL. My group meets in the main theater at 8:10AM I’m writing this while sitting on the top deck outside. The wind finally died down enough for it to be comfortable enough. The temp is 64 degrees. So as this long trip draws to a close, what are my thoughts? I liked it, even without factoring in the bargain cost compared to similar itineraries from NCL leaving from NYC. This is not a young and party crowd at least for this sailing. Definitely heard a lot more foreign languages spoken than English. Food in the buffet was OK but not a lot of variety. Certain items seem to run out quickly between restocking stops. The main dining room food is a step up but the portions are tiny. You can order unlimited appetizers and desserts but an additional entree will be $5. During formal night they actually served lobster tail which was a complete shock to me. The buffet logistics can be a zoo especially around the drink areas. After a few days you figure out which stations have duplicate food and which drink areas are less used than others. I also didn’t like the lack of sinks or portable hand sanitizer stations in the seating areas for when you want to clean your hands after touching all the common serving utensils. I did not like the lack of viewing choices in the cabin television. It was basically CNN, ESPN, Cartoon Network, and TCM. For the tech savvy that download and take their content offline with them, not a big deal, but I’m a dinosaur who will likes to be surprised with a movie that I haven’t seen in years while channel surfing. I liked that buffet stays open until midnight even with a limited selection. I had read that the crew can be pushing in trying to upsell you photo packages and other things but I didn’t find this to be the case at all. A no thank you with a smile and they will leave you alone. I won’t give a verdict on the Ocean Cay private island due to the horrid weather that day. That’s all for now. Time to finish my book and maybe get a nap. By the time you’re reading this I will be home with Internet access again. I’ll be happy to answer any questions about this trip. I have 4500 photos to review and 200 Gigs of 4k and 8k video to edit so expect weeks of continuing updates to this thread!

Day 10 Sea day. It’s too damn windy and cold to be sitting outside again. So on this 11 day sailing, there were only TWO days I could comfortably sit outside with the weather we had. For reference I keep my home thermostat at 62 degrees during winter to save on heating costs so I know cold and this was too cold for me. No thank you. Figured it was just bad timing this year for a January cruise. I also somehow caught a cold after the Cozumel stop on Saturday. I’ve been very careful about avoiding people and hand washing too. Oh well. This affected my writing on the previous posts I think but I’m not going back to edit them now. What else can I rant about today? Let’s see. Passenger demographics. Very few kids as expected during a long cruise and not over any holidays. I saw a lot more kids on my previous January cruises with NCL. The largest group on board seems to be Asians, followed by Russians. I could write an entire book on the interactions I observed in the buffet but I’ll leave that to your imagination. My room steward said the passenger count was about 4700 for this trip. I think the ship is rated fro 5700 or so. There are always quiet places to be found on the ship if that is what you crave. I really enjoyed the entertainment staff on this ship, especially the nightly dance parties in the atrium. The kids (can you tell I’m old?) did a great job getting people involved and keeping the energy up. They even got me thinking of what could’ve been if I ran away to join a cruise staff instead of doing the whole college and work a 9-5 job for the last 30 years thing. Some of the most successful people I know never even bothered with school. Wish someone would’ve told me that when I was 20 yrs old! One evening a person gave me a long lecture on how this was the first and last time they would sail with MSC due to the fixed dining times and the difficulty with trying to change things around. For me the food in the dining room was a step above the buffet but it wasn’t the be all end all of dining experiences. This got me thinking on how we all sort of end up in our comfort zones for many things including cruising. I’ve had four cruises in my life so far and all with NCL. The first three days on this trip all I could think of was well, this it not how things are done, etc. But I kept an open mind and adjusted. For example, having a normal gym routine is important for me. The gym on this ship is not big and there seem to be a lot of fitness nuts on this sailing. So the place is always packed and it’s hard to use any of the equipment. Ehh, so I’ll skip the gym. The only ice cream available is the soft serve and you need to wait in line for a tiny serving. But hey, turns out you can get scooped ice cream at dinner in the main dining room. So I added a bowl of ice cream to my other two deserts. You adjust. I was horrified at the prospect of having to sit with a group of strangers at dinner but it all worked out. Even if it doesn’t, service is only 90 mins and they’re super efficient in getting you out of there. The daily activity sheet is filled to the brim with things to do. You can choose to do it all or just do nothing. I plan to scan all the daily sheets and post them here once I get settled back into the real world. The forward observation lounge can get very loud at times and the chairs are set up for single seating so you can’t really lie down and sleep on them like with NCL. I confess I did manage to nap a bit in those chairs with a large Russian group yelling at each other behind me. But I use to nap on the subways during my commute so no big deal.

Day 9 Miami Welcome to Miami! We had a predawn sail in to the city. This is my first time here and I was looking forward to seeing what this place is like. Earlier in the month I found out that latest RCCL ship Icon of the Seas was going to have her naming ceremony in Port Miami the same day we arrived and I was on the top deck ready with my camera. She did not disappoint, this huge monstrosity (in a good way) already docked in the RCCL terminal. I was on the top deck of the Meraviglia and was eye level with the bridge of the Icon. We even had a friendly horn salute of the new ship when we passed her. The ship looked really top heavy with an entire shopping mall and amusement park perched so high up above the waterline. I was curious and looked at the pricing (!!!) and sailings for this new monster and was disappointed to find only the usual 7 day Caribbean runs for the next year. For a ship this size I’d expect it to be perfect for global circumnavigation cruises. You can stock the hold with 3 months worth of hockey puck hash browns no problem! Side note, we’ve run out of the has browns already and hope they will be restocked in Miami. Port Miami is a busy construction zone with a least one new terminal building being built out. I believe this will be the new MSC terminal. We parked in a generic terminal between the Carnival and NCL buildings. Since Miami will be the first US port of call after a foreign port, everyone will been to exit the ship for US Immigration checks. The night before we received a schedule of when we should plan on departing the ship based on what floor your stateroom is on. Several announcements were also made asking people to be prepared to stay off the ship at until at least 3PM. For reference disembark times ranged from 9AM to 11AM. Due to regulations, no food or refreshments would be offered in the terminal. It was strongly suggested that people make excursion plans or independent plans to visit the city and not just sit in the terminal during this process. All that being said, I still saw posts from unhappy people on the facial books site throughout the day from those that chose to stay in the port terminal. I had a friend pick me up from the terminal and had a fun day playing tourist around the city. South beach was fascinating and I felt completely out of shape walking around there. My guilt of giving up my daily gym visits 3 days into this crew weighted heavily on me, until my Cuban sandwich lunch! In fact I’m writing this blog right now on the morning of a sea day on the way back to NYC. I had planned to goto the gym but ahh, forget about it. I’ve fallen off the wagon and will stay off until I return home and get back to my normal routine! It was still a windy and cool day but the beach area was packed. It never ceases to amaze me how that on a midweek afternoon there can be so many unemployed people driving around in their Ferraris and having a lazy lunch at the cafes. Bunch of slackers I’m telling ya. I forced myself to have lunch with my friend at one of those fancy cafes lining the beach. After 8 days of buffet and MSC dining, I’m ready for a one month fast. The food was decent but damn the prices. Ugh. Lunch cost more than that overpriced ship model I purchased a few days ago! Yes, I did get the model because MSC has a nice detailed pewter model of the ship that can do double duty as a weapon because it weights so much. I could never justify buying any of the NCL ship models because they looked like something I made in 3rd grade art class and it would piss me off knowing how much it cost if it was sitting on my bookshelf. Besides South Beach, I took a tour of the downtown area with the dozens of new condo towers being built. With the amount of apartments there I would’ve expected the streets to be filled with people but it was deserted. Maybe they were all driving their Ferraris up and down the A1A. We had a full 12 hours in Miami and sail away was at 9PM. Unfortunately Icon of the Seas sailed away in front of us so no nighttime beauty photos of her. I’m sure there will be tons of photos plastered all over social media the next few days as her first revenue sailing is this coming Saturday. I’m a little biased in feeling that very few people can take bland technical photos of inanimate objects like I can but hey, don’t ask me for a smiling selfie in front of that thing. Tonight I had my first bad dinner onboard. It was at the buffet because I needed the flexibility to be on deck for the sail away. The carving station had some sort of roast and while it looked good, it was inedible due to how tough it was. I couldn’t make any headway trying to chew any part of that thing, and I still have all of my natural teeth! Very annoying so I just ate my salad. I was not about to dive back into the buffet chaos for another round.

Day 8. Ocean Cay Marine Reserve The word for the day is wind and cold! According to the ship info display, winds were between 20 and 24 knots. The captain was very careful docking the ship to the pier. At times it seemed like we stood still for a while. Based on the waves, no way would NCL have been able to tender on their private island. Once docked, I was so happy to have my winter hoodie to wear while walking around the island. The ambient temperature was 68 degrees but it easily felt like the 50’s with the constant wind. All excursions having to do with the water were cancelled and only the bravest tried to venture into the water. With my boat excursion cancelled, I decided to climb the 165 stairs to the top of the lighthouse for the bargain price of $20! Sheesh. Some folks really need to head the warnings before the climb as there was a lot of heavy breathing and pauses on the way up for the group. Worked out for me since I had more time on getting some photos of the ship from almost “eye” level. I wish I can give a more comprehensive overview of what Ocean Caye is like, but the wind was just too much. After the lighthouse climb I abandoned my plans to circumnavigate the island on foot to report on the more remote beaches. And this was basically it for the island. Just a lot of quiet beach areas. No waterpark or pool for the kids. A big food pavilion with the standard buffet lunch. There are winding paths along the island just wide enough for the frequent transport buggies but not enough for a person and a buggy. Be aware you’ll be sharing the road with them if you decide to walk. I witnessed an uncomfortable encounter between a staff driven golf cart and a passenger on foot. After a quick beep from the cart’s horn warning him, the gentleman lost it and started yelling at the workers saying they wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for him, etc. Not sure where this sudden anger came from unfortunately. We had 12 hours on the island which meant you could spend it on the beach to watch the sunset. The main beach next to the ship even had fire pits set up for some small bonfires. There were two 5-minute light shows with the illuminated light house which was a lot of fun. I got decent video of the entire show and will post it once I’ve had time to process things.

I’m back!!! Right now on Staten Island ferry. Went from MSC to NYC Waterway ferry to Staten Island ferry. Three boats before 8am. Where is my longshoreman membership application.

Day 7 Sea Day Heading back north now. Next stop, the MSC private island of Ocean Cay. So I’m more than halfway through the cruise and here are my thoughts on MSC and some comparisons to NCL when applicable. - The ship itself is beautiful. I spent the morning walking around taking photos and the details are a feast for the eyes if you’re into that stuff.. I see crew constantly working to clean and keep things in shape. - All the crew I’ve met have been great and seem to be happy. During my last two NCL cruises the cabin crew specifically seemed to be a bit overworked and worn out. My steward works from 8AM until at least 9PM but I think they get a midday break because I saw him in Costa Maya during the middle of the day. I had a longer chat with the head waiter at the buffet (I know right?) and he had been with MSC since 2008 and traveled all over with them. The US is a new market for them and they’re still learning what the expectations of people here are. - Maybe they’re learning the market too well based on the food in the buffet. I had read the complaints about bland unseasoned food but this was definitely not that case for me. I found things overly salted, especially the bacon! - The assigned dining time and seating was a bit off putting for me at first especially since I’m pretty antisocial and loved the anytime dining with NCL. But it turned out that my table mates were an interesting bunch and I looked forward to hearing about that they did each day. Seems to be I’m the weirdo always seeking out active excursions constantly when most people are content to do NOTHING but sit on a beach. Hmmm. Nothing wrong with that! - Service charges are $16 a day and will be charged to your on board account about midway into the sailing. Not sure if they was a way to prepay for this like with NCL because I was locked out of the MSC website soon after I completed check-in 30 days before the sailing. - Entertainment. The more comprehensive shows have a fee of $12 or $18 and usually include a drink. I’ve been going to the complimentary shows in the main theater and I’ve enjoyed the variety so far. So far I’ve seen a Broadway musical medley, an excellent singer, and a combination vaudeville and magic act that I was hokey at first but won me over at the end. - Chair hogs. We’ve haven’t had too many good outdoor pool days so far thanks to a massive cold front. Things only warmed up when we reached Cozumel and Costa Maya. Now today after leaving Costa Maya it’s way too windy and chilly on most of the outdoor spaces on the ship in the morning. No lounge chairs we even put out except at the very back of the ship due to the wind. I need the hoodie and we’re still south of Florida. Is this typical for winter sailings? Temps in NYC are barely getting out of the teens right now so I guess it is possible. On the two days that you could sit out, I haven’t seen any evidence of chair hogs like with NCL. I’m the first person on the buffet at 6AM so I’m able to scan the chairs for hogs before and after breakfast at 7AM

Day 6 Costa Maya The last time I was here was in January of 2020. Wow, four years later a lot more development has happened in the port area. There are three sites with Mayan ruins that are reachable from the port. I had been to two of them and was going to hit the third one this time around to complete the trio. During the bus ride I learned that there is a new rail line in the process of being built by the government. It runs north to south originating from Cozumel and another popular destination north of that whose name I can’t think of right now and I’m without Internet. Anyway, there was construction trucks everywhere and we even passed the clear cut in the jungle where the rails will be laid down soon. As a result of the anticipated increase of visitors via land to the pyramids, the government has allocated a bunch of money to “spruce up” the archeological sites. When I got to this new site, it was swarming with construction activity with workers climbing all over the pyramids and fixing up a lot of the stones with new mortar. The site was also packed with tour groups and it felt at times to me like trying to navigate Grand Central terminal in NYC during rush hour. Four years ago things were so quiet and peaceful it felt otherworldly in the midst of these ruins. Unfortunately things change even in a few short years. Now about the people, ugh. I’m a photo person and I’m not shy about racking up a ton of photos for later editing and posting. But I’m a total amateur compared to my fellow selfie loving travelers. It seems that everyone is only concerned about getting a photo showing that they was there vs. trying to listen to the guide and learn something. OK, enough social commentary, I’m becoming a grumpy old person in real time here on Cruise Critic. So my trick of hiding my camera under a layer of gaffers and blue painters tape was a failure. Two guides had their eyes visibly open wide when they saw my camera and came up to me to compliment me on it. I guess these folks see dozens of cameras a day and my attempts to hide it wasn’t fooling anyone dammit. After the tour I spent about an hour at the port to take advantage of the free WiFi to catch up. They had a huge pool with a bar that a lot of people seemed to be enjoying.

Day 4 Sea day! Day 5 Cozumel For some reason I think ship excursions are not very popular with MSC. My original snorkel excursion was cancelled and a combo snorkel/beach excursion was substituted (no discount, lol). I found the average prices for the excursions to be similar to what NCL ones costs IF you factor in their constant promotional discounts. Our catamaran boat had seating for 160 but we had only 13 people on our tour. I was very fortunate this wasn’t cancelled at well! Turned out to be a great trip with some of the best visibility under water that I had ever seen. This is probably my fifth or sixth time snorkeling and I decided to hide a breakfast bread roll in my pocket to see if I could attract some fish. Well, this worked out a bit too well as I was instantly swarmed by the critters. Some even startled me by taking a liking to my fingers, ouch! Keep this in mind if you decide to try this same trick. There was a decent current in the water apparently and this tired out a lot of swimmers. The boat crew actually had someone in the water to watch out for us the entire time which was reassuring. I’ll have some good underwater video footage to post once I get to time to edit things. Just don’t mind the muffled screaming when the fish swarmed me. The second half of the excursion we pulled up to a beach for about an hour. Not much more to say, it was a beach. Had a chance to practice treading water again, and nope, I still sink like a rock. For Cozumel, our ship berthed at the pier south of the main one. There were four ships in port that day including RCL Harmony of the Seas, Princess Ruby(?), an older Princess ship and a Carnival. So far this trip I have been very good at avoiding people and crowds so no snarky observations so far…

Day 3 No cohesive narrative for this next post, just a series of random thoughts as I get settled in and get used to the MSC experience. Overcast , windy, and chilly is the weather forecast for today unfortunately. Was able to catch the complimentary show last night in the main theater, Encore. A musical greatest hits medley from various Broadway shows. The performance was great and the set was only 45 mins so even if you don’t like it you’re not trapped there. The main theater seems to run 3 shows a night at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30 seating times. There are several other productions going on that have a small charge, $18 I think, but they also include a drink. So after another breakfast with NO HOCKEY PUCKS, I hit the gym for an hour and then got ready for the day. I didn’t mention that the Meraviglia has a cover pool area. It was perfect for the cool conditions of the day and I was surprised it was not more packed. Speaking of packed, my cabin steward said there were a little over 4700 passengers for this trip. I believe the full capacity is around 5500 but not positive right now. That being said, I did not feel it’s been crowded so far even with all the cold weather keeping most everyone indoors. I didn’t see any crowding at the various venues and bars. Quite a contrast compared to the NCL Prima and my experience onboard her. A good example was the show in the main theater. I didn’t have a reservation but was still able to walk up, get checked in 15 mins before showtime, and still find a decent seat. On the Prima, if I didn’t book as soon as I boarded, forget it. My stateroom. I got an inside stateroom for this trip and it’s large compared to the NCL Away class insides and comparable to the new inside rooms on the Prima. The bathroom is a bit tight but the shower is roomy and takes up most of the space. Excellent water pressure and no sewage smells! Pro tip, if your bathroom smells like a dump, pour some water into the drain on the floor behind the toilet. The trap could’ve dried out an allowed the wonderful smells to permeate into the bathroom. There is another similar drain in the shower but I assume most people will shower and keep that trap filled. Not everyone will miss the toilet enough to fill the trap behind it with liquids, although I’m sure some have tried. The ship is still fairly new (2018 built) and from what I can see, everything is in excellent condition and nothing feels worn out. What’s next? The food! Prior to my sailing, I had read a lot of complaints about the food. The term bland was used a lot. Well so far my experience cannot be called bland judging for the amount of water I’ve been guzzling after dinner. Maybe MSC has taken the complaints to heart and decided to invest in a salt mine! What I did find lacking was variety of things in the buffet compared with what I remembered from my NCL trips. Aside from the rotisserie station alternating between beef, chicken, and pork offerings, the rest of the stations have been the same items for the last 3 days so far. Granted the increase of food prices plays into things I’m sure. The salad station was a bit disappointing. The only choices aside from lettuce was tomatoes and a few items that I can’t recall right now. I had to hunt around other stations to fill out some of the veggie items. Soon enough the Florida coast was on the horizon and we arrived in Port Canaveral. From that I can see this is basically a provisioning stop with an endless line of trucks unloading. I believe we parked in Dock#10 next to the Disney terminal. This is the same terminal NCL used for the Bliss four years ago. Not much more happened for the rest of the day. I met my first cruise character at lunch and saw her again at dinner. This person set up camp on a 4 top by herself and filled the table with plates. You can tell her demeanor was not happy and she proceeded to tell everyone within earshot how she has been onboard since late November because MSC refused to grant her a refund for several trips and she is basically hate-cruising right now to use up the funds. This sounds like an absolutely awful way to spend almost two months on a cruise! I wonder if she has the Internet package that she’s willing to sell me for cheap…

In Costa Maya today using port WiFi and my phone. My long form thoughts are on my laptop still on the ship! Had a great snorkel and beach excursion yesterday in Cozumel. My assigned dinner table mates have been a fun and diverse group. Makes the 90 minute dinner service fly by. The costa maya port feels a lot more developed now compared to my visit 4 years ago. I’ve been enjoying the shows in the main theater so far. The sets are 45 mins long and they run 3 shows an evening. They also have a nightly DJ hosted music party in the main atrium that a lot of people were enjoying and even got this crabby old guy to smile a few times. Best part is that the buffet is open until at least midnight with food and snacks. Only the first two nights they had dessert snacks. Not sure what was up with that. Still beats the 9pm shutdown with NCL. Random phone photos

Hockey pucks are back!

We had snow on deck the first night. Some of the crew had never seen snow.

that has to be it. I’m only allowed in Waves. Cheapo Pete wins again! now if only people will stop thinking I’m a ship photographer.

Sitting on the top deck now waiting for the ship to empty out before I hit the lunch buffet. Didn't have time to put my thoughts down fully last night so here are a few random snippets. I was shocked there it was lobster tail night in the MDR last night. No upcharge! I ended up with that and a large steak last night due to a tablemate being full. Both dishes and the appetizers were excellent. The kitchen redeemed itself in my eyes from the night before. I'm really annoyed at the lack of TV stations onboard. I know, stop watching, but it's how I wind down the day.

Breakfast Day 3 and no hockey puck potatoes yet!!! I see 9 tractor trailers in Port Canaveral right now for restocking. One of those rigs better have a sack of those things!

Just arrived in Cape Canaveral, it's 53 degees and COLD. Here are my random thoughts from the first 2 days so far: Boarding took about two hours from arrival at the terminal unless you have priority. The one good thing about MSC compared to NCL is that you’re allowed to go directly to your room to leave your bags outside the room even if the room isn’t ready. Rooms were announced ready around 1PM and they needed to be because the 2PM muster drill (3PM sailing) involved watching a video from the room and calling in using the phone in the room before you go out to get your card scanned at the muster station. The only place that was open with food on embarkation day was the buffet so you can imagine what a zoo it was. I didn’t see any line cutting or rudeness as reported by others but it’s only the first day! The was a lot of standing around and indecisiveness at the various stations however. The good thing is that the stations repeat the same food further in the buffet as you walk. No need to congregate up front! The food itself didn’t have a lot of variety compared to NCL. Given the steady rise of food prices I would expect this to be the norm moving forward unfortunately. As for the quality? I had no issues with everything I grabbed except for the seafood paella. It was basically rice with some microscopic krill, err, shrimp bits. That was still fine until I tasted it. The best way to describe it was that it tasted like what a fish market would smell like. Humm. I even checked with a friend who owns a seafood restaurant and he said it seems like it could’ve been left out too long. We finally sailed away about an hour late as they kept making announcements to track down the muster drill no shows. I’m sorry but the Brooklyn pier sail away is very lackluster compared to the Pier 88 sail away. I’m a little biased because I’ve been taking the Staten Island ferry back and forth for work going on 27 years now so I may be a bit jaded. The ship basically takes the same path soon after leaving the Brooklyn pier. For the out of town folks, you’re not going to get very close to the Statue of Liberty at all. Come in a day early and take a ride on the Staten Island ferry of you want a good look without actually going onto Liberty Island. Was for the city skyline, yeah, you’re too far away with a phone camera unless you’re carrying a brick of a camera like I was to zoom things in. You’ll see once I upload all my photos. Housekeeping procedures. MSC wants you to link a credit card to your cruise card account as soon as possible after you board. I somehow was able to avoid this by using the mobile app ahead of time to do this. Using the mobile app completely broke my web login account but that’s a story for another day. OK, my peace has been disturbed now. I’m in the cruise next area and three loud people are rearranging the furniture and tables to setup for a card game. They’re yelling at the cruise next people after basically upending their work area. Ugh. I’m going to relocate, I’m not going to listen to this. Alright, relocation successful. It started to rain outdoors and indoor space is a bit of a premium but I don’t think a lot of people are aware of this Sky Lounge bar yet. It’s the equivalent of the observation lounge on the Away class NCL ships. Where was I. Oh yeah, dinnertime. MSC will assign you a specific dining time in the main dining room. They specifically tell you that the doors will be closed 15 mins after your assigned time so if you miss it, you’re on your own. It appears that there is only one dining room that is complimentary compared to the three normally on NCL ships. I found the dining time to be a bit restrictive after my experience with NCL. It would require some planning if evening entertainment shows are on your agenda. I’ll attach the dinner menus later but it was typical MDR food. I had a second miss with seafood ordering a calamari salad. It just didn’t agree with me and I’m known as the human garbage can in the office when it comes to food. Lesson learned, no more seafood anything the rest of my time on board. After dinner I spent some time watching a huge dance party in the central atrium of the ship. The setup was amazing with the LED tiled ceilings displaying animations and a very enthusiastic entertainment crew. It was close to 11PM when the party was over and guess what, the buffet was still open! Take that NCL. They even had a midnight snacks selection of deserts that was roped off until the stroke of midnight. It was so nice to get a cup of coffee and 5 slices of tiramisu as a light snack before bed. Day 2 No hockey puck has browns at breakfast! All they had were they croquet things. They were crunchy but it was not the same! The rest of the offerings were standard breakfast fare. The gym was an absolute zoo at 9:30AM. It’s not very large at all and I want to say it was even smaller than what was on the Prima. You had people camping out to use the treadmills (limited to 25 mins) and other machines. The free weight area only had two benches. Towels and sanitizer was in chronic short supply. I’m not sure why the gym was so popular with passengers on this sailing. I did noticed that the gym was also packed during sail away as well when I peeked in the windows. Based on my unbiased observations, I think many of the passengers found the gym equipment to be a novelty for their instagram photos. I’m trying to be kind OK! Quick observation of the MSC observation lounge. They were smart to make most of the chairs single seats only. No loungers or daybeds for homeless sleep away use. NCL needs to install those hard benches with blocky armrests like they have in the NYC subway system to discourage the sleepers.

Did a quick scan on the TV and it seems like TCM is the only free movie channel of any sort. That’s a little annoying. we’re 40 mins late for sail away so far. Not sure what the issue is but it’s cold outside!

Mandatory safety drill at 2PM. All bars and the buffet was closed since everyone was supposed to be in their rooms watching the video and then confirming via phone call before walking to muster station for card scan. I walked by the buffet around 2:50 to get outside for the sail away and the buffet is still closed. A lot of annoyed people standing there with empty plates… good thing I managed to drop my luggage off in front of the room and go get my eats right after boarding!

Why do people insist on crowding at the boarding entrance waiting for their group to be called? Causes a traffic jam. You can tell I don’t fly right? oh no. I just heard nail clippers. This is going to be one of those cruises isn’t it…

I’m impressed that some people have figured out a cheat code for the long lines that double back over each other. just push your luggage under the ropes into the next line. By the time you reach it, rinse and repeat for the next row. Bingo no need to lug your trash. Nevermind everyone has to walk around your crap now. Good thing I didn’t see anything worth taking. If there was a GoPro case…

Yes, very basic and no frills but roomy! So far not many huge differences with the Manhattan cruise terminal except maybe a few more security scanners (six). Yacht club members have another line but boarding for them had already started so I’m not sure if there is a separate waiting area. Traffic was moving well into the port area. I jumped out of the car before the gate and walked the short distance while my friend did a U turn and got outta there.

11:12AM and sitting around waiting to board. I’m group 30 and they just called groups 6 and 7. Arrived at the terminal around 10:30am. A ton of people but the lines were moving well. Six security scanners helped. check in was painless and they even accepted my horrid photo taken during online checkin.

Morning all! Here we go. The NYC temps are 23 degrees F this morning. I decided to go with plan B and get a ride directly to the Brooklyn port vs my original plan of taking the ferry from Wall St. At these temps the less time I spend outside the better! Checked and rechecked that I have all my paperwork. Cargo pants are a must for embarkation day given how full your hands are with luggage. Hopefully my next post will be at the pier!