I have today boarded the MSC Virtuosa for the 7 night Norwegian Fjords cruise. I’ll try and provide a few updates across the week. If anyone has any particular questions let me know.
We were booked in an Ocean view cabin. We bid for an upgrade to a Balcony cabin through the MSC upgrade programme (minimum bid was £65pp, we bid £105pp in the end). We have an end of a block cabin on floor 12 so have a huge balcony, albeit with just the usual two chairs and not really table table. We are still pleased as it is a lot less than we would have paid to book it originally.
Check in through Horizon terminal at Southampton was relatively smooth. Bag drop was a little chaotic - more bags than they had space to put through their sox carousels - but the staff had a system to manage the overflow. There was a big queue for the check in desks but it cleared in 20 minutes and we were allowed straight on board after.
Unfortunately we had just missed the Blue Danube welcome lunch so had to go to the Buffet. Obviously this is the go to place for everyone at 2pm on boarding day. It was BUSY very busy. We needed food so had to do it, but it was chaos. We did manage to get a table but full of the last person’s detritus which staff didn’t seem in any hurry to clear (we sat there for 20 minutes before finding a clear table instead). Hopefully this is just day one chaos and not the sign of things to come.
We did the mandatory safety briefing and found the usual issue of too many people trying to use too few lifts at the same time. Again, hopefully day one issues of everyone following the same itinerary.
I did try a trip to guest services as my cruise card is silver and not gold (it bothers me and it’s frustrating that MSC base it on the first named person in the room - we cocked up and my non-casino (& thus silver) going wife is lead in our room). I didn’t sort it as the queue was a game of snake circling the atrium a few times - one for another day.
We have just departed and have found a decent spot watching the sail away on Deck 15 by the pool. The staff have obviously worked out it’s the place to be. The extra pop-up bars and the staff coming round with bottles of beer is a useful addition and meant we have got a sail away beer surprisingly quickly!
Hopefully the start of a fun week, I’ll keep you informed!
Rare
