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Magnifica Cruise Review Sept/Oct 2017


Beamafar
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Just back from our Med cruise on Magnifica. There were a number of 'firsts' for us on this cruise: 1st 9 night cruise, 1st Lisbon embarkation, 1st time to only have the basic drinks package (we usually have premium) and 1st time onboard MSC in the Med with so few English-speaking passengers aboard. (We did experience this once before but that was on a Grand Voyage from Brazil).

 

We found that a 9 nights cruise was far better than a 7 night one for relaxing into the cruise. We've been saying for some time that 7 nighters are far too rushed and it feels like you've only just unpacked when it's time to pack up again.

 

Embarkation was a breeze in Lisbon. One very surprising thing was that the porters didn't have luggage tags. I had printed 2 but wanted to send an extra hand-luggage bag with our 2 suitcases; that wasn't possible. Luckily, I had printed the tags that I did as I sometimes don't bother!

 

There were so few boarding there that there was literally no-one else checking in when we arrived at 11.30 ish. Our Fantastica balcony cabin, 10166, was ready, too, and our Voyagers Club "gifts" of tote bags were on the bed, along with our cruisecards and Daily Program.

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Our cabin:

 

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I had pre-ordered the wine & water package because I wasn't keen on the house wines that are included in the basic drinks package, so we headed off to the lounge where the vouchers were to be collected. However, mine weren't there! I was asked for the paperwork showing that I'd ordered them, but I had left it back in the cabin, so we decided to leave and go to lunch and sort it out later. We were allowed to dine in the MDR. In fact, when we were in Genoa, where the majority of passengers embarked/disembarked, an announcement was made that those embarking could have lunch in either the buffet or the MDR - another first for us. Usually they don't allow 'embarkees' to lunch in the MDR.

 

As I had no wine vouchers, I opted to have one of the house reds. It was fine (can't remember the name) so I said to DH that I wouldn't pursue the vouchers and would make do with this particular wine for the duration of the cruise because I hadn't prepaid for the wine package, anyway. However, on entering the MDR for dinner that night, I was approached by the crew member I'd dealt with earlier that day - she had found my vouchers!

 

We had 3 formal nights. Very few dressed formally on any of them. The food offerings were very good on the first 2 'Elegance' nights, but were so poor on the 3rd that we opted to pay the extra and have the T-bone steaks.

Edited by Beamafar
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50f03abb3145ed4d30751ed9c37e4565.jpg

 

 

 

 

I ate about half and DH polished it off! I'm only sorry I didn't take a photo of the bones after he'd finished LOL!

 

 

More to follow, including photos of the menu and food offerings from Oriental Plaza Speciality Restaurant.

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Did you miss the YC ?

 

Nah .............. we're used to being in steerage! ;)

 

Gonna have to postpone this report .................. there's a mother of a storm heading our way, the likes of which we haven't seen in 50 years so I'll be busy battening down the hatches today. Heaven knows what's ahead of us. :eek:

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Hope you survive the storm.....:o

 

Thanks .............. TBH, we have no idea what to expect. It'll be hurricane force winds! More than likely, we'll lose power so probably no internet for the next while. If that's all that we've to contend with, I'll be happy. Heading out now to stock up on essentials. No power means no water as we have our own well.

 

Now I know how the islanders in the Caribbean feel.

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50f03abb3145ed4d30751ed9c37e4565.jpg

 

 

 

 

I ate about half and DH polished it off! I'm only sorry I didn't take a photo of the bones after he'd finished LOL!

 

 

More to follow, including photos of the menu and food offerings from Oriental Plaza Speciality Restaurant.

 

What a beast, looks delicious! Hope you and your family are okay after the storm!

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Thanks, Jay & Keith.

 

Dave .............. we're in the south-east where it's expected that some of the strongest winds will hit as well as the south and west. While you'll get a fair whack, I think we're more in Ophelia's path. A lot of comparisons being made to cyclone Debbie that hit Ireland back in '61 (before I was born) when 18 people were killed.

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Greetings from Norway and welcome home Bea :) We hope you stay safe in Ireland during this storm which we also experience here in Norway. Hurricane force on the west coast last night. The T-Bone steak looks delicious:):cool: Last year on RCI they also offered us a pay option in the MDR. Very interesting to see that also MSC have started to offer this option in the MDR. Thank's a lot for your review so far, I'm looking forward to read more.

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Thanks for all the good wishes, folks - really appreciate it. :)

 

So, we had a power cut for 73 hours which meant no water, too. Thankfully, no damage to report but still without water from the tank due to an air-lock (I'm assuming) even though the tank is actually full! Very frustrating not being able to shower.clear.png?emoji-mad-1709 We're expecting a man to call this evening but storm Brian is blowing a gale at the moment so it'll be interesting to see if we lose power again. clear.png?emoji-roll-eyes-1744

 

Ken & NC ................. hope you both weren't too impacted by Ophelia and that all is well with you.

 

Tim ............... I enquired about the Black Card complimentary dining for a 2 nighter - yes, you can avail of it. Also, I asked our waiter about purchasing the drinks package and he said that it would be available to you to purchase on board.

 

I hope to continue the review after the weekend ................... when I've recovered! clear.png?emoji-tongue-1703

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Glad you're back online, Bea. No power and water is miserable. See you had flu too! Hope you're recovered now! All good up here, bit breezy now but could have been much worse. Looking forward to the rest of your review. Ken

 

Thanks to both you and Darcy!

 

Glad to hear you're OK, Ken. I was wondering how you were faring in your neck of the woods.

 

Fortunately the last 24 hours haven't been as bad here as was expected (or feared - by me, anyway!) I was so afraid the power would go again - we tend to have outages every time we have gales.

 

We're still having to fill the loos with buckets and no water for showering as we seem to have a blockage preventing water coming down from the tank in the attic. clear.png?emoji-roll-eyes-1744 At least we have the "mains" water coming in from the well so we'll just have to muddle along with that! Another problem was an airlock preventing the hot water feed around the house, but we managed to clear that this evening. It's been a long week since Monday, that's for sure!

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............... I enquired about the Black Card complimentary dining for a 2 nighter - yes, you can avail of it. Also, I asked our waiter about purchasing the drinks package and he said that it would be available to you to purchase on board.

 

 

 

I hope to continue the review after the weekend ................... when I've recovered! clear.png?emoji-tongue-1703

 

 

 

Thanks for the confirmation [emoji6]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Gosh, it's hard to get back into review mode! I think I'll do "Live from" reports in future!

 

Anyway .....

 

We had 2 evenings in Oriental Plaza to enjoy our Black Card complimentary dining.

 

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Here's the menu we were offered:

 

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As there was nothing on this that appealed to me, I asked if we could select items from the main menu (we had done this before on our previous Magnifica cruise). No problem, we were told.

 

Here's the full menu listings:

 

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Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

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