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MSC Musica May14-21-2017


GOLDENBONNY
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Day 1

 

I don't know where to start. It was probablythe best vacation we ever had. We did not go to Europe for over 18 years and I forgot how beautiful it can be. We arrived to Venice on May-12 in 9 am,original plan was to ride Alillaguna bus to hotel but long flight, and very long line in airport :rolleyes::( made me change my plans. We walk to water taxi stop and garbed some luxury for $120 euro LOL. I am happy I did, I will probably never forget how beautiful our arrival to Venice was and its stopped right by our B&B so no walking with luggage was involved. For our two nights in Venice I booked beautiful B&B in Cannaregio . Its my first stay in B&B, and I was very sceptical about it, but because we needed room for 3 and its very hard to find and very expensive(specially with Canadian dollar now:mad:) in Venice, I had no choice. The name is At Home At Palazzo and I would go back there again any time. Place is clean , quiet location , close to everything and has a good breakfast. Only problem its on 3rd floor and no elevator ;p but my husband is only 50 so he could walk up with two suite cases no problem, and he did not kill me after that :halo:.

After a very warm welcome in B&B we went to explore beautiful streets of Venice. By this point I did not know yet how smart it was to book hotel in Cannaregio and not close to St.Marco. I did my homework and googled lots of restaurants but of course we had to stop at first one on road:confused: La Cantina. I do not recommend this place if you don't speak Italian. Worst meal for whole week. Overpriced and small portion. For dinner we went place I planned to Osteria Bea Vita. We had a great meal ,great service and great price-just over 120 euro for 3 people . We did lots of walking and side-seeing this day but I am not gonna explain my emotions and how beautiful we felt . You should go yourself and see it. There is no words to describe Venice.

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Day 2

We walk up early with church bells. What a wonderful morning. After fast breakfast we run to pre booked tour in Doge Palace :The Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries tour. I booked it month before cruise because its only 3 tours in English per day and its impossible to buy ticket same day. Tour was very educational and interesting even for our 9 years old DD. I could only imagine how scary it was for people back then to attend this place. :eek: If you are interesting ,book first one 9:45am ,come to ST.Marco even earlier and enjoy this place before it become a madhouse with tourists. Close to the afternoon this place become so crowded that after 30 min. I had to run away with headache . Before we headed back to our neighbourhood we stopped for nice lunch in well known Tarattoria Rivetta. This place has mix reviews on Tripadviser but my DH big fun of

Joseph Brodsky so it was kind off must see for him.We actually loved this place but we are weird people :confused:

After lunch we headed back home to have a Gandola ride. Gandola price same everywhere 80 euro day time and 100 after 6pm. Not cheap but must have in Venice for me.:hearteyes: Next on list was Murano and Burano but my legs refused to move and we just stayed close to hotel and went for dinner to Trattoria da GiGio. This restaurant was not on my list as well,but because all other ones I wanted to go were booked for Saturday night ,we stopped for first one on way. Surprisingly it was a good place with nice food and nice service. I have to say we did not have any rude waiter or rude Italian on whole trip, I wish I could say same about French people but I will come back for this later.:evilsmile:

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Day 3

Time to say good buy to Venice and hello MSC Musica. This time we did went to Alilaguna boat. Ticket was 10 euro pp from F.Nova to Cruise port. Here is a trick. All boats came to same stop-ACTV, Alilaguna and both directions...:evilsmile::rolleyes: Like a good Canadian citizens we went to back of the line :') .Wrong choice... all line was going to airport and we missed our boat to cruise port. Then we moved to entry with "No Entry " sign,explain to crowd that we are not planning to go to Airport and finally cached out boat. Ride was about 35 min and very pleasant. WeE are in love with Venice and we are talking to go back some day.

Here is my tips for Venice: Download interactive map to your phone, google where your want to eat , do not go less then 3 days if your really want to enjoy this city, and don't act like you are a big brother who come to make them happy. If you are nice to people they nice to you but they're not gonna tolerate your attitude like they do in America. Next about Musica I promise:hearteyes:

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Day3 Musica

 

We finally arrived to port and after a short walk we started check in process. I have to say all embarkation process was very fast and easy.Much faster then in USA. We came to port around 11 am and by 12 pm we already headed to lunch but first stop was to pick up 12 drinking coupons pp in Casino and this time they found it :hearteyes: We had Fantastica cabin 9069 . Since cabins were are not ready till 2 pm we went for lunch in DR. I really love to eat first lunch in DR and last breakfast to avoid crowds in Buffet. Right after lunch I went to check our dinner table and of course we had a big table for 8 instead a small table for 4 as requested. Metre D said he can not do nothing about it right away but he will try for tomorrow. :( O well..... When I woke up next morning my new table arrangement was shovelled under the door :hearteyes: Thank you MSC.

Around 2 p.m. cabins were ready, so we could change to swimming suites and go to the pool. Water was... maybe 20 C but we are Canadians as long as its sunny its summer:'). When we come back to our cabin our luggage been waiting for us so we could unpack,change and go for dinner.

Food: First night dinner was so bad we start talking about eating in Buffet for the rest of the cruise. I don't care usually about food on cruise I don't cruise to eat but this time portions were way too small and tasteless and DR was way to loud . We gave it one more try next day and it was great. Food was very good for rest of the cruise . Some dishes we did not like but generally was good.

Buffet food: Regular breakfast , good lunch , very nice snacks in afternoon. The only huge problem is lines or should I say french people who pretend they don't see a line or generally other people around them. I was in shock how ignorant and rude they are. I know in every nationality there is rude people but this time it was 100% of them . I used to live in Eastern Europe and its hard to surprise me but they did it. It did not affect my vacation by any way I could easy tell them where to go( find end of line:*) but just surprised me in bad way.

Service: Very good in DR and most bars. Very slow in Tucan launch . We waited 25 min for drink one evening:rolleyes: . Most of the people just go to bar and grab a drink no problem for Europeans but I am sure Americans would not like this.

Shows and entertainment : As much as I love MSC shows, this time it was nothing to wright home about. Not even close to shows on Divina . Very old fashion way. Not bad just not as good as we used to see on Divina.

 

Musica is older ship but it does not show at all. She is beautiful and our favourite class ship. I am not a big fun of mega ships . I think pools are heated because water temperature was really warm some days and my DD was very happy to use it. I hope i answered some question . I will try to put more during the day.

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Day 1

 

I don't know where to start. It was probablythe best vacation we ever had. We did not go to Europe for over 18 years and I forgot how beautiful it can be. We arrived to Venice on May-12 in 9 am,original plan was to ride Alillaguna bus to hotel but long flight, and very long line in airport :rolleyes::( made me change my plans. We walk to water taxi stop and garbed some luxury for $120 euro LOL. I am happy I did, I will probably never forget how beautiful our arrival to Venice was and its stopped right by our B&B so no walking with luggage was involved. For our two nights in Venice I booked beautiful B&B in Cannaregio . Its my first stay in B&B, and I was very sceptical about it, but because we needed room for 3 and its very hard to find and very expensive(specially with Canadian dollar now:mad:) in Venice, I had no choice. The name is At Home At Palazzo and I would go back there again any time. Place is clean , quiet location , close to everything and has a good breakfast. Only problem its on 3rd floor and no elevator ;p but my husband is only 50 so he could walk up with two suite cases no problem, and he did not kill me after that :halo:.

After a very warm welcome in B&B we went to explore beautiful streets of Venice. By this point I did not know yet how smart it was to book hotel in Cannaregio and not close to St.Marco. I did my homework and googled lots of restaurants but of course we had to stop at first one on road:confused: La Cantina. I do not recommend this place if you don't speak Italian. Worst meal for whole week. Overpriced and small portion. For dinner we went place I planned to Osteria Bea Vita. We had a great meal ,great service and great price-just over 120 euro for 3 people . We did lots of walking and side-seeing this day but I am not gonna explain my emotions and how beautiful we felt . You should go yourself and see it. There is no words to describe Venice.

Hi Bonny I am very interested in the place you stayed in Venice. It sounds lovely. We are planning a trip to Europe next May (2018) for my daughter's 21st birthday. Would it be rude to ask approx how much a night this place is?

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Hi Bonny I am very interested in the place you stayed in Venice. It sounds lovely. We are planning a trip to Europe next May (2018) for my daughter's 21st birthday. Would it be rude to ask approx how much a night this place is?

 

 

We paid 600$ CAN for two nights . I don't know if its any help for you. You can check on Hotels.com I booked from them.or even on AT Home At Palazzo web.

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Brindisi:

After two very long days in Venice we had no plans for this port. After all its a vacation not a boot camp ;p. MSC provided us with free shuttle to DT and we just had a walk ,ate some ice cream and went back to ship to have some pool time. Very needed relaxing day.

Katakolon:

Original plan was to take Tourist Train around island to see winery and beach.Weather was not cooperating this day and Tourist Train was not working ,so we took Shuttle bus to Olympia 3 euro each round trip . :* MSC was offering 23.99 pp shuttle bus:confused: tickets. They dropped us 5 min walk from Olympia and gave us 2 hours to explore, but because of terrible rain we decided not to go inside Olympia . We walked around shops and had amazing lunch in Aegean .This was best meal in our cruise. Do not miss Pavlova dessert .

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Thank you for doing this review. It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. I love your comment about it being a cruise and not boot camp! So true! What a great experience for your daughter at age 9!

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Santorini :

It was my DH 50th Birthday this day and we started it with beautiful shore excursion provided by MSC. -Oia village . We started from short ride to some Winery for wine and cheese testing at 9 am aha :') . Well ...its always 12 pm somewhere as they say. :rolleyes:

After wine, with much better mood ,we went to beautiful Oia . Again ,its impossible to describe our feelings or beauty of this place . I will try to post some pictures later . We had like one hour free time in Oia before we headed to Fira . Our guide dropped us close to Cable car gave us tickets and pointed directions. Please remember from this point you consider "back from " MSC excursion and if you late to ship they not gonna wait for you. We did some shopping and went back to ship to have some relaxing pool time again.

Tip: if you see something you like on one island -buy it you may not find it on other they all sell different staff.

Since it was special dinner for us ,we ordered Lobsters from night before (21 euro pp comes with glass of Sparkle.)

In this point MSC screwed up- as a Golden member my DH supposed to get free Birthday Cake in DR but they forgot. Not a big deal I did not even complain but they could do it in perfect way.:rolleyes:

Any way this day was perfect and I hope my DH will remember it forever.

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Piraeus:

What a nasty weather we had in this port :eek: .Cold,rain,wind you name it :evilsmile:. Original plan was to go on Hop on-hop off bus and have a wonderful day around city for only 15 euro pp. We still went on Hop on, went up to Museum stop, and decided to see Museum and go back to ship:mad: Mother nature had some mercy for us and after 30 min rain stopped . We start running to Acropolis . Really running because we knew it will start raining again in no time. We had maybe 30 minutes to explore Acropolis before it start pouring again. This time cold and tired we just went back to Hop On bus and went back to ship. Well at least we saw Acropolis :rolleyes: By the way MSC sells shuttle tickets again in this port and very expensive ones :*

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Corfu:

Probably my favourite island. Plan was to grab a taxi to DT and do some shopping, but we got offer- for 80 euro to go to

Paleokastritsa with drop off in DT after. I am so happy we went:hearteyes: . Such a beautiful Holly place with amazing views

 

on the way there. We came there around 1:20 pm and of course with our luck Monastery was close till 2 pm :rolleyes: No problem ,we just garbed some coffee in restaurant near Monastery and admire the views. At 2:00 pm they open the doors and we were first ones to go inside . Please remember to wear proper closing to visit this Holly place. We spend about 30 min inside,put some candles in church, bought some olive oil and headed back to DT shopping. At this time we saw all busses coming and I realised how smart it was to go by taxi -not only I saved money but I could admire this place practically by myself.

Our driver dropped us in DT ,gave us direction how to go back on ship and we went for treasure hunting . Corfu Cumquat liqueur, Bahlava, Lukum,olives,soap ... Two full bags of goodies in one hour . Weather was very good so we garbed a taxi and went back to ship to have some pool time. Taxi price 10 euro.

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Kotor:

Arrival time 7 am :rolleyes:, wake up time 6 am. Garbed the phone a start making amazing videos . After 10 minutes my DH start talking about buying retirement home in Kotor and that before even seen the place LOL. Since he is only 50 and its a long way till he need retirement home we just went to see Old Town. ;p Lots of taxi drivers offer to go see places but it was a very short stop to do Old Town and a trip .

Again, no disappointment in this port as well. Lots of history, lots of good food and shopping( not cheap at all). Every corner is unique, every port is different. Our Planet is beautiful and we only can hope to stay healthy to be able to work and travel.

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Thanks for all the details about the ports.

Can you let us know what the special nights are on board?

Such as gala night, Italian night etc.

 

Thanks

We had 2 formal nights,one white night , and 60-70 night. People are not dressed up us much as on Caribbean for my surprise.

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Venice disembarkation :

I must say probably the best one we ever had. MSC in Europe doing very good job by punting ropes around Exits and letting out only people who suppose to go out at this time. They really check your luggage tag colour before they let you out. I love it!

Ship in port 9 am, we had priority disembarkation 9:30 am. By 9:40 am we already piked up out luggage and met with our taxi driver which I booked before cruise, and I am happy I did, because no Taxi were on taxi stops in port :confused: Taxi ride 45 euro. Around 10:05 we entered Venice airport.......Our flight was 1:50 pm and it looked like lots of time to spear but not in Venice. First we had to go to 0 floor to drop our luggage(don't listen to them that you can only do it 2 hours before flight), then go up, wait in long line to pass security ,then you all happy to be inside and dreaming about nice calm lunch and some shopping.....wrong ! there is another long line to customs:rolleyes:. Long story short- we had only 40 min left before our Check in started. Check in process was fun too. We had to take a bus to plane lake good old times :hearteyes:. I knew Venice airport is a mess, so not too much stress for me at this time, but people around us kept talking about how good airport was this day and not a lot of mess.:confused: Can not imagine it summer time LOL.

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Conclusion:

We had a fantastic trip. Weather could be better in some ports but no major complains. Except my DH still complain about his Birthday Cake:rolleyes: and two huge things I hate : pool towels in cabin and no bath robes in Fantastica category -I never had problem to get on on Divina! Please MSC put those pool towels back in pool ,its so stupid to care them around the ship and not to be able to get clean one if needed. :evilsmile::evilsmile:

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