MSC Magnifica E. Med cruise, 14th -23rd January 2012

[Bigbum & Shortarse]

MSC Magnifica Eastern Mediterranean cruise, 14th – 23rd January 2012, full report.

Venice, Bari, Rhodes, Haifa, Piraeus and back to Venice.

Firstly, may we offer our condolences to all the people who have lost loved ones, personal belongings etc on Costa Concordia, how sad an occasion. We remember the Concordia, our first cruise 4 years ago on her convinced us to cruise for as long and as often as we could.

The following report is our reflection on our second MSC cruise, it does not cover every aspect of the ship as some things on board we didn’t have time for or we just didn’t need them. We have included info on our two days in Venice.

Our flight into Marco Polo Airport was on time and well organised. The airport is easy to negotiate and after collection of our luggage and meeting up with friends from the US who were cruising as well, we bought our tickets at the kiosk for the Alilaguna (water bus) to San Zaccaria, 12 Euros single. Exit the terminal, turn left and follow the signs for the water taxi/bus, mostly covered walkways allow about 12/15 minutes. Remember to ‘punch’ your ticket at the entrance to the Blue Line pier. The ticket collector will stow your luggage and for the next hour and a half take in the scenery of Venice and the surrounding Islands. We stayed at the All’Angelo hotel, just two streets from St. Marks square which was very good except the rooms smelt a little smoky. The breakfasts were excellent with cereal, fruit, yoghurt, pastries, eggs and bacon in fact far better than the ‘Continental’ breakfast we were expecting. The staff there with their excellent English answered all our questions and gave us directions to the best places to eat and a map to follow as well.

We had two nights there before leaving at the San Marco Vapporetto jetty on the number 2 ferry bus to go along the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma. From there we walked to the people mover and then walked to the MSC Cruise terminal. If we did this again we would take a taxi from Piazzale Roma as it is a fair walk with suit cases, there is a shuttle bus that runs from the people mover to the terminal but we didn’t see it.

Embarkation was typically MSC! 3000 people trying to book in and not enough desks to cope, going by other cruisers it may be better to have arrived at the terminal after 1.00pm instead of 11.00am as we did. There were few places to sit and the ‘Web check in’ to help embarkation was non-existent, so we had to queue like everyone else. There was the usual sale of drinks packages, excursions, massages and health treatments before the customary photograph for your collection. Boarding started at about 1.15pm

Once aboard we soon found our cabins, 9071 and 9073 and after lunch explored this grand ship. The balcony cabins we had were well appointed with kingsize beds, a settee and a mini-bar/small fridge, hair drier etc. There are no tea making facilities, so we took a small travel kettle, tea bags, cups, a small amount of washing up liquid and a tea towel so we could brew up at any time (if you do this sort of thing, stow it away in a drawer when not in use). We used the cold water from the bathroom with no ill effects. Note our pillows were ‘lumpy’ and other people said theirs were the same. Our cabins at all times were kept spotlessly clean, all credit to the cabin boys.

The bathroom was well equipped but MSC no longer supply those little bars of soap and shampoo or flannels. There is utensil hand soap for the basin and shower and shampoo for the shower, another point here is that the water is so soft that the shower tiles can become slippery with the suds, if this might be a problem we suggest you take one of those rubber non slip mats which are easily found and easily stored.

The food on board is first class and the restaurants serve a themed Italian menu each night but there are many choices and up to 8 courses is enough for anyone to choose from. The portions are not large so if you are a big eater then go for 4 or 5 courses. We ate mostly in the restaurant but there was plenty of variety in the Buffet with the added attraction there was tea/coffee/iced water for free there, this was only let down by the horrible blue plastic mugs. Note, tea and coffee are not offered at lunch or dinner and bottled water has to be paid for. There is also an excellent wine list to choose from and like most people, we opened a bottle one evening and had it corked to finish the next evening. Expect about 20 Euros for a bottle of wine. The dining service could not be faulted with good waiters and waiting time was minimal. We did not use the a la carte restaurant so cannot say whether it was worth the extra 20 Euros per person. We did not make use of the cabin service either.

Dinner dress code. There are 3 dress codes on board with no theme nights. Casual is just that, informal is jacket and tie for men, smart casual for ladies and formal is lounge suits with tie or tuxedo for men and evening dress or suit for ladies. We found that men let the side down with very few suits or tuxedos on view on formal nights and even a rugby shirt was evident at the Captains’ exclusive cocktail party. The dress code was not enforced at any dinner as far as we could see. Come on men you are letting the side down! Ladies you looked lovely, get your men to smarten up.

The entertainment on board was one of the best encountered, the theatre shows were top notch with great dancers, singers and varied artists. The rest of the entertainment in the many bars etc was also varied and well up to any cruisers needs. There were also daily quizzes, tournaments etc and always plenty to keep oneself occupied. One small failure according to our friends was that the cyber café/internet room was next to useless, it could not seem to find any websites but still kept charging your on board account, which I believe was re-reimbursed.

Excursions. We took advantage of the onboard excursions for the Israel stop. On the face of it they were expensive but taking into account the full day trip was 10 hours including lunch it was not that overpriced. The afternoon tour to Nazareth and Canaan and day trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem were well organized with about 30 coaches going out from the docks each day. The English speaking guides that we had were excellent and knew their way around. On both trips it became apparent that if you had tried to do the same coverage on your own you would still have needed a guide to show where everything was as individual signs were not plentiful. At the other ports of call we either walked into the city (Bari) or took taxi rides in Rhodes, 3 hours for 125 Euros and Piraeus (Athens) 2 taxis for 6 of us for 210 Euros for a 4 hour tour with ample time to see the sites and do some shopping. If you do this make sure your driver can speak your language. All the shops visited were only too pleased to deal in whatever currency we had, Euros or US Dollars sufficed everywhere.

Staff. We found the ships staff cheerful and efficient at all times. How they cope with so many different peoples and languages is beyond us. There are signs of cost cutting with no individual soaps or flannels in the bathrooms and no tea/coffee making facilities in the cabins and water charged for at lunch and dinner.

Overall experience was that it was a great cruise, good value for the money we paid. Advice here is not to go overboard on drinks as everything is subject to the 15% service charge which can mount up over the nine days. Would we do it again? Yes, unquestionably and we look forward to our next cruise on MSC.

Disembarkation was straight forward, although the fog in Venice held up docking for an hour. You can book a bus to take you to the airport for 15 Euros or if you prefer to do as we did, on exiting the customs shed turn sharp left to the taxi rank where a taxi took us to the airport for 45 Euros.( 4 of us). It was easier, quicker and cheaper to use the taxi.

I hope this epistle is of some use to fellow cruisers, bear in mind that this information was based on our personal experience.

[forbesfan]

Thank you so much B&S for your review, I am doing this cruise on Feb 26th. Its really good to see a review that does not knock MSC and has taken them for what they are "A EUROPEAN CRUISE LINE" Thanks again

[Bigbum & Shortarse]

Thank you, forbesfan for your comments, we are sure that you will have a great time on your forthcoming cruise and hopefully it will be a little warmer then. We look forward to reading your review on your return.

 

B & S

[jjdc]

It was great to see another review. It sounds like you enjoyed your cruise as much as I enjoyed mine. You raised some issues that I wasn't aware of -- problems with the internet cafe -- and some things I had forgotten to mention when I did my review -- no flannels/washcloths.

 

While the internet was slow using my own computer and wireless -- or cable access in my cabin -- I fortunately didn't have problems getting to websites like your friends who were using the computers in the internet cafe.