Live from the Musica, Venice to Rio, daily report & any questions?

[wilson2579]

Thanks for taking the time to post Tim. It has made fabulous reading, especially since I was on the Divina a month ago. Safe journey home.

[Lindagop]

Tks for the great entertaining reports which we have become quite used to in the last few days.Hopfully you will keep reporting on your future cruises. I believe you have quite the following.I look forward to our family Christmas cruise on the Poesia in a few weeks. Have a safe journey home.

[AmoMondo]

Safe journey home Tim.

 

I've no idea what your day job is but you'd make an excellent travel writer. Your writing style is so enjoyable to read. Interesting facts coloured by humour.

[A&A]

Tim, have really enjoyed hearing about your time on the Musica. Have a safe journey home and am looking forward to hearing about your next cruise already!

[Skipper Tim]

How many children would say are onboard? Probably quite young/small ones (pre school-aged)? :eek:

 

I understand you very well... Adult-only areas are the best!

However, my experience with MSC is that their ships hardly have any adult-only areas at all. And if they have, families (especially Italian ones) with children doen't respect the rules...and the staff onboard do not bother. That is a pity!

 

There were not too many actually, perhaps a dozen or so. Children were not the issue really so much as the lack of a quiet area to avoid the incessant prattling :-)

[Tangocherie]

Skipper Tim,

 

I have booked a transatlantic on the Divina out of Venice, November 2 2013. Your description of your voyage was very helpfull in giving me an idea of what to expect. I loved your fun and witty comments.

 

Finally, do you believe I should wait till I am aboard before purchasing the beverage package? Is it custom to reduce the price on longer voyages? Have a good trip.

[Skipper Tim]

Good afternoon on my final full day aboard the MSC Musica!

 

To avoid confusion, I will be sending this from Rio Airport tomorrow but I am writing this yesterday, as it were. I will be off the ship by the time you read this, but obviously well after I am writing it aboard the ship, even after the two hour time difference. I hope that makes things clear :-)

 

As my first cruise with MSC is drawing to its end, it is inevitable that some vague generalisations of MSC are forcing themselves into my head but still competing with the daily stimulation of observing life aboard.

 

Today, for example, informed by an insert in today's Daily Programme delivered last night, we had a meeting in the Crystal Lounge to impart important information "for passengers disembarking the ship in Rio on Tuesday, 4th December". Somewhat Monty Pythonesque, the meeting began with the words "This is for passengers disembarking the ship in Rio, Tuesday, 4th December". It was then reinforced by telling them that it was not for anyone else. Half of them left! Information onboard in English is poor but what there is is also poorly understood.

 

In the meeting I took note of the pertinent points: luggage out by 2 a.m., out of our cabins by 7:30 a.m. (howls of disbelief), pay or sign for accounts by 9, be in the Crystal Lounge by 9:30 a.m. when "you will be escorted to the exit". Given that the itinerary when booked was for a 10 a.m arrival in Rio, the premature ejection was not well received. All my cruises have had this feel. The staff are so pleased to welcome us aboard then, on the last day, when we start to have warm feelings, we are released from the institution of the ship into the harsh reality of outside.

 

They did the parting the best at the Sunrise Queen hotel in Turkey. I stayed there a month one winter when most guests arrived and left just two days per week. I joined in with the 'parting ceremony', when some of the guests and staff lined up outside the hotel and waved those departing farewell, bon voyage and see you again somewhere, someday. It was a regular social engagement and a bit of 'kind fun' for me. However, when it was my turn to go, being on the receiving end, I had to hold back the tears. Tomorrow, in contrast, we will be "escorted to the exit" unceremoniously at 9:30.

 

Except, we have other plans. We are fine about breakfast at 7:30 - it is our regular time - but our flight is not until after midnight so we intend "staying on the ship as long as possible", well hopefully until after lunch rather than until her stern becomes submerged in the Atlantic. The ship is in Rio all day and as a regular port day on a longer cruise for most guests, it should be quiet and pleasant aboard. Call us philistines for not seeing Rio but also appreciators of a beautiful ship with a stunning backdrop. We will have had the best views of Rio arriving from the sea and besides I will return sometime in the future, stay and do Rio properly when there is not a cruise ship in town.

 

That was a long example, I should try to cut down on them.

 

At lunch today, we were greeted by one of the non-smiling, burnt-orange-jacketed head waiters who only speak in any language other than Italian under extreme duress. Today was one such occasion. Perhaps because the English-speakers and others who, in part, judge the quality of a cruise line by the size of their personal body space, had made their feelings known about the constant shepherding into the confined pens of L'Oleandro even when there are only a few dozen of us there, he pronounced, in English, that we could sit anywhere. My mother almost fell over in astonishment. After walking past him, she turned her head back to study him. Was he joking? Was he unwell? Was he about to have us arrested for breaking the usual cordon?

 

We had lunch in relative peace, at least until 1pm when the talking volume increased 40 decibels and we were forced to abandon our positions. The ladies made for their cabins to pack while I made for the Tucano, where I am now, writing this.

 

So I think I have covered the poor information and translations in English and the 'penning' at breakfast and lunch. I should switch to a couple of positive aspects.

 

I find the constant clashes of culture by far the best entertainment onboard. It is often hysterical. If you ever saw Peter Sellers in laughing fits in the outtakes of the lift scene from the Pink Panther film when somebody in the lift releases bodily wind, then you may have some sympathy with my condition. When I press the lift call button, I never know what comedy the doors are going to open to, or take place once the doors are shut.

 

Often it is just a gaggle of short, fat, latino women chatting away apparently totally unaware that they are in a lift until the doors open. Then the doors open and I am there. They have to rapidly finish off what they were saying and talk about me quietly, "Who's he?", "Where's he going", "Did he press a button?"' "Do you think he speaks Spanish?", "I think he is going to my floor!" or similar then naughty laughs. I keep a straight face and look at my own reflection to encourage them to say more.

 

As often, I will encounter one of the above in the lift alone and lost but not for words. The occupier will already be talking as the lift doors open. She will immediately direct her words at me asking a series of rapid-fire questions in a language I need at least a few seconds to compose any sort of response, "Where is the <x>", "What floor are we on", " Are we going up/down", then what sounds like personal statements as if I were a family member and knew all the names she is talking about.

 

More often than not, people leave the lifts looking lost, not knowing which floor they are on, where they are going or how they became to be in the lift in the first place. I started off trying to use the stairs as often as possible for the free exercise but the incentive for my own personal sense of humour to use the lifts instead is often over-powering. The facial muscles that stop me smiling at inopportune moments have grown very strong on this cruise.

 

I could write an entire book about my lift experiences aboard but I should move on. I will even have to pass on other cultural mis-matches for now. They have been a hoot often analysed and discussed at dinner with the resulting involuntary tears of laughter. All sorts of muscles are aching but at least the tear ducts are clear.

 

Secondly, the Bloody Marys are fabulous. I have always loved a good Bloody Mary and the ones aboard have been consistently superb down to the fresh celery stick (as pictured in my Facebook photo album). Where do they get fresh celery in the middle of the Atlantic? I usually eat some of the celery that comes with the Bloody Mary and I don't beleive it has been frozen. They bake bread every night, it is entirely possible that they also grow celery. (I also note that, if you are paying, their Bloody Marys contain two shots of vodka for considerably less than the cost of two shots of vodka.

 

I an now report that we made it to the international airport in Rio having had a strange lunch in the buffet with the new boarders at Rio. We never even thought when we boarded at Venice and sat in the buffet waiting for our cabins that there may have been one or two hangers on from the previous cruise in there with us.

 

Contrary to many reports on Cruise Critics taking 45 to 90 minutes depending on traffic, our taxi ride from the cruise terminal to the international airport took a mere 13 minutes. The 70 Riale agreed fare in retrospect was a little on the high side for Rio.

 

We had planned on spending 4 hours or so in a paid airport lounge on the airside but it is an old-fashioned airport with check-in desks assigned for each flight and these don't open until 3 hours before departure. Instead, we have established camp in the 'Palheta Air Cafe' on the first floor.

 

So that is it for this live review. I will try to cobble together a more considered version in due course. However, if you have been with me all the way, there won't be any surprises in that.

 

Thank you for all the kind comments and words of encouragement. I enjoyed sharing my experiences as an MSC first-timer. I will check back on this thread and try to answer any further questions.

 

Ciao amici!

[travelberlin]

Thank you very much for your review. It was fun reading it. We are booked on the MSC Magnifica repositioning from Brasil to Germany.

You mention that MSC is convenient for solo travelers. Could you please tell us what do you mean? I cruise sometimes alone and I always end up paying for two on a cruise. Is this different with MSC?

[roundthebend]

Thank you for a most entertaining review. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!

[AmoMondo]

Thank you very much for your review. It was fun reading it. We are booked on the MSC Magnifica repositioning from Brasil to Germany.

You mention that MSC is convenient for solo travelers. Could you please tell us what do you mean? I cruise sometimes alone and I always end up paying for two on a cruise. Is this different with MSC?

 

I can answer that as i invaraibky cruise solo. They don't charge any supplement at all on their repositioning trips, which makes them very affordable. Even on other cruises they sometimes reduce the usual rate of 100% on balconies and suites and 80% on ocean view and insides. They dont restrict the cabin type you can occupy as a solo, so balconies and suites are allowed and not out of reach financially. Costa seem to be reasonable too but it's difficult to get a different cabin type if you don't like single (mainly smallish inside or ocean view) cabins.

Edited December 5, 2012 by AmoMondo

[travelberlin]

I can answer that as i invaraibky cruise solo. They don't charge any supplement at all on their repositioning trips, which makes them very affordable. Even on other cruises they sometimes reduce the usual rate of 100% on balconies and suites and 80% on ocean view and insides. They dont restrict the cabin type you can occupy as a solo, so balconies and suites are allowed and not out of reach financially. Costa seem to be reasonable too but it's difficult to get a different cabin type if you don't like single (mainly smallish inside or ocean view) cabins.

Thanks dor your answer! I will keep an eye an those offers. I have however the feeling that MSC prices are higher as in other Cruiselines also for repositioning ships.

[Skipper Tim]

Here is the second half of the photos from our trip:

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151117014400855.444544.692350854&type=1&l=5a6ba0d898

 

Enjoy!

 

Tim.

[Carolin]

This was such a wonderful read. Thank you for making the effort to take us along on your cruise. I have been tempted to book on MSC and you have given me a very good description of what to expect. Thank you.

[AmoMondo]

Thanks dor your answer! I will keep an eye an those offers. I have however the feeling that MSC prices are higher as in other Cruiselines also for repositioning ships.

 

Absolutely not. I paid £1500 for 19 nights on the Opera from Buenos Aires to Southampton this year in the highest category balcony cabin with BA flights from Edinburgh to Buenos Aires and a flight from Southampton back to Edinburgh included. If I'd gone fir an inside cruise only, I could have gotten it for just £500-600. Just had a look on the UK website and the 17 night return trip from South America (Santos to Venice) on the Fantasies has insides available at £605, OCean views at £848 and superior balconies at £1090 all cruise only, sole occupancy (no single supplement)

[AmoMondo]

Here is the second half of the photos from our trip:

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151117014400855.444544.692350854&type=1&l=5a6ba0d898

 

Enjoy!

 

Tim.

 

Thanks Tim. Especially enjoyed seeing the photos of Salvador and in the sun. We had torrential downpours off and on so my first purchasenof that day was a brolly from a street trader. Some swine in a cafe in Lisbon nicked it though!

[Skipper Tim]

Absolutely not. I paid £1500 for 19 nights on the Opera from Buenos Aires to Southampton this year in the highest category balcony cabin with BA flights from Edinburgh to Buenos Aires and a flight from Southampton back to Edinburgh included. If I'd gone fir an inside cruise only, I could have gotten it for just £500-600. Just had a look on the UK website and the 17 night return trip from South America (Santos to Venice) on the Fantasies has insides available at £605, OCean views at £848 and superior balconies at £1090 all cruise only, sole occupancy (no single supplement)

 

Indeed, cruise only fares for inside/outside/balcony are £387/£541/£696 (all sub-categories are the same price) with the co-op. This is before any MSC Club discount you may be entitled to. The flight to Sao Paulo is available from Madrid with Iberia for 25,000 Avios (£104 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers) + 54 Euros taxes. Flights from the UK to Madrid and from Venice to the UK are cheap (under £50) with a choice of carriers.

 

I booked the above Fantasia trip yesterday! I emailed MSC to obtain my MSC Club no. and told them why I needed it. They telephoned me straight back and took the booking over the phone with discount applied. Pretty good service! I couldn't use my on board credit voucher at these rates but there was a £100 on board credit offer that I didn't know about. 17 night World voyages simply don't get better value than this for solo travellers!

[Skipper Tim]

Thanks Tim. Especially enjoyed seeing the photos of Salvador and in the sun. We had torrential downpours off and on so my first purchasenof that day was a brolly from a street trader. Some swine in a cafe in Lisbon nicked it though!

 

You are welcome! We did not have great weather overall. We had our downpour in Valetta but it rained often while at sea and we had little sunshine. I suppose this is the problem with starting in Europe in December and crossing not much beyond the tropics where you can expect rain daily albeit of the warm variety. Salvador was the exception. I hope that I will see a little more sun in the opposite direction in March.

[travelberlin]

Absolutely not. I paid £1500 for 19 nights on the Opera from Buenos Aires to Southampton this year in the highest category balcony cabin with BA flights from Edinburgh to Buenos Aires and a flight from Southampton back to Edinburgh included. If I'd gone fir an inside cruise only, I could have gotten it for just £500-600. Just had a look on the UK website and the 17 night return trip from South America (Santos to Venice) on the Fantasies has insides available at £605, OCean views at £848 and superior balconies at £1090 all cruise only, sole occupancy (no single supplement)

 

Wow! Unfortunately in our case we are taking MSC Magnifica from Santos to Hamburg (18 nights). Price for one person in category 10, about US 3900. They sell it as a 2 for 1 offer, in which the second person only pays port taxes which are US 340. total for 2 then US 4.300.

Our first time with MSC. We are not able to book online, because the online booking is for USA or Canadian residents. Our booking is done through an MSC representative.

[Skipper Tim]

Wow! Unfortunately in our case we are taking MSC Magnifica from Santos to Hamburg (18 nights). Price for one person in category 10, about US 3900. They sell it as a 2 for 1 offer, in which the second person only pays port taxes which are US 340. total for 2 then US 4.300.

Our first time with MSC. We are not able to book online, because the online booking is for USA or Canadian residents. Our booking is done through an MSC representative.

 

I find it quite weird how much MSC cruise fares vary by country. With Royal Caribbean, US fares are usually the lowest but only by 15-30%. With MSC, the UK fares can be half or less than any other country.

 

Is MSC desperate to get Brits on board? There were certainly very few of us on this cruise. Even among English-speakers, we were outnumbered easily by Australians. Then English-speakers were in a tiny minority anyway.

 

The UK prices for all MSC repositionings ('Ocean Voyages') start, and often end, at £25 per night inside, £35 outside, and £45 balcony, less at least 5% online booking discount. In $US that is roughly $40/$55/$70 per night.

 

My next cruise ('voyage') is aboard the Fantasia in March. That is 17 nights in a balcony cabin at an outside price of £535 (US $860) with no single-occupancy supplement. Yes I am looking forward to revisiting Funchal and Palermo not seen in over half a lifetime but really, at these rates, I wouldn't care if the ship did not move at all.

[AmoMondo]

MSC UK certainly was not solo friendly when I first started cruising with them, used to have to pay a full supplement. On my first ocean repositiong trip a friend came with me who could not afford to cruise at all because the cruise fly fare was identical whether there was just me or both of us. She just had ro pay the shuttle to London.

 

It wasn't unril 2009 that I cam access the zero single supplement and have managed to consistently get them on the repositioning voyages. Maybe that they've decided to target solos (a growing Market) since the financial meltdown. Just hope they don't revert to their old ways when the economy fully recovers.

 

I was booking a bBlack Sea cruise for next October a few weeks ago. Availability was showing online and I would hVe booked it that way except I had an OBC voucher I'd bought onboard my last cruise I also wanted to use. We got almost to the end of the booking process when the agent said she couldn't book any balcony cabins for solo occupancy as they appeared to be blocked by "Head Office". Needless to say that was not acceptable to me as they were charging a supplement on this cruise and I must be one of the UK's best customers! They said they'd sort it out and a week later it was all sorted out. It was the first time I'd evidence of them rationing the number of solos on a cruise although I'd suspected it had happened in 2007 when twice I tried to book a suite and they were all soldmout, only to hear onboard of passengers who'd booked suites after me. Couldn't prove anything though as it was possible there had den cancellations. I know for a fact Costa ration the number of non single cabins they'll allow to be sold at solo occupancy. You only need to try booking any cruise online to see whT the choice of available remIning cabins in when you enter 2 on the website and then see how it considerably reduces when you select 1. They do have single cabins on some of their ships but they tend to be small, not in great locations and never a balcony.

[Skipper Tim]

You only need to try booking any cruise online to see whT the choice of available remIning cabins in when you enter 2 on the website and then see how it considerably reduces when you select 1.

 

Yes, I was tracking availability on the Musica Venice to Rio simply because we had booked inside guarantees and were hoping for upgrades. There came a point when you could go through the search for solo-occupancy but then gave an error. I reported the error thinking it was a technical issue but got the reply that this can happen when solo-occupancy has been "restricted". Sure enough, searching for double-occupancy from then on gave me an idea as to true availability.

 

I can understand the arguments: simply charging double does not make up for lost revenue from having half the number of people aboard; and charging more than double makes a cruise line look ridiculous.

 

What I can't understand though is why cruise lines don't build more single cabins? It is not Noah's Ark "two by two" any more. We all come in differently-sized parties and not accepting solo-occupancy bookings, at any price, when there is clearly availability for other party sizes, really ought to be illegal.

 

There, that's my shilling's worth for today.

[leoparana]

Absolutely not. I paid £1500 for 19 nights on the Opera from Buenos Aires to Southampton this year in the highest category balcony cabin with BA flights from Edinburgh to Buenos Aires and a flight from Southampton back to Edinburgh included. If I'd gone fir an inside cruise only, I could have gotten it for just £500-600. Just had a look on the UK website and the 17 night return trip from South America (Santos to Venice) on the Fantasies has insides available at £605, OCean views at £848 and superior balconies at £1090 all cruise only, sole occupancy (no single supplement)

Evidently you are enamored with MSC and only use that line. Try other cruise ships and perhaps you are less enthus ! MSC is very cheap, nickel and dimes passengers charging them for a scoop of ice cream and some staff said they keep the "tips", that are actually daily charges, pocketed by the line and not distributed to the crew. May be for that reason many passengers criticize the service. I took more than 25 cruises, and only one (and last and only) with MSC.

[AmoMondo]

Evidently you are enamored with MSC and only use that line. Try other cruise ships and perhaps you are less enthus ! MSC is very cheap, nickel and dimes passengers charging them for a scoop of ice cream and some staff said they keep the "tips", that are actually daily charges, pocketed by the line and not distributed to the crew. May be for that reason many passengers criticize the service. I took more than 25 cruises, and only one (and last and only) with MSC.

 

No, I also cruise occasionally with Costa and may consider Poniant. I'm not interested in cruising with either British or American lines. I don't think there is anything wrong with them or the people who like to cruise with them. They are just not what I'm looking for. I may not have tried them, but the extensive research I've done from forums, books and talking to friends and family who have personal experience of them, has led me to that conclusion. I won't try another lines just because people tell me I should. I have to believe that they will fit in with my preferences. I do like MSC and I know many don't. They are entitled to their view as am I. I don't see the "nickel and diming" you do. I look at overall cost of the cruise. I know a lot get steamed up by having to buy water but my take is that if I'm saving around £1,000 by not being charged a single supplement, spending €30 on water over a week is neither here or there. They now have a good AI package at £19.50 per day per person in any case.

 

However if I've given the impression that I like MSC just because they have a great policy for solos, thatnwould be wrong. My choice of lines is limited to those who do not just speak English onboard. I want to be surrounded by different nationalities, languages and customs when I'm overseas. I get that on MSC. I love the classical music and operatic singers as well. I above all like the Italian vibe onboard. I love travelling all over the world but my favourite countries are still Italy, Spain and France. I like the Mediterranean diet and dining style and tend to follow it, here in Scotland. So yes MSC suits me very well, Costa not quite as much because although similar, it has a bit of an American feel to it. I'm not anti American just not a fan of the service style which I find to intrusive and invasive.

[Skipper Tim]

Evidently you are enamored with MSC and only use that line. Try other cruise ships and perhaps you are less enthus ! MSC is very cheap, nickel and dimes passengers charging them for a scoop of ice cream and some staff said they keep the "tips", that are actually daily charges, pocketed by the line and not distributed to the crew. May be for that reason many passengers criticize the service. I took more than 25 cruises, and only one (and last and only) with MSC.

 

I have only sailed with Cunard, Royal Caribbean and MSC. To me, Cunard were the best in terms of service but they were the also the American theme park of a British cruise line (they didn't even know how to fry an egg correctly). They are also around four to five times the price of MSC, before sole-occupancy supplement. If Cunard and MSC were the same price for me, I admit that I would probably choose Cunard despite the Americanishness.

 

Royal Caribbean I found totally shocking in terms of service. There was non-stop and extremely unwelcome harassment! I couldn't sit anywhere in public in peace. I gather some people find what I call hard-salesmanship "good service" and I can understand why they would believe the more discrete, I would say professional, approach of MSC represents poor service. I hardened to it during my time aboard the Legend and the Grandeur but I remain shocked nonetheless. I could not fault MSC service on this trip. Yes, I mentioned the occasional grumpy head-waiter but they are far-preferable to in-your-face, young, sales-obsessed types common on Royal Caribbean.

 

Each to their own. If you have to judge, see it from others' perspectives too.

[travelberlin]

I find it quite weird how much MSC cruise fares vary by country. With Royal Caribbean, US fares are usually the lowest but only by 15-30%. With MSC, the UK fares can be half or less than any other country.

 

My next cruise ('voyage') is aboard the Fantasia in March. That is 17 nights in a balcony cabin at an outside price of £535 (US $860) with no single-occupancy supplement. Yes I am looking forward to revisiting Funchal and Palermo not seen in over half a lifetime but really, at these rates, I wouldn't care if the ship did not move at all.

 

Yes it is weird! I have looked at your voyage on expedia. Price for outside cabin category 5 is US 1600 per person with dobble occupancy. If you go solo is US 2900!