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Kat goes on holiday - MSC Preziosa Eastern Med (5th July 2014)

Katgoesonholiday

By Katgoesonholiday,
in MSC Cruises

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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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Tonight was the Avatar show and the production guy in the booth during the morning tour had promised us that it would be something SPECIAL!!!!

 

And that it certainly was - very 'special'...! I have never seen a weirder and more disjointed show in my life - and as the eldest of six children and mother of three, I have seen some weird productions in my life!

 

The premise of the show was loosely based around the Avatar movie - I say loosely because they started it with the music from the opening credits of the 2009 Star Trek movie. Whoever had that bright idea should have been hung, drawn and quartered right then and there. I was gobsmacked!

 

There was no coherency to the production. I have watched the Avatar movies several times so I know the plot - and this wasn't it! I sat there with my jaw dropping further and further as my poor alcohol fuzzed brain tried desperately to make sense of what was going on - and utterly failed.

 

Nevertheless, it was received with rapturous applause and multiple standing ovations. I wonder if it was just me, but my husband uses words such as 'bizarre' and 'poetic license' to describe it so maybe it wasn't just me. Anyway, I just think that if they are going to base a production on a movie then they should probably try and base it on the movie...you think?

 

At the end they paraded representatives from all the members of staff on stage and we applauded them also - and they definitely deserved it!

 

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Then we had our photo taken with two of the performers as we left. I didn't want to as I was still trying to work out what the hell had just happened, but darling husband was keen so we did.

 

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After this it was time for a limoncello then bed!

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moomoocow

moomoocow

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It's S.M.I.L.E!!

 

Our table ran a little competition with all the waiters in the MDR to see if they could tell us what s.m.i.l.e stood for.

 

It got to the point where they were dragging waiters from the other side of the room to try and tell us. And it took seven of them before they found one that knew. :-)

Edited by moomoocow
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Got2Cruise "Live from...." Rare

Got2Cruise

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Kat, your photos are so wonderful, there is no way hubby can say no. lol

 

One thing I noticed with the behind the scenes photos was that all of the "warnings" were written in English. That makes me feel comfortable knowing that the crew can speak English. Some of the MSC reviews on CC:eek::roll eyes: makes it seem as if you only speak English, prepare to starve and die. :D

Edited by Got2Cruise
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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

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Kat, your photos are so wonderful, there is no way hubby can say no. lol

 

One thing I noticed with the behind the scenes photos was that all of the "warnings" were written in English. That makes me feel comfortable knowing that the crew can speak English. Some of the MSC reviews on CC:eek::roll eyes: makes it seem as if you only speak English, prepare to starve and die. :D

 

You'll find a lot of the crew converse in English with each other - it's like a common denominator language

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

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Tonight was the Avatar show and the production guy in the booth during the morning tour had promised us that it would be something SPECIAL!!!!

 

And that it certainly was - very 'special'...! I have never seen a weirder and more disjointed show in my life - and as the eldest of six children and mother of three, I have seen some weird productions in my life!

 

The premise of the show was loosely based around the Avatar movie - I say loosely because they started it with the music from the opening credits of the 2009 Star Trek movie. Whoever had that bright idea should have been hung, drawn and quartered right then and there. I was gobsmacked!

 

There was no coherency to the production. I have watched the Avatar movies several times so I know the plot - and this wasn't it! I sat there with my jaw dropping further and further as my poor alcohol fuzzed brain tried desperately to make sense of what was going on - and utterly failed.

 

Nevertheless, it was received with rapturous applause and multiple standing ovations. I wonder if it was just me, but my husband uses words such as 'bizarre' and 'poetic license' to describe it so maybe it wasn't just me.

 

It wasn't just you, Kat. I've seen a few shows on MSC ships that left me feeling like I'd misread the billboard and have come away more often than not scratching my head in confusion of what on earth I'd just seen.

 

(I'm still sneak-peeking this thread even though I was determined to keep out 'til the end ;) - getting lots of little nuggets for my trip. Your Ephesus trip review was so incredibly detailed with the help of the photos that it brought home to me that my DH would not be able for an excursion there due to an old foot injury - That's one decision made at least re ports of call thanks to your fantastic, informative and riveting account).

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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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Thanks everyone! I will get back to posting tomorrow - I still have Dubrovnik then disembarkment and then another week of travels through Venice, Paris and London.

 

But today I am focussing on recreating the La Palmeraie experience for my husband as it is his 40th birthday today. I am even attempting a risotto! :D

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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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Day 8 of the cruise was our final full day and we didn't want to leave! The ship was due in port from 11:30am till 5pm so we had a good amount of time for discovering this amazing walled city.

 

We really enjoyed eating at the restaurant for our breakfasts. It made for a lovely civilised and relaxed start to the day. So today we got ourselves dressed and wandered along the deck to La Palmeraie where we enjoyed yet another tasty breakfast. Once again I opted for the omelette and it was so delicious! I really have to work out how they make these so I can do it at home and dine like a king every morning! And true to our usual form we finished off breakfast with a marvellous italian cappuccino. Nom nom nom!

 

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After this we went back to our cabin and were most distraught to find the disembarkation information on our bed for us. Major buzzkill!!! So we dutifully spent the next hour or so packing everything up ready for leaving. Naturally we were both in fairly foul moods after that so we headed down to the TopSail lounge for a drink. That was nice and relaxing!

 

Sailing into Croatia was lovely. The shoreline is beautiful and the part we sailed past clearly was a holiday destination. It was also fun seeing the cars lined up with people waiting to see the huge cruise ship sail past.

 

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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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We were so excited about going to Dubrovnik! When we first booked the cruise it was just another name that meant very little to us. But when I started researching the ports I found out that Game of Thrones had been filmed there! We love that series so it was very exciting to be going there and seeing some of those familiar scenes. I had also watched a number of Youtube videos about the bombing of Dubrovnik during the war. It is a place rich in history - both real and imagined!

 

We hadn't made any arrangements for this day. We had a thought that we would get a taxi then go round the walls and up the cable car. But on the actual day we felt tired and a little toured out so we decided to get the MSC bus transfer (which was only about 10-15 Euros each return) and just take a wander round town then get some lunch. My poor husband was still smarting from not getting lunch on the two previous port days plus he had wrenched his knee again so didn't feel like too much activity.

 

So we bought our transfer tickets from the concierge in the Yacht Club and when the time came we trotted after a butler and off the ship. At the bottom of the gangway was a crew member directing people to the correct buses. The transfer buses were at the end of the dock closest to the exit. I was SUPER impressed at how they were handling this. There were maybe 6-8 transfer buses parked side by side and a crew member was directing people to the farthest bus and counting them off with a clicker in her hand. As we approached she started directing people onto the next bus in the queue as obviously the first bus was 'full' despite the fact people were still getting on it. This was super efficient and saved a lot of time. We were among the first onto this next bus and it filled up so fast that we were on our way within 10 minutes.

 

It was maybe a thirty minute drive through windy roads from the port to the Old City. And a large chunk of that was the final kilometre which involved the bus crawling at snails pace between the city walls and a sheer cliff face looming above us. The traffic at this point was hideous and we were very glad we weren't paying for a taxi!

 

When we got there the place was PACKED! I guess that is what you get when you unload 4,000+ extra people into a small walled city designed in medieval times.

 

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Katgoesonholiday

Katgoesonholiday

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As we entered the second gate into the square with the fountain we found the ticket office for the walls on the right and the entrance to the walls on the left. We decided to do this first as the streets looked crowded and busy.

 

Walking along the wall was fascinating! It was quite narrow in parts and in other parts widened out enough to put out tables and umbrellas to sell cold drinks and postcards to the tourists. As we walked along I really enjoyed looking at the grounds inside the city walls. Some had beautifully manicured gardens and others were bare ground with rubble and the remains of buildings. It would be interesting to know whether the later date to the war.

 

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