Live from MSC Seaside, Genoa, May 22-29, 2021

[petra75]

On 5/28/2021 at 2:42 PM, MarkusToe said:

May I ask what type of Covid test is needed?

PCR or the cheap ones?

 

Hi Marcus, I saw you had the correct answers. We did the antigen one as well!

 

On 5/28/2021 at 5:31 PM, portofrome said:

Just boarded today and the antigen (rapid) is fine.

Hi portofrome, enjoy your cruise!

[petra75]

Hello everybody,

 

we are back home again (noooooo) and we promise we'll finish the not so live anymore but the last days were eventful and couldn't get in touch!

 

So, on Wednesday we were in Taranto where we choose a walking tour of the town since it was the first time we went there. Actually the excursion's description read “bus and walking tour” but the trip by bus, a city bus, was just five minutes to exit and enter the port since the town centre is really close.

We started from a medieval castle by the sea, then it was time for greek ruins and the cathedral. Every place was a short walk far from another, inside the narrow streets of the city centre, and the weather was great but thanks to a gentle wind not too hot.

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight was the little but full of treasures chapel of the church, with several statues made by the same sculptor of the “Cristo Velato” in Naples.

 

 

 

The last stop was an ecclesiastical museum where we didn't have much time left so we couldn't see everything we would have liked, but the other stop where long enough to enjoy what they offer and the guide was good and passionate in explaining what we were seeing.

The excursion was about three hours long.

 

[petra75]

During the morning of the second sea day unfortunately the weather was cloudy and cool, but we were well entertained by the captain that gave us a scenic navigation through the strait of Messina and near the vulcanic island of Stromboli.

 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon was instead really sunny and hot so we could enjoy some pool deck activities.

That was the day for our third Covid test, every deck had its time slot and we had the last, 4 to 6 pm. We went at around 5:30 and then back to pool deck to enjoy the navigation and the jacuzzi. It was a couple of hours later that we decided it was time to prepare for the evening but it was not, when we arrived in the nearby of our cabin we saw same crew members, we believe part of security but we are not sure because they were covered with protective suits. They asked what cabin number we had and told us we could not reach it in that moment and to come back after some time. Having made sure it was not us they were looking for we came back to the pool and after a half hour or so we tried and succeded to go to our cabin.

 

[petra75]

Our last excursion was “Bomarzo Park and Viterbo”. We went first to Bomarzo, that is a 90 minutes drive from Civitavecchia. The park is beautiful and full of odd sculptures built during the

16th century, we roamed there for around one and an half hour and the time flew.

 

 

 

 

The following is a crooked house, not picture!

 

[petra75]

After that we had around a 40 minutes break to eat the lunch box provided by MSC. Actually the excursion description read we would enjoy a lunch in Viterbo but so it was.

We went then to Viterbo, a 40 minutes drive from Bomarzo. It is called the city of Popes because it was the residence of the Pope for some time in the Middle-age. The walk was nice and mostly around the old city centre, we just went inside the “San Lorenzo” cathedral for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Even if the places we visited were worth the trip, that was the worst excursion we had in Covid time. Our guide was little informative, we expected at least some notes and story telling about the whereabouts during the various long trip on the bus but little to nothing was said. Moreover she couldn't care less about the famous Covid bubble, she didn't remind the rules as other guides have done at the start of the trip and never reminded to the good share of no mask-no vax-Covid denier there were to comply with the rules. In Viterbo she even lost a member for at least a half of an hour. She told us her agency and MSC had been warned but what we know is that the person waited for us near the bus and could come with us to the port of Civitavecchia.

This last trip lasted around 40 minutes.

[Preziosa]

Did you find out what They were looking for and Why you could not Go to your cabin...

[petra75]

22 hours ago, Preziosa said:

Did you find out what They were looking for and Why you could not Go to your cabin...

No, we didn't even try though! Being the covid test day for most passenger and seeing the crew dressed like that we figured they were after someone who tested positive but it's just our assumption and didn't think about that further. 

  

[petra75]

On 5/30/2021 at 1:50 AM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

What was NOT good about the food? 

I am also curious what was served in the Ethnic section of the buffet.

I am so happy for you, since you seem to be enjoying your cruise very much! I am considering MSC for next year (Caribbean), since my 2020 MSC maiden voyage was cancelled and we never got to try it.

 

Difficult to describe food and it is such a subjective matter, isn't it?

We just find food on MSC to be definitely not consistent among ships, sometimes is good, but never great, and too many times just not bad. We know when we choose MSC that we better not have too much expectations about food, but on some ships we found it to be much better than on others. Just to mention our latest two MSC cruises, both in covid times if it even matter, and I don't think so since we talk about food, Grandiosa wins hands down!

 

In the Ethnic section on Seaside every day they served a rice, a chicken, a fish and a vegetable dish of a different Country or part of the world. We had Caribbean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian and Indian. Of course the list should be longer but we had two full day excursions so we didn't have lunch on the ship then and didn't find out the Ethnic of those days.

[petra75]

So, let's talk a little bit more about restaurant and food experience in general on Seaside. As mentioned in one of the first installment food at the buffet was of poor variety but mostly good even for the rest of the cruise. The major disappointment for us was that outside lunch and dinner hours you could only find pizza, and not good for our taste. On the others MSC we always found at least some sandwiches and sweets as well, not this time. Fortunately we are usually happy with our late breakfast and lunch and don't need other food before dinner, but it would have been difficult if we'd arrived from an excursion when lunch was over!

Anyway we loved the position of buffet at deck 8, close to the water.

We found there is another smaller buffet on deck 16, the pool deck, for this cruise was closed but it will be very convenient for sun lovers.

 

 

 

Dinner was MSC average, really nothing to write home about but mostly just eateble. Mind you, we are two spoilt Italians! As already wrote dining rooms are just for eating now, there's no more that good evening dinner mood. You sit every other table so the distance between couples/groups does nor encourage the usual pre covid chats.

At least at the side of the restaurant we ate tables were laid only when you arrived.

 

[petra75]

Specialty rstaurants looked nice but we didn't get the chance to try them, as always too many things to do in few time! 

Menus are in Italian but hope can be useful anyway.

 

 

 

QR_SS_TEPPANYAKI_OTHER_DAYX_IT_1622107519.pdf QR_RR_SUSHI_OTHER_DAYX_IT_1622116828.pdf QR_QQ_PAN-ASIAN_OTHER_DAYX_IT_1622107358.pdf QR_TT_OCEAN-CAY-SE_OTHER_DAYX_IT_1622107710.pdf QR_C_BUTCHERS-CUT_OTHER_DAYX_IT_1622221026.pdf

[petra75]

Service at the different bars was mostly slow, especially at the buffet when we usually sit outside aft, so the most far from the bar and outside peek hours it was difficult to find a waiter, but we don't mind to go to the counter every now and then to grab our drinks ourselves. And then for us Italians our espressos have to be taken at the counter, we enjoy our three-hours seated lunch but then we need to have our coffee in less than a minute!   

 

Looking at the menus attached we remember of those delicious Venchi Gelato Sticks we had, highly recommended!

QR_I_BUFFET-BAR-LIST_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1621689967.pdf QR_K_BAR-LIST-MED_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1621693443.pdf QR_KK_VENCHI-CHOCOLATE-BAR_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1621969764.pdf QR_UU_SPORTS-BAR-SE_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1622055451.pdf QR_LL_VENCHI-GELATO-CREPERIE_OTHER_DAYX_EN_1622116491.pdf

[Itchy&Scratchy]

2 hours ago, petra75 said:

Difficult to describe food and it is such a subjective matter, isn't it?

thank you, it's true, but I just wanted to know your subjective thoughts on the matter. 🙂

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts very much!!!! And your photos are stunning!

 

We have sailed on 3 cruise lines before, and we found Princess food to be excellent in both taste and variety, RCI's food to be consistently good - appropriate temp and sufficiently seasoned , but it was not diverse or outstanding at all, and we found NCL's food to be the worst of the three cruise lines (not seasoned at all or oversalted, too dry, room temp or cold when the food is supposed to be hot, the buffet ran out of several items on many occasions and never refilled, the baked potatoes were still raw inside, etc.). The only redeeming factor in NCL's food dept was free crepes, when they weren't overdone.

 

I just booked my first (well, second, but Covid didn't allow us to sail) MSC cruise and everything I have read so far tells me not to get too excited about its food, because it's probably going to be average. I just hope it's better than NCL's MDR and buffet food. 🙂 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Nunagoras]

Many thanks, Petra for the nice updates and the Menus. Oh, how I'm dreaming with those gelato shakes, or the nice coffee delights and hot chocolate delights, even though today I'm just going to bed in a moment!...

 

Regarding food, that's subjective, to say the least. You're true that the shore excursions department might not to cooperate always well with the buffet times, sometimes that happens... But on the current covid situation, I believe they have an even larger concern. To avoid waste at any cost even if out of a reduced capacity to feed... Food waste in the covid era might to pose its questions, even security ones, hence the lack of variety... I wouldn't like to have the top executive chef position on those ships at these days, TBHH. Obviously anyone should to deal with those oddities... Hope this current ordeal to be gone ASAP and the cruise industry can regain the mass public recognition it had in the not so distant times...

 

Have a nice day!...

[petra75]

There was a different show at the theatre every other day, with dancers, singers and acrobats. Pretty sure we had already seen at least one of them on other MSC cruises but the performers were good and we enjoyed them. We just skipped the last show because it was a one man show of a singer we had already seen and didn't like it.

The rules at the theatre are like last year on Grandiosa, there is a do not seat sign every other seat but if you are a on the same group you can seat next to each other. Needless to say you have to keep your mask for the entire show and we found people complied better than on Grandiosa but, for the few that didn't, we've never seen anybody go and tell them anything.

 

Seats are really comfortable!

 

In attach a daily, sorry, it is in Italian but could be useful for restaurants and activities hours.

20210523_navigazione.pdf

[petra75]

The entertainment team was nice. During the day there was not much variety, some pool games, trivias and lots of dance lessons. We like to dance but unfortunately at these times only line dance is allowed during those lessons and we much prefer to dance together. For our dance fix they did some dj sets late in the afternoon, there you could dance obviously keeping masks and distance from other groups. As usual too many people do not understand and music was too often stopped to remind the rules and threaten to cut the dj set short.

 

 

After dinner there was always a game/show with the entertainment team. It was usually carried on at the haven lounge where at the end you could dance as well, with the music (and reminders to behave..), of a good band. Around the ship there were other bands performing softer music for every taste.

 

 

 

 

[petra75]

As said we liked the Seaside and we'd came back in an heartbeat. The major flaw of the ship itself is at the aft it get quite some soot during navigation, so be careful and check before sitting there!

 

[petra75]

On 5/31/2021 at 10:10 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

We have sailed on 3 cruise lines before, and we found Princess food to be excellent in both taste and variety, RCI's food to be consistently good - appropriate temp and sufficiently seasoned , but it was not diverse or outstanding at all, and we found NCL's food to be the worst of the three cruise

We love Princess for food and every other aspect, miss her!

Never been on RCL and just once on NCL a few years ago, but we remember their crepes, hit or miss!🙂

[Lisichka]

I am going on the Grandiosa in October.  Right now all I see for excursions is a

package of 3 tours for $110.  Are you saying more excursions will be available once you board?  Will they be available before then? What if I book the package but see something better later?

[petra75]

20 hours ago, Lisichka said:

I am going on the Grandiosa in October.  Right now all I see for excursions is a

package of 3 tours for $110.  Are you saying more excursions will be available once you board?  Will they be available before then? What if I book the package but see something better later?

 

Hi Lisichka

I'm sure more excursions will be added soon even on MSC site. We usually book just a few weeks before departing, even before Covid, so I never experienced what you do now but as you might have seen in my lives there are even more excursions avaiable nowadays, obviosly because we all can only get off with them.

I don't know the itinerary of Grandiosa in October but I believe it will call ports not yet called since before Covid, so nothing would be ready at the moment, but it soon will. 

If you book the package you can later change for another excursion, so I was told on Grandiosa back in September, just paying the difference if the latter costs more.