Live review of my Vacation including MSC Seaside from Genoa 18th Sep.2021

[Itochen33]

Oh! And it’s not the splendida! It’s the smeralda! Damn you autocorrect!

[JetGreen]

Thanks for the interesting review. I’m on the Seaview in the Baltic at the moment. The menus here are exactly the same as what you are posting. 

[MouseBerry]

Hi,

apparently all the menues on all MSC ships are the same. Applies to MDR and YC as well. YC are different than MDR, buf all the YC menues are equal. This is rather boring if one makes multiple cruises in one season. In particular as YC guest it doesn‘t feel luxury.

 

No variations and no local context. The chef is presented with the officers line up, but actually these chefs are not creating any meal. I guess the meals all designed by someone in the shore backoffice. Maybe a head chef teamed up with some accountants.

 

regards

MouseBerry

[Itochen33]

Last Lunch…:

[Itochen33]

Starter:

i decided to take the gnocchi as starter

 

they were really good!

[Itochen33]

Main:

the Octopus 

tasty but a bit bland, with a bit of salt and pepper it was good though!

[Itochen33]

And as dessert:

Eclare

[Itochen33]

Time for dinner:

[Itochen33]

Starters:

mussels marinara and the goat cheese

 

both very very good

[Beamafar]

DH really likes the mussels marinara so we’ll probably have to dine in the MDR the night this menu is on.  😁

 

The first time I ever had Indian butter chicken was on an MSC ship.  It was quite good.  Watched a chef on TV only the other day cooking this dish. Wow, there was a lot of butter in that dish!  

Edited September 24, 2021 by Beamafar

[Itochen33]

FINALLY able to upload again… 

 

main and dessert

[Itochen33]

Just packet my luggage 😭😭😭

 

i don’t want to go back to real life!!!

[Germancruiser]

Hi Betty,

 

thanks a thousand times for taking the time to post the great ship pictures- and the food ones of course, too! Your are so wonderfully naughty eating through the whole dinner the other night. LOL!

All looked really yummy!

 

Us on a cruise together- they would have the run for their money. LOL.

 

I know the feeling all toooo well- the last evening - packing - hm- kind of surreal to get back to normal life! I always tell myself, that soon I will the cats again ( we have three) - that helps to keep the after cruise blues in check!

 

I don´t have anything WHITE- no becomming in my size! LOL. So i have to skip white night- other then that- my jackets have to do the trick! Tux stays home- have to take that one for my cruise in March- on board QM2! Thats is soon enough.

 

Have a great trip home and thanks again for all the effort you took in letting us follow you around!

 

Okay- will work on my Bavarian - not sooo easy for Swabian Guy- even though Ulm and Munich are not that far appart! How you cope in Berlin is beyond me- mit di ganzn Breissn do dob! Hehe!

Greetings

Michael

 

PS. I am thinking about doing a " Live from" , too!

[CruisinMama2003]

4 hours ago, Itochen33 said:

Just packet my luggage 😭😭😭

 

i don’t want to go back to real life!!!

Wow this week went by fast! Enjoyed "cruising" with you! Thank you for the humor, food pix, and of course pixs of Cooper 🐶 Safe travels home. 

[Zephyr173]

Thanks for a week full of fun and laughter.  Have a safe trip home back to your Cooper.

[JetGreen]

On 9/24/2021 at 11:37 AM, MouseBerry said:

Hi,

apparently all the menues on all MSC ships are the same. Applies to MDR and YC as well. YC are different than MDR, buf all the YC menues are equal. This is rather boring if one makes multiple cruises in one season. In particular as YC guest it doesn‘t feel luxury.

 

No variations and no local context. The chef is presented with the officers line up, but actually these chefs are not creating any meal. I guess the meals all designed by someone in the shore backoffice. Maybe a head chef teamed up with some accountants.

 

regards

MouseBerry

 

That is a bit disappointing. When did the same menu across ships start?

 

I found the MDR vegan/vegetarian option unimaginative on my most recent cruise (not to mention portion sizes a third of the other main courses offered). I assumed it was down a head chef not so familiar with special diets but it is a pity to hear this is coming from HQ and the same on every ship. 

[Itochen33]

After a VERY long day of traveling i finally arrived back home... and am to tired to write much now...

 

BUT! Tomorrow i will let you guys know how disembarking went and how my travel back home was... for today i say goodnight though and cuddle with my little boy... or maybe get maimed by him... at least he doesn't stop to give me kisses... with ALOOOOOTTTT of tounge of course...

[FOXYDEBBY]

I am glad you enjoyed yourself. I have been so engrossed in your travels I didn’t realize 7 days had passed. Enjoy Coopertime!!! Thanks for the splendid review, and for taking us on your cruise with you!!

[Itochen33]

And here we go! 
 

after getting up at 6 AM yesterday and frantically throwing the rest of my stuff that laid around in my cabin into my hand luggage, I showered and then vacated my cabin. The TV and App said that we had to be out by 7:30 AM the disembark information I got the day before said 8:30 AM… I took the middle and left at 8… just to run back because I forgot my watch on the desk…

 

I stayed for quite a while in the “Zen” area of deck 7 where smoking is allowed 

here a photo of Genoa from there:

 

then at 10 it was time to go to the Meetingpoint in the heavon lounge that is right there on deck seven too. 
 

let me tell you one thing… throwing a few Italiens or Germans over board wouldn’t have been noticed at ALL if I would have done that in port! If someone would have asked I could have claimed they just disembarked! That’s how quick we were off the ship and ushered into the transfer busses to the airport! Seriously! The only way faster would have been to jump over the side!

 

But then the drama started…

We were three busses full of people and the first one had just left. Me in the second bus was just looking outside… and looking… and looking… and after 10 minutes I started wondering why I STILL looked at the parking lot… and so was everyone else in my bus. The people of MSC stood in front of the busses, smoking and just chatting… while the people in the remaining two busses just looked and shrugged at each other.

 

it took ANOTHER 15 minutes until our bus drove off… and the people in the third had to wait for 20 more before they left the port… and there was no reason for that delay at all…

 

Arriving at the airport we all agreed though that our bus driver can chat as long as he wants as long as he didn’t do something one of his colleagues did: driving his bus under a bridge at the airport and forgetting how HIGH his bus is!!! Jesus there was a bus wedged under one of the bridges with a shitload of police present. It was wedged in there sooo badly that everyone seriously wondered just HOW THE HELL he had done that!!!

 

then our bus driver let us out of the bus already and we where ushered into a TENT to check in for the flight… unlike in Germany no one wanted to see a ticket, asked for insurance or for anything else except of ID… 

 

since we had quite some time now before we had to be at the gate some of us decided to go up into the sky cafe at the airport (smoking area!!!)

 

then we proceed to the gate… security was a piece of cake and they did NOT search me for handgrenades and stuff. I got myself a sandwich for the flight and then I was in the plane already… and looked out of my window… and looked out… and out… and kept looking out… 

 

at this point I just sighed… it was 20 minutes after our takeoff time and I wondered if the pilots maybe stood in front of the plane and chatted over a cigarette with some colleagues, but no! The captain made an announcement at just this moment and let us know that traffic control didn’t give us permission to start for AT LEAST another hour… as we Germans are war cries imidiatly sounded… while I just leaned back and watched the show, munching on my sandwich. 
 

the proclamations that they would get the hell sued out of them by half of the passengers took about an hour and after the last beetroot red man finally sat down and was done screaming at the stewardess that didn’t understand a single word, we started! Woohooo!

our pilot would have broke about every speed limit if there where any and we landed with just 30 minutes delay instead of over an hour!

 

the new BER airport is the worst airport that I have ever seen despite being built for 13!!!! Freaking years!!! Finding the luggage belts was like playing an escape room without hints!!!

 

when I finally DID get my luggage I proceeded the entire way BACK to the train station that is completely on the other side of the damn airport and then had to wait for my train… and then change train three times until I was FINALLY home! Originally I had planned to take a taxi but because there was a marathon and two major demonstrations in the city more than half of it was closed off for traffic… THANK YOU GRETA!!! You ruined my travel plans!

 

i barely made it through the door than this happened:

 

MY DOG CAN FLY!!!

 

i threw my phone away in favor of catching him… because the maniac of coarse can NOT fly and tried non the less…

 

After that heart attack I now had to carry my 26.9 kilograms of luggage with one arm because the other one was occupied with the million mile a minute tail wagging Chihuahua…

 

i somehow managed though and at 7:34 PM!!! I finally sat down in my kitchen and could smoke my first cigarette on German ground in peace… or as peaceful as possible with Cooper still licking through my face from my lab…

 

AND that’s it! I am back home and dream dread work on mondey!

 

let me tell you:

 

AFTER THE DAY I HAD YESTERDAY I AM READY FOR THE NEXT VACATION!!!

 

Hope to see you all next time 😘😘😘

 

 

[CruiseIreland]

Fab review. I really enjoyed it. Danke!