Live Review-MSC Yacht Club on World Europa 12-19th January 2024 -Mediterranean

[George C]

What were the wine choices?

[ConnieTact]

34 minutes ago, George C said:

What were the wine choices?

I’ll certainly add them next time as we forget easily! 😅 

I know I had a red wine with my tomato salad and an Italian Chardonnay without oak for my cheese flan dish. Lastly a port wine with the cheeses to finish. 
I had a particularly good Italian wine at lunchtime today with Asparagus ricotta panna cotta and my main which was Pansoti filled with wild green and ricotta. It was a pasta with a walnut sauce and a crispy parrmesan piece.

 

The wine was Greco Di Tufo, again, an Italian white. 

In fact, I enjoyed this meal so much I have made a special request to repeat the meal on our last day and MrCT will join in and eat the same!

[ConnieTact]

We went on an excursion today through MSC with Trumps tours. Our guide, Fausta, was informative and thorough in her work. I would recommend this tour as one can see a lot more than if looking around on your own. It’s reasonably priced, port to port pick ups and not too long so we were back for lunch!

I will let the written information and the pictures tell the story.

 

Edited January 14 by ConnieTact

[ConnieTact]

I rested this afternoon after lunch and MrCT took some snaps of the sailout while I woke myself up! 🥱

 

[Mezqal]

I think, we must cruise at least once out of an other port because we start allways out of Genova, therefore we couldn't join an excursion in Genova since yet. Your Pictures making us excited to do this in the Future.

 

Genova is the nearest port to us, we can travel by car - what is comfortable for us because we don't like to fly because of luggage restrictions and the effort of time because of the Securitychecks. By Car we don't have an itenary to look after.... 

 

By the way: Your Report is great, we appreciate it very much, thank you so much.

 

Are you looking to get an invitation to the speak easy bar?

[ConnieTact]

1 hour ago, Mezqal said:

I think, we must cruise at least once out of an other port because we start allways out of Genova, therefore we couldn't join an excursion in Genova since yet. Your Pictures making us excited to do this in the Future.

 

Genova is the nearest port to us, we can travel by car - what is comfortable for us because we don't like to fly because of luggage restrictions and the effort of time because of the Securitychecks. By Car we don't have an itenary to look after.... 

 

By the way: Your Report is great, we appreciate it very much, thank you so much.

 

Are you looking to get an invitation to the speak easy bar?

Thanks for your kind words. 
I was just saying the same to Mr CT! I must investigate if we can be one of the lucky ones! (We often are!😅).

 

[ConnieTact]

Saw show Eko tonight! Solved issue with people coming in late! We sat in front row! 😂

Fabulous singing throughout the show- we were both impressed. High standard of entertainment. 

 

[ConnieTact]

Exciting new entertainment in Master of the Sea pub tonight. Last day for the previous entertainer and we love Elon’s style. He had a soulful voice and so far has chosen great songs. 

[ConnieTact]

I’ll report back on our rather eventful dinner tonight a bit later but we couldn’t wait to come back to see Elom. 
He’s taking requests and guidance from very appreciative audience. He’s really good. Now playing Redemption song after an Ed Sheehan and before that a Tom jones number! 
we’re loving it! 🥰 Well done MSC for finding this talented performer!

[ConnieTact]

We’re IN! 😜

[Mezqal]

Congrats....🥳

[awatt]

Congrats! Love your trip report and pics!

[laudergayle]

Yay…how awesome to score Speakeasy access.  Can’t wait to hear about your experience!!  I’ve seen a few videos and it looks like those stairs are interesting!  Especially going back up. 🤣. Did you feel claustrophobic at all?

 

oh yeah…how did you get them(if you can tel…lol)?

Edited January 14 by laudergayle

[ConnieTact]

33 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

Yay…how awesome to score Speakeasy access.  Can’t wait to hear about your experience!!  I’ve seen a few videos and it looks like those stairs are interesting!  Especially going back up. 🤣. Did you feel claustrophobic at all?

 

oh yeah…how did you get them(if you can tel…lol)?

Not been yet! Warned no high heels!
One of  the rules! 😂 

[thecruisingfarmer]

@ConnieTact thanks for posting! We’ll be on this itinerary for Christmas next year. 

[ConnieTact]

Last nights dinner was a bit different than expected. The starter I chose was Chicken and duck Terinne and Sommelier William chose a medium strength Merlot because of the strength of the meat taste in the dish. It worked well.

Next we both chose stuffed tortelli with asparagus and marscapone and this was matched with a Chardonnay. The pasta dish was heavily salted and I couldn’t eat more than one bite. I apologised and told the waiter I couldn’t eat it as the dish was over salted. MrCT agreed it was too salty but, ate his anyway because he grew up on salty food and could ‘handle it’. I received an apology and chef said he would make some more in a separate pan with no salt added to it and within minutes the new dish arrived. I was warned it may still be salty due to the pasta, and it’s contents.

it was still really too salty, and sadly, I had to refuse that dish too. The waiter could not apologise more and offered all kinds of alternatives but I said I’d prefer to move on to our cheese plate. 

Next the manager came over and asked generally how things were and we said how brilliant the staff were and speed of service too. We reported the pasta was over salted and I couldn’t eat it this way, due to health reasons. He arranged for the Head waited to come over and asked me to choose my next meal choices to ensure they are cooked without salt. I am grateful for this, as I don’t think they could have done more. The only thing is, it has individualised the issue rather than addressed it for all. I heard I was not the only one with the same complaint that service, so I do hope the chef gets the message to not be so heavy with it in the future.

The main thing is, it is important to feedback and issue rather than take to social media to complain to an audience! If the correct people do not know, they cannot make things right. I encourage anyone to have a quiet word rather that go away feeling disappointed.

As an aside, with all this going on, somehow we never got our dessert profiteroles either! 
We couldn’t have needed them much, because we only just realised! 😅

[ConnieTact]

Last night after dinner we experienced the good the bad and the ugly onboard the ship outside Yacht Club and we both agree if we sail again on this ship,  it will only be in Yacht Club! 😅

The good was more of Elom’s fantastic playing and singing, even a request for one of his own and that was really good. The bad was not having ordinary seats and having to perch on barstools. We can’t get comfortable on them! Call it old age! 😅

The ugly, was drunk interrupting Elon’s performance asking for an Italian song that Elon didn’t know or wanting to grab his microphone to sing karaoke! There were a lot of them and it felt uncomfortable enough for Mr CT to make the bar staff aware of the situation. Eventually the ring leader left and the continued. Elom cooed well with it but it’s a shame there wasn’t somebody senior to step in at earlier stage. As it was Elom’s first day, I hope others positivity helped him feel more welcome. 

[ConnieTact]

We looked around the ship last night and weren’t impressed and both agreed we would only travel on this ship in Yacht Club. 
The atmosphere ar the aft of the ship was like going to a Butlin’s holiday camp. Some may enjoy this, but the sad sight of young children waiting in the very smoky casino while their parents played didn’t seem right. There were a lot of families with young children outside the lifts on settees and teenagers lounging about on chairs.
The Dolce Vita bar had a poor sounding band playing but was packed full so some found it okay. 
We popped in the Lina Park Arena ant 12.30, and it was nearly empty! It was a shame it couldn’t attract the teenagers who were obviously bored.

The people onboard are mostly from the countries we are sailing from so for once we cannot blame the Brits for bawdy behaviour! 😅

 

 

Edited January 15 by ConnieTact

[ConnieTact]

When we returned to the peace and tranquility of Yacht Club we were pleasantly surprised to find this in our room! 

[ConnieTact]

This morning we rested then went to the Aurea Spa for a 12 noon couples massage appointment. We were surprised how busy it was and that we were quite abruptly told to sit and wait. One of our massage therapists was asked, I presume by a manager, to serve behind the receipt even though it was 12 noon and we were waiting! There was no explanation or appology. When it was 12.10 they called us and we made sure the delay wouldn’t mean we were getting 10 minutes less! 😀 They reassured us it was fine. I would advise you not to plan anything special for afterwards just in case of this kind of delay. In the U.K. if an appointment is 12 noon anything later is late! It didn’t seem to be how the spa operates! 

The massage was one of the best I had and it was helped that I requested the required pressures and certain areas of tension. This was all followed to the letter and  I have nothing but praise for Florence from Kenya. 

[ConnieTact]

Next was lunch at the Yacht Club restaurant. Again, I sent back the dish I chose for my first course, vegetable noodles, as it was too salty. The soy sauce is enough, the noodles don’t need salting as well! 😅

So this was quickly swapped for a salad and luckily the wine choice was the same for both of our dishes. 
William offered excellent help again. 
I completely forgot to take a photo of our mains. I chose the pork chops and they were delicious and MrCT chose the burger. The rose was for my pork, I was corrected by William, it wasn’t sweet it was fruity! It went well with the pork. 
The white wine with the salads was a Chenin bland and we both could pick out the green apple taste. 
We finished with port with the cheese. It amused me that I went from white to rose to red. 

[ConnieTact]

The yacht club is certainly not overcrowded today! It’s Rome today so I guess a lot of people on longer excursions. 
 

[ConnieTact]

On 1/8/2024 at 5:23 PM, kym05 said:

Hey hope your enjoying your cruise, I have a question in Civitavecchia port, it says it arrives at 7am and departs 7pm, we are booked for March and wanted to take the shuttle from port to Rome and vice versa from MSC excursions, do you know if everyone starts debarkation at 7am, trying to purchase tickets to the Vatican, does anyone know what time we actually arrive at Rome, no one at MSC customer service knows, I appreciate it. 

Hi @kym05 I asked this at YC concierge and the woman I spoke to said she did the same to go to the Vatican but her opinion is don’t try to do it! 
At first, I doubted what she was saying but as she explained further I cloud see it could be risky.

She said there could be traffic hold ups going into Rome which takes around 90 minutes. The excursion starts at 8am. Then you have to get to the Vatican and the queues are horrendous there. You can be waiting in line for a very long time. Next, when in the museum, you have to queue and wait for others for ages while they look at various things. You could easily spend a whole day there. 
Next you have to get back to the shuttle in time and get onboard. If you miss it, you will be trying to get the next port on your own! 
I guess the best advice for a long visit at Vatican would be to sail from Rime and have a few days in Rome beforehand, to enjoy the sights and spend a leisurely day at the Vatican.

She said there is a small group excursion through MSC that goes to the Vatican, but these fill up very fast as there is only 20 in each group.

I'm sorry this is not more positive but it’s what I found out from one onboard in the know! 

 

 

[kym05]

37 minutes ago, ConnieTact said:

Hi @kym05 I asked this at YC concierge and the woman I spoke to said she did the same to go to the Vatican but her opinion is don’t try to do it! 
At first, I doubted what she was saying but as she explained further I cloud see it could be risky.

She said there could be traffic hold ups going into Rome which takes around 90 minutes. The excursion starts at 8am. Then you have to get to the Vatican and the queues are horrendous there. You can be waiting in line for a very long time. Next, when in the museum, you have to queue and wait for others for ages while they look at various things. You could easily spend a whole day there. 
Next you have to get back to the shuttle in time and get onboard. If you miss it, you will be trying to get the next port on your own! 
I guess the best advice for a long visit at Vatican would be to sail from Rime and have a few days in Rome beforehand, to enjoy the sights and spend a leisurely day at the Vatican.

She said there is a small group excursion through MSC that goes to the Vatican, but these fill up very fast as there is only 20 in each group.

I'm sorry this is not more positive but it’s what I found out from one onboard in the know! 

 

 

Thank you I appreciate you taking the time to look into this, now to decide what to do 😃

 

Thanks Again,

Kevin

[insidecabin]

Vatican can always be done by train with a 7am 7pm port time