Our cruise ship, the MSC Poesia (of the MSC Cruise line) housed about 3,000 passengers and also 1,040 crew members. As our Seattle friends said, it’s a floating hotel.
My first impression: the ship is huge and full of mirrors everywhere. Loads of staff of many ethnicities welcoming us and helping us find our way. Almost never-ending availability of food.
It’s now been eight weeks since we returned, but for posterity’s sake I record here my impressions of The Cruise Life.
The room
Our luggage was delivered to us seamlessly. Our room was small but not claustrophobic. The closet space was a pleasant surprise.
We had paid for an upgrade to a balcony room, which I think was key to our enjoyment of the whole trip. We were on Deck 11: I thought my acrophobia would kick in, but I simply looked out instead of down. It was marvelous to wake up and open the curtains to a view of either never-ending ocean, or snow-capped mountains, or endless forests, or teal-blue fjord.
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| Blue arrow pointing to our room on Deck 11 |
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| The CHH on the balcony. |
The neighbors
Before leaving port, we spent some time on the balcony and met the people next door. Throughout the cruise we could occasionally hear them through the wall, but mostly it was quiet. We heard from our assigned dinner mates that noisy folks in a next-door cabin can greatly mar the cruise experience.
Yes, we had assigned dinner mates. That could have been a disaster, especially when our new acquaintance said, “We’re from Texas.” But we avoided outright political talk, and moderately enjoyed their company when we were dining with them.
The pool
Like any hotel, this one has a pool. On the top-most deck, exposed to the air.
Once we settled in, the Common Household Husband wanted to take a dip in the pool which is on deck 13, at the very top of the ship. Open to the sky. Unpleasant gusts of wind. I did not go swimming, and did not enjoy my time there. The CHH bopped around in the pool and enjoyed it. In the hot tub he met people from Chicago and Vancouver. When he went back to the hot tub another day he said it was full of teenagers. Who are, in fact, entitled to use the hot tub, too, but less inclined to be contemplative while in it.
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| the CHH enjoys the pool |
Behavior and dress
The cruise culture included this quirk: some people place magnets outside their cabin door for decoration or to distinguish their door from all the other doors in the narrow corridor of this Hilbert Hotel-like atmosphere. This makes sense, especially if there are children involved.
Casual dress is the norm. Except for the special night on which 30 percent were dressed to the nines, another 30 percent moderately dressed up (like us) and the rest not at all.
The entertainment
There was no shortage of entertainment possibilities. We attended an opening presentation in the theater (800+ seats?). The theater was sparkly but the seats were uncomfortable for me. The presentation informed us that there were dancers, singers, pianists, big band, and a comedian on board. During our 7 days on board, we only went to a few musical performances. We did not go to the napkin folding workshop. The big band on board was quite good, I thought. I had not yet developed my MdDS; the Common Household Husband is a very good dancer; I am not but nevertheless we enjoyed dancing to the big band music.
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| The Zebra Bar. Probably not good for the vestibular-ocular reflex |
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| Lights and sparkles everywhere |
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| The big band in the Pigalle Lounge |
There was a small casino on board. I have no objection, except that smoking was allowed in that room, a room we often had to pass through to go somewhere else.
The naturalist
I was pleased that there was a naturalist on board. We went to two of the naturalist’s presentations. Although her background was in teaching, I found the presentations rushed and a bit disjointed.
Periodically the ship’s PA system would sound “Bong Bing Bing!” and then the naturalist would tell all of us that there was an orca on the port side, or a humpback whale on the port side. I think only once was there wildlife on our side, the starboard side. But we saw plenty of wildlife on our excursions.
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| Naturalist presentation in the sparkly theater. |
Dining
We wished we had discovered sooner in the week that we could have breakfast and lunch at the restaurant, rather than the buffet. The buffet had a plethora of offerings, but it was often crowded and noisy. There were SO many opportunities to eat; the food was of varying quality. The restaurant food was mostly good to very good. The Butcher's Cut, the super fancy restaurant, was excellent.
If you wanted to, you could eat some form of salmon at every meal. Maybe that just applies to Pacific Northwest cruises.
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| One of the restaurants. |
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| We tried room service breakfast the first morning, but it was suboptimal. |
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| Breakfast in the buffet, with Dawes Glacier in the background. |
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| Dinner on the first night, in The Butcher's Cut Excellent food and service and unparalleled view of the wake of the ship. |
