Smoking in a food line... opps

As far as what the ship looked like, I sent phil at
www.seacruisechat.com some photos. He should post some of them in a
day or so.

I did not do bingo. Some of the people did. Marble floors. Waiters
were good. We had a table for 6. Tobie and his wife Barbara were with
us, and a couple that Cal Ford knew Richard and his wife were at our
table. Then Ermalee and a group of people were at another table. I
think I also sent photos of the tables to Phil.

I am not sure just which photos made it to Phil, and which did not, as
I was at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and some of the email bounced from
him. I think sending him 100 photos at once was a bit more then his
mail server could handle. I should not send that many photos. I have
around 400 or so from the cruise.

I really liked the shows, and what MSC is doing with the theatre. Not
serving drinks in the theatre is a different concept for a cruise
ship. Having the cocktail lounge outside the theatre like some real
theatres (the one in Seattle comes to mind), just gives you the
impression that the people are true actors and performers and not there
just to entertain the passengers. On other ships, there have been a
number of times that the cocktail waiters have interrupted the show to
serve drinks or take orders from someone that showed up to the show
late. This was a welcome change. I think I would almost book another
MSC cruise just for this.

I didn't care for the buffet on the first day. It was a mad house, and
I really didn't go back to the buffet much after that if I could help
it. I found out later in the week that the ship was under going a
health inspection from ... which governmant agency is it that does the
cruise ship sanitary inspections? That was the reason the buffet on
the first day was delayed.

Breads at dinner were served in a basket on the table. At breakfast
you had to be real specific about what pastries you wanted to order.
They did not bring around the pastry tray like other cruise lines. If
you wanted a crossant, you had to ask for that. If you wanted a "Pain
au chocolate" you had to ask the waiter for that. If you wanted toast,
you had to ask for that.

They were lacking in organized activities in the afternoon. Also, the
ships shops were a bit different. They had mostly expensive items to
purchase, and not really anything in the way of touristy souvineer type
things to take home. They also had sort of different hours, more like
the European Stores. Open in the Morning, and closed in the afternoon,
and then open until late (11:00, 11:30 most nights) at night.

Salads came with dressings, but if you wanted a different dressing most
of the time they would see what they could do. I do not care for Blue
Cheese dressing, and that was the dressing on the salad one night, and
I asked if they could do it with ranch or thousand island and they
managed to do ranch dressing.

All the documents said you were not allowed to carry on you own booze,
but we put a couple of bottles of mead in the suitcases and had no
problem. Most of the group put wine in the suitcases and had no
problem. Also, the package store on board would sell you a bottle to
take back to your room, you just were not allowed to drink it in the
public areas. The store cleck even said that to people. When you
purchased it in port, they would check it for you until the last day,
and then deliver it to your room.

The lobster was not very good. Something else would have been a better
choice that night.
Hopefully Phil will get some photos up today or tomorrow on the
Seacruise website.

roland