Beamafar

Seems they’ve stopped offering the fruit bowl. Maybe there was a lot of waste. 🤔

It will depend on your cabin steward. I purchased the 10 items package for our recent cruise and used it to have items ironed on the first day. At first I was told ‘No’ but I told the steward that I’d done it before and he got it done for me.

Meant to say that the Afternoon Tea experience seems very popular, so go early in the afternoon if you want to have it. Another recommendation would be to book the shows in the Panorama lounge as soon as possible. It seemed that they were always booked out well in advance. We never bothered but they were in high demand (and that was with 4050 onboard; the ship today is sailing with 6400 onboard).

We finally got around to going to the Speakeasy 2 nights ago (we had received paper tokens on our first day onboard). So, we actually scored a couple of the medallion tokens, too. You may remember I commented about another photo I had uploaded here earlier on and said to take note as I would be referencing it later. Well, here it is again The tokens are just about visible behind the left bottle of bubbly. 😁 Anyway, we had a fantastic time and I would highly recommend it. I was informed that the bar manager (through the pub) may be the guy to speak to if you want to score some tokens. He was not the source for ours (we had 2 different sources and both offered up tokens without us even requesting them). Drinks are cocktails only and you pay full price for them. They do serve shots and they are covered by the PremX package. Mr B doesn’t drink cocktails so he was able to just have the Johnny Walker Black on ice that is included in the Silver Bullet shot.

So, we made it to the airport this morning. 😁 We’ve had some lunch and now have a long wait for our flight tonight. Shared our experience with some fellow passengers last night and heard some stories of others being let down with excursions - either being cancelled or overbooked - and some not even finding out other than seeing charges back to their account. Some really shocking stuff! Anyway … back to some ship experiences. Yesterday we decided to do ‘Afternoon Tea’ in the Raj Polo venue. Well worth the €7 (plus 15%). Very civilised altogether and much more impressive than the YC experience. Apparently all the teas are included in Easy Plus and PremX; the afternoon teas aren’t.

Thank you everyone for your concerns and input. We went to Guest Services. They spent the evening organising bus transfers for those let down by the Excursions office. So, we have managed to get a transfer for €60 pp. Downside is we’ll be at the airport early tomorrow.

Falls on deaf ears, G.

Surely they should have known when we asked at lunchtime. Would have given us some time to sort something out. We’re not ones for lugging bags on and off trains and the only private transfer I can find, so far, costs a little over €300.

Folks - just had some extremely frustrating (and upsetting) news. We had booked an excursion tour of Genoa, ending at Malpensa airport. I went to the excursion desk today at 1.30pm and confirmed the booking as we hadn’t heard anything. I was told the tickets would be in our cabin this evening. Received a phone call at 6.20pm (five hours later) to say the excursion has been cancelled due to the lack of numbers. Surely they could have seen that that was the situation days ago!!! So now, we have to try and make other arrangements between tonight and tomorrow. Fortunately our flight is not until 19.45, but we’ve been left with very little time to organise an alternative.

Finally went to the Gin Project. Seemed any of the choices I wanted weren’t available. 🙄. Just ordered one recommended: Queen’s Spritz

No idea, Dave. It’s not going to go down well if they start limiting the venues that the packages cover. A couple we spoke with today said they couldn’t get a drink in “the piano bar”. The only venue I know that has a piano player is the Raj Polo. I think they meant they couldn’t even order tea. Hoping to go tomorrow to see if I can get a clearer picture on the subject.

Just heard a story from a passenger - will be interested to hear if it’s true. He was having coffee in the Emporium and a waiter there told him that, when the ship begins its Med sailings, drinks packages will no longer cover the coffees. This is (apparently) because so many Italians - who drink a lot of coffee - are expected to be onboard. What he was told was that only YC guests will be covered.

The menus aren’t much different to what we’ve seen on other ships in other regions. I took photos of some over the course of the cruise. I’ll post them towards the end of the report.

We’re currently in Naples. A lovely warm Spring day. Tomorrow, Civitavecchia, then disembarkation in Genoa the following day.

Yeah - we’ve got some pens, too. One good one, with a very nice notebook, one time. We also got a beautiful book about the Renaissance project when on Armonia.

We did get caps before; not great quality. Mr B was gifted even better ones by a very obliging CC member on our Mera New York cruise. He loves them. 😆

Not really; quite cool and windy here. Not a problem for us; we’re not pool people. In fact, never even used the sun creams we brought. 🙄🤣 Had to ask again at Guest Services about the Diamond ‘’gift”, having been told some days ago that we would receive it on the next Gala night (which was last night - and no sign). Now, I’m really not that pushed, but did feel it imperative to share the experience here. 😁 Anyway, the rep gave us our ‘gifts’ - yet 2 more tote bags 🙄. (Lost count of how many of those we’ve received through the years. Seriously, MSC, change it up, please). Went to lunch and returned to the cabin to discover another 2 bags on the bed. 😆

Something to note: if you’re walking along deck 8 from the aft (promenade area) you need to walk along the Fizz side as it’s a dead end at the Garden Kitchen. The weather has turned colder since we entered the Med. Everyone is in jumpers, jackets etc and we had a spot of rain earlier. As a result, all indoor spaces are packed. We went to have Afternoon Tea in the Raj Polo and there wasn’t a table to be had.

Interesting that that link has remained up. Saw another OP removed that had a link to another article on the site. Made for an odd thread, afterwards.

Menu from the Coffee Emporium on the deck 8 promenade LAVAZZA AND MSC COFFEE LIST.pdf KAFA MENU.pdf EasyPlus and Premium Extra packages are accepted here. COFFEE ORIGINS.pdf

Here’s the tea house menu RAJ-POLO-TEA HOUSE MENU.pdf I asked if drink packages covered items on the menu and the answer was as clear as mud. I was sorry I asked. We’re considering having the afternoon tea tomorrow for €7 (sounds very reasonably priced). I’ll report if we do.

We entered the Suez Canal this morning. Here are some of the images I’ve captured while lying in bed, watching the scenery go by (unfortunately had an attack of vertigo this morning, so taking it easy today).

Yeah - thought that was a strange one. The high tea looked very similar to what YC offers - I have no doubt it was for charge. I will do some research!

Again, for research purposes, we ordered a glass outside of our package - Moët. The server (who doesn’t normally work at this venue, but was drafted in to help out) originally said that the upcharge would be €3.45 - fine However, she returned shortly after to inform us that you cannot pay the difference on drinks here.

Decided to have a champagne aperitif in Fizz this afternoon. Passed the Raj Polo tea house where, it seems, there are a number of people enjoying the high tea experience. Must be quite chilly/windy out; the outdoor area of Fizz is deserted It’s surprisingly busy in the venue (5.40pm).