Best Cat Mom

Some overall thoughts about this cruise and MSC... We counted 5 languages used in the announcements on this cruise: English Italian Spanish French German This is the same as we encounter on an international flight so one way or the other, we're going to hear multiple languages. Not an issue for us at all. More practice for us. Others may find this annoying. I guess those people don't like it in Europe either. Also, most announcements are only in the public areas of the ship. Only important ones -- muster, safety issues, the captain's announcement of our propulsion issue -- are piped into the cabin. And there are not a lot of annoying extra announcements -- about bingo or trivia or art auctions or whatever -- like we had on NCL. Divina does not have wristbands, just cruise cards. For elevators, the cruise cards can be used on some elevators for YC override. We mostly used the override when possible. It was really nice during busy times to not have a "local" elevator that stopped on a bunch of floors. Once we got on and there was an elderly couple already on who looked concerned. We told them that we wouldn't use the override and they seemed relieved. MSC beds have been an issue for us, as have most hotel room beds in Italy. When I wind up with my elbow, arm, or other body part in the "hole," it's quite annoying. Richard did a great job of tying the mattresses together for us. The gap was minimal and I never woke up because I was stuck and couldn't turn over. Our experience with the beds and the junior butler's handling of them varies on each cruise, but so many other good things about MSC out weigh this not-so-good thing. Besides, going home to our own bed makes disembarkation not quite so end-of-the-world for us. Divina has tub-shower combo units in regular YC rooms (at least, all of ours have been that way). We always hear people complaining about the half shower partition and how the whole bathroom gets wet. Welcome to Italy! We've had this plenty of times in various Italian cities. We don't stay at Ritz or Four Seasons type hotels, so maybe those don't have the same set up. But when you see a drain in the bathroom floor in a hotel, you can bet that water is expected to go everywhere. We just laugh and say that the dolphin was in our bathroom again. We received 2 newspapers each day: the Wall Street Journal I requested and also a USA Today. Not sure why. I only read WSJ and tossed the USA Today when BCD did not pick it up. We had 2 kids in YC this cruise. At least I think there were 2. I never really looked at them, just heard them. When they are outside our cabin making too much noise, we usually just talk to each other really loudly using adult language. That gets the parents to all of a sudden realize where they are and hurry their kids away from our cabin door. 🙂 We had been booked on Divina's transatlantic back from Europe to Miami that was scheduled for November of this year. Just a few days before we sailed this cruise, we heard that it had been cancelled. During the first few days of this cruise, our travel agent worked with MSC to get us rebooked on Seaside's transatlantic instead. The new cruise is 1 night longer and one month earlier. It was also priced over $5K more on the website. She got it for us at the same price as our cancelled cruise. And we still have over $1K of OBC from her for the cruise. I highly recommend using an experienced MSC travel agent to book your cruises with MSC. We were onboard so it would have been tough to work out the details on our own and would have taken time out of our holiday. Instead a few emails back and forth was all it took. (Thanks @Georgia_Peaches for the referral to your great agent!) As I posted the Daily Programs for each day, I noticed that every day (except one, can't recall which) there was a note about YC at the top of the front page clearly saying to stay out if you're not a YC guest: Interesting that this statement includes barring entrance to suites as well. We did have one time at either a breakfast or a lunch that a couple tried to enter Le Muse. They were promptly escorted out. We were not up in the One Pool area enough to ever notice any interlopers. We met some great people on this cruise. Thanks for the great chats, especially about music, to @Cathy in Boston and her spouse! Thanks also to T and J for collecting supplies for BCD. Sorry that I cannot find your CC name "in NM." Hope you're enjoying your next cruise now! We also saw a few casino "guests of the ship" who were not very respectful to the staff and to other guests. Nothing that another round of drinks couldn't fix for us, though. The social media site roll call was organized by a great couple who were fun late-night at TSL, though I don't think they're on CC. Lots of YC people booked future cruises while on board, which is a good indicator of how much they enjoyed this sailing. Finally, a garage update: BCD gave out 9 cars this cruise. Five were the same design as last cruise, which he called Gen (Generation 2). On the last cruise, he had a Gen 1 design that he scrapped and replaced with Gen 2. On this cruise, he made some Gen 2 and then developed a Gen 3 model. He gave out 4 of the Gen 3 models on this cruise. Gen 2 used 10 cork muzzles, while Gen 3 uses 16. gen 3 takes longer for production but, as I understand it, the significant aerodynamic advantages are worth it. 😁 The Gen 3 is the bottom left in this image from the ones we have at home: Yes, BCD has continued to work at home with the extra supplies from when we're on board. 🙂 Thanks again for following along. If anyone has more questions, I'm happy to answer. Ciao, ciao!

Day 12 -- Disembarkation Disembarkation information left in cabin: As we left TSL early this morning, we asked the night concierge if Le Muse might be open an extra 30 minutes since we were delayed getting into Miami. He speculated that maybe it would be, but could not be certain -- and at 2am, there was no one to call. We figured we'd get there at 8:29am just in case. Coffee and Baileys arrived after our short nap LOL and we proceeded to get ready for the day. As we prepared to leave the cabin to go to Le Muse, we checked the time and it was already 8:30am. We checked the concierge desk, they called Le Muse and verified that it was already closed. 😞 The concierge held our carry on luggage near the desk while we had some breakfast snacks of cold cuts, cheese and fruit in TSL along with 2 rounds of mimosas to await disembarkation. We also had 2 more tip envelopes and 2 cars to distribute. Missions accomplished! Here is Elvin with his car: Our flight was at 1:30pm so we were not in a huge hurry. And this was just as well since Dwi told us it was quite crazy in the line to exit the ship. She said that many people had decided to self-carry their luggage and walk off because of the delay and that there were all these families in line with 4 or more suitcases, baby strollers, etc. We chose to leave just at 11am and were escorted to the front of the line. Tiziana and Elvin took us down, with Tiziana holding back the regular line for us, looking like a police officer on crowd control. Simone was standing just past security giving out hugs to YC passengers before they took the ramp to shore. As I hugged him, BCD said that I'd better hurry because people were getting angry. Yikes! When we arrived to the luggage claim area, we grabbed our bags and entered the customs line at ~11:20am. A half an hour later, we'd made it to the doorway to the customs lanes. We asked the gentleman there who was directing people to specific lanes about facial recognition. He said that at today's "morning meeting" they were told that they would not be using facial recognition today so they removed all the equipment that had been in place for it. He never said why or if it was just our terminal C or the whole port. But he said that the machines had been there ready for us. I know that there is a lot of speculation about ships that have stopped at Cartagena and ours did stop there. He did make it clear that someone made the decision to not use facial recognition, and the machines were not "down." We took a shuttle bus to the Miami airport that was offered to us at the rate of 2 people for $15 instead of taking Uber as we usually do. We were on board at 12:58pm enjoying a round of PDBs: By 10:30pm, we arrived home and began the countdown for our next cruise -- 149 days until a 14-day B2B on Seascape out of Miami. Thanks to all of you who've followed us on our sailing. I hope that it has been helpful and maybe a bit entertaining. I know that I have learned so incredibly much from CC over the years and have been pleased to try to pay it back here. I have some overall comments that I'll post next to close the thread...

Day 11 concludes... At noon, the captain announced that the ship was having propulsion issues and would be late into Miami tomorrow. He estimated the delay to be about an hour and advised guests to consider their plans for disembarkation, especially flights. He said that he'd give us another update later in the day. When he did, I think the estimated delay was still an hour. Our flight was after noon so we were not overly concerned. After BCD had completed his last car and we changed for dinner, we arrived at Le Muse the latest of our entire cruise -- 9pm. The place was still fairly full and did not close until 9:30pm so I'm sure more people arrived after us. Glenn and Ryan's section is in the back so we can't see all the way to the entrance. Tonight was Italian night and the tables were festively dressed. There were only tables in the middle of the floor at the time we arrived so Warsha put us at one of the those and said to just wait a few minutes for a window table that was opening up nearby. Ryan has always chilled flutes for us so our champagne stays cold, not that it has a chance to get warm with how quickly we enjoy it -- so Warsha had to tell him not to bring them yet. Soon we were at said table and reading the menu with our champagne: What a great menu for our last dinner! Everything we ordered are favorites of ours. We switched to the Gabbiano chianti for our meal: We both started with beef carpaccio: Then we both ordered the lamb for our mains: We chose to share the ossobuco, skipping the risotto because we enjoy asparagus best when we're eating it, not later on: And then a nice bowl of spaghetti carbonara appeared once again for BCD: Tonight we ate extremely well and left extremely late but there were still a few other tables occupied. True European dining habits were found on this sailing -- guests that dine slowly and enjoy their food with lots of conversation throughout the meal. We returned to TSL for our last evening there and found that we had missed Hubert's singing. 😞 But we did see a few videos and he was superb again. We stayed there for nightcaps until nearly 2am -- even though we'd lose an hour of sleep. We had a wonderful last evening aboard la Divina. Day 12 and disembarkation (nnnnoooooooooooooo) is next...

We just disembarked Divina a few days ago. The YC Library is no more. It has been replaced by displays of items available from the shops on board.

There are not any smoking areas in YC. There is still a smoking area in the casino, in the forward area of the casino on the port side. The smoke from the casino wafts up the staircase and is sometimes noticeable in La Luna Bar, which is directly above the casino. Also, the port side of the aft adults pool is a smoking section. When you walk back to Le Muse on the port side on deck 15, you may encounter smokers there. I think the starboard side of the main pool also has smoking as well. When we walk outside, we always walk on the port side of deck 15 since the door to enter Le Muse is closest there. You could walk an inside deck to Le Muse to avoid all the smokers as well. There is a Cigar Bar on 6 that is completely closed off, though a bit seems to seep out if you are near it. I believe it is next to the Effy jewelry store. If you get bothered by the smoke, perhaps you can soothe yourself with a nice souvenir. 😉

We had the pleasure of the Ercan/Anna team on Seaside in September 2023. He was great at accommodating my GF needs. I hope he is still on board for our 14 September cruise later this year. If you can find out, I'd really appreciate it! Wait, let me rephrase... "Find out if he is still on board 14 September." 😁

Day 11 -- Sea Day The day dawned as another bright sunny morning on the sea, and unfortunately our last full day on board for this voyage. Le Muse closed at its normal time of 9am so we made it there for breakfast: You may notice the tall glass of water with ice on the left. BCD prefers this to a room temperature small glass. Early in our last cruise, he had requested it at breakfast and lunch. Since we have nearly the same staff in Le Muse, someone has told new-to-us servers to bring that for him. Our champagne is the same -- host Warsha is quick to tell staff that we require champagne at lunch and mimosas at breakfast. The service has been superb for us. (And I should add that everyone who remembers us from the last cruise and treats us well were not necessarily tipped by us last cruise.) We had our usual MSC Express for BCD and two six-minute boiled eggs with bacon for me. Mehmet stopped by to say his usual greetings and we were talking about how thrilled (not) we were to be packing later. We said we'd console ourselves with a pizza during the process, though I'd just be picking the toppings off the crust. He asked if I'd like a GF pizza and I almost fell off my chair. He stepped away, made a quick call and came back to tell me that he'd have a margherita pizza for me at lunch!! We agreed on a time and I floated out of Le Muse to get to the rest of our day. Since this was our last day, we knew from past cruises we'd be quite busy. We hurried to casino to cash in our various receipts, picked up envelopes from the concierge desk, verified people's names and spellings at the desk, and ran back and forth between the cabin and the desk as we realized we needed paper bills changed to properly stuff each envelope. When 12:30pm approached, I dragged BCD back to Le Muse (the tips can wait! I have a pizza coming!!). We had champagne and I barely glanced at the menu: BCD began with the capri salad: I had a simple GF salad, but I don't think I ate much of it since I was saving room for PIZZA: We switched to the Gabbianio chianti after the salads. BCD had ordered pasta vongole for his main. I recall a CC thread about dry pasta with only one clam. This had 3 clams with shells for garnish and a nice dollop of clam sauce. No clam-gate here: My GF pizza arrived and I was delighted with it, especially the crust. Don't judge this image too harshly. Trust me that if you are GF, you would be quite pleased with the pizza: I enjoyed the crust so much that I asked Glenn to save the ends of the slices for my dinner. Tonight was Italian night and I knew there would be sauce for me to enjoy with the crusts. We left Le Muse to return to our cabin to continue our work on the tips. BCD also had one more car to finish for delivery later today. Here is the passage on deck 15 from the Jungle Pool to the elevators that are just outside of YC. The doors are labeled for YC only even though the elevator area is outside of the YC sanctuary. It does keep those elevators less used by the rest of the ship and more "hijackable" by YC members: Day 11 concludes next...

Day 11 Daily Program...

Correction -- I will try my worst!!

Ggggrr... I will try my best going forward, I promise!!

Day 10 concludes... Tonight was White Night and it was later in the cruise than we've ever experienced. We arrived to Le Muse around 8pm and it was a relatively calm restaurant at that time. We enjoyed some champagne and looked over the menu: BCD began with dumplings: I ordered the salmon to start: We switched to Mirrasou pinot noir for the main course: Ryan always wants a picture of himself to send to his fiancée (who was his girlfriend on our previous cruise -- progress!): BCD chose the lamb for his main, while I had lamb-envy because it was not GF: I opted for the salmon with extra vegetables. Salmon again? Yes, because I did not get enough of salmon quite yet. Glenn skinned it for me because -- well, of course: We shared the risotto, with "snow" on BCD's not-quite-half: Lots of nightcaps in the TSL followed, as time was running low for such fun. Treats were in the room (image taken the next morning -- that is not sunlight coming into our cabin when we retired from the lounge!): Day 11 is next...

Day 10 -- Roatan We slept in today and even changed the coffee and Baileys to 8am. Arrival in Roatan was scheduled for an early 7am. As a result, Le Muse breakfast ended at 8:30am, which is just too darn early for us. We're always in a rush to make a 9am closing. The One Pool buffet closes at 10am (every day, I think, no matter what the port schedule is -- at least on this cruise) and we made it up there at 9:45am. The bar area was peaceful, as most had probably gone out today or at least been up earlier than us. Some images of the buffet area on Divina, which is the same on Fantasia and likely the other Fantasia-class ships, smaller than newer ships: This last image has the herring rollups in the left-most position. Someone asked about them another another thread so I made sure we included them here, though I can't recall who to tag. Sorry! We both ordered egg white with bacon and cheese omelets: We did notice that the potatoes on the buffet differ in "type" -- sometimes they were cubed, sometimes sliced, sometimes spears and sometimes the hockey puck variety. We had considered going out today since we've never been out at this port. We've only travelled here once and it was pouring rain that day. After spending an hour in the shade of the One Pool table, we were so overheated that we scrapped that idea. Oh well, maybe next time... We returned to the peace and air conditioning of TSL. We saw Dwi and Richard and thanked them for the wonderful room decorations. In TSL, Hubert told us that he had received his next contract assignment with his disembarking instructions. He will be on Bellisima in Asia beginning 4 August. Ashish, the other bartender, will remain on Divina until July. No idea who will be with Ashish beginning 18 April when Hubert departs. After some time in TSL, we walked to Le Muse on Deck 7 -- it was that hot out on deck. The cold champagne in Le Muse was refreshing as we checked out the offerings on the menu: I started with the salmon, which I had also ordered as a starter a few nights earlier where we'd forgotten to get a picture. It looked and tasted the same (yummy!): BCD started with the burrata: Today the mains included the prawns that are not our favorites so we both ordered burgers, my first of the cruise. No pictures, but imagine mine as GF -- no bun, no fries. Not worth an image. BCD's was served as previously shown days ago. We had the Altos malbec to accompany our mains: Then we headed back to TSL via Deck 7 once again. The heat from the morning still lingered with us. Day 10 conclusion follows...

Day 10 Daily Program...

Day 9 conclusion... We returned to the cabin on the way to TSL and found it decorated to celebrate BCD's birthday: When no people jumped out at BCD, he acknowledged that this was a kind gesture. I exhaled. There were also the daily treats, which we hardly noticed until the morning: Then we headed to TSL for a nightcap. And what do you think happened there? When we entered, we sat at the bar and Hubert greeted us with a sidecar and an old fashioned. It was about 10:45pm and the entertainment -- Alma Duo -- was on break. Hubert said that they'd be back shortly. When they did come back, he smiled at me and disappeared into the back. When the female vocalist began singing Happy Birthday, BCD threw daggers at me with his eyes. I think when the cake was brought out, he finally surrendered. Or maybe he knew that the day only had about an hour to go. The whole lounge seemed to join in singing. We told Astari that when she took drink orders to ask if anyone wanted some cake: More than half the cake was eaten, so it did not go completely to waste. I wonder if the kitchen thought as they made this, "How many guests named BCD have a birthday today?" We retired to the room very late, and I was not in trouble for any of the shenanigans in the end. Thank goodness, because I would hate to have to find another travelling companion for the upcoming cruises we have booked. 😉 Day 10 is next...

As a native NYer, I try to quash my tendencies to be my true self. However, I will attempt to fulfill your wishes. Notice that I did not "like" your post. Good start? 😁

Indeed we are, sir! And that is always my intent. If it came across otherwise, you have my sincere apologies. Tone is so difficult in text.

I was trying to be subtle LOL. They have also told us that they prefer the friendlier guests from America. One crew member said that the Europeans make him feel like a servant and not at all appreciated. 😞

Day 9 Dinner... Tonight was Gala Night so we dressed formally, well for us. Suit, tie and jacket for BCD and dress with heel and hose for me. No tuxes or gowns for us, but our version of dressy. We arrived to Le Muse at 8:15pm and were surprised to find it not nearly as busy as last night. Perhaps everyone was dining at their leisure since today was a sea day? We started with the obligatory champagne and surveyed the (wonderful) menu: BCD ordered the snails, which we were delighted to finally see on the menu. When we were on Seaside last September, they were part of the Classic Favorites section of the menu and available every night at dinner. I was able to order it often, but they'd had to alter the dish to be GF. Tonight, being Gala Night, was too busy to alter for me (in keeping with how we know the Classic Favorites are always omitted from the menu on Gala Night). BCD started eating before we remembered to capture the image but we covered the 2 missing snails with his bread: I ordered a simple green salad since so much food was to come in the next course. Posting the menus right now, I realize that I overlooked the octopus carpaccio in the Healthy section. Ggrrr! I really like that. How did I miss it? Oh well, next cruise... For our main course, we switched to Gabbiano chianti and both ordered the surf and turf with the champagne risotto in the middle to share. We've always ordered those two mains each in the past with risotto on Gala Night, though the table does get pretty crowded if they bring the lobster separate from the filet. Glenn de-shells the lobsters tableside, which no other MSC server has ever done for us. Once de-shelled, the lobster can fit on the same dish as the filet with only a bit of overcrowding: I had spoken with Mehmet the night before and asked if he could prepare a surprise dish of spaghetti carbonara for BCD's birthday tonight. I only had a few seconds to talk to him on the way out of the restaurant so while he immediately said yes, I had no idea of the details. I thought maybe it would be brought with the starters since we'd ordered so much for the main course. Then again, since it was a pasta and all pastas were listed with the mains, it was more likely to be a main dish, and it was: BCD hadn't had carbonara since our last visit to Roma in 2005 and he was dying for some. He said this was excellent. I was not GF back in 2005 and I had carbonara-envy watching him enjoy it so much. I only wish we had captured an image of the oh-so-crowded table. However, we did get a picture of our wonder twin servers: It's little off-center so I could crop out other diners in the background. When they do this fist bump, I always think of the Wonder Twins from the Superfriends cartoon that I used to watch on Saturday mornings. If any of you are my age, you might remember them. BCD finishes all of his carbonara and lobster, most of his filet and a decent amount of his share of the risotto and then tells me how stuffed he is. I knew what was coming next, as most of you probably do as well. Yep, a birthday cake! All of the server teams gathered around us and sang Happy Birthday in several languages. One used BCD's phone to record a video. It was quite festive. And BCD was quite flabbergasted. He somehow managed to have a small piece of cake, though I could not as it was not GF. Day 9 concludes next...

Day 9 continues... We left BC and returned to TSL just as they were starting to set up for Afternoon Tea at 3:30pm. If you've been following along, you know that we dine S-L-O-W-L-Y and a 2.5 hour lunch of 3 courses is not at all unusual for us. We're always surprised when we see people in and out of a restaurant while we're still on the same course. We have been pleasantly surprised this cruise as there have been quite a few other tables dining just as slowly as us. It's nice to know that not everyone is in a rush these days to get to the "next thing." Tea time began promptly at 4pm and a saxophonist provided background music during the service. We are not normally tea drinkers but we decided to stay and enjoy the experience. TSL had a good showing of people today. TSL used to have afternoon tea every day but has now cut back to only one day now. (I'm not sure if it's one day per cruise or one per a certain number of sea days.) You can have tea at any time, of course, but it's not the big production of the "one" afternoon tea. BCD chose jasmine tea and I chose English Breakfast. They also supplied us with some GF cookies, which felt like a nice gesture. Here's one of the carts that circulated to the tables (other people's faces intentionally cropped): As we said to each other whilst sipping tea with our little fingers extended, it was delightful! 🙂 Dinner is next...

Day 9 Daily Program...

Whenever we have a server who does not know us well, we will ask about specific grapes for wines that are outside of the usual merlot and cabernet sauvignon. It is a subtle way to convey that you're interested in trying other wines. Malbec is a good one to bring up. I've also asked about Zinfandel -- red, not white, of course. Red zin is a nice grapey wine with little to no tannins and I find it sippable even without food. Shiraz/Syrah is another choice with relatively low tannins. We've never been on Seashore, but on Divina they have holding areas throughout the dining area with various open bottles. See if you can spot any that catch your fancy and ask to try them. The whites are always in the wine buckets so it's harder to read their labels. You could try to discreetly watch the tables around you for labels that are unfamiliar as well. Enjoy exploring all the offerings! 🙂

Day 9 -- Sea Day Today is BCD's birthday and he doesn't quite know yet how many of the YC crew are aware. He is suspicious of what may be planned for his day because last night as we left TSL, the night concierge wished him a Happy Birthday, saying that he knew it was 10 minutes early but sending birthday wishes anyway. We don't know the night concierge very well as we only see him when we are leaving TSL to retire for the night. BCD started questioning me right away but stopped asking about the concierge when we arrived at our cabin door where he saw some type white of white paper barely sticking out from under our door. He was hesitant to go in the room. "What did you do??" Luckily for me, it was only the notice of our free dancing lesson as Voyagers Club Diamond members. This quelled his suspicions temporarily. We awoke to that bright sea sunshine that we love in the mornings. Coffee and Baileys arrived at 7:30am but we were moving slowly so we did not get to Le Muse until 8:45am. There were just a few tables occupied so we figured folks were up at the One Pool. We ordered our usual 2 mimosas and 2 cappuccini. I should not say ordered though, since they usually simply ask us if we want the "usual." Not a bad "usual" to have. Susmita brought them and asked if she could get us anything else. Without missing a beat, I said, "Two more weeks on Divina." She looked lost for just a moment but quickly recovered. Sometimes we wonder if our humor won't make sense to someone whose first language is not English but this time it was understood. But not granted. I see what people mean when they say that they are always told "no" in YC. BCD chose eggs benedict for his birthday breakfast and I had two 6-minute eggs with bacon on the side. (No pictures since they'd be a rerun of a previous morning.) We stopped by the casino to retrieve the remainder of our OBC. The bar there was not opening until noon so we went back to TSL to for champagne and a Bloody Mary. As we passed the concierge desk, more birthday wishes were expressed. BCD again wanted to know what was in the works for him for the day. I tried to smile my way through it, knowing that it was going to get "worse" for me but "better" for him. I had some more surprises planned that I could not share here because then there would not be any surprise. BCD doesn't have a CC account, but he does read my phone and PC occasionally. We had reservations for lunch at Butcher's Cut (BC) for 1pm. We're not usually overly hungry for lunch and I wanted to make sure that he had an appetite for a big meal -- and the surprise cake at the end. I had spoke with our butler Dwi and set up the cake a few days earlier. She had been the one to suggest a GF cake so I could have some too. As we were sipping our drinks in TSL, several passengers wished him a happy birthday adding to his suspicions. Then a couple we chat with frequently said that by coincidence they also had 1pm reservations at BC. When they left, BCD asked me why they left so early. I told him he was paranoid, just like with the cards under the door the night before. By the time we were leaving to go to BC, it was nearly empty in TSL. He pointed out that everyone was gone and his suspicions grew... We arrived just after 1pm to BC and the front tables were sorta filled for lunch, so the host took us the next room, which is by the bar. I was amused by this because he looked so apprehensive. I had nothing planned other than the cake but this was such fun. 😉 It was time to put our attention to eating and I think he forgot the suspicions as we started to read the menu. We started immediately with red wine, not our usual bubbles. He chose the Oberon (which Le Muse was out of, but I guess BC is not sharing their supply) and I chose the Altos Malbec. I've always ordered the Malbec at BC and we had seen it being served in Le Muse one evening and kept forgetting to have it there. The Altos is from Mendoza, Argentina, and I've found that the Malbecs that I like the best come from Mendoza. We've not yet been to Argentina, but a wine tour is definitely on the agenda when we do make it there for a holiday. We forgot pictures of the wines, but I did post the Oberon from a dinner a few nights ago and (spoiler) we have an image of the Malbec from Le Muse later in the cruise. We pretty much knew what we'd order but gave it one last consideration. I don't think the menu has changed at all, but just in case: We both chose chop salad as our starters. Here is BCD's, with the bread basket that is not GF: BCD ordered the filet as his main: I ordered -- can you guess? -- lamb: Here's BCD's filet with his side dish of brussel sprouts (as listed on menu, but should really be "Brussels sprouts" -- we've learned so much about the spelling of food items during this cruise!) and the four sauces that are served with every menu item under the steak section: Here's my lamb with a side of roasted cauliflower: And here is the full table with the pepper mill and salt cellar -- nice touch, having a salt cellar: We've been to BC on all our MSC cruises and even at dinner there is not a tablecloth. I think they believe it makes for a more rustic feel, but we really miss having a tablecloth. The red placemats are not conducive to aerating the wine in the glasses. The meal is now winding down and we had told the server that we'd not be having dessert so BCD is now unsuspecting and voila! here comes the cake with servers singing Happy Birthday. He seemed truly surprised and I was happy to find a GF cake (pie really) that we could both enjoy with some more glasses of red wine: It was quite tasty. The filling was a sorta dense chocolate pudding, the topping was chopped nuts and the crust was a nice crumbly one. I did not know exactly what they'd serve us but this did not disappoint. We each had one and half slices and they gave us the rest to take back to the cabin. So far, I'm feeling good about how I've indulged him on his special day. Oh, and here is the Le Muse lunch menu: More on Day 9 coming up...

So excited to see you beginning another thread, and this time you're back on Seascape. We're on her in September for a B2B. Many of the YC crew with us on Divina are beginning their holidays in the next few weeks and are not sure where they may be come September. Several said that Seascape might be their next contract. I'm guessing this is because they prefer the Caribbean. (Now back to finishing my so-called Live thread. Only 4 days behind now.) Buon viaggio!

We are home now (and with no family drama to distract us this time). I have copious notes and images from the last few days and will continue with Day 9...

We thought we understood your meaning but looked it up to confirm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression). BCD was aware of the birthday connection, and then when he saw that da Vinci was also left-handed and perhaps ambidextrous, we were especially intrigued. Definitely something that we might explore. Thanks for the idea! 🙂