Iluvcruising2

You did a very nice job with the video. I did not take photos in the WJ, i should have i guess. I will try to remember the differences, although i did not go through the entire buffet line much, i generally went and grabbed something quick and got in and out.

 

ONe thing I forgot to mention (AND forgot to photo!) that your video reminded me of...when you first entered the WJ they had a huge display of a little village made out of Gingerbread Houses. It was up the whole week (we sailed on Christmas week). It was lovely, just for viewing not for eating. But that took up some room in the front as you went in

 

As for food, we did NOT have sushi! And i had read before that AOS did, so my youngest son was disappointed. Looked like a good selection.

 

I think you had more soup choices. Also more Asian food choices looked good. I didnt see a make your own pizza station, on ours, i would have like that, maybe one day they had it and i missed it. They had premade pizzas for pepperoni, cheese and one other. It was ok not great.

 

We had hamburgers and hot dogs with buns, not sure if I saw that or not on your video

We also had a taco bar with hard shell tortillas (not soft ones) and beef and various toppings.

 

I cant comment on the exact other foods there, some might have been a little different I am not sure

 

I also forgot to mention that on Christmas morning, as you got close to the WJ doors, they had a small station to hand out free egg nog (both alcohol and non alcohol). I took advantage of that at least twice :)

Thanks. Your post and description of the gingerbread houses reminded me of the huge blackforest cake that we had on the Adventure of the Seas. The cake just turned up one day, I think during lunch, and they stationed a staff there to help dish out cake. Passengers loved it! See the video.

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In case you are wondering how I navigated the walk, I was using the GPS on my phone and an app called CityMaps2Go. The cost of this app is marginal (less than $5 i think) and I have used it very successful for many trips now. The app does not need data, so no hefty roaming charges. However, you must remember to download the map for the city that you are visiting before your trip, otherwise there is no map on your phone for the GPS signal to map against.

From the historic city center, I think we did turn and kept walking along a straight road that would bring us to the Chapel Palatine.

A photo of the junction at the historic center.

In this video, some snippets of the walk and I observe some of the architecture along the way.

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More pictures of the scenery along the way. We are headed towards the chapel.

Hi, yes it was, 22 nights. Finished in Barbados, which I think the return journey starts from there in April.

Wow, that is long cruise indeed!

How many nights, this re-positioning cruise?

Thank you very much. I have begun to read your MSC Prezoia review & I am enjoying reading your review, watching the videos you have posted & pictures you took.

Thanks for your compliment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the review. I am still working hard on it. It takes a lot of effort but I enjoy it. I re-live my cruise while doing the review. And years down the road, when I read my own reviews, I get astounded - "you mean I was there?"

:):)

Good review! Brought back good memories. We sailed on the Adventure of the Seas out of Southampton UK to Iceland and Norway back in mid 2014.

What I am curious to know is whether the food in WJ is the same or different when the ship sails out of Europe versus out of USA. This is a video I made of the WJ dinner. Perhaps you can let me know any differences to the food on your recent cruise. CHeers and have a blessed 2016.

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Cool video! Brought back memories. Monarch of the Seas was our first ever RCI cruise. This was back in 2003/04. Cheers.

We sailed on the Silhouette in late 2013 in Europe. It was a wonderful experience too.

Our most recent cruise has been on the MSC Preziosa, 7N sailing out of Genoa, in the Yacht Club. Here is the link to the review on cruise critic boards -

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288693

Today is the last day of 2015. Happy New Year to all and best wishes for 2016. God Bless!

Our most recent cruise was on the MSC Preziosa, 7N sailing out of Genoa, in the Yacht Club Cabin 16008. Check out the ongoing review on the cruise critic forum - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288693

Today is the last day of 2015. Happy New year and all the best for 2016. God bless!

Our most cruise is on the MSC Preziosa. Please check out the review on cruise critic board - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288693

Today is the last day of 2015. Wishing all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2016. God bless!

Cruising has been a great vacation option for my family. I remember all cruises, not just for the places and sights we visit, but because we get to spend a lot of quality time together as a family. I have literally watched my kids grow up, from cruise to cruise.

All things considered, my favourite cruise would be our 14N out of Sydney in Dec 2012, on the Voyager of the Seas, to ports in Australia and New Zealand. It was very memorable for many reasons, including the fact that this was our first 14N cruise (before this, we didn't know whether such a cruise would be too long for us), our first trip to Australia and New Zealand as a family. We had a gorgeous aft JS, with a huge balcony. The crew on board were wonderful and we had very relaxing time.

At that time, my kids loved the kids' club and we were not sure what to do for the talent show. So we decided to bring their violins with us on this cruise (we had to fly from Singapore to Sydney in order to get to the ship!)

Since they had their violins, I made them do this (play in front of the Sydney Opera House)

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This cruise also resulted in a very long picture review on cruise critic -

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1754553

Going by the number of views, I think the review was very popular.

I write this on the last day of 2015. Wish everybody a Happy New Year and God bless for 2016.

Looking through my pictures and videos for Amsterdam, I thought one of the most memorable site was Zaanse Schans - http://www.dezaanseschans.nl/en/

This place was quite unlike any other I have seen. They have tried to preserve Holland from the pre-industrial age. Windmills were very common then. And in this place, there are many working windmills that you can enter. And I entered one, costing 4 Euros. Beware the very steep ladder to climb and down. If you can cope with a ladder, it is very unique experience. Now I can tell people that I have ever been inside a working windmill in Holland, and here is the video to prove it.

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There is also this pancake restaurant, to have a pancake or two.

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Near Central Station, you can board a small canal river boat for an evening canal trip on the waterways. I've done both day and evening - the lights along the bridges add so much to the canal ride.

 

Darcy

On the canal river boat, I think there are multiple companies operating the ride. I took a canal cruise from a pier which was quite far away from the Central, but near the hotel I was staying at (i.e. near the flower market area). The sun had set but the ride was still interesting. Here is a video of the ride.

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And as we were docking, another ship came in. Here is a video.

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Like our ship, the Costa ship came into port, did a turn, before backing in. This was to facilitate easy departure later this evening.

The Costa ship came right by us. They were so near, we could throw something over, I think. Anyway, I didn't try. Plenty of people on the sun deck, watching the sail in. If you watched my video, you could hear me yelling. Yeah, I get crazy sometimes.

Alright, it was time to disembark. It was a bright, sunny and rather warm day. We have never been to Palermo before. The plan was to take a long walk into the historic city center (yes, you read correctly, walk) and then find our way to the Palatine Chapel. Thereafter, maybe even walk back to the ship. Sounds very strenous? I guess it was somewhat energetic, but we decided that we needed more exercise. Anyway, the distances didn't look too far. Just walk at a leisurely pace.

This video shows you snippets of the walk. As we head out of the ship, there were many private tour vendors and tuk-tuk drivers canvassing for business. So, plenty of private tour options, and there was no real need to book a ship's tour.

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A view of the Vertigo waterslide. MSC claims that the Vertigo waterslide is the longest single body water slide at sea - 394 feet! I rode the slide once and screamed a lot. That video is on the first page of this review.

But I decided to put the water slide video here again, just in case you missed it.

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A picture of the main pool. I count a grant total of one person swimming.

This was taken in the One Pool area. You can see the ash trays on the tables. This section of the One Pool allows smoking.

Snapshot of what was available for breakfast at the One Pool.

Thereafter, we went back to our cabin to rest, and watch the sail in to Palermo!

I could see the port. We were getting close. There was a ferry leaving port.

Today was Day 3 of our 7N cruise. The ship MSC Preziosa was due to dock at Palermo, Italy. Check out the MSC Daily. Arrival was 10am and all aboard at 1630. The day in port wasn't too long, but we'll make do.

Palermo is the capital city of Sicily, and I am sure it had a glorious past.

We had some time in the morning and we certainly did not have to wake up early. So we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast in the suite restaurant. I took this photo with the little bottles of jam.

This video shows you some snippets of the breakfast we had. And thereafter we went to check out the One Pool and Top Sail lounge to see what else there was to eat! I know, greedy. But hey, we are on a cruise.

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At the aft of Deck 15, is the Garden Pool.

In this video I show you the Garden Pool, which is at the aft of the ship. Nobody was swimming this morning. This being winter, it was a bit cold.

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Plenty of Deck Chairs for you to choose from.

The MSC logo, on the MSC Preziosa.

Thanks for the link. I've lately been more interested in reading threads like this where RCI cruisers try other lines.

Most welcomed. We still like RCI very much and in fact our next cruise should be with RCI, but I think their pricing can get very aggressive at times. Thanks for following along!

Thanks iluvcruising- you write really comprehensive reviews which are really useful!

 

Do you live in Singapore? Are you from there or an expat? I grew up there and went to UWC on Dover Rd, in fact i just went back in August for a week for our 20 yr school reunion. Singapore is my favourite place in the world :-)

Dear Amy,

Wow, what a small world! Guess what, I drive past UWC on Dover Rd almost every day during school term, because I drop off my kids at school before going off to work! I'm born and bred Singaporean. Thanks for shouting out for Singapore.

I take it that you live in the UK? We have a strong affinity for the UK because both my wife and I studied there. In fact, we keep going back to London (in 2015 alone, we went there twice, with our kids in tow).

Perhaps we can continue this conversation offline. My email is in my signature. Do contact me if you wish. Cheers and have a great cruise!:)

Thank you for this very thorough review. I am enjoying your videos and photos very much. I would like to take an MSC cruise sometime in the future. I did laugh when I saw the can of Pringles in your cabin fridge. Did your kids ever eat them?

Heather

Hello again, if you ever sail on MSC, please help me tell them that you saw my review on cruise critic! (Shameless plug for myself)

I wanted to say that we did something really fun with the mini-bar items later in the cruise. Will post that when I come to that day of cruising. Stay tuned!

So, we've decided to stick with NCL, since its the most bang for our buck and we know we enjoy the private courtyard and pool. I have not been able to find a better deal on Royal for comparable perks. I will check out MSC though, never considered that!"

The MSC Yacht Club product is not very well known. We just sailed a 7N on MSC Preziosa and it was AWESOME! I'm still plodding on with my review, just putting in the link here if anybody is interested - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288693

Beverages/coffee all included. This was our final dinner in the suite restaurant before disembarking.

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Thank you! Since everyone has been talking about the loyalty match, I too had a sparked interest in them. As for the Yacht club-this seems really nice.

 

I did a suite comparison review as I just returned from the Haven on NCLs Breakaway and really loved it.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2291655

 

I think between both of these lines, for people looking for really nice suite accommodations and amenities, Royal really has some stepping up to do. By just adding a new suite program to only the newer builds/certain ship class does not compare at all to what NCL and MSC seems to offer.

Indeed, the suite experience on NCL was great. We weren't even in the Haven for NCL Jade and we really liked the experience.

Hi everyone

 

Have just found this forum and am finding it useful being a recent cruise convert!

 

In July we went on all the MSC trips but they seemed very expensive so might book our own this summer. We are visiting Bari, Katakolon, Santorini, Piraeus, Corfu and Montenegro.

 

Can anyone recommend how to go about booking trips independently?

 

Thanks x

Indeed, cruise critic forum has helped us do almost all our trips independently. Of the ports you have listed, we have been to Katakolon, Piareus, Corfu and Montenegro.

Katakolon for Olympia - this is what we did. See the link.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2140938

Athens (Piraeus) - this port was really awesome.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/12/athens-greece-port-of-piraeus-ncl-jade.html

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Corfu - http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2013/12/corfu-greece-port-of-call.html

Montenegro - http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2013/12/kotor-montenegro-port-of-call.html

Hope the above are useful. Have a wonderful cruise!

2016 may be earlier ;)

Silly me! I am already living in the past.

It starts 16 jan 16.

http://chinatownfestivals.sg/chinatown-chinese-new-year-celebrations-2016/

You may like to try Chinatown Street on the 14th Jan.

 

Christmas decorations in some shopping centres/malls are coming down and CNY decors are up. :)

Good suggestion!

Unfortunately, the Chinatown street light up is starting 31 Jan 2015.

http://chinatownfestivals.sg/chinatown-chinese-new-year-celebrations-2015/

So cruiser joll would not be able to catch it.