MSC Magnifica picture heavy fun review -- 12 days British Isles incl. DIY port trips

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

 

Stef you are one seriously brilliant lady. Not only do you put so much time and effort into your reviews you are also willing to stop and help others. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it. Virtual high five winging its way from Ireland to Germany today. Oh and sorry for hijacking your review with my problems

 

:p:p:p

 

see me having just grown an inch? Thanks for the praise Cath, but I have to say it was pure selfishness --- I just love to read your review and didn't want you to have a reason to stop:D! So get well soon (sinus infections are such a nuisance) and start typing again:).

 

You may hijack anytime. I love it that you guys are here and tell me your thoughts...otherwise it would be a kinda lonesome review. And I told you all at the very beginning that this would take forever....so I'm in no explicit hurry ( no fear -- I still try to get the posts out there as soon as possible:rolleyes:).

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Fantastic , really looking forward to reading your review after reading the last two.

 

Hi bess 128,

 

welcome back! Always nice to have someone over who already knows so much about us from the previous reviews.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Thank you for posting more of your lovely photographs Stef.

 

So sorry to hear about your animals,hope everything has calmed down for you.

 

Di

 

Hi sofsolnanny,

 

:pwe aim to please:p

 

thank you! No deaths yesterday, today is just starting and tomorrow is Tarik's birthday...things are getting better:o.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Fun art for guys (lol – I liked it as well)

Naked lady on a pole in combination with a soccer game. Perfect match? Oh, you’re not into soccer? Well then especially for you a close up of the dancing lady

 

 

 

 

 

Or maybe you do like soccer but not the position the gal shows on the pole? Well then here you go….more soccer, but other pose.

Okay – one more then I promise to quit posting nude women:D…maybe, just maybe you’re not into pole dancing at all – then you can admire this on the way to the gym…

lol – I guess that’s just nice for the guys and a motivation for the ladies on their way to work out.

I do apologize to all straight women and gay men. I tried to find statues of nude guys to even out the count, but there were none. Sorry about that.

Lol – and yes – men dancing on a pole can be sexy as hell too. A friend of ours danced for us (fully clothed though) on a pole once….it was really hot!...and I don’t mean embarrassingly funny….I mean sizzling hot! Lol – he was a little drunk at the time and the next week he constantly complained about how sore his muscles were from the unfamiliar moves. Needless to say we had a blast and it was one heck of a party. Picture 20 jaws dropping during his spontaneous performance and afterwards a roaring applause. Lol – and a sweaty guy constantly murmuring “ I can’t believe I just did that”.

Aehm, sorry for the digression…I’ll get back to the art on the Magnifica in the next post.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[skatermegs]

After your last two reviews I didn't think I could be persuaded to laugh as hard as I just did! Love the pics! :) Can't wait to read more-I am living vicariously through your European cruises since those will have to wait awhile!

Megan

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Some more (harmless:)) art pictures

so there – that was our little tour of the art on the Magnifica. Hope you enjoyed it.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

After your last two reviews I didn't think I could be persuaded to laugh as hard as I just did! Love the pics! :) Can't wait to read more-I am living vicariously through your European cruises since those will have to wait awhile!

Megan

 

Hi Megan,

 

:D I'm glad to have made you laugh. Welcome to the third review! Don't worry, I plan to tell you about our European port visits in aaaaall detail. Can't wait to show and tell you about our adventures. But since there might be folks reading this who are only interested in the ship, I really want to finish that first and then all of you wanting to continue to read along about the ports are more than welcome:). Lol -- of course I'm being a little mean with adding the entertainment and food pictures of the ship in that part...but I think it would get a bit dull to see an infinity of food pics all at once. So I take that little freedom to shuffle it into the daily sec.

 

Stef

[lorrdean]

Hahaha you do realise Stef we will need to see photographic evidence of your friends pole dance, it sure sounds like it was a hoot. And certainly made me laugh out loud :D

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

The library

 

Since I was bitterly disappointed by the so called library (a book shelf :-o ) on the Serenade of the Seas, I am glad to report that the library on the Magnifica is quite a gem.

The book shelves were nicely lit, they had a VERY good mix of great classics, thrilling novels, light weight romances and up to date newly published works. In a LOT of languages. Bravo! Best ship library so far!

And these seats were sooo comfy! If I would have felt bored (which I haven’t once during the cruise) this would have been the spot to find me.

I was glad to see that a lot of people used this place on the seadays. The other library on the Adventure of the Seas was pretty much dead all the time. And I refuse to even call the shelf on the Serenade an actual library.

Another big plus was that it was lit not only by the LED spots in the ceiling, but by daylight as well!

I think this makes an immense difference. Because of the hallway between the library and the outside…you get the daylight, but it also blocks the direct sun…which is just perfect for reading!

I am in LOVE with this library! Didn’t use it, since I brought so many books myself, but am relieved to know it’s there just in case. If all the MSC libraries are like that I won’t take my own books along anymore

…anybody on here who can say stuff about their other ships’ libraries?

The card room

On the same deck as the library, just on the other side of the ship is the card room.

On our last cruise we had found their card room too late to use it, although it looked nice and had an abundance of fun (English) board games laying around to free use.

This room was just empty – except for the people going in to play cards…no idea, where they all got their decks from – it sure wasn’t from this room.

By the way, we have never seen so many people play cards on a ship -- they were seen everywhere and all the time– in the bars, by the indoor pool and in the dedicated card room. Just regular cards…nothing else…no chess, no board games…not even fancy card games. Weird. We didn’t know about the necessity to bring our own deck….so we didn’t. But we didn’t feel the wish to play anyway, so I guess it’s okay.

The only room we never saw anybody in was the poker room.

It’s right next to the tiger bar and it’s pretty spooky in there if nothing is going on. Quite a big room and totally silent. Gave me the creeps. I guess they have extra super duper isolation for not disturbing the poker players…just that there was never a game going on that we knew of.

Finally for all the gamers out there, this is the internet area

…I have no clue as to how to use it, how fast the connection was or how expensive it was. All I know is that people complained about it in other reviews.

During all our vacations we choose to be offline on purpose. If anybody has current information on this... help me out here, thanks.

I also don’t have a picture of the arcade…I know they have one, since we walked past it one time, but it was closed and I never remembered to return to check it out…Sorry.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Cruiser 4 Life 66]

Thank you for taking the time to post the review and pics.

 

I did a Caribbean cruise on the MSC Musica, a sister ship of the one you went on, so the areas on the ship look very similar, right down to the secret door that takes you to the front of the ship (but like yours also not to the private hot tub).

 

Our theater looked the same, but with nicer looking red seats instead of green.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Sorry for the bad and cold weather. Maybe next time take a Caribbean cruise? Then you can use the outdoor pool.

[oreosmile]

This room was just empty – except for the people going in to play cards…no idea, where they all got their decks from – it sure wasn’t from this room.

 

On the Splendida last year, we bought a double deck of cards with the MSC logo from the MSC gift shop.

[Carpgirl]

Hi Stef,

 

Package 60 min = EUR16.9

Package 100 min = EUR24.9

Package 300 min = EUR54.9

Package 480 min = EUR69.9

Package 1440 min = EUR169.9

 

Internet café first 10 min 3.50 next min 0.45

 

Thanks,

 

Michelle:)

[saidaigeejo]

Hi SteThanks A Ton fro your review,we are a couple (first time cruisers) and we too sailing on Magnifica on 12th Oct ex hamburg

 

ur review helped us to review our packing

 

nochmals vielen Dank

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Sorry everybody...busy weekend, therefore no new posts:o...but I'll get back to writing today!

 

Tarik is now officially 15 years old. Wow!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Sorry for the bad and cold weather. Maybe next time take a Caribbean cruise? Then you can use the outdoor pool.

 

Hi Cruiser4life66,

 

welcome to the review!

 

lol -- we did use the outdoorpool nonetheless:D.

 

:oThere's still so many places with an abundance of fascinating history to explore over here on this side of the world. I know -- the Caribbean has lot's of fascinating history as well ---maybe just not as ancient, but still -- up to now I fail to be able to work up a fascination to actually wanting to explore it...maybe one day:p.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

On the Splendida last year, we bought a double deck of cards with the MSC logo from the MSC gift shop.

 

Yup, I guess that would work:D. Can't believe I didn't think of that myself:rolleyes:.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Stef,

 

Package 60 min = EUR16.9

Package 100 min = EUR24.9

Package 300 min = EUR54.9

Package 480 min = EUR69.9

Package 1440 min = EUR169.9

 

Internet café first 10 min 3.50 next min 0.45

 

Thanks,

 

Michelle:)

 

 

 

:pThanks Michelle:p

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi SteThanks A Ton fro your review,we are a couple (first time cruisers) and we too sailing on Magnifica on 12th Oct ex hamburg

 

ur review helped us to review our packing

 

nochmals vielen Dank

 

wow -- Kuwait...talk about exotic ports:D. welcome to the review. Gulp, with the temperatures that you're probably used to you might really freeze your butt off. Although -- in the first part of October, we sometimes experience a weather phenomenon called "Altweibersommer", which means a couple of delayed summer temperature days...Literally it means "old crones summer":D -- don't ask me why, I have no clue! Maybe you're lucky enough to hit that.

 

Stef

[saidaigeejo]

Us Indian's, Both of us working & residing in Kuwait

 

As you said just want our selves to cool our .......... as when i am writing this the outside temp is 48°C (yipppe)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

:eek:48???:eek:

 

:D:)lol -- well, then you'll have a perfect cruise, no matter what the weather will be like:)!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Okay, how about some random pictures of the outside areas of the ship.

When you’re cruising in rainy weather it is really annoying to lay out in the open, since you get rained on every so often. You have this little sun shade roof on each lounge…so your head doesn’t get immediately soaked…but the rest will…especially if your reading a book ... very annoying.

Then we found this spot:

It’s 2 decks above the la Conchiglia bar. You can lay underneath this roof to read, take a snooze in fresh air or just relax with a cocktail and ice cream.

Lol – since the weather was too chilly to lay there without full clothes plus a blanky, this was the first cruise we took, where no lounges were reserved – at all. I sooooo enjoyed that!

Free choice on where to huddle up.

I never really understood why they had a shower in the middle of nowhere.

What’s this net for? Lousy try to be a windjammer? Playing volleyball? Catching seagulls? I really don’t know!

Fastest way of transportation around I believe. They had ladders to get to the half stories…I’m pretty sure that those would have been closed off for the public on an American ship….I think it’s pretty cool, that an Italian ship trusts their passengers to have the common sense to simply not use them – lol --or maybe they just didn’t care about whether someone climbed up there or not, but I’d like to believe the first version.

Notice how I start babbling about odd stuff? I guess that means we`re getting closer to the end of the ship description. Hang in there. Just a little more.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[suekay]

Feel free to babble all you want:). I enjoy every word and picture of your reviews. Oh....happy belated birthday to Tarik!

Edited September 22, 2014 by suekay

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Let’s talk about the kids.

If you decide to cruise with kids, I’ll tell you all there is to expect onboard this ship. The “young” (12 -14) and the “teens” (15-17) had a room next to the T32 disco to hang out.

There were always kids here…the most common languages were Italian, German and English…there were also several French, Spanish and Dutch kids, but since they all pretty much knew at least bits of one of the main languages they all managed.

Gah, – Tarik wasn’t found here. We made him go once…I believe he stayed for 5 minutes….and they even had an airhockey game going on…He usually LOVES that. :confused:He preferred to walk the decks alone to take pictures or sit by the adults. How boring in my opinion --- but just because he didn’t join the others, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t stuff going on.

One room further down was the room for the 7-11 year olds. It was often closed, but I don’t know how active they were behind closed doors. I think you had to check in your kids if they were below 12…the 12 and up groups were self-supervised, except for an occasional staff member from the entertainment team to drop by.

The mini club was for kids 3 – 6. They had this fun little obstacle course outside

And this slide

the water puddle in the back was drained and closed off, since it was just too cold. We never saw one kid in this whole area.

This is the room for the youngest right next to it.

Next I have all the general info sheets for kids for you, which you get when you embark…just look through em if they are of interest to you….they are quite numerous…I don’t blame you if you just scroll down if travelling with kids isn’t something that tickles your interest.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

okay-- so much for the general information. They also had the daily activity sheets for each age group....

 

I have em and I'll post them....just one tiny inconvenience for you guys....

 

 

 

I only have the German ones:eek:....really sorry about that...

 

:Dbut some stuff really is self explanatory...for instance: Wii is Wii no matter in which language...just have a look and try:cool:.