MSC Sinfonia Adventure

[Skier52]

Yes I have been getting weather updates from AP they are on holiday in Clare

We all have the drinks package on our table so waiter doesn't always puts out wine list for us.

They have introduced booking for the theatre now due to the ship expansion (600 more guests) so they have 3 show times. You wave your card under the scanner and choose the time you want to go. They do fill up as a couple at our table reported they were unable to get in ! It's pretty easy to do, but so far it's only for the show that's on that night. I read in the daily planner that you are meant to be able to do it using your smartphone?

Another thing I read on daily planner is that they don't recommend tipping individual staff due the service charge already in place.

 

That's in all the MSC official information and small print in the brochures and web site Q&As.

 

Bar Service Charge

A 15% Bar Service Charge is automatically added to all purchases.

 

Spa Service Charge

a 15% service charge will be added on all spa services purchased onboard and paid at the end of cruise in the final bill.

 

MSC Cruises does not recommend tipping individual members of staff.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Skier52

[Skier52]

Someone asked about 1/2 carafe of wine. I checked the wine list last night and didn't see it listed.

 

They certainly used to do carafes

 

here is a Med wine list from 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2015 by Skier52

[kerryincork]

Stockholm: we arrived bright and early my DA and I decided we would do the hop on hop off boat ride. It takes about an hour to do the route & you can get on/off at any of the stops. It cost us 135SEK each. You could see the tour boats from the ship, we got the green one. Very easy to reach once of the ship. They sell the tickets at a kiosk outside the ship where you can pay by card or use cash in board. You can also get combo bus & boat tickets (don't know how much these were). There was some confusion getting on the boats as MSC had sold excursion tickets for the tour boats as well (€33) & staff member was stopping everyone from going through the the gate to get to tour boat. We made it clear we were not part of the excursion and we were allowed to pass. There were tour boat operators in dock wearing green jackets where you showed your tickets or if you wanted purchase your tickets. A few minutes later a boat arrived and we were off.

[patchcat]

I'm enjoying your updates... we are doing the same cruise as you on 18th July so am following your tips and looking forward to see what you have to say about the other ports.

There are 10 of us going, we from UK and my husbands family from NZ. Could you tell me, is the weather warm when on ship, and does it get busy at the pools? The kids like to swim!

 

Also, when you talk about credit cards being authorised at machines, do you mean the Room cards?

Edited July 8, 2015 by patchcat

[kerryincork]

It's not busy by the pools at all. Every day it has been very easy to get a sunbed. The weather was very hot in Copenhagen and Germany, the sea day to Stockholm was cloudy but warm. On board I either wear a wrap or light cardigan, but I don't always wear it. DA doesn't wear an extra layers. Stockholm was cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. Tallinn very cloudy with rain. Even so I'm still only wearing cropped trousers and light cardy with rain mack in my handbag if I need it. DA is wearing summer dresses though it's not often she feels the cold. She's a native of Cambridge if that's any help ☺

[patchcat]

Thanks for that! Looking forward to cruising.... we arrive at Copenhagen airport around 11.45am and we will get a taxi straight to the ship, thanks to your advice. Have you booked a tour for St Petersburg??

[kerryincork]

Stockholm continued: we started our boat tour, we got off at the old town and walked to the royal palace. We walked through the palace court yard but did not go in as we only had time to do one tour and I wanted to see Vasa. After taking some photos we walked down to nearest tour boat pick up point. We just missed the boat so we walked along the quey to the stop where we got off. The boats are very regular so we were soon off again. The boat plays a guided tour as we are sailing around. There are stops for the ABBA museum, but we were waiting for Vasa museum. At Vasa there was a very long que, which moved quickly, if you have a chip and pin card you can go direct to self service ticket machines, we had cash, if I was doing this trip again I wouldn't bother getting any cash for Stockholm.

We were in. We just walked around ourselves. All the exhibits are in English so we guided ourselves, they have guided tours and mp tours as well. First we saw the short film , which is on the left as you pass through turnstiles. This is well worth watching. It's in swedish with English subtitles. We then explored each floor. Including lunch we were there for about 2 hours. We weren't rushed so I would say 2 hours is plenty. We got there just before 12, it would probably had been quieter if we had gotten there early. Lunch was a reasonable price, salad seemed to be complementary with any food/drink combo. After this is back out to the pier (v.short walk) and back on to the tour boat. As we still had plenty of time we got out at the fun fair. If you are on the green tour boats you get to go in for free, just go into the information office at entrance to park and they will give you tickets to get into the park. You have to purchase tokens to go on the rides. 20sek per token. As adult rides = 4 token, baby rides =1 token child rides = 2 tokens. It was very crowded and ques were long. I didn't have time to go on any rides, but it was nice to look around. I wouldn't have bothered if we had to pay to get in. So once again back to the tour boat, last stop back to the cruise ship. We never had to wait long for tour boats and I would recommend them.

[kerryincork]

Yes we have booked a ships tour of St. Petersburg. I was too lazy to book and independent tour. Don't forget you can't get off the ship in St. Petersburg unless you have a visa. All the tours includes a visa.

[Danish Girl]

I am very much enjoying to read everything you write, while i am also going on this trip 18. july with my boyfriend. The weather forcast isn´t very nice right now, but it can change many times before we go :-)

[kerryincork]

The weather I would say is on par with the UK and Ireland. So when packing keep that in mind. I myself am a very light packer so I have just hand luggage and my handbag.

[kerryincork]

Tallinn : I hadn't done any research for this stop so we caught the hop on/ off tour bus ( red one, if you had been on any red tour busses I'm other cities keep your receipt ad you will get 10% discount on subsequent tours)

[kerryincork]

Tallinn : we got off to a late start so didn't have time to get off the tour bus. There was a nice park with wooden buildings and a swan lake that looked interesting. Also a modern shopping centre was on the route. This was where the crew went, it was reported to be very nice and Tallinn is apparently the cheapest port of call on this cruise. I didn't buy anything so can't personally comment on prices. We did have time for a short walk around the old town. I thought this was the least attractive stop we made. I did see that there were some interesting places outside of the city and if I came again I think I would arrange a tour.

We went back to the ship then and had a late lunch of pizza up on pool deck. The best pizza ever ☺

We also had lunch a few times in the restaurant which had the same lunch menu each day. There was a fish, meat and vegetarian options to choose from. We ate all but one meal in the restaurant which I thought had a good selection.

[kerryincork]

St. Petersburg: the final stop of the tour and the city I was most interested in seeing. We chose a ship tour of the City and Hermitage. This was an early start but first you have to go through passport control. This was a nightmare. It took us an hour to get through. We had the misfortune to be put in the slowest que, passport officer was extremely slow. For everyone person she was processing her colleagues were processing 3. By the time we realised this it was too late to swap ques as another load had been released. Once we got through we discovered our tour bus had left without us, so MSC put us on to another city tour. In the end this worked out better for us as we met a couple who were on our tour and they didn't see half of what we had seen.

[kerryincork]

St. Petersburg: first stop was the Peter & Paul fortress. A beautiful old church where the royal family worshipped and where the royal family were buried. So we saw the grave markers for Peter the Great & Catherine the great. They are not I there coffins as according to their religion they had to be buried 2 meters below the surface of the ground. So there is a special basement below the church where they were actually interred. I should point out that toilet breaks are few and far between. There are public toilets you can use but they only accept Russian currency.

The church was very beautiful but crowded, all the tourist sites where extremely busy. I counted 6 cruise ships in port that day.

[kerryincork]

St Petersburg: I just remembered that we stopped first at St Isacs cathedral for photos and on a bridge between the hermitage and P&P Fortress for photos. After the Fortress we went to lunch where we could also use the toilets :-)

I spoke to other cruisers that evening and no matter the tour we were on we all had the same lunch: salad, soup, mash potatoes chicken/beef in mushrooms sauce followed by coffee and pastry. DA and I enjoyed it all and thought it was tasty. Our table mates who were from Sweden also liked it. I had heard complaints from others on different tours, so not sure if this was because of quality or preference.