Royal Diamon tries MSC Yacht Club on MSC Preziosa and loved it

[Iluvcruising2]

This morning, we had breakfast in the Yacht Club, as per our usual practice.

 

This was a video I made of the breakfast. As the ship docked only at 0900hrs, there was plenty of time for time for breakfast.

[YOUTUBE]Q_X81D_7uq0[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

After breakfast, there was time to walk around the ship, as she was in the process of docking and seeking clearance. Some photos from the Garden pool area (which is located at aft of the ship). You can see the coaches.

 

A bridge linking the cruise terminals to the main land.

 

A clearer view of the bridge.

 

And here is a video I made while standing near the Garden pool. Saw many new cars being driven on a Ro-Ro ship too.

[YOUTUBE]_W2TjtFStu8[/YOUTUBE]

[plucasana]

Still a wonderful review, thank you! Kids are delighted that you can have hot chocolate in Le Muse [emoji847]. I also liked your Bagshopping-Video. I plan on purchasing one on my next cruise.

[Iluvcruising2]

We got off the ship and walked to the cruise port taxi stand which was very near. There was a long line of taxis. They all went by the meter. We asked how much it would cost to get to Sagrada Familia and the driver said 25 Euros. True enough, the meter read 25 Euros thereabouts by the time we got to the Sagrada. This is the route from the cruise port to the Sagrada Familia, from Google Maps.Distance about 8.5km.

 

Here is a video of the taxi ride. The driver was a chatty guy who could speak English well. He told us that he also doubled up as a tour guide and showed us some brochures on his day packages for cruise ship passengers. He tried his best to convince us to book him for the day, but we decided against it since we didn't have plans to see so many places. Just wanted to do the Sagrada and the La Rambla.

[YOUTUBE]yUFkWw6dxU8[/YOUTUBE]

 

The sight that greeted us when we arrived. Impressive.

.

 

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Catalan pronunciation: [səˈɣɾaðə fəˈmiɫiə]; English: Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica, as distinct from a cathedral, which must be the seat of a bishop. (From wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia)

 

The construction was ongoing, at a fairly rapid pace. Later, within the cathedral, we could hear all the construction noises. We were told that all the ticket entrance money was used to fund the continued building of this Cathedral.

[Iluvcruising2]

Still a wonderful review, thank you! Kids are delighted that you can have hot chocolate in Le Muse [emoji847]. I also liked your Bagshopping-Video. I plan on purchasing one on my next cruise.

 

Thanks for your comment.

 

My kids reminded me that they loved the hot chocolate for breakfast in the Yacht Club restaurant.

 

Are the bags a good deal? My wife said prices were ok but she didn't plan on buying any that cruise.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

Here is a video while touring the Sagrada Familia, and subsequently went up the tower. We bought our tickets in advance, and brought the print-outs. No problems using them. It was a good idea to buy tickets in advance. See 3:52 of the video for the long ticket line. I have been to a good number of Cathedrals in Europe and I must say that this one is very different. (Granted it is a minor basilica and not technically a cathedra) The design is very different. Gaudi, inspired by nature and the forest, designed the columns to look like a forest, so we were told.

[YOUTUBE]q41BJRb8uoU[/YOUTUBE]

 

Some pictures from our visit. Inside the Sagrada Familia.

 

Even though the place was crowded with people and the din from the construction was clearly audible, the entire place felt very peaceful.

 

This place would be magnificent when it is finally completed.

 

Outside, I spotted this turtle holding up the column. Tough job. I hope its shell doesn't crack.

 

This was a big poster covering a door that they would ultimately construct. Notice the words. It was the same verse from the Bible in many different languages. What was this famous verse? Easily spotted, just read a language that you know.

 

Another view.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

There was a small museum in the basement that gives you a run through of the history of the Sagrada Familia. This place is always associated with Gaudi.

 

The most interesting artefact in the museum was this. What was this? An inverted model designed by Gaudi for structural calculations of the Cathedral. We are talking about 19th Century technology here. Anotonio Gaudi was reported to have said "the interior of the temple will be like a forest".

 

After the guided tour in English, we went up the tower. (We had bought our tickets online, earlier). There were lifts bringing you up. We didn't spend too long up there, just took some photos and came back down.

 

This completes our visit to the Sagrada. We decided to grab a quick bit at a McDonald's opposite before heading to La Rambla. Earlier in the morning, we had scouted around the area a bit. Here is a video of the McDonalds from the oustide. It is right beside a Costa Coffee. The McDonalds had complimentary Wi-Fi, which was useful!

[YOUTUBE]xbQmaK1ncMM[/YOUTUBE]

 

And here is what we ate for the light lunch. Total cost of 12.10Euros!

[YOUTUBE]i3tJvkckvOw[/YOUTUBE]

 

Here is a photo of the receipt.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

After lunch, it was time to head to La Rambla. The plan was to take a taxi there, explore the street and then head back to the ship. There were taxis waiting at a taxi stand outside Sagrada, so getting a cab was very easy. Again, it was by meter and the cost to La Rambla was about 10 Euros. Here is the video of the taxi ride.

[YOUTUBE]Ea_rfIG1mXA[/YOUTUBE]

 

The taxi driver dropped us off at the northern end of La Rambla, which was good, since we would want to walk southwards towards the cruise port. The weather was gorgeous, even though this was in the winter. Wonderful to walk around. The center of the street was pedestrainized, making it easy to walk.

 

Here is a video showing footage of our walk on La Rambla.

[YOUTUBE]DEsflWg6v9w[/YOUTUBE]

 

Pretty good crowds too. Not sure if they were locals or tourists.

 

We were in La Rambla, Barcelona.

 

Hotel Le Meridien was here. Centrally located.

 

The flowers were gorgeous! Bear in mind that this was in December. I didn't expect to see any flowers.

 

It was warm enough for people to be eating al fresco. There were many of such eateries, and the prices were in this ballpark.

[Iluvcruising2]

As we walked along La Rambla, we spotted this market, which looked very interesting from the outside. Not know what this place was all about, we decided to walk in to take a look.

 

It was awesome! The colours, the smells, the vibrancy of the place. Check out the video I made.

[YOUTUBE]SI3nPyF49sE[/YOUTUBE]

 

So pretty and colourful!

 

Within the market, there were a good number of such eateries where people sat at the bar counter and had fresh seafood with wine. The smells were really good!

 

Staff were naturally very busy. Business was very good!

 

As we continued our walk along La Rambla, spotted these apartments.

 

We stopped at some gift shops to buy a couple of magnets (Kids wanted).

[Iluvcruising2]

We walked all the way to this junction roundabout. We would hail a taxi shortly thereafter to bring us back to the cruise ship.

 

This video footage was taken as we rode in a taxi back to the cruise ship. We have to cross the same bridge and you can see from the footage a good number of passengers walking, both walking back towards and ship as well as coming out from the ship.

[YOUTUBE]uvRtABmfcis[/YOUTUBE]

 

We are getting back on the ship. Smooth and easy. No crowds as we were relatively early.

 

Once on board, we headed to the One Pool buffet area to grab some food.

 

Also a good time to catch up on the papers!

 

Headed back into air-conditioned comfort in the Top Sail Lounge.

 

After that, we went to walk around the ship. This was at the aft of the ship.

[Iluvcruising2]

They have an F1 simulator on Deck 16. The cost was 8 Euros for a 6 minute race.

 

Here is a video I made of the video arcade on Deck 16. I didn't come to this part of the ship very often, so I do not know if the machines are well used. But since they are right on top of the teen club, there is probably some business.

 

Walking outside, this was the water slide that I rode on some days back. This was supposedly the longest single-body waterslide on a cruise ship.

 

In case you have forgotten, this was the ride experience on video!

[YOUTUBE]Ns1ynVRQ7js[/YOUTUBE]

 

The sun was setting now. On the left of this photo, you can see another cruise ship docked at a terminal ahead of us. I think it was a Costa ship. She arrived later than us.

[Iluvcruising2]

Now, dinner! By now, we were so used to the wonderful food in the Yacht Club restaurant, it was time to get nostalgic, because this would be our second last dinner for this cruise. And what did we have to eat tonight? Lobster! Let me zoom in straight to the highlight. In this video, a very short one, you see my dinner.

[YOUTUBE]KQ0ZjFxSCZc[/YOUTUBE]

 

And this is a longer video, showing you more of what we ate for dinner. In this video, you can hear me giving some commentary.

[YOUTUBE]2_DnkB_ubl0[/YOUTUBE]

 

Let me follow on with some stills. The restaurant. By now, I figured that the YC restaurant was probably large enough to accommodate almost all guests, even if we all came at the same time for our meal. I did a quick count of the seats and I came to that conclusion. I read somewhere that the Yacht Club on the MSC Preziosa had 63 cabins. In our case, we were always ushered to the same table every night, regardless of what time we arrived, though most nights we came early, at around 6:30pm. We always had the same waiter and same assistant waiter, which meant that we could build up a rapport with them.

 

The House White. I found all the House wines very easy to drink. Alright, I'm not a sophisticated drinker. Normally, back in Singapore, I don't even drink unless I go out for social functions and drinks were included in the menu then I would have some. So, please don't think that I am a very selective wine consumer.

 

This was the House Red. Also very good.

 

My kids weren't fan of lobster, so one of them took the beef.

 

And the other chose this dish. Frankly, .I don't remember what this was. Grilled chicken breast maybe.

 

This was the lobster tail.

 

Overall, it was another awesome dinner. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Felt a bit sad as this was the second last dinner of the cruise. Tomorrow night would be the last dinner in the YC restaurant for this cruise. Sob.

[Iluvcruising2]

Looking at my previous posts, I did not post the video on Deck 16 properly. So here it is again.

[YOUTUBE]3YXMX1DUimw[/YOUTUBE]

 

And, here was another video I made on the topic of walking from the cruise port to outside and to La Rambla. It looked very far to me, but a good number of passengers were doing the walk. If anybody has done the walk before, please let me know. How long did you take?

[YOUTUBE]VHOLzOlfKSs[/YOUTUBE]

[Clarea]

Really enjoying the beautiful photos of Barcelona. Brings back great memories.:)

[Iluvcruising2]

Really enjoying the beautiful photos of Barcelona. Brings back great memories.:)

 

Thanks for reading the review!

[Iluvcruising2]

This evening the production show was pretty good. It was called Pandora. An apt name for the show because it basically means that it could be anything and everything, like a Pandora's box perhaps.

 

The show was a mish-mash of singing, dancing, acrobatic acts. All fun and entertaining to watch. This particular performance by three very bendy Chinese girls left us feeling very inflexible. Not sure how they could make their bodies contort like that!

[YOUTUBE]kxffgiXDqOY[/YOUTUBE]

 

At the end of the exciting show, all the cast and even some crew came on stage to join the singing of 'We are the World' song.

[YOUTUBE]cZlfErJZkuI[/YOUTUBE]

 

Here is a picture of the stage. Good show!

[Iluvcruising2]

And now let me talk about pizza. Well, just room service pizza. In the Yacht Club, you get complimentary pizza from Eataly delivered to your cabin. Order through the concierge and it takes about 20 minutes. Check the Daily planner for the availability hours. Here is the video.

[YOUTUBE]5XH0dTkmFyE[/YOUTUBE]

 

The box looks like this. This was only the second pizza we ordered on our cruise. There is so much to eat, no real need for room service pizza.

 

Make your own, I asked for cheese and ham. Remember, the pizza is Italian style. They do not have the range of ingredients that an American-style pizza may have.

 

Oh, as the pizza arrived, Donald Trump causing plenty of controversy. This was December 2015.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

Before I reach the final full day on board the MSC Preziosa (which would be in Marseilles), two more videos. The first one was some line dancing by passengers on board the ship as we were sailing towards Marseilles, after leaving Barcelona. Looked like there were having a lot of fun indeed.

[YOUTUBE]17-dgFoEHpk[/YOUTUBE]

 

This video shows you the prices of laundry on board. They had some packages, but ultimately we didn't use the laundry services.

[YOUTUBE]v-KSMWhckUw[/YOUTUBE]

[mairead224]

Truly exceptional review. Thankyou!!!

[Iluvcruising2]

Truly exceptional review. Thankyou!!!

 

Thanks for your nice comment!

[Iluvcruising2]

MARSEILLES, FRANCE

 

This would be our last port of call, for this cruise. The view from our balcony this morning.

 

In this video, some footage of the MSC Preziosa docking in Marseilles, from my balcony.

 

Oh, the sun is in my eye.

 

Even though it was rather cold this morning, we decided to have breakfast at the One Pool area, and we were the only ones there!

 

Here is the video of our breakfast experience. It was chilly that morning but we decided to have breakfast at the one pool area.

[YOUTUBE]kAKSSD1qT9E[/YOUTUBE]

 

The place was empty. Would have been an ideal place for breakfast if it were a little warmer. Oh well, this is a December sailing so can't ask for too much!

[Iluvcruising2]

Alright, after breakfast, it was time to get off the ship. Looking over. No, the way to get off is not to jump. Please remember that

 

As usual, I will be using my smartphone maps to guide the walking. I use an app called CityMaps2Go, which doesn't require a data connection.

 

We are off the ship and on the pier. I look up, and spotted this.

 

We were in Terminal A. The plan was to follow the signs and walk to the complimentary port shuttle stop. Here is one such sign.

 

Turned out to be a fairly long walk, though the ground was flat. Here is a video of the walk. Hope it is a useful reference.

[YOUTUBE]o6kf_QSX7JQ[/YOUTUBE]

[Iluvcruising2]

More photos of the walk. We weren't the only ones walking.

 

Flat ground. Bright and sunny.

 

The MSC Preziosa. Notice the taxis. Plenty of them available. They knew that a ship was in port, so they drove in to join the line to pick up passengers.

 

These signs popped up once in a while. Gave me the assurance that I was headed in the correct direction. Well, there was only one direction to head towards anyway.

 

And we exited the port gates.

[Bra_BE2014]

Overall, it was another awesome dinner. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Felt a bit sad as this was the second last dinner of the cruise. Tomorrow night would be the last dinner in the YC restaurant for this cruise. Sob.

 

Interesting, was the pyramids ice cream the YC's version of the baked Alaska from the MDR? Or was baked alaska offered as an option another day?

 

Also, do you mind telling me if people dressed up on the YC for the gala nights and if you spotted any solo's on YC?

 

Thanks for the great review!

[Iluvcruising2]

Interesting, was the pyramids ice cream the YC's version of the baked Alaska from the MDR? Or was baked alaska offered as an option another day?

 

Also, do you mind telling me if people dressed up on the YC for the gala nights and if you spotted any solo's on YC?

 

Thanks for the great review!

 

Hi, thanks for your questions. I think the pyramids ice cream was the YC's version of baked alaska. I did not remember having the choice of baked alaska on another evening (we dined at YC restaurant for all evenings of this cruise).

 

For gala nights, I would say about 50% were dressed up - i.e. at least jacket ties for men and evening dresses for ladies. The rest were dressed casually. Some in jeans.

 

No, I did not spot any solos.