Any elegant night on the MSC Opera?

[mdxter]

Dear all,

We will be boarding the MSC Opera on June 23rd, out of Venice. We are carnival platinum cruisers but this will be our first time sailing on MSC cruises. The wife wanted to know if there will be any elegant night on the Opera? She needs to pack appropriately. Thanks in advance.    

[nealjr]

3 hours ago, mdxter said:

Dear all,

We will be boarding the MSC Opera on June 23rd, out of Venice. We are carnival platinum cruisers but this will be our first time sailing on MSC cruises. The wife wanted to know if there will be any elegant night on the Opera? She needs to pack appropriately. Thanks in advance.    

We just got off the Opera on the 26th May and there were two "elegant" nights,  of course not everyone participated.  Hopefully Venice athourities will have release the ship by the time you board.

[mdxter]

37 minutes ago, nealjr said:

We just got off the Opera on the 26th May and there were two "elegant" nights,  of course not everyone participated.  Hopefully Venice athourities will have release the ship by the time you board.

That is good to know about the elegant nights. Which nights? How was your cruise? What did you do in each port? What did you like or did not like about the ship, food, and the ports of call? 

 

Thanks for the information.   

[nealjr]

6 minutes ago, mdxter said:

That is good to know about the elegant nights. Which nights? How was your cruise? What did you do in each port? What did you like or did not like about the ship, food, and the ports of call? 

 

Thanks for the information.   

         The ship was fine, always people cleaning, polishing,etc.  The only big thing that we disliked was the disembarking on the last day.  They herded everyone into the theatre  at different times which caused overcrowding and people standing around waiting for the "letter" to be called so that they could leave.   Most of the people standing were in the way creating traffic jams for people trying to leave with carryons, once you cleared that then you had to deal with people trying to get off for their tours.  Utter chaos!

         We had the aurea  package with anytime dining which was nice.  Seated at the same table with same servers ever night, food at night was good to very good.  You had a different menu every night so you were able to try something new everyday.  Breakfast and lunch was at another restaurant buffet style but you were seated and once you got back to your table you had service for drinks,etc.  Again food was good to very good, really no complaints.

         We only had  two arranged tours, one in Kotor and the other in Bari while the rest of the ports we did our own thing.  Of the three greek islands we enjoyed Corfu even though it was the largest of the islands in Greece that we visited.

         Elegant nights the best that I can remember were on Tuesday and Friday.

        My family enjoyed the cruise the size of the ship was fine because it didn't take long for you to learn your way around.  The ports visited was great, the only draw back was we didn't have a lot of time to visit especially in Santorni, docked at 8am and left at 2pm.  Same thing in Bari, docked at 7am but left at 1pm, seemed like MSC was cramming one too many ports into your cruise.  I would have enjoyed more if the ports had longer stays, just my opinion.

      I think you will have a great time, hopefully the weather will be great to enjoy.

[mdxter]

1 hour ago, nealjr said:

         The ship was fine, always people cleaning, polishing,etc.  The only big thing that we disliked was the disembarking on the last day.  They herded everyone into the theatre  at different times which caused overcrowding and people standing around waiting for the "letter" to be called so that they could leave.   Most of the people standing were in the way creating traffic jams for people trying to leave with carryons, once you cleared that then you had to deal with people trying to get off for their tours.  Utter chaos!

         We had the aurea  package with anytime dining which was nice.  Seated at the same table with same servers ever night, food at night was good to very good.  You had a different menu every night so you were able to try something new everyday.  Breakfast and lunch was at another restaurant buffet style but you were seated and once you got back to your table you had service for drinks,etc.  Again food was good to very good, really no complaints.

         We only had  two arranged tours, one in Kotor and the other in Bari while the rest of the ports we did our own thing.  Of the three greek islands we enjoyed Corfu even though it was the largest of the islands in Greece that we visited.

         Elegant nights the best that I can remember were on Tuesday and Friday.

        My family enjoyed the cruise the size of the ship was fine because it didn't take long for you to learn your way around.  The ports visited was great, the only draw back was we didn't have a lot of time to visit especially in Santorni, docked at 8am and left at 2pm.  Same thing in Bari, docked at 7am but left at 1pm, seemed like MSC was cramming one too many ports into your cruise.  I would have enjoyed more if the ports had longer stays, just my opinion.

      I think you will have a great time, hopefully the weather will be great to enjoy.

You are right about not staying in port long. Would like for the itinerary to stay in Santorini for the sunset and maybe skip Bari. What did you do in Santorini? We are planning to take a boat to Oia from dock as soon as we are able to get off the ship. Do a photochute in Oia and take the bus back to Fira.  

Thanks so much for your insight.

[nealjr]

1 minute ago, mdxter said:

You are right about not staying in port long. Would like for the itinerary to stay in Santorini for the sunset and maybe skip Bari. What did you do in Santorini? We are planning to take a boat to Oia from dock as soon as we are able to get off the ship. Do a photochute in Oia and take the bus back to Fira.  

Thanks so much for your insight.

You have to remember that docking at 8am in Santorini doesn't mean you get off at that time.  Priority goes to the people who have booked tours through the ship-first ones off.  The other people have to get tender tickets, first come first serve as far as getting off.  Leaving at 2pm means you have to be back on the ship no later then 1:30pm, you do the math, doesn't give much time.  PLUS , you need to check how many other ships will be in Santorini the same day, traffic jam taking the lift if all the ships arrive close to the same time.  We were lucky, one other ship in port the day we were they plus we arrived later which made it easy to take the lift up and back down.  We had a tour booked starting at 10am and still didn't make it in time.  So we took the lift up and  walked around and shopped, came back down and did more shopping, back on board for 1pm.  You will  have to hustle if you hope to do what you have planned.

[mdxter]

33 minutes ago, nealjr said:

You have to remember that docking at 8am in Santorini doesn't mean you get off at that time.  Priority goes to the people who have booked tours through the ship-first ones off.  The other people have to get tender tickets, first come first serve as far as getting off.  Leaving at 2pm means you have to be back on the ship no later then 1:30pm, you do the math, doesn't give much time.  PLUS , you need to check how many other ships will be in Santorini the same day, traffic jam taking the lift if all the ships arrive close to the same time.  We were lucky, one other ship in port the day we were they plus we arrived later which made it easy to take the lift up and back down.  We had a tour booked starting at 10am and still didn't make it in time.  So we took the lift up and  walked around and shopped, came back down and did more shopping, back on board for 1pm.  You will  have to hustle if you hope to do what you have planned.

 

Ok so how long did you have to wait to take the lift back down? the only positive is that Our departure time is so early that we will not have to battle other cruisers from other ships to get down to the tender. Thanks so much for your insight. 

 

[Homosassa]

7 minutes ago, mdxter said:

 

Ok so how long did you have to wait to take the lift back down? the only positive is that Our departure time is so early that we will not have to battle other cruisers from other ships to get down to the tender. Thanks so much for your insight. 

 

I would not count on the fact that other cruiser's may not be waiting for the cable car.  A recent thread on Viking Ocean described a two hour wait for the cable car down in the middle of the day.

 

Luckily, the poster included a picture of the donkey path down and it looks doable (she said it was). The path is paved and consists of very long steps with a low rise between each step.

 

Look at post 51 and 52 for information on Santorini. The whole thread may have information that may be useful depending on your ports of call.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2663975-viking-star-venice-to-athens-572019/

 

[mdxter]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

I would not count on the fact that other cruiser's may not be waiting for the cable car.  A recent thread on Viking Ocean described a two hour wait for the cable car down in the middle of the day.

 

Luckily, the poster included a picture of the donkey path down and it looks doable (she said it was). The path is paved and consists of very long steps with a low rise between each step.

 

Look at post 51 and 52 for information on Santorini. The whole thread may have information that may be useful depending on your ports of call.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2663975-viking-star-venice-to-athens-572019/

 

Just the information i was looking for. Thanks for heads up.