JamieLogical's Live from the MSC Divina 2/11

[copper6606]

Thanks for taking us all along with you both ... glad you are having fun! We look forward to catching up daily☺️

[SeaHunt]

Another big thanks for letting us follow you along on another wonderful cruise! I especially love the drink diary so I can add the winners to my list to try on our next cruise. Yum! 😁

 

BTW according to the blimp schedule (yes, there is one lol) it was in Miami for the "NBA Heat vs Celtics Kaseya Center Miami, FL February 11, 2024."  I only know there is a schedule because I was looking a couple days ago about when it would show up in my area for this weeks Nascar races. 🏁 😉

 

https://www.goodyearblimp.com/news-and-events/schedule.html

[JamieLogical]

11 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Jamie, could you post a pic of the sparkling wine list from either a lounge or MDR when you have a minute? thanks. Enjoy your day.

 

Here is the sparkling wine by the bottle and glass from the MDR menu:

 

 

[DaKahuna]

I looked for in the casino tonight. I was done and had spent 1/2 my daily budget by 9:30 pm, so I may have been a bit early. 
 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Here is the sparkling wine by the bottle and glass from the MDR menu:

 

 

Thank you very much Jamie. Very helpful.

[Fogfog]

Great pics. Enjoying your cruise 😉

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our port stop in Aruba. My husband and I awoke to the sound of the engines vibrating our whole room. We initially thought it was because we were docking, but a quick look outside and at our position on Google Maps said that was not the case. The ship was working hard to stand still in the ocean well off the coast of Aruba. It’s fascinating how hard it is for a ship this size to stand still.

 

As we approached 8:00am, our scheduled arrival time in port, it was obvious we would not be docking on time. Lo and behold, an announcement informed us that “due to unforeseen circumstances” we would be docking “one hour late.” This ruined our breakfast plans because we had hoped to wait until shortly after 8:00 to go to the buffet after it started to clear out as passengers got off the ship. Instead, I imagined the buffet would just turn into a giant holding area for the people now ready to, but unable to get off.

 

In addition to that stress, I was having to tend to an emergency at work and could not stay connected to the VPN and Remote Desktop from my laptop. So that work took significantly longer than it should have. I ended up sending my husband up to the buffet by himself after he finished showering and dressing.

 

I did eventually get done what I needed to and took my own shower. I put on my “excursion” clothes since we were planning to go ashore for some lunch. I went up to the buffet myself (my husband was back by now and said it wasn’t too bad) to get some cottage cheese and a fried egg. While up there and eating (husband was right), I checked on my phone for places we could get lunch and finally settled on a place called the Pastechi House that served pastechi, which I understand to be an Aruban food similar to an empanada. I was looking forward to trying that out, as you could get them with all sorts of different fillings. Also, the place had french fries with their “famous peanut sauce,” which sounded intriguing.

 

After I got back to the room, we got all ready to go on shore. I grabbed my hat, sunglasses, water sling, and a bottle of water. Then we headed down to find a place to plop until they announced that people could go on shore. We ended up at Piazza Del Doge, which was very busy like every bar/lounge that was open. We eventually obtained some mimosas and just chatted and hung out. We never did hear the announcement that they were letting people off the ship, but when we checked the crowd in the atrium, the place was PACKED, but it was clear the line was actually moving. We decided to give it a bit longer to clear our, since we weren’t in a huge rush, like some of the people might be. After all, we had been to Aruba before and for all of these Europeans, it was likely their first visit and they were not going to have much time at all in port with it now being ~10:30 and all aboard being 1:30.

 

We sat down at Caffe Italia for a bit and made the call that we would just skip going on shore. With the early all-aboard time, we knew the lines to get back on the ship after lunch would likely be long and the line to get off the ship was still quite long. It just didn’t seem worth the hassle.

 

Instead, we went back to the room. I changed into my cruise uniform, we grabbed some games to bring down with us, and we headed back to Caffe Italia, which was now pretty well cleared out. We parked there and had three of Reynald’s famous Vanilla Mimosas each while we learned to play Codenames Duet and played another round of 7 Wonders Duel.

 

We had exceeded my morning mimosa limit, so we headed up to the buffet for lunch. Note that the MDR was actually open for lunch, despite it being a port day. I assume that was because we had the early all-aboard time. The buffet was a little busier than it had been on the day we were in Ocho Rios. I assume more people just chose not to get off the ship with the tight turnaround time. Also, some folks might have gotten off the ship right at 10:00, went to the shops right there, and then just turned around and came back for lunch.

 

It still wasn’t hard to find a table or get at the food. I ended up with a lot of stuff on my plate to try, but didn’t eat much of it. I did get a nice variety of cheeses! I believe there was Munster, asiago, feta, and provolone. I mostly just ate my slice of pizza and french fries with french dressing. All of the toppings I attempted for my mac & cheese weren’t great.

 

After lunch, we headed back to the room, but I was trying to avoid napping because I really wanted to be able to watch for pier runners with the early allaboard time. We first tried the promenade on Deck 7, but they had the forward section where the gangways were roped off. We then headed up to 14 and ended up in the enclosed pool area.

 

It was really tough to tell who was our passenger and who was headed to the Rhapsody of the Seas, which was parked ahead of us. There was definitely a very steady flow of people going through the security gate where you have to show your ship card and ID to enter the pier area. But there were also people still *leaving* the Rhapsody of the Seas, so they must have had a much later all aboard than we did.

 

There were two gangways. The more aft gangway just had a huge crowd penned in front of it. I wouldn’t call it a “line” as it was a good 10 people wide. I couldn’t see the line for the more forward gangway much of the time, but I presumed there was one, otherwise, why would people all crowd the aft gangway? There were hundreds of people gathered out there still when 1:30 came and went. I figured there was no way we would make our 2:00 departure time. They hadn’t even started breaking down the tables where they were handing out cold washcloths and cups of water. And there were still more people streaming into the lines. It wasn’t until about 1:50 that they started packing up the tables, but there were still probably a couple of hundred people in line, and at one point, I just spent about a minute counting people coming out of the building to join the lines and counted 79 in that short period of time.

 

But somehow the lines eventually began to thin down. My husband, who had decided to head down to the Black & White Lounge to watch the sail away if/when it happened, texted me that they had already slacked the lines tying the aft of the ship to the pier while people were still boarding. At 2:17, the last of the passengers boarded and all that was left were crew. They rushed to pull in the gangways and I headed down to join my husband. By the time I got down there, we were already moving away from the dock. So we only left about 30 minutes late, which seemed impossible just a half hour earlier.

 

As we watched the sail away from the Black & White Lounge, I called my dad. The wifi calling worked well and we were able to chat for quite a while. Around 3:00, we headed back to the room to grab some games and then down to Caffe Italia for our coffee. It was much more crowded than it had been earlier in the day. I managed to snag a table right as two people walked away. The bar staff there still treated us well, despite how busy they were.

 

We played more Codenames Duet and then @DaKahuna showed up and we chatted with him for a long time. He and his wife had gotten off the ship briefly. He said that the forward exit was much less busy and they were able to get off and on easily, without even relying on their butler. We had a very pleasant chat and even had a round of drinks before he set off to look for his wife again.

 

My husband and I finished our round of Codenames, then played a round of Splendor Duel, and then it was time to get ready for dinner. We dropped our stuff at the room and for some reason ended up at the Silver Bar for our pre-dinner round of drinks. That didn’t go so great as we were trying to explain what a French 77 was. They rang it up as a French 75 and wanted to charge us $14 extra over the drink package for it. I believe we did still end up with French 75s, but didn’t pay the upcharge. We carried our drinks into dinner and were surprised to learn that the ceiling leak was repaired and we could have our assigned table again.

 

However, it seemed that we were still not going to get to meet any of our tablemates, as we had already placed our order and, if I remember correctly, even received our appetizers by the time an older couple showed up to join us. Now, I know that MSC usually tries to seat people of the same nationality or at least the same primary language together, but I am not sure this couple qualified. The husband was a US citizen but had been born in Egypt and moved to NYC as an adult. He lived and worked there for many years and spoke English just fine, unfortunately, his hearing was quite bad and it was very hard to communicate with him. His wife was Greek and seemingly did not speak any English. He kept having to translate what we were saying to her. We had a nice enough chat, but it was really too hard to communicate and we were also more than a full course ahead of them with our meal, so we didn’t get to talk to them very much.

 

After dinner, we decided to go to the casino. My husband almost never goes to the casino with me, so this was a rare event. He wanted to try out the bubble roulette and we played that for a bit. The thing I liked about it was that I lost my money very slowly, instead of quickly like I do at the slot machines. But once my husband bored of the roulette, he tried out some of the slot machines with me as well and ended even for the night. I lost money but still didn’t do too badly compared to some of the previous nights of this cruise.

 

After the casino, we headed to the Golden Jazz Club where they were supposed to have 70’s and 80’s Name That Tune. It was packed and we struggled to find seats, but eventually ended up with two stools at the bar. Not that those did us any good, because we could not get drinks to save our lives. Fortunately, we were still sipping on our Hugo Spritzes from the Casino Bar. We did as badly at this trivia as we had the night before and I still have not achieved my goal of drinking a drink from this bar, so we shall have to try again later in the cruise.

 

We then headed to the Black & White lounge to see what was going on there. There was a latin music duo playing and then a dance class teaching the Charleston. I got us some drinks from the bar, which took quite a while. I learned that it pays to be blonde, as there were three of us waiting to order, a blonde walked up, and the bartender took her order next, ignoring the other three of us.

 

After that we were pretty wiped, but my husband wanted to tough it out until 10:30 to try to get some cookies, so we went back to the room and watched TV. There are not many channels on MSC, which is a common complaint about the line. I don’t really watch TV while cruising, so it doesn’t really impact me so long as they have the Bills games available during NFL season. But it did make finding something to put on for a bit last night a challenge. I ended up watching some Food Network competition with Bobby Flay.

 

Just before 10:30, my husband went up to the buffet and acquired his cookies and a slice of pizza for me. The cookies were chocolate chip and not great, but better than the ones he had on the Meraviglia. My pizza was excellent as always.

 

Day's Drinks: Mimosa from Piazza Del Doge, Vanilla Mimosa X3 from Caffe Italia, Double Rum & coke, Double vodka & ginger beer X2, French 75 from Silver Lounge, Hugo Spritz from Casino Bar, Bailey's Alexander from Black & White Lounge
 

Edited February 16 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

Seeing the dinner pics, I forgot to mention what we ordered. We both had the gumbo for our starter. I had the pasta Bolognese off the classics menu for my entree. My husband had the pot roast. Then we both had the warm flourless chocolate cake for dessert, but they forgot to bring out our ice cream and by the time we got that, the cake wasn't as warm anymore. So it wasn't that delicious combo of warm cake and cold ice cream that it was supposed to be.

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

We both had the gumbo for our starter. I had the pasta Bolognese off the classics menu for my entree.

How was your gumbo?  As I stated in my blog mine lack any file flavor at all and was more of a soup than a thick and rich gumbo.

 

I wish pasta bolognese was on the YC every day menu.  We have penne pasta with a marinara sauce instead. 
 

[not ice cream]

57 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

How was your gumbo?  As I stated in my blog mine lack any file flavor at all and was more of a soup than a thick and rich gumbo.

 

I wish pasta bolognese was on the YC every day menu.  We have penne pasta with a marinara sauce instead. 
 

I’m going to give y’all some South Louisiana advice. If you’re north of Alexandria LA and it says gumbo be careful. If you’re on the high seas stay far away!!😁

[Dock B]

1 hour ago, not ice cream said:

I’m going to give y’all some South Louisiana advice. If you’re north of Alexandria LA and it says gumbo be careful. If you’re on the high seas stay far away!!😁

I’m Mrs Dock B and I heartily concur!! I’m from Alexandria and only eat gumbo when south of there!

[nferr]

1 hour ago, not ice cream said:

I’m going to give y’all some South Louisiana advice. If you’re north of Alexandria LA and it says gumbo be careful. If you’re on the high seas stay far away!!😁

 Yeah, every gumbo I've had on a cruise ship has been more like soup as mentioned above.

[JamieLogical]

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

How was your gumbo?  As I stated in my blog mine lack any file flavor at all and was more of a soup than a thick and rich gumbo.

 

I wish pasta bolognese was on the YC every day menu.  We have penne pasta with a marinara sauce instead. 
 

 

Definitely more of a soup, but that is what I expect for cruise ship "gumbo" so I was not disappointed. I thought it was tasty. Too bad you can't get the pasta Bolognese at Le Muse. It is soooo good and I always eat way more of it than I should.

 

Edited February 16 by JamieLogical

[Cruzinforpeace***]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Definitely more of a soup, but that is what I expect for cruise ship "gumbo" so I was not disappointed. I thought it was tasty. Too bad you can't get the pasta Bolognese at Le Muse. It is soooo good and I always eat way more of it than I should.

 

The pasta bolognese is my favorite too!

[Fogfog]

Hey there! 

So related to card games for 2

What do you feel are the best--and then easiest (smallest) to carry for travel--and yet teachable-expandable  to 4 etc but mostly played by 2

Phase 10? We used to travel with Uno decks and Phase 10 decks as a fam of 4. 

When I g00gle things like travel games-- Duet etc and things like Pass the Pigs comes up-- we bought PtP like 20+ years ago and our kids never used it--it went to goodwill.

Just thinking about sea days and best options. Regular deck and rummy?

Thoughts? 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Fogfog said:

Hey there! 

So related to card games for 2

What do you feel are the best--and then easiest (smallest) to carry for travel--and yet teachable-expandable  to 4 etc but mostly played by 2

Phase 10? We used to travel with Uno decks and Phase 10 decks as a fam of 4. 

When I g00gle things like travel games-- Duet etc and things like Pass the Pigs comes up-- we bought PtP like 20+ years ago and our kids never used it--it went to goodwill.

Just thinking about sea days and best options. Regular deck and rummy?

Thoughts? 

 

We like Skipbo and Rummy for games that play well with 2 or more players.

[TrinaLC]

A small travel backgammon set is another option!

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BFDB4BG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

[DaKahuna]

7 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Definitely more of a soup, but that is what I expect for cruise ship "gumbo" so I was not disappointed. I thought it was tasty. Too bad you can't get the pasta Bolognese at Le Muse. It is soooo good and I always eat way more of it than I should.

 

I will have to admit that the Spiced Louisiana Gumbo on the MDR menu on Celebrity M and S class ships is delicious.  I have commented many times in my live reviews about how I keep trying to oder 5-gallon bucket to go! 
 

I also have been known to order the spaghetti bolognese from the children's menu on Royal Caribbean cruises. 
 

I consider both comfort food. 

[gizfish]

14 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

How was your gumbo?  As I stated in my blog mine lack any file flavor at all and was more of a soup than a thick and rich gumbo.

 

I wish pasta bolognese was on the YC every day menu.  We have penne pasta with a marinara sauce instead. 
 

I would be surprised if you requested the pasta Bolognese in the YC restaurant and they couldn't make it happen, since it is something available every night in the MDRs.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our port day in Cartagena. Arrival was 10:30, I believe. They made an announcement early in the morning that passengers would need to go to the Black & White Lounge to obtain tickets for disembarkation unless they had an excursion booked through MSC. This initially caused us some concern that we would be tendering, which would have been very strange for Cartagena, but then we figured out that they were just doing this as a way to try to control the masses and chaos we had seen at the last two ports when everyone was trying to get off the ship all at once.

 

We had our room service breakfast on the balcony while I typed up my blog and then we had decided we were going to brave the buffet no matter what. Even though we knew the situation would be similar to the day we docked in Ocho Rios. It was bad, but it wasn’t *as* bad. We were able to snag a dirty table that was piled with dishes and just stand there for a couple of minutes while one of the crew members cleared it for us. We did both manage to acquire food, but the wifi wasn’t working in the way back of the buffet. Neither one of us could get on the ship’s wifi. That was actually a theme of the morning. When we woke up, we were both logged out of the ship’s wifi and had to fully log back in. My husband got completely locked out with too many login attempts. When they made the announcement about the disembarkation tickets, they also mentioned that if you were having wifi connection issues, you should log out and back in again.

After breakfast, we headed down to Caffe Italia for some Rummy and to wait the ~1.5 hours we had left until the ship was cleared. I had gone to Black & White Lounge while my husband was in the shower and got Group 5 tickets for our disembarkation. The tickets said that would be at approximately 11:15.

 

We were sorely tempted by Reynald’s offer of Vanilla Mimosas, but we settled for a normal mimosa made with mango juice. Just the one round. We did not want to drink too much before going ashore into the heat and humidity.

 

My husband won the first hand of Rummy, which put him over 500 for the running total we had carried over from the previous day. We were then able to play a whole new round, which I won. Then we headed back up to our room to put on our sunscreen and get all of our supplies for going onshore. Those included our water slings, water bottles, the first aid kit, a couple of Clif bars, and our hats.

 

Right around 10:45, while we were still in our room, they called Group 1 to go ashore. We decided to go down to the decks that overlook the atrium and scout out the situation. It definitely wasn’t as chaotic as the scene when we were waiting to dock in Aruba, but there were a lot of people and it was very loud. It was also difficult to find a seat anywhere. We ended up in the casino, which was closed obviously, so there were lots of free seats. It was clear that the people with excursions were meeting up in the theater and then being escorted through the casino and out somewhere on deck 6, while the people without excursions, who just had disembarkation tickets were lining up on deck 5.

 

Eventually, groups 3 & 4 were called simultaneously and we figured we should head down to the atrium a few minutes after that since we were up next. Once the line of people from groups 3 & 4 dwindled, the crew in the atrium let us know that Group 5 could go, even though there was no announcement over the PA yet. We were off the ship at about 11:16, so pretty much on time.

 

I genuinely love Cartagena, but the heat is truly oppressive. I don’t know how anyone manages to actually live there and deal with it every day. You see construction workers or other laborers out working very physical jobs in it and it is mystifying. It hit us like a ton of bricks just stepping off the ship out into the harsh sun. The sun this close to the equator is no joke. Even my husband had relented and put on sunscreen, which he almost never does.

 

We walked the long walk of the peer exposed to the sun the whole way and eventually made it to the first oasis of cold, the duty-free liquor store. We, of course, had to pop in there for the air conditioning and for my husband to check out their selection of rum and prices. Then it was on to the zoo.

 

I laughed as we approached the zoo because people were stopping to take pictures of two parrots. They clearly did not realize that just a few yards ahead, there would be two hundred parrots. It was cute. We had decided not to dally too long in the zoo on our way out, because it was incredibly crowded with Europeans who wanted to take pictures of and with everything. So we headed straight through to try to get a cab. Unfortunately, getting *to* the area where the cabbies line up proved quite the challenge. First, there was the gauntlet of tour guides trying to talk people into buying tours and they were causing people to cluster and stand still for periods of time, blocking the flow of traffic. But what was way worse was that right after that area, the walkway narrows down to the point that only two people can stand abreast in there and some of the cabbies from the next area were swimming upstream in there, trying to sell people cab rides, so only a tiny trickle of people could actually get through. I really almost gave up at that point because it seemed as though we would never get through that bottleneck.

 

We sucked it up and joined the mass (there was definitely nothing resembling a line) of people funneling down into that walkway. It was sooooo crowded and sooooo hot. Once we finally broke through to the cabbie area, we went ahead and took one. We had thought about getting an Uber, but that would have required us to get further along the path out of the complex and then wait for an Uber to show up, whereas there were nice, air-conditioned cabs lined up RIGHT THERE. An Uber would have cost us about $10 and a one-way trip to the Old Town in one of these cabs would be $20, but it was worth it to escape the hassle and the heat of the port area.

 

The cab ride was uneventful other than some expected death-defying traffic maneuvers. Traffic laws in Columbia seem to be even less than suggestions. And people drive like their lives have little to no value.

 

Our cab dropped us a little outside of the main Old Town since I don’t believe they actually let many cars in there. Our main objective was to find a place for lunch. We walked around a bit, saying “no thank you” to about 2750 street vendors trying to sell us tours, hats, magnets, candy, mangos, and all sorts of worthless souvenirs. It was very aggressive. I remembered this from the last time we were here, but that time we at least had a local guide with us and he knew better how to fend them off.

 

We walked for a long time just trying to find a more secluded and quiet place to stand to check our phones for nearby restaurants. But even then a “tour guide” started talking to us and subtly selling us a tour. At least this guy had the sense to try to strike up a “casual” conversation and bring it around to selling us the tour. Still, it was annoying and we ended up just having to move on without having learned much from our phones.

 

We walked a ways longer and my husband could tell we were getting close to the cafe where we had gotten coffee on our last trip here. He remembered seeing a cute restaurant near that cafe, so we headed in that direction. We believe we found the restaurant he was thinking of, but it was part of a hotel and it wasn’t clear that it was open to the public. However, across the street, we found another restaurant where we decided to stop and eat. I felt really self-conscious about entering this restaurant in my moisture-wicking t-shirt, trail pants, and fishing hat, literally dripping sweat. It was clearly a pretty fancy restaurant. All the staff were dressed in long-sleeve black button-down shirts and long pants and looking cool as cucumbers. Here I was with my frizzy hair and melting.

 

I asked the hostess if it was okay for us to go in the way we were and she said yes. I’m glad she did because it was a really nice experience. First of all, there was that precious air-conditioning. Then there was the bottled water served with a glass of ice. The menu was on a QR code, so I am sorry I don’t have pictures of the full thing. I just took a screenshot of the page we ordered off of.

 

We both ordered the Fresca Heaven Mojito, which was described as refreshing on the menu. It certainly was and it really hit the spot! After perusing the full menu, we both agreed on an appetizer assortment option that gave us ½ orders of three of the appetizers to share. They were all three delicious, though the “tortilla” ended up being a frittata. Those are two very different things. Oh, sorry that the picture has the middle dish cut into. The server started cutting it up and serving it to us right when he sat it down, so I couldn’t get a picture until after.

 

After lunch, the plan was to walk around a bit more, maybe go to some shops, and then get a cab or Uber back to the ship. We ended up not going into any shops, as the street vendors, beggars, street performers, and panhandlers were just relentless. We ended up going to the park across the street from the clock tower, where we knew a sloth lived from the last time we were here. It didn’t take us long to find the sloth, as there was a group of people taking picture of it up in a tree right near the entrance we came in.

 

At this point, we were pretty done with the heat and sun. We decided to call it quits and headed back out of the park to where we saw a line of cabs waiting. One driver had a nice little sign with a picture of a cruise ship that said “back to ship,” so he caught our attention right away. It was $10, which seemed reasonable enough. The air conditioning in his little cab could not keep up with the sweltering heat outside, but it was better than nothing.

 

Once back at the port, we did explore a little and took some photos of the animals. We sought refuge in the souvenir shop for a bit, looking at some wallets for my husband and more liquor. Then we headed back towards the ship, stopping at the duty-free one last time. My husband asked about a rum tasting, as they had a Columbian rum that he was interested in because he liked the bottle. He ALWAYS judges books by their covers when it comes to liquor. You should see how many fancy bottles we have in our bar with sub-par liquor in them! But, he actually liked the spiced version of this Columbian rum after tasting it and decided to buy a bottle. While we were there, we were in line behind a couple buying cartons of cigarettes. The cartons were something like $22? In New York, a PACK of cigarettes is almost $13. So I could see why smokers would stock up!

 

Finally, we braved the sun and the heat for the long walk along the pier and back onto the blessedly cool ship. My husband did get stopped at the security x-ray machine. Initially, we thought it was for the rum, but it was actually for our incredibly dangerous first aid kit, which has a pair of nail clippers and some tweezers in it! They didn’t confiscate his rum like we are used to.

 

Back on the ship, we went straight to our room to peel off our sweat-drenched clothes and take cold showers. Once I was cooled down, showered, dressed, and feeling vaguely human again, I headed down to Caffe Italia for some late afternoon coffee. My husband had given up on coffee a while ago and just took the Excedrin from the first aid kit for his caffeine fix.

 

He stayed in the room to cool down some more and relax and I poked my phone, took care of some work emails, and people-watched from the cafe. Eventually, he did come down and join me and brought Splendor Duel with him. In the process of setting up the game, we realized we were missing two of the gem chips, which are a critical element of the game. We looked back through the box and the bag that the chips are kept in and they were nowhere to be found. My husband went over to the table where we had played Splendor Duel the previous afternoon on the off chance they might still be on the floor somewhere near there. Then he went down to guest services to see if anyone had turned them in to the lost in found. Meanwhile, I was googling whether it was possible to buy replacement chips. We had no luck and, devastated we wouldn’t be able to play for the rest of the cruise, my husband went back up to the room to get 7 Wonders Duel and we played that instead.

 

At some point after starting 7 Wonders, I decided to go up to the bar and order us some rum & cokes. Reynald was there, which was weird because he usually isn’t on in the afternoons. He told me they would bring the drinks over and I could sit back down. As I walked back to the table, I saw two Splendor Duel chips sitting on my chair where my butt had been! I have no idea how they could have gotten underneath me. If you saw how big and wide my butt is, there aren’t a lot of gaps for things to fall through when I am sitting down. But we were elated that this meant we would be able to play more Splendor.

 

We finished our game of 7 Wonders (I lost) and then decided to go back to the room for a bit before dinner, as my husband had a headache and wanted to take one of his migraine pills. We debated skipping the MDR dinner because it was getting close to 6:00 and my husband wasn’t feeling great. I wanted to go down to the Black & White lounge to watch for pier runners since all-aboard was 6:00. I told him to text me with his decision about dinner.

 

In the Black & White Lounge, they had already closed the blinds on all the windows, so I had to find a gap to peek through. There was still a steady trickle of people coming back to the ship with only a couple of minutes to spare. Soon my husband showed up. He had decided to do the MDR, so we headed down there.

 

As we were seated, I could see out our window that some people were still returning to the ship, despite it now being after 6:00, but we still sailed away on time and I didn’t hear any announcements for missing passengers. None of our tablemates showed up, so we once again had the nice table with the window view all to ourselves. My husband was grateful since his head was still tender. I tried to take a picture of the city through the window, but it just reflected too much light from the dining room. I promise you, it was a nice view for sail away.

 

For dinner, I had the seared scallops, the penne in gorgonzola cream sauce, and the snickers cake. My husband matched my app and dessert order and went with the fried pork chop as his entree. My pasta was, once again, delicious. I have had plenty of good pasta on MSC, but all of the pasta I have had in the MDR on this sailing has been a step above. I have had to physically restrain myself from eating every bite of it at every meal. My husband said his fried pork chop just made him miss schnitzel.

 

After dinner, we walked past the various venues to see what was going on. We settled on La Luna even though there was nothing scheduled in there until 8:00. We had the whole place to ourselves and it was nice and quiet, which was good for my husband's head.

 

Eventually, we decided to head down to the casino. My husband joined me again, but neither of us did as well as the previous night. We didn't stay too long. We decided just to head back up to the room. I still wanted some pizza, even though it was a little early for late-night snack. I was surprised at how busy the buffet was in that in-between time between dinner and late-night snack. I was also surprised there were no French fries on the grill section of the buffet. Not even a place for them. I hope that is not a sign of times to come.

 

After I had my slice of pizza, I headed back to the room and poked my phone for a bit before going to bed.

 

Day's Drinks: Mango Mimosa from Caffe Italia, Fresca Heaven Mojito from El Burlador, Americano w/ Bailey's from Caffe Italia, Double Rum & coke X2 from Caffe Italia, Prosecco from Black Crab, Mojito from La Luna

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by JamieLogical

[Mark_T]

Certainly a lot of other MSC ships around today, even if they are all cargo 🙂

 

You are right about the heat in Cartagena, even out on the water for our canoe through the mangrove swamps it was really hot. 
 

Off on our long Panama Canal trip today so we will see how that goes, although a little cooler today I think…

[DaKahuna]

9 hours ago, gizfish said:

I would be surprised if you requested the pasta Bolognese in the YC restaurant and they couldn't make it happen, since it is something available every night in the MDRs.

I think I am going to try that for lunch today. 
 

Unfortunately, now that the newness of the menus has worn off, we are finding it difficult to find items that sound enjoyable. 

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

Certainly a lot of other MSC ships around today, even if they are all cargo 🙂

 

You are right about the heat in Cartagena, even out on the water for our canoe through the mangrove swamps it was really hot. 
 

Off on our long Panama Canal trip today so we will see how that goes, although a little cooler today I think…

 Can’t wait to catch up and hear about your shore excursions.  We did not even set foot off the ship and are debating whether to do so today or not.  Seems ridiculous as well as dangerous to have to carry passports ashore here.