Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2017
Total distance travelled: 3,534 nautical miles The final navigation day before we arrive at our ultimate port of call, Dubrovnik. This is one of the added ports at the last moment due to swerving the Black Sea. For the whole day, the ship was cruising (hence the name: 'Cruise Ship'!!) at 11 knots (21kph) up the Adriatic, due to pass the heel of Italy and on to Croatia. Having monitored the speed of the ship on other days, it is currently only sailing at half speed as this class of ship can motor at a steady 22 knots when it wants to!!
The temperature on deck has been 78 degrees F all day meaning the decks were pretty busy. It's the 1
st October so any excuse for a party. The Animation Team hosted ‘
Frühshoppen'. I think it translates as
Spring Shopping. It was the atmosphere of an Oktoberfest. The Team all wore their
over the top Bavarian costumes whilst there were large plastic pretzels and beer steins strategically strewn around the deck for effect. Daisy was hosting the noughts and crosses where you had to battle your wits against her. She was the pretzel (representing the ‘O') and the
challenger was the beer stein (representing the ‘X'). I watched about 6 or 7 games. The slogan should be ‘
C'mon down where no-one's a loser…no-one's a winner but more importantly no-one loses!!' The finale was based on an old drinking game. The 4 contestants had pre volunteered. They stood at right angles to each other in a circle. On the count of 1 they all had to raise their outer leg and their outer arm. (see photo) On 2 they had to put their left hand on the shoulder of the person in front. On the count of 3 they had to put their right hand on the head of the person in front. On 4 they had to remove the hat that has now appeared on the head of the person in front and put it on to their own head and finally on 5 they had to do the
‘hold the crotch and shake the pelvis' Michael Jackson impersonation whilst shouting ‘Hoo-oo' in a falsetto voice!! This was fast paced and to make things interesting the numbers were not called in sequence. To complicate matter the numbers were also called in Italian!! Yes, my friends, the
Animation Team were back. This is what had been missing. It was simple, entertaining and slapstick.
I have heard that the Master of the vessel, Captain Maresca, who boarded in Venice, was assigned to the MSC Orchestra to kick it in to shape. For this to happen someone must have notified head office that the vessel was ‘
out of shape'!! This could have been from a number of complaints. We have heard that the customer skills of a lot of the crew is lacking on this particular voyage. We have not experienced this to any great depth although this can occur on any ship. Most complaints, in my view, are from narrow minded individuals. However, I did hear one German complaining (in English) that his cabin hadn't been serviced, the bed had not been made and no clean towels had been left. That sounds fair enough and would fully warrant a complaint but that may be only one side of the argument. I know for a fact that a cabin will not be cleaned whilst it is occupied. However, the guest also complained that although his balcony had been hosed down (that's more than ours!!), there were footprints left
on the balcony deck!! Out of earshot from the German (but not from me!!) the reception rang through to housekeeping. Bearing in mind the customer service man was an Italian speaking English he said, ‘
You better get it sorted cos he's really going off on one!!' He deserved full marks for the correct use of an English colloquialism!!
We normally get on well with our cabin steward who I usually put in to the ‘
can't do enough to help you' category. I put this particular cabin steward in the ‘doesn't seem to give a s**t' category. From day 1 he never introduced himself. There was no card in the cabin to say who he/she was. There was no
‘blue book' in the cabin. This is the guide to everything on board. Where things are, what facilities there are and most importantly it comes with a handy pocket size map of the lay out of the ship. Always useful for the first few days until you have found your bearings.
We received a feedback form after the first few days and on it we listed all the above observations (note: I say observations and not complaints. These may be
inconveniences but they are not show stoppers!!) The feedback sheet was sent to the reception as requested. We were not sure if they would read the feedback in this or even the next century but sure enough after a few days we received a knock at the cabin: ‘
I believe you have a problem with your cabin, sir' ‘No, I don't think so' I replied.
‘Your blue book is missing?' I wouldn't call it a problem. The manager came in and proceeded to check all the drawers. He then said, ‘leave it with me'.
2 minutes later the cabin steward arrived with a new blue book. He once again checked the drawers. He then, for some strange reason put his hand in the 4 inch gap between the dresser and the bulkhead and pulled out a blue book. I felt like clapping as if this was some elaborate sleight of hand trick. What the bloody hell was it doing down there. He then said, ‘
Anything you want, see me first!!' and then shoved a calling card in to my hand.
Pika Perry is his name. Sounds more like the cocktail of the day (with the emphasis
on the first syllable!!)
We won the final quiz of the cruise along with 2 other teams. It was guess the famous person from their caricature. Roisin won it for cabin 10247 as she could tell the difference between Morgan Freeman and Nelson Mandela!! The prize?
Another message bag. A lady sitting adjacent to us said something congratulatory in French and we gestured that she should take it. I said
, 'You'll be doing us a favour'. She just smiled and said
‘I am French. Merci'. As she took it. She then said something else unintelligible. I pointed to the message bag and said with a smile, nodding:
‘it's a piece of crap! You're welcome to it'. She must have thought I was saying something complimentary because she just said,
‘You're welcome, merci beaucoup!' Not a bad haul of cheap prizes. We won 8 out of the 10 games we played (although apart from the
flags of the world quiz we won none outright)
Remember I mentioned Daisy and her revenge? This evening Roisin and I, along with Beryl and Brian, popped along to the Theatre to watch the Ninja Turtles show again. The Animation Team were
at the entrance to the theatre to greet the guests. Daisy stepped in front of me, a mischievous glint in her eye.
‘I have a question of you.' she said. Oh good, I thought. Another quiz!! It turns out she wanted Roisin and I to walk through the theatre, followed by 4 of the Animation Team who would be dressed in black wearing bowler hats. Their job would be to over emphasise and mimic our actions whilst walking in single file behind us pulling silly faces as they were doing so. This would be to the amusement of the rest of the theatre that was filling up rapidly (and at our expense!!) After protesting, I had to relent and play along with this contrived piece of theatre. The piece de resistance was that when Roisin and I got to our seat at the front of the theatre, I had to give her a bit smacker!! This is because the ‘stooges' following us had to mimic all we did. This was to once again get a cheap laugh. Daisy knew that I like to be entertained and not become part of the entertainment. However, on this occasion I was stitched
up good style!
That ordeal over with, the show was thoroughly as entertaining as the first time we saw it. Even Mr Ball-clacker man himself was on form. I'm not sure where he has been for the past 12 days as all the other performers and dancers have starred in at least one other show. This turned out to be a pretty easy gig for him.
Tonight was the final of MSC Factor. Beryl and Brian had both signed up for this so Roisin and I came along for support. Whilst sitting waiting for the show to start along came stitch up number 2. I was asked by one of the Animation Team if spoke English. That answer was easy!! I was now asked if I was willing to be one of three judges on a panel for the final of the talent show. After further persuasion, I reluctantly agreed. This is an experience I actually enjoyed for several reasons.
1. Free champagne!
2. I didn't have to say anything!!
The judging was simple. After the act, the contestant stood in front of the panel and in turn we would either show a star (good)
or a cross (not so good). Joe, an Australian was first up. It's always difficult being the first act. He sang ‘
Help Yourself'. We all gave him 3 stars. Beryl was next and sang an excellent rendition of ‘Que Sera Sera'. Close your eyes and you would actually think it was Doris Day!! Again she earned 3 stars from the panel. I derived great pleasure when an Irish Contestant was announced. Eugene was third singing: ‘Always on my mind'. After a rather flat performance (compared to the previous two) it was time for the marking.
'Chris from UK?' said the compere, cuing me to give my verdict. Right yer b***ard, I thought. This is for all the null points in the Eurovision Song Contest we've received from Ireland as I held up the ‘X'. I heard the crowd groan but I never stopped smiling. Just call me Chris Revel-Horwood.
And so it went on. There were 11 acts in all of which 5 got full marks. We had to pick a winner. After some deliberation, Teresa from Portugal won with her rendition of Amy Winehouse's ‘
Back to Black'. The show finished at about 11:30. Beryl and Brian
joined Roisin and I for tea/coffee in the buffet. Before we knew it was almost 01:15. However, Roisin remembered that the clocks go back 1 hour tonight so it wasn't that late after all!!
Dubrovnik. Our final destination. Roisin and I had made a decision that we would stay on the Orchestra today. The ship docks 15 minutes away from the old town of Dubrovnik. As we have both visited this magical little town before, we decided to relax today. Most people would be getting off the ship at some stage so we would have a few hours where we would have the ship to ourselves.
There were three tours scheduled for today. The tour that stood out for me was the Dubrovnik city tour by Segway!! I would love to see the type of person who was booked on to this excursion. I had visions of a group of elderly petrol-heads running amok through the pedestrianised streets and alleys of Dubrovnik!! This tour cost €89. Probably €9 for the hire of the Segway and €80 for personal indemnity insurance!!
Due to the characteristic and quirky but quaint old town, Dubrovnik is always a favourite destination with
travellers old and young. Most either took an organised tour or used the ship's shuttle to travel between the port and city. This was nice. For a few hours we practically had the run of the ship to ourselves. Roisin and I decided to take this opportunity to spend an hour in the on board spa. This service is complementary for Gold and Black card members. We had a free run of the steam room, sandalwood AND opium style sauna and the whirlpool/Jacuzzi. Not too sure what was in the Opium sauna but I could have sworn at one point I was sharing the sauna with Doc Holiday, Joan of Arc, Albert Einstein, Confucius and Roger Rabbit (or it could have been Bugs Bunny as he kept asking if this was Albuquerque!!!)
I must have still be hallucinating from the effects of the opium sauna because I remember saying goodbye to my new found friends and swapping email address (except for Confucius who doesn't even own a mobile phone. Confucius, he say
‘Silence is a true friend who never betrays!!') It was now time for lunch in a rather empty restaurant!!
We received our time slot for disembarkation
tomorrow. 11am!! As we have to be out of the cabin by 07:45, that's a long time to wait. The reason is because we are classed as independent travellers. However, on visiting the reception, they were only too happy to change our disembarkation time. We are now due to leave the ship at 09:10. We tagged our luggage with the appropriate colour coded tags which prioritises the order that the luggage is offloaded.
All loose ends are tied up. We've checked our account and, for once, have to agree it's a true reflection of what we have spent. We wished our waiters, Leonardo and Victor good luck and thanked them for their service. We have said our goodbyes to Beryl and Brian. We have now vowed to keep in touch, not as pen pals or anything but as they only live 25 minutes away; a get together once a while would be a great idea. A final twist to the Beryl/Brian saga is that they were both on the MSC Sinfonia last March that sailed from Cape Town to Genoa. They happened to be the same voyage as our old friends (the real) Donny and Marie were on. Beryl
and Brian remember the 2 Geordies from Washington (Tyne & Wear not USA!!) and described them to a tee (complimentary, of course!!) but do Donny & Marie remember them??!! As they say, it's a small universe and the rumour is, Wigan is the centre of it!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0236s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Marie
non-member comment
Yes we remember beryl and Brian both sang. Loved the blog