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Published: June 26th 2017
Our first night in Venice; Roisin retired at just after 10pm. It had been a long day. I stayed up a little later to get the first edition of the blog out. Just as she went upstairs, 2 dogs outside fancied their chances. It was a kind of Pavarotti and Bocelli of the canine world. This was no aria I had ever heard. I wonder how long they were going to keep it up. 10 minutes later and the snores started in earnest from above. The barking stopped. It was the dog's turn to wonder the same thing!!! Thank heaven for the person who invented earplugs. If he or she weren't at least knighted, they should have been!
The day of embarkation. We took a leisurely breakfast. The ship wasn't due to sail until 5pm. Check-in was from 2pm but from experience, they start processing passengers from about 12 noon.
Roisin had checked out sea scanner last night. There were 5 cruise ships in port today. The Splendour of the Seas, The Norwegian Jade, Columbus 2, Amadea and our very own MSC Magnifica. Things down there could get manic. We checked out of our hotel and by 11am we
were sat on the number 5 bus heading to Piazzale Roma. Surprisingly the bus was not full and plenty of seats were still available. We must have caught it just right…between flights!
The queue for the People Mover was as expected…long! However, as we neared the entrance we saw that these people were actually queuing for the left luggage counter next door. The People Mover was relatively empty. It was while I was waiting for Roisin to get the tickets, a German couple asked me if this goes to the Cruise terminal, how long did it take, how much was the fare. Question, questions, questions. It felt like an interrogation!!! I was going to ask them to which ship were they going on but was afraid they might reply with a '
Vee vill ask ze questions!!' So I responded to all these questions and told them that they could follow us. As we entered the lift to take us to the platform, an American couple also got in the lift. He started the conversation by asking if we were from San Francisco. (it was the hat, again!) They introduced themselves as Rob and Karen from Portland Oregon but
originally from the Bay area. Rob and I spent the next few minutes discussing the shortcomings of the Giants losing the last 4 home games. How Aubrey and Pablo are now injured and how Buster can't carry the team on his own. So there you have it. We had an American couple and a German (although they could have been Austrian!!) couple following Roisin and me. Yeeesss!! Hodgson tours were back in business!!!
A shuttle was waiting outside the People Mover to take us the few hundred yards to the MSC drop off point. We now learned that it was Rob's first cruise although Karen had been on 4.
On route to the Magnifica, we passed the Costa ship once again (still afloat!). We took our luggage from the shuttle to be greeted by about 200 passengers in no particular line or queue. It looked chaos. However, it must have been the organised type you always hear about because within 20 minutes we had got rid of our luggage, checked in, had our stupid embarkation photo taken. (The one were you always look dishevelled, carrying bags, passports and other papers you've accumulated in the check-in area), through security
and ambled along the walkway toward the entrance of the MSC flagship, Magnifica. I say ambled because an elderly lady had nipped in front of us. She used the aid of a walking stick. This didn't perturb us as we were in no hurry.
As we entered the ship Roisin let out a cry of excitement, ‘
Look! It's Sergio from the Lirica'. Sure enough it was he as he disappeared helping the
‘walking stick' lady as she muttered something in Italian.
‘
Wouldn't it be great if the whole gang were here? She continued.
‘Yeh, what are the chances of that?' I said using the most positive tone of voice I could muster!
Cabin 8140 on Camogli deck 8 would be our home for the next 7 nights. It is the first time we have had an outside cabin with just a porthole. It is bigger than we both expected. It comes complete with a little blogging area all of its own!!
Roisin scanned the daily programme and pointed out that the entertainments team were lead by Franco. Could this be our own Francesco from the Lirica? The cruise director Sandro presented the evening show. This couldn't
be the egotistical Allesandro from the Lirica, could it? The disco was run by DJ Marco. Surely not Marco, the Harpo Marx lookie-likey from the Lirica?
We headed up to the Sahara café on deck 13. Our first observation was that the crew looked and sounded happy. Always a good sign. It wasn't long before the lady with the walking stick made an entrance although this time she was walking without aid or assistance. In fact, I would go as far as saying she was power walking. Boy! Could she move? It's amazing, the healing properties at the mention or smell of food!!!
Muster drill was at 4:30, 30 minutes before we set sail. It was the most efficient drill we have ever attended. Apart from, if this was for real, by the time they have announced the procedure in 6 languages the ship would have sank!!!
We arrived at muster station G and were directed by an attendant to stand in a particular place. I was, apparently in the wrong position, standing on Roisin's right side. The muster attendant directed me to her left side. Some passengers were practically manhandled to stand one in front of
the other…in height order!! Trust us to get the only muster attendant with OCD!!!
I felt sorry for the crew member as she started to demonstrate how to put your life vest on. Standing opposite all those passengers looking back at her with life vests fully donned already!!
The ship dropped its mooring at exactly 5 pm and we headed out into The Venezia Laguna. We were slightly disappointed as there was no sail-away party whilst those across the way on the Norwegian Jade had a live band on the top deck and were really getting in to the swing. We never even got the canine version of Andrea Bocelli's ‘
Time to Say Goodbye'!! This was short lived as we were pleased to see us turn in the direction of the Grand Canal. From Deck 14, looking down on the city of Venice, one could not help the feeling that you were looking at a model village. We sailed passed Zattere and the Grand Canal, then passed San Marco. This is exactly what we saw yesterday but now everything was in miniature. I didn't expect to see to be so many towers and steeples scattered along the
skyline. All similar designs but differing sizes. Some towers were leaning and most of the buildings had some geometrical irregularity but altogether they gave the city a unique harmony. No wonder millions come every year to marvel at this wonder of the world.
Speaking of which, why are there only 7 wonders of the world? What are the qualification rules before something becomes a wonder of the world? In fact, to my knowledge, there are only about 2 wonders of the world still standing so they couldn't have been that wonderful!!! They should rip up the old wonders and start from scratch. Why do wonders of the World have to be restricted to places anyway? I nominate Venice as ‘
numero uno', I don't think even the pyramids would make my top 5. As a starter for 10 my top three wonders would be 1. Venice 2. The Internet and joint 3 would have to be
Machu Pichu and the microwave oven!!! Anyway, I digress.
As we headed out further in to the Venetian Laguna leaving the city of Venice behind, I spotted another cruise ship cutting across our bow. As I zoomed in to take a photo, I
realised this was no ordinary ship. In fact it wasn't a ship at all but an island!!! Definitely a ‘
Should have gone to Specsavers' moment!!!
Another first on this trip is dinnertime. We have decided to try first sitting (6pm). Normally we choose 2
nd sitting (8:30). We were shown to a table set for 8 places. While we were waiting for our first course a photographer and assistant were weaving their way toward our table taking photos of each individual at the dining table, While they were taking photos of the table next to ours, the assistant said something to the photographer to which he replied
: ‘I know the focus is shite so just shut the f**k up!!' A straight red card! This kind of language by so-called professionals is uncalled for. The photographer was definitely foreign and though by saying this in, what to him, was a foreign tongue; he thought he was being clever.
They never made it to our table because an instant later, our waiter appeared showing more guests to our table. It was a family from the Netherlands. Andreas and Mabel together with their 6-year only daughter Isabel. Conversation was a bit stilted
as they doted on their child and they both seemed more fixated with completing Isabel's word search than what was on their plates!!
It all seemed to be kicking off in the dining room. Over 1 hour in to service and a French family strolled in and sat down at a table adjacent to ours. The Maitre D came rushing over, asked if they spoke English then proceeded to tell them off, reminding them that the restaurant doors close at 6:15 and it was already 7:10. The cheek of some people. They think they can just waltz in at any time that suits and just treat the place like a hotel!!!
Not having made much conversation with the Dutch family, as soon as we had finished eating, we bid them a pleasant ‘
Enjoy the rest of your evening' and headed for the bingo. Bingo was held in the Tiger Bar on deck 6. On entering I commented that the whole of the décor was upholstered and carpeted in a 70s retro leopard skin look. It was Roisin who asked me how many stripy leopards had I seen. The clue is in the title!!!
The jackpot is
€3,000 if a full house is attained within the first 40 numbers. Now there are 25 squares on each bingo card so that means you need to score 25 out of the first 40 numbers. There are also only 75 numbers to ‘
top of the house.' Can anyone with an
‘-ology' in probability give me the odds of winning the jackpot? I would say there is more chance on me winning the Miss World contest…on Pluto!!!
No one won the jackpot and 3 people shared the €350 ‘full house' prize. (none of which were us!!)
The show was called Dracula. Sandro our cruise director introduced this spectacular. Sandro, who we'd never seen in our lives!! 1 down 2 to go!! The show was indeed spectacular. It was a sort of gothic horror meets Alice in Wonderland meets Cirque du Soleil.
This day had been another eventful one full of little surprises. They weren't finished yet. On returning to our cabin, a plate of chocolate strawberries were waiting for us, compliments of Rachel and the London office. Wow! MSC really do take customer feedback seriously. I feel another letter coming on in relation to the photographer episode earlier!!
Tomorrow will be our first port of call. We both ended the day as happy as Larry!!! (No he definitely wasn't one of the entertainment team…or was he??)
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Andrew
non-member comment
I think the bingo jackpot for a full house is pretty safe.... The probability is basically zerohttp://www.howtoplaybingo.org.uk/bingoodds/You need to be up to about 60 balls before you've got a 1 in a thousand chanceThe odds might be slight
but surely higher than the Pluto miss world oddsLoving your blog!