Live from the Poesia, somewhere on the Atlantic

Welcome to our world. We are on the MSC Poesia somewhere off the Carolinas, the first full day of our 17-day trans-Atlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Kiel, Germany. This is our first time on MSC. So far, everything is splendid. The first impressions count.

A bit about ourselves. We are retirees. I lived on work assignments two and a half years in apartheid South Africa, five in Moscow as the Soviet Union began crumbling. (I take full credit and responsibility in both cases).

We have been on 17 cruises altogether, I think. Our first four were on Celebrity. We have then cruised on HAL (four times), Princess (twice) Norwegian (twice), Royal Caribbean, Carnival. Our most recent cruise was in November, a month spent on the Costa Victoria in Asia. Inevitably, we’ll draw comparisons during this voyage. After three nights in Hamburg at the completion of the Poesia sailing we will continue on the MSC Magnifica on an 11-day Baltic cruise. Someone has to suffer.

I am a writer, working on a history book. For that reason our future bookings involve simple itineraries that won’t require long flights. In other words, vacation time with pleasant surroundings for work in warm weather. We are booked on a 20-day combo just before Christmas to Mexico and then Hawaii and back to Long Beach on the Carnival Miracle. For 2014, we are planning a 21-day repo on the NCL Dawn from Tampa through the Caribbean to Boston and then onward for a week in Bermuda. Just before Christmas we’ll have a 21-day Caribbean out of Miami on NCL Pearl.

Overall, we have found most cruise lines to be pleasant and good value. More things united them that separate them.

So this is the introduction. Stay tuned for more as our cruise progresses.

Here, for comparison, is my Costa Victoria report:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1730507&page=6

Barante ... We hope the cruise goes well for you guys, we were on the Westbound Poesia sailing last November to FLL and did consider this return trip but chose instead to do the Divina sailing in November to Miami.

We will keep a look out for your posts.

Bon voyage and can't wait to read your live review!

t’s 3:13 a.m. Monday. We are still some 27 hours from Manhattan, and we are rocking and rolling something awful. If we were on an airplane, I’d be worried with these jerking movements and roller-coaster ups and downs. On the Poesia, I am not.

Our whole European trip is to be a sentimental journey, duplicating, as much as possible, my first encounter with the U.S. in 1964. You won’t rememember that summer, perhaps, but I do. The summer of the New York World’s Fair, the LBJ v. Barry Goldwater presidential race, the summer of racial tensions. A 21-year-old aspiring journalist from Finland, I worked my ways across the Atlantic on a freighter.

On the way back, we ran into a hurricane. Our current predicament really doesn’t compare. So far. Suffice to say this is the roughest weather we have experienced on a pleasure cruise.

That 1964 U.S. trip became a turning point. After returning to school in Finland that fall, my professor asked me to act as an interpreter for a visiting American journalism professor. Dr. Howard R. Long asked me to write an article for The Daily Egyptian, the newspaper of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. “The deadline is tomorrow morning,” he announced. At breakfast he went through my story. “What will you do after you graduate?” he asked.

I told him I had to do the compulsory military service. “Then you come to SIU.” Dr. Long chaired the journalism department; he made his wish happen.

So I did. I then joined the Baltimore Sun, where I spent 35 years as a reporter and member of the editorial board. I covered South Africa for two and a half years; I spent five years in Moscow. Fantastic stuff, considering what now has happened to small but ambitious papers -- if they exist at all. As a result of the 1964 experiences, I also became a student of housing and racial change. After retiring in 2004, I wrote a book that is now in a fourth printing and doing well. http://www.anteropietila.com

When we began planning the current trip, I wanted to duplicate as much of that 1964 experience as possible. When the MSC itinerary included a 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. visit to Manhattan, I was sold. Another requirement was a stop in Lisbon. It had not been a stop on the 1964 itinerary, but I love that city and wanted to listen to fado, Portuguese fishermen’s music about love gained and lost. I also wanted to revisit Hamburg. I also wanted to go back to Stockholm, and recall the first time I visited that neighboring capital of Finland. And go back to St. Petersburg, a city that was called Leningrad in 1961 and was the first place that I saw in the old Soviet Union.

So this is why we are on the Poesia, and later will be on the MSC Magnifica. I will refrain from sweeping statements at this point because I want to be sure about my assessments.

We had our first gala dinner last night. The ship appeared uncrowded. That’s because 600 more passengers are joining us in New York City . . .

The gala dinner was very pleasant. Both my wife and I had a good-sized smoked salmon starter. I had oxtail soup; she had seafood bisque. I ordered lamb, she preferred roast beef. But I ended up eating her main course -- and she mine -- because the beef was too rare for her taste. It was quite wonderful.

The captain exhibited his linguistic versatility by greeting passengers in five languages at the theater afterwards. Most cruise lines would offer free drinks at this point. Not MCL. But who cares. The opening show was “Sam,” a tribute to New York. It wasn’t much but the timing was right. When the fat lady sang “God Bless America,” the mostly European crowd was on its feet.

Arriving in New York and departing from the Big Apple on a ship is a magical experience. If you haven’t done that, try to find a cruise that makes that experience possible.

When we booked this Poesia cruise, we were told that we had to begin the journey in Fort Lauderdale. Which was fine by us. Even though we live in Baltimore, less than four hours from Manhattan, I find it easier to go to FLL than to negotiate the craziness of New York. Also, we were hoping for at least one day of sunshine at the pool. Which never happened before stormy weather took over.

Closer to departure, MSC changed its instructions. Departing from New York became an option, chosen by some 600 passengers who will be joining us today in Midtown Manhattan. Unlike, U.S.-formatted lines, MSC also made it possible for passengers to disembark at any of our European stops. A number of our fellow cruisers will leave the ship in Lisbon, instead of going all the way to Dover or the final destination, Kiel, near Hamburg.

I have done New York by ship often enough that I chose to experience the arrival this time from the comfort of our aft cabin. It was too chilly on this overcast morning to stay on the balcony. Instead, still in my pajamas, I watched as we passed underneath the Verrazzano Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and other landmarks on our way to the pier around 57th Street.

This was a great perspective because the harbor became the focal point, instead of the Manhattan skyline. One can truly appreciate what a busy working harbor New York is as orange-colored Staten Island ferries and speed ferries from New Jersey shared the waterway with us, with dozens of freighters in the background. The perspective from the aft also enabled this visitor to marvel at the tremendous change that has occurred on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, where several cities -- Jersey City, Union City, Frank Sinatra’s Hoboken, etc. -- have built glistening skylines that may not compete with Manhattan but are quite impressive on their own right.

Tonight, when we leave at 11 p.m., we’ll see the illuminated skyline panorama from our balcony.

We’ll then have five sea days before we arrive for an overnight stay in Ponta Delgada, Azores. During that time I will be able to make comparisons between MSC and other cruise lines we have used. So far, I am favorably impressed. So seem to be our dinner table mates. Except that a Canadian couple said MSC had no record of their confirmed touring arrangements for Manhattan . . .


NEWS FLASH: We just parked next to the USS Enterprise museum! No need to buy a ticket. We can see fighter jets on the deck of that aircraft carrier from the Poesia. We can see a Concorde, Space Shuttle, etc. And lots of flags at half staff in honor of the Boston Marathoners.

Thanks for the daily updates. In fact, can't wait for your comments and comparisons now, even if they are impulse remarks, sometimes, first impression is closer to truth.

As for the missed excursion, I guess for any cruiseline, it's always advisable to bring a print-out copy of the excursion confirmation. MSC service is often branded as disorganised, but to me, missed excursion (or other similar issue) is getting common these days, almost every cruiselines are cutting costs and suffered quality issue...

USS Enterprise, wow, it sure beats USS Mount Whitney (dry-docking) I saw in Genoa port hands down.

Sure would like to have been on that return trip although i would not miss the rocking and rolling that accompanied us from Madeira for 3 days and nights,having only seen documentaries on the Enterprise it would have been great to actually see it and visit the museum onboard.

Really enjoying reading your daily updates Barante and looking forward to future ones.

In another few hours we will have our dramatic 11 p.m. sailaway. Already, I hum Harbor Lights with the Platters!

Today was a chilly day in New York but we achieved everything on the agenda. In the morning we subwayed to the Sunset Park area in Brooklyn. In 1964, when I stayed the summer nearby, at 42nd and 8th Avenue, the area was going downhill. Hispanics were replacing aging Scandinavians. That transition now has been completed, and things look pretty good. The 4th Avenue retail corridor is not wealthy but it is vibrant and viable. Hispanics of various backgrounds dominate. Salvadorans, Dominicans. Houses are well-cared for. There is even a Chinese hotel nearby.

After that we subwayed to Harlem, another point of interest during my first visit in 1964 because a Finnish community of several thousands existed there between the 1910s and 1950s. None of that is left today. But Harlem, which started as a Native American settlement and then went through Dutch, French, and British periods before becoming a suburb for wealthy American-born whites and eventually -- because of white abandonment -- predominantly black, is becoming white again. Our stroll on 125th Street certainly verified that. That’s America for you. Neighborhoods are in constant transition. Just think about it. Apollo Theater, a landmark of black Harlem, was built by Oscar Hammerstein, the lyricist's grandfather, who thought Harlem would become the theater districdt of Manhattan.

We had a nice lunch at a soul-food restaurant called Manna, not far from the Apollo theater. Couldn’t believe that they only charged $1 for each Coke!

In my morning report I was mistaken. We are parked at Pier 88, which is at 48th Street in an area of riverfront that has been historically known as Hell’s Kitchen, a violent skidrow. But Hell’s Kitchen also is improving. Because of the thriving cruise trade, new hotels are being built near the piers.

Tomorrow we begin serious cruising. Including a Cruise Critic gettogether.

A final note. Don't tell Barbara. New York has some of the greatest looking women in the world. All shades and shapes. Oh, to be young again!

I have a confession to make.

I am a cheap charley, always on a lookout for a cruise bargain. That’s how we ended up confining ourselves last November for a month-long sentence in an inside cell on Costa’s aging Victoria. My thinking was that what difference would a cabin make on a port-intensive itinerary. Hah, the Victoria made us unhappy and sick. (See my trip report on the Costa site).

So when we booked this Poesia cruise, pricing enabled us to splurge on a balcony aft cabin. It is one of the nicest cabins we have had on our 17 cruises, a roomy and light-filled room that is tastefully decorated. It has enough properly placed electric lighting to make reading in bed possible. Or on the big sofa. The mattresses are inviting -- unlike on the Victoria where an out-of-control spring nearly impaled my toward the end of the trip. And while we are subject to more movement than in other locations, the churning water from the ship’s propulsion system gives us a nice contrast of blues and greens. So even on this dreary day, we are not staring at endlessly gray sea.

I mention all this to underscore how subjective all conclusions are. For example, I wonder how much of our unhappiness about Costa was due to a realization that late in life -- after decades of vagabonding -- I no longer may be comfortable in the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia, even though the itinerary itself was splendid. Whereas cooler climes are easier to handle.

Our initial take on the MSC Poesia is that in all kinds of ways it is a step up from the Victoria. (A caveat: We are only talking about our experiences on the ships mentioned. Yours on those ships or lines may be totally different).

First experiences can be defining ones. Costa thus became defined by the utter confusion of embarkation and the planned of insanity of many other things on board. By contrast, the Poesia boarding in Fort Lauderdale was a dream. In other ways too our MSC experience, so far, is not very different from what one expects from a line catering the U.S. market.

For example, our balcony cabin (9225) has a real working television. We have two CNN channels (which I prefer not to watch because they are too simpleminded, repetitive and breathless), cartoons and sports. On Costa, we did not have a single English language news outlet. Instead, we had Euronews, a 30-minute capsule in English that was updated once a day and played in an endless loop. For real news, I had to watch Russia’s Channel One in a language that I have largely forgotten.

Movies also are available on the Poesia, at $8 a film. At that price porno (which is available) may become a compelling buy.

In various Asian ports, the International Herald Tribune (which since then has changed its name into the International New York Times) was readily available, along with the Asian Wall Street Journal. Here at sea, a daily newspaper is available for $3 a copy, or so we are told. A Canadian table companion thought the price too high. Except that when I bought a copy of the NYT in Manhattan from a newsdealer, it cost $2.50. So sea delivery seems like a good deal.

The Costa Victoria Internet drove me crazy. Most of the time I had no idea how many minutes I had left. And I had to make double sure that I was logged out, because the system was capricious. By contrast, the Poesia’s Internet is a dream. It is truly fast, gives an up-to-date count of minutes used and is easy to log out. So why are some passengers complaining? Because in logging in, nothing happens once you hit the start button. You are supposed to be smart enough to realize that START on the screen means you are on and ready to use your search engine.

In my Costa trip report I said that the Victoria offered no wow factor. It was as comfortable as an old shoe. On the Poesia, the theater in particular wows a newcomer. Even the Zebra lounge is not that bad. Overall, the ship decor is elegant in its use of design and colors.

There is more. Much more. Like the Italians and sex. Next time.

barante, loving your comments so far. I, too, am a former newspaper reporter. You probably were still at the Baltimore Sun when John Carrroll was editor. He is my former editor as well. Keep those comments coming.

We witnessed an unusual meteorological phenomenon this morning. As we were breakfasting in an MDR and watching the raging seas outside, a blinding light suddenly surrounded us. “Ach, Sonnenschein,” exclaimed the Germans. Whatever it was, it was soon over and we were returned to the dreary, stormy weather that has accompanied us for five days, almost since we departed Fort Lauderdale.

Since we have an aft-balcony cabin, the rough seas have made our existence comparable to what airplane passengers experience when a descending aircraft begins applying air brakes. The sound is the same, so is the feeling of losing altitude. Except that on airplanes that sensation may last for a minute or two; on our cruise we live with all this around the clock.

Our next-door neighbors, three English-speaking adult loudmouths whom we could heard through the wall, have vacated their cabin and mercifully made other arrangements. We have not been tempted to follow their example because none of this bothers us. All this swing and sway (without Sammy Kay) lessens boredom. We are on a ship after all. We fall asleep when we stretch out and rest soundly. But now that we have experienced an aft-balcony, there is no need to repeat this cabin choice. Certainly not on a long trans-Atlantic crossing where the weather is unpredicatble.

I promised to talk about Italian women and sex. Here goes?

I suspect Italian rich broads hate men. When we were on the Costa Victoria, we were told that before that Italian line was acquired by Carnival Corp., the owner’s wife outlawed urinals in men’s toilets. Wanted men to suffer the same as women. Now we have encountered the same bias toward men on MSC. No urinals, forcing men to impatiently wait for a booth, just like women have to.

There are compensations, though. The symbols on the doors are so hard to decipher that it is not uncommon to meet women in men’s toilets who have accidentally wandered in. Sort of Italian blind dates, I guess.

Costa, as I related in my trip report, was an expert in creating choke points. MSC exhibits some of this disorganization. Like drink stations in the buffet. Machines in those are supposed to dispense all drinks. Except that we have encountered at least one that has tea bags and cups but no hot water. Last night we got another example of MSC confusion. The Italian CD and her South African assistant made a big deal about our need to switch clocks forward by one hour. They made repeated hand signals to underscore the point. Except that those hand signals urged us to move the clocks backward!

Another MSC oddity is the library. If you borrow a book, your account is charged $15. Redeemable when you return the book.

And so life continues. Someone has to suffer.

I am enjoying your review. So well written!

Missing Poesia already.

Another MSC oddity is the library. If you borrow a book, your account is charged $15. Redeemable when you return the book.

I also found this odd. Oh well, not a big deal.

I also found kind of odd that our charges on MSC were considered to be foreign transactions by our bank.

One of the peculiarities of crossing the Atlantic, even in these days, is that at some point we lose our ship reception for most services. No satellite television, no Internet. We reached that point and now, after a day and a half, we are back in touch with the world.

The worst storms are gone but we still keep rocking and rolling. In fact, the seas have gotten steadily worse tonight. We’ll finally hit land Sunday evening when we reach the Azores, a Portuguese island group in the middle of the Atlantic. We’ll overnight in port there on the ship and then stay in Porta Delgada until Monday evening. We’ll have a van tour there, organized by our CC friend Irina. Then another day at sea and we’ll be in Lisbon. Then on to La Coruna, in Spain; the white cliffs of Dover in England and finally Kiel, Germany.

Despite the weather, we are happy campers. MSC suits us.

I do not pretend to have conducted any scientific research. But our chance conversations with fellow passengers suggest and interesting trend. Many of us seem to be people who years, perhaps decades, ago immigrated to North America. They like MSC’s multiculturalism. We certainly have no complaints about the food. Tonight I had a big portion of excellent salmon. My wife had a chunk of tender roast beef so big she could have used a doggy bag. No cost cutting there. Except that I swear that MSC’s orange juice is Tang (do they still make it?) into which some pulp has been added to fool us.

We came to this cruise equipped with our own books. My Kindle has so many downloaded books it is too heavy to carry. Almost. One print version I brought with me is

Terry Teachout’s “Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong,” a terrific bio. I have learned a lot about Satchmo whom I saw in a free concert at the Lewinsohn Stadium during the 1964 New York World’s Fair. I was a country boy from Finland and could not believe that the stadium (capacity about 20,000) was not even full.

One MSC peculiarity is revealing itself. Most cruise lines sell only specific itineraries. MSC, by contrast, seems to sell almost anything. While most passengers boarded either in Fort Lauderdale or New York and are going to Dover or Kiel, some will disembark in Lisbon or La Coruna. And some will continue to Copenhagen, which is the first stop on the Poesia’s next cruise.

Flexibility. It can be a virtue.

Barante, we seem to have made very similar observations.

We do disagree about urinals though. I have always thought that they risk awkward social encounters and applaud MSC for not having them. I also approve of the paper towels instead of the trend over recent years towards low-maintenance but less hygienic electric hand dryers and of their encouragement to use a paper towel on the door handle as you leave.

You see, I feel MSC have got public loos just right except, as you mention, the symbol on the door. In the conditions you are currently encountering, a man really needs his legs apart and this is how it should be.

"MSC - the best public toilets at sea".

Hope you are well. As big as our ship is, it is a speck in the ocean. We’ve been reminded of that fact during the week we have now been on the Poesia. We are at the mercy of the elements. Overnight, hardly anyone slept because the rolling got so bad. The rough seas forced the captain to make a command decision. He reduced the ship’s speed. As a result, we will not arrive in the Azores Islands Sunday evening for an overnight stay, as scheduled. The current plan is to get to that Portuguese outpost in the middle of the Atlantic Monday morning.

Frankly, without knowing anything about expected sea conditions, I am all prepared for the possibility that the Azores will be skipped together. That stop really doesn’t matter. By contrast, our shortish Lisbon stop (noon to 2 a.m.) is an important one. We need to get there to disembark and board passengers.

None of this would really matter. Except that the wind is so ferocious and conditions so adverse that it is nearly impossible to venture outside. So we are cooped inside. Because of rough seas, an ambitious show was postponed in the theater. Instead we have Italian tenors and sopranos doing their thing.

Satellite television/Internet is spotty. At the moment, in addition to the ship’s informational channels, we have three live channels of RAI, the Italian network; two channels in Russian, the European feed of CNBC, a Chinese channel in English, and a sports channel that appears to be in Turkish. Because of weekend schedules, the only real news I understand comes from the Russian channels. The lead story: 38 people dead in a Moscow hospital fire.

All this has simplified our behavior. In the morning we sleep late, have breakfast. We skip the lunch. Then it is time to take a nap and get ready for our 5:30 p.m. dinner. Then the nightly show. Tonight’s promised offering ia a magician. Maybe he can make seas calm.

We are longingly harking back to the halcyon days when passenger played shuffleboard and sat in deck chairs, wearing furs and watching fellow passengers walk their poodles.

On this cruise we have no passengers with service animals here. One or two wheelchairs; the same number of walkers. We stumble around like a bunch of drunks. Dead sober.

Barante ... shame to hear the weather is letting you guys down, i did see the weather forecast last night and there is a huge low pressure system that has pushed down from the North and apart from sitting over the UK making it cold yet again it looks to extend to where you guys are currently and to where you are heading.

The sea looks rough on the ships webcam too.

Sorry to hear the sea condition is rather rough, hope the rest of the journey would be smooth sailing.

We are longingly harking back to the halcyon days when passenger played shuffleboard and sat in deck chairs, wearing furs and watching fellow passengers walk their poodles.

Every MSC ship has shuffleboard and you can play it in your fur coats! Poodles are harder to conjure. There were still kennels on the QE2 not so long ago....

Rough weather at sea reminds us that we are still alive.

Tim.

We did not find shuffleboard on Poesia's promenade. There was something that looked like it on the deck above the pool, but much smaller, we did not understand how to play.

Is this the "MSC shuffleboard" on MSC Poesia too? I saw four on MSC Splendida

We will stop at Ponta Delgada after all. We’ll not get there until perhaps 8 a.m. Monday but we’ll get there. The wind is still nasty, and waves high, but I can see a change in cloud patterns. If we had taken HAL, or another “premium” line, we might even have sun by now. That certainly is the argument of passengers complaining about the rough weather at the reception.

So what will complain about tomorrow? We’ll find something.

I like the variety of MSC food. Particularly the “ethnic corner” buffet at lunch. Just ate some wonderful Thai food -- curried chicked and delicious lemon rice. In the dining room, I have had squid and calamari, prepared in various ways.

Food and preferences are totally individual. For myself, I go for items that I have never tried before.

Whenever we are considering a cruise, I study deck plans, trying to figure out what’s above us and underneath. But in stormy situations, all kinds of unanticipated problems may crop up.

We have been lucky with our aft-balcony 9225. There is more movement than in a midship location, but no jarring noises. Many of our fellow passengers have not been so lucky. One particularly problematic location seems to be on the portside of Deck 9, where the deck plan shows a mechanical area where inside cabins usually are. Loud banging noise can be heard repeatedly. They would keep even an elephant awake.

We have heard that noise. We have seen a fellow patron complain about it to a crew member. I’m sure she is not the only one to complain about it.

The noise may have something to do with the airconditioning system. But since it apparently only becomes problematic in bad storms, MSC is not doing anything to correct it. I see cruisers having similar problems on other lines as well which, likewise, claim they can do nothing to correct the nuisance.

I wish for calmer waters for you and other pax. Storm can get to you even if you are not seasickness prone. We had 24 storm on NCL Jewel a year ago coming down to Bahamas, and after 10 hours I did not feel very well at all, even though I can usually take big storms with no effects.

Hmmm... we were in cabin 9187 on Poesia and sea was mostly calm or close to caln... but we thought Poesia offered more movement than weather warranted.

Is this the "MSC shuffleboard" on MSC Poesia too? I saw four on MSC Splendida

 

Yes, this is exactly it. Weird, right?