manime

are you coming from scotland?

it is beautiful! one port day surely does not suffice to get to know it. I am thinking of planning a land based holiday gb/scotland next year.

 

next stop is akureyri.

Had to turn back the clock an hour again tonight...

 

 

 

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Yes I stay as far North in mainland Scotkand as you can go. Scotland truly is a beautiful country, the bit you saw is not the bonniest to be honest, Invergordon is a bit 'grey' but heading up around the north west and also Glencoe is stunning.

Have a great trip and hopefully you will come back someday.

Invergordon

 

We wentdown to the conciergerie to get an escort to get off the ship only to beexplained by a very nice butler, how to find the way ourselves. While I am prettysure that we could have insisted on the escort, it was still a new situation –do they now only take down passengers that go on an excursion?

 

The lineswere not that long so we managed quite well on our own. Invergordon had sent a musicianwho played a very typical tune (on an instrument that I do not know the Englishname of). It was idyllic. The sun was shining, the town seemed quaint and easy to navigate. We found our car rentalstation (Ken’s garage) without a problem and were the second in line. In notime we sat in our Peugeot with an easy to use GPS System and were on our wayto Urquart castle. Scotland is so beautiful!

But I have never seen so many roundabouts – and ifyou are not used to driving on the left side of the road it is so easy to getlost… well anyhow, we did get lost right before Inverness and so we had to takeseveral detours. This however led us to get to know this beautiful town aswell.

When we finally arrived at Urquart Castle, we found ourselves standing in linebehind several MSC-tours…

 

There werea lot of people pushing their way around Urquart castle. It was still a very interestingexperience. We especially appreciated the video shown in the visitor centregiving interesting details of the historical background.

 

Back on theship we hat lunch at the buffet- again: a very good choice and decent qualitybut quite a lot of people even though it was not a seaday. There are waiterscoming around to get your drink orders.

 

So even though we only intended to have a saladgiven that we werde going to have dinner at La Palmeraie at night, we ate waytoo much: Curries, Hamburgers, Gulasch, Sauerkraut etc… it is hard to say no…

 

So we hadto find a way to get rid of some of the calories:

We wentbowling, swimming and even went to the gym. It is nice that they allowteenagers when accompanied by their parents. Normally I wouldn’t bring my kidsbecause it is always very crowded but today (port day) there were hardly any people at allso we took our son to use the tread mill without too much of a bad conscience.

 

Then it wasalready time for dinner.

They havechanged the menus a little bit.

Tonight wehad Tartare as a starter, pasta filled with lobster and bandera de carne mista(an old one) followed by a wonderful soufflet.

 

The mostinteresting change is the drink menu in the top sail lounge.

 

Anyoneremember when Celebrity got rid of the Molecular bar?

It wasright before I first got to sail an S-Class ship so I never got to taste one ofthose wonderful drinks.

Well –

Moleculardrinks have come to MSC Yacht club and I can tell you that they taste awesome!

 

Yesterday Ihad a B52 (wonderful) and tonight I had a Daiquiri (spectacular!!!)

 

If you havethe chance- try them.

They takequite some time to prepare but they are so worth it!

 

 

That is allfor today. Looking forward to our second Seaday!

The roads around Inverness were pretty busy today and with the amount of busses etc from the ship the roads to Urquhart Castle would be pretty busy with it also being a 2 lane road not motorway or dual carriageway. Where is the next stop on the itinerary ?

Popped into Invergordon to have a look at the Preziosa as I was on my way down to Inverness. Big ship !

Can you be more specific about the upgrade you did? What package did you have, and what package did you upgrade to?

I had booked the Aurea balcony room which comes with the standard drink package ( not sure what it's called) and upgraded to the deluxe (again not sure what it's called) Not much help, just off an oil rig after 3 weeks and head is fried.

I personally booked the Aurea suit, as we wouldn't use buttler or concierge either.

 

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Yip have to agree with this. Just would not use butler or concierge so also booked Aurea.

Phoned MSC today and upgraded to deluxe for a grand total of £84 for 2 adults. Thought being for an extra £42 each we can basically have what we like.

So I have booked to go on the MSC Seaside and as part of the Aurea balcony I get the drinks package. Is there much of a difference between the standard and the deluxe premium type drink package? Is the ice cream and chocolate type cafes included in both or just the premium ? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Just booked deck 15 and this has given me food for thought about changing to deck 9.

Just done our first cruise and it was on Costa. Chose Costa as up the price was right and itinerary good.

Are there other cruise lines that have reduced rates for children as most seem to pay adult prices and this makes it too expensive for us.

Thanks

Just back from a cruise around the Med on Favolosa. I will write up a review when I get home at the end of the week but if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Heading in a taxi from the hotel so won't be taking the port bus. Can see the ship from the hotel so hoping to leave it until it has berthed in the port before taking off so i will know where to go.

Hi, in Barcelona at the moment and away tomorrow. Anyone know which terminal Costa arrive at. Don't think ship comes in until afternoon and we wil probably be there earlier. Any clues appreciated.

I will take you up on the dietary question. We are away next week on the Favolosa and my wife is also gluten free. How did you make this known to the servers ? We have e-mailed and they said this was not a problem. Was there a good choice across all meals for GF. How did you find the Med ports for GF food ? Any other info greatly received.

Hi Manime, I would say if this is your 1st cruise you will be blown away, as i said it is a beautiful ship and you wont be comparing it with any other cruise. We went on shore at Palma and did the "hop on hop off" bus but you will be able to go to the waterpark as you are in Palma till about 1am (i think), I recommend you go to the back of the ship to the lido deck once its really dark and you will see Palma Cathederal all lit up. We got the shuttle bus in ibiza it was 25 euros for both of us but our tickets were not checked, ibiza town was lovely with HUGE yaghts in the marina. Palermo, well what can i say, it was like a hunting ground with touts trying to get you in their taxis or onto their horse and carraige and a huge road to try and cross where there are traffic lights but the cars/motorbikes intimidate you. Savona was lovely, beautiful buildings, lovely little harbour cafes. Oh by the way, we are from Invergordon and my husband has relatives from Thurso, Rosenda and Teanie Maclean. Have a great cruise xxx

Sounds good, really can't wait to get going. I do know your husbands relatives as Rosenda is just a couple of years younger than me and their house was about 100yards from mine when we were growing up. Rosenda is also my youngests dinner lady at school. Have loads of friends in Invergordon, played football with loads of guys from there when I played for Brora rangers. Thanks for the info.

Great ports,

but don't buy the expensive shuttle in ibiza, theres a local bus and a boat service running for much less.

Food is personaltaste. Just be sure to check the times when what is available.

May I ask what you did in Ibiza ? As I've said above not sure what we are doing in each port. Any ideas are greatly received.

hi, we too are from the Scottish Highlands, we cruised on Favolosa 10th-17th June from Barcelona. The ship is beautiful, we have cruised in the past with Royal Caribbean and although we love RC unless you are on the Oasis Class all the ships seem to have the same layout so we thought we would try another cruise line.

 

As i said the ship is stunning but unless you are Italian or Spanish dont expect to understand what is going on. The food, well we lived on burgers and chips from the poolside snackbar as there was never anything that we fancied, not once did i see steak, everything seems to be in sauces. Not wanting to put you off as we did have a great time, are you AI ? what a deal that is. if you have any questions just ask, oh by the way, where about you from lol xx

Hi Lacey Jane, yes we are all inclusive for my wife, myself and 2 girls. Really using this cruise as a try and see type cruise. No idea what to expect but we do tend to enjoy our holidays no matter what is thrown at us. Did you do many trips etc. we have one booked to Rome but the rest we are not so sure. Planning a DIY to !Magaluf water park and a beach day in Ibiza. Not sure about Savona and Palermo. We stay in Britains most Northerly town, Thurso.

Thanks everyone for the advice regarding formal/ gala night, not sure now whether to take a dress jacket or just shirt and tie now.

Thanks for that. Looking forward to it. Food seems to be the biggest debating point on Costa. Have booked shuttle to Rome and that is the only costa trip. Thanks again.

Thanks for that, how was the trip. We are on Favolosa from next Tuesday Western med trip. Hope it was good for you. First cruise for us.

I have seen a couple of conflicting answers to this question. Does Costa do formal nights and how dressed up do we need to be if they do. Thanks.

Gutted, this was the main thing I wanted to see in Rome. Totally understand it needs done but for purely selfish reasons I'm gutted.

My other half has been told that she is not allowed to take her hair straighteners on board and has been bending my ear ever since. Can someone confirm that this is the case or not. Thanks.

I received my e-tickets lat week for our first cruise and it says embarkation would take place between 14:00 and 16:00. Question is when is the best time to get to the cruise port ( Barcelona) ? Is it better to get there a couple of hours before that or just to arrive around 14:00. Also, is there anywhere to sit and have a coffee etc at the port ? Thanks.

Have read a few posts on here regarding transport from the airport to the hotels and it is quite confusing. We are a family of 4 and wondering if the taxis would take all 4 of us with baggage or is it a 2 taxi run. Conflicting reports on here. Don't really want to split the family and I would rather just jump in a taxi and go straight to the hotel rather than sort out busses, trains, metro. We are staying at the Novotel Barcelona city. Thanks.

Anyone know if there is still a gratuity up charge on the ai beverages each time you request a beverage? Also, if you purchase the ai in advance is there a gratuity charge on your total? Thanks!

As far as I know there is no extra 15% gratuity on drinks

if you have bought the all inclusive for drinks.

Philip, again thanks for the reply. I am led to believe that we have 10.5 hours from leaving the boat, need to check that though. I have a guide book for Rome but never been there and thought that the boat excursion would save a lot of hassle although it is quite expensive I think.

Do you know if the boat excursions get cheaper the nearer to the cruise or do they stay the same right the way through.

Looking forward to it as we've never cruised before and it's an itch I'd like to scratch as they say. Again thanks.