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Musicus

By Musicus,
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PartyOfOne

PartyOfOne

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#24: April 11 - May 1, 2012

 

April 11, 11am. I am sitting in the Milan Station in a sort of restaurant with a coffee and a kind of miserable but overpriced sandwich, since I still have to wait almost an hour for the train to Genoa. At the Bern Station my sweet Beatrice met me, pulled my suitcase and hoisted it up into the rail car - without her help iwould have had a tough time. She is truly a treasure and I keep wondering how I deserve her. And I believe that she also thinks that 30 years would have made all the difference in our relationship. - Huge crowds and the train was packed all the way to Milan. And all the way to Milan it has been raining with snow at higher elevations. Here in Milan, the train let the passengers off far from the inside of the station -had to walk some distance in the rain until the roof began. I was glad that I young man acting as a porter with a hand cart took my luggage - it was a very long way to walk. Now he will come back here to the restaurant in time to take me to the track for Genoa, naturally at the other end of the station. But by now at least I am rested.

 

He did come back and walked with me to the other platform and train. I offered him 10 Euros but he insisted on another 10 (10 for each trip) which certainly was excessive (A total of $27!) but I was not in the mood to argue. And so to Genoa, where I encountered some Italians also heading for Melody and they helped me down and again up flights of stairs and through long corridors to the outside, where I took a taxi. I then requestede a wheel chair for the embarkment after all the formalities, finally reached my cabin, a large outside one with a porthole and intended for a handicapped person. I am very pleased with it.

 

My luggage is nowhere in sight and even for the suitcase which I had for the Swiss trip I had to wait half an hour to be brought. Eventually, I go to the reception where I meet Claudia, the concierge, and t his was very nice because we knew each other from Poesia. I tell her what was supposed to happen with the three pieces of luggage I left on Poesia and she and the Guest Relations Manager George, whom I also get to know at this time will look into it right away but it takes several hours, during which Mandy and Marcello on Poesia had been contacted to find out what did not happen. Here is a sequence of events, including a previous noteable occurrence:

 

EFFCIENCY - NOT ONE OF MSC'S ATTRIIBUTES!

 

1) Before Poesia's cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Genoa I was asked whether I would like to completely pay for all the MSC cruises I had booked for this year apart from Poesia: Melody, Musica, Magnifica and Opera, so that the tickets for these could be delivered to me on Poesia before she left for Europe. So I did.

 

2) While the tickets were ready in the Ft. Lauderdale office, they forgot to deliver them and eventually had to fax them to the ship where they were delivered to me in Genoa.

 

3) On the cruise NY-Genoa I spoke with Marcello, the manager for gueast relations, as well as Mandy, the concierge, about my need to store 3 pieces of luggage in Genoa from April 2 (when Poesia arrives there) unril April 11 when I will board "Melody", because in the interim I am going to Switzerland.

 

4) I am informed, that Marcello will store the luggage on Poesia.

 

5) This information worries me, because, unlike last year when there was a similar scenario, I am not returning to Poesia.

 

5) I finally am able to speak to very busy Marcello and he tells me that Poesia will be in Genoa April 10, when the luggage will be given to the MSC Agent there and delivered to Melody the next day. The MSC Agent is present and knows about it, and so does Mandy. Famous last words: "Dont't worry!".

 

6) Before leaving Poesia in Genoa for my trip to Switzerland I make a point reminding Mandy to make sure that the luggage is unloaded on April 10 and given to the MSC Agent in Genoa.

 

7) The unloading of the luggage, which includes my scooter, did not take place and all remains on Poesia until she returns to Genoa April 18. Provided they remember then to unload the stuff, where will it be kept until April 22 when Melody and I get there? And how safe will it be?

 

So now I have to make do with the few things I had taken to Switzerland and cross my fingers. At least Claudia has arranged for me to have free laundry which I certainly need to make use of right away. While I miss the scooter much for going ashore, Melody being a much smaller ship and my cabin location being midships, I can navigate it on foot.

 

April 12, Civitavecchia: A shuttle bus brings us into town and there is a Mcdonald's a few steps away. While I have WiFi for maybe half an hour, it collapses so that after a futile hour I decide to return to the ship and try again in the afternoon, when I am able to send out reports and reply to emails. Needless to say, I did not see much of the city except for the harbour area, but

 

wihout my scooter I can't go far. In the evening I explore the ship and attend the theater offering taking place in one of the lounges and consists of some dancers, a soprano needing additional training, a juggler and a violinist accompanying a tenor - both the latter are excellent and are from Hungary as I found out later when I met them; actually the violinist Thomas and his pianist, Peter, are a Duo playing evenings in one of the lounges.

 

April 13, first day at sea and I have the opportunity to really get to know the ship. It is about half Poesia's size and thus has a much more intimate atmosphere. There is only one restaurant which I like better than the ones on Poesia; it has a large rectangular area in the middle with a raised and illuminated ceiling which, together with garden-type easy chairs give the place an airy and open feeling and also results in a lesser noise level. There are quite a few lounges in which various activities take place of course all of these are much smaller, as is the casino and the shopping area. While there is no grandiose theater like on Posesia (one of the lounges has a stage), there is a cinema in which they project films in four languages daily. The library consists of a large bookcase. There seem to be more areas where people can smoke. There are two smaller pools, one of them under a roof. The ship, although showing its age here and there, is well kept and my cabin is comfortable, but lacks a safe or minibar. While I received the champagne and strawberries last evening at the dinner table and shared with a couple from Scotland, two men and a lady from England, I have not gotten a bathrobe and slippers which I am entitled to and have been told these are not available on this ship.

 

This afternoon a went into an enclosed bar where I had spotted the only grand piano which of course was looked. But I met Thomas, Peter and other performers there who had a rehearsal which I attended; later, I was able to use the piano and played for half an hour for myself ; the otherwise empty room with closed but not locked doors.

 

Tonight I was invited to dine with the Captain but declined; this is Gala night and I am not dressed for it, but mainly it would only be at 9.30 pm. And tonight the clocks will be advanced one hour as well. I will however go to the general welcome cocktail party at 8.30, even though this is after, not before, my dinner.

 

Like a miracle, when I returned from Dinner tonight, lo and behold, there was the bathrobe and slippers. Wonders will never cease. But I don't have my bathing trunks of course because I didn't take them to Berne.

 

I had 3 Martinis at the cocktail party and sat with Michael and Peter - both have great sense of humour. The party was followed by the captain's welcome and presentation of officers and then the nightly show. I truly admire not only the costumes and choreography of the dances, but how well, on this small stage, they are performed. There was a singer and a soso magician as attractions. This all taking place in a lounge with randomly placed settees and armchairs, the atmosphere is more that of a night club than a theater - kind of nice and intimate.

Edited by PartyOfOne
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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

Posted
Posted
It sounds like Egon is enjoying this new ship, the Melody, more that the old Poesia. I hope he gets his scooter and luggage soon.

I do too Doug because I am quite sure this stresses him out not knowing where it is. I was surprised he left his scooter on the ship to begin with. I hope we hear from him soon and it's good news.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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Posted

:)I just received this e-mail from Egon and I'd like to share it with you all:

 

Hi Patty, by now you'll have received my report # 25 and know that all is well. I had been without internet access for quite a few days, but today, at Civitavecchia (Rome) I have good WiFi which I badly needed to deal with some 30 emails and to send our the English and German reports, complete with pics.

I hope you are well, as I am. May 1, I'll move over to "Musica" when we are in Katakolon (Greece) - this is a sister ship of "Poesia".

Be embraced, with love and good wishes - Egon

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PartyOfOne

PartyOfOne

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Posted (edited)

# 25: April 15-May 1, 2012

 

A 15-minute bus ride at Marmaris (Turkey) into town, where we were unloaded at the entrance to a vast labyrinth of alleys lined with shops selling a vast variety of goods, especially silverware and jewellry. I have to walk a great deal and see a lot, finally finding a Internet Hot Spot where I settle down for the next three hours and do my thing. This after I found out that there is a Burger King but, amazingly no McDonalds. Eventually the long way back to the Shuttle and the trip back to the Port offers a good impression of the town which has a few wide and Palm-lined Avenues and is surrounded by hills overlooking the yacht basin - it's a popular resort. The shuttle starts and stops actually farther away from the ship than I can manage without much effort and so I am glad that there is a golfcart available to bridge the gap.

 

Happily I found another baby grand in one of the lounges and this one was not locked. I played for quite a while there on the second sea day in the afternoon - there were no people at first, then some passed through and a few stayed.

 

While I have no breakdown of nationalities on board, there seem to be a goodly number of English speaking passengers from the UK and Australia, and of course many Italians and some 80 children, including a few babes in arms less than 6 months old. Many kids are allowed by their parents to roam around freely even as late at 10pm and occasionally pose a bit of a nuisance, like last evening at the theater, which by the way presented an outstanding quick change artist and magician, more to be admired because of the proximity of the stage to the public.

 

More and more waiters, stewards and other employees on the ship have greeted me because they knew me from Poesia and also a couple of passengers did. That's being notorious!

 

April 16, Limassol (Cyprus) - nice, but very windy. I took the shuttle bus for a 15-minute ride into town, walked around there, passing mostly open air retsurants and shops but very little photo-worthy sites. But one event was outstanding: I was accosted by a man in one of the alleys who had met me before on Poesia and was so enamoured of my piano playing there, he just had to tell me again, also in the name of several other people that had been in his company at the time. Felt kind of nice. But then I returned to the ship with others, equally somewhat disappointed of the city center, especially maybe because they had to fork out 8 Euros for the shuttle (I went free).

 

April 17. Haifa (Israel). Because of stringent Israeli Immigration Controls, it was a very early (6am) Morning and it took a long time until we could go ashore, which I did at about 10am. A walk along the ship and further brought me to the termminus building, an escalator upstairs and then out onto a nondescript plaza with taxis. I was immediately almost besieged by drivers who wanted to show me around or give me "a good time"; twice guys sidled up to me and talked to me con-game fashion, trying to sell me an hour's tour for $ 60, later $50. I resisted staunchly and just kept on walking and it was far until I came to the main thoroughfare. I had already decided that next time here, when I'll have my scooter, I will explore the city, but today I'll just have a look around. Of course the really long walk was very tiring and I sat down several times to rest. When I passed the entrance of a small office building housing lawyers and saw a small counter, I stopped and tried for WiFi, actually found a free one from A.Wasserman, but while it said that I had internet access with it, it just didn't work. So on I went after trying for half an hour and wound up having to sit down on the only availability which was sort of a mile post. Here I tried again for WiFi and actually found another one which was free but only off and on available. It was enough however, for me to check out 20 emails and send quite a few replies. But balancing myself on the stone and the laptop on my knees inmidst a very busy thoroughfare and lots of people was certainly not ideal. At one point the group of Italians whom I had met in Genoa coming off the Milano train and who had been so helpful stopped by and told me that further on there would be a cafe. By that time however I "had had it" and slowly limped my way back to the ship, with several rest stops on the way, happy to be back "home" and that it was possible for me to achieve what I did.

 

April 18. Still in Haifa, but leaving at 12.30 pm. This is the day when Poesia is in Genoa. I wrote this to George, the very nice Manager of Guest Relations on Melody, but gave it to him when I happened to meet him. He told me that he had been in touch by phone with Marcello, his counterpart on Poesia and has been assured that everything will be taken care of.

 

"Dear George,Would you kindly contact Marcello on Poesia today to remind him to make sure that my three pieces of luggage are unloaded. Please ask him to

 

1) Confirm that this has been done, and

 

2) Confirm with whom it will be safely stored, and that it will be delivered to Melody on the 22. April.

 

Many thanks for your help .

 

Egon"

 

I'm crossing my fingers.

 

I am invited to the Captain's Dinner tonight - it actually was with the Staff Captain who is a much younger and more colourful man than the Captain is, who later on poses with passengers for photographs. At the dinner table are two other officers and two older Italian couples -not a very exciting affair. However, just before, I encounter George who tells me that my luggage is in Genoa. I'm still crossing my fingers.

 

The majority of passengers are older couples -60 years or more, with Italians and Germans predominant. Amongst them I see an inordinate number of grossly overweight and obese people. But, as mentioned before, there are also quite a few young families, some with several children and even babies. In looking around for attractive faces and figures, there is little reward.

 

April 20: Out of Haifa we encountered very rough seas and the ship was tossing and swaying greatly producing some unfortunate people with sea sickness. Today we have been advised that, because of the situation which had some 5-meter waves, the speed of the vessel had to be reduced for safety and we would therefore arrive in Katakolon only at around 11.30, but leave again as previously planned, at 3pm.

 

As it turned out, it was only 12.30pm when we could go ashore. I did, but it would have been a very long walk from the pier to get to the fringe of town, so after trying in vain to get an internet connection outside, I went into the duty free shop, bought some olive oil to bring as presents to Sylvia and Olivia and went back to the ship. Maybe when I come here again on May 1 to move to Musica, I may the the opportunity to look at the town.

 

Last day before Genoa. Played the piano this afterrnoon fot a small but enthusiastic audience and this one is in better shape than the one in the atrium of Poesia but there is no proper piano bench so that I sit too low. However, I managed and think that I played well. Nicolaus, the Cruise Director, whom I already knew from Poesia, complimented me when he saw me waiting for the escalator to arrive.

 

I won't have internet access until we get to Civitavecchia on the 23April.

 

Apil 22. Genoa: EUREKA! When I returned from lunch at about 1.30pm, there was my luggage, all placed on the second bed in position to be opened, as I had asked my nice room steward Veer (from Indonesia). I spent the afternoon going through the two big suitcases, taking out only what I think I may need until May 1, when I have to have everything transported to Musica. When we are at sea day after tomorrow, I'll tackle the setup of the Scooter. Needless to say, I heaved a sigh of relief and all is in order.

 

 

(PartyOfOne's comment) Sorry if these are out of order.

 

6960068446_4c9a875468_o.jpg

Limassol Cyprus (3)

 

 

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Limassol Cyprus (4)

 

 

6960069388_ed1c981b79_o.jpg

Haifa April 2012

 

 

7106140187_94ddb3063b_o.jpg

April 22 2012 (2)Geneva

Edited by PartyOfOne
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TenerifeSharon

TenerifeSharon

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Posted
Thanks for the posts YellowBird23 and PartyofOne. Were any of the rest of you surprised at the spareness of the accomodations he has on the ship? I guess I'm spoiled with the beautiful rooms I've known.

 

We sailed with the MSC Melody in 1998 (one cruise on that ship was more than enough for us:rolleyes:) and she was already an OLD ship then, having been built in 1982.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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i was thinking the same thing. Having been on an inside on Poesia, my cabin was very accomodating, had great comforter and pillows (in fact, too many pillows). His cabin seems dismal sort of (no, not sort of...it does...lol). That was about the only thing I liked about that cruise though other than meeting some great folks from the Northeast who I still talk to in Facebook.:)

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PartyOfOne

PartyOfOne

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Were any of the rest of you surprised at the spareness of the accomodations he has on the ship? I guess I'm spoiled with the beautiful rooms I've known.

 

My first reaction was the same as your's, but compared to some of the fancy cubby holes I've had for cabins, I like the amount of room he has and the light from the portholes.

 

 

Reading Egon's reports, especially the last few, I keep wishing I was there to help him get around. You know, like a faithful Sherpa. :cool:

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Red State Sam

Red State Sam

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Dismal is a good word for it - or institutional. A little paint and imagination would help.

I agree about wishing I could be there to help him. When we docked in San Juan in March, his ship was docked right next to ours. We kept a lookout for him all over town but never saw him. I told my companions to watch for "a little man on a scooter who is in intense thought," as he must always be to observe so much in his travels. But alas, no McDonalds, no Egon.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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My first reaction was the same as your's, but compared to some of the fancy cubby holes I've had for cabins, I like the amount of room he has and the light from the portholes.

 

 

Reading Egon's reports, especially the last few, I keep wishing I was there to help him get around. You know, like a faithful Sherpa. :cool:

Well..what are we waiting for?? lol

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nonna5

nonna5

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Yellowbird and Party of One thanks so much for keeping us updated on Egon's travels.

 

I too wish I was able to cruise with him to help him get around. But I only hope that when I am 95 that I am able to get around as well as he does.

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bjbear

bjbear

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Yellowbird and Party of One thanks so much for keeping us updated on Egon's travels.

 

I too wish I was able to cruise with him to help him get around. But I only hope that when I am 95 that I am able to get around as well as he does.

 

I second that, you two are the best!! :D I also thought his space was really spartan, would love to be there and spruce it up a bit!

 

And I hope that I can do what he does when I'm 95, God willing! :)

 

Sue

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