Photo review | MSC Fantasia June 1st 2014 Venice

[moomoocow]

Another vote for great Dubrovnik ice-cream from Mr Moomoocow

 

I spent the entire time in Dubrovnik marvelling at the GoT locations too. It was brilliant.

 

Your pictures are amazing.

 

 

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[Elmartellama]

Thank you all

 

Nothing better to fight the high temperatures! :D We had so much gelato and cocktails during that trip! Pure happiness.

[Elmartellama]

 

That night was our last show and dinner on the MSC Fantasia. It was time to start packing and getting ready for the night. We had decided to wake up early and enjoy the Venice sail-in. It was truly beautiful and totally worth it!

 

About the food, we liked it ! There were better nights than others, just like in Royal Caribbean, but in general we found it to be quite good.

 

In the main dining room there was always something we liked, and more than once we felt we wanted to taste some other passing-by dish we had not ordered. My advice is to stick with the Chef Suggestion dishes. Portions were not big, but you can order more than once, and we usually shared some dish more.

 

In our opinion the pasta was very very good. The soups were always very good too, and I don't usually eat soups. I did not like the risotto though, not that it was bad, only that it was too al dente for my liking. The meat dishes were inferior to our past experience, but on both gala nights I had very good duck and beef dishes. Other sea food and fish dishes were also quite good, and so were the desserts.

 

Regarding the buffet for breakfast and lunch, the desserts were always very good. There were always some good main dishes options, and also many good cheeses. For breakfast I ended up eating waffles with syrup and fresh cream every day. Yummy Yummy! I rarely ate pizzas in the buffet, you had to be lucky to eat them warm, and I did not want to wait since there was always so much more to choose from. The daily specials and the ethnic corner were my favourite sections.

 

We were quite satisfied. It was not always high level cuisine, but usually very good. We would rate the quality a la par with Royal Caribbean. We missed Royal Caribbean free lemonade though.

 

Finally, we did not gain weight during the trip. Even if we ate a lot, we also ate more healthy choices than in the past, that we were able to off-set with the intensive walking ^_^

[Elmartellama]

Venice sail-in was a truly fantastic experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Elmartellama]

We were supposed to be leaving the ship at 09:35, but there were some protests that day (of some anti - cruise ship locals) and we were delayed for a little over an hour. Those self disembarking could have left an hour before us, we were in a lounge and were not in a rush. I would never fly home the same morning, it was potentially stressful if you have a flight.

 

Also, the gran canal was closed for some gondola rowing competition, so the vaporetto routes were modified. We would be visiting Murano and Burano, so we had to take a longer route to Murano through the Giudecca Chanel (the same route the cruise ships do). It took us a bit longer, but we were comfortably seated.

 

 

It was another very hot and humid day in the Venice lagoon

 

 

We had planned to make good use of the vaporettos, since they cost 18€ per day with the prepaid Venezia Unica card. This way we did not have to walk too much, and also we could avoid the crowds in Venice. It turned out to be a great day.

 

 

We bough some Murano glass candy, to be added to our collection from previous trips to Venice.

 

 

We had lunch at an overpriced restaurant, that had a nice location in a picturesque square.

 

 

Soon after we went to Murano-Faro in order to take the vaporetto to Burano.

 

Edited June 29, 2014 by Elmartellama

[Elmartellama]

Burano island did marvelled us. I had never been there, so it was another great place to be discovered.

 

 

So very chromatic!

 

 

 

 

We did have some more gelato there!

 

 

It was finally time to take the vaporetto back to Venice. If you have enough time when you are in Venice, Burano is well worth a visit

 

[Elmartellama]

Our trip must go on, and we took to the train to the city of Verona.

 

 

It takes 1h20' to reach Verona from Venice, and trains run every hour. We booked a nice hotel which was conveniently close to the train station.

 

The plan was to visit Gardaland Theme Park on the next day. We love Theme Parks and Gardaland it's quite close to Verona. In the afternoon we would be visiting Verona's centre. We definitely needed some rest that night.

 

We're also planning on visiting Heide Park, near Hamburg, on our next year's cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. It's the perfect combination for us! :D And at some point we would also like to visit Port Aventura theme park near Barcelona, should we ever take a cruise from there.

[Kiwiaus]

Loving your reviews & the view coming into Venice is amazing, we have a balconey booked for this cruise so will be fantastic to sit out there & watch. Can I ask what camera you have (need a new one, so am seeing what other people are using before we leave)

[Elmartellama]

We only have middle range quality mobile telephones, so the pictures are not that good. When our current devices die we hope to buy better quality camera telephones.

 

We like using mobile telephones to take pictures since it's easier, you can publish them in Facebook or send them to your beloved ones at home via Whatsapp. Also, we upload the pictures directly to Dropbox when we have wifi, so even if we lose the telephones the pictures are safe "on the cloud".

 

You can also save pictures on the fly to Dropbox with a 3G / 4G data plan, but at the moment we have to pay extra for the data we send / receive when we are out of Spain. This will change in late 2015 when roaming inside the European Union is expected to be banned. I have just received my bill and the data we used abroad cost me 31€, mainly to Whatsapp, check the weather, and use Facebook.

[Elmartellama]

Day 11 - Gardaland - Verona

 

The first post cruise day I was a bit tired, and had a little cold, but that couldn't stop us from visiting Gardaland, the biggest theme park in italy. We liked it, but I prefer other ones in Europe. I won't bore you with details, this is not a theme park forum anyway! The brown rollercoster on the picture is crazy idea O_o the more modern ones were better!

 

 

It was so hot and humid that day for early June, about 35ºC O:

 

After the train ride from Peschiera del Garda (Gardaland station) back to Verona, we rested a bit and started explore the city. We had a very nice time there, it's so romantic.

 

 

Off course, we had some more gelatto there

 

 

Yet another Venetian lion. I love that building. We went to the nearby supposedly Giulietta balcony, yet it was already closed.

 

 

Residential buildings in the city centre are up-scale and stylish

 

 

Crossing Ponte Vechio

 

[Elmartellama]

Hazy sunset from the bridge.

 

 

If you ever visit Verona, I recommend crossing the bridge and taking the path up the hill, there are some lovely views there

 

 

It takes no more than 10 minutes to reach the top

 

Quite and lovely

 

 

After descending we walked along the river. I liked this stylish old car

 

 

We lost on the quaint streets, we reached the Arena and found the most amazing pizza ever at Le Cantine de l'Arena, in a little square with views to the Arena, but not on the main square. I enjoyed a lovely speck and mascarpone pizza that was something out of this world!

 

 

Verona is a very nice alternative to Venice, pre or post cruise. One of favourite places in Italy. If you rent a car is also the perfect base to discover the little towns of the Garda lake.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Elmartellama

[Carpgirl]

I am really enjoying your review, thank you. We will be in Verona in October & love the sound of a good pizza. What is 'speck' please?:)

 

Michelle.

[AmoMondo]

I am really enjoying your review, thank you. We will be in Verona in October & love the sound of a good pizza. What is 'speck' please?:)

 

Michelle.

 

A cured smoked Italian ham. It occasionally features on MSC menus.

[Elmartellama]

Exactly! Speck is not as cured and salty as the Spanish ham, which we normally prefer, but it's better for pizzas since they usually contain already salted ingredients like cheese.

 

I had never tasted a pizza with mascarpone before, but it was delicious! The best pizza I ate recently, along with a caramelized foie and apple pizza that they make in a restaurant at home.

 

We ate at Le Cantine de l'Arena, http://www.lecantine-arena.com. It has a 4 out of 5 tripadvisor rating, we thought it deserved better. Not very expensive, taking into account you eat at a lovely terrace with views of the Arena.

 

Ups! I realize know, looking at their online menu, that it was actually prosciutto crudo (raw ham) and not speck! I got confused because the pizza tittle is "Mascarpone e crudo 24 mesi", so is "reserved" ham for 24 months. I don't know the different with "reserving" and curing, but it was very good all the same. It costs 11€ wich is not bad for a gourmet pizza.

 

There are plenty of good pizza restaurants in Verona and Italy anyway. It's just that we had a different experience there that we recall happily. We like tasting different things and then cooking them at home.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Elmartellama

[BRACEWELL]

Can I just add my thanks to you for sharing your superb travel journal. The photos are great, I'm amazed they are from your mobile! We are doing the same itinerary in October and have really loved your considered and intelligent descriptions, a brilliant and informative read. Thanks again.

[spinnaker2]

In Verona it's worth visiting Romeos house

Not as popular as Juliet's

 

 

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[Elmartellama]

Good to know! I've never been there.

 

@Bracewell, thanks! It's not over yet :D I will now publish our last day. Sorry this took so long!

[Elmartellama]

Day 12 - Bergamo

 

This was our very last day of the trip (at last!) but we were not sad that it was finishing. We had 5 Mallorca holiday + beach days ahead before starting to work again. And more importantly, we were willing to see our little dog.

 

We had had an amazing time so far and it was time to come back home. Our first cruise was a 8 days trip, and we ended willing for more. We never intended to make a 12 day trip on this occasion, it just happened this way. We will try to stick to 10 days in the future, if it's possible.

 

Anyway, we still had one more place to visit, the bourgeois city of Bergamo. We had a late afternoon flight back to Mallorca, so we took the train from Verona to Bergamo (changing trains in Brescia) and left once again the luggage at the train station. It was much cheaper this time, they have machines that accept luggage for 4€ and it was big enough for all our baggage.

 

 

We have read positives reviews of Bergamo, but had not so high expectations. It was actually very nice. I know I always say the same, but it's the truth!

 

Bergamo has a "high city" and a "low city". The uptown is the historic centre that you can access with a convenient funicular. You can walk there from the station along a wide avenue, it's not far.

 

 

The city is very green, many affluent houses and villas are located on the hills of the high city. Even the tunnels are quite cute, don't you think?

 

 

The funicular is very fast and costs only 1,5€ pp I believe. Once uphill, we asked for a map at the tourist information office, and followed an easy and well indicated itinerary.

 

First we went to the "Roca", there is a WW2 memorial there and the views are quite good

 

 

There was even a tank

 

 

After a light meal we headed towards the main square. I love white marble buildings

 

[Elmartellama]

My partner trying to make some artistic photo of me *_* They take great care of their buildings, with flower ornamentation

 

 

The mix of building styles at the square was peculiar

 

 

We did not enter the Cathedral, the main door was closed, so maybe there was another opened access.

 

 

It was very hot, so we needed to rest a bit by the wall parks. I ended up doing a nap on a bank next to a person doing Yoga. Lovely!

 

 

Walking down was easier and we did not take the funicular this time

 

 

We so very much loved that posh neighbourhood!

 

Edited July 1, 2014 by Elmartellama

[Elmartellama]

We did enjoy the empty and silent streets of Bergamo. In terms of crowds Verona and Bergamo were much more easily to handle than some other cities of our trip.

 

After collecting our luggage, we took a public bus to Bergamo Airport, where we took our uneventful flight back home. It was very funny because we flew over Cannes and Toulon, in southern France, places that we had visited on our first cruise with Royal Caribbean. Wonder what we saw anchored in Villefranche sur Mer's bay? The mighty Liberty of the Seas!!! And no, I had not planned that :D

 

 

The adventure was inevitably coming to an end, but we still had one more thing to do as soon as we arrived home.

 

Hanging the magnets to our travel fridge collection :cool: Can you see DoReMi in there?

 

Edited July 1, 2014 by Elmartellama

[Elmartellama]

So that was it for the trip. Thankfully we had a few lazy beach days in our beloved Mallorca before going back to normal. They were very much needed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Elmartellama]

If you reached this far. Thanks for reading!

 

And last but not least, I would like to dedicate a few songs that kept coming to my mind during our trip. And will define the way I'll remember it.

 

The first one goes to all those people who ever wrote advices, tips, reviews, comments, upload videos, or any other information that helped me organize these fantastic days. THANK YOU!

 

Birdy - People Help The People

 

OmLNs6zQIHo

 

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The second one goes to the crew of the MSC Fantasia, specially to bar tenders and animation & music team. Thank you for the show!

 

Klingande - Jubel

 

b6vSf0cA9qY

 

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And the third one goes to my partner, for always believing in our dreams, even when they look just crazy to anyone else!

 

Clean Bandit - Rather Be

 

m-M1AtrxztU

 

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Cruise on!

[AmoMondo]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

I'm sorry this has come to an end as I've very much enjoyed reading your latest instalment each evening.

[CruiseIreland]

Really enjoyed your fabulous review. Just back from your neighbour, Portugal, so was delighted to catch up!

 

Can you tell us where those beautiful coves are on Mallory, look fantastic? Ken

Edited July 1, 2014 by CruiseIreland

[spinnaker2]

We are all coming to visit you soon!

Thanks for the remarkable journey...

 

 

 

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