Now on a NYE cruise on Virtuosa…

[Stockjock]

We just left Southampton and we have a sea day, New Year’s Eve, and then we will be in Hamburg, Germany.
 

The ship is packed with 6300 passengers. So far the experience is pretty good, not quite up to the standards I saw Grandiosa three months ago, but I do understand they’re very busy.

 

 

If anyone has any questions, just ask, although I have no idea who the cruise director is, lol. But of course, the ship is very similar to Grandiosa, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Stockjock

[Nunagoras]

Not really a question; just to wish you and all the community a wonderful new year!...

 

Ships are understaffed for now and that will show up on those more than packed holiday times!... Hope that at least the air conditioning is working at proper levels so that you feel comfortable! Never done a winter cruise myself, so don't really know what the experience is at that front...

 

Happy new year!...

[CruisingFox27]

Have a great cruise. Did your dining time reappear or did you need to wait and manage to resolve onboard? 

[perakcruiser]

In Hamburg unfortunately the public transport ignores the port on Sundays. If you want to leave the ship better take the MSC shuttle. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

That promenade looks similar to Meraviglia. Are they the same class of ship?  6300 is a huge ship capacity!

 

happy new year! 🎊🎈 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Georgia_Peaches

[Nunagoras]

51 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

That promenade looks similar to Meraviglia. Are they the same class of ship?  6300 is a huge ship capacity!

 

happy new year! 🎊🎈 

Same class with one more steel section as far as I know. Surely huge crowd for such a ship, but plenty of kids now there!...

[talkone]

Doing first winter cruise on there in 2 weeks..... always done Carribbean

Any help on what to wear onboard.... dinning 

[no1talks]

15 hours ago, Stockjock said:

"The ship is packed with 6300 passengers."

Egads, that's a lot of humanity. I very much enjoy the Mera-class ships' ceiling animations, though.

 

Packed holiday cruises dissuade me from a mass-market itinerary for NYE.

 

I would consider a ship with a better passenger-to-space ratio, but that would still leave me with the other problem...

 

I have zero interest in being on a ship for Christmas. As far as I know, a cruise that includes NYE often includes Christmas. (Yours is an exception, of course.)

[elmsliebev]

Have a wonderful time! We are on in early March. 

If you get chance to post the occasional dinner menu that would be lovely, and also if you could see they have any alcohol-free wines (no worries if not).

 

We are intending to do our own thing in the ports so any tips would be gratefully received. 

But mostly - have a great time and Happy New Year! 

[Stockjock]

10 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

Have a great cruise. Did your dining time reappear or did you need to wait and manage to resolve onboard? 

It appeared at a very early time 5:30 PM, we asked for something a little bit later, and they gave us a seating that we didn’t really want, which was 9:30 PM and they said they couldn’t do any better but then I griped a lot in a really nice way and they magically found us a table at 7:30 PM.

[Stockjock]

8 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

In Hamburg unfortunately the public transport ignores the port on Sundays. If you want to leave the ship better take the MSC shuttle. 

We are doing the MSC tour to Lubeck.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

7 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

That promenade looks similar to Meraviglia. Are they the same class of ship?  6300 is a huge ship capacity!

 

happy new year! 🎊🎈 

I’m not sure about the class of ship, but it’s pretty packed. It seems very similar to Grandiosa, but I’m not sure if it’s the identical size.

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, talkone said:

Doing first winter cruise on there in 2 weeks..... always done Carribbean

Any help on what to wear onboard.... dinning 

I think the mistake I made, I brought too many winter clothes and not enough casual clothes for just wearing on the ship.
 

So on the winter cruise, you’re not going to spend any time outside or on the balcony, or certainly not very much at all. So you want to have some clothes for outside and some clothes for just cruising around the ship and people wear pretty much anything I would say.
 

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, so as you might imagine, most people are dressed up. But other nights, some people dress up a little bit some people are more casual, I think, almost anything is OK as long as you don’t wear shorts and maybe even shorts as long as it’s not a formal night.   But in the evening, I don’t really see shorts.

[Stockjock]

2 hours ago, elmsliebev said:

Have a wonderful time! We are on in early March. 

If you get chance to post the occasional dinner menu that would be lovely, and also if you could see they have any alcohol-free wines (no worries if not).

 

We are intending to do our own thing in the ports so any tips would be gratefully received. 

But mostly - have a great time and Happy New Year! 

Here is tonight‘s dinner menu, but of course it is New Year’s Eve. I was astonished that MSC actually sprung for a lobster tail, even on New Year’s Eve, but I’ll post a few pictures of the food in a little bit. We are in the dining room right now waiting to get our meal.

[Stockjock]

Sweedon, one of the head waiters, hooked me up with an extra lobster tail, even though I didn’t ask. I thought that was very nice of him.
 

Just to add an additional comment, we just spoke with one of the head waiters and we told him that there seems to be a lot of children on board. He said they have over 700 kids on this sailing.

 

I think they are all running past our room at the same time. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Stockjock

[elmsliebev]

4 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

Sweedon, one of the head waiters, hooked me up with an extra lobster tail, even though I didn’t ask. I thought that was very nice of him.
 

Just to add an additional comment, we just spoke with one of the head waiters and we told him that there seems to be a lot of children on board. He said they have over 700 kids on this sailing.

 

I think they are all running past our room at the same time. 

thanks for posting, looks good. Bon appetit! 

[defbref]

41 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I’m not sure about the class of ship, but it’s pretty packed. It seems very similar to Grandiosa, but I’m not sure if it’s the identical size.

It is the same size. 

 

Meraviglia and Bellissima are also sister ships, the class is the Meraviglia class and Grandiosa and Virtuosa are known as Meraviglia+ because they are slightly larger. 

[Stockjock]

Just a few more pictures. Again, dinner was actually pretty good and the ship is completely packed. Not easy to get a drink, but where there’s a will there’s a way.  We didn’t do yacht club, but I could see where I could come in handy in a really crowded holiday situation like this.

[Stockjock]

So when I checked the weather for Hamburg, Germany, a little over a week ago, it was 17°. Today, they are looking at temperatures close to 60°F. 

I’m currently standing on the balcony of the ship in a short sleeved shirt. And I brought all these crazy winter clothes that weigh my baggage allowance down, when I really didn’t need them. Of course, it’s usually not that warm. I guess I can’t complain.

[Stockjock]

I am a fan of the MSC Express breakfast.

[perakcruiser]

14 hours ago, Stockjock said:

We are doing the MSC tour to Lubeck.

Good idea, I have been there maaaaaaaaaaaaaaany years before. Well worth to go, but certainly depends on the quality of the tour. 

 

You really did NYE in style and MSC did also, great! 

[Stockjock]

6 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

Good idea, I have been there maaaaaaaaaaaaaaany years before. Well worth to go, but certainly depends on the quality of the tour. 

 

You really did NYE in style and MSC did also, great! 

I highly recommend the tour to Lübeck.  It’s such a quaint and beautiful, medieval city and it’s a nice drive out there too.
 

Let me add that. It also includes a very good German lunch, with soda or beer.

 

Here are a few photos.
 

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

Gala night dinner at C. It was actually pretty good. We had three entrées, beef, Wellington, Seabass, and chicken à la orange.

[Stockjock]

Drinks after the show.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Stockjock

[Nunagoras]

3 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Gala night dinner at C. It was actually pretty good. We had three entrées, beef, Wellington, Seabass, and chicken à la orange.

That little cake piece on your wife's front is something like one more of those "little mysteries" MSC is, at least for me, so well known of!... LOL!...

 

Now seriously: Have a nice sailing and a wonderful 2023!...