Setting Sail on the MSC Poesia
Day 1:
Today is the day that we have been planning for two years. Today we board the MSC Poesia and set sail for Barcelona—taking the long, scenic route of 118 days around the world.
After breakfast, we ensure we have all of our bags, eat breakfast, and meet our taxi. All seems to be going splendidly as we are moving through the streets of Barcelona . . . until we hear and feel someone rear-end our taxi. The offending vehicle doesn’t stop but drives by as our taxi driver checks the damage. This begins a 20 minute, high-speed pursuit through the city as our taxi driver attempts to catch up with the black car that hit us. In the end, our taxi driver is stopped by the police. He tells them of what occurred, provides the tag information of the other vehicle, and is allowed to continue to take us to the port. We’re pretty sure few other world cruisers had as eventful of a ride to the ship as we did this morning.
Fortunately, we still had plenty of time to make it to the port. If the taxi ride was an experience of excitement, our check-in process was an experience in drudgery. For most cruises we have been on, the check in of luggage is simple as you give your tagged luggage to a porter as you arrive to the terminal and you join a line to check in. This was not the case here. Instead, there was several lines of passengers waiting to check their luggage. Yet, there was no direction as to which line was for which passengers. Finally, we are able to check in our luggage after about 45 minutes. Mind you, this was shuffling 4 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and 2 backpacks along a line for 45 minutes. Not a fun time.
Once we drop off our luggage, we are brought inside the terminal and asked to wait in a sitting area. As we see passengers standing in yet another set of lines to complete their check-in, we believed that this sitting area is for priority embarkation guests. We are Diamond loyalty members on MSC which has the perk of priority embarkation. However, we were earlier told that there wasn’t priority boarding for Diamond members as over 85% of the guests were Diamond. Yet, we also had booked in the Aurea experience which is MSC’s highest passenger category (unless the ship has a Yacht Club, which the MSC Poesia does not) which also awards priority embarkation. So, we thought that this sitting area—where only 3 other passengers were sitting—was for Aurea guest embarkation. While nearly all guests were Diamond, there are only 400 guests who are in Aurea. Nope. We found that it was simply a holding area before you are ushered to one of the lines to continue to wait to be checked onto the ship. After waiting for another hour, we finally talk to one of the MSC pursers—we are mindful that most workers at the terminal work for the terminal and not the cruise line—who expedites our boarding. After nearly 2 hours, we are finally checked in and off to board the ship.
As with so many other ships, the first space you enter as you board the ship was the Poesia’s atrium and we are met by one of the international social hosts who warmly welcomed us onto the ship. We dropped our backpacks in our room and went off to explore the ship (much more to come about the ship).
Unlike every other cruise we had taken since COVID, we no longer were allowed to simply walk to our muster station and be checked off. Instead, all new passengers were required to meet in the theatre for a safety brief and then we all broke off into groups to visit our respective muster stations. It was sad to see that the ONLY good thing that had come out of COVID was no longer practiced on this ship.
Packing could wait as we prepared for dinner, had a nice meal in the Main Dining Room with a new friend we had made from the MSC Preziosa, and sent to the show. Before we knew it, the MSC Poesia had set sail and we were off to circumnavigate the globe.
Day 2:
The first two days out of Barcelona are both sea days. This first sea day, the priority of business is to unpack and set up our cabin. Due to Tracey’s cruise cabin hacks, we optimize our space and everything has a home. We take advantage of the fact that the walls (and ceiling) of most cruise cabins are metal, so we have magnets all over our room (Jan is convinced that someone with a pacemaker should not come into our cabin due to all of the magnets). But they are used to not only mount a whiteboard and organize our must-need documents, but also hold up the three hanging shelves tucked in the corner of the cabin and provide ample shelf space for all of our stuff.
The next item on our checklist is to make our reservations at the Spa. Due to our being in the Aurea class, we have complimentary access to the thermal spa. Unfortunately, we learned during the previous day’s tour of the ship that we must make reservations to use this amenity unlike being able to simply come and go as we wish as we’ve done on other cruise lines (we would later find that the reservations were not necessary, however).
Before we relax, the last must-do is visit the internet station where we get our devices hooked up to the ship’s internet. Tracey has the browse package on her phone to maintain business at home and stay in contact with family and friends. Jan as the browse and stream package to facilitate the posting of our YouTube videos each day. We’ll talk the speed of the internet in a few days.
With all of our work done, it’s time to get dressed up as tonight is the Gala Night on the Poesia. After a meal in the main dining room, we then go to the Captain’s Reception in the theatre were the officers of the ship are introduced (in six languages). Afterwards, we stay to watch the dance and gymnastics show called the Abyss. Then it’s off for a nighttime cocktail and back to the cabin to do it all over again.
Day 3:
We get closer to Funchal with another sea day. We are beginning to find our routine on sea days which largely includes sauna, food, and relaxation. We take this day to give a short room tour of our cabin. We booked a Premium Aft Balcony. While we were concerned with the stated size of 192 square feet, we actually found the room to be quite deep and feels more than spacious enough. It does suffer from lack of storage space for clothes, although Tracey’s cabin hacks has recouped space for all of our clothes. The bathroom is small, but is easily workable.
There were three issues with the room that make it far from perfect.
The bed is awfully firm. Our room steward put another mattress protector underneath that helped a tiny bit, but unfortunately the ship does not have the egg carton, foam mattress cover that we’ve enjoyed on other cruise lines. It’s sleepable—but not comfortable.
We’ve had aft balconies before and know that you will have more vibration in the aft than other parts of the ship. However, the vibration is far more than we’ve ever had before.
It is the aft balcony that convinced us to book this room with its wonderful view of the wake of the ship and largely being shielded from the wind. However, for some reason as soon as we left Barcelona, the balcony has been drenched with salt water making the balcony largely unusable.
115 days to go.