Written by Kim
We had a relaxing day at sea exploring the beautiful ship. The ship holds 5,700 passengers which is slightly larger than both Freedom and Anthem on Royal. We only have about 4,300 passengers on this sailing so it’s comfortable. You can get seats by the pool and tables in the buffet normally. We are enjoying exploring a new beautiful ship. It has a large atrium which is four levels high. I think I said eight the other day (but I realized the ceiling is mirrored. Duh! 🤦♀️) The stairs are beautiful but so hard to navigate as you’re walking down. I always think of my friend, Patty, falling on similar stairs so avoid them as much as possible.
One of their signature features is the Bridge of Sigh on the 16th deck at the aft of the ship. It has a glass floor looking down to an infinity pool on deck 8.
There is also an infinity bridge on Deck that overlooks the water
Dinner was in the main dining room, Tribeca. Things around the ship are named for places in NY – Central Park dining room, Brooklyn Bar, Times Square open area. It was formal night in the dining room so second day we had lobster. They are the small Caribbean lobster but it was surf and surf with grilled shrimp. Our servers, Shandu from Kenya and Darfranklin from South Africa were excellent. We called them brothers from another mother.
The theater is pretty small for the number of passengers on the ship so you need to have reservations for all the shows. It only holds 1,200 people or 20% of ship’s capacity. We learned that on a board before boarding so booked our reservations as soon as we were on board for all shows. The shows are good but not quite as good as Royal. My comparison is that MSC theater shows are like university level where Royal is close to Broadway. They are very good but no live orchestra, limited sets (mostly video graphics, simpler choreography and a little less polished – out of sync a bit). I’m enjoying the shows
The sports bar is really nice. It has all pods with tvs – some that seat 2, some seat 4 or 10. Everyone can watch their own game if they don’t want to sit at the bar. They also have a bunch of slot machines and sports betting if you want.
Our first port was Costa Maya. We’ve been here and did the tour to the ruins so decided we would just get off the ship and walk around the port a bit and maybe go in the pool at the port but instead we walked around less than an hour and got back on the ship to enjoy the quiet pool. The shop owners were hounding us to buy stuff and I was just not having it. Guess I’m getting old!
I’ll post more pics of the pools and other areas of the ship in my next post. Tomorrow we are in Belize but I don’t think we will get off the ship. Until then…,,
