iluvcruising2

Time for lunch! Today was a sea day, so we were on board the ship. We would have our lunch in the Yacht Club restaurant. This is the video I made of our lunch experience. Pictures to follow.

This was the House White for lunch. If you watch the video, I also had some of the House red. Ok, I loved to try all these House wines. All good!


A small piece of bread on the side. I like the size of the bread - small. Just a bite, not too much. Already, too much to eat on the cruise. If you had a larger appetite, you could take as many pieces as you cared for. No issues at all.


These were pieces of scallops. Refreshing starter.


Veal Chop. A main course. Kids loved the fries.


A nice piece of freshly grilled fish. Felt very healthy eating this. Certainly a good option if you were minimizing calories.


A photo of the cheese table, where they prepare the cheese plate. I didn't ask for one today. Cool.

iluvcruising2

Sea day, just walk around, enjoy the ship. I pay a visit to the gym and spa area. It was a very pleasant area of the ship.


A video I made of the gym and the Spa Bar (just outside the gym). The gym was fairly large and well equipped. Even though this was a sea day, it wasn't crowded. The spa bar outside the gym had many interesting cocktails (based on colour themes) for 4.5Euros. I didn't see many customers at the Spa Bar though.

This art piece caught my attention. It was rather inspirational. I couldn't do this pose, or perhaps if I tried I would break something along the way!


This section of the ship is called the MSC Aurea Spa, Rest and Relax. Even though I didn't do any spa activities, it was a calming place just to walk around! The gym is located within the Aurea spa.


Yet another art piece striking a pose that looks easy, but in reality, no joke.


This is the MSC Preziosa Aurea Spa, and I show you some of the prices of the spa treatments.

Continue to explore, the ship, this must have been one of the bar venues.


This is the dinner menu for the Main Dining Room this evening.


Second part of the dinner, same evening.

iluvcruising2

Let's move on to dinner. It was Italian night and the waiters were appropriately dressed!


The menu, in a different colour this evening. It was Italian Night!


Here is a video I made of the dinner experience. Very good dinner as usual!

This was the menu.


The House white for this evening.


This was the main course, beef. This portion was well done, for the kids.


This was my portion. I asked for medium. Went very well with the red wine!

iluvcruising2

This being a sea day, one would expect the cruise staff to organize more onboard activities to entertain guests. So these snapshots show you the MSC Daily activities for this sea day. Main theatre tonight was a night of Italian songs.


Here are the activities for the day. Top half of the page.


Activities - bottom half of the page.


Later that evening of the sea day, after dinner, we went around exploring the ship again. This was the cafeteria italiano.


This looked delicious. The prices were reasonable, I thought. But we didn't buy any since we already had too much to eat.


And we came to this bag shop, which somehow we hadn't really explored before!


Plenty of bags on display sale today.


Decided to make a video and show you some of the prices of the bags on board. I am not expert in such bags so I have no idea whether the prices were good. You tell me.

iluvcruising2

The main centrum - atmosphere was pretty good. Everybody seemed relaxed and having a good time.


I am pretty sure these were the same instrumentalists who performed beautifully at the private party for Yacht Club guests earlier. A violinist and pianist duo.


Walked into a shop that sold nutella. Cute.


I stopped by at the American Sports Bar to check out the place. This place sold food like burgers too. Here is a video I made of the Sports Bar (which was showing Italian football that evening) as well as the menu of this eatery. You have to pay for the food. However, the prices looked ok for a cruise ship. E.g. Club Sandwich, 3.5Euro. Chicken wrap 4 Euros. Check out the menu!

Here is a photo. Sorry i can't get it to stand upright.


An MSC Preziosa jersey? Cool eh.


Later that evening, we went to the theatre to catch the show, which was a night of Italian songs. This was the later show. Overall, we found that the theatre was often not very full. Not too difficult to find a seat, even if you went late.


We preferred to sit on the upper level, and not the main level. From here, you could look down at all the other passengers.


I managed to take this video of the "time to say goodbye" performance. Well, because the ship takes on pax at every port, there is no way they can ensure that the goodbye show is the correct one for all passengers! hah.

All right, this wraps up our only sea day on this 7N sailing. Tomorrow, we arrive in Barcelona!

CatchThePigeon

Just to say I'm continuing to really enjoy this TR iluvcruising2. So thanks again.

Looking at your most recent photos, there don't appear to be many children on board. Was that the case, or is it because these were taken late at night? And can I ask, did your children enjoy the cruise or did they get bored by the end of it?

Looking forward to the next installment from Barcelona.

iluvcruising2

Thanks for your comment!

You are right that there weren't that many kids on this cruise. I think it wasn't school holiday season in Europe. There were some kids in the kids' club and when you look at the pools but generally, you didn't get the sense that the ship had many kids when you walked around.

My kids enjoyed the cruise as they are a bit older now. They didn't use the kids' club. They enjoyed the YC facilities, and often just stayed in our cabin and balcony to chill.

iluvcruising2

Today, the ship will dock in Barcelona and we will spend some time to view the Sagrada Familia and La Rambla. As I was going through my videos and pictures for the trip report, I came across this video footage which I had forgotten about. This was taken as we walked along La Rambla, in the direction of the cruise port. Suddenly, these illegal hawkers packed up their wares and disappeared into the side alleys. Why? I figured that a police patrol or some law enforcement was approach. They obviously had a good early warning system. Which makes you wonder - in this day and age, shouldn't there be video cameras along such a busy and touristy street to assist law enforcement? Anyway, here is the short clip.

This morning, we had breakfast in the Yacht Club, as per our usual practice.


This was a video I made of the breakfast. As the ship docked only at 0900hrs, there was plenty of time for time for breakfast.

After breakfast, there was time to walk around the ship, as she was in the process of docking and seeking clearance. Some photos from the Garden pool area (which is located at aft of the ship). You can see the coaches.


A bridge linking the cruise terminals to the main land.


A clearer view of the bridge.


And here is a video I made while standing near the Garden pool. Saw many new cars being driven on a Ro-Ro ship too.

We got off the ship and walked to the cruise port taxi stand which was very near. There was a long line of taxis. They all went by the meter. We asked how much it would cost to get to Sagrada Familia and the driver said 25 Euros. True enough, the meter read 25 Euros thereabouts by the time we got to the Sagrada. This is the route from the cruise port to the Sagrada Familia, from Google Maps.Distance about 8.5km.


Here is a video of the taxi ride. The driver was a chatty guy who could speak English well. He told us that he also doubled up as a tour guide and showed us some brochures on his day packages for cruise ship passengers. He tried his best to convince us to book him for the day, but we decided against it since we didn't have plans to see so many places. Just wanted to do the Sagrada and the La Rambla.

iluvcruising2

The sight that greeted us when we arrived. Impressive.
.

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Catalan pronunciation: [səˈɣɾaðə fəˈmiɫiə]; English: Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica, as distinct from a cathedral, which must be the seat of a bishop. (From wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia)

The construction was ongoing, at a fairly rapid pace. Later, within the cathedral, we could hear all the construction noises. We were told that all the ticket entrance money was used to fund the continued building of this Cathedral.


Here is a video while touring the Sagrada Familia, and subsequently went up the tower. We bought our tickets in advance, and brought the print-outs. No problems using them. It was a good idea to buy tickets in advance. See 3:52 of the video for the long ticket line. I have been to a good number of Cathedrals in Europe and I must say that this one is very different. (Granted it is a minor basilica and not technically a cathedra) The design is very different. Gaudi, inspired by nature and the forest, designed the columns to look like a forest, so we were told.

Some pictures from our visit. Inside the Sagrada Familia.


Even though the plaec was crowded with people and the din from the construction was clearly audible, the entire place felt very peaceful.


This place would be magnificent when it is finally completed.


Outside, I spotted this turtle holding up the column. Tough job. I hope its shell doesn't crack.


This was a big poster covering a door that they would ultimately construct. Notice the words. It was the same verse from the Bible in many different languages. What was this famous verse? Easily spotted, just read a language that you know.


Another view.


There was a small museum in the basement that gives you a run through of the history of the Sagrada Familia. This place is always associated with Gaudi.


The most interesting artefact in the museum was this. What was this? An inverted model designed by Gaudi for structural calculations of the Cathedral. We are talking about 19th Century technology here.


After the guided tour in English, we went up the tower. (We had bought our tickets online, earlier). There were lifts bringing you up. We didn't spend too long up there, just took some photos and came back down.


This completes our visit to the Sagrada. We decided to grab a quick bit at a McDonald's opposite before heading to La Rambla. Earlier in the morning, we had scouted around the area a bit. Here is a video of the McDonalds from the oustide. It is right beside a Costa Coffee. The McDonalds had complimentary Wi-Fi, which was useful!

And here is what we ate for the light lunch. Total cost of 12.10Euros!

Here is a photo of the receipt.

iluvcruising2

After lunch, it was time to head to La Rambla. The plan was to take a taxi there, explore the street and then head back to the ship. There were taxis waiting at a taxi stand outside Sagrada, so getting a cab was very easy. Again, it was by meter and the cost to La Rambla was about 10 Euros. Here is the video of the taxi ride.

The taxi driver dropped us off at the northern end of La Rambla, which was good, since we would want to walk southwards towards the cruise port. The weather was gorgeous, even though this was in the winter. Wonderful to walk around. The center of the street was pedestrainized, making it easy to walk.


Here is a video showing footage of our walk on La Rambla.

Pretty good crowds too. Not sure if they were locals or tourists.


We were in La Rambla, Barcelona.


Hotel Le Meridien was here. Centrally located.


The flowers were gorgeous! Bear in mind that this was in December. I didn't expect to see any flowers.


It was warm enough for people to be eating al fresco. There were many of such eateries, and the prices were in this ballpark.


As we walked along La Rambla, we spotted this market, which looked very interesting from the outside. Not know what this place was all about, we decided to walk in to take a look.


It was awesome! The colours, the smells, the vibrancy of the place. Check out the video I made.

So pretty and colourful!


Within the market, there were a good number of such eateries where people sat at the bar counter and had fresh seafood with wine. The smells were really good!


Staff were naturally very busy. Business was very good!

iluvcruising2

As we continued our walk along La Rambla, spotted these apartments.


We stopped at some gift shops to buy a couple of magnets (Kids wanted).


We walked all the way to this junction roundabout. We would hail a taxi shortly thereafter to bring us back to the cruise ship.


This video footage was taken as we rode in a taxi back to the cruise ship. We have to cross the same bridge and you can see from the footage a good number of passengers walking, both walking back towards and ship as well as coming out from the ship.

We are getting back on the ship. Smooth and easy. No crowds as we were relatively early.


Once on board, we headed to the One Pool buffet area to grab some food.


Also a good time to catch up on the papers!


Headed back into air-conditioned comfort in the Top Sail Lounge.


After that, we went to walk around the ship. This was at the aft of the ship.


They have an F1 simulator on Deck 16. The cost was 8 Euros for a 6 minute race.


Here is a video I made of the video arcade on Deck 16. I didn't come to this part of the ship very often, so I do not know if the machines are well used. But since they are right on top of the teen club, there is probably some business.

Walking outside, this was the water slide that I rode on some days back. This was supposedly the longest single-body waterslide on a cruise ship.



In case you have forgotten, this was the ride experience on video!

The sun was setting now. On the left of this photo, you can see another cruise ship docked at a terminal ahead of us. I think it was a Costa ship. She arrived later than us.


Oh, before I reach dinner, I made another video on whether you can walk from the cruise terminal to La Rambla. This video gives you an idea how far the walk would be. We didn't walk, we took a taxi. That said, I saw a good number of people doing the walk. Maybe my threshold of waking distance is lower than theirs.

iluvcruising2

Now, dinner! By now, we were so used to the wonderful food in the Yacht Club restaurant, it was time to get nostalgic, because this would be our second last dinner for this cruise. And what did we have to eat tonight? Lobster! Let me zoom in straight to the highlight. In this video, a very short one, you see my dinner.

And this is a longer video, showing you more of what we ate for dinner. In this video, you can hear me giving some commentary.

Let me follow on with some stills. The restaurant. By now, I figured that the YC restaurant was probably large enough to accommodate almost all guests, even if we all came at the same time for our meal. I did a quick count of the seats and I came to that conclusion. I read somewhere that the Yacht Club on the MSC Preziosa had 63 cabins. In our case, we were always ushered to the same table every night, regardless of what time we arrived, though most nights we came early, at around 6:30pm. We always had the same waiter and same assistant waiter, which meant that we could build up a rapport with them.


The House White. I found all the House wines very easy to drink. Alright, I'm not a sophisticated drinker. Normally, back in Singapore, I don't even drink unless I go out for social functions and drinks were included in the menu then I would have some. So, please don't think that I am a very selective wine consumer.


This was the House Red. Also very good.


My kids weren't fan of lobster, so one of them took the beef.


And the other chose this dish. Frankly, .I don't remember what this was. Grilled chicken breast maybe.


This was the lobster tail.


Overall, it was another awesome dinner. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Felt a bit sad as this was the second last dinner of the cruise. Tomorrow night would be the last dinner in the YC restaurant for this cruise. Sob.

This evening the production show was pretty good. It was called Pandora. An apt name for the show because it basically means that it could be anything and everything, like a Pandora's box perhaps.


The show was a mish-mash of singing, dancing, acrobatic acts. All fun and entertaining to watch. This particular performance by three very bendy Chinese girls left us feeling very inflexible. Not sure how they could make their bodies contort like that!

At the end of the exciting show, all the cast and even some crew came on stage to join the singing of 'We are the World' song.

Here is a picture of the stage. Good show!


And now let me talk about pizza. Well, just room service pizza. In the Yacht Club, you get complimentary pizza from Eataly delivered to your cabin. Order through the concierge and it takes about 20 minutes. Check the Daily planner for the availability hours. Here is the video.

The box looks like this. This was only the second pizza we ordered on our cruise. There is so much to eat, no real need for room service pizza.


Make your own, I asked for cheese and ham. Remember, the pizza is Italian style. They do not have the range of ingredients that an American-style pizza may have.


Oh, as the pizza arrived, Donald Trump causing plenty of controversy. This was December 2015.


Before I reach the final full day on board the MSC Preziosa (which would be in Marseilles), two more videos. The first one was some line dancing by passengers on board the ship as we were sailing towards Marseilles, after leaving Barcelona. Looked like there were having a lot of fun indeed.

This video shows you the prices of laundry on board. They had some packages, but ultimately we didn't use the laundry services.

iluvcruising2

This would be our last port of call, for this cruise. The view from our balcony this morning.


In this video, some footage of the MSC Preziosa docking in Marseilles, from my balcony.

Oh, the sun is in my eye.


Even though it was rather cold this morning, we decided to have breakfast at the One Pool area, and we were the only ones there!


Here is the video of our breakfast experience. It was chilly that morning.

The place was empty. Would have been an ideal place for breakfast if it were a little warmer. Oh well, this is a December sailing so can't ask for too much!


Alright, after breakfast, it was time to get off the ship. Looking over. No, the way to get off is not to jump. Please remember that


As usual, I will be using my smartphone maps to guide the walking. I use an app called CityMaps2Go, which doesn't require a data connection.


We are off the ship and on the pier. I look up, and spotted this.


We were in Terminal A. The plan was to follow the signs and walk to the complimentary port shuttle stop. Here is one such sign.


Turned out to be a fairly long walk, though the ground was flat. Here is a video of the walk. Hope it is a useful reference.

More photos of the walk. We weren't the only ones walking.


Flat ground. Bright and sunny.


The MSC Preziosa. Notice the taxis. Plenty of them available. They knew that a ship was in port, so they drove in to join the line to pick up passengers.


These signs popped up once in a while. Gave me the assurance that I was headed in the correct direction. Well, there was only one direction to head towards anyway.


And we exited the port gates.


The bus was crowded. If you watch the video, you will see that we just made it and were the last passengers to board the bus before it left. Otherwise, it would probably have been a 20 minute wait. After a 15 minute or so ride on the bus, we alighted at the port gates.


This is what the area immediately outside the port gate after we alight from the free bus looked like.


And we started our walk towards the old port. It would take us about 20 minutes of moderate paced walking.


Spotted this tiny car parked.


A short video taken only Rue de la Republicque, Marseilles.

iluvcruising2

It was a very bright and sunny day, though the temperature was not warm at all, probably in the low 10s (referring to degrees celsius). Spotted the petite train. We wanted to take that today.


They had many trams waiting. Wonder when we will depart. Anyway, we got our tickets (8Euros per adult and 4 Euros per child) and it was time to board the tram.


Here is a video of the tram ride to the parking lot of Notre-Dame de la Garde. It was a very scenic ride which took about 20 minutes. We got to see some parts of the shoreline from higher up. The long tram had to navigate narrow streets and that was quite cool to watch.

At the end of the ride, we were dropped off at the carpark, which looked like this. Come back here to take the tram back to the old town. The ticket covers both ways, so don't lose it!


As we headed to the cathedral, I spotted this sign. Yes, beware of pickpockets.

iluvcruising2

I saw a significant number of older looking tourists huffing and puffing as they scaled these steps. We didn't have to. I was wondering where they came from until I realised that most of them came from tour coaches. The tour coach stop is farther down hill (compared to the carpark where we alighted from), so the climb up was longer. Be prepared!


The views from up here were gorgeous. Look carefully and you can see somebody holding up a placard with the number 2. Cruise ship tour.


Climb all the way up to this lookout point for the best views of Marseilles.


In this video, you see some views of Marseilles from the look-out point, followed by scenes from inside the Cathedral.

In this video, a longer run-through of the place as I walk around. You can see many more steps in this video. Watching again, I realised that this place wasn't disabled friendly. Plenty of steps to climb, so be prepared.

We spent about 45 minutes at the Cathedral and it was time to make our way back to the old port. When we got back to the carpark, the tram was about to leave. Just in time! Otherwise, we would have to wait for another 20 minutes.


The tram took a more direct route back to where we started, unlike the scenic route on the way up. The journey was faster, less than 15 minutes. Here is video of the tram ride going back to the old port.

We were back to where we started. The tram looked to be very popular. More people buying tickets now.


Goodbye tram and have a good day!


I recall we did not do too much after that. It was very sunny and we don't really like hanging out in the sun. We did go to this sign to take a photo.


Since we had plenty of time, we decided to walk back to the pick-up point for the port shuttle to take the shuttle back. This was the sign outside the gate. Take note the days that the shuttle operated. Only Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Thursday.


It took a while for the bus to arrive. Meanwhile, the guard didn't let us into the waiting area and all of us were waiting outside. A crowd had formed.


The bus used was a long bendy-bus. So it was rather large. Still, it was full of passengers going back to the ship. Here is a picture of the crowd on board.


Another picture. Overall the ride was smooth. Well, it was free, so can't complain too much.


After we got off the bus, it was time to make the walk back to the ship.


Well, take note that the MSC Preziosa has many passengers and when many pax want to return the ship at more or less the same time, long lines will form. So, patience is required.


People seemed fine with the lines. Common sight by now.


In this video, I show you more of the lines to get back on board the ship.