EVERY CRUISE LINE HAS ITS OWN FLAVOR and Covid has turned everything upside down and all around. In addition to the cruise room/charge card that every cruise line uses, this time we have a bracelet that functions as a Covid-tracker in case someone on board becomes ill. It took a few days to became comfortable with Royal Caribbean and then Holland America and even Carnival post-Covid. We will eventually figure out MSC’s modus operandi, even if this is our only cruise with them.
Jean Stephan from Madagascar, the best thing on the ship!
The crew, the ones who actually sail the ship, seem to be Italian. The Cruise Director really impressed me—she gave the entire safety briefing in flawless (to my ears) Italian, English, German, French and Spanish and I think she also offered it in Dutch and Portuguese if anyone needed. I was happy just to recognize the languages! In addition to the usual Filipinos and Javans many of the room attendants and waitstaff are from Madagascar, Mauritius and Bali. They light up like Christmas trees when we tell them “Yes, we’ve been there.” But the robotic bartender just ignored us.
The Robotic Bartender
As expected many of our fellow travelers are Italians. There’s a pretty fair British contingent, a tour group from Norway and the usual wandering Dutchmen. We’ve heard some French and a bit of Russian (or Ukrainian, Latvian or whatever) but so far we have met only one American couple.
Valetta from our balcony
We’re cooling our heels in Valetta, Malta. We spent a few days here back in 2012 and couldn’t rationalize the cost for the ship’s HOHO bus tour. The harbor looks much different in the light of day than it did at 10:30 on a winter’s night and we’re still trying to orient ourselves. We watched as tugs eased MSC Orchestra out of dry dock and replaced it with sister ship Poesia.
MSC Orchestra gets an overhaul
Next stop, unless they cancel that too, is Piraeus, port for Athens.
