Traveler

let the party start:

The travelers are back to Royal ! Our last cruise was a famely cruise on MSC (yap better Pizza) due to famely demand (shame right , I felt to educate them ) but we are back again. And what a better comeback than Icon of the seas ? December became our US cruise month , it's decent price flights , my spouse birthday and weather is nice (at least it supposed to be). I was looking for a while to try Icon so when last year I saw it appearing in the club royal instant certificate I grabbed it and quickly booked both a cabin and a flight. We will visit St Thomas, St Martin and PDCC. We booked a night flight to Miami , unfortunately few days ago I got an email saying the flight was pushed to the early morning which later became morning. So it became a day flight and instead of landing at 7 am in Miami we landed around 3 PM. As we never book a flight on a cruise day we were OK , but still for over the pound flight we prefer night flight. After 12 hours, few movies and even few ours if work we arrived Immigration was funny as the officer asked four the purpose of the visit and started to give us tips and advise regarding Icon. Apparently he is also work at Immigration in the Miami cruise terminal and got to go up the Icon for tours few times. We went directly to the hotel, we picked again the intercontinental, we love the location, the huge rooms and the ambiance. Unfortunately, no port view this time. Now we are ready to go to the port. Not before I almost done a huge mistake. We'll after 20+ cruises, when the preparation becomes automatic already I went to do the last part , luggage tag ... I pre print it so all I had to do is fold the pages and insert them to the cases. While preparing it I notice suddenly the word suite , which is always nice, but unfortunately thus time we only have balcony... Well , I printed our tag from the last RC cruise , so there was a good chance that maybe our luggage would enjoy the suite life (I am sure they would go to the Costal kitchen for the first day) but we would cruise without anything. This issue was quickly fixed by going to the in-house FedEx office and print the right tags. WJ next ...

During the last year - fearing my flight will be canceled/airport will be shutdown ... Forgetting passport/credit cards/phone , everything else can be purchase. And the most wort one is the MDR mangers running after me in the last cruise day.

The regular check in which was opened for me (also for others) was 11:30 , suites can come 30 minutes earlier . Will check this week and see if 10:30 is possible .

Well , I guess Royal need also to lock the balconies since people can fail from the rail , (even infinity balcony has its risks as people can lean on the open window). They should also closed all the open decks as people can fail from the decks . They should also stop serving people food with sugar as some people might have hidden diabetes. Stop putting salt in the food as it might impact blood pressure. Stop serving hot coffee from the same reason. All food should be gluten free And so on and so on , Why people should take any responsibilities ?

Like any cruise , this cruise also ended. Embarkation was very smooth without any issues and we took the shuttle back to the Kiel train station, took our rented cars and head back to Berlin airport. I have create a small table to compare between the MSC ship and RC Oasis class ships , added green background to whoever I thought doing better job per subject. I hope you will find it useful, let me know if you have any questions :

Day 7 - Sea day. Last day arrived and is a sea day , it was a very foggy and rainy day. All activities were inside . Such weather for last day will never happen in RC cruises , MSC should do better job :-). Breakfast at the buffet (Market place) it was not too cruded as people took there time to wake up. Ther were few events going on including the top tier event which was conducted in the middle of the promenade for some reason. I went again to the casino which was empty. MSC casino loyalty point system give you one point for every three Euro you spend. From 10000 points (30000 Euro) you get inside cabin for free. If I am not mistaken, you get inside cabin in RC from 4000 points (20000 Dollar) but in MSC you are not paying the tax and port fee and no limit to which cruise you can take. After contributing even more money we went to check the buffet and meet the family. It was the last day buffet so they served special desserts, they were pretty good. We went to rest and check some other activities like the car race simulator and the 4xd cinema. We went to the thermal spa for the last time and met for some more card games. For dinner we all booked the local Hibachi table as special meal for the end of the cruise. You get shushi, soap , salad , fish/shrimp , fried rice and a main dish. The show is the same show as at any Hibachi table , the meet was not as good as RC , but overall it was nice experience that I glad I shared with the famely. After dinner we went to watch the a singing show that was conducted with the ship big band , very impressive with 19 people band .

Day 6 - Flam. Flam is one of my favorite port on this itinerary as it's the easiest to spell , please guys , keep it simple. We arrived to port around 8 and breakfast as usual was in the buffets. No crazy lines today so it was nice. Same food everyday but the selection is big enough. I am happy as long as I have my cinnamon buns. For today we booked the round trip on the Flam train , we have done it on the visit the fjords site , around third of the price of the ship excursion... No need to use ship excursion here , the train station is 5 minutes from the ship and easy to find. The por area is lovely with some hotel and restaurants. It was a rainy day but not that bad. It's recommended to come at least 30 minutes before the boarding time to be able and catch windiw seats (best on the right side were you can catch most of the landscape). The train route is 20 KM going from 0 meters to 860 meters above sea level. On the way we passed some ship farms, waterfalls and ready lovely view. On the way up the train stops for 5 minutes near a big waterfall , you can go down from the train and listen to some Norwegian traditional song and a show performs up the hill that represents a myth creature who allure people into the mountain . Did not worked at me , I stayed down and went to the train. The train arrives it's final station were you can switch to another train that will take you all the way to Bergen. We stayed on the train and did the route down back to Flam. We stop again at the waterfall. All in all its around 2.5 hours. We got back to Flam and back on the ship to catch lunch and drop the girls to there cabin , I guess it was too much nature for them for one day. We went to drink some hot chocolate drink and enjoy the view We went back to the village to tour it. Here is the gangway, as you see very steep We went to train museum (free admission) were you can see how they build the tracks and see some devices used to go up the tracks for inspection and bring people to the different location I'm sure the guy who operate those bicycle was in a very good shape to go all the way up the hill We continue to go up to have a better view of the area. There few tracks to choose from , guess which one we took Back to the ship we went again to fo alcohol testings, this time it was Vodka tasting. Lucky for us the barman convince us to do Rum tasting instead, good call. This time my spouse joined my brother and me. Oh , they don't have Krakan Rum, nor even know it , lots of points lost for MSC. We done a survey were to eat dinner today and it was voted for the buffet, it was OK , not that bad , funny for the Rum tasting people. There was a white party today with many participants, not me as i forgot to bring white shirt and rules are rules. Sea day tomorrow.

One of the advantages of MSC is the late snacks bar until 1 am (Pizza until 2 am) you can get salads, pizza , hot and cold sandwiches, french fries, hotdogs and more, although you can get sandwiches and pizza during the night in RC ships , fries, salads and hot sandwiches is a nice addition with a drinking package

Day 5 Alesund Alesund is a mid size town near one of Norway fjords , the port is adjust to the city and 5 minutes walk from the city center. We arrived around 9 am which allowed us to enjoy breakfast before going to visit the town. This was the nice view from the ship: This Is a picture of the view point on the hill above the city it's 420 stairs which we did not done this trip ... (our excuse was my father ) We went down to roam the beautiful town for few hours , it was nice sunny day. As you can see Aida ship was also visiting the town on the same day. After the city visit we got some rest and more board games with the famely. Before dinner my brother and I went to try the whiskey tasting event. We were the only one there so it was a private event. For 20 Euros you get to taste five different whiskies , water and five different chocolate pralines so it's a very good offer. We enjoy the tasting and the information which the barman share with us. After the this event we went to dinner again in the MDR , nothing special to report beside that the waiters brought us many extra plates of first and desserts. Tomorrow Flam

Not at all, this is just the end of the session, July August much warmer. We done a fjord cruise with RC on May 2024 and I was wearing T-shirt all the time while it was sunny. I understood we were lucky for May. Here is the same Greinanger fjord pictures from May (were we visit the port of Greinanger) Find the difference:-) The same waterfall from this week

The weather was cold but was not rainy. It was around 7C (44F) I was with a windbreaker and a cotoon sweater so not that bad as it was not windy. On the ship I am with t-shirt.

Day 4 - Hellsesylt Trying to catchup Today we arrived to Hellsesylt. Hellsesylt is a small village located in one I'd the fjord extention of the Storfjorden , nearby another curve of this fjord is the famous Geiranger fjord. We done are way into the fjord at the early morning, I did woke up early to take advantage of the balcony and take some pictures (yap it was crazy me in the balcony at 38 f in his underwear) it eas worse it We arrive around 8:30 to the village , the ship docking very near the village and here is what we saw from our balcony: Later on we went for breakfast (crowded, very crowded) and took some pictures from the upper deck: We went down to tour the lovely village Later we went up some road to have a nicer view of the waterfall. We went back to grab lunch, I must say the gangway procedure was quite chaotic as they used both checking points for entry and exit from the ship ... Post lunch we went to a boat tour that took us to the Geiranger fjord. It's was nice and allowed us to see the watfalls from close proximity Have to catch some sleep now ...

One world about hygiene . In MSC (at least on Euribia) there aren't any washy washy guys at the buffet. There nice washing stations and some hand disinfect stations but it's seems no one use them at all. Washrooms are all set without any touch which is nice but no disinfect stands near them or near most of the venues, which as royal veteran is very strange and I must say also scary. Not sure if it is because lack of stuff or just there policies.

Day 3 continue Post breakfast we went to one of the lounge with all the group to play some card and board games , it's nice to have a group to do it with. We continued to the chocolate store to drink excellent coffee (Italian company after all) and sample some chocolates which were very good We visit again the spa and went to rest. One thing still very confus me and its how to get info about what is going on , they have application and some digital cruise compas but missing a daily show that describe some main activities, not sure why they are not doing that as it's a nice way to get a summary of the important things for the day and the next day. I also went to check the casino, it's a modern one with all new games bit missing Buffalo and multiple screen games. It's quite small for that size of a ship has only 10 tables 4 of them are roulette and noon crap tables. You can get money on your room account but there is not any ATM on the ship , all the games are using Euros. Dinner was again in the MDR , this time we already new what to expect and order also bottle of wine which made our table very happy:-) . Food is decent but RC MDR is better , mainly in the meats dishes. We missed the show today but enjoy music in another lounge. Tomorrow first Fjord port

Yes , they did a real good job there, I did not thought it's going to be that big. Hope royal will take an example.

J⁸Day 3 - Sea day So today is the first sea day which allow us to explore the ship. The ship is 180 thousand tons , so it's somewhere between Independence class and Oasis class. The ship has four pools (one big one and one inside big pool) and many Jacuzzies. There is full section for the Yacht club. Breakfast we took in the local buffet. They have excellent pastries and breads , lots of cold cuts and nice cheese selections and most important for me warm cinnamon buns here goes my diet. I think at that aspect to my opinion, they are doing better job than RC. They even have a factory for mozzarella

Day 2 Copenhagen. We arrived at the morning to Copenhagen port. This port is also an embarkation port for more passengers who join the ship or leave it so we get to experience the safety drill again. The Muster drill is very strange , a combination of old and new. First you are being called to go to the stateroom. Once the alarm starts you need to watch a safety video . At the end of the safety video you are getting a phone number you need to call to confirm you watched the video. This call is automatically answered. After the call you are requir to go down to your assembly station and scan your card ... We both never been to Copenhagen before so we decided to go to the city center. There are two options for that: first you can take a ship shuttle bus that cost 17 E return ticket or you can just take the free bus (number 25) from the peer which will bring you to the subway station. From the subway it's 3 E per direction. We took the bus and subway and after 25 minutes we arrived the city center (near the train station) Tivoli garden are also near by , Tivoli gardens are one of the oldest amusement park in the world that still active. We thought to visit it but it was very rainy so we decided to skip it and just drink a coffee , look around and go back to the ship. Back on the ship we went to try the thermal spa. Our cruise fee included access to the thermal spa (otherwise around 100$ PP) . The thermal spa on Euribia is very impressive, it contains 2 dry sauna, two wet saunas, 2 Turkish Hamam , two big Jacuzzies and a salt room. It also include a "car wash" shower that you walk in a tunnel under four different showers each with different water temperature. I must say it's a very impressive thermal spa comparing to RC ships and even to some big land hotel spas. Salt room Car wash One of the smallest steam room We enjoyed our time there. MSC done excellent job there , one thing was missing , a nice water station:-) Dinner today was at the buffet. One nice extra in the buffet is a call button which you can press and a beverage waiter will come to take your order post dinner we want to see the daily showc, this time it was about rock show , which brought many classic rock song , very energetic and enjoyable. In MSC you can not pre book the show nor you know what showes they going to have. Every night they open the ability to reserve the next night show. Every show performs 3 times , 7:30 pm , 9 pm and 10:30 pm. If you did not reserve you can stil stand in the standby line. Guess which song was performed... tomorrow sea day.

I agree that in most of Europe it's like that (I think in Italy is different and the UK) but the fact the only place to get watter is in the buffet it's not a pleasant surprise. Not that it's a huge issue as we just order few bottles to the table whenever we are in the MDR.

Yes , much better pizza and it's self service , size is also bigger.

Day 1 - Kiel embarkation. We stayed at the unique hotel by Atlantice, it remind me the Moxie hotels by Marriott, small room , no place to store things but very modern. It was good for our requirements. Breakfast is not included and you pay per item like in Starbucks, prices also the same ... I went to return the car to the local Avis agency and walked back to the hotel. At checkout time (11 AM) we went to the nearby train station (Two blocks from our hotel) we booked a shuttle to the ship for 20 return tickets. The good thing is they take the luggage at the shuttle station. Very convenient. The bus ride is around 15 minutes. Once we arrived to port we got into the line of check in , our boarding time was 12 PM but no one checked it. It was 20 minutes line, 5 minute check in (with an agent that spoke only German but we managed with the few words I knew, thank you grandma) followed by 5 minutes walk to the security check. Lines to the security were around 5 minutes and off we went on the ship. I must say , RC doing better job during embarkation. Euribia is a new big ship (2023 I think) she looks very nice and it has very long promenade with led celling which allow the to change it from time to time. The nice thing about MSC (at least on this port) is that they allow you to go yo your room once you embarked. If it's ready , good , if the cabin attended still working on it , no issue , you can drop your hand luggage. We booked a balcony stateroom and it is the size of RC stateroom from the same category. It has USB port on each side of the bad , two USA outlets and two European, one is used for a water kettle. There is one closet 3 drawers and that's it, I will say much less storage place comparing to same age RC ship. The bathroom looked to be exactly the same as on RC , still less storage. Next we went to the buffet, all the food stands locate opposite to the wall and you can reach them only from one side. The buffet is big and beside the MDR it's the only free options for food. What they do better than RC is the buffet timing : breakfast 7 to 11:30 am , lunch 12 to 4:30 PM and dinner 5 to 10:00 PM , from 10:30 to 1 am there is a night buffet and Pizza until 2 Am. So no need to rush. The food during lunch was fine , they have to our opinion better pizza and very good assortment of bread. Our luggage arrived one by one, first one around 2 PM second around 6:30 PM , could not understand why but was happy to get it. Dinner was at the MDR , we arranged all to be seated at the same table and we even arrived on the same time (not an easy task to some of us in the group) . This was the my first real disappointment from MSC , they don't serve any regular water to the table ,only mineral water. Since we did not buy any drink package we had to pay per bottle (1 l cost 3.5 Euro) not the end of the world but annoying. They do offer a dinner lunch package only on the ship. You pay 15 Euro PP and you get during lunch and dinner mineral water , house wine and house beer (only at the MDR and the buffet). I got the risotto which was not bad. post dinner we went to see the daily show in the main theater. Actually they have shows only in the main theater and in some lounge. The show called illumination, a MSC product that is about a guy that get into video game . Lots of lights and lasers shows , it was nice. tomorrow Copenhagen

We got our rooms , most went to sleep but we decided to go to find a bar , after all it was our first time in Berlin. We found a near by bar , looked like a local bar , nice atmosphere and good beers. We tried some local beer and went back to the hotel. Breakfast was very good with allot of selection, it was crowded but it was easy to find table fir the six of us (2 were still dreaming about vacation). Post breakfast we went to tour around and some shopping for the cruise. In MSC you are not allowed to bring anything aboard, not wine nor even water or at least that what they are claiming. Around 1 PM we checked out of the hotel and order two big taxis to take us back to the airport. Once again the better option was to take the near by train but this trip I am not the organizer. We went to the renting car area just when a tragedy striked the 12 YO , she found out she left her phone in the taxi. Tragedy ended once we were able to call her phone and the taxi driver came back. I asked her what she prefer to loose the phone or her one of her parents, I will not write what she answered. We got our cars and star our way to Kiel, I proud to say I succeeded to find a way to find a space for all 4 suitcases in a midsized SUV trunk. Driving from Berlin Airport to Kiel is around four and a half hours , the first one hour we spent in a traffic jam , there was a stuck car which created this issue l. Rest was mostly smooth. One think interesting in Germany, in some of the autobahns (highway) you have only recommendation for 130 KPH speed limit , which mean you don't have a hard speed limit. So the trip went quite fast (not going to tell how fast) . We did one stop to grab quick bite and off to the road again. Finally we got to Kiel, my brother got almost one hour after, he thought the 130 KPH was a hard stopped but mostly he had to do three stops. Dinner was at one of the brewery, after all its October and therefore Octoberfest tomorrow boarding and what is the main difference between RC boarding process and MSC

Yes, I know its an RC fan site but I thought it might be interesting to compare the experience from the eye of a royal fan. So how we do found ourselves on the dark side ? The long story started half a year ago while my spouse and I went on Royal Caribbean cruise to the Norwegian fjords. I have done a mistake and publish the pictures on our famely what's up group. My brother spouse saw the pictures and asked how they can get on such cruise. I gave some links to RC itineraries and thought that will conclude the discussion. I dis not suspect it will start our journey down to the rabbit hole. Now , shame on me my brother famely cruise company of choice is MSC , mainly due to better itinerary dates, better embarkation ports from Europe and kids sail free fir most of the year. Several month ago my brother told me they have booked and October MSC cruise from Kiel Germany which happens during the kids holiday period. As we already planned our cruises for the next 18 month I thought we will skip this one and wish them a nice journey, but then my father and his wife told us they are joining. My father is 87 years old , young for his age and loyal to Royal , I could not let him lured to the dark side without us right ? Few mails to you are comp sites , sending my RC cassino offers and I got some OK offer for a balcony cabin in Euribia. So who is going ? This is the first time we are doing a cruise with my brother, so it's my brother, his wife , my two nieces (12 and 16) , my father and his wife , my spouse and me. First time for us going with so many famely members. Where ? Kiel Germany Copenhagen Denmark Sea day Hellsesylt Norway Alesund, Norway Falm, Norway. Plan was to take a direct flight to Berlin (not many flights if any to Kiel very small airport nor too many options for flights to Hamburg, the biggest city near by) , rent two cars and drive to Kiel. Few weeks ago the flight was changed to one day early so we decided to spent one night in Berlin, catching the train from the airport to the city. As always to make it interesting I just came back a day earlier from a business trip, just in time for repacking. Flight was smooth and we landed around 8 PM. My brother decide to surprise us and book a van for 8 of us from the airport to the city. I was wondering how we could squeeze 8 suitcases to a single minivan, well you can not , therefore I found myself carrying one suitcase on my knees. Ride was around 20 minutes (which I could use to "told you so" to my brother) we arrived tge hotel around 10 PM, The hotel we took was the Hampton inn , located near by a train station and walking distance from the famous Berlin TV tower. To be continued... Getting the news we are goingvon MSC cruise

That is why I am waiting for Discovery class so much It should be small enough for the very interesting itinerary but new with what I hope some interesting things.