< Continued from page 2
We had all our dinners in the main dining room. We wanted a 2 person table for some private time this cruise, which can't be selected when you book the cruise as usual. So after boarding we went to the meeting room set up to handle dining requests, deck 6 next to the Zebra bar, and were fixed up. We thought the food was about average compared to other ships. There are usually 3 entrée choices on the Italian menu, 4 on big nights, and an American entree on the other side, plus 3 standards that can be ordered any day, beef steak, chicken scaloppini, and salmon.
These were generally adequate, and we always ordered an extra entrée different than the first 2 so we'd have an alternate if one didn't appeal. One night it was a bit wanting, the choices were meatballs with boiled potatos, red snapper, and spaghetti with clams. They could throw the first and last one together for a pretty good combo. Another night the 3 choices were swordfish, veal scaloppini, and mini-pasta, with the American alternate being pot roast which was delicious. Swordfish was good too. Loved the cannelloni, Cajun tilapia, prime rib, pot roast, and great lasagna. As a benchmark, we thought the seafood except for the lobster was as good as the Red Lobster chain, but the pasta dishes were not as flavorful as the Olive Garden chain except for the excellent lasagna. Service was efficient, food was never cold.
We pre-ordered the dinner wine package #556, 7 bottles for $67, which has to be done no less than 1 week before the cruise by printing the form on their website and then faxing it to MSC.
They sent no confirmation that they received it, but it was processed through our credit card 2 days before the cruise. This package says you get a choice of wines, but you don't, you can have either the house red or white each night. The red is the ship's Italian house wine, Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2008, which luck for us we found acceptable. If you wait till you're on the ship to order the package, it's $105, but you get choices, 3 reds from California, 5 whites (2 CA, 2 Italian, 1 German), and 2 roses (1 CA and 1 Italian). If you pre-order, the wine coupons are supposed to be delivered to your table the first night. Ours wasn't there, and fortunately I packed the order form, so I had to go and get it to show the head waiter before getting the wine. They ended up keeping this form, so you might want to black out your credit card number before giving it away, they don't need that info since it's been paid for.
We always select anytime dining on other cruises, and it's always worked out well, short waits for tables. After returning from ports it's usually about 7 by the time we're cleaned up and ready for a drink before dinner, so making the 5:30 time for first seating was quite a rush, and second seating is too late for us. When we mentioned this to our waiter he said 6pm would be no problem, and it was nice to have some extra time. Many people just came in then anyway, not too considerate of their table mates. The dining room dress code is not enforced. Nice that the code allows jeans on casual nights, but we also saw shorts which are not allowed, and on a formal night there was a t-shirt and ball cap. Overall this was not a dressy crowd, we saw only a few tuxes on formal nights. Average age was mid-forties.
Entertainment
The entertainment in the main theatre was good, interesting shows much like the other ships, one Cirque du Solei style, some magic, and a Michael Jackson tribute that was probably the hit of the cruise, he had Michael down pat, had everyone hopping. Most of the other big action is in the large Zebra lounge, get there before the theatre next door empties out at 9:30, standing room only after that. One night a conga line dance party, another night the crew dressed passengers in carnival costumes for some mob dance lesson laughter, quite a hoot, and another night a Travolta/Newton-John dance contest, pairs of crew and passengers doing a hilarious routine of 4 or 5 famous moves flipping the girls etc, to the tune of "You're the One That I Love". The crew did a great demo first, and then 2 chubby good sport passengers won top prize, they had us in stitches, got a bottle of champagne. The staff in the lounge really work hard to interact with the passengers, and succeeded in involving them in all the action. The Captain's cocktail reception the first formal night was the most bare bones we've been to, no hors d'oeuvres, what tasted like virgin martinis, and champagne. The MSC club past cruisers party was the same, no snacks, and the drinks were a red virgin fruit drink and champagne, I guess he thought we'd had enough to eat. Honeymooners and anniversaries were also invited to this one.
Page 4 > > MSC Poesia Cruise Review > >
We had all our dinners in the main dining room. We wanted a 2 person table for some private time this cruise, which can't be selected when you book the cruise as usual. So after boarding we went to the meeting room set up to handle dining requests, deck 6 next to the Zebra bar, and were fixed up. We thought the food was about average compared to other ships. There are usually 3 entrée choices on the Italian menu, 4 on big nights, and an American entree on the other side, plus 3 standards that can be ordered any day, beef steak, chicken scaloppini, and salmon.
These were generally adequate, and we always ordered an extra entrée different than the first 2 so we'd have an alternate if one didn't appeal. One night it was a bit wanting, the choices were meatballs with boiled potatos, red snapper, and spaghetti with clams. They could throw the first and last one together for a pretty good combo. Another night the 3 choices were swordfish, veal scaloppini, and mini-pasta, with the American alternate being pot roast which was delicious. Swordfish was good too. Loved the cannelloni, Cajun tilapia, prime rib, pot roast, and great lasagna. As a benchmark, we thought the seafood except for the lobster was as good as the Red Lobster chain, but the pasta dishes were not as flavorful as the Olive Garden chain except for the excellent lasagna. Service was efficient, food was never cold.
We pre-ordered the dinner wine package #556, 7 bottles for $67, which has to be done no less than 1 week before the cruise by printing the form on their website and then faxing it to MSC.
They sent no confirmation that they received it, but it was processed through our credit card 2 days before the cruise. This package says you get a choice of wines, but you don't, you can have either the house red or white each night. The red is the ship's Italian house wine, Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2008, which luck for us we found acceptable. If you wait till you're on the ship to order the package, it's $105, but you get choices, 3 reds from California, 5 whites (2 CA, 2 Italian, 1 German), and 2 roses (1 CA and 1 Italian). If you pre-order, the wine coupons are supposed to be delivered to your table the first night. Ours wasn't there, and fortunately I packed the order form, so I had to go and get it to show the head waiter before getting the wine. They ended up keeping this form, so you might want to black out your credit card number before giving it away, they don't need that info since it's been paid for.
We always select anytime dining on other cruises, and it's always worked out well, short waits for tables. After returning from ports it's usually about 7 by the time we're cleaned up and ready for a drink before dinner, so making the 5:30 time for first seating was quite a rush, and second seating is too late for us. When we mentioned this to our waiter he said 6pm would be no problem, and it was nice to have some extra time. Many people just came in then anyway, not too considerate of their table mates. The dining room dress code is not enforced. Nice that the code allows jeans on casual nights, but we also saw shorts which are not allowed, and on a formal night there was a t-shirt and ball cap. Overall this was not a dressy crowd, we saw only a few tuxes on formal nights. Average age was mid-forties.
Entertainment
The entertainment in the main theatre was good, interesting shows much like the other ships, one Cirque du Solei style, some magic, and a Michael Jackson tribute that was probably the hit of the cruise, he had Michael down pat, had everyone hopping. Most of the other big action is in the large Zebra lounge, get there before the theatre next door empties out at 9:30, standing room only after that. One night a conga line dance party, another night the crew dressed passengers in carnival costumes for some mob dance lesson laughter, quite a hoot, and another night a Travolta/Newton-John dance contest, pairs of crew and passengers doing a hilarious routine of 4 or 5 famous moves flipping the girls etc, to the tune of "You're the One That I Love". The crew did a great demo first, and then 2 chubby good sport passengers won top prize, they had us in stitches, got a bottle of champagne. The staff in the lounge really work hard to interact with the passengers, and succeeded in involving them in all the action. The Captain's cocktail reception the first formal night was the most bare bones we've been to, no hors d'oeuvres, what tasted like virgin martinis, and champagne. The MSC club past cruisers party was the same, no snacks, and the drinks were a red virgin fruit drink and champagne, I guess he thought we'd had enough to eat. Honeymooners and anniversaries were also invited to this one.
Page 4 > > MSC Poesia Cruise Review > >
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