MSC Magnifica-Boarding

Saturday 28.07.2018 Boarding

After a very calm night in our cozy guesthouse and a delicious breakfast from the neighborhood bakery on our balcony, we made our way to the cruise terminal in Altona around 11:00 am with bus 111. To our great joy, the check-in had already started, so we were able to board without much waiting. It's interesting to see how different the check-in process is compared to Tui Cruises. 1st station: passports and documents are checked, 2nd station: security check, 3rd station: boarding photo, 4th station: registration upon entering the ship, 5th station: photo for the cruise card, 6th station: booking packages. At Tui, I had to go through 3 stations and I didn't find my cruise card in the cabin, but instead they handed it to me right away. By 12:00 pm, we were already sitting in a cozy bar on Deck 13, enjoying our first refreshment. It was definitely an unfamiliar feeling. This time, it wasn't coming home, but exploring unknown territory. We strengthened ourselves with a small snack at the buffet restaurant. It was especially nice to see the welcome wishes on a cake and a bread for all the fellow cruisers.

By 2:00 pm, the cabins were ready and we started to explore our home for the next few days. Our balcony cabin 8008 was about 12 sqm and decorated in green colors. Okay, 12 sqm is really not much. There was a large mirror opposite the bed, which made the cabin appear larger at least visually. We could still walk around the bed, but then it was already tight. A table, a chair, a desk, and a minibar barely fit in. The closet turned out to be too small for our clothes that we brought, and since formal and elegant clothing were also required for dinner, there were clearly not enough hangers. Luckily, at least our two suitcases fit well under the bed. The balcony was a bit narrow, but equipped with 2 wicker chairs and a table. The bathroom was standard in size and okay, but unfortunately only had a shower curtain. I am definitely not a fan of that. Our cabin was located at the bow of the ship and we felt the waves quite clearly. However, the Magnifica also felt a bit heavy and restless in the water in general. The spray sometimes splashed up to us, the wind whistled around the corner, and the lady bravely rolled against the waves. The 16 decks definitely made themselves noticeable. After a while, Ronald referred to the ship as a "spoiled brat" because of its rocking. Since on the Magnifica, the same rule applies as on almost all the ships I know - "In the stern, there's food, and in the bow, there's the theater" - the distances to the bars were already quite long. Unfortunately, cabin service was not included in our booked category, so it wasn't possible to quickly get a drink in the cabin. Instead, we had to take the elevator up to the spa area. The cabin light could only be switched on with the cabin card. Our trick to use Ronald's train ticket to avoid inserting and removing the card only worked until we wondered why our cabin boy didn't want to do any service in the cabin at all. Eventually, he explained to us that a hidden light above the cabin would remain on as long as the circuit (in our case, constantly) was closed, and he was not allowed to enter the cabin then. The docking and undocking of the ship was clearly noticeable in the cabin. Especially when the ship used its side thrusters, we almost fell out of bed.

After our suitcases quickly found their way in front of our cabin door and we unpacked them, we set out to explore the ship a bit. The first thing we noticed were the many bars. Very spacious and with many dance floors. In contrast, the restaurants were much tighter. It was completely new to me to see the huge casino with gaming tables and countless slot machines. The atrium, spanning 3 floors, was very beautiful. I had read before the trip that the decor was supposed to be very understated by Italian standards, but I found the whole thing a bit overloaded. I liked the divided reception desk. That way, the lines didn't back up too much in front of the counters. The pool deck was also very large with an indoor and an outdoor pool.

At 5:00 pm, the first of countless lifeboat drills took place. MSC managed to spread them over several days and multiple times a day, while other cruise lines could do it in one go. They only showed us how to put on the life jackets. Then they mentioned the safety video on the in-room TV, and that was it.

Since we were assigned the first dining time for dinner, it was already time for dinner at 5:45 pm. We had table 576 in the L'Edera restaurant for the journey. Two older German couples were sitting at our table. For dinner, we had a choice of 5 appetizers, 5 main courses, and 5 desserts. It was also possible to order a course multiple times depending on how hungry we were. All the dishes had a strong Italian touch. During the trip, I noticed that there were a lot of Italian home-style dishes on the menu. There were dishes that I had never heard of before, but they were very delicious if you had the courage to try them. The service was very prompt and the courses came pretty quickly one after the other. So the first impression of the food was quite positive. By the way, the official language onboard is English, and it's helpful to speak a bit in order to communicate. MSC also offers a midnight buffet for a small hunger, which seemed to be quite popular from what I could see.

Since the MSC Magnifica had to wait for guests with a delayed flight, our departure was delayed until 10:30 pm. A thunderstorm had passed over Hamburg in the meantime, and it had noticeably cooled down. Nothing was left of the once 32 degrees in the afternoon. We let ourselves drift on the ship and in the l'Ametista Lounge, we came across a performance by a very talented singer. Then we watched the preparations for departure on the pool deck. We were rewarded with a fireworks display launched from the port of Steinwerder. This fireworks display was not the only one. When our ship said goodbye to Hamburg, we were surprised with an almost 10-minute long farewell fireworks. We had already had water fountains and a brass band for the farewell, but there hadn't been a fireworks display yet. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, MSC does not have a specific sailing song for departure like other cruise lines do. Also, there was no welcome show like the ones celebrated by Tui. So the departure was quite sober and there wasn't much of the excitement that usually comes with the first departure. Unfortunately, it was already so dark that we didn't see much of the landscape during the journey up the Elbe. However, we still enjoyed the journey with a cocktail on our balcony.