Sea cruise on m/v MUSICA
We have been going on a cruise for a long time. I wanted to be a passenger, because my husband and I used to work in the Navy. We found an interesting cruise for 22 days from St. Petersburg to Odessa, were not tied to the plane, and this meant that you can take a lot of luggage, because there are a lot of themed evenings on the cruise and you need to follow the dress code.
The ship is Italian in 2006, huge in length 300 m, 13 decks, 2600 passengers and 1000 crew members. Italian command staff, service team of the world. There are 200 Slovenes and Russian-speaking escorts on board.
We have a cruise in 12 countries. We leave St. Petersburg then Copenhagen (Denmark) - Kiel (Germany) - Dover (Great Britain) - Ferrol (Spain) - Lisbon (Portugal) - Malaga (Spain) - La Goulette (Tunisia) - Dubrovnik (Croatia) - Venice (Italy) -Katakalon (Greece) -Istanbul (Turkey) -Yalta-Odessa. The route is interesting, but eight days at sea, and this is boredom. Excursions were taken only by individuals; for this, she still found houses and wrote off with guides. And cheap and interesting and affordable, I don’t play group tours for a long time.
Meals on board are around the clock. On deck 13 there is a huge buffet buffet, dishes vary from the name of the meal breakfast-lunch-dinner. There is everything. But this is a buffet, take what you want, sit under the window and enjoy the scenery, it's convenient to have breakfast. We ate only at the restaurant. Beautiful and noble. There are no complaints about food.
Leisure. Animation. Very, very weak. Animators are sleepy flies, their entertainment for 20-year-old teenagers, and learning dances for 60-70 year old pensioners. There is the La Scala theater, a beautiful two-level theater, but the performances in it are very weak, at the beginning I went, then it was not interesting.
According to the weather. Although it was in September, the weather was autumnal. It was cool to swim in the pool, and on the shore in the ports too. So it turns out, the sea is all around, and we are dry. There was no pitching, the seas are calm, and it’s hard to rock our colossus.
If the meals on board were free, then the drinks in the bars were biting at a price. Alcoholic cocktail - 6.5 euros, non-alcoholic 5 euros, a cup of coffee (expresso) 1.5 + 15% service charge. I took about 10 different types of alcoholic cocktails - nonsense, one ice. I have something to compare. Shit. But you won't go sober either. Very good prices in duty free on the ship for alcohol and perfume. But alcohol will be given to you only at the end of the cruise, so that you do not get drunk with shitty, but take it from them in bars. Carrying alcohol on the ship is also prohibited, although we took and carried it in every port, but in Greece they confiscated it from everyone (with a return at the end of course). When boarding and checking in, they give out a plastic card with a photo, this is both the key to the cabin and a means for calculating. You put money on a deposit and pay with it everywhere, if the money runs out, the card is blocked, go replenish, a tip of 6 euros per person per day is debited automatically, for example, we left 240 euros for a cruise. Therefore, nothing was left for the maid and waiters in the restaurant.
Smoking on board in strictly designated areas. On deck 13 on the port side, in the cigar room and in the casino. There are many bars, everyone finds their favorite corner. We liked deck 13. In general, the cruise is not bad, but it was very, very boring. If I go next time. That is a maximum of 15 days and a minimum of days at sea (transitions)
