MSC2 began with a trip to visit Marlene’s brother, Mike, in Coral Springs. We left arrived around 5pm on Saturday and Marlene and her brother went out to the casino. That was his way of wishing her a happy 80th. They returned around 5am, happy but considerably poorer. Well, her brother was poorer because he financed her play.
Sunday started with a large breakfast, cooked by Marlene, followed by a few chores, then a trip to Miller’s Ale House in Davie FL for dinner with Marlene’s older son. I had a blackened shrimp dish that was outstanding. We dawdled and talked for a long time, then spent some time admiring her son’s Honda motorcycle. We got home after 9 and her brother, who is still a working stiff who had to be out of the house at 6am Monday, went to bed. We played cards.
Monday morning, after Mike went to work, we repaid his kindness in hosting us by doing some yard work. Marlene trimmed hedges and I trimmed trees. Then we got cleaned up and got our MSC2 trip underway around 10am by driving to Miami. I had reserved parking in a downtown parking garage. We parked, then I ordered up an Uber ride. The Uber arrived about 5 minutes later and by noon we were going through security at the MSC Miami cruise terminal. There were a couple of things that didn’t go smoothly. First, we were told that I couldn’t carry our large suitcase on board, so I had to go back out to the entrance and check it. Then Marlene had to go to a second level of security because the facial scan failed. And our luggage was manually checked because we were carrying a small needlenose pliers that apparently looked dangerous on the X-ray.
But then unexpectedly good things began to happen. First, we were surprised that there was no formal check-in process – it apparently has been completely replaced by the facial scan. Then as we were boarding Marlene asked me if I had booked a balcony cabin. “Not to my knowledge” I said – I thought I had booked an ocean view. But we did, indeed, have a balcony cabin. An automatic upgrade? I don’t know. And I am not going to look that gift horse in the mouth.
We had lunch when we got on board. And met some people attending a 40th high school reunion. Now THAT is how to do a high school reunion – get 150 of your closest high school buddies to go on a cruise together.
I had some work to do – two Zoom meetings. I did the first on the deck near the dining room and then the second in our cabin when it was ready for occupancy. Then we wandered the ship a bit, getting our bearings.
The MSC Seaside seems like a nice ship, but there are LOTS of kids on board. I can understand why – the ship has two nice pools and a wonderful water park on the upper deck.
Then we left port. I got a few photos as we left.
Parts of the ship seem bland – the hallways and stairwells in particular. But the central atrium is very glitzy.
We changed our dinner assignment from 6pm to 8:30pm. “Any time” dining is not available to newbie MSC cruisers. We will have the same table all 4 nights. Fortunately, our adjacent tablemates were very interesting – a married couple from Florida and a mother/daughter pair from New York City.
We spent some time in the casino. I had a hard time getting started because it took 5 additional tries to get my credit card registered (I was sure I had done it before we embarked). But I finally got to play and it initially went well – I was up nearly $170 at one point. But then the tables turned and I lost, ending down $75. I think Marlene lost more. It isn’t a great ship casino, but the staff were very friendly.
We played cards at night and I won 2 of 3.