Embarkation
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We transferred from our Lido hotel to the Musica by Aliliguna vaporetto, arriving around a little after 11:00. It was a fair walk from the water bus 'cruise terminal' stop to the cruise terminal building but once there, MSC did well to get us through the various stages of checkin: luggage drop off, cruise card issue and credit card authorisation, security and finally boarding.
This was an outside 'partially obstructed view', category 5.
I had the beds in my cabin seperated. To me this makes so much sense with an ocean view cabin and especially so with MSC as they tend to have one or two pull-down bunks on the wall either side of double bed arrangement interfering with the space above. Separated, one can walk all the way up to the window to look through it and the daylight shines over the floor instead of being on the the bedspread. My cabin immediately felt more spacious and light.
Storage was mostly provided by the wardrobe at the entrance. This had four equal-sized doors the first two of which were the hanging space with life jackets stowed on the shelf above. The next door concealed shelves and the last a shelf, the safe with drawers beneath.
The safe had the simplest operation I have ever come across. When it is unlocked you key in any number followed by enter and it locks. You have to key in the same (and enter) to open it. If I wished, I could have had a different code each time I used it! The downside to this simple operation, as I discovered, is the possibility of mis-keying when closing the safe. The safe is then locked with an unknown code. It was a simple matter to call reception and request someone to open it - but it was embarrassing all the same.
The shower rooms were a little larger, as indeed were the cabins, than the equivalent grades on Royal Caribbean ships. Mixer taps and shower valves throughout the ship are made by Grohe. There was liquid soap on a push-dispenser at the wash basin and shampoo and shower gel in wall dispensers in the shower. There were no other toiletries other than tissues and toilet paper. There were two glass shelves and a small cupboard housing a bin but no other bathroom storage. I actually love modern cruise ship shower rooms as examples of optimum use of space and usability. Consequently they do tend to be near-identical.
There was a hairdryer concealed in one of the two dressing table drawers.
The flat screen TV is fixed above the minibar and received CNN and Euronews in English we lost reception mid-Atlantic. There was a wide range of other 'intelligent' functions' including the ability to order room service (at extra cost). These extra functions resided in another menu system which was poorly designed and responded very slowly so I didn't bother with it.
Bedding was poly cotton sheets with woollen blankets and bedspreads removed and folded after the first night. The fold-down bunks featured their own ceiling-mounted individually switchable reading lights.
My cabin service was perfect. I barely saw my cabin attendant. She introduced herself on the first evening back in Venice as "Joseph". I told her than is a man's name. She laughed and said "I know, it is my father's name". I am not quite sure from which country or delightful culture she originates or indeed whether I should have called her Miss Joseph or Mrs Joseph, rather than just Joseph. Either way, it was a memorable name and Joseph always serviced my cabin when I was at breakfast, which I attended as it opened at 7:30, and at dinner for which I usually left around 8. I found myself always returning to an immaculate cabin. The times since the introduction that I met her had been elsewhere by chance. I could not have asked for better cabin service other than perhaps Cunard's nightly chocolate left on the pillow.