May 2019 EBTA - Taking the Magic eastbound across the Atlantic (and bonus non-DCL Mediterranean cruise!) - Update 8/3/2022

[jedijill]

Still here too. I loved Mary Poppins Returns! You should still watch it.

Jill in CO

 

[o&smom]

Keep it coming!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Day 14 - leaving DCL, checking out Barcelona, and embarking MSC

Alright everyone, it's time to start the next part of our trip.

So we had main dining on DCL, as a result we had to get up early for breakfast, although our server made sure to tell us not to worry if we were running a bit late, which was really great of him. We hauled all of our crap with us to breakfast around 6:30ish, boy oh boy mornings are painful for me, and got ready to disembark.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but through the EBTA social media group, we found there were some other folks hopping off the EBTA and onto another cruise. Some went for NCL Epic, which I had originally booked, but which was not leaving Barcelona till the following day). Of course, many were also doing a B2B and I was super envious We managed to find another family who had added on the MSC Seaview cruise as well, and as they were also a family of 5 ,we decided to join up for a tour in Barcelona on our changeover day. For the sake of brevity I shall refer to them as the Goodmans. That's not their name, of course. The Goodmans had two older kids and one who was around the age of my youngest, she was a delight in her cheeriness and happy attitude!

Originally, I had plans to leave our luggage at Bags & Go in the terminal so we could do our own thing that day in Barcelona, but it was complicated to plan in that each ship embarks passengers at a different terminal. Mama Goodman was far better organized than me so I was quite fortunate to follow her lead. She contacted Barcelona Day Tours and they gave her a better rate for a day tour than if we were just booking individually, plus since there were 10 of us, it became a private tour so we could customize where to go.

We were able to get off the ship and meet in the terminal at approximately 8am, I believe our tour was something like a 4-5 hour tour which we figured would put us back at the terminal in time to board for lunch. It wasn't too much of a struggle to find our luggage; the terminal was quite crowded and we even saw people trying to arrive to embark the Magic. A tad early, eager beavers! I will say that the taxi line looked super long and crazy, but it seemed to be moving.

Barcelona Day Tours was insanely busy this day with several ships in port and several ships arriving. We were lucky to get a spot, I did hear later than others were not able to book with them. The only thing I might say was that our guide was decidedly "meh".... he was very soft spoken and a bit monotone, so coupled with having an accent it was a bit difficult to hear and understand him. Boy, I wish I could speak Spanish, so he could have spoken in his native tongue!! That's my bad, not his! Anyway. He did have some really cool info to share, for example he talked about how the Catalan people really want Catalonia to separate from the rest of Spain, yet Spain would be in financial disarray without Catalonia - and there were flags up in many places to demonstrate support for the Catalan people... it gave me something to look up when I got home, always good to be more educated.

For the first part of the tour, we did a bit of a drive-by, walk around for quick pics sort of tour of Barcelona. As you may know, Antoni Gaudi was a famous architect from Barcelona and his architectural work is everywhere in the city.

Casa Mila, one of his most famous buildings:

Then we headed off to see Parc Guell, a beautiful public park with amazing mosaic and architectural work. Apparently originally Gaudi had in mind that it would be a high end housing development, but that never really turned out the way he imagined.

There are these structures that I think were aqueducts:

the spire on Gaudi's house:

Pretty views of the city (although it was cloudy/rainy) and the cruise ships

The main terrace:

Some closeups of the mosaic art along the terrace wall:

Excuse my little guy's face but in the background you can just see the spires of La Sagrada Familia:

Love this 'gingerbread house' below, I think it houses the gift shop:

Lots more to say, but time for bed! More in my next post.

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks for continuing its been a great TR. The transatlantic is on my bucket list! I’m really curious about your MSC experience as well.

 

[Coppercoal]

Thanks for the updates! Was it cold in Barcelona?

 

[buteraa]

Following along!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Thanks for the updates! Was it cold in Barcelona?

I wouldn't say cold, no. It wasn't summer heat for sure, and was definitely on the cooler side of spring weather, being a bit drizzly. But I was fine with my very thin jacket.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Day 14 - Barcelona cont'd

On the lower level of Parc Guell, there are some really neat stone columns along the pathway.

Really creative stonework!

I believe they said these lion heads sitting at the bottom of the mosaic wall were for drainage:

I don't remember what this hall was intended for, but even the ceiling was mosaic:

Probably the most photographed area of the park is the mosaic salamander. Well, this pic is just of the crowds.... sigh.... we tourists ruin everything

Okay this is as close as I could get, I didn't bother trying for a family pic. Hands off the salamander, people!

One last shot of the museum / gift shop...

And with that, we met our guide again (he was just slightly ahead of us) and he called the van to pick us up, so we could head over to Sagrada Familia! Now being that we had all of about 5 hours in Barcelona, seeing Sagrada Familia was top of our list, as well as on the Goodmans' list. I mentioned earlier that we booked with Barcelona Day Tours; they were supposed to help us get SF skip the line tickets. For some reason, they weren't able to secure the group tickets and at first had us panicked telling us we would have to skip it. SKIP Sagrada Familia, the single most famous landmark in the city?? Um, no.

So Mama Goodman and I figured out we could just buy individual tickets for our family. BDT advised against this because they said that they are very strict at SF about groups trying to sneak in as individuals. But we emphasized that we were not a "group" in the traditional sense, we were literally two families who were using the same transportation, and wouldn't stick together inside the church. It wasn't an issue at the church at all, in case you're wondering. Definitely pre-buy your tickets before you go, there are so many people that I'm not sure you can even get in without a prepaid ticket.

Our first glimpse:

There is so much to take in on the outside facades.

Our family bought the tickets that didn't include the tower(s) - this is because I wasn't sure my little one would want to climb the tower, and also I have a bit of a fear of heights so our tickets were just for the church and I believe an audioguide. This is neat, you get a little device with headphones and you can listen to explanations as you get to certain spots, in whatever language you choose. Unfortunately they don't give these out for kids, which I think is too bad as they would have enjoyed learning something too.

Okay I am sure you've heard all about it, and seen far better pics than mine, but I was extremely overwhelmed when I walked inside and saw views like this:

I mean, just look at the way the light streams in through the different coloured stained glass windows!

The panels of stained glass are a sight to see in themselves.

Sorry, these picture posts take longer than expected, so I'll be back!

 

[StarSeven7]

I've been enjoying your review of your Transatlantic Disney cruise and eagerly awaiting your MSC review!

We went to Barcelona about 10 years ago and climbed the tower in the Sagrada Familia - I also have a fear of heights (more specifically looking down from a height) and I remember being really freaked out as we were doing that! So it's probably best that you skipped that! Hahaha!

 

[Mom2m&k]

So glad you are back to finish! We only got to see the outside of la Sagrada and now I’m a little bummed we didn’t get to go inside! We did see some other great things. I’m still interested in your take on MSC versus DCL so I’ll keep reading!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Day 14 continued

La Sagrada Familia was probably my favourite, or at least second favourite place to visit and I am so glad we were able to squeeze this in. I'd love to go again sometime closer to sunset as I bet the light would stream in differently and in more amazing ways. Here are a few more pics.

This is in the main hall and reflects the four apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John:

The Lord's Prayer is carved into what I think is a set of doors. Very hard to take a pic without a thousand cell phones in the way

Took this one (The Apostle's Creed in French) for my kids, who are in French immersion at school:

For an idea of scale - I believe this was the Passion facade:

And the Nativity facade:

We also wandered through some of the museum parts of the church, saw that there was a service in the nave (?) below the main floor of the church, super cool, and checked out the gift shop. We bought a couple of small things including a coaster with a mosaic print that I am very happy I purchased, as it sits on my desk at work.

And with that, it was time to head back to the ship. OH - forgot to mention that due to weather (allegedly), the towers were closed for climbing anyway, so the Goodmans didn't get to climb I think they did receive a partial refund, but that's annoying!

Okay everyone so here is a terrible picture of the Magic with what I think is a Marella ship behind it (there was a Marella ship that we were in port with at various times after the Azores, I think this was it... I could be wrong). Observe the size.

Now look at the MSC Seaview, which was docked two berths behind the Magic.

Holy shnikey that ship is massive!!! I mean what a beast the Seaview is, I believe it holds twice as many passengers as the Magic and there are about 20 decks... wow. Mama Goodman and I had actually both seen the Seaview pull in when we were first docked in Barcelona before breakfast and we honestly had both looked out our windows to see this gigantic ship pass by us. Wow. As we were booked in the Yacht Club, we were on deck 18 forward. I think the Goodmans were booked into the Aurea category (MSC has some great rooms in the Aurea category, ideal for families really) but I don't remember what deck they were on. The Yacht Club (concierge level) is all the way forward and is on decks 16, 18, and 19.

Fun fact: MSC (an Italian company) ships do not have a deck 17. This is because in Italian, the number 17 is considered to be bad luck.

I took this pic from the terminal, it was just ship for as far as I could see!

Fun fact #2: In Europe, MSC's cruises are almost all multi-embarkation cruises. Our itinerary was:
- Barcelona
- Ajaccio (Corsica)
- Genoa
- La Spezia
- Rome
- Cannes
- Palma de Mallorca

And of those, you could board at Barcelona, Genoa, Rome, and Cannes for a 7 night cruise, so passengers were not the same for a week. Barcelona and Rome were the biggest ports for embarkation/disembarkation. Cannes is an interesting place to embark as it's a tender port. Anyway, I didn't find this to be too disruptive - but I'll comment later on how it could have been more annoying.

We went directly to the YC tent outside the terminal and our bags were tagged with YC luggage tags and taken from us. We were then shown to a little cordoned off area in the terminal where snacks and drinks awaited. This is just a waiting spot while you wait for a butler to take you on board. My kids were REALLY excited about the butler experience and even this little perk made them tremendously happy.

It was definitely nice to have, not a must, but very nice, especially because the terminal is huge and the lines looked pretty long for non-concierge guests.

Eventually a butler came down to fetch us. By the way, the MSC butlers are in full butler garb - tuxedo with tails, white gloves, the works. I am not even kidding you. I felt pretty underdressed. He even insisted on carrying my backpack for me. Here we are walking toward the main YC lounge, the Top Sail Lounge.

The Seaview's YC lounge is lovely, it is two decks high and then the restaurant (private for YC guests) takes up part of the 18th deck, after you ascend the beautiful crystal staircase.

We were first seated in the lounge, a little overwhelmed and tired (and feeling underdressed). Various butlers came to take drink orders and a lady from the restaurant came to ask us what our preferred dining time was. Technically the YC restaurant is anytime dining but I think they prefer to have a table ready for you and to have somewhat more structure.... I heard some guests complain about having to choose a time, but we just gave an approximate time and tried to stick to it when we could. We were also told that someone would come to escort us to our room but we ended up being tired of waiting and just went to check out our room.

I don't seem to have taken a picture of our room, which is strange of me, maybe I haven't uploaded all of my pics yet. It's similar to the DCL Family Oceanview with Verandah, though I would say more spacious. It doesn't have a split bath, but the bathroom was very large. There is a queen or king size bed, then a double pull out couch, and a pullman bed, which oddly faced the same direction as the bed (rather than parallel to the wall as we see in most other cruise ships. This meant that when the pullman was down, there was the danger of smacking your head or shoulder into the corner of the bed if you weren't paying attention.

I will keep going with this post a little later but here are my initial observations:

- Yacht Club was WELL worth the money spent. It is all inclusive, you can pretty much drink anything you like (there are some top shelf liquors that aren't included) and there is food all the time. The private restaurant was delightful. We went to the buffet once and on a ship with 6,000 people you can imagine the chaos.
- the YC lounge was the best place to spend some quiet moments, grab a drink, a snack, etc. It is HUGE and never felt crowded in the least. In the pic above you can see that on deck 19 there is even some outdoor seating.
- MSC is a distinctly different experience than DCL. DCL feels more "American" in that the staff will do everything they can to accommodate you. On MSC, sometimes the answer was just no, or you'd wait quite a while to get a real answer, or sometimes the staff didn't feel as 'warm' - honestly, this didn't really bother me as I chalked it up to cultural differences, which is a bit of an odd answer. I am the sort of person who believes any day cruising is better than not, so I don't sweat the small stuff, but can see how these things might bother others.
- Some things we had to figure out on our own.... such as where to get pool towels. I'm still not 100% sure, but I think part of the problem is that they really don't expect YC guests to ever leave the YC enclave.
- The muster drill for us was in the casino. Not my favourite as it is always smoky in there (true of nearly all cruise ships that have casinos, in my experience). I often see a complaint that MSC is "too" multi-lingual.... it's true that they give the important announcements in at least 5 languages. English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German at a minimum. But the cruise director spoke all of these languages fluently PLUS I think he also spoke Portuguese. I'm pretty sure he did all of the announcements without missing a beat. Frankly I was far more impressed than I was annoyed. At shows, he spoke in all six languages. Truly amazing.
- the registration for the kids clubs was unnecessarily difficult and involved filling out paperwork ... MSC needs to find a way to streamline this. Our kids didn't end up going terribly often, but that was okay with us - they were separated by age and not too thrilled with that after two weeks on DCL together. I'm sure the lack of ipads wasn't helping, lol.

 

[Meeko28]

@lilsonicfan I'm really looking forward to this portion of your TR. I would love to do a Med cruise when my kids are about your kids' ages. I'm not sure DCL is worth it since there's so much time spent in port, and it feels like the boat is just a place to eat and crash. If doing YC is the same or cheaper than DCL, then that would be my way to go too. This is exciting and I am looking forward to reading more!

 

[Mich123]

@lilsonicfan I've totally enjoyed your report. The EBTA is a dream of mine, I actually read your trip out loud to DH on a car trip this weekend to get him interested in my dream! I had worried about too many waves in the open sea, but it seems as if it was pretty calm, is that true?

A few pages back you mentioned that you never have jet lag--please share your trick!

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

@lilsonicfan I've totally enjoyed your report. The EBTA is a dream of mine, I actually read your trip out loud to DH on a car trip this weekend to get him interested in my dream! I had worried about too many waves in the open sea, but it seems as if it was pretty calm, is that true?

A few pages back you mentioned that you never have jet lag--please share your trick!

That is true for the EBTA, the WBTA can be a different story. Our EBTA was glass, our WBTA was not, and even included re-routing and missed ports due to a hurricane and rough seas. Both were awesome still.

 

[lilsonicfan]

@Mich123 The EBTAs in the last few years have been reportedly all fairly smooth and people usually attribute it to disney switching the route to the southern route ending in Spain. The northern route that the WBTA takes from Dover and ending in the northeastern part of the US has reportedly been rockier in the last few years for sure. Our EBTA was indeed amazing. I’m sure it can vary. There was a night of some rockiness but it wasn’t bad at all!!

As for jet lag I think it was @TikiThunderPirates who has some tricks!!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Day 14 and first day on MSC

This is going to be just a very quick post, because I am not sure when I will have more time to post!

After we embarked and settled in, we ate some lunch in the restaurant. MSC has a kids' menu that does not change from day to day. Pretty basic stuff, though maybe slightly more Italian. My kids loved the "small pasta soup" which is nothing to write home about, just macaroni etc in soup. But hey, whatever they will eat, I'll take it. The YC restaurant as mentioned is above the lounge and looks out forward over the front of the ship. Really beautiful view all around. We found the waiters all to be very friendly, possibly slightly less accommodating than DCL though. I imagine on DCL, the staff is told to do whatever they can to say "yes" to a guest request, even if it seems a bit odd. On MSC I feel like the mentality was more "please enjoy the beauty of the decisions we have made for you" rather than "we can accommodate your request". Nothing bad at all, just a different way of approaching guests. I would also say that from what I have read, MSC in the North American market (Seaside, Divina etc) have been "North Americanizing" their systems a bit, but I felt that in the Mediterranean this was not yet the case.

MSC's meal portions also tended to be smaller than DCL. Frankly, by this point we were two weeks into cruise eating, so I didn't mind at all that the portions were a bit smaller. Plus, you could always order more. The waiter actually apologized to my DH for bringing a "small" portion (it was just the regular portion) and made sure that DH knew he could order more. (I'm not sure if it's because DH looks like a big guy, but I swear he doesn't actually eat that much all the time lol).

And, MSC's meals in general were more Mediterranean - perhaps a smaller piece of meat, more focus on seafood/fish, definitely a focus on pasta. There was always risotto on the menu, and I had one every time I was at the restaurant for lunch or dinner - it was always amazing. I believe the YC restaurant makes its own food and doesn't share a galley with the buffet or MDRs.

I don't have a ton of pictures of food (you're welcome, hehe) but here is a salmon trio appetizer, which was delicious:

And here is my son downstairs in the lounge after lunch, ordering himself a hot chocolate from his soon to be favourite butler:

From the restaurant, I could see the Magic (as you will recall, it was two berths away):

...and I was in fact a little sad that I wasn't getting back on it. It had felt like home after so many days, and there is something so safe and comforting about DCL, where you know what to expect and where it's always just what you wanted. I can't blame those who choose DCL no matter the cost. It is familiar and it is always a great product. I did spend part of this first day feeling bummed that I hadn't bit the bullet to just sail the Magic in the Med. I got over it though... our cruise had a port every single day and there really wasn't a ton of time to spend on board anyway.

Also, having the private YC lounge, pool/sundeck and restaurant - i cannot say enough about how amazing that was. The Seaview had several pools (by the way all of the pools, except the kid's pool, are deep pools around 6' depth - definitely made for swimming, not just lounging around). But of course it's pretty warm in the Med so the pool decks were always fairly busy - so having YC-only space was truly amazing. I hear that Norwegian's Haven level is similar, but that YC is superior.... I haven't sailed in Haven before though!

Also, a comment on price. One reason we could do MSC in Yacht Club so cheap is because the child pricing was nearly free. You heard me right! The kids' fare was $120 each plus $98 in taxes. That is how we justified Yacht Club. I am not sure that it is always so cheap and I gather YC is gaining in popularity.

I'm just going to leave a pic of the kids pool area here:

This is another pool area (with a deep pool), there was also one several decks down and a pool that is in a covered area. The big circles at the top are part of the zipline! We never got to try it

Apologies if I disappear from this post for a bit, I promise to come back!

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

@lilsonicfan

A few pages back you mentioned that you never have jet lag--please share your trick!

@Mich123

As for jet lag I think it was @TikiThunderPirates who has some tricks!!

I do have a "trick". I don't want to take over your awesome thread though. Is it ok to post it?

 

[Luv2trav]

I am loving your report. We are looking to do a Med Cruise summer 21 so I am very curious your opinions about MSC vs Disney.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I do have a "trick". I don't want to take over your awesome thread though. Is it ok to post it?

sure!

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

sure!

My jetlag “trick” comes from a study done by Dr. Saper on circadian rhythms in the journal of Science. (Here is a summary article ( https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/05/study-identifies-food-related-clock-in-the-brain/)

Here is how I’ve applied it. Every person is different and you should always consult a medical professional before making changes to your health plan.

The idea is to give your body 16 hours of fasting. To do this you must stop eating at 4pm of the destination you are traveling to. This can be done mid travel, the day before travel, or the day you arrive (it depends on the circumstance which I do) and then you go to sleep and your next meal is breakfast on the “new” destination time.

Several examples:

Flying from NYC to Anaheim CA. +3 hour time difference. Flight leaves at 10:00am EST. Once I arrive in CA, I would eat a “final” meal right before 4pm PST time. Then I would go to bed on PST time say 10:00pm PST. The next day I would wake up around 7am PST time and eat breakfast. My body will be reset from there.

On the way back to NYC you just reverse the process , which means you must stop eating at 4:00pm EST time which would be 1:00pm PST time in Anaheim CA.

Flying from Seattle to London Direct. +8 hour time difference. Flight leaves at 5:00pm PST.

I could stop my eating at 4pm London time, which would be 8:00am PST time the day of my flight, but that makes restarting your clock difficult during the in-air travel. Instead I eat all the meals on the plane, and since I’ll be landing around 12:00pm London time, I again make sure to eat one last meal of some kind (even a power bar works if you are just “not hungry” ) shortly before 4:00pm. I go to sleep at a reasonable time in London (no naps once I get there sorry) say 10:00pm, and get up around 7:00am and eat breakfast.

This has always worked for me. It can get tricky figuring out when to stop eating, (a flight to Asian that lands at 7:00pm local time means I had to stop eating 3 hours before my flight landed) and the fasting is never “fun”, but being able to travel around the world and have no jetlag….. Totally worth the hassle. I don’t need to tack on several days pre/post trip to “adjust” to the time.

Let me know if you have any questions about how I’ve used this information. Every person is different and health decisions should always be consulted on by a health care provider.