MSC Poesia - Handover and Naming Ceremony, St Nazaire and Dover
WHATEVER the Italians do, they do in style.
And the newest ship in the MSC fleet brought a huge sample of la dolce vita to Dover when she sailed in for Saturday’s star-studded midnight naming ceremony with Sophia Loren.
There are no rock-climbing walls on MSC POESIA. No Noddy characters. Just Italian elegance, beauty – and style.
I joined the ship at the yard in St Nazaire, France, where she was ceremonially handed over to MSC, with speeches, national anthems, speeches, flags lowered and raised, more speeches, a confetti shower and, to round things off, another speech.
Getting there gave me my first experience of the super-fast Eurostar from London’s St Pancras. It’s only when you whizz past traffic doing a snail-like 70mph on the M2 that you realise how quickly you’re moving.
It’s an ear-popping journey – the pressure changes when you go through tunnels – but worth it to be in the centre of Paris in just a couple of hours.
Crossing Paris in a taxi took 15 minutes and cost 13 Euros. In London the same journey would have taken twice as long and cost three times as much!
Another couple of hours on the express to Nantes, then a hair-raising ride in a minibus to St Nazaire (once home to Nazi submarines), and suddenly this spectacular ship comes into view.
Nearby is the half-finished hull of the next one, MSC FANTASIA, due to launch at the end of the year, and the beginnings of the one after that, MSC SPLENDIDA.
Stewards, impeccably dressed, were lined up in the ship’s central atrium – there is a three-deck-high waterfall flowing into a pool, with a glass island on which a string quartet play while trying not to look at the water beneath them.
My cabin, on Deck 10, had a balcony with a couple of wicker chairs and a table.
And while some ship designers seem to forget that people take clothes on a cruise, this one didn’t – there were 19 of them, plus a double wardrobe.
A floor-to-ceiling mirror at the end of the bed and another over the dressing table made the room, already spacious, feel twice as big.
Mine had a two-seater sofa. In cabins with connecting doors, there’s one comfy chair.
A flat-screen TV had options to view latest movies and webcams from the decks as well as satellite television – even as we crossed the Bay of Biscay, the signal was good and only rarely interrupted.
One nit-picky criticism: There is a network point to connect a laptop to the internet – the socket is by the TV, but the nearest power sockets (flat-pin American or round-pin European, no British ones) are over by the dressing table.
And one rule that I found odd. Smoking isn’t allowed on your balcony, but it is in the cabin. Usually it’s the other way round. Even though I’m a smoker, I hate going into cabins that smell of stale cigarettes. And so I confess, I broke the rule and as a result, Cabin 10122 still smells beautiful and new.
There aren’t many places to smoke inside the ship – a couple of bars have smoking sections, there’s the Hitchcock cigar room, and the casino. What’s nice, though, is that where smoking is permitted the signs say “Smokers are welcome here”.
Time to explore the ship.
It’s a little complicated. Direction signs are confusing, decks are numbered in the lifts but named on the signs, and even after three days it was hard to remember which way is forward and which is aft.
While I’m thinking about the lifts, two things struck me. I don’t know how elevators are programmed, but whoever did it on MSC Poesia got it right. Instead of waiting for a lift that happens to be going in the right direction, on here it seemed like the nearest one would race to be at your service.
The other thing was that every lift lobby was spacious. People could stand and chat without blocking up the whole area.
In fact all over the ship, there is plenty of standing room. That may sound odd, but very often if you can’t get a seat you have to go somewhere else because you’re in the way. Here there is space to stand and chat.
The central atrium is three decks high, with an ornamental pool and a glass island in the middle on which a piano and string play. Sweeping staircases link the three levels, and on each there is a bar.
On the lower level, Deck 5, the reception desk takes up one side and “Financial” the other. The receptionists are all smiling girls, in bright red uniforms. The financial desk has stern-faced men in dark suits.
Roaming the ship are security men – in dark suits and shades, muttering into their cufflinks and listening through earpieces with curly wires. Italy? Sicily, more like.
Instead of narrow corridors there are broad promenades, with bars serving cappuccinos as well as cocktails. The Italians love their coffee – on MSC Poesia, they serve 5,700 cups every day!
The main lounges are vibrant, not vulgar. The black and white patterned carpet in The Zebra Bar, for example, could have been a dazzling disaster – instead it is inviting and exciting.
The two main restaurants – serving regional dishes in a six-course feast every night – are carefully laid out to create an intimate atmosphere. The Villa Pompeiana buffet, serving pizzas, pastas and salads, has giant picture windows overlooking the sea.
The launch party in Dover was inside the ship – thank goodness, because it was freezing outside.
Sophia Loren was in a hugging black dress with a plunging neckline, and looked stunning ... even at the age of 73.
Princess Michael of Kent, ten years younger, looked good too in a gold outfit, with whiskered Prince Michael at her side.
Blind opera singer Andrea Bocelli sang in the theatre, KT Tunstall performed in one of the lounges, Ronnie Scott’s band played in the Zebra Bar and Radio One’s Annie Mac was DJ-ing in the S32 nightclub.
The food on board was fabulous – Italian dishes, six courses minimum, beautifully presented and served with style.
On the buffet, though, I found what I was looking for – a hot dog and chips.
Bon appetito!
