Duncan Writes

Adventures of a part-time traveller.

Preziosa Sea Day 2

01 October 2018

Today we had a day at sea where we relaxed on the sun deck, tackled the weekend crossword puzzles, and tried some room service pizza!

A day at sea was just the relaxation we needed after three consecutive port days, and we really made the most of it!

We started the day with a table service breakfast in the Yacht Club restaurant where the staff are really becoming used to us now. We always have the same table for breakfast, but not the one we have for dinner. Breakfast is always good, and I love the good quality coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice that is available. The pastries are fresh and delicious, and another thing I’ll have to try and work off when we get home!

Most of the day was spent relaxing, and we have very little to report. One thing we did do was try the room service pizza. This is exclusive to the Yacht Club and comes from the Eataly restaurant, which is a speciality venue on board. We all gathered together in our stateroom where we ordered three pizzas to share. The pizzas were fresh and delicious – they went down a treat! They come served in normal takeout pizza boxes. We haven’t tried the rest of the room service menu, and I doubt we’ll get a chance, but you’ll hear about it if we do.

We tackled the i Weekend Edition crosswords as we relaxed with the pizza and some drinks from the minibar (included in the Yacht Club fare). We discovered that we’re not very good at crosswords, but we gave it our best shot! In any case it was a nice way to relax together after our busy days in port.

In the afternoon we all headed up to the One Pool Deck for some more relaxation in the hot tub, and Alex and I tried to do a little exercise with a 30 minute swim. Trying to do actual exercise in a swimming pool is so much easier when almost nobody else is using the pool. Given it was a sea day and the weather was nice, I can’t imagine the One Pool Deck being any busier than it was then, and it was just perfect.

Formal Night Dinner

We got ready for dinner early evening and Alex & I decided to have a wander down to the shopping deck to see what was going on. I’m on the hunt for a new fragrance after my favourite Blue Agava and Cacao from Jo Malone was discontinued, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to see if I could find something I liked as much. Although there were many fragrances to try I still don’t feel I’ve found my new signature scent. Suggestions warmly received!

We then had a look at the bar menu in The Green Sax Bar, which is the same layout as the Purple Jazz Bar we enjoyed on Splendida. When we were there the bar was very quiet, but there was some live music happening and the drinks service was very prompt. They even brought us some nuts and crisps! It’s also worth noting that the drinks menu is quite expanded from the Yacht Club selection, as they do not keep everything in the Top Sail Lounge.

It was nice to try some cocktails that are not on the Top Sail Lounge menu, and after recent changes to the Yacht Club ‘experience’, you have the equivalent of the premium drinks package while enjoying the normal bars on the ship.

Dinner tonight had a lot of interesting choices. I started with the lobster bisque soup, which was delicious but a little too salty for my tastes. Alex and Dorota had the escargot which I was a little jealous of – delicious! For our main course I was lured in by the filet mignon with foie gras which lived up to expectations. Very nice indeed. Alex and Glyn opted for the pumpkin risotto which was also excellent. Once again, the standard of food is very good though there is definitely some variability between dishes on each menu. Tonight they had two chefs off sick, so service was a little slower than usual. Not to worry – with Victor keeping us entertained and topped up on wine we had very little to rush back for! And after all, hunger is not a common feeling while cruising…

We came back to our stateroom to find some of MSC’s amazing chocolate dipped strawberries which finished off the night beautifully. If they could bring us those every night I’d be very, very happy! After all, we always save the pillow chocolates for our candy dish at home (made of glass and hand blown on Celebrity Eclipse, naturally!)