Day 5 – at sea

Our second sea day began again with an early start and breakfast in the MDR. I’m not sure why but on this cruise I don’t feel the need to sleep an awful lot, probably less than I do at home. Perhaps it’s with feeling relaxed through the rest of the day?

As usual for a sea day the restaurant was busy however the service was prompt and the food good. My favourite breakfast dish is eggs Benedict and previously I’d found the toasted muffin very tough to cut and not light and fluffy as you’d expect. This seems to have been rectified at some point last year as consistently since our cruise on MSC Seaview this aspect has greatly improved and the muffins are near enough perfect.

Following breakfast we went up to deck 11 and unfortunately the wind was very strong so we went back down to the Aroma coffee bar on deck 6 and sat and played cards whilst watching the waves crashing and hitting the promenade deck. As mentioned previously although there has been definite movement because of the wind and rough seas the ship handles it incredibly well.

Around the ship there were various games going on to entertain passengers, dance classes, quizzes and of course the casino and shops were open.

We didn’t fancy the lunch menu in the MDR, partly because we were still full from breakfast and partly because the dishes weren’t to our personal taste. The options included pea and mint soup, Madison salad, saithe fillet, artichoke flan and chicken in lemon sauce. We opted to check out the lunch buffet and just had some cold meat and salad. I know it sounds like we’re always eating (we’re not, honest) but as food is such a big part of a cruise holiday I just want to share as much info on that aspect as possible.

At 4pm the British Pub Quiz was held in the disco – we didn’t do too well previously but on this occasion we came first with a score of 31/40 and won some mugs!

Following the quiz we had a look in the theatre at the Masterchef at Sea competition. This takes the format of the Mystery Box Challenge and entrants have to use some of each ingredient in the box to come up with an appetising and well-presented dish that will be judged by a team of the ship’s chefs. I took part in the contest on MSC Meraviglia in November 2017; it’s incredibly daunting to be on stage!

It was then soon time to get ready for the Elegant Night dinner. We’d asked our friend Alistair the evening before if we could dine with him, his wife and son that night and a table for the seven of us was arranged.

We had a fantastic evening with excellent company – the conversation flowed all evening and was accompanied by wonderful food, particular highlights being the green apple sorbet followed by beef fillet steak. The Italian custom for sorbet as a palate cleanser is to eat it between a fish course and prior to a meat course. The flavour of green apple was intense and the perfect balance between sweet, sour and sharp.

After dinner the MSC Voyagers Club hosted the Welcome Back party in the disco, which is where the senior officers introduce themselves and there are complimentary drinks. When club members reach Gold status you also receive a free photograph from the evening, so we took the opportunity to have a professional photo taken with Stuart and Trevor. This is a nice memento, especially considering the photographs cost around €20 each.

Last night’s show was Dirty Dancing and we intended to go, however we ended up talking all night instead. We have seen the show before so it wasn’t a huge worry to miss it.

Our night finished relatively early as we continued to sail towards Dubrovnik with a scheduled arrival of 7am.