MSC Cruises has a huge presence in Italy and Europe. By comparison, this privately owned, Italian cruise line is barely known in the United States. Of its fleet of 11 ships - the twelfth, MSC Divina, debuts later in 2012 - MSC Poesia is currently the only one sailing Caribbean itineraries, making it a popular ship for international guests.
“MSC gives our guests a foreign experience and a taste of Italy,” said Poesia’s guest relations manager, Marcello Monici, in an onboard interview on January 29, 2012. “That makes it different from most other cruise lines.”
Indeed, at more than 90,000 tons and accommodating 2,500+ passengers, Poesia's Caribbean sailings attract mostly German, Italian, Spanish and French-speaking passengers as well as some Brits and a share of American passengers. Public announcements on Poesia are made in at least four languages, but the onboard food, excellent service and often-stunning ambiance are universally appealing..
MSC Poesia Entertains its Guests
Poesia's public areas are impressively classy. Carlo Felice Theatre (named for a king of Sardinia who reigned in the 1800s), the main show lounge, presents a variety of entertainment as well as onboard singers and dancers. The theater features dark lavender upholstered seating and Art Deco-like lighting along the side walls. Simple and tasteful.
Guests can watch an overhead LED screen while relaxing in the outdoor pool and hot tubs. Next to the fitness center, the MSC Aurea Spa has a soothing Balinese theme, and that segues into one of Poesia’s best attributes. Hundreds of Balinese employees serve as wait staff and room stewards (and stewardesses) and they are hard-working, efficient and pleasant.
Enjoy a glass of wine at Il Grappolo D’Oro bar, with its frieze-like grapes design on the walls, and a corridor of tables for two, above which are glass-enclosed wall cases displaying corks, grapes, baskets and assorted bottles of Italian wine.
On Poesia’s 7-night sailings from Fort Lauderdale to the Eastern and Western Caribbean during January-February 2012, Il Grappolo D’Oro was the scene of a fun interactive event, a Winemaker Experience hosted by Blend Craft Wines’ Napa Valley wine-making experts. Guests created their own blend of wine and wine label after sampling international varietals. Their custom-crafted wine was bottled and corked and ready to be taken home. A nice treat for guests.
MSC Poesia's Public Areas are Tantalizing
Onboard bars and lounges are plentiful, such as the Pigalle Lounge, with its red banquette seating beneath large horizontal paintings of Can-Can dancers; and the Hitchcock Lounge, a cigar bar filled with soft-green leather couches and chairs surrounded by wall art that pays homage to iconic movie director Alfred Hitchcock.
A standout is the spacious Zebra Bar, featuring zebra-patterned furnishings and flooring and paintings of animal scenes, all overlooking a dance floor where a singer entertains. There’s another singer in the Bar dei Poeti, loudly warbling jazz numbers and old chestnuts. The Bar is divided into smoking and non-smoking areas.
In the atrium, a trio of musicians and Italian arias sung by a soprano and tenor, draw loud applause from guests, and for festive fun in one of the lounges, guests can learn to dance the Tarantella as a gaily-costumed dance team demonstrates the steps.
The Italian influence permeates the ship’s décor, with all furniture and furnishings made in Italy. These furnishings are a stylish notch above what fills most premium cruise ships. On Poesia, the furniture and furnishings would be equally at home in a fine boutique hotel.
MSC Poesia Offers Diverse Dining Options
In the blue-themed Le Fontane and red-themed Il Palladio dining rooms, menu entrees include seafood and Italian dishes, and in the alternative restaurant, L’Obelisco, a four-course dinner costs a reasonable $20 and menu choices range from rack of lamb to carefully-prepared Italian dishes. Another alternative restaurant, Kaito Sushi, offers dishes in the authentic Japanese tradition.
The pool deck's Villa Pompeiana buffet-style cafeteria serves casual breakfast, lunch,dinner and snacks.
As beautiful as the Poesia is, it does have negatives. Guests slip their room card (key) into a slot that turns on the cabin lights. Removing the room card turns off the lights - and the air conditioning! If you leave your room for several hours, you return to a room that is warm.
The bed pillows are inadequately thin. Ask for thicker pillows or multiple pillows. If you don't smoke, consider that many of the international passengers are smokers. However, smoking is confined to certain areas.
Overall, Poesia is sophisticated, chic and very clean, and it offers all the amenities and services that make guests feel pampered and satisfied. As ships go, Poesia is poetry in motion.
Roberta Sandler - Roberta Sandler has written more than 1,000 articles that have appeared in scores of magazines and newspapers including Miami Herald, ...
