St. Lucia, nice place, but I wouldn't want to live here...as a port stop it is pretty good as there is plenty of shopping in walking distance. We spent a couple hours in the Central Market, picked up some shirts, a hat, and of course a refrigerator magnet...My steward finally noticed and asked about them (I have developed the habit over the year of hanging them on the ceiling by the door of my stateroom, as it is the only reliably metal surface in the room.) My poor brother is in a bit of pain...dealing with the curbs and all, I managed to get his leg up under the wheelchair, trying to cross the busiest intersection in town...my bad...but he is a trooper, and will be fine tomorrow) None of these little islands have decent sidewalks, or crosswalks or anything. Oh, and St. Lucia was HOT!!! Kinda nice (it's been tooooooo long since I was too hot, but I did get a bit sweated up with all the walking)
After our jaunt to town, we went up to the cabin and I did run into one of those silly customer service issues that MSC is kind of famous for. I called room service and tried to order some Iced Tea (oops, won't make THAT mistake again). The conversation went something like this:
Hello, Room Service, may I help you?
Yeah, I'd like some Iced Tea please, for two.
We don't have Iced Tea
Uhhhhhhhh, okay....you have tea right?
Yes, sir, we have hot tea
Okay, and you have ice, right?
Yes, but we don't serve Ice Tea from Room Service, sir!
Okay, so you have ice...and you have tea...so, pretty much all we need is something to put it in, yeah?
Sir? Excuse me?
....So...I finally ordered hot tea, and called the steward to fill my ice bucket, and had a bucket of iced tea, rather than the pitcher I had hoped for - but I did get my iced tea, and unlike some people, I pretty much refuse to let it ruin my day...but it is exactly the kind of obtuseness that gets MSC bad reviews, and they really need to figure out a way to get their people to be more flexible. Again, they are all very helpful and friendly and all, but they don't seem to want to get creative in serving customers...they do what the book says, and that's it. Oh, well...at least they appear to be hearing the complaints and working on it at the Corporate level.
Anyway, so, after all that it was time for dinner which included tonites Risotto of the day, which was PUMPKIN!!! and it was excellent, maybe the best so far. Also a corn and chicken veloutte that was very forgettable and a rack of lamb that was a tad overcooked (and with lamb even a tad overcooked just changes the flavor to "mutton")..So, not their best effort tonite, but not really "bad"...
Tonites entertainment was a magic act - good, but not spectacular, pretty typical cruise line magic act fare...except for the python.
And then back to the casino, where my winnings tonite pretty much covered my losses last nite, so I am probably down less than a hundred for the trip so far (which is excellent, for me) Oh, yeah, and the whole Jack Nicholson thing reared it's ugly head....I am often told I look like Jack (hopefully they mean when he was younger and sexy. lol). Personally, I don't see it, but whatever...anyway, a couple of the dealers have been joking about it, and calling me Jack, and "Meester Neekoleson", and tonite one of them brought out a camera and we had a "photo op" out in the hall in front of the Casino...I think some people thought there was an actual celebrity on board, as they all giggled and took pictures of each other, while I did my best Jack Nicholson wry look.
And now, my friends, it has been a long, hot day (hope you Northerners are jealous), G'nite!
After our jaunt to town, we went up to the cabin and I did run into one of those silly customer service issues that MSC is kind of famous for. I called room service and tried to order some Iced Tea (oops, won't make THAT mistake again). The conversation went something like this:
Hello, Room Service, may I help you?
Yeah, I'd like some Iced Tea please, for two.
We don't have Iced Tea
Uhhhhhhhh, okay....you have tea right?
Yes, sir, we have hot tea
Okay, and you have ice, right?
Yes, but we don't serve Ice Tea from Room Service, sir!
Okay, so you have ice...and you have tea...so, pretty much all we need is something to put it in, yeah?
Sir? Excuse me?
....So...I finally ordered hot tea, and called the steward to fill my ice bucket, and had a bucket of iced tea, rather than the pitcher I had hoped for - but I did get my iced tea, and unlike some people, I pretty much refuse to let it ruin my day...but it is exactly the kind of obtuseness that gets MSC bad reviews, and they really need to figure out a way to get their people to be more flexible. Again, they are all very helpful and friendly and all, but they don't seem to want to get creative in serving customers...they do what the book says, and that's it. Oh, well...at least they appear to be hearing the complaints and working on it at the Corporate level.
Anyway, so, after all that it was time for dinner which included tonites Risotto of the day, which was PUMPKIN!!! and it was excellent, maybe the best so far. Also a corn and chicken veloutte that was very forgettable and a rack of lamb that was a tad overcooked (and with lamb even a tad overcooked just changes the flavor to "mutton")..So, not their best effort tonite, but not really "bad"...
Tonites entertainment was a magic act - good, but not spectacular, pretty typical cruise line magic act fare...except for the python.
And then back to the casino, where my winnings tonite pretty much covered my losses last nite, so I am probably down less than a hundred for the trip so far (which is excellent, for me) Oh, yeah, and the whole Jack Nicholson thing reared it's ugly head....I am often told I look like Jack (hopefully they mean when he was younger and sexy. lol). Personally, I don't see it, but whatever...anyway, a couple of the dealers have been joking about it, and calling me Jack, and "Meester Neekoleson", and tonite one of them brought out a camera and we had a "photo op" out in the hall in front of the Casino...I think some people thought there was an actual celebrity on board, as they all giggled and took pictures of each other, while I did my best Jack Nicholson wry look.
And now, my friends, it has been a long, hot day (hope you Northerners are jealous), G'nite!
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