Bon Voyage!

Following a good night's sleep at the Courtyard Marriott (America really is everywhere) in Hamburg, we headed out for the port city of Kiel, about an hour away. We trooped back to the airport for our pick up.

As we rode along, one of the funniest things was when we'd realize we were listening to something in English. It would take a moment, and sometimes we'd be singing along and realize the song playing was something we knew, including '80s singers like Taylor Dane or something from Motown. The local station the driver had playing alternated every other song in English. We arrived in Kiel and checked in.

Following check-in, we were directed to Deck 13 to the buffet until we could get in our cabins. And our adventure was off and running.

MSC does some things very well; others not as much. The pickup and check in was pretty smooth; we were surprised to see the notice in the daily bulletin that a daily service charge would be deducted automatically. Not cool. But some other cruisers we met told us to go to the reception the night before we disembark and have it taken off because we want to tip ourselves. It's good to be nice to people. There are ony about 600 English speaking cruisers and about 65 from the U.S. The ship holds approximately 3500 passengers.