Year 3 Day 356 “Living the Dream”. Monday, 4/22/2024. Day 21 of 28-day European Vacation – day 19 of 18-night Northern Europe MSC Euribia cruise. It is disembarkation day in Le Havre, France.
We are in the Carousel Lounge at 8am listening to some jazz type night club music and French speaking groups of people.
I said yesterday that this is not a major port for disembarkation. Yes, I think we are the only Americans disembarking. We used uber to get to our hotel. No English spoken driver, but he turned an app on his phone so he could understand us.
The Hilton Garden Inn in Le Havre upgraded our room to a sea view and also allowed us to check in at 8:30am. Here is a video of our room.
Look at the gorgeous view.
The laundry facilities here in this hotel is free. Woohoo!! What a joke, us trying to use them though. We thought our clothes weren’t drying. Then I realized if you take them out of the dryer, they feel wet, but are dry in a few minutes. The dryer was so cool. It was a Miele heat pump dryer with steam finish. Our clothes came out like they were ironed. I want one. After we figured this all out, we were able to give instructions to a woman from believe it or not Allentown, Pennsylvania. She came into the laundry room and was confused. Then she realized we were from the United States. She was thrilled. We had lunch by the Babette bar area in the hotel. While we were eating our cheese pizza. That was a disaster also. We wanted a Marquerita pizza and somehow ended up with a four cheese. Yes, no sauce. We are two bumbling fools in France. We ate our pizza and watched people come ashore from the Portsmouth ferry.
After lunch we headed out to find a pharmacy for contact lens solution. We did get something but played charades a lot. The restaurants are all closed from like 2pm to 7pm around here. Europe really does have a problem with public bathrooms. We found some that were for both sexes. I didn’t use them. No seat and pretty wet around them. Le Havre, France is a very nice town though with nice people.
MSC Euribia 18-night Northern European Cruise ship review.
Pros – All employees are the best. Nicest, sweetest, kindest people – large bathroom sink in the room. Loved the no splashing – Surprisingly great internet most of the time. As the trip went on, I think it became bad internet. We rented a movie and the TV kept turning off. Then when you went back to resume watching the movie it would resume way sooner. Good thing it was a bad movie. Stay away from Strays. It was another movie that must have used the F word 500 times. I don’t understand why they have to ruin a movie doing that. Movie would have been good otherwise. – Room was cleaned twice a day – Ship was very clean and looks new – The most amazing delicious pizza – The Main dining room service was excellent, the waiters were running to serve and please you – Excursion departures were on time – Excursion tour guides were friendly, knowledgeable, and considerate of your needs – The Bar service was excellent – The Beds and pillows were awesome. Very comfortable – The Main dining room ice cream was good and very creamy – All ports had nice charter buses, and most had charging ports – Elegant night is elegant – Casino was not a total rip off. It was not a constant take. You could have fun playing – We got to see a lot of different countries – The laundry service was expensive, but your clothes came back so nice. Everything was on hangers and ironed. Even the jeans. – The spa was great to get your mani pedis. They did a beautiful job and did not use a Dremel. – MSC & Me app was easy to use and had everything you needed on it.
Cons – Late dining hours led us to eat in the Market place buffet most every night. Originally, we were assigned to 9:30 pm dining. We went the first night to try and change it to 5:30 pm. They sent a note to our room the next day saying we were changed to 7:30pm. That is still was too late for us. I didn’t bother asking again for the first seven nights. The first day of the eleven night I tried to change the dining time again to 5:30pm with no results. – Passengers do not wash their hands before going into the buffet and it is not enforced – We observed numerous passengers handling food at the buffet and then putting it back. I didn’t see any employees say anything to them. We tried to eat as soon as the buffet was set up for the different meals. – Laundry service is super expensive, and I did not see any specials. We washed 14 underwear and 14 socks and paid 45 Euros. That was with a 15 % discount. – There was no free ice cream on the pool deck – We did not get one towel animal – The ship was very crowded. We do find that all larger mega ships on Royal are also very crowded. – The plastic glasses in the buffet that they served draft beer in were dirty looking.
Things to ponder today! Have to leave you thinking.
Wired Headphones: Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/4cgBHqH I find that keeping a few pairs of inexpensive headphones in our luggage works great. Here’s a great little pair that has come in handy for traveling.
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To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count