Here is our ship. The MSC Orchestra is 964 ft. long and 105.6 ft. wide. It haas 16 decks has carries 2500 passengers and 1000 crew. It is the largest ship we have been on in over 20 years. It was easy getting 10,000 steps just going to the dining room and back three times a day. It was built in 2007 and was going into dry dock for refurbishing at the end of this cruise.
To the right is the line of people waiting in the hot Miami sun to board the ship. We were given boarding times, but obviously they meant nothing. It took us over 4 hours to get on board.
My favorite part of the ship was the Spa. I visited several times. The service was great and prices reasonable. The evening shows were varied, so there was something for everyone. We did not go every night. Every day there were several dance classes–that seemed to be the most popular activity on board. I missed not having a library. The buffet was always crowded, and it was hard to find a table. However, the dining room was nice and the waiters wonderful. We did the buffet for breakfast and lunch and ate in the dining room for dinner. We were at a table for six, but only one other person came. He was an interesting single passenger who liked the dancing and the bars. He always had something to tell us at dinner. And he was from San Francisco.
Interestingly, 1700 of the passengers were Brazilian. We met very few people from the states. There was a group of 90 from Great Britain. So we had the feel of being in a foreign country, hearing little English. Bob’s Spanish helped a lot. Most, of all the route and price were right. We wanted to see Rio and Barcelona and compared to other options, this was the least expensive. We just love being on the water.
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