From Swarovski crystals to spas and gourmet food, cruise ship MSC Seaview offers attractions and fun
ONE minute I’m in a gym where a machine tells me I am overweight, the next in a shop full of melt-in-the-mouth Venchi chocolates and ice cream. It’s clearly karma.
At least that’s what I tell myself as I tuck into the choccie samples. It’s my holiday and the diet can wait.
I’m on the new cruise ship MSC Seaview. It isn’t quite the biggest — that title goes to Royal Caribbean International’s Symphony of the Seas — but it’s not far off.
Stand her on end and she’s the same height as the Eiffel Tower, she has 20 decks and room for 5,331 passengers.
On the outside she’s a curious Miami condo design, but inside she is a shrine to all things sparkling.
Staircases are packed with Swarovski crystals and the atrium’s mirrored surfaces gleam under the lights.
A live band plays above the atrium bar (one of 20 watering holes) and above that massive LED screens show everything from cityscapes to the world beneath the waves.
From my favourite perch at the bar of French restaurant L’Atelier Bistrot I could listen to the music, watch sharks swimming and tuck into ham, steak and chips and foie gras. Naughty, but nice.
The Bistrot is one of several restaurants on Seaview.
Seafood lovers can dine on dishes created by Spanish chef Ramon Freixa in Ocean Cay. He has two Michelin stars and restaurants in Barcelona, Madrid and Colombia.
There are hunks of meat in the Butcher’s Cut steakhouse (24oz T-bone anyone?), and rice and noodle dishes in the sushi, pan-Asian and teppanyaki restaurant combo.
All these cost extra but you can dine for free in the two dining rooms and two self-service buffets.
One is by the promenade deck with lots of outdoor seating, so you can refuel while watching the waves. Which is, of course, what Seaview is all about.
She is cruising the Med this summer and next and wintering in Santos, Brazil.
For the best view of the ocean, harness up and hop on the longest zipline at sea.
With my head for heights, there was no way I was doing that, but I had a go at zapping aliens in the 4D cinema, racing around on the F1 simulator and whizzing down the water slides.
One of these, a slide-boarder, is the latest must-have in the world of flumes.
You whoosh down in a raft and coloured lights flash as you go. Press the matching buttons on your raft and a computer records the score.
It was a bit of a struggle up the steps with the raft on my back. But coming down was such fun I had to have another go.
For the kids there are also indoor play areas with Lego and computers and teen hangouts for bigger kids.
There’s lots for mum and dad too, including a different show in the theatre on every night of a one-week cruise.
Most are song-and-dance productions with plenty of acrobatics thrown in because talking is tricky on a ship with passengers from all over the world.
I caught part of the lively French-themed Bizarre but there are also Tina Turner and Pink Floyd tributes, flamenco dancers and Italian music favourites.
No wonder they have almost 800 costumes, 300 hats and 200 wigs backstage.
Go: Cruise
A SEVEN-night Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona on MSC Seaview is from £989 per person, departing September 7, 2018.
The price excludes flights and transfers.
See or call 0203 426 3010.
You can also be rubbed down with Tuscany-grown grapes in the spa — with a Cabernet facial at €109 (£97), I’d opt for a bottle of wine instead — and walk over a glass-bottomed walkway 130ft above the ocean.
It’s called the Bridge of Sighs after the one in Venice. That got its name in the 1600s as prisoners had to cross it getting from the courtroom to their cell and were thought to sigh as they got their last glimpse of Venice before being banged up.
Hopefully the only sighs from the folk crossing the bridge on Seaview will be of delight at the view of the wake below.
MOST READ IN TRAVEL
If you crave the celebrity lifestyle, Seaview’s swanky MSC Yacht Club has your name on it.
This all-suite bolthole comes with butlers, free drinks, its own restaurant, and a private deck and pool where you can sunbathe away from the hoi-polloi.
MSC’s UK boss Antonio Paradiso told me, proudly: “The Yacht Club is our best-kept secret.”
Not any more, it isn’t!