The Cruise Begins

We sailed out of Miami for our cruise, but to save some money (even with the rental car), we flew into and stayed in Fort Lauderdale the night before. With our check-in time at the pier set for 11:30, we had a relaxed morning without the need to rush. It set the tone for the whole week – just take it easy and enjoy! We had a laid-back breakfast at Starbucks (mostly because it was convenient) before heading to Miami.

After dropping off our rental at the Miami airport, we made our way to the pier. We left our suitcases outside the terminal, then headed inside to check in. It was a smooth process since most passengers were likely already onboard, and we were quickly on our way up the gangway to the MSC Seaside.

This was my first time cruising with MSC. We have friends who are loyal MSC cruisers and love this line, especially this ship. Walking into the grand atrium, I immediately understood why—they’re right, the ship is stunning! Only two or three years old, it’s absolutely beautiful. I’ll do a full review of the ship and share my thoughts on MSC in another post.

We were able to head to our cabin right away to grab our ship cards and drop off our bags. After a quick peek at our lovely balcony cabin, we made our way to the buffet for lunch.

While eating, we took the chance to open the MSC app. We knew we'd need to pre-book our shows, given the ship’s size (5,000 passengers), and that was something we could only do once onboard. Thankfully, there were still plenty of seats for all the shows, and the app was super easy to use.

The afternoon was spent exploring the ship from top to bottom, getting settled in our cabin once our luggage arrived, meeting our room steward, and doing the muster drill. We enjoyed the sail-away from our balcony.

After a delicious dinner in the main dining room, we attended the production show in the theater. It wasn’t the best show I’ve seen on a cruise ship (in fact, it might have been one of the worst), but it was still a fun way to wrap up the day.

By the time the show ended, we were pretty wiped out. After a busy couple of days and with a port stop the next morning, we decided to head back to the cabin and wind down for the night.