A Few Hours In Recife Brazil

Panorama to Recife, Northern Brazil

Panorama to Recife, Northern Brazil

 

Day 391 – March 28th, 2015. Cruise Day 7 – MSC Magnifica in Recife, Brazil.

I woke at 6.15am with the daylight over the sea. Moni was still fast asleep. Today we spent a few hours in Recife in northern Brazil, the ship was due to spend 6 hours here with an arrival time of 3pm leaving at 9pm, not ideal timing for us to see much of a city, but we did get out for a while.

Daily program 28th March MSC Magnifica

Daily program 28th March MSC Magnifica

 

Who let the dogs out…

We made our way to the restaurant, on the way we passed a lovely dog, with her handler and another staff member. We stopped and talked to them quickly showing our surprise to see a dog. (not our first time to see a dog onboard) and we were allowed a quick pat. Her name was Lora and she was ‘on duty’, a K9 trained dog that by the looks of it was sniffing out drugs the handler didn’t say.

A K9 dog on board the MSC Magnifica cruise ship

A K9 dog on board the MSC Magnifica cruise ship

 

We then had breakfast in the restaurant at 8.30 and joined a table with a German couple, since the first day, they don’t seem to make an effort to sit you with like language speaking guests. Not that we are upset with this, but others would certainly be annoyed.

Breakfast was fine, but no Earl Grey tea was available in the restaurant. The smoked salmon came with just two capers, no cream cheese. The eggs Benedict are on toast bread, with the thinnest hollandaise ever, yes we tried them again.

I found out that you can get a newspaper each day at a $3.50 cost per day, it’s a full size paper. It’s the first time that any ship doesn’t do the couple of A4 size prints of the major topics. Also the reception confirmed that the rooms don’t have a compendium and yesterday we received a room service menu.

It consists of 10 items individually priced. Room service breakfast is included in the fare.

After breakfast we got online and Moni caught up with some emails etc. A great feeling to have made some big dollars while sleeping on a cruise ship, that’s for sure.

Back up to the cabin as we made our way towards Recife, our last stop in Brazil. According to the daily plan, we were supposed to arrive at 3pm, yet we were an hour early, much like yesterday, either we keep making an hour in time going faster or they have got the times mixed up, I think it’s the latter.

Lunch was being served

We made sure to eat at around 1.30 before heading ashore. The lines of people queuing up to get into the dining room at around 11.50 was crazy, not sure if they think that they’ll not have enough food or space for them.

Lunch menu MSC Magnifica

Lunch menu MSC Magnifica

 

Anyway we sat at a table of six, being the first after asking to have English-speaking passengers and so the head waiter said he’d open a new table… The next couple to join us were from Germany, I guess his plan didn’t workout. Another couple joined us later from the UK, anyway we had a good chat over lunch, the food was fine.

Appetisers

Quiche Lorraine – salted tart with egg, bacon and onion (M)

Cucumber gazpacho – with crispy focaccia (J)

Starters

Gnocchi di semolino alla romana – semolina Gnocchi au gratin with butter and Parmesan cheese (M)

Cream of pea soup – with diced cooked ham (J)

Main Courses

Cabbage roll – filled with rice and vegetables (M)

Golden turkey escalope – breaded and fried, with country-style potatoes and sautéed spinach (J)

Desserts

Peach cake (J)

Picture sequence from top left to bottom right.

Lunch time meals on MSC Magnifica 2015

Lunch time meals on MSC Magnifica 2015

 

Back at the cabin we watched from our balcony at the lines of people getting off and standing in the blazing sun waiting to board the shuttle busses. The port of Recife does not allow you to just walk into town from the ship as we docked away from the actual terminal. A few shade tents were set up at one of the exits, the other had nothing and one of the officers was working hard to get passengers on the busses as quickly as possible all the while sweating himself.

Arriving in Recife at the port

Arriving in Recife at the port

 

We timed our exit well and waited for a while before walking down out and onto a bus with no wait. The drive is only a minute or two to where we are allowed off and through the cruise building, here we got a map and then walked into the town area.

Recife welcome event at the cruise terminal

Welcome event at the cruise terminal & a picture of the long beach of Recife

 

The tourist information had told us a few places to walk to and others that would need a taxi ride to get to. We decided to walk around the area closest to us and have a beer in one of the restaurant, cafes along the strip.

Seafront dining in Recife

Seafront dining in Recife

 

The town was not overly busy being a Saturday and they were setting up for the monthly Sunday festival in this area.

Recife in northern Brazil 2015

Recife in northern Brazil 2015

 

Apparently Recife has one of the nicest beaches in Brazil and we could see it as we made our way in. Recife is made up of little land pockets surrounded by water ways, each connected by bridges.

Recife life in Brazil

Recife life in Brazil

 

Recife buildings

Recife buildings

 

Dutch architecture in Recife

Dutch architecture in Recife

 

As the sun was setting we made our way back to the ship, we didn’t wan’t to be out after dark walking around town.

We freshened up and got ready for dinner, making our way to our table on time. As we were eating dinner we eased away from Recife at 8.30pm and set a north-east course…

Dinner was…

Dinner menu 28 March 2015 MSC Magnifica

Dinner menu 28 March 2015 MSC Magnifica

 

Appetisers

Grilled vegetables – with Ricotta basil mousse (J)

Entrées

Malloreddus alla campidanese – Sardinian Gnocchetti with fresh tomato, sausage and Pecorino cheese shavings (M)

Pearl barley soup – with spring vegetables (J)

Main Courses

Chicken breast from the grill with fries (M)

Duck breast with currants in Merlot wine sauce – with celeriac potato purée (J)

Desserts

White chocolate mousse (J) &

Diplomatica cake – layered cake filled with fruit and light chantilly cream (J)

Picture sequence from top left to bottom right.

The meals were really nothing to impress tonight very basic and the white chocolate mousse was the worst I have ever had, didn’t even taste of chocolate, plus they are using imitation cream which is so white it’s not funny.

Dinner meals on MSC Magnifica 28 March 2015

Dinner meals on MSC Magnifica 28 March 2015

 

White theme night

Talking about white, tonight was actually a white party theme night and as you can see, Moni was well into it, lol. Many people wore something white and some, the MSC devotees had their all white ensembles. White flags and some other things were all white… “all white mate” on that note I’ll call it a day.

White themed party on MSC Magnifica

White themed party on MSC Magnifica

 

 

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