MSC World Champions Quiz

Day 398 – April 4th, 2015. Cruise Day 14 – MSC Magnifica at Sea on Easter Saturday – cloudy and sunny

Coffee and pastries in the Gocce bar/Chocolate cafe where Jacqueline serves us. She knows our order off by heart now and the barista is very good at this time of day 10am, a little later and the one is not so good. Even Jacqueline knows this as our coffee a couple of days ago was average and she changed it for us.

The chocolate drinks seem to be quite popular with the guests on this cruise, we haven’t sampled any as we love our coffee fix, but you can check out the menu here if you haven’t seen it yet.

Daily program MSC Magnifica Easter Saturday 2015

We both did some work online as the connection was quite good, and then it was time for lunch. Today we were joined by Dot and Thelma from Australia which made a change for us. The weather is quite overcast today and all outside activities have been moved inside.

Easter Saturday lunch menu

Easter Saturday lunch menu MSC Magnifica 2015

Appetisers

Mozzarella in carrozza – fried bread stuffed with Mozzarella cheese, accompanied by tomato coulis and mixed greens (J&M)

Main Courses

Today we both had pasta Bolognese as we didn’t fancy any of the main course options (J&M)

Desserts

Lemon tart – with caramelized meringue (J)

Picture sequence from left to right.

Lunch meals on Easter Saturday MSC Magnifica 2015

The restaurant was very busy and lunch was fine, we had the same waiter from the other day that was stressed and rude then, today he was much happier for sure. After lunch we bumped into the black card members Peter & Pat who we make a point of showing how royal they make us feel, all for a laugh.

With them were Jonathan and his wife Loraine who actually recognised Moni. They asked if we were on the Celebrity Infinity cruise through the Panama canal in December as they thought they remembered us from there. I didn’t recognise them… And funny thing is we are all on the same quiz team so Moni must have left an impression for sure.

The navigation map is available on the TV but it keeps scrolling between information about all the officers so takes a while to come back around. Here we are just passing the coast of Morocco.

Navigation screen on the tv MSC Magnifica

Now we are in the Purple Bar where Moni is writing some more of her book. At 4pm I’ll join the quiz team to find out how we did as the results will be announced. I left Moni with a drink…

World champion quiz results…

The theatre was busier than the previous normal quiz days, I guess that others just want to cheer their friends on. We, team NZ that is, had been hovering around fourth and third place during the first four days however steadily going backwards from our 100% correct start. And so to the results…

The staff read out the third place, team Finland… We felt our hearts sink, hopping that we had made enough correct answers to secure third place. Anyway we clapped our friends in team Finland as they made their way to the stage.

Next second place, and we have a tie, two teams… You can watch the video or read on…

Team Jamaica and team New Zealand… we looked at each other, starting to clap and jumping with excitement and then made our way to the stage.

Team New Zealand in the MSC world champions quiz

First place was announced team Spain who had 3 more right answers than us. After receiving a t-shirt and hat and the ceremony was over we all went to the tiger bar for a celebration drink. We honestly didn’t think we’d get anything and were very chuffed with our team effort.

World champion quiz scoreboard

I’m not sure how they worked out the places for third and second, as the scoreboard reveals two equal third places, three equal second places… Anyway, when I returned to Moni she didn’t recognise me as I was wearing the T-shirt and cap… How cool was that. If only we had not made some silly mistakes we could have made first place.

Back to the cabin to ready ourselves for Gala night dinner

For some reason my photos of the menu are totally blurred, and that’s before the red wine…

Appetisers

Carpaccio of beef – with shaved parmesan (J&M)

Salad

Mixed salad (M)

Soup

Yes (J)

Pasta and Risotto

Pasta was with scallops and saffron (M) the scallops were very small and not really very nice

Main Courses

Fish with white sauce steamed potatoes and asparagus (J&M)

Desserts

Coffee panacotta (J)

Picture sequence from top left to bottom right.

Easter Saturday dinner meals MSC Magnifica 2015

The Flamenco Show

After dinner we together with Chris & Shirley had a drink in the tiger bar before heading to the theatre to watch the show which was a one night only Flamenco performance.

The Flamenco Show MSC Magnifica 2015

The show had great energy and the crowd were excited clapping and shout ‘oleo’ after we went to the cabin.