Beyond the Sea: Day 11 - Marseille

[Gill H]

<<<Day 10

Previously on “Beyond the Sea”:

Yesterday’s scheduled port day at Villefranche didn’t happen, because the tender boats couldn’t run due to ‘high winds’.

We had a sea day, complete with Palo brunch and Pirate Night.

And today - we’re docking at Marseille! (Incidentally, I still haven't figured out whether it should have an 's' on the end or not. My instinct is to put one on, but all the info on the ship spells it without one.)

So here we are, on our last full day aboard the Magic. We haven’t anything definite in mind to do in Marseille, as it’s rather been sprung on us, so we decide to stick to our original plan of ‘get there and just bimble about for a bit’. We wake at about 7.30 and while we’re getting ready, we watch a debarkation presentation on the ship TV channel, given by our cruise director Lesley. This tells us all we need to know about preparations for tomorrow, and is really helpful for newbies like us.

One annoying thing we discover this morning is that the video camera battery is very low, so we decide we will just take my ‘still’ camera today and content ourselves with photos.

After breakfast in Cabana’s (yum, Mickey waffles!) we head off the ship and into a very cold and breezy cruise port. Fortunately there is a free shuttle bus laid on, but we have to wait a while till the bus driver arrives and lets us on. If we thought it was cold outside the bus, the inside is worse – it’s a hop-on hop-off bus with hard, cold plastic seats, and it seems to let in every draught imaginable. Fortunately we are soon on our way, battling through the heavy traffic, and in about 20 minutes we’re dropped by the side of a road somewhere, and basically told ‘keep straight on, everything is that way’! We’re also told that this is the place to pick up our return transport and that they run about every 20 minutes or so. The only thing we can see at the moment is the holocaust memorial across the road, and some road signs.

After this unpromising beginning, we walk a few paces, go round a bend and voila! The harbour is indeed right in front of us. The first thing we encounter is a savonnerie – a shop selling soap.

It quickly becomes apparent that soap is a big deal in Marseille. The shop also has a soap factory attached, and there are leaflets advertising a visitor tour later today. We briefly consider this and decide we’ll come back to it later if we want to. Meanwhile we browse, rather amazed at the variety of fragrances, styles and related products available. Who knew that my life was missing a lavender-fragranced sardine-shaped soap? Well, it could be worse – it could be shaped like lavender and smell like sardines…

[Gill H]

Having exhausted the fun currently available at the savonnerie, we move on. We soon discover that Marseille is not only all about soap, it’s also all about hills. There are passageways full of steep stairways, and rather daunting walkways upwards towards the town.

Not sure of our way, and not wanting to make such a climb for nothing, we decide to just go up to the next street and see what we can find, preferably involving a cuppa somewhere.

We’re in luck, as we soon stumble across a café with the promising name of “A Cup Of Tea”. In English. Yes, really. Better yet, it isn’t just a café. It’s a fascinatingly scruffy secondhand book and record shop, of the sort that in London would be run by bearded hipsters, charge ridiculous prices for undrinkable coffee, and be frequented by hordes of annoying young posh people. But this place is almost empty apart from a few of Marseille’s ‘middle aged bloke’ set enjoying a drink outside - brave souls, it’s still a bit chilly! We head inside where we are welcomed heartily and are soon enjoying a very good coffee while taking in the fascinating range of books, records (yes, records) and posters everywhere. We also take the opportunity to ring our parents and check all is well, which fortunately it is. Thank you again, EU, for dropping roaming charges across Europe!

Another fun feature of “A Cup Of Tea” is this sign in the loo…

Elegance and precision. I can understand the precision bit, but only in France could you request elegance in such a procedure.

As luck would have it, just as we leave the café it begins to spit with rain. We duck into yet another soap shop nearby to shelter, and discover that they have a much wider range of frangrances and much lower prices than the first one, though they seem to stick with the classic block and brick shapes rather than fripperies like lavender sardines. We decide to buy a block of the olive scented soap to take home with us, and by the time we’re done it’s stopped raining, so we move on.

There follows a time of rather aimless dithering, looking at some rather splendid buildings but not really being sure where to go.

Here's the building we were looking at earlier through the arch (did anyone else get Play School flashbacks when I posted that?)

Eventually we decide to find a souvenir shop, as we need to get the last pen for my sister-in-law’s collection. So we find a shop that doesn’t look too tacky. Indeed, so un-tacky that there seem to be no pens available! We dredge up enough of our rusty school French to ask if they have ‘un stylo … er … un stylo turistique?’ Ah yes, they do indeed, and very reasonably priced too.

The shop is adjacent to the harbour, and we decide to spend the remainder of our time exploring this area.

We also decide that we really don’t need many of our remaining Euros, so we find a handy bureau de change and get rid of most of our notes. In a few moments 90 Euros become 103 dollars, which means we can treat ourselves to a few extra purchases on the ship.

[Gill H]

And so we stroll through the harbour...

We're resisting the urge for a trip on ‘Le Ferry Boat’ (or indeed ‘Le Petit Train’) which we didn't photograph.

France is looking forward to the Olympics, I see...

There's that arch again, from the other direction.

Is this 'La Criee' the same as the one in Val d'Europe, just outside DLP? If so, it's a rather nice and relatively inexpensive chain of fish restaurants, and worth checking out.

Eventually we’re back where we started. We decide to spend our remaining Euro coins in the savonnerie on a little gift set for Jo, who is looking after Spikey while we’re away. It’s a little tin of soap with a cat picture on the lid.

And with that, we’re done with Marseille. (Side note: we were rather astonished watching the Hairy Bikers’ TV programme this week when they visited Marseille – it looks like we missed a lot by not being willing to climb the hills!)

We go back to the shuttle pick up point, where a coach – yes, a proper coach this time – is already waiting. It’s not long before we’re back at the port (hello Goofy! Sorry we were moving too fast for a decent photo).

We take a last opportunity to browse the souvenir stalls, but decide not to buy anything. Instead we go back to the warm and inviting atmosphere of the Magic, and drop off our purchases in our stateroom before heading for some lunch.

[Gill H]

We decide to have lunch in the MDR, which today is Lumiere’s. Now, we haven’t forgotten our breakfast the other day, which was slightly marred by lukewarm food and over-attentive service. But we think we should give them another chance. After all, our lunch at Carioca’s on embarkation day was fine, with no problems at all. So we head into Lumiere’s, which once again is almost empty, and are shown to a table. (Unfortunately I can’t find the lunch menu online anywhere so you’ll have to put up with what I made a note of!)

Peter starts with the bruschetta, which is very good.

I go for the gumbo, which has a slight kick but isn’t a dish Tiana would recognise. It's just a soup, rather than a full-on stew.

To follow I have the boccatini pancetta, which is a good straightforward pasta dish, fortunately following the Italian tradition where the pasta is the star, rather than drowning everything in a bland gloopy sauce.

Peter goes for the burger – I think it’s the ‘Angus chuck burger’ but perhaps I didn’t want to think too much about the word ‘chuck’ in that context. The server asks how he wants it cooked, and he says ‘cooked through, please’. (As a chef, he can give you all sorts of reasons why burgers should not be pink. Steaks, yes, burgers, no!)

Unfortunately when the burger arrives it is seriously overcooked and very dry, so we flag down our server and have a short discussion. He is of the opinion that any attempt to serve the burger ‘cooked through’ will end with the same result, so instead Peter asks if he can have the boccatini pasta as I did.

Eventually this arrives, and I have to sit and watch him eat it while placating numerous hovering servers who are anxiously hoping it’s to his liking. Which, fortunately, it is. However, once he’s finished we decline the offer of dessert or coffee. We figure we have spent enough time in the goldfish bowl today, and we retreat to our stateroom for the prosaic but necessary task of packing.

There follows a frantic half hour of sorting out what we need to keep to hand for tonight/tomorrow (including what we need to keep in our hand luggage for the plane) and what we can pack away and leave outside this evening. As cruise newbies, we have read up on the arrangements for leaving the ship, and we know that we need to leave most of our luggage outside before we go to dinner, in order for the DCL luggage fairies to whisk it away until tomorrow. The alternative is having to take it all to breakfast with us, which is definitely not going to happen!

Eventually we manage to get all our fish extender gifts and lovely purchases into our cases, as well as what we brought with us of course. I really can’t see how some people manage to bring elaborate costumes and ballgowns with them – we have enough trouble finding room for one smart outfit each and some nice shoes!

To reward ourselves, we go up to Deck 9 to cool down – literally and figuratively – with a dole whip. These are apparently a new thing on the DCL ships this year, and this is probably our last chance to get one. So we ask the very laid-back CM in the ice cream booth for two dole whip floats. At first he either mis-hears or misunderstands what we want, or is just a bit clueless as to how to make them, because the resulting concoction looks very odd indeed. However, just as we are about to shrug nonchalantly (we are still in France, after all) and accept them, his colleague arrives and tells him he’s made them wrongly. Said colleague proceeds to pour pineapple juice into two plastic glasses, and top them with the pineapple soft serve.

It seems a bit slushier than the WDW version, and doesn’t stand up in that iconic swirly shape. And the taste is … hmmm … OK. Different from the DLP ‘pineapple whip’ of course (which, in case you’ve forgotten, we tasted back on Day 3, and which consists of vanilla ice cream with pineapple juice and syrup). But somehow different from the WDW version too. Maybe we should have tried one of the versions with rum – just in the interests of comparison, you understand.

Anyway, it’s too windy up on deck, so we take our dole whips down to the Promenade Lounge to finish, and then head over to O’Gill’s for the Disney trivia quiz. This is the only time we have been in O’Gill’s when it looks ‘normal’ (as opposed to the Snuggly Duckling version) and somehow it doesn’t feel quite so cosy today. Maybe because it’s pretty much deserted. We begin to wonder if we are in the right place, but eventually the CM quiz team arrives, as do our quiz companions from last time, Andy and Jerri! We hadn’t made plans to meet up, but of course we ask if they would like to make a team, and they do.

Well, the quiz is reasonably tough, but compared to the Dibbcast quizzes, it’s mostly a breeze between the four of us. However, there is one answer we really struggle with. Now, think back to our ‘Disney tunes quiz’ the other day, when we lost by one point. What was the film we didn’t spot? Yes, it was Lady and the Tramp. And this time, we manage to get all the questions right except one. Guess what film the question was about? Yep … we really need to watch that again! Unfortunately another team has managed to get all the questions right – so yet again we are second. Ah well, it’s been nice to spend some more time with Andy and Jerri. We bid them a fond farewell, in case we don’t bump into them again. It is lovely how friendly and welcoming people have been on this holiday. We really feel we’ve gained a Disney ‘ohana’.

While we were waiting for the quiz, I managed to break the zip on my Vera Bradley bag. This is really annoying as they aren’t readily available in the UK. I bought this one in the ‘Disney Co-Op’ in WDW back in 2014, so I suppose it’s lasted reasonably well. It’ll be a few years before I can go back and get another one, anyway.

Side note - can anyone remember where this ceiling is? I've forgotten!

Here's another unsuccessful blurry photo, an attempt to capture the little murals you see when you go in the Atrium lifts.

[Gill H]

And so back to the stateroom to chill until dinner, which tonight is in Carioca’s. I have to say, while it’s perfectly fine, it is probably my least favourite restaurant of the three as regards theming and menu. I’m not surprised it’s being reinvented as a Tangled-themed restaurant. However, the welcome we receive from our lovely tablemates and servers is as warm as ever. We really wish now that we were on the transatlantic cruise next week, so we could stay together!

We then take photos of our tablemates as a memento. I won’t put their photos in this report (although if you are reading this – hello!) but I hope our wonderful servers Nikola and Amphie don’t mind their photo being included.

One of our tablemates takes a photo of us. Note the birthday badges! We’d told our servers that the cruise was a 50th birthday present to each other, and even though our actual birthdays had long gone, they evidently wanted us to celebrate.

Tonight we have the ‘Till We Meet Again’ menu. To start, we are brought ‘six grain country bread with caramelized onions and tomato dip’ which is delicious. I start with a simple caprese salad. It’s OK but a little bland. This is the sort of dish where you really need top quality ingredients to see what all the fuss is about, and these don’t really do it for me.

Peter goes for the Malaysian chicken satay. He doesn’t eat cucumber so stays away from the relish, but the meat is good and the peanut sauce excellent.

As it’s our last night we have a soup. Mine is ‘white cheddar and broccolini’ which is really good with a nice kick of cheese.

Peter has the ‘lobster bisque with fresh lobster and sour cream’. I’m not sure if that little piece of lobster you can see in the picture was the only one in the soup, but nevertheless, it’s very good.

For our entrée we both go for the same thing – the beef wellington. Or to give it the full menu description “Roasted fillet of Beef Wellington covered with mushroom stuffing, wrapped in puff pastry (so, er, that’d be beef wellington then…) with fingerling potatoes, baby vegetables and a cabernet black truffle jus.”

This is good. I mean, really good. It’s the sort of dish which, although perfectly possible to do at home, is a lot of effort for two people, so it’s nice to have it without the faff. It’s also served at the correct temperature – hooray! One of the best entrees of our voyage.

For dessert I go for the ‘Chocolate Decadence – for real chocolate lovers!’ which is some sort of mousse/cake type confection, complete with happy birthday plaque and cute little hidden Mickeys of mango and raspberry sauce.

Peter chooses the ‘Amaretto cheesecake – creamy vanilla cheesecake layered with baked amaretto sour cream’ which is pretty good too.

We finish with coffees and exchange hugs and farewells with our tablemates and servers. We’ve really enjoyed our evenings at table 12, the company has been lovely and the service very good indeed.

[Gill H]

After dinner we nip back to the stateroom briefly, where we bump into our stateroom host Nigel in the corridor, and take the opportunity to thank him heartily for all his hard work looking after our room. Knowing that he will need to make up the room at some point soon, we make ourselves scarce, and concentrate on spending most of our remaining dollars. First we go to the shop for a rather nice DCL tote bag for me, to match Peter’s backpack. We also go to choose a DCL towel, since we now have a new DLP one. We’re about to buy a classic navy one with the logo in the middle, but instead a nearby CM talks us into buying a lighter blue one with multiple raised logos on it.

Our last purchase is waiting for us at Shutters – the 10-photo package we ordered (digital only, so it’s just a USB stick). Is it worth nearly $200? Well, probably not. But at least we’ve got some decent photos as a memento of a lovely trip.

This done, we go to Guest Services for the last time and pay off the remainder of our bill, before heading to the Walt Disney Theatre for tonight’s show. It’s ‘Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic’ which has nothing to do with the late lamented Dreams show at Disneyland Paris (except that Peter Pan plays a large role in both). It’s the story of a young girl who has a creepy Pinocchio puppet and a stalker at the window who invades her house. Er, let’s try that again. It’s the story of Anne-Marie, who wishes upon a star and has adventures with Peter Pan, as he brings various stories to life in her room. For all those of us who’ve staged full-scale musical numbers in our bedrooms, even if only in our imagination, this is a fun show, even if the songs are a little shoehorned in. We get selections from Aladdin, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen and The Lion King, before Anne-Marie learns to believe in her dreams and finds she can fly. There’s even a guest appearance from the Magic itself, which is transformed by Tinkerbell. It’s a very well done show, and even though we are right in the front row and can see how some of the effects are done, it’s no less impressive. The hard working cast give it all they’ve got, and the audience go wild at the end.
However, there is more fun to be had this evening. We take our places at the railings overlooking the Atrium, where we should have a good view of the character farewell show ‘Till We Meet Again’. While we wait, we’re amused to see a small child running across the Atrium who is dressed as Snow White and wielding a large lightsaber. Ladies and gentlemen, I present – Disney past and future! And of course, no-one turns a hair. It’s a perfectly normal sight on the Magic. The ‘real world’ is going to be such a let-down after this.

‘Till We Meet Again’ is basically a chance for the stage performers and the characters to take a bow. Then there’s a few minutes for photos, autographs and hugs with the characters, before they strike up the farewell song. Even for those of us who didn’t grow up with the Mickey Mouse Club, the first notes of “Now’s the time to say goodbye to all our company…” are enough to get us a little misty. By the time we’ve waved off all the characters one by one and said ‘See ya real soon’ to Captain Mickey, there is definitely something in my eye.

However, tonight’s fun isn’t over yet. It’s our last chance for some fun at Fathoms with the wonderful Tisa. As usual, we arrive just as the previous game is ending. This time it’s ‘The Feud’ a version of the TV show ‘Family Feud’ or as we in the UK know it, ‘Family Fortunes’. Once this has finished, we get our places for tonight’s 80s music quiz. Now, we were teens in the 80s so this should be right up our street. But there’s a slight problem – a strong bias towards US hits. We struggle with quite a few answers, and this time we are soundly beaten. When Tisa is reading out the answers, Peter pipes up in mock indignation, to point out that several weren’t hits in the UK. Unfortunately his case is rather damaged by the fact that the next answer we got wrong was ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ by the decidedly British Rod Stewart. Oops…! How could we not get that one?

Once the quiz is over, we say goodbye to Tisa and thank her for all the fun we’ve had over the week. What a legend.

And as our last evening draws to a close, we pop up to Deck 9 for a final hot chocolate – and decide that, what the heck, we’ll have a pizza from Pinocchio’s too. Unfortunately we have to wait ages as there’s a CM getting a load of pizzas for some of her fellow CMs. But eventually we end up with hot, fresh and very tasty pizza, which is welcome in the cold, windy weather up on deck. I have to say, we have been surprised at the quality of the fast food on the Magic. The chicken tenders were really good and the pizzas are great too.

Once we’ve finished we head for our stateroom to find our last towel animal, eat our last chocolates, and of course fill in the infamous comment card. We’re aware that a lot of importance is placed on getting an ‘excellent’ rating; indeed, there is a rather … interesting question asking whether we have been put under any pressure to award this. Fortunately I can say completely honestly that we haven’t come across this at all. I won’t reveal our exact scores (not least because I can’t remember all the questions!) but suffice it to say, I hope all the CMs felt properly appreciated. We did give one or two points for feedback – notably about temperature of food – but overall our report was glowing. It really has been … well, magic.

And with that we settle in for our last night in the lovely big comfy bed, before we venture back out into ‘real life’ again tomorrow. Goodnight all!



INDEX

[mick]

A good last day shame about the cool weather.

Joan

[Guest]

Poot replies: HAHAHA. I think the people in that tea shop must think that's how English people go to the loo...with elegance and precision. Maybe that's because we have actual toilets (my mother says COMMODES - she HATES the "T" word) - and not just holes in the ground like so many places in France.

You did miss a lot of Marseille - but having been to Marseille many, MANY times (R.C. has friends and family there)...missing a lot of Marseille is not like missing a lot of, say...London. If you like "The Count of Monte Cristo", though - you should definitely visit the Château d’If.

And you know Poot is a caprese connoisseur...the next time you're at a Tesco, pick this up:

It makes an absolutely STUNNING caprese - better than any other buffalo mozzarella I've ever had - even in Italy.

Beef Wellington...


"Disney Dreams" was NOT my favourite thing ever. I wanted to give that actress a good whack - what was up with her "little girl" voice? She sounded like Fran Drescher! I did enjoy getting to hear "Prince Ali", though - that's a cracking song.


Re: "Do Ya..."

My first proper memory: I am lying on our living room carpet. My father is listening to a 45 of "Do Ya" with a pad and pen on his lap. He is learning the lyrics...so that his show band can perform the song later in the week. I am probably the only person in the world who gets a little misty when she hears that song. R.I.P., Dad.


Happier "Do Ya"...if you like that song, there is a pretty awesome cover version of it by a band called the Revolting...erm..."Roosters". The lyrics are almost all the same...but not quite. It was the karaoke speciality of one of my girlfriends back in the '90s.