MSC Seaside: The Naming Ceremony!

It’s 4 am on the morning of day 2 here aboard the Seaside, and with a little insomnia setting in, it seemed like a good time for a look at the Seaside’s naming ceremony we were fortunate to be able to attended last night.

First, I have to say, I’m loving this so far. It’s our first inaugural sailing, and things have gone pretty well in my opinion. Boarding was a little slow, but that’s to be expected, as everyone (media and travel industry) pretty much showed up at the same time, so check in took a little longer than it would for a normal sailing. The crew have been outstanding, the ship is beautiful, and we’re having a blast! I think my only true complaint was the gala dinner. Being that everyone had the same seating time, they served a set menu, one that really didn’t fit my eating habits. Very seafood heavy, with veal as the only non-fishy option for the entree:

(click the little arrow on the right side to move to the menu pic)

With it not really fitting our tastes, we ended up skipping out a little early and hitting the buffet, which gave me a second opportunity to have a slice of that awesome MSC pizza :).

Aside from the tiny dinner menu hiccup, things have been awesome so far. The naming ceremony itself was fun, with a number of speakers from MSC and the local community. Mario Lopez hosted:

Throughout the night he brought out a number of people, including Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino:

The night also included performances by Andrea Bocelli with Voices of Haiti, and was capped off with a short concert by Ricky Martin! I haven’t had a chance to upload any of Andrea Bocelli’s performance yet, so keep an eye on our social media pages. Here’s a portion of Ricky Martin’s performance, with another short clip also available on our Instagram:

Following the speakers, the music, and all the fun, it was time to get down to business. One last thing needed to happen to make this all official, the ribbon cutting!

All in all it was a great ceremony, and we were happy to have been a part of it. I know I’m not doing it justice, and I’m going to blame the early morning hour/lack of sleep for that, but if you want to see the entire thing, head on over to MSC’s Youtube channel and check out the whole show!

The evening was capped off with some fun in the atrium with the entertainment team. Definitely saw some familiar faces out there, and can’t wait for the normal event schedule to start Saturday!

Well, that’s all for now, I’m going to try and get a little more sleep before we get up and explore the ship some more today. Maybe I’ll dream of that amazing gelato we had so much of yesterday :). They make some delicious flavors, and I have to say, the gelato bars are incredible. I could eat those as a meal. We’d never had one on the Divina (do they even have them?), but I grabbed a dark chocolate one after dinner and WOW. I can’t wait to try some of the other flavors!

Be sure to follow up on social media to see more of the ship over the next 9 days! This thing is awesome!

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