MSC Poesia Day 2: Remote working from the ship

I want a good value from my cruise and drinking is not important to me. I am always interested in visiting new places. Ultimately, I want a bit of luxury without paying a luxury price. I also like to viisit many areas in a short time without a lot of risk.

As you may have read yesterday, this week I'm on the MSC Poesia. I was fortunate enough to take advantage of no solo supplement and free balcony upgrade promotion from MSC and booked this 5 day cruise out of Barcelona. If you deduct the on board credits, it will cost a little more than $100 per day including taxes, port fees, one specialty meal, premium Internet and gratuities.

Today, I'll be taking a look at how this MSC deal stacks up against other cruise lines while I work remotely from this ship. 

First, a little background about MSC. I have wanted to checkout MSC as a cruise line because they seem like a super good value for the budget cruiser with extremely competitive cruise fares and low or no supplement options for the solo cruiser plus a variety of cruise itineraries. In fact, these deals often seem to good to be true.

Also, and seriously this is true, MSC will status match with other cruise lines and some hotel brands which gives me access to benefits even though I have never cruised with them before. I status matched from Hilton Diamond to MSC Diamond without ever cruising on MSC.

Now, without further ado I want to talk about the cabin. This balcony room seems spacious and would more than adequate for two people in my opInion.

The bathroom is more than adequate but washcloths are available only if you ask for them.

The closets are spacious and offer drawers as well as plenty of hangers.

 That said, one slight annoyance is that the closet doors seem to interfere with the bathroom door if you have them open at the same time.

NEGATIVES:

There is no coffee maker in the room and you cannot request one. There is no bar soap in the room and you cannot request it.

POSITIVE:

Because of my status match, I get a robe and slippers in the stateroom without having to ask for them.

I also received a 5% discount on my cruise fare.

I also get late checkout.

I also get a specialty dinner for free.

THERE'S MORE:

The promotion that I booked also includes a couple of unexpected extras for free. I am able to order a basic breakfast and have it delivered to my stateroom in the morning (this is a nice substitute for the coffee maker I usually ask for). I also get free bottled water in the dining room at lunch and dinner?. I can never drink enough water on a ship.

INTERNET:

Premium Internet costs $15 per day and I am happy to report that I have been able to make video calls as well as upload and download with better than average cruise ship performance. MSC also offers discounts if you connect multiple devices. I have found the Internet more than adequate, that said, VPN does not work at all. It seems to be blocked and that may be a deal breaker for some remote workers.

Happy Cruising!