This time, our girls tour includes 4 ladies: My girlfriend and our respective daughters.
As always, the journey begins with a hectic last day of work, an equally hectic journey home and an almost spontaneous onward journey to the destination of relaxation.
We rush on to pick up our friends. Unfortunately, my friend – like me – had had no desire to cook before the departure and opted for the Currywurst red and white. The weather apparently had a bad impact on the mayoniase because both the dad and the daughter now suffer from severe abdominal pain.
We crawl through the Ruhr area, sneak through the Hamburg suburbs and reach Kiel only after a whopping 7 hours drive (for just over 500 km).
Our hotel is this time the Atlantic Hotel Kiel – directly opposite the Schwedenkais.
© atlantic-hotels.de
For a very good price, we have two rooms with connecting doors, which even have lateral „sea“ views.
Directly opposite is the main train station, the departure point of Kielius (a bus connection for little money directly to Hamburg airport), there are some delicious (ymmv) restaurants in the immediate area (Vapiano, Osteria) and many many fast food options (in the shopping mall „Sophienblatt“ (McDo, sushi, Chinese etc.) where we also find the pharmacy and an electronics shop to make up for lost purchases the next morning).
We eat another pizza at Vapiano with fantastic views of the sea and really great ambience.
We are too exhausted to do anything else which is too bad, because on the roof of the hotel there is a stunning cocktail bar, which is very much appreciated by many Kielers and tourists – maybe next time.
Fotos: Tripadvisor
The breakfast in the hotel’s own restaurant (pier 6) left nothing to be desired: fresh bread rolls in all conceivable variations, egg dishes, jams, Nutella, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fresh very good tea, unfortunately no good coffee (only filter coffee), cheese in all sorts, juices, champagne … we could have feasted for hours…
After breakfast, the girls and I go shopping for the last time and drive our car in the direction of Port of Kiel Parking.
The car park guides are a bit confused and send us from „Hinz to Kunz“, but then finally (at Hinz) provide a good parking spot for us.
Suitcases in toe, we move to the Ostseekai terminal.
At only 11:30 they are already very busy.
The Yacht Club tent is quickly found (it is located to the right of the entrance – not to be overlooked!). There is a very friendly helpful butler, who immediately takes off our heavy suitcases. We follow him to the waiting area. This is very similar to the waiting area in Hamburg – you sit exposed in a roped off area under the observation of the other guests. Usually Prosecco, juices, water and appetizers are served. Here – the appetizers had been already distributed. A sign that the embarkation process took much longer than usual and planned. We sit here until 12:15 until the embarkation starts. A butler brings us on board devided in little groups. Because the embarkation began unusually late, of course, already larger than average groups have formed so that even at the Conciergerie there are long long lines of impatient YC passangers waiting to be signed in.
Therefore, we sit in the Top Sail Lounge to toast our trip with coffee and Prosecco.
The head butler (M. Kunal Jhurreea, Mauritius) greets us and promises to get us as soon as it has calmed down a bit.
After about 45 minutes it is up to us to inform the concierge about our newspaper requests and mealtimes. A butler takes us to our already finished cabins and the holiday can begin.
We set off to have our first meal at the YC-Restaurant La Palmeraie. The Maître D ‚is Victor from Portugal. He speaks 100 languages, is carismatic, funny, warm and really wonderful.
Menu:
Our Choice: Tuna Ahi with Sesame Crust, Tournedos with french fries and a trilogy of italy desserts.
Unfortunately I have to say that overall the food was not YC worthy at all:
The tuna was dry, the filet was „neutral“, the dessert was almost a bit loveless and tasted like nothing.
A rather bad start.
My friend had made a better choice: the pasta was probably excellent and the carrot cake must have tasted fantastic.
Back in the cabin, our bags were already waiting for busy hands.
We also found the Daily:
I was delighted that my daughter immediately offered to take over. A small part of the selflessness in this offer was certainly due to the circumstance that she wanted to associate herself and her belongings with the nicer drawers.
I had chipped a toe at home and therefore immediately went to the spa to ask for the prices.
MSC Aurea Spa Price List
Of course it makes more sense to buy spa packages in advance, saving you a whole ton of money. Unfortunately, I rarely know in advance what I would like to have, which is why the pre-purchase often causes pressure on board having to deal with all the appointments. In short: I had NOT bought a package and had to deal with the hefty (already reduced) pedicure price of 65 euros plus tip.
The pedicure was good and completed at record speed, which I consider to be an advantage. The view from floor-to-ceiling windows was gigantic. Very relaxing overall!
The Spa-Reception Staff was nice but quite reluctant in understanding what I wanted to tell them:
There was a Package for teens (teenage kicks: manicure, massage and facial for about 50 €), which was offered on interactive TV.
Of course, the employees wanted to sell the items separately to me (at 300% of the price) and did not understand what I was trying to tell them….
Back in the cabin, I realized that the stress of the last few weeks and the arrival had caught up with me and so we ordered room service instead of going to the restaurant.
The waiting time for the order was above average (almost an hour) but the quality was good as usual. We had the MSC sandwich, Veggi wrap, Ceasar’s salad and enjoyed the sunset.
Kreuzfahrten 
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