MSC Poesia Alaska Cruise Day 2: Sea Day & Gala Night 🚢

Day 2 of our 7-night Alaska cruise aboard the MSC Poesia was our first full sea day as we continued north toward Alaska.

The morning actually started out beautiful. We had sunshine, fairly calm seas, and some great views outside. As the day went on, though, the ocean started getting a little rougher. The pool water was sloshing back and forth, and we even noticed seasickness bags appearing near some of the stairways.

We had plenty planned for the day, including breakfast in the main dining room, Alaska enrichment talks, some time relaxing around the ship, and of course Gala Night aboard MSC Poesia.

Watch our full Day 2 MSC Poesia Alaska cruise vlog here:

☕ Breakfast at Le Fontaine Restaurant

There were two main breakfast options that morning. The Villa Pompeiana Buffet was open from 6:00 until 11:00, while sit-down breakfast was available at Le Fontaine Restaurant from 7:30 until 9:30.

We decided to give Le Fontaine a try and arrived right around 7:30. It was already fairly busy, and by the time we left around 8:30 there was a lineup of people waiting to get in.

We asked for a table for two and ended up with a nice spot beside the window.

Some of the breakfast items we tried included the smoothie bowl with yogurt, banana, kiwi, and pineapple, steel-cut oatmeal, an omelette, French toast with bacon, and the All American Breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns.

There were also pastries and plenty of coffee, so it was a nice relaxed way to start our first full sea day.

🐋 Learning More About Alaska

After breakfast, we grabbed our coffee mugs and headed to Teatro Carlo Felice for the morning’s Alaska enrichment presentation.

The first talk was called North to Alaska and covered a little bit of everything we might experience during the cruise, including whales, wildlife, forests, fish, culture, and the different areas we would be visiting.

We especially enjoyed the information about the whales. One of the whales shown during the presentation appeared to be the same well-known whale we had seen on a previous Alaska whale-watching excursion, which was pretty neat to see again.

Alaska enrichment presentation aboard MSC Poesia with information about Icy Strait Point, wildlife, excursions, and things to do in port. — One of the Alaska enrichment presentations aboard MSC Poesia helped us learn more about the ports, wildlife, excursions, and things to see during our cruise.

Right after that was the Cruise and Travel Show, which went through the different ports and some of the excursions that were still available.

If you’re sailing on the MSC Poesia and are interested in the excursions, it may be worth showing up a little early because they also handed out raffle tickets and gave away an excursion for each port during the presentation.

There were more Alaska presentations happening later in the day as well, including one called Glaciers, Volcanoes, and Wildlife, so there were plenty of opportunities to learn more about Alaska while we were at sea.

🌮 Lunch at the Villa Pompeiana Buffet

By lunchtime, we were ready to head back to the Villa Pompeiana Buffet.

There was a good selection of the usual buffet options, including burgers, hot dogs, fries, breads, deli meats, cheeses, and salads. We also found a Mexican station that looked pretty good, so that ended up being part of our lunch.

The weather had changed again by this point. It had been sunny, then cloudy, and suddenly the sunshine was back, although the ship was still rocking quite a bit.

After lunch, we figured we should probably walk some of it off.

🚶 Walking Around Deck 14

Above the main pool area on Deck 14, there is space that MSC lists as a power walking track.

It isn’t really marked like a traditional running track, and parts of it can occasionally be obstructed, but it is still a great area to walk around, get some steps in, and enjoy the views.

We spent some time walking around before deciding that the rest of the afternoon was going to be a little more relaxing.

🛁 Hot Tubs, Our Aft Balcony & Ice Cream

There were lots of activities happening around the ship that afternoon, but we decided to take things a little slower.

We headed to the hot tubs and ended up sitting there for about an hour while chatting with some other passengers. The hot tubs aren’t particularly large, so they fill up pretty quickly, but it was a really nice way to spend part of the afternoon.

After that, we came back to our cabin and spent some time sitting on our aft balcony.

We were really enjoying having that view from the back of the ship. The sun was shining and it was a great place to sit and watch the ocean, even though the seas were getting fairly rocky.

By this point, the motion of the ship was definitely becoming more noticeable, so some seasickness medication came in handy.

We also spent some time walking around the main public decks and discovered the soft-serve ice cream station outside the buffet. They had chocolate, vanilla, and swirl, with either waffle cones or cups.

Needless to say, that was a pretty good discovery.

✨ Getting Ready for Gala Night

That evening was Gala Night aboard the MSC Poesia, so we headed back to the cabin, got dressed up, and made our way to Il Palladio Restaurant on Deck 6.

One thing we noticed was that there was a really wide range of clothing around the ship.

We saw some men in suits, others wearing shirts and ties or collared shirts, and plenty of people dressed more casually. We even spotted one tuxedo. There were also some beautiful formal dresses, but you definitely didn’t have to dress extremely formal to take part in Gala Night.

It was really a mix of everything.

🥩 Gala Night Dinner at Il Palladio

Because we had the same assigned table every evening, we didn’t need to wait for anyone to seat us. We could simply walk into the dining room and head straight to our table.

There were quite a few tempting choices on the Gala Night menu.

For starters, we tried the lobster bisque, Alaska smoked salmon dip, and Caesar salad.

For our main courses, we both ordered the filet mignon with truffle-flavoured whipped potatoes, asparagus, and mushroom demi-glace.

We also ordered the Duo of Broiled Lobster Tail and Jumbo Shrimp to share. It came with asparagus and risotto and gave us a chance to try both the steak and seafood options from the Gala Night menu.

Duo of Broiled Lobster Tail and Jumbo Shrimp served during Gala Night aboard MSC Poesia. — We ordered the Duo of Broiled Lobster Tail and Jumbo Shrimp to share during Gala Night at Il Palladio Restaurant.

For dessert, we tried the Royal Cake, a rich dark chocolate mousse with crunchy praline and vanilla anglaise, along with the classic Baked Alaska.

It turned out to be a really enjoyable Gala Night dinner and one of the meals we had been looking forward to trying.

🎭 Club Disco at Teatro Carlo Felice

After dinner, we headed back to Teatro Carlo Felice for the evening production show.

The show was called Club Disco, but the evening started with the captain and senior officers presentation.

For roughly the first 15 minutes, the cruise director introduced the captain and some of the senior officers, along with a few interesting facts about what goes on behind the scenes aboard the ship.

Then the Club Disco production started.

Club Disco production show with singers and dancers performing in Teatro Carlo Felice aboard MSC Poesia. — The Club Disco production show brought colourful costumes, singing, dancing, and acrobatics to Teatro Carlo Felice during Gala Night.

The show had a fun 1970s theme with lots of singing, dancing, colourful costumes, and some acrobatics mixed in.

One of our favourite parts involved a performer using a large ring on stage. There were a few moments during the performance that definitely got a reaction from the audience.

The Club Disco portion lasted around half an hour and made for a fun way to finish off Gala Night.

🎺 Big Band at Sea

We weren’t quite finished with the entertainment yet.

After leaving the theater, we headed toward the lounge at the back of Deck 7 where Big Band at Sea was performing again.

We had seen some of the musicians the night before, but this time there was also a vocalist performing with them.

Between the brass instruments, vocals, and classic big-band style, it was a really nice place to sit and enjoy some live music before calling it a night.

There was plenty of other entertainment happening around the ship as well, including a saxophone player performing in the atrium.

🚢 Final Thoughts on Day 2

Our first full sea day aboard the MSC Poesia ended up having a little bit of everything.

We learned more about Alaska during the enrichment talks, tried breakfast at Le Fontaine, spent some time walking around the ship, relaxed in the hot tubs, enjoyed our aft balcony, found some afternoon ice cream, and finished everything off with Gala Night, dinner, a production show, and live music.

It was a great sea day, but we were especially excited about what was coming next.

Day 3 would take us to our first Alaska port of the cruise, Ketchikan.

Watch our full Day 2 MSC Poesia Alaska cruise vlog here: https://youtu.be/1A8VdAmL7_k