Saturday – May 16, 2026 – Genoa and Robins
Today we leave MSC Magnifica and all the people we have met during our journey around the world. One of those is a person who had a great deal to do with our safe voyage and he is a part of the featured photo today – the captain of the ship. Not only are we disembarking at Genoa but the majority of the senior staff are also leaving. As we were waiting for our group number to be called to disembark, the captain came up to us (in civilian clothes) and explained he was leaving as well. We have traveled with him for 2 world cruises and thought it appropriate to include him in our last selfie during the voyage.
To disembark you must go through immigration, customs and baggage claim before you take whatever transport is needed to get to your next destination. In our case, the next destination was the Malpensa airport near Milan. We had arranged prior to boarding MSC Magnifica to take a bus from the cruise terminal to Malpensa. There were others with the same need. When the bus arrived, we all rolled/carried our suitcases to it and found seats for the 2-hour ride to the airport. While sitting in the bus I had a question about where to be dropped off at the airport (because I didn’t want to push 8 full-sized suitcases any further than necessary). I left the bus to talk with the woman who appeared to be in charge of the transport. As I walked to her I noticed that all our suitcases were still sitting on the pavement – and only our suitcases. She explained that there wasn’t enough room in the bus to load all the suitcases and said they were arranging for a van to take us to Malpensa. I thought that would be fine because our plane didn’t leave until 3:20 pm and it was only a few minutes past 10:00 am.
Jan and Kelsey exited the bus with all our carry-on luggage. The bus left at 10:30 am and we waited for the van. And we waited for the van. And we waited for the van. At around 11:00 am the van arrived – but it was a 50-passenger bus for the 3 of us! Our luggage was loaded, we boarded along with 2 of the MSC Magnifica crew who also needed a ride to Malpensa and we were off – at 11:30 am – an hour later than expected.
The trip to Malpensa took us through beautiful country with many tunnels and a great view of the Alps. You will see stills and video of this trip in today’s gallery. We reached Terminal 1, Door 19 at 1:30 pm with just under 2 hours before our flight was to leave. From Door 19 we needed to take our bags to check to the United counter at section 23 which was a 10-minute walk. Once at the counter it took 20 minutes to check our 8 bags. I was getting notices on my iWatch that boarding for our plane would begin in 20 minutes at 2:20 pm.
We followed the signs to security and arrived around 2:15 pm. Our carry-ons and we were scanned. They wanted to check my carry-on bag which contained my camera and assorted electronic stuff (cables, Li-Ion batteries, etc.). Not sure what caused them to check that bag but it was cleared.
We arrived at the passport control area at around 2:30 pm. My iWatch told me boarding would close in 40 minutes at 3:10 pm. As holders of US passports, we were directed to the kiosk area for automated passport clearance. At this station you place your passport info page on a scanner, face a screen and align your face in the designated rectangle area. Each of us did that and each of us was told to follow the yellow line (we didn’t know what that meant at the time). It appeared nearly everyone at the kiosk was being directed to follow the yellow line. My iWatch now indicated boarding would close in 30 minutes – it was 2:40 pm.
The yellow line led us to a queue that snaked back and forth ending at stations manned by agents reviewing the passports one-by-one. The line was moving slowly and as we inched toward the agents, I kept receiving notices on my watch of the time remaining before the boarding would stop and the doors to the plane would be closed for departure. It looked at this point like we were going to miss our flight!
At approximately 3:05 pm with 5 minutes left to board, an airport employee spoke asking if there were any passengers on the flight to Chicago. We spoke up and she directed us to advance to the head of the line so the agents could confirm our passports. At this point we were probably 20-30 minutes from the agents at the rate the line was moving. We reached the agent, had clearance to continue to the gate and the employee who told us to move up said she would alert the gate. The time was 3:08 pm and the boarding was to cease at 3:10 pm.
We didn’t run but did walk as fast as possible and took all the moving walkways to reduce the time. We got to gate B77 after 3:10 pm and were the last passengers to board the plane. Seats 22D, 22E and 22F were waiting with pillows, blankets, headphones and the gift bag with travel goodies. The attendants helped place our carry-on luggage in the overhead bins and we collapsed in our seats. For our international flight from Italy to the US, we had arrived at the airport with 1 hour and 40 minutes to allow for check-in, security, passport control and arrival at the gate. I remembered something our guide in China had told us about international flight from Beijing – to allow 3 hours. In the future I will follow that guidance! If we had been on the original bus I believe we would have made the gate with time to spare.
Our flight from Milan to Chicago was smooth and we arrived a bit early. We had to pick up our checked bags and take them to the transfer area (international to domestic). We could only find 6 of the 8 bags we checked. I talked with a United employee in baggage claim. She said the missing bags should be on the flight to home and if they were not, we could file a baggage claim. We hoped they would be there because we weren’t sure what was in those 2 bags.
The flight home was a little bumpy because we flew through thunderstorms. For whatever reason, we didn’t land on our first approach but made a circle around town and landed on the second approach. At the baggage claim we did have all 8 bags – so all was well with our souls! By Milan time it was 4:30 am but we were hungry when we reached the house. Kelsey and I made a trip to Taco Bell while Jan sorted through the mail from the last 4 and ½ months. Home felt good as did the food but it is a shock to go from cruise ship passenger in Genoa, Italy to person at home 4,700 miles away within 22 hours. We enjoyed this cruise with different ports for the same major reason – the enthusiasm, professionalism and friendliness of the staff on board MSC Magnifica! As a result of these people, we have made the commitment to travel on another World Cruise on MSC Magnifica in 2028 and in 2026 for the last 2 weeks of December to cruise the Caribbean on MSC Grandiosa.
Last gallery is here.
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