Cruise The World With Us 2026

Friday, January 9, 2026 – cruise day 5

Why did I feature a photo of my breakfast? I ordered a 3-egg omelet and an English muffin with jam. What I received was 3 omelets and an English muffin with jam. Remember the movie “Cool Hand Luke”? It seems we have a failure to communicate. I only ate 1 1/2 of the omelets.

As passengers who had booked our 2026 World Cruise while on a prior MSC cruise, we received an invitation to attend a special party this afternoon. It was really a marketing opportunity for MSC to explain their upcoming world cruises for 2027 and 2028. We went to the Onyx Lounge, had a couple of the drinks they prepared for the party, ate the snacks they brought to our table and listened as they explained the new cruises. I included photos of Kelsey and Jan in the lounge and an assortment of the drinks that were served. We aren’t interested in the 2027 cruise because nearly all the ports are one we will have called on during 2025 and 2026. We might be interested in 2028 as it promises to include Egypt, Jordan, Dubai and Asian ports we will not have visited. While in the lounge we met a couple from Austria and had a nice conversation with them.

Today’s evening show was an introduction of the musicians and singers who will be presenting the classical music and opera offerings during the voyage. Following the presentation of those folks we also had the opportunity to meet our 2026 World Cruise Games leaders for the Air group (of which we are all members – and were for 2025). Allesandro and Pia are leaders for Air. Photos of these items are included in today’s assortment.

The biggest news today has to do with Chinese visas. We would like to take the off-ship tour being offered when we reach Shanghai on March 29th. I have been trying to determine if we need visas to travel in China once we leave the ship and had received conflicting information. Here is what I’ve been told so far…

MSC does not provide visa guidance – they suggest we contact a service called VisaHQ which is available online. I did so before we left home and conversed with that company 3 times – twice via chat and once by phone. My first chat session I was told I would need a visa and would have to send my passport to a Chinese embassy along with other documents to obtain same. Cost would be $439 each for the 3 of us. Conversation by phone I was told I could handle everything online – that I would not need to send anything to the Chinese embassy. I began the online application process and the first question on page 2 was “What method would I prefer to send my documents back and forth to VisaHQ”. I started my second chat and asked them to confirm whether a visa would be needed and if I would need to send documents. This time, again, I was told a visa would be required and documents would need to be sent. At this point I decided to wait until we were on board the ship to consult with the experts there.

The day we boarded we went to the excursion desk and told them we would like to take the China excursion but didn’t know if visas would be required. They told us they would check with immigration staff on board and get back to us. That was Monday, January 5th. Today the excursion desk provided written instructions showing how to apply for visas online and stating that I should be able to get visas at the Chinese embassy in Barbados. I got this information just before we went to dinner at 6:00 so there should be time to submit online requests before the embassy closed that day (because it was 4 hours earlier there. I wanted to be sure I had accurate information, so I went to the customer service desk and asked for the immigration officer. When I talked to him, he confirmed the online address to use to apply for the visas. I brought my laptop to dinner thinking I could fill in the forms while there – WRONG! The online application is an 8-page document that requires uploading copies of a passport-type photo, scan of the information page of a passport, scan of a blank visa page in the same passport, a copy of our itinerary showing our entry and exits from China and a supporting document showing who invited us to China. I was advised that the fee to submit the online application would be 338 Euros and would be payable when we reached the embassy in Barbados. I struggled to complete the online application and did not finish it in time before the Barbados embassy closed. The online app didn’t like my passport-like photo, and I had to make a printed sheet explaining that no one invited us – we are just tourists. By the time I had finished my application and submitted it I was not a happy camper. I did not address Jan and Kelsey’s visa applications until Sunday after we spent Saturday on Madeira. You’ll find the continuation of the visa story on the post titled “At sea to Barbados day 1”.

You can view photos from today here.