Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Island Boy Day
MSC Ocean Cay, Bahamas
First off, before I rundown the day's events, how about that sunset shot above huh? Yes, it's taken from my balcony as we're docked, preparing to stay put for the night at MSC's private island. In case you don't know, that's not some old lighthouse that just happens to be iconic. Like every tree, every rock, every blade of grass on this small island, it was put there by MSC. This place was just a sand mine and waste dump before they bought it and essentially terraformed it. They must have hired some Disney-level engineers for sure with this project since it's definitely on that scale.
Here's what I wore for my day on the beach.
"Which beach?" you ask? There are several around the island. It's a secret! No, I'll let you in on it. Go all the way to the bridge, cross it to "North Island" and follow the road to the end. West-end of Bimini Beach, I think? That's where I find my hard-to-get free lounge chair and shade tree, perfect distance to the water and (almost) person-free out-of-the-way beach. Well, maybe a couple of other people.
Like this really weird guy in a speedo who went wading out to the rocks and kept throwing "things" at the rocks ritualistically. I don't know what the "things" he was flicking were, he was too far away, but one after the other, just tossing shit methodically for a good hour or so. Not doing anything else. I was imagining it was tiny bits of someone he chopped up after he killed them. I saw him in the theater later that night fidgeting in his seat, obviously alone, like he was at the beach, acting weird and shit, picking at his teeth. Maybe that was the rest of them. The parts he ate, you know. I mean, is it MSC or is it just people in general? I can't tell anymore.
This might be what I had for dinner? My snapshots and my notes are kind of out of order now as you can imagine but anyway I think this includes some awesome green beans, roasted zucchini and eggplant, baked mac and cheese (just meh), spicy snapper (yum), honey chicken leg, Thai noodles and braised short ribs and I don't remember what all else...it was freakin' delicious is all else, that's what!
Oh, speaking of the show, wow, MSC, you really have hired some first rate production people haven't you? Themed to showcase music and dancing from various (almost exclusively Hollywood) film genres, and hosted (and also singing a song or two quite superbly I might add) by a Timmy Chalamet lookalike, "Premier" is surely MSC's tour de force. The only slight detraction -- AI generated imagery for the background projections. C'mon, MSC, pay some starving artist for cryin' out loud! I'm sure Italy's drippin' with 'em!
Later after 9pm from my balcony I watched the lighthouse light show they put on. I took a pic but my phone camera isn't that great with night shots, being a $50 phone and all so go look online for what it looks like if you want. It actually isn't that spectacular, just some colorful LED effects on the outside of the lighthouse and a few searchlights. No lasers, no fireworks, no drones. No Disney-esque "world-building" with this, folks.
I ended my participatory events of the night with a return for a redux of the Le Cabaret Rouge variety show. As promised, the show had different acts each night and these were just as good but though they were indeed different, they were the same artists so it was a little bit similar overall. It was here, by the way, that I had my third and what would turn out to be, my last alcoholic drink of the cruise, a Heineken draft.
Yessir, three drinks for the whole cruise! Don't tell MSC. Only three drinks, no gambling, no merchandise, no excursions, no internet package and paying only a small single supplement on a inside cabin priced cruise with a free bump to a balcony! Yes Gaga!