Cruising the Med – January 2025 – Part One

Pre-Trip

My January trips are something I look forward to every year. The past few years I’ve headed off to London to see theatre and hang out with friends, which is amazing. Then last year, at the very last moment, I had to cancel my trip because the girls had Covid and while I felt fine and was testing negative, I couldn’t in good conscience leave them.* So no trip for me in 2024. 

Then, with January of 2025 rapidly approaching, I knew I should start planning my trip. At first I thought about returning to London, but some things there had changed and while there were still shows and friends to see, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. So I kept hemming and hawing and dragging my feet about the whole thing. 

Rasa suggested I pick another place to go and as I was looking, I got an email from a discount cruise company and the thought struck: what about a cruise? Last time I went on one was about 12½ years ago, in the summer of 2012, and I enjoy them. So I started looking at what was available in the area and came up with a few possibilities. There were two around the Mediterranean (7 days and both MSC) and one transatlantic (13 days on Norwegian). After a lot of back and forth, we decided the 2 week trip was probably too long so then it was a matter of deciding which itinerary to take. For me, the choice was between Istanbul and Pompeii. 

In the end, I chose Pompeii, which had the added bonus of a stop in Tunisia, someplace I’d never been. 

As an extra added bonus, mom has become a cruise travel agent (Helpon Travel) so she was able to get me a great deal and answer all sorts of question I had. A real “help on travel” for me!

With the cruise sorted, next up decision wise was travel to and from Barcelona (where I’d embark and disembark) and shipboard excursions. For the getting there part, again, after much research, I decided to fly airBaltic on the days of getting on and off the boat. The alternative would be a possibly less expensive flight, but I’d have to spend a few nights in Barcelona. To be fair, I’ve been to Barcelona before and ultimately, it made more sense to contain the trip rather than spend the extra few days in the city. I also invited a couple of European friends to join me, but since it was so close after Christmas, they couldn’t get away nor had the funds, so I was on my own.

Since I didn’t have to consult anyone else, it was time to pick excursions. 

Excursions are a weird thing on a cruise. They’re guided tours with preplanned itineraries, but at the same time, they’re guided tours with preplanned itineraries. They also tend to be generally overpriced. But…they do get you where you want to go and ensure you’ll make it back to the boat on time (more on this later). And I tend to like a bit of guided tours, so I can get the local stories and legends (all of which usually makes me want to buy a book which I’ll never read but might look through for cool ideas or weird facts). At the same time, I like being able to explore on my own. So what to do?

I had five stops on this trip (Marseille, Genoa, Naples (Pompeii), Palermo, Tunis) and with Rasa, decided to get excursions for three of them. Basically, every other day was something planned and the other two days I would explore on my own. The first of those free days was Genoa, where I’d been before, and the other would be Palermo. Reason being that the Palermo city center was just across the road from the dock so it should be easy to get to and from. 

With everything planned, all I had to do was wait to go. 

*and, as it turned out, I got sick myself a few days later, which would have been in the middle of my trip.

Saturday, January 11

The start of my trip was going to be a long travel day for sure. In order to get to the airport on time for my flight, I couldn’t take the easy train from the Vilnius train station to the airport. Nope. The Lithuanian travel department, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the train to the airport should leave twenty minutes before the arrival of the train from the second largest city in the country. Not great planners these people. So anyway, I knew I was going to have to take a cab to the Kaunas train station, then another cab from the Vilnius train station to the airport. Not a big deal. Just meant for an early morning. 

Monki asked me to wake her up before I left to say goodbye, but we also said goodbye before she went to bed, just in case she didn’t wake up in the morning. As it turned out, she didn’t wake up, so I gave her a kiss and had breakfast with Rasa before heading out to start my adventures. 

A brief aside. I do kind of like that I can use my phone for tickets and check-ins and paying for stuff. It’s rather convenient for a number of things. Like, for instance, I could buy my train ticket ahead of time and just show a QR code on board without having to print anything or deal with early morning ticket agents (if they were even there) or, worse, trying to navigate a ticket machine. And I could check in for my flight on my phone so I didn’t need to print up tickets. I also used Revolut to track all my spending so I didn’t have to carry my bank cards with me. 

Anyway, the train was fine, the cab to the airport was all good, and I scanned my phone to check in and got through security in a breeze. While waiting to board, I got an airport coffee in my amazing Pepco €7 Avengers thermos (which keeps things hot forever!) and waited for the plane to take me to Riga. 

What? Did I forget to mention that all airBaltic flights go through Riga? They do. So it was a 35 minute flight to go north before the 3½ hour flight back down south. There was a short layover between the two flights, but since the second was delayed by almost an hour, even though the first was late, I had no trouble making my connection. My only concern was that since HelpOn Travel had arranged airport transfers for me to get to and from the boat, they might get tired of waiting for me and I’d have to wait longer. But nope, there was a guy standing there with my name on a printed piece of paper. He grabbed my bag and away we went.

The check in process to get on the boat was fairly easy, with only one slight hiccough. The girl checking me in asked for my ID, so I dutifully handed over my American passport. She looked through it and after a few seconds started getting confused. 

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“I don’t see an entry stamp.”

“That’s because I didn’t fly from America. I came from Lithuania. I can show you my resident card from there?”

“Yes, please.”

So there ya go. Where I needed my passport to get into Poland a few months ago, here I needed my resident card to get on a boat. Also, I seem to remember that last time I cruised they took our passports but they didn’t here. All we needed was our ship card to get on and off the boat. 

That ship card, by the way, was hanging in a sealed packet on my stateroom door. This was my room key, ID, and payment card while I was on the ship. I did have to preauthorize €250 for any shipboard purchases, but that was easy. 

Now, with my card in hand, I was able to get into my room and unpack. I also called home, taking advantage of the fact we were still in port to get my European roaming connection. I didn’t pay for the shipboard WIFI so I could only connect when we were close to land and not in Africa. I was able to show Rasa and Monki my stateroom and balcony, and then take them on a short tour of the ship. 

After saying goodbye for the second time that day, I headed upstairs to the buffet to grab some lunch and just get the lay of the land. To be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed with the design of the ship. It seemed a bit closed off and claustrophobic. The last ship I was on, the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, had a wide open promenade in the middle of the ship, which allowed for a much more casual experience than the wall to wall bars of this ship, the MSC Fantasia. Here, you had to walk through different bars/clubs to get to the one you wanted. And, I discovered later, the easiest way to get to the main showroom, was to walk through the casino, the only place not behind a glass door in the whole ship that allowed smoking. 

Also on this boat, there are interactive computer screens scattered about listing things like the daily activities and dining room menus. Since I didn’t have the WIFI package and my MSC app, which I’d downloaded at home, didn’t work**, I relied on these boards frequently. One of the things I discovered was there was a “Solo Passenger Meet-Up” before my scheduled dinner time. I thought I’d check it out. 

Yikes! Aside from me, there were three other people there. Two Italian guys who were obviously on the make, hoping for some hot young single girls, and an octogenarian telling us about how she was mugged in Barcelona. I made my excuses and headed out for dinner. 

The thing about dinners on cruises (and only dinners) is that you get an assigned time and table for the duration of your cruise. Now, you don’t need to eat in the main dining room, but if you do, barring a specific change on your part, you’ll eat with the same people at the same table at the same time. 

Such is the case here. I was sat at a table with Barbi (her given name) and Fritz, a married couple from Missouri. And, to spare the suspense, it was just the three of us for the week. They are lovely people and we laughed a lot at mealtimes, generally recounting our day’s adventures on the various tours we’d been on. They also regaled me with tales from home (Barbi works in mental health and Fritz is a farmer) which were often hysterical and sometimes heartbreaking. I also learned about Barbi’s addiction to tea and that she didn’t like dirty plates. 

The first night, I was sitting next to Fritz, but they swapped seats on each subsequent night, possibly because I tried to steal Fritz’ dinner that first meal. The waiter set the dishes down at the wrong places and, without thinking, I started to dig in. Oops! 

Also at that meal, I succumbed to the push and bought a “meal time” drink package. I hadn’t previously gotten a drink package because I just don’t drink that much alcohol, but this was a simple one of soft drinks, beer and wine during meal times, available from either the main dining hall or buffet. This let me grab a glass of wine at the end of the day to take back to my cabin to sip while I read on my balcony or to just grab a soda while I was wondering around. 

After that, I was tired from my long day, so I retired to my cabin to get some sleep while the ship sailed on towards France. 

** even though I was told repeatedly I didn’t need the WIFI to get the app to work, I never could get it to function. My waiter tried to help and even he couldn’t do it. I probably could have taken it to guest services, but honestly, never thought about it since I never really understood I didn’t need the WIFI since every time I tried to get it to function I was always directed to purchase the package. 

Sunday, January 12

Today is Monki’s half birthday, which we’ve decided is a thing. Since I wasn’t there, Rasa took her out for donuts and got her a present. They sent me pictures. 

As for what I was doing…I was trying to sleep. Now, I don’t sleep well generally, I’m up several times a night to go to the toilet (or when I’m at home, to deal with the needy cat) but here, it was the rocking of the boat. I’m always the first to defend the smoothness and stability of cruise ships to undermine any claims of potential seasickness, but this was bad. It was like turbulence in an airplane, with sudden jolts and shifts. The advantage being that I wasn’t strapped into a narrow seat so I could get up and move around, even open my sliding door and go out onto my balcony, which I did. There was lightning on the horizon. 

Eventually, I just decided I was up for the day. I read for a bit then took myself up to the buffet to grab some breakfast. It was…not good. The eggs were cold, the sausage mushy, and my drinks package didn’t include lattes. I read*** while I choked down my food. 

I also had with me my ticket for my excursion, A Stroll Through France’s Oldest City. On the ticket, it gave you a meeting point and time, as well as a bus number. For today, my departure was 9:30 and Bus 34 and since I had nothing else to do, I went down early and waited. 

In my tour ticket envelope, which had been left on my bed the night before while I was at dinner, was also a ticket for the transfer bus, which had a price on it. This is where the start of the ship’s lack of communication came in. What they didn’t explain was that I had a return trip guaranteed on the shuttle bus for free, which I thought, but then why were they giving me this other ticket. The dock in Marseille, it seemed, was far enough away from town that it required transport, available for a fee – if you weren’t on an already paid for excursion. My question came in the form of not returning with the tour but instead taking the afternoon to see things on my own. Would I have to pay to get back to the boat? So I asked. Nope, I could catch the bus anytime I wanted, I just had to show my tour ticket. Great, now that was sorted, I sat and waited for them to call my bus number, which they eventually did. 

We were met on the bus by our guide Astrid, a Dutch woman who lived just outside of Marseille. She introduced herself and explained she would be conducting the tour in both English and German. Having had a bad experience with this sort of thing back in July in Crete, I approached it with nervous trepidation. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. Astrid was a pro and everything worked out great. 

The 16 people on our tour were let off at the small boat harbor where we received a brief history of the oldest and second largest city in France. We walked along, seeing the various sites and the morning fish market before being given a few minutes to get a coffee and use the restroom. Seemed a bit too early for a break, but okay, it was what it was. I wandered around, bought my first postcards of the trip, saw a few interesting sites and then met back up with the tour. Turns out, this was our only stop for the next three hours or so, so it was a good thing we were able to use the facilities. 

Astrid gave us all the run down on the various buildings, which were cool, and the history of the old town. She told some fun stories about the local alcohol and pointed out the authorized street art. Then, at one point, she stopped in front of the L’Espérantine de Marseille chocolate shop and told us all to wait a minute while she went inside. She came out a minute later and invited us inside to learn about the award-winning chocolate made inside. 

It was an awesome explanation, complete with tasting, of a chocolate made with olive oil instead of butter. Of course, part of the goal of any of these things is to get you to buy the product. I looked around and since Rasa had requested an edible souvenir, I figured this would be a good start, so I picked up a small taster pack. 

The rest of our tour took us through the old town and ended at the Marseille Cathedral. Astrid was taking our bus back to the boat to end the tour, but we were free to go and explore on our own… so I did. There was a Basilica overlooking the town which could be seen throughout the tour and I decided it would be a shame to come all this way and not at least check it out.

There were those little tourist trains in the harbor, leaving every 15 minutes or so, (run by a guy who literally could not have cared less) that took you up to the top of the hill which seemed to be the best way to go. I paid my money, grabbed a seat and headed up to the Notre-Dame de la Garde. The view was indeed amazing, and it didn’t cost anything to wander the grounds and check out most of the inside. I think there was a museum or something with an entrance fee, but I wasn’t that interested. 

The mini-train took me back to the harbor where I walked to the (pre-paid) shuttle back to the boat. On the way back, I passed a museum dedicated to the Cosquer Cave. It seemed interesting but I didn’t have the time to really explore it, so I put it on the list for next time. 

Back on the boat I had lunch at the buffet. Lunch was better than breakfast, but still… I also didn’t realize how big the space was for the restaurant so after I grabbed my food, I went to the very back of the boat to eat and write out some of the postcards I had picked up. 

With nothing much else to do, I went back to my cabin, took a quick, involuntary nap (crashed out while reading) then grabbed a shower before heading down to dinner. The showers on the boat were very powerful and got very hot, but the plastic shower curtain refused to hang straight down so it ended up being a rather claustrophobic experience every time I showered. 

Dinner was just again just Barbi, Fritz and I, sharing stories of our day’s tours. They had taken a longer excursion that showed them some distant villages. It all sounded nice. 

That night, I decided to check out the show. What I would discover about the entertainment on this boat is it was made up of a repertory style team consisting of 3 girl and 2 boy dancers, an aerialist, a group of 4 guys with different circus skills, and a pair of spotlight dancers, and four singers who do all the shows (mostly). No specialty acts or headliners, just different themes and costumes. This night was a sort of tribute to a number of pop singers interspersed with a couple of juggling routines. It was okay, and at about 40 minutes an easy way to end the night. I probably should have left when they started introducing the MSC staff, but you live and learn. 

*** this will be a recurring theme. I did a lot of reading this trip. My Kindle got a helluva workout. 

Monday, January 13

Today, as we docked in Genoa, was my first solo adventure day. I started the day by going to guest services and asking about sending the postcards I had written. I was wondering if there was a shipboard service to get stamps or something? Except when I asked, the guy kept trying to send me to the business center. Even after I showed him the cards, he still didn’t get it. Two years ago, when I was at Disneyland with Troy, they had no postcards for sale in the park. I guess the days of actual post have passed. I packed the cards away and, since I didn’t want to risk the buffet again, headed to the dining room for breakfast. 

During this trip, I didn’t take pictures of my meals, and I won’t generally talk about them, unless there’s something specific to mention. Like in this case. I saw Eggs Benedict on the menu and I’m a sucker for Benedict so I went ahead and ordered them. I also ordered a side of bacon. 

At least I thought I did. 

When the food came, I immediately realized my error: “I’d like the Eggs Benedict, with bacon, please.”

Sure enough, the eggs came, and the ham slice had been replaced by a couple of slices of crispy bacon. I laughed at myself and ate. It was around this time that Santa came and sat down at the table next to me. He chose the seat which allowed him “to face the pretty girls.”

Then it was time to go sightseeing. As I was exiting the terminal building, people were selling tickets for the city-sightseeing hop on-hop off bus tour. They were offering the standard 2 routes, historical and coastline, each about an hour. The only drawback was they were only running about once every 20-30 minutes. But then they showed me a picture of the Boccadasse area, which was sold as Portofino-like. Since Portofino was the tour I would have taken, this seemed like a good alternative. I bought my ticket and hopped on my bus, making Boccadasse my first “hop off.”

The bus stopped across from a gas station in the middle of nowhere so I asked to make sure I was in the right spot. The onboard guide pointed me in the right direction, and away I went. It was an interesting little spot. It did, indeed look like the pictures I’ve seen of Portofino, although for some reason it looked better in the pictures I took than in real life. I walked around, looked at stuff, and then headed back to the bus stop. The problem I could immediately see was that I didn’t pay attention to how long I had been down looking at the buildings, so I didn’t know when the bus would be coming back. I thought about walking along the coast to the next stop, but since I wasn’t sure exactly where it was, that seemed like a significant risk. In the end, I just stood around, waiting. 

Finally, the bus showed up, so I hopped back on and decided I’d go to the Christopher Columbus House, which seemed to be located near the Piazza De Ferrari, so that was my next stop. And while I think I found the place, it didn’t appear to be open so I moved on. On my way back to the bus, I found an Italian post office. I took the opportunity to send my postcards. 

Sidenote about postcards. I really enjoy sending them. I write little “travel haikus” and set them off into the world. And while, yes, you can still get postcards in most European cities, prices have certainly gone up, as has the cost of the sending them. On average, sending a postcard to the US or Europe was about €2.10 each. Seems a bit outrageous to me. 

With cards sent, I was back on the bus, thinking of my next stop. Decided to revisit the Portello Observation deck Rasa and I had seen on our visit a few years back, forgetting it was really just an elevator to the top of a hill. I did take pictures at the top but then moved on back to the harbor. 

At the harbor, I was unsuccessful at finding the actual entrance to the aquarium and the sea museum seemed to be closed for the day. It was really not my day for museums, that was for sure. I figured to cut my losses and headed back to the boat, trying to avoid the people on the street selling all sorts of crap. 

Had myself some lunch and took a quick look at the listed activities. There was nothing interesting. It was all surcharged, or for kids, or something physical. Instead, I went back to the cabin and read for a bit. I also took a little nap.

Dinner was mostly the same as before, but this time, we had the added excitement of an older woman slipping down the stairs and hitting her head. There was blood everywhere and a passenger doctor rushed over to help. Eventually, she recovered enough to get into a wheelchair.

That night, back in the cabin, I got my tour ticket for the following day. Also, a warning came over the speakers forbidding us from opening the outside doors due to excessive winds. All night long the boat was shaking as if experiencing bad turbulence.