Cruise from Europe to the Caribbean
Transatlantic cruise from Europe to the Caribbean – 02-29 December 2016
What is it like to cross the Atlantic Ocean by sea, sail on a luxury liner, pass through the Tropic of Cancer, and nearly drown in Barbados — these are just a small part of our experiences during our transatlantic cruise from Europe to the Caribbean.
You will find travelogues for each stop of the cruise below:
- MILAN Travelogue
- ON THE SHIP – Part 1 and Part 2
- BARCELONA Travelogue
- MALAGA Travelogue
- CASABLANCA (MOROCCO) Travelogue
- MADEIRA Travelogue
- TENERIFE Travelogue (Canary Islands)
- BARBADOS Travelogue
- GUADELOUPE Travelogue – Part 1 and Part 2
Following the Southeast Asia Trip, which only my husband and I went on, we wanted to take our next big trip with the kids. We wondered a lot about where it would be suitable to take our 6-year-old daughter and our little 1.5-year-old rascal in terms of hygiene, healthcare, and safety. After a lot of searching and filtering of options, two remained in the end – Australia or a cruise. After a little more browsing on the Internet, Australia was ruled out as a destination (at least at this stage), due to the high standard of living there and the inability to afford such a trip there for 4 months. Therefore, we decided that the cruise option is most suitable for our situation.
For a long time I had a dream to cross the Atlantic Ocean by sea, almost like the Titanic did 🙂 And so, the time for dreaming came to an end and our cruise reservation was sitting in my email inbox waiting to be printed. The time for planning had begun. We booked the cruise in July, so we had enough time to gather information about the sights and logistics at the various stops along the route.
CRUISE ROUTE:
Day 1 – Flight Sofia – Milan. Overnight stay.
Day 2 – Train from Milan to Savona. Boarding the Costa Favolosa ship.
Day 3 – Marseille from 8:00 to 18:00.
Day 4 – Barcelona from 8:00 to 18:00.
Day 5 – at sea
Day 6 – Malaga from 8:00 to 18:00 and late in the evening passing through the Strait of Gibraltar
Day 7 – Casablanca (Morocco) from 8:00 to 23:00.
Day 8 – at sea
Day 9 – Funchal (Madeira) from 8:00 to 18:00.
Day 10 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands) – from 8:00 to 18:00.
Day 11- at sea
Day 12 – at sea
Day 13 – at sea
Day 14 – at sea
Day 15 – at sea
Day 16 – at sea
Day 17 – Barbados – from 9:00 to 23:00.
Day 18 – Martinique – from 8:00 to 21:00.
Day 19 – Guadeloupe – disembarkation
Day 20 to Day 27 – Guadeloupe – 7 nights in an airbnb.com apartment
Day 28 – Flight from Guadeloupe with XL Airways and flight from Paris to Sofia with Wizz Air
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EXPENSES for 2 adults + 2 children (aged 1 and 5)
- Flight from Sofia to Milan: 100 BGN
- Train from Milan to Savona – 30 EURO
- CRUISE: 560 EURO per adult, while children only paid port taxes amounting to 200 EURO – total 1,498 EURO for everyone. We had paid for an interior cabin and were subsequently upgraded to an ocean-view outside cabin for free. In my opinion, this was the best option for us considering we were with two children whose favorite activity was climbing up to the window and watching the sea. Separately, as with any cruise, there was also a service fee for each of the days amounting to 10 E per adult and 5 E for the 5-year-old child; we did not pay such a fee for the baby.
- 7 nights in Guadeloupe, Saint-François – 1,100 BGN
- Guadeloupe – Paris flight – 240 EURO per adult – total 900 EURO with the child discount
- Flight Paris–Sofia – 320 BGN total (it ended up being expensive because it was December 29, after all)
Our entire trip came out to about 8,000 BGN. for 28 days of vacation, which also included the Christmas holidays. I booked the cruise through the Premier Tour agency.
The price of 560 EURO for a 19-day cruise is exceptionally good, and such prices are most often found on so-called Repositioning cruises. On this type of cruise, the ship's cruising area changes. In this case, in the summer of 2016, our ship Costa Favolosa was cruising the Mediterranean, after which our cruise comes, which takes it from Europe to the Caribbean, and it positions itself there for the winter to cruise around until the warm months come again and it returns to Europe.
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