A Mediterranean Cruise with a baby
IN 4 DAYS, WE'RE GOING ON A CRUISE!
We took the decision to go to cruise on 9.05. Just 4 days before departure. Then quite by chance we came across the great offer to travel with the MSC cruise company with their ship Lirica in a cabin with a balcony for only 239 euros per person for dates 13-20.05.2011! It was a super last minit offer and we decided that now we felt like taking advantage.
We have been looking for a similar price for a long time and now we have found it. We called the Bulgarian agency that offered exactly this cruise – Premier Tours, they kept the last remaining cabin with a balcony and we had to instantly transfer the entire amount to the agency's bank account, as there was no time. It was Sunday and I still remember sitting in front of the only open branch of the bank in front of the mall, both enthusiastic and worried if everything with the reservation would go smoothly.
After we paid, the next thing we had to decide was whether to take our 3-month-old baby Avi with us. It would be very difficult for us to spend so much time without her, so we decided that she would also travel with us 🙂 In three days we got her a foreign passport, which then cost BGN 20 and was already ready to travel around Europe. 🙂
The price of 239 euros included 7 nights in a cabin with a balcony, port fees, all inclusive meals, entertainment on board. Avi was completely free. Zero! We only had the tips to pay extra, which are mandatory and amount to 7 euros/day per person. The cruise route was as follows:
GENOA —> AJACCIO (CORSICA) —> CIVITAVECCHIA (ROME) —> SALERNO —> PALMA DE MALLORCA —> MARSEILLE
From Bulgaria to Genoa
We drove to Genoa, Italy, in a gas-powered car because the price of last-minute plane tickets was too high. We had no problems along the way; we drove only on the highways. In total, the trip cost us 135 euros for gas and tolls. The trip took a total of 27 hours; we left Plovdiv at 6:00 a.m. the previous day and arrived in Genoa at 9:00 a.m. on May 13. Stops for meals, restroom breaks, and refueling totaled three hours, and we also slept in the car for another 6–7 hours. We stopped for the night around 11:00 p.m., by which time we had already entered Italy. Then, around 2:00 a.m., Simeon felt the urge to go, drove straight to the next gas station, and we stopped because he was getting sleepy again.
We had no problems refueling, except in Croatia, where there are very few gas stations and prices were around or above 1.40 BGN per liter everywhere. We drove through Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia and entered Italy. We really liked Slovenia’s architecture and landscape. Even from the highway, Slovenia looked like a very well-organized country with countless small, picturesque villages.
Baby Avi, who was then three and a half months old, did not understand at all that she was traveling. She was either sleeping or breastfeeding her all the time.
In Italy, we saw for the first time a truck passing another truck on the highway, creating a line of cars behind it. It turned out that this is common practice on Italian highways—we’d be driving at 130–140 km/h and suddenly have to slow down to 90 km/h because of the trucks.
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The city of Genoa is located at the foot of the Apennines and to get there we had to pass through a mountain highway. All cars drove at least 100 km/h. In super sharp turns and it was a big action just before the finish. We had to choose to drive either in the lane where the tracks are or in the other lane, but that meant we had to conform to the other moving cars and drive just as fast.
Finding the port in Genoa was even more of an adventure. We missed the turnoff for “Porté” and then spent about an hour trying to find it. We couldn’t find any free parking spots, so we had to shell out 70 euros for 8 days of parking while we were away.
–> Browse and book a budget hotel in Italy at a discount. See HERE!
boarding
According to preliminary information, check-in was supposed to start at 1:00 p.m., but it actually began at 11:00 a.m. They checked our passports, took our photo (Avi had smiled just for the photo :)) and handed us our cruise cards, which allowed us to board and disembark at the various ports, as well as use them as a means of payment—a balance is credited to them when we purchase items or use paid services on the ship, and on the last day of our stay, we can withdraw the accumulated amount.
So, at around 1:00 p.m., we boarded the MSC Lirica. A mixed-race woman escorted us to our cabin, number 10045, located on Deck 10. When we walked in, we were immediately blown away. It was amazing! Our cabin had a large closet, a bathtub, a minibar, a TV, a wide, comfortable bed, and a sofa—but best of all, it had a balcony. They asked us if we wanted a crib for Avi, but we declined because we’d decided she’d sleep in her stroller.
After we had looked around the cabin, we went to have lunch at the buffet, which was located on Deck 11.
There were about 40 Bulgarians on the ship, mainly from Sofia and Dobrich, and for most of them this was not the first cruise. There were many other nationalities. The Japanese, for example, left us with the impression that they were quite smitten and could not find their way at all what, what, where. The French ordered wine every night, and the Germans, oh the Germans, filled their plates to the top and then took more plates to fill.
The weather in May, while we were on a cruise, was also pleasant for a short sleeve if you were on land, but on the open decks of the ship it was very blowing and it was quite cool. Good thing we wore thick sweatshirts and jackets. Unfortunately, since the ship was relatively old, it only had outdoor pools and jacuzzis, which were completely empty because of the wind and cool weather.
FOOD ON THE SHIP
There was plenty of food, even though the meals were repetitive. For example, for breakfast there was always peach and pear compote, fresh fruit—watermelon, pineapple, several kinds of melon—ham, salami, yellow cheese, eggs and bacon, yogurt, rolls, and cupcakes. For lunch, there were always salads made with tomatoes, cucumbers, and, separately, carrots, rice, iceberg lettuce, radishes, yellow cheese, salami, octopus dishes, a salad with small Arpadjik onions, boiled potatoes, and, of course, lots of PASTA in various shapes and with different sauces. Breakfast and lunch were served buffet-style. We also had lunch at the pizzeria, where our choices were limited to pizza, french fries, grilled meats, and sausages.
Dinner was at the restaurant at Dec 6. We were originally written for the second meal session, which started at 9:00 p.m., but moved in the first session without any problems because Bebe Avi was going to bed earlier. There were signs that the restaurant was prohibited from entering with shorts and flip-flops. During dinner we ordered from a menu that consisted of several offers for salad, appetizer, soup, pasta, main course and dessert. Most main dishes and appetizers were with fish. The drinks were paid for - that's what we found out the first night when we lied to order water and juice.
For the entire cruise, we tried a lot of things that we can't afford in Bulgaria - for example, black mussels, octopus, shrimps, royal shrimp, squid, rabbit meat, shark. It was funny that in most cases we didn't really know exactly what we were eating, as the menu was in English and we in our English...
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SHIP'S CREW
A young boy named David from Indonesia served us in the restaurant. We once asked him out of pure curiosity how many hours he worked, and he said that 11 hours of work were collected per day without counting breaks, and that very few staff members had any day off at all. After all, they are there to work sezoono and make money for their families, so they work every day. One evening, while we were eating in the restaurant and Avi was not in the mood, David came to us, took a towel and made a ducket-shaped origama for a maximum of 1 minute. Baby Avi played with him, smiled and wasn't nervous anymore.
And the cleanliness and comfort of our room was taken care of by a steward, whom we named Leonardo DiCaprio because of his resemblance to the actor. Every morning, while we were at breakfast, he would come in, arrange the whole room, vacuum and put a new mat over the bedroom. In the evening, while we were at dinner, he would come in again, arrange, remove the mat from the bedroom, turn off the main lights, turn on the night lights and even throw the covers at one end - with one idea - do we go straight to bed. Waste bins and used towels were replaced every day.
Every evening, “Leo” would slip a sheet with the next day’s schedule under our door. On that sheet, we found up-to-date information about the ship’s attractions and events, the classes and workouts available, the show at the theater, the dress code for dinner, the next stop on the itinerary, the weather forecast there, and so on.
The ship's staff was always very smiling and responsive. A simple example: once, when we wanted to get away with Leo - we with the baby carriage, and he - with a stroller loaded with 6 suitcases, when he saw us, he literally took all the suitcases to the ground in seconds and made us a way to pass! Wow! Most of the staff who served the restaurant and cabins were from the poorer countries - Honduras, Indonesia, Philippines. Higher positions were occupied by Italians, and the MSC cruise company itself is owned by Swiss. The Lirica ship is built in Panama.
Read the travelogue about our other cruise from Europe to the Caribbean – VIEW HERE
baby avi on a cruise
Baby Avi was the youngest passenger on board. There were other children older than her—about 10 of them—and the average age of the passengers was somewhere between 60 and 65. Every time we got on or off the elevator, everyone else inside would marvel at Avi and ask how old she was and if she was a girl, even though she was dressed entirely in pink. Strange, isn’t it?! We didn’t have any problems with Avi on the ship. We got around mainly with the stroller, and she was very calm the whole time.
Long after the cruise had finished, we realized that we actually took baby Avi on board illegally. What does this mean? Well, even though we passed all the passport checks boarding the ship and even though we told each of the passengers that Avi was three and a half months old, it turned out that it was actually completely forbidden to board babies under 6 months of age and this was written in the General Terms and Conditions of the cruise company. How we got up then, I don't know
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