We made it to the cruise ship in Savona, Italy and were ready to start our vacation. During the safety drill that went through 5 languages and required us and the kids to wear the life vests the entire time, Kevin plopped down on the floor, put hit head between Ryan's feet and fell asleep. Great start.
Barcelona, Spain
We'd been to Barcelona before and ran (metroed) all over the city to see it all. This time we were a little more relaxed. We stopped at the market off Las Ramblas to get some fresh fruit smoothies. Delicious. I wish I lived here just so I could shop at this market. Everything is so fresh and cheap. From there we walked over to a park, played on the playground, before grabbing some gelato and wandering back to the boat.
Beach day! We walked a good 2 miles (at least) over to a beach. The kids and Ryan played in the freezing water (more like Pacific Ocean temperatures than Atlantic Ocean) while I read some of my book. We were some of the first people there and I didn't realize how much it had filled in until I went down to get in the water...I then also noticed more than just the males were missing their tops...I guess welcome to European beaches. I had commented earlier to Ryan that I thought it was really weird on the ship that girls as old as 10 would wear bikini bottoms and that parents were okay with that. I guess it made a little more sense now. We had to tear the kids (Kevin was not happy) away from the beach when Ryan and I were ready to leave. Next we walked across the street to an awesome waterfront playground with outdoor ping pong tables and everything. Kevin was out before we made it there, but Kherington enjoyed it. We got out customary gelato on the walk back to the ship.
I was excited to see what Malta was like. It was a little bit shocking to me in that the buildings reminded me more of Jerusalem than any other European city. We walked up (and I mean up...as in carrying the stroller loaded with 2 kid and stuff up a numerous flights of stairs) to the bus station and figured out how to get to a sandy beach. We decided on Pretty Boy beach because it was closer than the other main tourist beaches but was still sandy (instead of pebbles). Once again the water was freezing, but the kids loved it. After getting back to the main part of La Valletta, we wandered around the old town and found a splash pad that that kids loved playing in.
This was definitely a smaller port and since we'd beached it the last two days we decided to do some exploring. We walked through an amazing street market that was packed. My favorite part was all the clusters of garlic hanging all over the place. Along with that there was a lot of fish, nuts, fruit, clothes and even a pet stall. It quite difficult to navigate the stroller through the mobs of people and after a little bit the kids started complaining that it was stinky (from the seafood). After we went to find some gelato, but Kherington say a kebap stand and became dead set on getting a kebap...she even kept to it when we got Kevin gelato she stayed with Ryan to wait for the kebap store to open. Then picked out all the 'chicken'...any meat in the kebap she calls chicken :).
Our last stop was Naples. We did not like Naples before. It was such a dirty city. This time however, we walked the opposite direction we went the last time we were in the port and were pleasantly surprise. After walking along the coast, we stopped at a playground and then through the pedestrian zone where we found an amazing gelato shop. Definitely the best of the trip. Then we headed of in search of the tiny pizza shop we stumbled upon the last time we were in Naples. We were lucky enough to find it and the owners though Kherington was pretty cute (Kevin was asleep in the stroller). We got a whole pizza for less than half as much as our gelato costs.
On board the cruise ship, we spent a huge chunk of our time at the outdoor castle, pirate ship and slide. The kids loved it there, especially when they got bring a stuffed animal along :). I enjoyed the sun and took my Kindle just about everywhere and ended up finished 2.5 books in a week. Ryan was awesome and took the kids while I got to to go to the gym. I've never been sure if I'd like a gym membership, but I really enjoyed having a bike and free weights of different sizes. One day after working out I told Ryan I felt kind of bad because he wasn't getting a relaxing vacation (since he was always with the kids)...he said he was getting a vacation from work and I was getting one from kids...I like that :). He's pretty awesome. We went swimming in the pools a couple times. The first time was on the main deck in the morning and the water was FREEZING. Next time we went in the afternoon and it was quite enjoyable because the sun had heated the water. We also took the kids down the massive water slide which they loved. However kids weren't allow in the hots tubs, the slide wasn't open very often, none of the pools were heated and the kiddie splash pad that we were so excited for was closed the whole time.
We spent a good chunk of time in our room also. We had them put one of the fold down bed's up b/c Kevin's too little for it. Kherington even fell off it (onto our bed) one night. Our kids both move a lot when they sleep. Kherington also ended up wetting the bed one night (kind of my fault I let her down a sippy cup of water right before she went to sleep).
The kids loved dipping bread in olive oil or spreading their own butter with the little butter knives while we waited for their dinners to arrive. Kherington had 2 hot dogs and some tomatoes each night until the last 2 days then switched to a hamburger and tomatoes (no buns or condiments). Kevin had chicken fingers and fries...but only ate the fries. Then both finished off dinner with some ice cream. They had 2 formal dinner nights which we dressed in skirts/slacks for but that was it. Oh and I need to comment on Kevin's water. Sharing drinks is fine, but I don't do backwash. Well, Ryan will share just about anything, but he took one look at Kevin's cup and drew the line :). Kevin likes to dip everything in water...bread/butter got dipped, even that fry with ketchup got dipped in the water. Gross.
We did have a nice view the ocean at our table and shared with a French Canadian family (with Italian roots) that had 2 kids. They were interesting to chat with.
We've now been on 4 cruise with 4 different cruise line. Norwegian and Royal Caribbean I think are just about tied. If I were going with kids I think I'd lean toward Norwegian and without I'd go for Royal. Next would be MSC.
This cruise was with Costa and it was definitely the bottom of the barrel. I guess I'll start with the highlights: best pizza (hands down) of all the cruises, best water cups/ice (large cups, small square ice with no weird taste), price (including taxes, fees and gratuities it was $1072 for the 4 of us).
Now for everything else. It was very European. The food was not good by our American influenced standards, sometimes there was no options other than pizza and there was no buffet dinner option which is a lifesaver when you have kids. There was lots of smoking. They had it old school style where half the room was smoking and the other half wasn't, but no real ventilation. The night shows were really raunchy (we only didn't walk out of 2 of the 7). The daytime activities were raunchy too...they would be about on par with the adults only activities on other cruise ships, except held during the day in the main social area. The ship layout in general felt very closed in. There was only 2 real open lounges and they were significantly smaller than what we experienced on other ships. I'd be willing to pay a little more money and have a better experience. We don't plan on cruising with Costa again.
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