I have just been on a cruise for the first time in my life. I had never been on one before because it was not the kind of holiday I had really fancied, being one who generally by instinct flees the herd. As such I was not keen on the idea of potentially being cooped up with a lot of people I might not want to be with, possibly even on a vessel pitching all over the place in bad weather.
To celebrate his eightieth birthday my father wanted to invite the whole family on a holiday together, initially thinking in terms of renting a villa somewhere. At which point, my brother Simon who spent twenty years or so working on cruise liners and therefore knows them well and continues to holiday on them, suggested why not try a cruise. Overcoming initial skepticism, the rest of us declared we were ready to give it a go, so he and his wife, Penny, who also used to work on cruises, were tasked with identifying a good one for our purposes.
The choice was for a twelve night Mediterranean cruise sailing from Barcelona on board the very up-market Celebrity Solstice.
As we were in a group of eight we had ourselves for company without having to worry about the other passengers. The agreement was to have dinner and spend the evening all together, while being free to engage in different activities in varying sub-groups during the day. This worked really well.
A modern cruise liner is a huge affair. Ours was over 300 metres long with fourteen levels. Basically it’s a very big floating luxury hotel, the size of a colossal apartment block. On board were 2800 guests and 1200 crew. And yet the Solstice is so well designed that to my amazement I never had the impression of sharing it with so many other people. It was relatively easy to find comfortable spaces to ourselves. So my main initial fear turned out to be unfounded and I could get on with enjoying myself.
Surprisingly also, given its improbably towering square shape that looks top-heavy (but isn’t really as all the heavy stuff is at the bottom), the ship was remarkably stable and you barely felt it moving - though I admit we were blessed with some partciularly calm seas.
I now see why cruising has become so popular, so successful and such big business. It offers the guests a secure, safe and clean environment where most creature comforts are readily available. You unpack your suitcase once in a surprisingly spacious en-suite cabin (so much so it is actually called a “stateroom”), with your own balcony overlooking the sea and yet you are on tour and wake up in a different place each morning, as if by magic, thereby avoiding the hassle of repacking each time.
Most often the ship docks but occasionally it anchors in the bay and you are ferried ashore in tenders, which I actually found quite pleasant even if it means waiting your turn. When we alighted that way in Villefranche on the Côte d’Azur and Kotor in Montenegro we were immediately in a picturesque small town. The downside with docking is that the ship is so huge you can end up in a freight port looking at container ships miles from the centre of town, as in Livorno. A great exception is Naples where you berth right next to downtown.
A lot of passengers opt for organized tours and as we docked in some ports I counted as many as 28 coaches lined up on the quay waiting for them. However, all that is strictly optional and you’re perfectly free to do your own thing, which Clara and I did each time, knowing the language and indeed town in most ports of call. The only thing you must remember is to make double sure you don’t miss the boat at the end of your time ashore, as it could prove expensive and difficult to catch up with it at its next stop. How do they know if everyone’s got on ? The ship has a card and computer based system for counting everybody off and back on, being able to check faces against photos they take of you when you check in at the start of the cruise.
Our itinerary was basically to sail from Barcelona across to Italy then all the way around it to Venice and back to Barcelona, pausing on the Damatian coast on the way up and down the Adriatic. The first stop was Villefranche near Nice where we spent the day with Italian friends who came to meet us from their house on the coast near Menton so we could go for a walk around Cap Ferrat on what later became a rather wet day. From Livorno six of us did our own outing to Pisa. From Civitavecchia we caught the train up to Rome to stroll around, see Umberto and Silvia and catch an unexpected glimpse of the Pope. From Naples, Simon and Penny and the two of us visited Capri and did a fantastic walk high above the blue sea with views of rocky islets. Then I showed Clara a bit of the centre of Naples.
So after four intense days of shore visits I was actually ready for my first day all at sea without having much to do. Nonetheless I found myself up at dawn watching us sail through the straits of Messina. Since our party was having dinner early I found I became an early riser and visited the swimming pool at 7 every morning when it was very quiet before breakfast.
After the day lazing on board it was time for another four days’ intensive tourism. Kotor is situated at the end of a long fjord in Montenegro, which makes for an impressive sail in and out. To the amazement of the rest of our group, Clara and I climbed the 250m up to the fortress and back down before visiting the old town. Then there was an an afternoon and a morning in Venice, which never fails to delight. Sailing in and out of Venice is quite outrageous as the ship actually transits through the Giudecca canal between San Marco and San Giorgio, the Salute and Redentore. Standing on level 15 it’s like arriving on a very low flying aircraft, as you’re actually above most buildings. They say it can’t be doing the foundations of the islands any good. Our last port of call was Dubrovnik, for me one of the prettiest old towns on the Mediterranean. The final two days cruising back to Barcelona seemed to pass very quickly
Part of the basic cruise formula is that there is a limitless supply of free food on board. There’s a huge cold and cooked breakfast buffet and a huge cold and cooked lunch buffet. On the Solstice there is a more formal sit down dinner with a menu and waiters. In case you’re hungry in between there are snacks, beefburgers, pizza, ice-cream etc available. The opportunities for over-eating are endless and among the many guests a fair few were seriously overweight, mainly but by no means all of them American. To make it more difficult to resist temptation, the food was generally very good. It took a degree of will power not to over indulge myself and I confess to having eaten two main courses one dinner - not actually a good idea as I realized afterwards waddling around the deck on my post-prandial stroll.
If the food was for free, that is included, the drinks certainly were not, with just a beer starting around 5€. Actually it was difficut to tell just how much because being an American run operation the prices on board were in dollars and the billing was American in so far as any price you saw then had tax and gratuities slapped on top of it. However, since no cash changes hands as it’s all done by on board billing cards, it’s all fairly painless. Anyway my father was gnerously picking up the tab. Basically like any hotel and catering operation it’s on the drinks that they make their money. Otherwise there was always limitless ice cold water and hot coffee free of charge.
Feeding 4000 people evry day is no mean feat and requires a lot of organization of which we got a glimpse one day at sea on a guided tour of the galleys. About half of the crew work in the food and beverage department.
The crew were from sixty different countries, our dinner waiting team was from Peru, Colombia and Hungary. The captain was Greek. The guests also came from all over the world, plenty of Americans and Canadians, but also Brits, Spanish, French, Latin Americans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans etc. (Announcements were in English, Spanish and French.)
Actually the people on the ship were a microcosm of the world: the guests were from the rich countries, the crew from the poor countries. Most of the crew are paid a pittance, thus they can be so numerous that the ship can provide a top quality service
Cruising has of course been in the headlines this year because of the Costa Concordia wreck. It all goes to show that no amount of technology can protect you from human error and folly. Risking over 4000 lives and around $700 million of hardware requires an impressive degree of recklessness. The worst part of the story though was that having holed his ship instead of going down with it the captain was one of the first off and rather farcically was shouted at by the coastguards telling him to be a man and get back on it to do his duty. It’s a great modern moral tale of human weakness and I’m sure it will be the subject of film and literature. Of course it’s not really funny as over thirty people died in the ensuing confusion. That in turn has served to remind people that though a cruise liner looks and feels like a luxury hotel it is actually still a ship at sea and all the usual laws of nature apply. Guests now pay attention at the muster station drill.
We saw Costa’s latest even bigger ship when in Venice, according to an article we read it is fully booked for its first voyage. So apparently punters have not been deterred.
In Venice we had our own bit of drama when high gusting winds pushed the ship so hard one of the bollards on the quayside gave way and the ship slipped its moorings. Fortunately our crew was on the ball and the situation was soon brought under control with the assistance of some tugs and the ship was repositioned. The captain gave a full explanation afterwards. I felt I was in safe hands.
As an introduction to cruising, I have probably been spoilt, by the standard of comfort and cuisine, the ingenuity of design, the quality of hospitality and gentility of fellow passengers aboard the Solstice.
So my first experience of cruising, to quote our jovial waiter Felix, is that it is “an excellent choice”.
