Earlier this month we enjoyed our first Mediterranean cruise. We flew to Bari, Italy and boarded the MSC Poesia. Our itinerary took us to Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Albania. Much like the first time we cruised with MSC Cruises, we received an upgrade to a balcony stateroom–which is just an insane benefit! This time we even got so lucky to experience private dining because our assigned table only sat four and no other couple made an appearance the entire week.

Mediterranean Cruise vs. Caribbean Cruise

There are definitely stark differences between a Mediterranean cruise and a Caribbean cruise.

For one, Europeans operate on an entirely different schedules than North Americans.

• They notoriously eat dinner later in the evening.
• On Caribbean cruises we always request second seating which typically occurs around 7:00 PM and the first seating takes places at something ridiculously early like 5:00 PM (for the old people). When we discovered our dinner assignment was for first seating we were initially upset, but then quickly realized first seating was at 7:00 PM and second seating was scheduled for 9:00 PM.
• This meant the disco and the night life started later. Which also meant that people woke up much later in the mornings.
• This meant better availability in the relaxation room and gym. Plus no lines disembarking the ship in the morning.

Smoother Sailing

• The Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Aegean seas were also much smoother than cruising the Caribbean.
• We barely felt the ship move at all the entire week. We even joked that the ship just floated between each port.

Better Mobile Coverage

• Since the destinations are located so closely together we also found that we had great cell phone reception long after we departed ports and were cruising at sea.
• Read more about how we use our T-Mobile service while traveling abroad here.

Katakolon, Greece

The first stop of our Mediterranean cruise after departing Bari was Katakolon, Greece. The reason why cruise ships stop here is due to its close proximity to Olympia. We chose to forego a 45 minute one way bus ride to see the ancient Olympic stadium in order to explore the small port city. Instead we rented an ATV (€30 for the day) and drove to Agios Andreas beach.

Then we continued to the Mercouri Estate and Winery for a quick wine tasting. A cheaper option to visit these places is to buy a €6 ticket on the Katakolon Fun Tourist Train. We decided on the ATVs because we wanted to visit each place on our own time instead of being constrained by the train schedule.

Mykonos

The next morning we arrived in Mykonos which is an incredibly popular tourist destination amongst the Greek Isles. This stop really felt like the true Mediterranean cruise experience. We originally pre-booked a motorbike online a few weeks in advance. We wanted to drive it around the island like we previously did in Koh Phangan and Cozumel. However, we learned that since we did not have a motorcycle license annotated on our US driver licenses that we could not rent a motorbike in Greece. Therefore we opted for another ATV. Only this one was much more powerful (450 cc) than the ones in Katakolon and cost €80.

We drove to Kalo Livadi Beach.

Followed by Kalafati Beach and ate lunch at Petrino Aquarius.

Our last stop was Super Paradise Beach. It was apparent that Mykonos definitely boasts a solid nightlife. We were bummed that our stop did not include an overnight visit and definitely want to return for a longer visit in the future.

Athens

We rarely book cruise excursions. In fact, the only time we booked one was in order to swim with wild stingrays in Grand Cayman during our first MSC cruise. Other than that we either rent motorbikes, ATVs, or use public transportation to explore the ports ourselves. In this case we arrived in Pireaus port and took the X80 city bus to Athens in order to visit Acropolis. This only cost us €6 each for a round trip ticket to see the ancient city. Plan for about a 45 minute journey each way.

Sarandë, Albania

I really did not expect a whole lot from Albania when we booked this Mediterranean cruise. I anticipated a developing and recovering communist country with a small port city and not much else. Honestly, I set the bar quite low and Sarandë absolutely blew my expectations out of the water. This time we decided to explore with the two other couples we befriended on this ship. We found the closest ATV rental and haggled a bit to rent three for a total of €120. Here we drove 45 minutes to the Blue Eye. Followed by another 45 minutes to Mirror Beach (aka Pulëbardha Beach).

The Blue Eye

Mirror Beach

Dubrovnik, Croatia

This next day we stopped in Dubrovnik. My first time visiting the city, but second time to Croatia. Here we simply wandered around the Old Town Walls and ate at a delicious, picturesque cafe. Despite not using the Euro, Dubrovnik is definitely more expensive than what I experienced in Split two years ago. Game of Thrones fans are sure to love visiting King’s Landing, too.

Venice, Italy

We stopped in Venice as our final destination before returning to Bari. Unlike our peaceful day trip to Venice during our last trip to Italy, this visit was unbearably hot and chaotic. So much so that we decided to sell our water bus tickets to Saint Mark’s Square at a €10 loss to a random family in order to seek refuge back on the cruise ship. We much preferred to keep our wonderful memories of Venice from the winter intact than sully our experience battling the huge crowds in the sweltering heat. In the end I snapped some fabulous photos from the deck when we departed. To be honest, ending our Mediterranean cruise relaxing by the quiet pool just made the most sense.

View of Venice from the MSC Poesia pool

The post Mediterranean Cruise with MSC Trip Report appeared first on Seize the Globe.

Not long ago the thought of going on a cruise made me shudder. I always assumed I would hate cruising quite frankly because of many false preconceived notions. Some of those including: someone else dictating my schedule, stereotypical tourism, forced social interactions, poor quality food, etc. However, MSC Cruises completely changed my mind and I even discovered a way to leverage their loyalty program.

It wasn’t until last year that an affordable price with MSC Cruises caught my attention ($469 per person for 7 nights). So we decided to give it a shot. From my perspective it was an incredible opportunity to visit several Caribbean countries for a low price and if I hated the experience I wasn’t out too much money.

We got incredibly lucky with my first ever cruise experience because MSC upgraded us to a balcony room for absolutely no reason. No travel hacking, no points, no status, NADA. We simply slipped our room key into the door and discovered this gorgeous stateroom with an incredible view.

                                                View from our balcony in Jamaica

The majority of our friends never heard of MSC Cruises and were a bit worried we signed ourselves up for a week of torment since it wasn’t well known in the US/Caribbean market. You see, MSC Cruises is actually an Italian, family-owned cruise line which sails all around the world. At the time we took advantage of such an incredible deal because they were (are) expanding their presence in the US market.

Perhaps I ended up enjoying cruising because of the brand? It alleviated all my previous concerns about just getting on a ship full of North Americans who were only interested in buying cheap T-shirts from tourist traps in every port. From the moment we stepped on the MSC Divina, I felt like I was in the minority because I heard so many foreign languages spoken and didn’t hear one American accent until about 2 hours of being on the ship. We met such interesting people with incredible stories. The food was unique and definitely served with a Mediterranean flair. Think fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, fig jam, etc. at the buffet. It was truly way more of an international experience than any other trip I had previously taken to Caribbean islands.

We loved it so much that we booked two more cruises while on the ship! Of course I needed to figure out a way to optimize our cruising experiences and eventually discovered the MSC Cruises status match offer.

                               Our Christmas 2017 Route

                           Our Upcoming MSC Cruise!

How to Get Instant Elite Status with MSC Cruises

MSC Cruises is the only cruise line that will status match your elite hotel status–not just other cruise lines. So it’s great for people like us who are brand new to cruising, but not travel in general. The benefits aren’t earth-shattering, but they’re nice to have–especially like priority disembarkation at ports that require tendering. You can submit all necessary information and get status matched relatively quickly here.

Pro tip: If you don’t have a top tier Diamond or Platinum status with a hotel chain and are more in the mid-tier range, then match your Marriott Gold instead of the SPG Gold.

Although this is only relevant until the two brands merge on August 1, 2018, don’t match your SPG Gold or you’ll receive MSC Silver. Whereas Marriott Gold gets you MSC Gold. They’ll only do one status match in a lifetime, but status is easy to maintain as long as you cruise every 36 months. A quick way to obtain Marriott/SPG Gold status is by opening an American Express Platinum charge card. There are other MSC Cruises status matching data points listed on this FlyerTalk thread.

The post How MSC Cruises Changed My Mind about Cruising appeared first on Seize the Globe.