Brian actually booked our cruise before Livi was born. A pretty brazen move, right? We planned on a March cruise when Livi would be around six-months-old and right around the beginning of spring when we would be jonesing for some warmer weather after a cold, German winter. He got a ridiculous deal on our room and warned me not to think what we got was normal for a cruise. We had a two-room suite with a closet big enough to fit Livi's pack n' play and a pull out sleeper sofa in the sitting room so everyone essentially had their own room to sleep in. Incredibly, Brian somehow worked magic to also get all of our drinks and an hour-long massage for each of us thrown in. Drinks and massages? That man is a saint, I tell you.
We sailed out of Genoa with ports of call in Barcelona (Spain), Casablanca (Morocco), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Funchal (Madeira/Portugal), Malaga (Spain), Rome and then back to Genoa. The ship had a Kids' Club that Ellie visited on port days and for a few hours on our days at sea. Then Brian or I would put Livi in the Ergo to head out and explore wherever we were docked for the day.
While not without its challenges, taking a cruise with two relatively young children was a pretty pleasant experience. Ellie's favorite part was the "fancy dinner," lunch at the kids club (notice a trend?) and the sparkling stairs in the main lounge area which she said looked just like those in Elsa's ice palace (Frozen fever is still strong with this one). Brian and I took turns getting dressed up and taking Ellie to the formal nights to make sure Livi got to bed at a decent hour.
While I was out with Ellie for the first formal night, Brian fed Livi.
And he captured some amazing pictures of sunset through the Straits of Gibraltar.
We enjoyed a few afternoons getting "special drinks" as Ellie called them (cocktails for Brian and I, non-alcoholic blended drinks for Ellie) while playing card games or people watching.
The view of Tenerife as we pulled out to sea.
Breezy afternoons walking the observation deck and pretending to be birds.
Watching a storm roll in while at sea.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say these kids loved cruising.
So did this guy.
We missed visiting our first port of Barcelona since it was raining and since the thought of trying to sight see with a six-month-old in the rain wasn't very appealing we opted to stay on the ship and relax. Naturally the sun came out as we were getting ready to pull out of port.
I didn't get any pictures of our stop in Casablanca but while the stop was a quick one, we were still able to get a feel of the Moroccan The stop was a quick one, but nonetheless gave us a taste of the Moroccan city and we were able to visit the souk (their Arab marketplace). A view of the moon over Morocco before heading out of port.
We were able to see much more of Tenerife (Canary Islands) and reveled in the 70+ degree weather and sunny skies. We visited the market there and strolled along the side streets. Most of my pictures were from Madeira (Portugal). Coming off the tail-end of a gloomy German winter, the sunny skies in Madeira were just what we needed.
We also ran into this guy. I convinced Brian to shake his hand and get a picture.
Livi was contented enough to nap in the Ergo, occasionally opening her eyes to take a glance around.
The views were gorgeous and the flowers were in bloom (that's our ship in the background of the first picture)!
Madeira is famous for their wine, which ranges all the way from sweet to dry. We stopped at one of the famous, and oldest, wine makers on the island: Blandy's. We sat in an old cellar and sipped a flight of wines...
... which led to the brilliant decision to take our baby's picture on one of the huge wine barrels outside. Fun for the whole family!
Our stop in Malaga (Spain) was as sunny and warm as those in Tenerife and Madeira. The highlights included taking in Picasso's early works at the Museo Picasso Malaga, eating authentic tapas and sipping sangria at a cafe and sampling Manchego cheese in the Mercado de Ataranzanas.
Rome was a complete bust. We docked in Civitavecchia and took the forty-minute train ride into Rome. We had only been there a few weeks prior and had not been able to get into the Basilica because of a Vatican holiday so we counted this trip as our chance to get into St. Peter's. Not only that but we also had plans to meet with some friends of a friend who worked at the Vatican and hoped for a more in-depth visit. After a quick lunch stop right outside Vatican City, we got to our meet-up spot and waited. When our guides met us, there was a very unfortunate language barrier as neither man spoke English. Through our broken communication we found out it happened to be another Vatican holiday and the Basilica had very limited hours (again!). As a consolation, they handed us what felt like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket -- tickets to mass later that afternoon being said by Pope Francis. My heart leapt but immediately fell when I saw the mass time indicated on the ticket: 5pm, one hour after our required time to be back on the cruise ship. I'll be honest when I say I cried after we said our goodbyes to the two Italian gentlemen. I was crushed and since we hadn't planned much outside our trip to Vatican City, I bought and mailed a few postcards from the Vatican and then we made our way back to the train. One of these days I'll get back there!
Even with the disappointment in Rome, we really enjoyed the cruise and I'm ready to plan another one. We had a few bumps with the kids (Ellie got sick a couple of nights but it had nothing to do with the motion of the ship and everything to do with nightmares) and Livi still doesn't want to give us a decent stretch of sleep. We also experienced a pretty wild storm while out to see and Brian saw one of our deck chairs literally fly off the ship! The entertainment was so-so, but that wasn't the reason we were on there anyway. The food was pretty good (European-style so it's nothing new to us) and the sit-down meals were (mostly) fun with the kids. All things considered, I'd say cruising is my new favorite way to travel!
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