Italian Holiday :: Day 7 :: Genoa (Cruise)

The alarm sounded at 3:30am as planned and I showered first.  We finished off the crisp breads, cheese and fruit that we had in our fridge and then finalised the packing of our cases.  The porter arrived on time at 4:30 and we made our way down to the car.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel had packed a breakfast to take with us - beautiful fresh chocolate croissants, little bottles of pear juice, yoghurt and fruit.  What a nice touch!!  We have been so very happy with our stay at the Villa Belvedere and would easily recommend it to anyone wishing to holiday in Taormina!

We took the motorway south to Catania airport and arrived just before 5:30, dropped the car off in the car hire park and checked-in for our 7:00am flight to Rome.  It was disappointing to discover that, although the combined weight of my suitcase and toiletries bag was well under the required 23kg, there was a charge for having more than one piece of luggage.  We hadn't expected this as, in Australia and on the Emirates flights through Singapore and Dubai, it didn't matter how many pieces we had, so long as they didn't exceed the weight limit.  We were charged €63 (about $80) for that little bag and I has very upset about that, as the zip had broken the night before and I had fiddled with it for a long while before I could shut it.  During the "fiddling" we had discussed whether or not to bother taking it and to just pack everything into the suitcase and throw the toiletries bag out (it was about five years old and had seen a lot of duty!).  Now, of course, I wish we had done that!

The flight to Rome was a quick one, about one hour, and there was a brief transfer onto the next flight at 9:30am to Genoa.  We landed, collected our luggage and took a taxi through Genoa to the port, where our beautiful cruise liner awaited us.


A couple of days ago, Wayne had received an email from MSC, the cruise company, to say that we had received an upgrade and when we arrived, we were delighted to find that we were now members of the exclusive first class "Yacht Club"!


We were attended to by a young man who introduced himself to us as his "butler" and we were whisked past the long queues of guests waiting to embark and up to a special lounge where we were served champaign and hors d'oeuvres whilst our butler dealt with all the details of checking-in for us.

Then, we were escorted up to the fifteenth floor at the front of the ship, to an exclusive place only for Yacht Club members and shown to our cabin.






It was very beautiful with a lovely balcony and there was a platter of fruit and a bottle of champaign awaiting us.







Our butler gave us a quick tour of the Yacht Club area, including our own exclusive restaurant and pool, which had not one, but TWO jacuzzis, and then he bade farewell and we were left to settle-in.




After we had unpacked, we went back up to the pool, where there was a bar which catered for lunch and we stayed there for an hour or so, chatting with a German couple called Klaus and Heidi.




They were veterans of the cruise world, this being their 79th cruise!!  They had begun cruising about ten years ago and admitted to being addicted to it.  They took on average 8-10 cruises a year!   As we chatted, we discovered that he was a doctor who owned six different GP clinics in Germany.

There were many different bars ...

After lunch, I went back to the cabin for a little nap and Wayne went exploring the ship.

... and lounges ...

... and bars ...

... and lounges.

We had been advised when we were embarking that there would be an emergency drill for everyone on the ship just after 4:00pm, so we were ready in the cabin with our life jackets for that.

We had to go down to the 7th floor to our Assembly Point, where we had to hand-in a little card to prove we had attended the drill and we were shown how to put on our life jackets.



Then everyone could return to whatever they were doing beforehand.  We took our life jackets back to the cabin and then went to find our good friends Shane & Zoe, who had initiated our whole trip by inviting us to join them on this cruise, way back last year.

Shane & Zoe left Melbourne earlier than us, in early September and had already travelled through Greece, Turkey and Croatia on various tours, ending up with a cruise of the Greek Isles and eastern Italy, disembarking this morning in Venice.  It was the same cruise company (MSC) that we were taking this cruise with and they provided them (and some other guests) with a connecting bus from Venice, across the top of Italy to Genoa (which was a 5-1/2 hour winding ride through the alps) and they arrived at about 3:30, just in time for the emergency drill.

So, when we knocked on their cabin door, they were still unpacking their cases and settling into their cabin.  We went together down to the buffet on the 6th floor to have some late lunch and drinks and to chat about our travels over the past week(s).  Zoe & Shane had not been as fortunate as us and had not received the same upgrade, which was a shame because we had asked earlier and had been told we could not invite guests up to the Yacht Club.  It was an easy decision to make to stay with them in the main section of the ship for our dinner that evening.

At 5:30 we went to a presentation about all the shore excursions that were available at the various ports during our cruise and then Zoe & I went shopping in the duty free shops.  I didn't see anything I wanted, but Zoe bought some nice flat shoes that would be comfortable for walking in during our shore excursions.  She had already worn out the walking shoes she had brought with her from Melbourne!

Then we met up again with Wayne & Shane at the theatre to view a musical performance called "Made in Italy", which was quite good, after which we made our way to the booking desk to arrange our excursion in Naples for tomorrow.



Once our booking was completed, we went to the "Red Velvet" restaurant for dinner.  There was an Italian theme, this evening and on the menu was an amazing amount of food - all included in our initial cost so we didn't have to pay.  We could have all or any of the following: calamari, minestrone, insalade (salad), tagliatone, osso bucco, eggplant parmigiana, a cheese platter and rum baba for dessert.  We each had a small selection from this huge offering and some lovely Italian wine.  Some actors came around, dressed up as typical Italian waiters and we had our photos taken with them.  The rum baba was processed in by the waiters while we all cheered and waved our red, white & green napkins in the air and sang classic Italian songs.

Then it was time to return to our cabins and fall into bed!