Nov 22 – Marseille
We got up early this morning and began our walk out to meet the Cruise ship out at the port. We got lucky when we went to catch the city bus, when we got on and we were the only ones going out to the port, the bus driver gave us a free lift! That was a pretty nice way to start the day!
He dropped us off at the entrance to the port and it was a bit of a long walk up to the ship. Once we dropped off our bags we had to wait for a few hours before we were called to board. It was pretty fun boarding another cruise ship. We had to get our photos taken and then register at the kids desk. I hope this kids area is a little more fun than the last cruise. I felt that it was a bit too babyish for me.
They also have a kids waterpark and a water slide, but it might not be open for a few days, because it is kind of cold here and rainy. I can’t wait to try them out!
On this cruise we have two rooms. They are not right beside each other, but are on opposite hallways to each other. It is a bit annoying cause we have to run back and forth between the rooms a lot! My mom and I have a room with a big double bed and my Dad and the boys are in a room with two single beds and one of the bunks that comes down from the ceiling. I think during the cruise we will take turns switching up who gets to sleep where. We went to the buffet and had a big first lunch.
After we went to find are rooms. They were on the 10th floor. Are rooms were 10018 and 10055. We went to are room and they were so big, bigger then on are last room.
Nov 23 – Barcelona
Today we pulled into the Port of Barcelona. My Mom and Dad were trying to decide if we were going to go ashore or not. In the end they decided that we would just stay on the ship.
We had stopped at Barcelona on the last cruise and we were all really tired out from travelling. We just decided to rest and explore the ship. Since most people went ashore, we had the pool areas to ourselves!
That night we went to our fist show - it was pretty fun! The show was dedicated to pop songs from the 70's and 80's - YMCA was the big song they kept singing - Brendan loved it!!
Nov 24 – at Sea
Today we traveled from Barcelona to Malaga and it was our first sea day. It was kind of cold and a bit rainy so we couldn’t really go out and play on the deck in the waterpark. We found out that there was a lady who taught Origami, so we all went and created some really cool butterflies.
We went to the kids center and the boys met the LEGO man! They loved it!
Then we did some homework. Mom promised that if we did our homework without complaining – we could watch a movie in the afternoon – so we all did – even the boys!!
Nov 25 – Malaga
We got off the ship, and walked along the beach for a while before heading into the main part of the town.
We and found two incredible castles and forts that were built originally to protect the town. The first one was called Alcazaba, it was originally built by the Moors when they controlled this region of Spain.
Most of the Alcazaba was destroyed many times and was rebuilt by the city of Malaga in the 1930’s. There is not much left of the original Moorish architecture, but some of the carvings were found and rebuilt into the walls to show their original designs. Interestingly, when they did the excavations they unearthed the earlier Roman ruins of a amphitheater and saw how the Moors used the old roman columns to build their buildings. You can see the old roman columns spread throughout the buildings.
Throughout the castle inner courtyards there are many orange trees planted. Most were filled with big oranges, but when we picked one, they were still really bitter and not ripe yet.
The Alcazaba was connected to the upper castle by the Coracha, a protected path that could take the royal family up to the castle for safety. The castle at the top was called the Castillo de Gibralfaro. It was built so that it that overlooked the whole harbour and the town.
This incredible drawing of the city of Malaga as it was in 1487 shows the locations of the castle, the harbour and the rest of the town, which was surrounded by a huge wall for protection.
We toured the museum that was inside the castle and it showed us some of the different uniforms that the Spanish soldiers wore during the different years.
I am standing with a solder from 1529. The next one is from 1692, then the last one with Liam is from 1791.
As we left the Malaga Harbour we said goodbye to the Mediterranean Sea. My Mom and I stayed out on deck and watched the sun set. We have been travelling around this ocean for a long time now. Although it was dark we were still able to see the lights of both Gibraltar on the north and the coast of Africa on the south. The picture shows the north coast of Africa. At its narrowest point there is only 2.5 nautical miles separating Europe from Africa. It was really fun to stay out on deck and see both shores moving past us.
Tonight the show was an Opera performance. We were very excited, because my brothers and I had never been to an opera before and we really loved it. The lady was a soprano. She had a very high voice and it was beautiful. The two men were a tenor and a baritone. They were both really incredible singers and we all enjoyed it a lot. You could almost feel their singing inside of you it was so powerful.
Nov 26 – At Sea
Today we wanted to see the kids waterpark, so we headed down to the buffet. I had a waffle with chocolate chips. It was a very busy morning in the buffet so you can imagine that it was very crowded. It is finally getting warmer, and we were able to play for a long time at the waterpark!
Nov 27 – Tenerife, Canary Islands
Today we got off the ship and found a city bus that would take us up to Playa de la Teneriferes. A beautiful sandy beach only ½ hour out of town. It beach is set inside of the Reserva de la Biosfera Macizo de Anaga. The region is a reserve for endemic species like the laurel pigeon and the wildlife that lives in the protected waters, like turtles and crustaceans. The region is also known for its incredible volcanic rocky outcrops that are covered in laurel forests.
We had a great time playing in the surf and as the tide came in the waves got way bigger and we played in the waves for a few hours. I guess we played a little too long as I got a bit sun burned!! Dad and I went out for a snorkel, but to be honest it wasn’t really that great. It got deep pretty fast and the bottom was just sand. There was only a few fish. It was also kinda chilly!
We headed back to the ship and we picked up a few souvenirs. It was neat to see us leave the Canary Islands, they are beautiful and they are the last we will see of Europe! We have been here since July 11th. What an incredible trip it has been. The Canary Islands are a place that so many people for so many years have started their journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the new world. This was the starting off point for many famous explorers.
In fact, we found the plaque to commemorate 500 years since Magellan stopped on the Canaries for 3 days (September 26-29, 1519) during his first voyage around the world.
Another interesting story and a reason this place was so important to visit was that my Great-great grandmother, Caroline Hanagan-Stone traveled from Portsmouth, England to Durban, South Africa in 1902. She would have made a stopover at Tenerife in the Canary Islands (117 years ago). She traveled during the Boer War to work with her sister and brother-in law. They were in business in South Africa to supply the British troops with food at the railways stations. Caroline was only a young girl of twenty and she was put in charge feeding the troops at the railway station of Inchanga, north of Durban. After the war was over, she returned home in 1904, with her niece and nephew in her care. On their way home, they again made stops at the Canary Islands. I just wonder what she would have seen then. I wish I could speak to her and ask her. After this incredible experience, she returned to England to work, she was a very good cook and worked as a cook in many very high end homes, including a very famous one that you may have heard of…. 10 Downing street. She eventually married and then her and her husband emigrated from the U.K to Canada to live in Toronto. She died when my mom was 2 years old when she was 96 years old, but I feel like her spirit of travel has been passed down to me. This is a picture of my brave incredible Great-great Grandmother Caroline when when was 20, just before she left for South Africa.
We said goodbye to the islands at night then started our long journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
Nov 28 and 29 – at Sea
For these two days we did a lot of fun things. The first day we got up and went down to breakfast. It was not that busy at the beginning, so we could get a table in are favourite spot in the back that was looking over the back of the ship. We love to go to Doremiland after breakfast because they always have arts and crafts in the morning.
When we went down to Doremiland it said that there would be something called masters chef at 11:30. We wanted to go to it so we played for 2 hours and then were taken up to do masters chef. We made something called Doremi dessert. They gave us a speech at the beginning telling us all about Master Chef. We were making a dessert that had sponge cake, mango juice, pineapples, mango pieces, yogurt, shredded orange peel, and chocolate sprinkles and mint leaves. First, we had to watch the chef make the dessert and then we had to copy it ourselves as perfectly as we could.
It was pretty easy for me because I watch the chef really closely and I am used to cooking. I think it was easier for me than my brothers, but they did a good job!
We only had 4 minutes on the clock to complete the dessert, but it only took me a minute! The judge was the chef and he told me I did perfect job! Everyone did a pretty good job on theirs. It was really fun and we had a great time at Master Chef!
We are going to the waterpark but first we must do some homework. I did a math test and my brothers did a spelling test. When we finished we went to the waterpark and played on the waterslides.
We got to see an amazing show again tonight. It was another Opera show. The singers are really incredible and they can hit such high notes. It has been such a great experience for us to see these incredible performers.
Nov 30, Dec 1 and Dec 2 – At Sea
We have had some amazing days at sea. Some days the boat has been really rocky and one day we decided to go for a swim in the pool while the boat was rocking! It was so much fun!! It was like being in a giant wave machine. We all got splashed around like crazy!
We have tried all sorts of things on board the MSC Preziosa.
at the Doremi kids center, one day we decorated T-shirts and made our own MSC Preziosa shirts. That was a super fun thing to do and it was great to make all these keepsakes. The girls who work at the Doremi are really nice, most of the kids are little and I don’t mind helping out to make them feel happy when they are a little sad.
Playing in the waterpark and going on the waterslide has also been a great time. Even on the cool days we always make sure that we are up and in the waterpark! We love going on the slide – its so much fun!
Dec 3 – Barbados
Today was a super fun, and HOT day in the Barbados. We saw land for the first time in 5 days and it was really neat to think of all of the people who have crossed this huge ocean. We got off the ship by about 7:30 and walked the 2 km into the town of Bridgetown. The Barbados only uses their own Barbadian dollars and they are valued at 1US$ = 2 Barbadian $. So we first had to find a bank and get some money.
After we got some money that we could use we made out way to the Princess Alice bus station and took a local bus north to Speightstown. From there a nice lady showed us that we needed to take a mini van up to Farley hill. Our destination for today.
We were on our way to visit the Barbados Wildlife Reserve. It is a huge price of rainforest land left in the center of the island and it has been home to many species native to Barbados for many years. It was started in 1982 by Jean Baulu by a Canadian Biologist.
We were dropped off and walked up into the Bio Reserve. The Bio Reserve was created with a series of walkways through the forest where we would walk with the many species that lived on the Barbados.
It was so exciting to see all of the amazing animals, we saw tortoise, deer, peacock, alligator, many different species of snake and of iguanas and parrots.
The most exciting were the green monkeys. When we arrived the lady told us that feedings of the monkeys were done at 2:00 pm, we told her that we couldn’t stay that long and that we had to get back to our cruise ship. She was really nice and said “why don’t we move that up for you then?” She called ahead and asked them to do the feeding for us at 11:00 am.
It was so amazing to see the green Monkeys. We got to see them enjoy their lunch of cucumbers, melons, apples and squash. It was so sweet to see moms with the little babies and the older monkeys all coming for a snacks!
After we saw the monkeys we were really hungry so we decided to stop outside the park and have a quick bite to eat. We checked with the park ranger and he said yes no problem you can eat here. Well, we were just starting to have lunch and Liam took an apple out of the bag – sure enough a monkey came out of no where and grabbed it an ran off. The park warden just laughed – “sneaky aren’t they – I should have told you – you can eat anything but fruit!“
We packed up and left, we knew that the bus back to town didn’t run very often and we were worried about when it would come by. We were just starting to think about having to walk, when two lovely ladies in a car drove past us and offered us a ride! It was so nice of them, we all piled into the back seat, and then we had to stop and pick up her son from kindergarten. So he jumped in the back seat with all of us and off we went back to town. It was great fun, we had 6 people in the back seat, the tunes were blasting and the windows were down! It was crazy fun! Then we jumped into a bus ans went the rest of the way back to town!
We got back into town and made our way back to the cruise ship! What a great day. Barbados was a beautiful island with a rich a powerful history. So glad we got to stop here and see it!
Dec 4 – Antigua & Barbuda
Today we came into port a little later and had a chance to watch the ship sail into port. It was amazing to see the island appear as the sun rose into the sky and then see us pull into the island. We were docked beside 3 other ships. Viking, Princess and Celebrity cruise lines were all in port with us.
In Antigua they use the East Caribbean Dollar – it is worth about 2.56 EC$ for 1US$. They also use this currency on St. Kitts, which we will visit in a few days.
We got off the ship and decided to walk through town toward St. John’s beach. It is the closest beach to town and it was about a 45 minutes walk out to the beach. We walked through streets filled with colourful small houses, each had little gardens filled with flowers and palm trees.
We finally got to the beach, and what a beautiful beach it was! We played in the amazing waves and surf for hours. It was incredible! Brendan found the most beautiful scallop shell!
Then the most amazing thing happened! My dad saw a man who owned horses taking some people for a horse ride along the beach. He went over and talked to him and he agreed to take the three of us along the beach for a ride. It was so incredible! All three of us got to ride down the beach.
My horse was named Mr. Benz and he was 5 years old. Brendan’s horse was brother to mine and his was named Hotstepper and he was 6 years old and Liam horse was named Mandela and was 7 years old. Our guide was named Jason and he was very nice and took hold of the horses leads and walked them all nicely down the beach. It was so much fun!
We played in the surf and sand for another few hours. We SHOULD have put a bit more sunscreen on today – yikes we all got a little crispy…
Anyway, back on board we went to travel again onto our next island!
Dec 5 – St. Maarten
Today we were all pretty tired from our big day in Antigua yesterday that we had a pretty slow day in St. Maarten. The Island of St. Maarten/St. Martin is one island that is split between the Dutch and the French. The original divisional ownership was agreed to in 1648 between The Netherlands and France.
It is a beautiful forested Island that is a very hilly island with barely any flat areas.
We got off the ship and just walked around town and then made our way down to the beach where we snorkeled for seashells. We were lucky enough to spot an Iguana sunning himself on the rocks beside the beach.
We each got an amazing souvenir from St. Maarten. I got a beautiful dress that has sea turtles on it and my brothers each chose a ukulele, which they are very excited to try and learn how to play. They have been serenading us ever since…
We needed to take a break from the hot sun, so we headed back early to the boat and had a restful afternoon.
As we got back to the boat we were serenaded by a steel drum band. It was beautiful music.
The boys had a fun afternoon at Doremi playcenter. They made postcards to their friend Jackson and Drew, played some videogames and had a great time!
Dec 6 – St. Kitts and Nevis
We got off the cruise boat this morning in the town of Basseterre, St. Kitts, I found a jewelry shop that gave out charms that can go on to a bracelet as a memory of our trip. The boys and I all decided to collect some of the charms. It is really pretty and will make a fun keepsake!
St. Kitts was first discovered by Europeans when Christopher Columbus made his journey in 1493. He called this place St. Christopher’s Island, but is was shortened over the years to St. Kitts. Of course there were already people living here, the Carib Indians were inhabitants of this island and over the next hundred years most of them were killed in violent massacres.
St. Kitts is a volcanic island and has beautiful hills and mountains surrounding the island.
We walked out of the port and found the bus station, actually we ended up in a van that took us to Romney Hill. It is a famous place. It was the original home to the chief (King Tegreman) of the Carib Indians that were the first nations people of St. Kitts. In 1626, after the Carib Indian Massacres, a European named Sam Jefferson (great-great-great-grandfather to Thomas Jefferson- 3rd U.S president) claimed the land and built his home here. In the mid 1600’s he eventually sold some of the land to Earl Romney who began to use the land to farm sugar cane.
The view from the top of the Estate used to show the oweners what was happening in the sugar plantation and the sugar factory. It has now all regrown back as a forest.
At the front of the Estate as you enter there is a 400 year old Saman Tree that has withstood all of the history. The massacres, the slave trade, the sugar cane, the hurricanes, the fires and the people, all have come and gone while the tree has grown.
Now it is the home of the Carib Batik factory. We were lucky enough to see a demonstration of the ladies actually doing batik. It was so neat. My mom and I are going to try Batik when we get home.
Here is a lady who is doing Batik on a piece of fabric.
From there we traveled on to Brimstone Hill Fortress. It is on a large hill over looking the northern end of St. Kitts. It was built as a fortress by the British and built by African slave labour, the fortress is testimony to European colonial expansion, the African slave trade and the emergence of new societies in the Caribbean. It has a commanding view over the countryside.
On our walk up to the fort we found a very interesting building. It was a lime kiln. Lime is also known as Calcium Oxide. It is made by heating calcium carbonate. The rocks were piled in the top, super-heated to drive off the Carbon Dioxide and the resulting Calcium Oxide could then be used for building, and concrete needs.
At the top we looked around the fortress and its old cannons and fortifications before heading back down and returning to town.
We had a great hike down through the rainforest on a small path which was much faster than than long walk up the road.
Once we got back into Basseterre, we looked around and saw lots and lots of people out bbqing. The town smelled amazing! We asked what was going on and they said “it’s Friday – time for BBQ” so we walked over to one of the guys and he gave us a big rack of ribs! After Liam and tried them his quote was “These are so good – I can’t live without ribs”!! They were delicious!
We went back to the ship and had a nice afternoon. After dinner we went to the big last show – most people are getting off the ship tomorrow morning, (we have one more day). The show was called Treasure Island and it was all about pirates. Liam said his favourite part was the when the girl was put in the box and she disappeared and then afterwards she and 3 more of her friends all came out of the box! It was pure magic!! At the end they all come out to say goodbye!
Dec 7 – Martinique
We landed on the beautiful island of Martinique and got off the ship and walked though town towards the ferry docks. We were planning on going to the zoo, however, we found out that it was on the opposite side of the island and that the bus system was not really good enough to get us there and back in time for the ship to leave. We walked through town and were lucky enough to spot a yellow iguana! So cool!
So we changed plans and took a ferry across the bay to L’Anse Ane, a beautiful tropical beach, where we swam and collected shells and swam in the waves.
It was a super relaxing day and we got back to the ship and had late lunch, then we went for a final swim. The sky rewarded us with a stunning rainbow over the town. What a way to end our last day.
It was our last night on the cruise and I’m feeling sad that it was over. In some ways it was so fast, 17 days, just over like that. But then I think of all the stops we made and how far we traveled. It was incredible.
8 - Guadeloupe
This morning we arrived in Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe. We had our last breakfast on the ship.
Then we went up to say goodbye to the girls who ran the Doremi kids center. We came in to say goodbye and thank you. They were so happy that we came in and they hugged us all. The girls were so nice to me all the time, I was the oldest kid in the kids program and I often helped out with the little ones. The girls always made sure that I felt included and I had something to do. They were really nice to me. We will miss them a lot.
We traveled over 4500 nautical miles from Marseille, Frane to Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe. 17 days, 16 nights. Just incredible. What an adventure!!
Thank you for reading Everyone!
Tia and Mari
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