The cold weather and ridiculous amounts of snow have really made this winter feel long and painful. Once the holidays are over there is not much to look forward to until spring. So how do you break up those winter blues? Fly south for the winter of course!
While most of us are not in position to “winter” somewhere warm it doesn’t mean we can’t take a week away from the bitter cold and feel some warm sand between our toes.
Weeklong vacations tend to need some time to plan around work and all that but if you can go on short notice many places are offering a lot of deals to escape this winter weather.
We had been thinking of a winter getaway for a while and wanted it to be in the mid January to February range. That way there is something to look forward to after the holidays and kind of breaks up the middle of winter.
We decided on a cruise because they are relatively inexpensive for what you get and you get to visit several different places.
I checked many different sites for the best deals until I found one for $299 per person for a 7 day cruise! That is close to the lowest I’ve seen for a week long cruise that far out from the sailing date. So we decided to book.
The cruise line was one I had never heard of before, MSC, which stands for Mediterranean Shipping Company. While they have been in the shipping business for 40 years only in the past 15 years have they been doing cruises. They are an Italian based cruise line and do many cruises in other parts of the world. They have many new ships are currently the fourth largest cruise line in the world.
I have sailed the western Caribbean many times on a variety of cruise lines so I was excited to be sailing to the eastern side on a new ship. Our ports of call were St Thomas and St Martin of the Virgin Islands and Nassau in the Bahamas.
Our ship, the MSC Poesia, was built in 2008 and accommodates 3000+ travelers along with the crew. Size wise it is very comparable to most modern fleet ships of today. Another unique feature is that nearly all the rooms are balcony, with over 800 balconies and less than 400 interior or ocean view rooms. This worked out well because we paid for interior but got bumped to balcony for free! I have never had a balcony and I have to say it really makes the cruise more enjoyable and relaxing.
Even though our cruise didn’t embark till Sunday evening we decided to fly down on Saturday. This way if our flight got delayed or something we would have time to still make it down and not miss the boat. Also why not spend an extra day in the warm weather?
We flew into West Palm Beach because it was cheaper than Ft Lauderdale. We got a one day rental car and spent the evening at the Holiday Inn by the airport. It was nice to go a day early because you don’t have to rush and we had all day Sunday to go down to the ship. So we stopped at the beach on the way down.
We embarked out of Port Everglades, FL. Our first two days were at sea on our way to the Virgin Islands.
If you have never been on a cruise before there are a few basics you should know.
Room - Most cruise rooms are rather small as it is not intended to be where you spend much of your time. Although with our balcony and the mayhem of people on the top decks trying to sunbathe we spent a good portion of our time in our room.
Food – There will be a near unlimited amount of food accessible at almost all hours of the day or night. A buffet of some type will offer alternatives to more formal dining and room service can usually be ordered 24 hours a day. More and more cruises are moving away from the conventional dining rooms and switching to “restaurants” you can go to.
While most food is included some things may be extra. Drinks other than coffee, juice water, and milk will cost you. Also our cruise offered two alternative dining restaurants that offered more specialty food for a fee.
The food on our cruise was not bad. It was a good mix of things but I was never blown away by anything. It is fun to try new things and good to have a hearty breakfast each morning.
Also note that seating is assigned and you may be seated with other people unless your group is big enough to fill a table. There are often dress codes for each evening with some being quite fancy for the more elegant dinners. Some ships are stricter about this than others but it’s a good idea to pack some dress clothes.
Entertainment – The ship will offer a variety of things to do especially for days at sea, everything from movies on a jumbotron to dance lessons and bingo. Every evening there was a formal show. Most cruises do a magician or comedian but since ours was an Italian cruise the variety of languages made for more of a visual show than speaking. They were a little weird for my tastes but the acrobats and knife throwing guy were pretty entertaining.
Ports – Unless it’s some sort of weird water lovers cruise the boat is going to stop at some touristy ports throughout the week. You can do anything from shop to sightsee or just lay on a beach. Most cruise companies will offer excursions. While they tend to be on the spendy side they are also pretty reliable and run in time with the ships time at the port. If you book one separately from the ships or just from someone when you get off the boat you need to be sure it will be done in time to get back on the boat.
We decided to just explore on our own. That meant a lot of walking and bus and taxi trips but still had a lot of fun and at a fraction of the cost most people spent.
St Thomas
The Virgin Islands are known for their beaches and if you go make sure you spend time at the beach. We were not impressed with St Thomas shopping or buildings but their beaches were beautiful. Tip – while the most famous beaches are usually the nicest they are also the most crowded. Considering that we decided to go to a lesser known beach on the close side of the island. It was still very pretty and we had the beach nearly all to ourselves all day!
Ps there is a bus sort of service that runs along the main stretch of the front of the island that is only $1 a person.
St Martin
This port was far cleaner looking and the shopping area actually seemed nice. They also had several nice beaches not too far from the port. Our real goal of the day was to see the planes landing over Maho beach. It is a famous spot to see planes because the runway is right next to the beach and the planes come in just over your head.
Taxi rides and tours were all quite expensive but we figured it’s next to the airport so a bus must go there. We were directed by a local who was very friendly where to wait for a bus and got a ride over to the beach for only $2 a person. Despite it being such a small island the traffic was pretty crazy and it took nearly 45 minutes to get to the beach.
The beach was busy but did not disappoint. The planes landing right over head was quite an experience and as an added bonus the waves were very big which I took advantage of for some serious body surfing! All in all St Martin was my favorite port of call.
Nassau, Bahamas
After another day at sea with some rough waters that actually canceled the evenings show we arrived the next morning in Nassau. While the area looked pretty from the boat most of the close beaches were not very good. We walked a good ways to Paradise Island just on the other side of our port. The beach there was nice but was very busy. The waves were ok but the water was cold and so was the air. The day was very cloudy and windy and just wasn’t that warm. We didn’t say long and went back to the boat.
The next morning our ship arrived back at port and we had to be out of our room by 7:30 AM which was kind of a buzz kill after week of sleeping in and relaxing. We got breakfast and disembarked and went to our car rental company.
Our flight didn’t go out until later that evening so we got the rental car are spent some more time by the beach. We drove around through some very rich areas with gigantic houses. It was a relaxing afternoon and we even stopped at this really good burger joint called
cheeburger cheeburger before we went back to the airport.
The trip was a welcome relief from the brutal winter we’ve had in the Twin Cities.
Some good sites to check for finding great deals
Travelzoo.com – some of the best deals you will ever see for all types of vacations
Cruise.com
Vacationstogo.com
Lastminutetravel.com –cheap hotels
Orbitz.com – great way to check and compare airline tickets
We arrived just in time for our reservation and we were quickly seated at a nice high top table. The rich dark wood and the strangely familiar low lighting provided a pleasant atmosphere. I noted that the small scarf-like fabric hanging around each light was very similar to a place we had been to called Al Vento. They too had a date night meal, 3 courses for $20. When I asked our waiter about the lights and Al Vento he confirmed that they share ownership and that the owner’s mother had made all the light covers.
We arrived just in time for our reservation and we were quickly seated at a nice high top table. The rich dark wood and the strangely familiar low lighting provided a pleasant atmosphere. I noted that the small scarf-like fabric hanging around each light was very similar to a place we had been to called Al Vento. They too had a date night meal, 3 courses for $20. When I asked our waiter about the lights and Al Vento he confirmed that they share ownership and that the owner’s mother had made all the light covers.
When it was finally time to order Katie and I both ordered the bruschetta. It had duck on it and was very good! Next I got a Caesar salad which was pretty basic but still very good, which is saying something because I’m not huge into salads. Katie got an arugula salad with blood red oranges. It looked weird to me but Katie liked it.
