The last time I was on holiday with my daughter Kay was 30 years ago when she was a teenager – the less said about that the better. French boys and a bottle of Pastis were involved.
Holidays changed when Kay and her sisters flew the nest and I started to enjoy leisurely breaks with my husband Ian, with no fighting in the back of the car. We got hooked on cruises and did Transatlantic crossings, Norway, the Baltic – the memories that keep you going.
When I lost Ian after 47 years of marriage, I didn’t think I’d go on a cruise again. Holidays on your own in your 70s are a whole new ball game and can test your emotions. So when Kay called and suggested a week’s Mediterranean cruise with MSC Cruises, I whooped with delight. We’d be stopping at Majorca, Barcelona, Cannes, Genoa and La Spezia then back to Rome to fly home. Life is very busy for her and we live hours away, so we don’t see each other as much as we’d like. I just hoped we wouldn’t end up throttling each other.
I’d never sailed with MSC Cruises before and first impressions seeing Seaview in Rome were ‘wow, it’s a big one’. Our balcony cabin was on deck 11, just a hop, skip and a jump away from a glass lift, where you could see out to the stern.
This was always Ian’s favourite location, watching the wake and the sun set and the coast slip away. My favourite location on Seaview was the champagne bar, where Kay and I caught up on a year’s worth of news while looking out on calm waters. It was my idea of ultimate luxury and the most relaxed I’ve ever felt.
It was Kay’s first cruise so I’d talked her through the basics, with the different themed evenings to expect. I’d packed a lot more clothes than her but three days in, we’d both completely lost track of our knickers. I also learned not to mention it when Kay put an outfit on that was not quite right.
Finding your way around Seaview was initially bewildering but we quickly cracked the route to the two buffet restaurants for breakfast. Big shock: no English breakfast teabags to hand… but attentive staff came to the rescue. I was missing the nectar of the gods because there were no tea-and-coffee-making facilities in our cabin, but the mini bar was put to good use.
Buffet dining is convenient, if not the most relaxed experience, but the choice was superb. Still, breakfast in the main dining room, Golden Sands, felt far more civilised, where you place your order (English breakfast tea!), and the speciality restaurants were the bees’ knees too. Kay and I are both starved of that experience – eating with another grown-up.
My daughter has a reputation for hanging her clothes up on the floor and an annoying habit of leaving cupboards and drawers open and saying things like: “Have you seen my so-and-so? Have you moved this?” and I was told: “Will you stop tidying, Mother” countless times as she tried to hurry me out of our cabin to disembark each day, claiming it was quicker getting my grandchildren out the front door.
I try to be organised, which you need when you’re sharing a smaller space, while Kay has her own ways. But I was impressed with the space in our cabin – the shower was terrific and the balcony the perfect spot for a G&T.
Kay to this day denies she snores, but I still managed to sleep well. I tended to go to bed earlier, leaving her to Seaview’s late-night parties. One night she quietly stumbled in and the next morning I found toothpaste all over the bathroom floor and a piece of lemon and her cruise card in the sink. Some things never change. That was the same night I tripped over her charger cable on the way to the toilet, then reset my travel alarm clock to the wrong time, so we were accidentally wide awake at 5am.
Seaview’s decor was amazing and very subtle. I’m not a big fan of steps, but the sparkling Swarovski crystal ones in the atrium were something else, where we listened to live music. But it was lovely simply lounging on the sun deck, talking about holidays with her dad, and planning our next snack. She went off at one point to do Seaview’s 425ft zip line – I thought she was incredibly brave and turned down the offer to join her.
Cruise ships have come a long way and I was fascinated by the technology on board, with the smart lifts, MSC app and QR codes to access menus but I’m glad Kay was there to assist me. I worried we might get on each other’s pip but we had lots of laughs, which are so good for the soul. Instead of being mindful of her children’s needs, she was mindful of mine.
We met some very interesting people, and it was far more cosmopolitan than the other lines I’ve used – you only had to hear all the languages over the Tannoy – and I chatted to everyone from Spanish schoolgirls to Japanese couples and handsome Spanish guys. I played my own secret game in the lifts, trying to guess the nationalities. I have so much respect for the multilingual staff. Our waitress, Shilpa, who was starting an eight-month run onboard, was delightful. Kay was mortified when I told another waiter he had lovely hair that looked like crispy seaweed.
The animal-themed theatre show we caught onboard was also a hoot, with the best juggler I’ve ever seen, but I wish we’d booked the earlier show as I was wilting a bit due to all the walking. We did an awful lot of that. Portofino in Italy was my favourite port of call – it was crackingly good, sitting on a sea wall and watching silver fish swimming while eating dollops of lemon and coffee ice cream with my grown-up daughter. You could imagine the celebrities visiting here (Tom Hanks and Michelle Obama are fans) and I was swept away by the Alexander McQueen and Rolex shops.
Majorca’s shops were more in our price range, where I loved trying on silly sunglasses with Kay and bought a red fedora, which still has chocolate ice cream on it after a cone melted quickly in Cannes. It somehow found its way on to my bag, top and trainers and Kay’s hat and rucksack too. Paddling in the sea in Cannes had to be done, although I nearly went my length in the sinky sand. I admit, we tended to be at the back of the excursions – at 76, I was the oldest person on ours. Kay would have preferred to do her faster “London walk” but slowed down for her poor old mother.
It felt like we packed a month’s worth of things into a single week. I’d do it again in a heartbeat and I know Kay’s dad would have been smiling down on us. The cruise was like a fizzing glass of champagne, with lots of bubbles… and each bubble was a new experience. But my favourite bubble was spending quality time with my daughter.
Book the Holiday
A seven-night MSC Cruises cruise from Rome visiting: Palma de Mallorca (Baleari Is), Spain; Barcelona, Spain; Cannes (Côte d’Azur), France; Genoa (Portofino), Italy; La Spezia (Cinque Terre), Italy costs from £1,399.
Visit msccruises.co.uk