So, we’re back off a cruise that ticked off a lot of firsts for us.

• First time on Caribbean Princess, the only remaining Grand-class ship in the Princess fleet with the Skywalkers nightclub accessed via travelator.
• First time visiting Sardinia, Málaga, Casablanca, and Madeira for us.
• First time visiting Africa at all for my wife.
• First Trans-Atlantic crossing.

The cruise itself could be broadly split into two parts: the part where we visited ports, then the part where we cruised across the Atlantic.

Civitavecchia, Italy

We’ve cruised into and out of Civitavecchia before but on those occasions both were accompanied by organised transfers to and from the airport with the cruise line. This time we did it ourselves, flying into the airport on the morning of the cruise, then making it super-quickly through airport immigration and baggage retrieval, then heading outside to where there was a line of fixed-price taxis to the port (€130 at the time of writing this). However, we were approached by a man who asked us where we wanted to go then led us back into the airport to enter some details before telling us it was €160 in cash to go with him instead. This sounds ominous but it was an option to travel in a larger, more luxurious car and to get driven to the ship in the port rather than outside it with the taxis where we’d need to walk in or take a port shuttle bus the rest of the way. We opted to go for this marginally more expensive option and, given the distance we’d have had to cover by bus or on foot afterwards, we were glad of it. The less said about the terrifying driving, though, the better. We’d seen these limo pick-ups and ship-side drop-offs advertised online at far higher than the additional €30 we paid (some at twice the taxi price, for instance) so the deal was decent, to us.

Boarding Caribbean Princess in Civitavecchia was utterly chaotic because we’d unfortunately arrived at the same time as pretty much everyone. Long snaking queues to check in turned into a rammed, uncontrollable crowd (Americans don’t like to miss their lunch) all waiting for their boarding ticket number to be called in order to try to squeeze through an unyielding mass and into the next snaking queue through security. However, our Elite status did allow us to bypass most of the crowd and jump the ticket-calling sequence so it was only moderately hellish for us. A small matter, though.

Sardinia, Italy

With this cruise finishing outside the EU we bizarrely had to go through immigration as we disembarked on a tour at Sardinia just one day after doing it in Rome in order to mark us as leaving the EU (in the hands of the cruise line), even though we’d still be visiting four more ports inside the EU afterwards. The oddities of countries and their border controls. All very quickly done, though.

In Sardinia we took a trip to the middle of the Italian island and a visit to a Bronze Age settlement that’s difficult to describe, but utterly fabulous. A nuraghe comprises a central tower of basalt blocks, with additional towers and chambers around it, all of it constructed in a manner that reminded us of a termite nest. Something organic. Something decidedly awkward to clamber through, that’s for sure. Picture the tower and chambers and walls and corridors of rooms outside all in dark stone blocks, then picture a single route into the tower halfway-up, that then ascends over the top then down into the central section, all through very narrow, very dark passages with very uneven steps (some barely enough to fit a foot on sideways, some with drops as deep as your knee) and areas you have to duck under or lean sideways past while also going up or down at the time. Add two cruise tour groups and several independent groups into the mix and the fact that it’s single column with no passing point anywhere. Wonderful congestion and chaos. A great claustrophobic journey that saw us trapped in the central tower for ages waiting for others to leave and then others to arrive, and saw us late back to the ship. Loved it.

Málaga, Spain

We’d done a bit of research about places we’d like to visit in Málaga that I thought my wife would be able to make on foot despite her history of dodgy knees and hips and ankles. We’d ruled out any tours because they all headed so far inland that they ate up all the time on the bus, but we’d seen a Moorish structure and some Roman ruins and a cathedral and a great-looking brewery that seemed to tick all our boxes.

What we couldn’t research ahead of time, however, was the weather. We knew a few days ahead that it would be rainy and that there were weather warnings in place. We knew we’d still go ashore and get wet. We were about to do just that, standing a few metres from the gangway in a small queue of people thinking the same thought as us when the captain announced nobody else was leaving. All the shops ashore were closed so the people who did get out got wet but nothing else. We’d have been okay doing the same, we thought, until that weather really started to show up. Lightning, thunder, rain, and even huge hail stones pelting down around the top deck. And the rain: it was torrential. Our balcony drain couldn’t cope and was shooting a fountain of overflowing water back up a dozen centimetres into the air.

Casablanca, Morocco

We took a ten-hour tour here that first saw us driven up to the capital, Rabat. Eventually. Casablanca traffic is on another level. Traffic lights appear to be a suggestion. The horn is king. It was chaos that at one point saw us snarled up so bad that someone from one car ran across the road to start directing the idiots who refused to drive sensibly in order to free up the jam.

Rabat was very pretty. Very clean, lots of interesting buildings. We went straight to lunch in a twelfth century riad (traditional Moroccan courtyard house) and the lunch was fabulous, and huge. A salad course followed by tagine followed by couscous followed by fruit and mint tea and cookies, with each course a meal in its own right.

From there we visited the kasbah, the twelfth century citadel with gorgeous garden area and lovely views out across the water. We then visited a mausoleum before returning to Casablanca.

In Casablanca we were given a driven highlights tour through a bit more of that terrible traffic (not as bad as the morning, though), and had photo stops of the shoreline mosque plus a stop for some shopping.

We thoroughly enjoyed this port and already know what we’d do if we visited again.

Funchal, Madeira

At the second time of trying we made it to Madeira for the first time. I’d already rejected the excursions as being too expensive (Princess prices compared to those we’d seen years before with P&O were unjustifiably high) and not too interesting. Our plan was to instead see what we could get ashore. But the weather had other ideas. The day started with rain that literally put a damper on any more out-there ideas so we walked (with occasional stops to shelter) to the cable car and rode that to the top of the mountain, took some photos, considered the botanical gardens but realised the weather would be an issue here too, then headed back down.

We had a bit more of a wander in the city and saw some lovely street art decorating the doors in an old area, visited the cathedral that my wife thought was one of the most hideous churches she’d ever seen, then spent some time in the brightening conditions at a brewery, wishing that the sunshine we were now being treated to had been there earlier in the day. The beer was locally-made, which was good, but it wasn’t very good, which, er, wasn’t very good. The point is to experience it, though, because taste is subjective.

Tenerife

The only port we’d been to before was Santa Cruz de Tenerife, although when we’d visited previously we’d headed off on a tour to the middle of the island and seen nothing of the capital. This time we walked.

We’d arrived on a day when an 8K, a 21K, and a full marathon were all taking place along the waterfront so it was filled with people jogging and running and many roads were closed. I don’t know how this affected bus tours but for us this was lovely to be immersed in and to not have to try to remember which way to look when crossing roads.

We walked past the auditorium and a small castle – both providing loads of opportunities for great photos – and made our way to the Palmetum gardens. Having glorious weather helped a lot, but the location also made this so memorable. Beautiful botanical gardens arranged around global geographical zones on a hill (though an easy one even for us to get up and around thanks to the gentle paths) with views out to sea or back across the city or to the oil refinery just made this a dream for photography. By some way, Palmetum is my most favourite botanical garden I’ve ever visited.

We then walked to the carnival museum which was free to enter and had a lot of nice costumes and history of the event on the island that’s worth learning. Not the biggest place, but worth a nose.

We finished our limited time on Tenerife in a craft ale bar selling beers made on the island or part of the Canaries as a whole. As this was a Sunday they were only open for a few hours and we were there for almost all of them. This place was great, had great beer, and we even chatted with one of the locals about the beers. Had to buy glasses as souvenirs and I’m happy to report that they made it back home intact.

Trans-Atlantic Cruise

There’s not a lot to say about the next eight days spent at sea. There was the sea to see and the sun to soak up on our balcony (with plenty of Factor 50 on, of course). There was trivia to occasionally take part in (we often forgot while just reading on our balcony) and drinks to order to the room and food to try in various dining rooms and restaurants. Most nights were spent in the nightclub and we were pleased to meet up with some crew we’d cruised with previously here. We swam when we could in the adults-only pool but that was only a few times as the ship only needs the slightest of rolls to it before they empty it and net it off for safety reasons. Bloody spoilsports. We made friends, and I even made an enemy. We don’t really do any entertainment things generally – the shows, the comedians, talks, etc. – but typically hear most of the artists in most lounges at some point. The musical talent wasn’t to our taste, he says diplomatically. Plenty of people enjoyed the acts, though.

The most noticeable and surprising aspect which shouldn’t have been surprising at all was the complete absence of birds for a week. A distant view of a ship on one day was the only thing above the horizon that wasn’t blue sky or small, puffy clouds. Lots of flying fish were spotted, however, and they’re always fun to watch soaring over the waves and making sharp turns in the air. But that lack of birds was disconcerting once I’d become aware of it; like something wrong with the world.

We had some nice thunderstorms at night on a few of the early days; the sort with sheet lightning illuminating the clouds from behind in rolling patterns across the sky, but with no rain and no sound of thunder either. Otherwise the stars were our friends in the darkness, and we loved just sitting out in the gentle warmth of night on the balcony after the nightclub with a final drink to hand, listening to the waves, and staring at the distant points of light. Our idea of relaxation perfected.

Was eight days at sea too much? It’s right on the threshold for me. I did enjoy the relaxation aspect but I was missing some port stops by the end. And they’d run out of bananas towards the climax of the cruise with no way to restock so my wife wasn’t pleased with her Dirty Banana cocktail being removed as an option. I don’t know that I’d be too keen to take a cruise with more sea days than that. I’d still do it, of course, because it’s a cruise.

Fort Lauderdale, USA

With a flight after 17:00 we were able to book a debark tour that would then drop us at Miami airport and this turned out to be a lovely boat ride along Fort Lauderdale’s waterways with mansions of the rich and famous pointed out to us. Getting off the ship in the first place was more nightmarish than trying to embark although this was the result of the facial recognition systems in the port crashing meaning checks of all passengers and crew had to be made manually. The boat ride on the “Carrie B”, however, was very enjoyable and a great way to finish off our cruise.

Miami Airport’s immigration and customs was not a great deal better than Fort Lauderdale’s cruise port’s. Everyone directed to long queues only to then be told that it would be faster if we joined a queue we’d been told not to join then instead, then too few scanners and not enough space to put your shoes back on after taking them off for the fetishists who insist on these things. Irritatingly poorly-organised.

Caribbean Princess Cruise Ship

Caribbean Princess had just completed a dry dock before we boarded so she’d had a fresh coat of paint outside, some engineering upgrades done, and a refresh of some equipment in public areas. We didn’t see any evidence of refreshing in the cabin, though – some old stains on the carpet, the bed’s mattress on its last legs, for example – but the balcony had taken a hit because of that exterior work. There was paint splatter and rust chips over the seating and balcony area for us and, we could see, everyone else around, and this didn’t seem to be on the agenda for cleaning. I’m not blaming the room stewards; they have enough to be getting on with without having to wash down the large balconies too. But it should have had at least one clean before we boarded.

The casino on deck 7 rather than lower as we’re used to on other ships of this class meant our usual process of leaving the room, walking down a few flights, then passing through deck 7 to see which lounge would entice us (i.e. which one had spare seats) involved having to walk through the only interior space where smoking is still allowed. How lovely. Not too bad because the number of smokers seemed quite low, thankfully, but still unpleasant enough. Interestingly, there was no bar in the casino. I think that’s a recent change from talking to a bar steward we knew from a previous ship.

Otherwise, if you’ve cruised on a Grand-class ship with Princess Cruises before then everything was as you’d expect. Food was the usual mix of very good, okay, and occasionally not great. We ate at both speciality restaurants – Crown Grill and Sabatini’s – and used our Princess Plus package perks to dine in both Steamers Seafood and Planks BBQ sections of the marketplace buffet area. The food in all those places was great, but the portion sizes, especially in those last two, were enormous. It’s physically impossible to eat everything you’re given without rupturing something. For us this detracts slightly from the experience because you’re either leaving a lot of food to go to waste or you’re leaving the table feeling uncomfortable, and actually, you’re likely doing both. Outstanding quality food, though.

We had just one issue with the OceanNow service to order drinks with those simply not arriving and then an hour and a half later letting us know they’d been delivered to the venue we were no longer in. We had several issues with food orders being wrong. These would be the afternoon snacks on our balcony we’d have if we couldn’t be bothered leaving the room and heading somewhere – a sandwich, a side of crisps, and a drink – and you wouldn’t think you could get much wrong there but we had the wrong sides often, the wrong condiments a couple of times, and the wrong sandwich once. Minor annoyances that show a lack of concentration on the part of those preparing the orders. Also, the bread for sandwiches is so stale. It’s impressively poor quality for a premium cruise line.

Princess Cruises

Communication remains a big problem for Princess Cruises, and I know I could probably swap the cruise line out there for any large company, but if you’re in the service industry and relying on customers being happy to make your company successful then a little bit of information can turn that irritation into understanding and stop it becoming the sort of anger that ends up with people ranting on social media. That disembarkation chaos was only mentioned to us by a port worker after we’d been queueing for an hour. There were a lot of grumpy people trying to get off Caribbean Princess – some with flights they’d be worried about – who’d at least known it wasn’t the fault of Princess Cruises if they’d been told. Communication issues were largely at fault for some of the Elite-related problems we found aboard, too.

We’d assumed the Elite Lounge had been discontinued as a cost-cutting measure as there was no mention of it anywhere, and that’s what I duly reported online. That wasn’t true; Princess simply didn’t let us know it was still taking place and relied instead on us being at the other end of the ship to notice it ourselves, which we only did with two days left of the cruise. Similarly for the complimentary wine-tasting we should have received: nothing in the cabin to tell us when it was so we could plan for it. The Captain’s Circle event was frankly embarrassing and by far the worst of its kind we’ve ever been to. It’s labelled as a celebration and event to thank us for our loyalty. They usually follow this format: pass by the officers, maybe shake a hand or two, get a seat, have some drinks, have some nibbles, have some more drinks, hear the speeches from the cruise director and the loyalty manager and maybe someone else before the captain says something abut the ship and cruise line plans, get offered more drinks and nibbles, see who’s cruised the most and get jealous, watch the draws for free champagne, photos with the captain if you want, some more drinks while the band play. We’re on a drinks package and the free drinks aren’t great, but it’s definitely an event. This one was: pass by the officers, get a seat, get a drink, get a nibble, hear one short talk from a manager explaining what the loyalty levels are (we were all Platinum or Elite there so, yeah, we know this already) and some stats for numbers of guests of each type, a very brief thank you from the captain, the draws for the champagne, and that’s it. We were expected to leave barely fifteen minutes after it had started, which was only about twice as long as we’d queued to get in. We didn’t see another waiter after the only drink and nibble. It was a complete waste of everyone’s time and it could have been better rendered as a thank you paragraph with stats in the daily Princess Patter rather than all the effort taken and sense of deflation we felt afterwards.

The continuing big issue and degradation of service as a whole with Princess Cruises comes from the number of staff present. I know that anybody who’s cruised a lot with any line can likely say the same thing, but cruising really is not as good as it used to be. There was a pandemic several years ago that we could all point at and say things like “Well, they took a hit there and it’s understandable that they need to claw back some losses and we can accept that maybe some things have changed” for a while, but the cruise lines are now doing well once more – best years ever, in some cases – and far from gradually returning to the good levels of staffing and training and management processes they’re clearly seeing the numbers right now and thinking “Yeah, people are prepared to pay more for less – especially newer cruisers who don’t know how it used to be – which means we can probably reduce options even further and probably make more things an additional charge and probably reduce quality a little bit too even as we reduce quantity in places, and won’t the shareholders just love us for making those decisions!?”

A lot of the shareholders don’t actually like those decisions but they’re useful hypocrites to big companies because they like the extra on-board credit they get for holding stock so there’s not a single one of them that would offer to give up that perk in return for lower dividends and extra staff on ships. Those extra staff might be used by other people, after all, and capitalism abhors selflessness. So, Princess Cruises, like a lot of other lines, are slowly taking away all those things that made them special and melding into one big, unremarkable cruise line.

You used to be able to go to a lounge or bar and someone would spot this and come across very soon after and take your order and you’d get a drink, and that was nice and made you feel special. Almost everywhere on Caribbean Princess our only chance of getting a drink was to go to the bar because roving staff in bars across the ship in total was probably down to about five, and most of the time they were tasked with delivering drinks placed at the bar or with clearing empty glasses away. It was so very, very poor compared to older cruises, and the utter chaos of having a full wine bar one day with one person clearing, taking orders, taking the glasses to be cleaned, and trying to remember orders in his head to place afterwards for the single barman to make because using the tech at the table would slow him down too much ended up seeing us charged for loads of drinks that weren’t ours, using up all our drinks allowance for the day, and seeing me having to visit customer services to get them all removed. That’s a management issue and a company issue at large and we don’t blame the staff there at all. It’s also a more-and-more common complaint.

Then there’s the horrible news that Princess Cruises dumped on all their entertainments staff fleet-wide halfway through our cruise. Effectively, they were all subjected to a fire-and-rehire because, again, someone higher up the chain looking at their great yearly figures and overall sense that passengers must be happy in general to keep booking cruises in the numbers they have, thought “Well, I can see where we can squeeze a few more dollars out of every cruise now so that’s my bonus sorted and fuck everyone.” The result: assistant cruise directors gone, entertainments director gone, junior and senior positions gone, a lot of layers within the entertainments hierarchy gone, and now pretty much just one joint entertainments and cruise director with everyone below that level at the same easily-replaceable staff level.

Combine that treatment of the loyal guests we experienced with that treatment of the entertainments staff that now offers no real incentive to be better than the single grade available and doesn’t encourage any personalities to shine for promotion and you just get a money-making machine. Replaceable passengers (and more and more them crammed into larger ships with fewer spaces to accommodate them) and replaceable staff (and fewer and fewer of them because not enough people who matter are noticing the service dropping yet).

Which isn’t to say that cruising isn’t still wonderful and that we overall had an incredibly enjoyable time filled with relaxation and sea views and great interactions aboard. But for newer cruisers, just remember that however good you think cruising is now, trust me when I say that it’ll never be this good again. We’ll cruise with Princess Cruises again, and we’ll recommend them to the sort of people we think might appreciate their admittedly less-distinguishable and less-distinguished product, and we’ll probably do it for years to come with subsequent write-ups about how it’s all getting even worse while still having a fabulous cruise. I’m a human (as far as you know) and I’m getting older, and moaning about how things used to be better is a right that I intend to keep exercising. I take a lot of photos and keep the blogs going because I simply want evidence to support my rants, and at no point do I expect anything to change for the better because I’m not completely crazy.

Anyway…

Told you it’d be a quick summary and that you wouldn’t agree with it.

The usual blah-blah-blah about full write-ups and photos of the cruise being along in the dim and distant future when I get around to it to finish off this update, and now we’ve just got to get through the horrifying wait of almost four months until we cruise again, but we’re looking forward to a new cruise line for us and a load of new ports on that one so that should be good.

The Thistle is a good option for flights out of terminals 2, 3, or 5, with just a few minutes driving to get to the airport car park from it, and we’ve used the hotel a few times now. We arrived, parked, and checked in for the evening, and for fans of pictures of hotel rooms here’s something just for you.

With a very early flight ahead of us we decided to eat in the hotel and have a reasonably early night rather than head out to a pub. The food was decent enough and we were talked into having dessert too. We then had one drink in the bar before heading back to our room.

I had a window seat for our short flight to Rome Fiumicino airport the following morning and not only did that mean I could take photos of the European landscape below us but as we passed Civitavecchia I could also see our ship in port.

When we booked this transatlantic cruise we wanted to add on a transfer from the airport to the port at the same time but Princess Cruises weren’t offering this unless you flew in a few days early and stayed in a hotel in Rome. That wasn’t possible for us but we knew it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a taxi outside the airport. As we stepped outside we were met by someone offering a limo ride for not much more than we’d been told the taxis were and he mentioned that he had a pass that would allow him to take us into the cruise port and to the ship while the taxis needed to drop people outside to take a shuttle bus inside. We weren’t entirely sure we weren’t about to be scammed but took a risk and yes, as good as his word, the driver got us to the port, inside, and dropped beside the terminal, needing to show a pass a couple of times at gates. That ride from the airport to the cruise port, however, was one of the most terrifying rides we’ve had as our driver spent most of the time on his phone or trying to get his sat-nav working and the car drifted between lanes on a number of occasions. We survived.

We stepped into the cruise terminal at Civitavecchia to a scene of utter chaos as seemingly every person had decided to try to embark at the same time. There was some attempt to hand out numbered cards to board people in groups but it was hard to make out who was being called so everyone just started gathering near the embarkation point. We couldn’t work out where the numbered cards were so decided to see whether our Elite status medallions would allow us to jump the queue. This angered one woman who saw we didn’t have any cards to hand and loudly claimed that we shouldn’t be there but at the same time a member of the local port staff glanced at our medallions then turned to her colleague and told her that we needed to be let through. Loyalty perks!

As we’d be spending the second half of this cruise crossing the Atlantic north of the equator we decided to book a cabin on the port side so that we could enjoy sunshine for the trip. We usually favour the starboard side for reasons of familiarity. Naturally, with Caribbean Princess being a Grand-class vessel we also booked our cabin on deck 10 as it has a half-covered, double-sized balcony.

First drinks aboard were a 24K Margarita for me and a Dirty Banana for my wife, taken on the top deck in the sunshine. When it got a little too warm for us – our sun block was in our main luggage which hadn’t reached our room at this point – we then hit Vines to check out the wine offerings aboard.

Prior to this cruise I’d joined a Facebook group for it – groups like this are the only reason I maintain a Facebook account at all as they can include useful information for travel – and there was a meet-up for the first evening by the aft pool under the Skywalkers extension so we went along to be social. The ship still hadn’t left the port as it only had a short distance to sail for the first stop on this itinerary. We spoke to one of the officers in attendance at one point and chatted to a couple of other passengers before finding ourselves talking with a Romanian woman cruising solo. She latched onto us as we were also European and it transpired that her fiancé worked on the ship so this was a way for her to cruise and spend time with him. We ended up inviting her to join us for dinner and we’d end up seeing and speaking to her throughout the cruise.

We hit Skywalkers for a bit at the end of the day, mostly to ride the travelator up to it as it had been years since we’d been on a ship with this configuration and Caribbean Princess was now the only ship in the fleet you could still do this on, but it had been a long day for us so we didn’t stay as late as we could have.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess transatlantic cruise series we’ll be visiting the island of Sardinia for the first time and heading off on an excursion to see the Bronze Age settlement of Su Nuraxi at Barumini.

Italy’s island of Sardinia was somewhere new for us and Cagliari looked like a very interesting port city to explore but we’d seen a cruise excursion we liked the look of and we will often take tours on the first visit to a new place simply because we don’t know if we’re ever going to return by ship, and if we do then this gives us a good opportunity to get a feel for where the ships are in relation to all the things we might like to see.

You don’t have to take a photo of your cruise ship in port but most people do.

The culture or civilisation that emerged on the island of Sardinia during the Bronze Age didn’t leave any written records of their existence but many thousands of the structures they built can be found. These structures are called nuraghe, truncated cones of boulders with one or more large inner, circular spaces and a narrow means of access. The culture that built these and the stone villages that grew up around these defensible fortress-like structures are known as the Nuragic people as a result.

Our tour took us north from Cagliari to Barumini and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Su Nuraxi. The central nuraghe was built first, sometime in the middle of the second millenium B.C.E., while the village around it sprung up later in the Bronze Age and included features such as a sewerage system. The individual buildings were stone, generally circular, and topped with conical roofs of wood originally.

We had a bit of time to kill upon our arrival at Su Nuraxi as there were other tourists visiting it and guides on the site were restricting the number of people on and in the structure because of its size and the single way in or out. Some people listened to explanations of the various ruins of low buildings in the village around the nuraghe and some, like myself, wandered around to take photos.

Eventually, a group ahead of us came back out and we were told we could proceed. To start with we ascended to the top of the nuraghe from the outside which afforded us some lovely views of the Sardinian landscape as well as a better overall picture of the circular forms of the walls of the ancient village that surrounded us.

From the uppermost point on the outside we could look down into the main tower where another group of visitors were waiting for us to enter so that they could then leave.

The visit to Su Nuraxi is not a tour for those with mobility issues, and you’ll need to be pretty flexible too. The descent into the tower was down a very narrow, sloping, twisting, and uneven corridor and steps. We frequently had to turn sideways on as shoulders would hit jagged rocks and there was one point that almost involved the sort of contortions usually associated with a game of Twister in order to duck under a low overhang above a right angle turn down a drop.

Once we’d all arrived at the bottom of the tower we had a chance to look around the dark chambers off it, although the darkness made photographing a rather pointless affair. Small rooms with stone walls. The group that had been waiting for us left and as we had some more information about the site shared with us by our guide it briefly started to rain. There were some quips about the tower filling up and us all floating to the surface instead of heading back the way we came.

We actually had to hang around for a lot longer than we’d expected as the site guides then gave the okay for another group to enter so we had to wait until they’d all made the tricky descent to our position. There wasn’t a whole lot to see or do during this period as the internal parts of the nuraghe weren’t very expansive but if you’re going to get trapped somewhere for a while then you could do a lot worse than have that happen in a place several thousand years old.

We retraced our route and did all the bending, ducking, twisting, and shuffling again but in reverse.

We had ten minutes or so to look at a few more of the village buildings while our guide made sure we’d all made it out of the nuraghe, and then it was time to leave.

We love visiting historical and archaeological sites of ancient cultures, and we’re also happy when we head off on a tour that’s maybe less popular with other cruisers as there’s something to be said for being different, so in that respect this was a great excursion for us. There were a few periods when we were generally hanging around and waiting given the understandable restrictions around access, but if you’re prepared for that then it’s a trip worth doing.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess Transatlantic Cruise series we’ll hit a photo stop on the way back for our sail away from Cagliari.

Our bus had stopped within a few dozen metres of a sculpture, and I’m fond of photographing sculptures. This was St Francis of Assisi, sculpted by Andrea Martini.

The city of Cagliari is somewhere we’d like to explore should we make a return trip to Sardinia in the future. From the viewpoint I was quite taken with the architecture of the Church of Saints George and Catherine (you can see it just beyond the trees towards the left of shot below). The original late sixteenth century church was destroyed by bombing during World War II and the new structure was consecrated in the 1960s. Its design features eight tall parabolic faces, alternately filled with colourful walls and windows.

When we arrived back at the port we were greeted by a long queue to board. Given that we’d also had problems boarding on embarkation day we began to wonder if the entire cruise was going to be blighted by this issue.

The Sardinian weather for the day had been warm, often bright, but prone to sudden, short bursts of rain and that continued to be the case for the remaining hour or so before Caribbean Princess confirmed she had everyone aboard and we could proceed towards the next port of call.

We’d expected a standard evening on the ship of a sail away, then a freshening up and changing into evening clothes ahead of some drinks, some food, then some more drinks but there was one period of surprise before we’d fully left the harbour area of Cagliari as a helicopter started to follow us closely. It didn’t feel like this could be a medical emergency as it would have been very easy to return to port so we initially thought it might have been security-related. However, we eventually learnt from an announcement that the local authorities had requested to be allowed to track us out closely as we left for training purposes only.

I’ll now include menus and food photos from the evening’s main dining room meal as some people enjoy them.

One interesting event took place during our late evening visit to Skywalkers. There were quite a few crew members present on the dance floor to start with and this was because one of them was celebrating a birthday. It was good to see everyone enjoying themselves. That wasn’t the interesting event. We were sat at our table awaiting a waiter to spot us when one did. He walked over then said “Hello, Sir Mark. Hello, Miss Marie. Do you remember me?” This was Benjamin and we absolutely remembered him from our Panama Canal cruise aboard Ruby Princess the year before where he’d been an absolute star. He’d be an absolute star again on this cruise too. In addition to him there were several other crew members from that cruise on Caribbean Princess and it was great to catch up with them all again.

The next post in this transatlantic cruise series will cover two days aboard Caribbean Princess in the Mediterranean. One of those was scheduled. One of those was not.

It was formal night on Caribbean Princess and our views on formal nights is that we’ll take part in one on a cruise but any more than that is more effort than we’re typically prepared to make especially when the cruise lines sometimes barely make any effort to make these occasions special themselves. The cruise line and cruise duration do have an impact here, though, as some lines are more strict while others are more relaxed. Princess are pretty relaxed these days, which we like, and with this being a repositioning, transatlantic cruise there were not many people very dressed up at all but I still brought out my tux, bow tie, EU cufflinks, and fake Rolex for the night. Naturally, if I’m dressed like James Bond – if you squint at my reflection in a distorted mirror stolen from a funfair – then a Vodka Martini is on the cards too.

We will book something other than a balcony cabin if money is an issue or we book late so that availability is an issue or it’s a smaller, older ship with few balcony cabins available, but on a Grand-class ship like Caribbean Princess we’ll always go for a balcony, and with this being a repositioning cruise with a lot of sea days in the second week aboard the pricing was very low. We knew we’d be spending a lot of time on the balcony during those sea days but we also love heading out onto our private space late at night just to enjoy the stars. It’s this reason why we don’t like the newer ships that the likes of Princess or P&O have built – Star and Sun Princess, and Iona and Arvia – as night views are trashed thanks to setting back the balconies from the floodlit promenade deck spaces. The days when cruise lines considered what it is that their passengers might like rather than simply trying to cram as many rooms onto ships as possible is long gone, sadly.

The following day saw Caribbean Princess docked in Málaga, Spain, a place we’d never been to before but one which we’d made some lovely plans for as there were plenty of places of interest to explore. We were looking forward to having some food then setting off early to hit the bull fighting museum, the Roman amphitheatre, maybe the castle, the cathedral, and a great-looking craft ale brewery.

It was raining quite heavily when we pulled open the curtains and stepped onto the balcony. Really quite heavily. The photos don’t do this justice.

There were a few other ships in port and we could see one of the Virgin ships anchored in the very choppy Mediterranean Sea off the coast. We noticed immediately that there didn’t seem to be any tendering operation taking place from it but didn’t think too much on that.

We ate breakfast and then had to stop and take some photos from the top deck as the heavy rain had actually got heavier, coming down almost like hail on the loungers and already forming a small lake on the deck surface.

We headed back to our cabin just to get our coats. Yes, it was heavy rain and yes, we would be getting wet, but you don’t just skip a new place to visit because of the weather.

We headed down to the gangway to get off the ship and joined a short queue of people swiping their cards for security, buttoning everything up, then disembarking. We were just two people from the front of the queue when the captain made an announcement. The local authorities in Málaga were effectively closing down the city as the rain was expected to get even worse with strong risks of flooding. For safety reasons everybody needed to stay aboard so getting off was now suspended. That was that for our day in Spain then. On the one hand we were disappointed that we hadn’t got off the ship but we counted ourselves lucky that we’d not been early enough to get off only to then get drenched and find everything closing down. More on that in a few paragraphs.

Back in our room to drop off our coats as we wouldn’t be going anywhere we could now see how the rain was having an impact on our balcony space with the drainage struggling to cope with the deluge.

We spent the remainder of the day doing many of the same things we’d done on the previous one: reading, eating, drinking, taking part in trivia again.

The weather had cleared somewhat by the time late evening rolled around and we could depart. The ship had needed to stay in port to take on staff and supplies, plus some people had managed to head ashore before that was stopped so they needed to be accounted for. As Caribbean Princess made her way out from Málaga we saw that we’d been docked next to Marella Voyager. We’ve only cruised once with Marella so far, and on another ship, but we very much enjoyed the experience and would like to do so again one day.

Early in the evening we bumped into our new Romanian friend we’d met on the first night on the ship. She introduced us to a Canadian man she’d also met who, like us, had flown into Italy on embarkation day. Unlike us, his luggage hadn’t come with him and hadn’t caught up in Sardinia either so he’d been making do with what he’d been wearing for the flight and a few things he’d bought on the ship since then plus some loans from the cruise line. It turned out he’d got off the ship as early as possible just to buy more clothes, not trusting that his luggage would find him in Spain either. He’d made it into the city only to find nothing open and he’d got soaked to the skin, sometimes sheltering near buildings but mostly finding it impossible to escape the rain. That left him with almost the only set of clothes he had now completely sodden to add insult to injury. His attitude was good, though, and we all had a good laugh about it. We’d check in with him a few times over the next few days and the last we heard was that his luggage still hadn’t arrived by the last port before the transatlantic crossing.

We’d not had the day we’d planned on having but the evening was as intended with a speciality dining experience at Crown Grill. Starters and desserts often change around a bit but for the main course we always go for filet mignon, rare, and Princess never disappoint here.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess cruise series it’s a new port for the pair of us and even a new country and continent for my wife as our ship docks at Casablanca in Morocco where we set off on an excursion to visit Rabat.

This, though, was no movie. We drew back the curtains to our cabin – after we were dressed; you only make that mistake once – to the industrial port of Casablanca.

My wife and I don’t mind an industrial port when we’re cruising, especially if it’s one with brutalist buildings or any loading and unloading activity. Look, we’ve all got interests that other people think are weird. What about you and that thing you do when you think nobody’s looking? Yeah, exactly. We are perfectly happy to sit and watch the cranes move, and listen to that little buzz of commercial enterprise that keeps the world ticking by, content to read a book and glance up at a distant clang and clatter of metal on metal signifying who-knows-what. However, this was a new port for us, and a new country for my wife, and also a new continent for my wife too, and so we had plans away from the hustle and bustle.

The closest my wife had come to Africa before had been views of it from a distance. Once from atop the Rock of Gibraltar, and once a little nearer while cruising through the Suez Canal. I had not only been to Africa before but it had also been Morocco on holiday in the 1980s, but Casablanca itself would be new to me, and even if it hadn’t been then enough decades had passed that it would have felt like it.

We’d booked an excursion through Princess Cruises as we wanted to make the most of our time in Morocco and didn’t want to risk any issues with getting back to the ship as we’d heard that traffic could be problematic. It would be. Our plan for the day would take us to see some highlights of Casablanca but to start with we would be heading north along the coast to Morocco’s capital city where in addition to a tour we’d be having a traditional Moroccan lunch.

First off, we needed to walk through part of the commercial port area of Casablanca to find our tour bus and there was actually a point of interest there for me to photograph. No, not a crane or a truck being filled with grain. I mean, I do have those photos but despite all the evidence to the contrary I do employ some level of editing for this website.

The decrepit hulk of the Marrakech caught our eye as we walked from Caribbean Princess to the port entrance. The ferry was purpose-built in the mid-80s to meet increased demand for a France to Morocco car and passenger service and, when the occasion warranted it, to act as the royal yacht of Morocco. She was built by the French shipyard of Chantiers de l’Atlantique which has also built ships for most of the major cruise lines at some time or other. Despite the apparent small size of her she was capable of carrying over 200 cars and 600 passengers when she operated, which she did up until 2013 when her parent company went into administration. She was sold at auction and moved to Casablanca where clearly some plan was in mind for her but she’s largely rotted in situ since then. This 2011 account about a trip aboard Marrakech from Sete to Tangier is absolutely fascinating for both the experience and the photos of the ferry’s interior spaces which look more 1980s than 21st century.

We found our bus, boarded, and set off for… the traffic of Casablanca. It was gridlock for long periods and at one point we saw one guy get out of a car at a junction then stand in the middle of the road to halt other vehicles largely paying not the slightest bit of attention to lights or road markings until such point as the driver of his car could move. He’d clearly got fed up of waiting for someone to show some consideration and common sense. We at least had the luxury of knowing that our bus was bigger and tougher than the cars around and they eventually moved out of the way enough for us to get to some more open roads.

Things were far more sedate in terms of car numbers by the time we reached Rabat and there was a far cleaner feel to the environment. Our guide had explained that a lot of work had been taking place for the Africa Cup of Nations but Rabat is also just considerably smaller than Casablanca despite being the capital since 1956.

For part of the drive to Rabat we’d been hugging the coastal road, along which there was a small fortress which Morocco neither needed nor wanted but which the French and Germans still squabbled over. This was Fort Rottembourg, after the German engineer who oversaw the late nineteenth and early twentieth century building’s construction, also known as Fort Hervé after an early French casualty in World War I. The fortress served no real purpose and was a persuasion project by the Germans at the time to try to keep a hand in Moroccan affairs while the French were doing similar things elsewhere. The guns were never fired in anger and the fort’s usefulness if it had needed to be utilised is generally considered to be next to nothing. The fort is now the home of Morocco’s National Photography Museum.

We arrived at the medina of Rabat, the historic walled city district, and passed one of the original doors to it.

And then it was time for a short walk through just a small part of the medina to the riad hosting the restaurant that we would be dining at. If you like cats then you’ll like Rabat. If you don’t like cats then you should seek help.

Dar Rbatia was opened as a restaurant in 1989 although the building dates to the eighteenth century. It was lovely inside; compact yet capable of seating nearly two hundred diners even though it only seemed to be hosting our tour group on this day in the main enclosed courtyard area of the ground floor.

The meal in Dar Rbatia comprised several courses and soft drinks and water were provided too, all served centrally to each table for those around to take what they wanted. A salad and rolls was followed by a tagine, then cous-cous, then fruit, and finally mint tea – poured from high because… well, I don’t know – with a cookie to finish it off. It was all delicious.

In the next post in this 2024 transatlantic cruise series our tour continues with a look at some tourist highlights of Rabat.

The remainder of our time in Rabat would be spent hitting a few tourist highlights.

While they weren’t part of what most people might consider highlights, I was particularly taken by some of the doors we passed as we headed out of the Medina to catch our bus.

The appreciation of fancy doors didn’t stop once we reached the first place to look at. This was the Kasbah of the Udayas. A kasbah is a citadel or ancient fortified part of a city, typically found in old North African cities. The large door you see below is known as the Great Gate and while it looks impressive with its large size and intricate decoration the gate was mainly simply that: decorative, serving no real defensive purposes as it was already positioned within the boundary of the kasbah walls.

This kasbah was built in the latter half of the twelfth century but was effectively abandoned by the end of the century too. A new kasbah had begun construction around what is the area of the Medina we’d been in earlier in the day, but this too was abandoned. While some elements were added to the Kasbah of the Udayas over the centuries it wasn’t until French colonial rule in the early twentieth century that restoration was made.

It was also during the French colonial period in Morocco that the Andalusian Gardens were added to the kasbah. As the name suggests, these formal gardens were inspired by Moorish gardens in the Andalusian region of Spain. They were beautiful, and cats seemed to enjoy the place too as saw many around.

After enjoying a slow walk through the gardens and admiring the various plants and trees there we headed through to a viewpoint beside the river Bou Regreg, the source of which lies in the Atlas Mountains. On the other side of the water was the city of Salé.

To the south we could see the Mohammed VI Tower which at two hundred and fifty metres in height is the tallest building in Morocco and the third tallest in all of Africa. We’d be getting a slightly closer look at it when we moved to our next highlight of Rabat.

More artistically-decorated doors and pleasing sandstone architecture met with my approval as we made our way back through the gardens and out of the kasbah to board our bus again.

Our penultimate stop during our time in Morocco’s capital city was at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. A mounted guard of honour was outside the walled entrance to the spacious, former site of a mosque from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Within the walls my eyes were first drawn to the only part of the former mosque still intact in any way, the Hassan Tower. When it was constructed it was intended to be the largest minaret in the world but it was never completed.

The mausoleum was built during the 1960s and completed in 1971. In addition to hosting the tomb of Mohammed V, the tombs of his sons, King Hassan II (who commissioned the mausoleum) and Prince Abdallah, are also located within the structure. The white marble exterior and geometrically-pleasing designs of the multifoil arches on the rectangular mausoleum was fittingly serene.

Stepping into the quiet interior of the mausoleum we were able to complete a circuit of the gallery overlooking the white onyx cenotaph.

The final stop for this highlights tour of Rabat was to the Royal Palace, or, more precisely, a rather distant view of it. Access is rather limited – as you’d expect of any residence of any royal family – and we were instructed by our guide not to get too close to the main gate to the palace complex as the guards there – of which there was a surprising variety – could get twitchy.

We’d approached the palace across an open public square that was nevertheless devoid of any public and we headed back that way after a few photos, passing by a few fountains and the Ahl Fas Mosque on the way back to the bus.

That marked the end of our time in Rabat but not the end of our day in Morocco or even the end of the cruise excursion which would conclude with some shopping opportunities and a short sightseeing tour in Casablanca.

The drive out of Casablanca earlier in the day had been plagued by heavy traffic and it hadn’t improved upon our return. This did at least give me some opportunities to take photos from the bus, even though it’s not something I typically like doing. It was nice to see large-scale street art decorating the sides of several buildings.

The viewpoints we were taken to both offered us chances to take pictures of the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque was completed in 1993. The building is the second largest mosque in Africa and the minaret is the second tallest in the world. In both cases a mosque in Algeria beats it. The minaret is topped with a laser that shines towards Mecca.

The mosque was commissioned by King Hassan II after initially asking for a mausoleum for his father, Mohammed V. This was subsequently located in Rabat – and we’d visited that earlier in the day – but the king still wanted something for Casablanca and made that request known on his birthday in 1980. The location by the water of the Atlantic Ocean was deliberate but did then necessitate restoration work starting in 2005 after salt water got into the structural supports.

The second viewpoint was at El Hank, looking across the bay back to the Hassan II Mosque and giving more of a sense of scale of the structure when comparing it to the buildings of Casablanca.

El Hank is also the location of the El Hank Lighthouse, which at fifty one metres in height is the tallest lighthouse in Morocco.

It was then time to brave Casablanca’s traffic once more and to see some more street art as we slowly made our way to the shop that would serve as the penultimate activity on this full day’s excursion.

Our shopping opportunity was at a place called Exposition Artisanale, a large emporium that we were assured would allow us to purchase authentic Moroccan items, priced reasonably, and with no haggling required (or allowed). It was located across the street from a clock tower and the entrance to the old Medina and markets.

We bought some souvenirs then ended up chatting for ages with someone who may have been the owner after he realised that we, unlike everyone else in our tour group, were English. He’d been to England before and so wanted to give us a special price for some carpets which made us doubt whether the no-haggling rule was really enforced. We’re sure they were special prices but we’re not really carpet people.

The cruise excursion finished with a couple of fleeting photo stops. Firstly, it was back to the Hassan II Mosque to see it now that the sun had set. We’d hoped we could see the laser but it wasn’t really visible from our position. Then it was to snap the exterior of Rick’s Café, inspired by the place of the same name in the movie, Casablanca.

That concluded our day in Morocco. As we walked back towards Caribbean Princess we could see the lights flashing away in Skywalker’s Nightclub at the rear of the top deck. We freshened up and changed aboard then made our way there ourselves so that we could enjoy some music and keep an eye out for all the people returning to the ship after us. There were still large groups arriving well after our scheduled midnight departure time, likely those on tours to Marrakesh who’d then run into Casablanca’s traffic on their return.

In the next post in this transatlantic cruise travelogue series we’ll spend the day in Funchal, Madeira, finally making it there after an attempt years earlier was cancelled to deal with an emergency medical situation on the cruise ship we were on.

We were therefore very pleased to make the port and capital of Funchal on Madeira for this second attempt at cruising to it, although the weather forecast was not great. We actually woke to rain which had thankfully, seemingly, passed by the time we’d had breakfast and gathered our wandering equipment for the day, so the city had a damp sheen to reflect the brightness of the day as we stepped ashore.

You may already know that when a ship first visits a port it’s traditional for there to be a small ceremony where a plaque (or similar) is given by the port to the ship so that the ship can display it aboard. If you ever cruise on a vessel that’s travelled widely then it’s fun sometimes to find these plaques, see where the ship’s been, see if you’ve been there too, and get a feel for the ports based on the quality or size of the plaques. There’s a lot of variation there.

Funchal has its own tradition in a similar but somewhat reversed vein (possibly unique, or at least we’ve not seen it done elsewhere), which you’ll see most clearly if you walk into the city rather than take a shuttle bus. Along the harbour wall murals have been painted over the years acknowledging the visit of certain ships with vessels from merchant and naval fleets, ferry lines, and cruise ships all represented. Interesting to do some ship-name-spotting as you stroll along the waterfront.

A short, narrow tunnel links the port area to the city, passing through part of the old defensive walls.

We’d not long got out of the port area and started on our way to where we wanted to hit first when it started to rain, and for a brief period we thought “Ah, a little bit of rain never hurt anyone,” conveniently forgetting the lesson from a few days earlier regarding just how much rain can actually fall when it wants to (see: Two Mediterranean Sea Days Aboard Caribbean Princess). And so the rain retaliated by coming down harder. A lot harder. We were forced to seek shelter by pretending to peruse souvenir shops until it became too obvious we had no intention of buying anything, then hovering outside under an awning.

We had a partial view not only of our ship, Caribbean Princess, but also of Explora I which was docked behind us. Explora I looks a lovely ship, but with a daily cost per person rocking in at around six times what we paid for our transatlantic cruise then, short of a lottery win (and maybe not even then), it’s not a cruise experience we’re likely to ever have.

The rain eased off but never quite let up entirely so I kept my camera in its bag as we eventually decided to continue the walk to the only place we had firm plans on visiting this day. That was the cable car station and it took us probably 10-15 minutes to get there. Buying a ticket was simple enough, thanks to the pay machines in the lobby. Then we tried to hover around so it was empty enough to just get a cable car up above Funchal on our own to make taking photos or video easier but ended up sharing with a German tourist with whom we chatted mostly instead. We tried to peer about and down through the glass that was fogged up inside and covered in rain droplets outside but there was little point in taking photographs. One thing of minor interest as we were drifting slowly up and over the hills surrounding Funchal was that there was clearly some sort of car rally taking place on the island on the day of our visit. A procession of colourful and decorative vehicles with incredibly loud exhausts was snaking its way up the twisting roads we were passing over.

We alighted at the Monte station, and the rain, while not heavy, alighted with us, adding continuing dampness to the morning’s activities. Walking a little way east of the cable car station we approached a viewpoint over the valley below and were afforded some views back down to the main port area of Funchal where our ship could easily be spotted. The small church we passed was the Babosas Chapel, only rebuilt in 2022 following destruction in the island’s serious storm of 2010. It had been originally constructed in 1906 and the Art Nouveau style of the period is clear to see in its architecture.

About a minute’s walk to the west of the cable car station there was a pleasant-looking garden area. This was Jardim Monte Palace Madeira, a botanical garden, and even with the rain we might have been tempted to pay it a visit had it not also been clearly over many vertical levels on the steep hillside here. Rain and slopes or steps together, though, suggested we’d not see it in its best light. We do have plans to return to Madeira in November 2026 and we’ve already agreed with people with whom we’ll be travelling that we’ll do the cable car again (as they’ve never done it) so if the weather is kind to us we’ll visit on that occasion.

We didn’t spend long at the top of the hill over Funchal before deciding to head back down. We’ve had the experience of a cable car ride on Madeira now, and we have an outline of a plan for a return visit. Our trip back down to the port area was unaccompanied by strangers this time so it was easier to move around the car and take photos, even if reflections were an issue. On the plus side, the rain seemed to have eased off fully by the time we reached a lower altitude.

We reached the bottom and disembarked to the sight of a mad sculpture and madder people exercising outside. Crazy! There are no walls! People can see you! Oh, that’s what you want, isn’t it? Healthy, egocentric perverts, the lot of you.

A couple of historical boats of local significance were also on display within glass-walled enclosures. Mosquito was a steam-powered boat (later converted to diesel), built in 1900 in England, and used in and around Funchal to service ships and the dock area on behalf of Blandy, a well-known wine merchant in the city. Aquila was a tender for flying boats visiting Funchal from 1949 onwards, but earlier, during the war, it had been used to train Royal Air Force pilots and perform coastal patrols.

With the rain looking like it had left the low-lying parts of Funchal for the mountainous heights now and us not needing any immediate shelter we made for the historical centre of the city where we expected to find an abundance of street art.

In the next post in this series we’ll enjoy the vibrant public street art project that is the Art of Open Doors in Funchal.

One response to the effects on Funchal was the launching of “The Art of Open Doors“, a project aimed at bringing colourful artwork and the necessary footfall to see it to part of the old town that people would otherwise have avoided due to its rundown state. While it’s not exclusively along Rua de Santa Maria in the old town, that is where you’ll find most of the more-than-two-hundred pieces of artwork today. Come for the pretty pictures, stay to make purchases at the stalls and shops along the narrow, cobbled streets.

There’s not much more to say other than to now show off a small sample of the doors adorned with street art in Rua de Santa Maria from our visit there in 2024. Street art is something we enjoy looking at wherever we travel in the world and when there’s a history attached to pieces it’s even more important to hunt it down and check it out.

In the next post we’ll do a little wandering to see some sights of Funchal (now that it had stopped raining), including a pit stop for some craft ales (well, it’s what we do).