Blog Eight – MSC Preziosa: Genoa to Lisbon

Published by Alastair Reid on October 12, 2019October 12, 2019

Genoa, Italy to Lisbon, Portugal [2nd – 7th October 2019]

Our only previous cruise was back in 2011, when Fiona, Sean and I went on a Caribbean cruise with Princess Cruises, leaving from Manhattan. We’d often admired MSC cruise liners when they docked in Mahon harbour, and we wanted to do something different in the middle of this trip. We also have some thoughts about a possible trip in the future with MSC, and so these factors combined to encourage us to book the reasonably priced 5-day cruise from Genoa to Lisbon, and see how we liked it.

Our embarkation in Genoa was fast and efficient, and we had finished lunch on board just over an hour after the embarkation process started. Once on board, however, fIrst impressions were not that encouraging, and congregating to gaze at the vast port of Genoa from the rear deck, the clientele seemed a bit down market compared with the 2011 lot. There were fewer Italians than expected, but quite a number of somewhat angry-looking Balkan and Russian chaps, and folk were generally getting wellied in about the bevvy, smoking like small Victorian factories, and troughing at the buffet like it was good quality school dinners, before we had even got under way.

However, once we got into a rhythm of our own on the boat, things became more enjoyable. Breakfast in the very well appointed cabin, relaxing on the balcony to watch the sea go by – Fiona spotted some dolphins, naturally whilst I was in the shower – and smuggling illicit daiquiris and wine into our cabin at sundown.

At one point, as I was again emerging from the shower room, drying my ears, I swear Fiona shouted “Ally – Shakira’s bum’s wet!” I thought “What a lovely, considerate wife she is, keeping me up to date with breaking news.” Turned out what she shouted in everyone else’s reality, as we passed by the Gulf of Valencia, was “Ally, come and see the sunset.” Oh well.

One of our less favourite things about cruise life is being stuck at a table with other English-speaking folk we don’t know. However, we went along to our allocated restaurant table for dinner on the first night, in good faith, and had a perfectly pleasant and convivial evening with a couple from Devon, and another couple from Manchester. The next night, as we approached our table, we saw that neither of them were there (draw whatever unkind conclusions you like from that!). Instead, a couple who looked like they might have recently passed away occupied two of the six seats.

We swerved back to the reception desk, and persuaded the maitre d’ to get us a table for two, which worked that night, and on each subsequent evening too – maybe a bit anti-social, but we could enjoy our food and drink without having to make conversation, which suited us.

A day at sea was followed by our first port of call – Malaga, a Spanish city which we had previously passed through, but had never properly visited. We shared a taxi into the centre of town with an Irish couple, who had paid an extortionate sum for a city bus tour, but discovered that the queue was so long it would have taken them ages to get on one.

We walked to Malaga’s unusual main square, Placa de la Constitucion – very attractive, but less grand than in many other Spanish cities. Fi persuaded me that a visit to the Carmen Thyssen Museum would be worthwhile, and its collection of Spanish art was indeed really interesting.

We had said that we would take a look at the Alcazaba – Malaga’s Moorish palace – but not climb up to it, in the considerable heat. Never being good at sticking to the plan, we changed our minds and hiked up the steep hill, to be rewarded with a lovely, tranquil setting, and great views. You could feel that the Alcazaba was like a poor man’s Alhambra, in Granada – the stucco work and other decoration are clearly more modest – but we felt it was well worth the sweaty upward slog.

Stop number two was Casablanca, in Morocco. Our pre-trip researches had indicated that Casablanca is a much less glamorous and romantic city than the famous film would suggest. Our entry into the port in the early morning, with a thick, gritty brown smog just beginning to burn off the heavy duty port machinery, and the myriad containers on the dockside, tended to support that view.

After the inevitable, reasonably good-natured, haggling with taxi drivers, we headed straight for the Hassan II Mosque, along the waterfront. This huge modern, green and white construction is the third biggest mosque in the world. Its setting, and the mosque itself, are spectacular from the outside, and quite astounding in scale and beauty on the inside. It even has an electrically operated closing roof – a bit like Wimbledon.

The Moroccan Dhiram is a closed currency but, after getting some local notes from an ATM, we encountered a minor miracle, a local taxi driver who actually operated his meter, so we had a long but cheap ride over to Casablanca’s Habous, for a lovely tagine lunch, with delicious pastries for dessert. Lunch was accompanied by indefatiguable musicians of indeterminate age. The Habous is a sort of souk, with much of the hassle and high pressure salesmanship removed, and less risk of pickpockets, so a modest but enjoyable shop was had.

We were back on the MSC Preziosa before nightfall, for another sea day the next day, before docking at Lisbon, our final port of call.

All in all, as we got the hang of doing the things we liked, and avoiding the things we didn’t, on board the boat, our view of cruising in general, and with MSC in particular, became ever more positive, so we have some thinking to do, with regard to possible future trips!

My dozen favourite images from our cruise with MSC from Genoa to Lisbon, with port calls at Malaga and Casablanca, are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image.

Image Gallery