A Good Way To Test The Water (Sun Cruises Line)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Sun Cruises Line
Date:	31/01/01 (714 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonable price.

Disadvantages: Food so-so. Cruising not everyones cup of tea

A cruise is one of those types of holiday that I’ve always doubted as being for me – all that dressing for dinner and non-stop food. Then of course, there’s the expense, or at least there was. Then along came Airtours with a clutch of refurbished ex-Caribbean cruisers offering holidays pitched firmly towards the traditional package-tour end of the market. We booked an upper deck (outer) cabin. It was still the same twin bed layout that Judith Chalmers wouldn't be seen dead in, but it had square windows instead of a porthole - and advantage of being further from the waterline. The other advantage (or some might think it was one) of an upper deck placement is proximity to the shop and main passenger loading point. It was a bit like having a hotel room directly off the reception area.

OK, so the main port was Palma, Majorca, and all the ports of call were in the Mediterranean, but it was a cruise - a chance to sample one without spending the next ten year's beer money on it.

The itinerary was well thought-out. The only lengthy time at sea was the first leg from Palma to Ajaccio in Corsica. In general, it seems that most cruise liners like to travel through nights, with a new port of call in the morning. Since this distance couldn’t be covered in 12 hours, the boat was the sole competitor in a slow bicycle race scheduled to take 36 hours instead, involving a lot of wallowing around in some surprisingly rough seas – even the Barbadian crew were looking a bit pale, especially when "your friendly Captain Olsen*" decided to heave-to (and boy did it heave) for boat drill.

* I'm sure he was the Swedish Chef in the Muppets

This also helped to cement in my mind the first of my “Why I Won’t Be Cruising Again” rules. Being at sea during daylight is boring if you don’t like sunbathing and a non-stop round of eating. To be fair, the food was plentiful, but only "OK&
quot; in standard – about the same as the "international cuisine" being served some 36 hours astern in Majorcan hotels.

Landing in Ajaccio is enchanting, and once moored, the bows of the boat are seemingly only a matter of yards from the main thoroughfare. Provision was made for a sightseeing tour with a lunch stop in the rugged hills of this picturesque island.

Evening was spent passing between Corsica and Sardinia.

The next days port of call was Livorno (I always think the English version, Leghorn sounds like a laboratory sheep), the nearest port to Florence, so after a shortish drive, we were walking around the sights of this fascinating city, vowing to make some effort to come back some day, when we have our walking feet fitted.

The following day, we docked in Civitaveccia, "Tilbury in a heat wave", (and that's being unkind to Tilbury) with the purpose of a day trip to Rome. One look at the assembled touring coaches below (what is the collective noun for them?) put us off the idea and we decided to have a quiet day in Tilbury, on the basis that there is no way you can do justice to a city the size of Rome on a day trip. At least, so I thought, I would have the pool to myself.

No such luck – it was drained for running maintenance, but I did get the sauna to myself, and a guided tour of the bridge.

Next day came Villefranche in France – scene of the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels movie, only then it was called Beaumont-Sur-Mer. This was the only place where we had to be tendered ashore, and very nice our boat looked, moored in this picturesque bay. Speaking of nice, we also went to Nice for a spot of market shopping in this surprisingly un-snobby town. The other excursion choice was Monaco, but this meant longer on the coach.

Then it was off to Barcelona, another place which cannot be done any real justice in the time allotted, although the tour did afford a glimpse
at the famous, and unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral, Gaudi's masterwork. We also saw the Olympic stadium and had panoramic views over the city. "Time off" allowed for a stroll along Las Ramblas (or La Rambla) the famous boulevard, before making our own way back to the ship - the penalty for ducking out of the coach tour part-way through.

The next day, we were back in Palma, kicking our heels waiting for the coach to the airport, although to be fair, Airtours did let us join an "ordinary" day trip to Valdemossa, Chopin's favoured retreat.

We had been in Majorca for the week preceding the cruise - it was so cheap to tack this week on, that it seemed silly not to do so. Although I am a big fan of Majorca, we usually go off-season, so August came as a bit of an unpleasant shock, even in the quieter northern end of the island

If you are considering a cruise for the first time, I would thoroughly recommend one of these budget-end ones first, just to see if “you are the type”. I now know that I’m not, but at least it didn’t cost too much to find out.

Here are my reasons:-

Anything more than an overnight run at sea gets tedious if you don’t like sunbathing or the laid-on entertainment.

Generally speaking (Ajaccio excepted) ports are, how can I put it, a "bit" industrial and not therefore very romantic places to be moored.

Landing somewhere new every day with that feeling that you ought to go on the tour can turn out to be not a very relaxing way to spend your holiday.

If you like browsing through restaurants and picking a different one every night, forget it.

If you like to try foreign food, forget it.

Oh, and just in case you thought that full board means just that, our bar-, tips- and excursions-bill for one week came to £400 for the two of us! And I’m the one with short arms and deep pockets!

Summary: