Going way back I've been a fan of cruising as a way to quickly see new cities to help determine if you would want to spend multiple days there exploring. While I will always enjoy a Royal Caribbean sailing lately their prices are insanely high and itineraries are repetitive. Enter MSC (yup the people who move large shipping containers). Their prices are reasonable, food is quite good and most importantly they go places other cruise lines don't want to go. What also sets MSC apart is their ability to join the ship in nearly all ports it stops in then sail until it returns to that same city you boarded in. MSC is very popular with Italians, France, Spain and Germany tourists it is becoming more appealing for North American travelers.
This trip is a combination of two voyages. Adding the second leg wasn't that much more money but it added a whole different level of experiences. The MSC Fantasia is a mid-sized ship, holding 3000 but never feels like that many people. Given this is an odd sailing (two back-to-back sailings) only 100 cabins were available to do it.
2:30am and I'm awake. These blinds aren't doing squat
If I'm going to be awake I might as well enjoy that view
7am - might as well get packed
Adding this picture to help anyone else looking to do a similar trip. Finding the address of the dock is quite challenging. Roughly 20 min at $21. A taxi would be $50.
There's my vehicle for the next 15 days
Not something you'd find at Ikea but really beautiful
This character just made me chuckle
You can tell they aren't expecting many people to join today
Most cruise lines allow two bottles of wine or some soda, even water. Not MSC. They'll take any liquid of any size. This poor lady got quite the scolding trying to bring this on.
These stairs are so pretty
Nice size for a buffet
A little something for everyone. Food does has a Mediterranean slant to it
Like in Barcelona juice here is locked up after breakfast
Decently sized balcony cabin
All the aft rooms had been long booked. No hammock this trip
The Swedes are sick, twisted people. Way way back during the various plagues this region has seen through its history, tens of thousands of people were killed. The bodies use to just be tossed out the home windows and left to rot. Eventually someone got the smarts to cart them away to be buried outside of town. These contractors would get paid for every corpse removed. In the summer months when the earth was defrosted it was easy to dig a huge pit grade. As the seasons got colder that process got more difficult and they just started cheating, not digging as deep. By winter the bodies might be 3' deep, if that.
(You can see where this story is going)
Fast forward many years there's a desire to build an amusement park. Construction begins and almost immediately they developer begins to find huge grave pits at all depth levels. What do they do at the direction of the government? Move their pylons a bit and keep going. So, to this day, under their version of Six Flags are the remains of all those that died during the great plagues.
What do you do when there are no mountains and you need cell towers? Build one giant one next to the amusement park
5pm - time to sailaway
Sailing out of Stockholm requires nearly six hours due to all the islands. It really is one of the most beautiful sailings I've yet encountered.
Every view for the 6-hours is breathtaking
This house just called to me
I could get use to that view
Something about this island just seemed off
Because it was fake - a WW2 fortress
Lots of locals out seeing us off
Care for a swain with your cabin?
6-hours later and we've cleared the channel
The next day is sailing into Germany.
By 9pm off the coast of Borre, Copenhagen are the massive windmill farms. They stretch for miles.
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