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Picture heavy fun review - MSC Armonia - Canary Isles and Madeira - incl. DIY trips


Kreuzfahrtneuling
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Canary Islands and Madeira overnight on the MSC Armonia

Hello everybody! Welcome back to a new review!

Let’s not loose time with telling about who we are … if you don’t know me yet and would like to learn more, just check out my former reviews. Usually my reviews grow bigger and bigger each time… this one coming up will however be quite a quickie. Lol – no worries, It’ll still fill many pages with text and pictures … but just not quite as much as last time.

As always we’ll start with the preps for the cruise, continue with a detailed ship description and finally get to our day to day port adventures (which are my favorite part). We always explore DIY, never took a ship excursion yet and don’t plan to do so in the near future.

Warning: This review will -- as always – take some time, because I write the text and upload the according pics as I go along. Thanks for joining in ---- let’s have some fun!

 

Our itinerary:

Saturday Feb 28th Gran Canaria - 22:00

Sunday Mar 1st Fuerteventura 8:00 – 18:00

Monday Mar 2nd Seaday

Tuesday Mar 3rd Madeira 9:00 --

Wednesday Mar 4th Madeira -- 14:00

Thursday Mar 5th La Palma 8:00 – 18:00

Friday Mar 6th Tenerife 7:30 – 21:00

Saturday Mar 7th Gran Canaria 6:00

 

Cruise Preps:

Lol – this was our most spontaneous cruise ever. Our kid would be gone for a school ski-trip in the middle of the school term and we found quite a bargain for a MSC cruise for a week, which included the flight and transfers to the ship. A chance to travel – two adults – no teenager along – outside of the insanely pricey school-holidays?

:)It was a no-brainer… we booked.

Now we (meaning I) had merely a month left to plan:eek:. Gulp. If you know me at all, you have quite the idea of what a stressy, whizzing-around-in-light-speed person I turned into for the remaining weeks because of that:rolleyes:. Poor Tanja. But we took care of not doing any “hooray, we’ll go on a cruise” hollers around Tarik … he wouldn’t join us afterall and his bad mood about being forced to go on an unwanted ski-trip was bad enough already.

Up front: Don’t worry, he ended up having a great time!

I won’t show you any packing pictures this time… It was a cruise for a week to a somewhat warm destination (or at least that`s what we anticipated:rolleyes:), so there’s nothing special to add to the packing list.

Oh, wait ...

... one little complication … maybe you can relate: It was the end of February … we had a looong dark and miserably wet winter behind us … plus the Christmas season. Imagine food … yummy and lots of it … and no exercise what so ever for half a year….

... And now imagine pulling out your formal dress from last summer’s cruise …. Get my drift?

:DIt wasn’t pretty.

So besides whizzing around for a month, I also dieted …. Big time. Proud to say successfully:cool:.

Okay, I didn’t quite achieve the kilo-goal I had set at day 30 to go till the cruise, but I lost enough to feel comfortable and to fit into 2 new formal dresses. Lol – I bought them a little earlier, when I got scared I wouldn’t achieve my weight goal soon enough. The new ones were more stretchy and I could be sure to fit no matter how much more I lost till the cruise. So let’s skip the packing and get going right away!

Coming up: Saying goodbye to my parents and Tarik and then on the road to Düsseldorf.

 

Stay tuned!

Stef

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Whoo!! Am I the first to post in this nice new shiny thread?!

 

Looking forward to being along for the ride - and welcome back again :p

 

Carol

 

Hi Carol!

 

:D:D:D...and I'm glad it's you! I love it ... a great person I met in real life! Our cruise on the Serenade was so much fun.

 

:pthank you for joining the new review!

 

Stef

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Yay! I'm so glad you started your review already! I'm looking forward to seeing what you did this time even more seeing as we have some ports in common for our trip in September (you will be finished by then, right! ;) )

 

Subscribed, and looking forward to reading the rest! :D

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welcome everybody! Thanks for joining in! Glad you're all in this with us.

 

Shelley 61 -- I'll be finished by September

 

Plan B -- no way in hell I'll be finished within 10 days, sorry.

 

willma -- yeah, this font grew dear to me too, so I decided to keep it like this. Sorry for everybody, who might have problems with the width of their monitors. Please don't grudge and keep reading anyway. I'll try to make it worth your while.

 

and now, without further ado ... let's go on vacation, shall we?

 

 

Stef

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Getting started

Wheeee—let’s go on a cruise vacation …and I’m taking all of you along – just picture yourselves standing right besides us.

It’s Friday the 27th of February. Tarik’s bus to Austria leaves at 18:15. Before we say our goodbyes it’s time for the traditional farewell-picture on the couch of my parents.

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Tadahhh! Hey, didn’t I tell you to stand right besides me? Where are you all on this picture? Excuse me? Oh, okay … I see -- you took the picture and all cramped in behind the camera. Well, okay, I won’t push you to pose in a picture from now on anymore. But let’s hurry to Tarik’s school, so he can join the other kids.

Alfeld 18:15:

We’re waving like crazy, although we have no clue where he sits… the bus is huge, the windows are a little tinted … bummer. Hopefully he’ll see us wave anyway. Bye bye Tarik …. We truly wish you a wonderful fun week in the Alps.

…and suddenly we’re child freeeeee.

Let’s hurry the 30 minutes back home by car and load up OUR suitcases to get on the road for good (lol – three people plus three suitcases just wouldn’t fit in the car … so we had to take turns).

We are in the fortunate situation to conveniently combine our trip to the airport with an overnight stay at the city of Velbert, where my cousin Kerstin, her husband Wilfried and her two kids Jessy and Kevin (not to forget the dachshund Oskar) live.

Although Jessy comes to visit us regularly (lol – she and her friend Celine count to the innermost family circle by now and are sort of Tarik’s big sisters), we haven’t been to Velbert in eons and had to fiddle out our route on the map … yes, we’re old-fashioned and don’t currently own a navigational device.

Lol – are you worried to jump into the car now? Maybe because I managed to miss the ship last time? Oh, don’t be! We’ll be fine … I’m 100 % sure (oh crap, that’s exactly what I said in Dublin as well) …. Ah, come on … all roads lead to Rome … or in our case hopefully to Velbert. Let’s go on a cruise vacation. Be brave … get in the car. All buckled up? Okay Tanja … you drive, I’m telling you where to and all those cruise critic people on the spacey back seat of our Panda are along for the ride. We’re on the road!

Snacks, anyone? The ride will last about three hours and we’ll get to Velbert around 23:00.

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Quick gas stop on the Autobahn A2 at Herford.

We get to Velbert even before 23:00 (see, I told you we’d be fine – thanks for the faith). But after enjoying a drink and chatting for about an hour, it’s time to hit the bed … long day tomorrow. Jessy evacuated her room for us and voluntarily sleeps on the sofa. Family --- gotta love em. Nighty-night everyone!

After waking refreshed on Saturday morning, we’re treated to a huge breakfast with fresh rolls, tons of cheese, cold cuts, honey, jam, boiled eggs, whatever your heart desires. Oh and coffee of course….lots of coffee. Life is good!

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…and these are our wonderful family members in Velbert. Lol – remember, the picture is taken on the morning of the 28th. So obviously way too early for the college boy… so Kevin sadly is missing in this picture.

We’ll leave the Panda here in Velbert and will get a ride to the airport in Düsseldorf… how cool. They’ll also pick us up again after the trip. Whoohooo.

Get in the car guys, this time you all have more space … it’s a VW Touran.

Make yourselves comfortable, it will be about 20 minutes to the airport.

Coming up: Fun at the airport in Düsseldorf

Stay tuned!

Stef

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The airport in Düsseldorf … the airport of my childhood. From here, me and my parents flew to Mallorca, Menorca, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria when I was wee little. This place is packed with memories of many moments of glee and anticipation and although I’m a big wuss when it comes to planes, I was happy to fly from here once again.

Tanja flew from here as well earlier … when we calculated the years, we pretty much got the same result. Wouldn’t it have been quite the coincidence when we passed each other as kids, not knowing we were eventually meant for one another? But I don’t want to bore you. Let’s check out the airport.

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Look – Giraffes, or wanna be elefants?

The whole airport seems to be taken over by these commercials of a rental car company. Although the sheer amount of them is a little crushing, some are so fun, that we just have to add them here.

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The German word for toads “Kröten” is a synonym for money… sort of like “bucks” for dollars. The rest of the commercial slogan is of no relevance, so just enjoy the funny pipe playing toads like we did.

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Could anyone resist not flexing an arm next to this one? I couldn’t, so I told Tanja to go over there to pose just like that.

One more:

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When these thingies extend to the planes, the smile gets broader and broader lol, as does the neck of the giraffe … fun stuff.

Coming up: more airport stuff

Stay tuned!

Stef

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Stef!! I'm here and looking forward to reading about the Canary Islands!!!

 

:) welcome windjamming! Lol -- you're the first who said she's looking forward to the Canary Islands ... most people I talk to are just hot for Madeira and take the Canaries along as a side effect...

 

a little info up front: Our favorite day ... and island we fell in love with most was NOT a part of Portugal. lol -- although that one rocked as well.

 

Stef

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more airport stuff

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Yay, can you find our flight on the boards?

Cool, then let’s get rid of the suitcases.

Tanja was freaking, because she feared that she might have forgotten some sort of charge cable… she happily found the thingy in her backpack, still she insisted of having a picture taken with the below “emergency” shop vitrine … lol 24 hours availability of buying all kinds of forgotten electric stuff … everything from a razor to loading stations to whole laptops…. Lol -- I wonder how they get the laptops out of that shell safely … I’m hoping they wouldn’t just push them forward to fall down like in those candy or coke machines. Well, Tanja thinks this express shop rocks …. So here is the picture.

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Does anybody need to buy some batteries, a tablet or a new sd card? Here’s your chance. No? Okay, then let’s have a look at our plane, which we’ll board pretty soon now.

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This is it! … and the first bags are being loaded up.

What struck my attention was that this guy meticulously checked tag after tag on each and every suitcase.

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Maybe I told you once that Tanja and I spent ten days on Tenerife without suitcases… they first traveled to Moscow and afterwards to Luxor before they finally reached Tenerife and us … lol that left us 3 days with our stuff till we had to return home again. All I’m saying is that this guy down there is my new hero. A good feeling to know your bags will be on the correct plane.

On the plane

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Gran Canaria …. We’re on our way. We’ll fly a little less than 5 hours. Over Paris, France, the Pyrenees, mainland Spain and then after a while on the Atlantic Ocean, we’ll descend to land on the Canary isles… in our case on Gran Canaria. Whooohooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hold your breaths …. The turbines are roaring up …. We’re being pushed back into our seats and I grab Tanja’s hand … faster, faster, the landscape gets blurry …. And then we’re tilting upwards…. Okay….sigh. The worst is over. The vacation has started.

Coming up: Landing in Gran Canaria and transfer to the port.

Stay tuned!

Stef

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landing on Gran Canaria and the transfer to the cruiseport in Las Palmas.

When we started our descent towards the airport on Gran Canaria, our pilot warned us about strong winds and therefore a rather bumpy landing. Yep, we bounced off the ground like a rubber ball a couple of times … but made it eventually. Needless to say I was a mess.

The landing of the plane was accompanied by your typical German -people-on-vacation applause for the pilot. I will never understand this. He cannot hear it in the cockpit anyway… it’s completely senseless, yet I guess kinda cute in a way as well. What drained the last bit of breath from my lungs was when the stewardess got on the intercom and announced:” Welcome to Gran Canaria! We are
immensely
happy to have landed, have a great vacation.” I swear she pronounced it just like that, fat print and all. I hate flying … but as well as the rest of the plane I couldn’t stifle a laugh.

After getting our suitcases, which of course arrived perfectly due to the wonderful ground personnel at Düsseldorf, we strolled on out of the airport.

For the first time ever we had an included transfer from MSC. How odd, not to look for public transportation signs. A lady in an MSC outfit and a large MSC clipboard couldn’t be missed on our way out and told us where we had to go to our shuttle bus. This was smooth, yet boring. I missed the first thrills of being in another country and having to organize transportation on our own.

Some of my grudge was taken off me, when we arrived at the shuttlebuses and were confronted with a vivid conversation in Italian between two of the poor MSC guys, who tried to handle the cattle hordes of tourists who all wanted to stuff in their suitcases into the busses AT ONCE and of course created the biggest possible chaos.

We left a little distance between us and the hordes and quite enjoyed the spectacle. Lol – quite some time later our two suitcases were the last to go in, after we handed them over to the nice Italian, who, besides us was the only remaining person in the now deserted space next to the crowded bus.

I also tremendously enjoyed the guy counting the passengers in the bus. He mumbled the numbers in Italian and he lightly touched every person on the isle seats on the knees while passing through. Lol – no German would ever, EVER do that. No worries, it wasn’t intruding in any way …. It was downright charming and I felt completely appeased with the shuttle situation.

Engines are sounding, the bus starts to vibrate and hum. We’re on our way to the port. It’s a 35 minute drive along the east coast of Gran Canaria.

When we were still in the airport, we saw this sign:

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It reflects the picture, which commonly comes to mind, when one thinks about Gran Canaria: Dunes as fluffy and light and tall as in the Sahara, yet practically combined with a European infrastructure and a vast sandy beach.

Yes, that’s the very South of Gran Canaria ….

This however is the East, heading North … so keep that in mind, when you see the following pictures of the transfer.

You see a lot of industry

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Some kinda nice bays with brownish sand

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Art and lots of container ships

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And last but not least the capital of Gran Canaria: Las Palmas and the port with the cruise ships in the background.

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Today there were 5 ships! The MSC Armonia is hidden behind the Aida Blue and the Thomson Majesty.

Coming up: embarkation

Stay tuned!

Stef

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I love that you got the jetway with the Big Smile! And I got to see the famous Panda!

 

A young woman I know was going to Italy for a semester of university. She was flying through Frankfurt and was very concerned they would lose her luggage. I assured her the Germans would never lose luggage...but apparently they might misdirect it!

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Loving your review so far! Yes, we were all crowded behind the camera at your parents' house. :)

 

We flew out of and into Dusseldorf in December, and I don't remember seeing any of those fun things around the airport. :confused: Thanks for sharing!

 

It sounds like your luggage had quite an exotic holiday while you were in Tenerife!

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:(:(:(sitting here crying about the violent deaths of the MSC cruise passengers in Tunis yesterday. No new posts today out of respect for the dead. Sending out good wishes to all those still being treated in the local hospitals and to all the family members and friends out there, who are suffering either a horrible loss or are still praying for injured or unaccounted for loved ones. :(:(:(

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:(:(:(sitting here crying about the violent deaths of the MSC cruise passengers in Tunis yesterday. No new posts today out of respect for the dead. Sending out good wishes to all those still being treated in the local hospitals and to all the family members and friends out there, who are suffering either a horrible loss or are still praying for injured or unaccounted for loved ones. :(:(:(

 

I have just found your new review today when I came on the boards to check for any update about this tragic tragic event. I don't think it matters whether we are loyal to one particular cruise line or not - today we are all one cruising family and our hearts are all with MSC. May they rest in peace.

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Well said Stef and Irish Cath. Very sad news. My heart goes out to them.

Just joined this thread today because we'll be cruising in this region soon as well (Canary Islands and Madeira, not Tunisia). Praying for everyone's safety.:(

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