Hi everyone! Let me introduce myself...I'm Stephanie (age 50) and my husband Jason (age 49) are taking our second MSC cruise and we are so excited to be on the MSC World Europa for the Oct. 13, 2023 sailing. We live in the US (in Central Florida) and this is our first European cruise and we're really looking forward to it. We're going to be flying to Vienna for 4 days before the trip and then flying over to Spain, arriving in Barcelona on the morning of the 12th.
Our only other previous cruise was on the MSC Meraviglia for Christmas of 2019 and we loved it. We totally loved the Yacht Club experience, so we are booked in the YC again for this trip.
We've already booked 2 excursions for stops in Italy in Genoa (Portofino & Enchanting Views of Liguria Riveria) and in Messina (Mount Etna tour). Normally we hate to do cruise ship tours, but these seemed not too bad and are something we would want to have planned out for us. We are planning on doing a walking tour in Marseille, France with a private guide and In Naples we are planning on doing a self-guided trip to the ruins of Herculaneum (much less crowded, and very well preserved, albeit smaller than Pompeii). I am a history nerd and don't want to be stuffed on a bus when we can do a trip on our own and tour the ruins on our timeline!
Since we live in Florida, we've done more Caribbean cruises with our daughter than I can count and we've also done 2 cruises to Alaska. Since our daughter is now away in college, we aren't bound to the school schedules, so this is a trip just for my husband and I! We're super excited. The World Europa looks to be a beautiful ship and we're looking forward to meeting more people who will be on board!