Of course 2020 was a non travel year and we are glad to have gotten through it. We had 3 cruises cancelled in 2020 and another one in the spring of 2021.  But, MSC started short Med cruises this past summer and we signed up for a 12 day one that left from Malaga on 23 October.

It was great to get back to the luxury lifestyle of a cruise ship. Our ship, the Splendida, was a beautiful one with a lot of Italian artistic touches.  The staff was very friendly and we enjoyed the sea days especially.  The Covid rules did have some impact on us with mask wearing and testing requirements but we were glad to be back at sea again in any case. One rule that was extreme, though, was you couldn't leave the ship at a port on your own unless you were on one of the MSC excursions.  

Our ports were Rome, Genoa, Barcelona, Tenerife and Madeira

We did two excursions near the end of the trip. The first was a guided walk to the base of the volcano Mt. Teide on the Canary Island, Tenerife.  At 3,715 meters it is the highest moiuntain in Spain we had a good hike with spectacular views.

The second excursion was off the coast of Funcal, a city on the Portuguese island of Madeira. We were on a small RIB craft set up to view dolphins and whales.  We saw many of them, up close and personal, including pilot whales and sperm whales (a first for us).  

A very nice cruise with great weather and a beautiful ship.