After Florence and Venice, Steve and I embarked on our East Mediterranean cruise on board MSC Sinfonia. The cruise took us from Venice in Italy to Split in Croatia, Santorini and Mykonos in Greece, Dubrovnik, Ancona and back to Venice. How is the Sinfonia as an experience?

For Steve and I, a cruise a mean of getting to difficultly reachable places such as Santorini. But a cruise is also leisure and entertainment.

We’re not great users of all the jolly activities. Him and I lack this ‘scouting’ attitude of finding fun things fun.

Still.

As any with any cruise the cruise director and his or her team think of meany contests, activities and things to do. We went to shows in Teatro San Carlo.

They were well produced, very kitsch and camp as they should be. Sometimes you had to book not a seat but a show. You had to state in advance which performance you would attend.

The gym

I try to keep working out while travelling. No, I’m not a gym bunny with sixpack. I’m a beached whale but still I try to keep going to the gym.

The gym on board is disappointingly small. Some cardio equipment, some muscle machines and yoga mats.

As the gym is small, signs ask you to only use one machine for twenty minutes maximum. There were only two bicycles with saddles. One of which was out of order. I can tell you the surviving bike was coveted.

The equipment is by Technogym so as such of quality.

The pool

There are two pools and the Doremi Spray Park. The spray park is for children. The pools are quite identical. They each have a shallow area and a deep area. The deep area is too deep to stand, which is a bit annoying.

There are als two whirlpools or jacuzzi’s, but they were always full.

Reading time

Luckily you don’t have to be active on board. There are plenty of spots, including your balcony (that’s why we book a cabin with a balcony), to read. I read ‘Mythos‘ by Stephen Fry. It seemed appropriate while navigating the Mediterranean.

What do you do on board a cruiseliner, especially on sea days?