Thread: my experience on the MSC Sinfonia

after months of preperation, it was finally the 5th of september. we had to leave home at 14.00 so the morning was dragging by till we finally left.

we were on this great ship at around 15.00 and were taken to our cabins. it was an outside cabin, with this big window overlooking the sea. it was perfect! it was the start of a great holiday for us........

after going around for a while and getting lost from our other friends, we all met for coffee at La Terrazza around 16.00 on deck 11. we had a snack, coffee and some pastries........ we were off to a never ending week of eating!

at 17.15 we had to meet with our travel guide for a quick meeting. this started around 17.30, had explanations of how to put on our life jackets and other important things to do and not to do while on board and during port visits.......the clock was ticking away...... ship was leaving malta at 18.00 and i was really anxious to get out on deck and view this event.

we adults went for a drink and the kids went to play basket ball at the very top deck of the ship. at 20.00 we got to cabin to get ready for our first gala night. we all met outside IL GALEONE RESTAURANT at 21.00 and were seated on this big table for 10 (we were 9 in all). this is a very elegant restaurant and the service is great. food is also VERY GOOD. i always thought people were making a fuss when saying how good the food is on a cruise ..........now i know how true that is!

anyway......somewhere in my instincts as a mum, bells were ringing that something was not quite ok with ds. he was dead tired, but he was just playing basket ball. i knew it was something more. by 22.45 he decided to go sleep in cabin. we finished dinner around 23.00 and went to see the show. restaurants are at the back of the ship and the show theatre is at the front deck 7. our cabin was also on the front deck 8, so we checked in on ds a couple of times. after the show, we were all tired, had to be up by 6 the following morning, so we called it a night and went to sleep. HA HA.....sleep! for me, changing place of sleep means no sleep AT ALL! so i was all prepared with MP4 music for the next hours till the sun is up. at 2.30 ds woke up - first indication that he's not ok.

by 6.30 we were entering Tunis. dh & i went to front deck. it was still dark and the sea was calm all the way from malta. we had decided that he will go down with the others while i stay onboard with ds. till then we were thinking that it was something that will pass in 24 hrs. had a quick breakfast, others went to visit Tunis while i was back in cabin with ds and had a much needed nap as i hadn't slept a wink all night.

Can't wait to read the rest of your review! I do hope your son was OK!

I have re-sized your picture so it won't expand the page so much.

Rainbow, I also can't wait to read the rest of your experience

Wonderful picture! I'm so excited that I might see that same view

Rainbow! Looking forward to reading more!

anxiously awaiting the rest.

hey, thanks everyone.

Char thanks for re sizing pic. is it lots of work? cause i'm afraid all pics will be that size.

well, let's continue...i'll hurry through the next few hours 'cause i can tell you, it was a real nightmare for us...

dh & others came onboard from Tunis. they had found a van that took the 7 of them and went to Medina then to Sidi bou said. dont have much details except what i saw from the dvd cam which my dh recorded. lots of white houses with blue doors and windows. pictures show camels in port and the sun rising over Tunis. weather remained cloudy for most of the morning, it even rained just a little bit, but the heat was really unbearable - and i'm used to about 36 deg C in malta. here it was around 46 deg C!!

the Saturday afternoon we spent alternating each other. one of us goes for coffee or for an hour by the pool while the other remained in cabin.

leaving Tunis, we were heading for Italy, Civittavecchia port. sea was calm again, we could hardly say that we were at sea. for the evening we had decided that i go for dinner (to compensate for not going on land) and dh was to stay with ds. by 20.30 i was dressed ready to go down with the others when suddenly ds was shivering and VERY hot. i called emergency and the nurse came to see him. dinner plans were cancelled for me, i was too anxious to stay put eating a five course meal with ds with a fever. nurse gave me medicine and i had with me too and she told me to get him to the clinic sunday morning. i think that saturday night was the worst night of my life so far. we slept around 23.30, woke up around 1.15 to find ds with fever again! i was awake all night again watching over him. sunday morning, doctor gave him antibiotics and back to cabin, ds went back to sleep.

by this time, the others have left for Rome.....but at that time, Rome was the last thing on our minds......by noon, dh went back to clinic and discussed with doctor the fact that ds was sleeping all the time....the conclusion was that he had become dehydrated and needed drip. so we dragged (literally dragged) him back to the clinic and he was given two bottles, one water with salt to replace what he had lost and the other glucose i believe it was......after that he was less tired. then, as he was still being sick, he had another one in the evening. so we can say that we spent the whole sunday at the hospital

the others came back from Rome.....tired and exhausted.......they had walked around the main places ON FOOT! sorry no pics of Rome

dh stayed with ds and i went for dinner, ds was 'a bit' better.

rainbow, for resizing your pictures....do you know if you have Microsoft Picture Manager on your computer?

If you do you would open your picture, click on "Picture" on the top, 4th from left, then click on resize and a pop-up box will come up on the right hand side where you can use "predefined width & height", then save it. I usually resize mine to Large Web size. Make sure to rename the file so it doesn't modify your original picture

Sunday night, around 20.00 we left Civittavecchia and headed north to Genoa. after dinner i went to sleep thinking......well now its the 3rd night, ds does not have a fever, looks like i'm going to have a good night sleep .........WRONG!!! SO WRONG!!! as soon as i got into bed i noticed we were rocking......literally rocking ........ i switched on the TV to see direction of waves and wind etc.....wind: GALE FORCE 8

yes - for the 3rd consecutive night - i was awake nearly all night maybe just slept for one tiny hour

Monday morning, we had a paid excursion to go to Portofino. it took us so long to decide whether to go on this excursion before the cruise, that we only booked it one week prior. now we had to decide one more time who to go. we agreed that dh would go to Portofino then i would go to the aquarium in Genoa, quite close to the ship. so after another quick breakfast, i was in cabin looking out the window and watching people leaving for their excursions.........i really broke down then, crying cause i felt so unlucky.

another visit to the clinic, ds had to endure another hour with drip. once finished, we went back to cabin and had a good sleep......at least sleep was what i needed too! and on waking up, ds started to feel a lot better, that he was asking to come to the aquarium in the afternoon. but doc advised me not to, so i had to listen to him. i knew he was not strong enough for the walk to the aquarium. dh and others arrived back from Portofino at around 15.00 so we had till 18.00 to be all onboard again. i went with them to this aquarium that is in port, about 20 mins walk from ship. it was my first time outside in 3 days - felt soooooo good! once inside we could see all these lovely creatures - sharks, dolphins, seals, jellyfish.....everything you can imagine....just lovely! we stopped to buy souvenirs on the way out and manage to run and make it onboard the Sinfonia around 17.50!!

dont have pics of the aquarium as i was filming on the dvd cam.......but here are 2 pics of the lovely Portofino.......