Travelling in a Post-Covid World.

As someone who loves everything about travel - the preparations, the culture, the people, sights and experiences, covid meant I needed to be creative. How could I get the experiences and memories that I longed for, within this new, scary world we were stuck within?

I wanted the chaos. I wanted to whirl around the house gathering all of our holiday bits. I even wanted the panic and worries that come with travelling - will I get there on time? Do I have all the passports? Did I pack the chargers? Have I copied the right dates?! All I can say is that in a post-covid world, those good old travelling worries had increased a thousand times over.

Now, as well as the standard holiday checklist, there's all the extras - getting the right covid tests done, finding destinations that aren't a part of that dreaded 'red' list - then praying that some small miracle prevails to keep your chosen destination off of the red list. Yeah, post-covid travel is not for the faint of heart, and I'm suddenly grateful for my years of navigating long-haul travel with my (then) small children. Thankfully, nothing will stop me from achieving my dream of sipping cocktails on a sandy beach - and I'm not fussy, any beach will do.

During my usual holiday doom-scroll through Google and Facebook, I came across MSC Cruises and their newest announcement at the time; their 'Staycation' Summer Cruise itinerary. Aboard their brand new ship, the MSC Virtuosa, and honestly I could feel the holiday calling my name. Where would it go? How would it work? What cocktails did they have? Colour me intrigued.

I am no cruise virgin, Colin and I have been on a cruise before, the maiden voyage of Royal Caribbean's 'Symphony of The Seas'. As my brain hit replay on those memories, I could hear the lapping of the waves, and taste the salt in the air. Admittedly I may have just over salted the boiling pasta water, but hey, I had a holiday to book - food could wait.

Despite the millions of covid induced obstacles, we booked the cruise without a whole lot of thought about the practicalities of things. We booked a 7-night trip, sailing from Greenock, which was just 40 minutes drive from our home to the dock. Feeling momentarily smug that I had gotten this far with relative ease, I let my mind wander to the idea of a little bit of luxury for my little family. Sure, sailing the UK is a far cry from multiple weeks in mexico, or the med, but all things considered, I'll take it.

The boys were really excited. Imagine telling a small child that santa, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy were all coming to their birthday party with gifts, and then times that excitement by ten and we're roughly approaching how excited our boys were. Some kids long for prime water, some for PS5s, my kids long for holidays and family memories. They'd never been on a cruise before, and after showing them pictures and showing them all the amazing kid-friendly facilities on board, they were sold. Frankly, with a Lego branded kids club, a water park, a bowling alley, and a theatre (to name a few of the stand out choices), I envied the wee ones and almost wished I could be a kid again. But it's fine. You can find me at one of the bars drowning my sorrows with fancy cocktails.

Our departure date drew ever closer, and we waited and clock watched with anticipation. Obviously with the way the world was back then, we spent a lot of time watching the news, watching the guidelines and checking the government website, just praying that nothing would change to stop this from happening. And everything seemed to be going ahead… until Nicola Sturgeon (then-first Minister of Scotland) decided to throw a giant spanner in the works, by deciding that no ships could dock in Scotland. I felt my heart - like the titanic - hit an iceberg and sink. The thought of crushing the boys' excitement was too much. We've had to cancel so many things they've been looking forward to lately, so adding another to the list of disappointments just killed me.

So I engaged SuperMum mode, and became a mum on a mission. Immediately, I jumped onto my computer and set out to rescue our amazing getaway. Could SuperMum save the day, or was it destined to fail? And there it was in front of me, same ship, sailing from Liverpool - so a bit further from home. But the fact that this one had a NINE day itinerary instead very quickly made up for that inconvenience. Crossing my fingers and toes, I booked it and hoped that this one would go ahead with no more issues.

What followed was probably the most nerve-wracking two week wait of my life. But before we knew it, embarkment day had arrived! As we stood dockside, anxiously awaiting the results of our covid tests, the old travel nerves flooded back in to me. Thankfully, we were given the green light and then it was all aboard for us!

At the last minute we'd decided to upgrade to a Yacht Club suite, and boy oh boy was it worth it. Yacht Club is MSC's 'ship within a ship' concept, and as we arrived at the check-in desk, we were greeted by our very own Butler - and yes, I did feel like I'd suddenly dropped into Downton Abbey for high tea with Lady Crawley.

Our Butler took us directly to the Yacht Club's 'Top Sail Lounge' which was fancier than I could've imagined. We're talking Swarovski staircases, and grand pianos, and champagne readily available. We were quickly introduced to the YC Director and greeted with bubbly for the grown ups and fancy fruit juices for the kids.

As I took that first delicious sip, the stress and worries disappeared. We sat and soaked up the atmosphere, enjoying that warm fuzzy feeling of being home. It was worth all the stresses and panics, to look down at my boys, and see their smiles light up the room. I'd do it a thousand times over if it keeps my babies happy. As they grow, I want to keep showing them the beautiful world around us, near and far, and teach them about the big beautiful world around us that we are so privileged to travel through.

Want to find out more about the cruise itself? Keep an eye out for our next blog post!