The MSC Cruises World Europa
I went out to Barcelona to test out MSC Cruises’s new ship, the World Europa! It’s one of the largest cruise ship in its class and our cruise started in Barcelona, Spain, and did a whole loop down from there! Visiting Barcelona, to Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Messina, Valletta, and then back to Barcelona! The cool thing about MSC, which most American cruise lines don't do, is that every port people can get off or get on – so you can actually get on at a different city on a different departure date because it's almost like a bus stop for a whole loop tour just ending up in Barcelona! So it's almost like a hop-on-hop-off cruise situation, which I found pretty neat for the traveler who needs flexibility! I loved being able to see different cities without having to unpack, lug things around, and get on a flight!
Of course, cruising is not necessarily known to be environmentally friendly, but MSC has made a bunch of leaps and bounds with sustainability in their programs to hopefully be carbon zero by around 2030. They’ve done a lot of things to their ships to be more sustainable and not as bad for the environment in terms of carbon emissions. Things like having a farm-to-table restaurant onboard that grows their own food, their own brewery, as well as their own desalination space for water, making this ship really self-sufficient. We got to stay in the Yacht Club, which had its own private decks, an area to eat, a lounge, and access to this amazing spa! Perfect for a relaxing time and a little bit more romantic for the Yacht Club.
This ship also had some fun slides, which we toured all around, and then, best of all, was a hidden speakeasy that nobody knows about – even people that work there don't really know about it! The only way you can get on it is if you are just nice to your crew staff. If the right person likes you, they will give you a secret pass and the secret pass to go visit the Speakeasy in the bottom depths of the ship. You are transported back in time to the 1920s with performances and everything. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen in a cruise ship. Overall, definitely can’t go wrong with an MSC Cruise!
