Cruising the Dalmatian Coast
What a glorious way to spend seven days.
Cruising the Croatian coast is something I have wanted to do for a long time, a true bucket list item that seemed to allude me at each turn. However when the opportunity presented itself earlier this year I couldn’t pass it up, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
What I realised early in the planning stage was that there are so many options for cruising in this area of the world. I read lots of of Trip Advisor reviews collected way too many brochures to best understand what was included with all the ships and what each island had to offer. As a former travel agent, having brochures piled next to me puts me in a very happy place.
I was pretty specific on which islands I wanted to visit and was very lucky to have found a cruise that did the exact itinerary I was after.
It’s the people you are with that can make or break the experience
Before boarding my floating home – the MS Equator, I looked up reviews of that specific vessel and was concerned when I read a review (dated one month before my cruise date) on how the boat was fine, staff were good, but the other passengers on the boat made the writer’s experience a complete misery. These people were rude to staff and the other people on board, were extremely noisy, took up all the space on deck and generally didn’t give two hoots about anyone else other than themselves. I made me sit up straight then and there as I hadn’t even considered who else might be on the trip and if they would be lovely or indeed quite the opposite! I was expecting people who were a little more ‘vintage’ than I was, but other than that it’s not something I had thought about. I haven’t done many ‘tours’ throughout my years of travel as I have generally done more independent style discovery, so this was new territory for me. My first cruise actually. However I was determined to make the most of whatever situation arose. This was a trip that I had wanted to do for a long time so I wasn’t going to let anyone make it anything other than amazing.
Thankfully, I had absolutely nothing to worry about as everyone on our ship was fantastic. A varied bunch of people, all couples from early 50’s through to 80’s (with one or two of us with the number 3 or 4 at the start of our age!). The group was mostly from Australia and New Zealand with some Canadians and even a Barbados lass in the mix. There was actually a young couple from Dubbo if you can believe it or not. (Dubbo people are everywhere). We were all from countries where we understand each other’s humour and customs, so I was in great company which was quite a relief and a heck of a lot of fun.
Boat and Crew
The boat slept 36 but there were only 33 of us. I had a lower deck cabin (twin room) which was actually a good size, particularly for one person. I am glad I had the downstairs cabin as they seemed a little larger (just) than the upstairs deck cabins.
The boat was new-ish and was owned and run by a family. The Dad (Boris) was the captain, his lovely wife was the head of housekeeping, their son +1 other (Lawrence and Tony) were deck hands/sailors and their daughter +1 other (Lana and Kate) were the bar / wait staff and also assisted with the housekeeping. Then there was the chef (Ivan) and sous-chef (oops forgot his name). So it was a robust crew to keep us honest.
It was great having a mostly family affair as the crew cared about the boat, cleaned it all the time and ensured we were happy and had all we needed. I had a leaking toilet at the start of day three and it was fixed within the hour. Sounds pretty normal right? However I met a couple later on my travels who had done a far more luxurious cruise with all the trimmings, who’d had a terrible experience with very rude and loud crew. So I thank my lucky stars that I got the boat, crew and fellow passengers that I did.
My itinerary
What a wonderful collection of islands we visited. We started in the gorgeous city of Split and sailed over to Bol Beach and Hvar town on the island of Hvar. Then onto Bisevo (the blue cave) and the rustic island of Vis. This was followed by wonderful visits to Korcula, Mljet and Slano (on the mainland), then into Dubrovnik where we finished.
We learned so much on every island with local guides who did a fantastic job trying to help us decipher all the history, stories and architecture. My favourite guide was on Korcula, she was hilarious. She was scared of her old history teacher who happened to be the guide for the tour group directly behind us, so we kept up a very good pace to stay away from her. She also said at the start of our visit – just follow Sunshine…. So of course I was going to love her no mater what. 😊
Food on the boat
I don’t normally say that there was too much food, but there was sooooo much food included on this cruise. Not that it’s a bad thing, however to give you an indication we had the following inclusions for our time on the ship:
- Daily buffet breakfast
- 5 lunches
- 3 dinners including a Captain’s Dinner with a party to boot
Both the lunches and dinners were 4 courses each. So on days when you had both lunch and dinner included that’s 8 courses of food plus breakfast. Who eats that much in a day?
Then, after having 8 courses of food, try pulling on a pair of swimmers and diving into the Adriatic Sea! Not a pretty sight let me tell you, but luckily the boat had all sorts of inflatable thingamy-bobs that we could cling to if we felt we thought we were going to sink! The ships mascot – the white Unicorn – was the most highly sought-after flotation device, however trying to get on … then stay on this darn thing … seemed to be the hardest thing any of us attempted throughout the whole cruise. One gentleman (David) broke his toe trying to jump onto the unicorn and then bruised his leg the other time, so he took the unicorn up to the spa on the top deck and carefully managed to get on the unicorn without injuring himself. Success – finally.
I digress! Anyway, back to the food. I decided to forego at least two of the four courses each time which was a pretty easy decision as there was always a salad of some sort (you all know I am salad intolerant!) and I also went without dessert most times …. most times. The food was very good quality, but how the chef managed to create 33 x 4 course meals in that galley kitchen (sometimes twice a day) was beyond me. Hat’s off to you chef.
The guide & the ‘season’
Daniela was a fantastic cruise guide who provided our daily updates of what we were doing and where we were going. She is an ex teacher who teaches Croatian and has been working the cruising season for a few years now. Pending on her timetable she could be away from her family for up to 6 weeks at a time, then a week off, then back on again.
Her insights on the ‘summer season’ were interesting to hear. Croatia depends very much on tourism for its economy and employment. When the summer season is over, many people do not have jobs as villages and cruising companies shut down for winter. So everyone is trying to make as much money as they can over summer to sustain them through the cold winter months with little to no employment opportunities with families to feed and rent to pay. Tipping is encouraged by the cruising companies and they provide a ‘suggested’ amount for each crew member based on their role. Many people in the industry rely on these tips to top up their income and savings.
Daniela was 36, married to a successful musician and building a house outside of Zagreb. She teaches when she can in the off season but admits that the winter months can be quite hard for many people across Croatia have to be good with their budgets to make it through to the start of the new summer season.
Docking at Port
It was fascinating to see how the boats dock in port. I watched us enter and leave as many ports as possible just to see this system in practice.
It turns out there were approximately eight ships doing the same route as us for the seven nights. We crossed each other time and time again in the water and observed whose Captains were a bit more competitive about getting to the new port first! Our Captain was very safe by the way and only went as fast as we needed to, even during a storm that hit one day.
Anyway – given all the boats were docking in the same ports each night, and with only a limited amount of space available for us to fit, we all had to moor next to each other. It was great to witness the crew from each boat help out the ship that had to dock next to them, ensuring the buoy’s were out, tying up the ropes as we had to tether each boat to the one next to us and making sure the boats didn’t crash into each other. These Captains are so skilled in how they carefully align the ships to come ever so close yet not touch the ship next to them as they pull in.
In order to get to shore, we had to climb onto and walk through all the other boats that were docked between us and the port, then do the same again to get back to the boat when you were finished on shore. Sometimes we would be 7 or 8 deep in the moorings so you got to see the insides of all the other boats. Of course I loved taking my time to meander through all the other ships. Some were very fancy schmancy (although the residents of some of these boats seemed a little bored!). I would walk the long way around to see as much as I could – much to the annoyance of some crew members.
Remember, I was sailing late Sept/early October – right at the back end of the season and we were tethered 8 deep alongside each other most nights. Imagine how busy and over run the ports would be in the height of summer!
The Storm
The good thing about having so many boats do the same itinerary is that the Captains were really diligent in chatting with each other and planning out each day’s itinerary – always checking the weather along the way.
This was especially so about half way through our trip when it was advised that a storm was coming. Strong winds one day with the storm following the day after. Our Captain told us that all the Captains had agreed on a new course of action to ensure the boat and all passengers’ safety. The itinerary changed from staying overnight on the island of Mljet, to docking in the protected bay of Slano on the mainland. In order to get to the mainland before the front hit was something out of a movie.
After being told that we all had to get back onto the boats by 11.00am at the latest from our adventures that morning, all 8 boats un-tethered themselves one by one from Mljet port and sailed through choppy waters for 2.5 hours over to Slano on the coast. It was like a flotilla racing in the Australia Day ferry race across Sydney Harbour. We were out in front for a while then all the other boats started chasing us down, with the ‘Ave Maria’ ship (as she always did) overtaking us and racing to the inland port. Most boats overtook us actually which was fine as we were apparently scheduled to dock about 4 wide so did not need to be there first. Many of my fellow passengers went to their cabins during the really choppy parts. Some tried to sleep on the covered back deck and I – well I coerced a few people to have a World Series game or two of UNO. The best travel card game ever. Given the wind we did not lose a single card overboard. Quite a feat I would say.
Anyway – we all got there safely, no one was sick and boy did it bucket down that night. Thunder, lightning and truck loads of rain. But we were safe and all had a great night on back deck with a ‘pop-up’ party that included a well-used disco ball and a very loud speaker.
At the end of the day, this cruise was very enjoyable. The people were great, the crew were diligent, the scenery was simply spectacular and I would recommend it to anyone. Just take your ear plugs as not a lot of sleep is had when you are tethered with 7 other boats – but it’s all part of the experience.
Travel is the (cruisy) best.
