TravelCD

Short summaries of my experience on the Spanish islands (Though we did go to one Portuguese island) and my first cruise experience! ❤ 

My First Cruise

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect, ever since I was a child I had wanted to go on a cruise. I think the first time I decided that I wanted to go on a cruise at some point, was when I was watching this children’s television show and the children had to complete lots of challenges behind their parents back and if they completed them, their prize was a holiday on a cruise, and they usually showed a little bit of the family having fun on the cruise. 

My mind was star struck and I wanted to do that too, and that was the first time I asked my parents if we could go on a cruise. They were a little hesitant, as they weren’t sure about the idea of being on a boat for a long period of time with not much entertainment. 

I didn’t really expect them to eventually book up a cruise, it had been such a long time ago that I’d asked, well I was a child then, and now I was an adult, but they even referenced when I’d asked them all those years ago, and I was just so heart-warming and lovely and just wow, really! ❤   Now when they warned me about it getting a little dull at times, I think they did get that part right, there wasn’t as much entertainment as I was expecting, and I spent the majority of my time finishing a book I had brought recently.

But they still had some theatre shows sometimes, a small cinema area, a small games room, a pool up top and a quiz every night. 

I think what I loved the most, apart from the views up top, was the food to be very honest! They had this buffet that you could just go to at any time and grab something, I stuffed myself! 

I also enjoyed the theatre shows, some of the crew would put on this funny murder mystery every couple of nights.  

Anyway, on to the islands! 

The Islands

So you’re going to have to forgive me here since this was a couple of years ago, I can’t remember which island we started on, it was either Tenerife or Lanzarote, thinking about it more it might have been Lanzarote that we flew into and got our cruise from there. 

I was a little concerned when we landed though as there was a lot of smoke billowing from nearby mountains, oh no, wait, those are volcanos! 

But I’m sure if there was any real danger to us, we would have been told, so I did push my worry to the side at that. 

We went straight on to the cruise from there, and the cruise gave you a day to stay and enjoy the island. Unlike the other islands, I did not visit it, since my parents and sister had booked a wine tasting day, which I don’t like, and I didn’t want to walk around the island alone, so I stayed inside the cruise ship. It was a nice, peaceful day and I even found a mini golf course on the cruise ship! I wanted to play, but we never got around to it. 

Madeira

Now this is one of the islands that left a big impression on me, Madeira is a Portuguese island, and we had a fantastic trip there! The town we visited seemed rather cute and what I found interesting was a building that pays tribute to Churchill visiting the island by calling itself the Churchill Hotel/Café, can’t remember if it was a hotel or a café, or both? 

The views at the shore were fantastic, and we also found this lovely, cute painting of a seal.

However, what made this day trio memorable was that deeper on the island, there are even more fantastical views! Large mountains spreading out across the landscape and the views are absolutely amazing! It also made me wonder what it was like to live there, like it’s one thing to live next to the sea, but what was it like living in those mountains? Was it peaceful or a hard life, since you’d be so far away from everything? But it was honestly stunning to look at. 

They also had this view point called the Cabo Girão which was also amazing, you could see more of the buildings, near the shore. I remember there being this open shop near the view point, and I was really tempted to buy a cake called a sugar cane cake, but then I realised it was a fruit cake, so I was less tempted, ha! I’m not a fan of fruit cake. 

Now what was just as amazing was all the Christmas lights! A part of me, wanted to stay at the Cabo Girão to see the sun setting, but I am very glad we didn’t, because we got to have more time, exploring the Christmas lights, lighting up the buildings next to the shore. 

Gran Canaria

Now which island do I think could beat Madeira or be equals in their beautiful mountainous views, I’ll tell you, but you already know, considering the titles up there, but I’m going to say it anyway, Gran Canaria or more with more accuracy the capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. 

The mountain filled views were beautiful, from what we could see, it unfortunately it was very misty! But we could just about see the amazing views. From what I remember, I think it was very cold and windy but completely worth it!

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria didn’t just have amazing views, but, like Madeira, had something else up its sleeve. We joined in a tour around parts of the island, and it was interesting to get more information on the island, such as, on a light note, the island got its name from dogs, not birds, like a lot of people believe. They also had some amazing buildings that felt like I was in some sort of history story novel. However, on a more sombre note, we also learned of the history of the first settlers on the island, the Guanches, more than 500 years ago and how they were destroyed by Europeans conquests along with diseases. 

La Gomera

La Gomera was the first island that we went too. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I think I’ll say this island was the least memorable out of the islands we visited, but I don’t think we spent too much time there to be honest! I personally really had wanted to try the food, but I was told by my parents that it’s better to have food back on the cruise ship since the food was included, so I gave in, but I still wished I had tried something! 

From what I remember there didn’t seem much there, but again we didn’t really explore it to the extent we did the other islands. I don’t really remember why, maybe it because we were unsure how much time we had off the cruise? Or there had been something we wanted to do on the cruise. I think on the other islands we had more of an idea what to look at, so it was a purposeful journey, rather than just walking close to the shore for about an hour or a little more, then heading back to the ship. 

Tenerife

Kind of like La Gomera we didn’t stay very long, unlike la Gomera, I had a memorial time! There seemed like a lot more to do, and I wished we had more time! 

I don’t remember the reason, but my sister and my mum stayed on the cruise ship while I dragged my dad away to have a look at the island. 

Unfortunately, I only seemed to have taken one picture, I wish I had taken more! Anyway, we walked around the shops for a little bit, then I found this nearby art gallery to have a look at. I’m not knowledgeable about art at all, but I still enjoy art galleries. However, my dad wasn’t a big fan, and so I was soon dragged away from paintings and their information that I was giving my best trying to read it and put my Spanish lessons up to the test, I don’t think I did a very good job though. 

Conclusion

The actual cruise itself? Seven or eight out of ten. There were a lot of times when I was a bit bored really and doing quizzes every night got a little dull too, but at the same time, I loved the food! I’ll talk more about that in my longer review, and it also could just be so relaxing and peaceful, so if you are someone who enjoys just sitting down and reading a book then this is a definite recommendation! They even had this small library that I often went to, no one was usually there, so it was also very relaxing and quiet! 

The islands? The most memorable islands were Madeira and Gran Canaria! Absolutely amazing views! 

In Gran Canaria we took a small tour which drove us up to see the amazing views in the mountains and explained more about the island. There was this gorgeous hotel we passed as well, and I’d love to revisit sometime! As well as this lovely garden area! 

In Madeira, not only were the mountainous views fantastic! But we took a tour that showed us the Christmas lights as well! Beautiful! I have lots of pictures on my Instagram of the islands, especially Gran Canaria and Madeira, quick plug if you’re not a follower, click here for my Instagram and if the link does not work, my name is travel100cd with the same profile pic 😊

I think the most memorable food I had, was in this restaurant we went too, on the cruise ship. Likewise, I think they had three restaurants you could go too, that you had to pay for, because they weren’t included. We tried one of the restaurants that had Japanese inspired food and that food was so lovely! We had these different types of sushi, unfortunately I don’t remember what the sushi had in them! They were just so tasty! And we had these little starters that looked like cute little parcels.

I also really enjoyed this pasta and pizza place on the cruise ship that was included, and you could choose what type of pasta, sauce and ingredients you wanted, I visited this place way too much!

What Next?

Do you want to know more about my experiences on this holiday? A strange secret that leads to a missing birthday cake, my experience in a Spanish McDonald’s for the first time, more about my first day on the cruise ship by myself, more about the Christmas lights in Madeira, some interesting covid rules because of us being on a cruise, and even more! Stay tuned for my in-depth review! 

But before that, some fantastic news! I will be going on holiday on the 22nd so expect live experience blogs! It is a local holiday to the county Suffolk but we will be staying in a cute cottage and pretty landscape all around! If you want to know what that type of blog will be like then out this live experience blog from my time at a chocolate making work shop! I likely won’t do every single day on holiday but I suppose it depends on what we do! I will also be doing an actual live experience through my social media accounts! I might even do a blog about what I’m expecting then compare it to reality, as well as my after thoughts and once I’ve had time to sit down and think about the holiday as a whole.

I will also do a Tiktok livestream on the 23rd, which I am very nervous about since I have never done a livestream before! I won’t be showing my face but just showing my surroundings and either talking to myself or whoever will listen ha! My tiktok account is here, if that does not work, my name is foodcdtravel, if you’re interested that is! It’ll be at 4:30 GMT. I might need to reschedule but we’ll see how it goes!

My holiday to Suffolk will take priority but once this is over, I will go back to working on my in-depth review for the cruise but in the future, any travels that I go on currently will always take priority over my past ones. I am hoping to go back to Spain and also go to New Zealand at some point next year. I did talk a little bit with my parents about visiting Northern Ireland too. It may be part of the UK but I’ve never been and always wanted to explore, especially visit the giants causeway which looks amazing in pictures I’ve seen!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review and I’m looking forward to the future and I hope you are too ♥️

(Edit: So to finish the final edit, photos, captions, grammar checks and the last couple of paragraphs took me way longer than I expected, I got home from work at around seven. I started at 7:20pm and now I am just finishing it at 11:46pm, I usually post on Instagran and Tiktok when I get home to promote this blog but I put all that aside to finish this, so yes, I thought I’d have time to post this at nine or something, then do a daily prompt at my usual time, but nope, this will be my late 11:30 post instead of a daily prompt) So, I really hope you enjoy this ❤ ❤