{"id":15496,"date":"2024-07-16T14:23:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T04:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/traveltourexplore.com\/?p=15496"},"modified":"2026-08-20T01:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:17:08","slug":"mein-shiff-5-cape-town-to-and-around-the-greek-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveltourexplore.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/mein-shiff-5-cape-town-to-and-around-the-greek-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Mein Shiff 5 – Cape Town to and around the Greek Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cape Town to Gibraltar<\/h3>\n
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We still had some time to wait for our truck. Not enough time to go back to Australia but too much to sit around in Cape Town. I found a relocation cruise of the ship Mein Shiff 5 (My Ship), all German speaking. As the Suez Canal was closed due to conflict the ship needed to make a fast trip from Cape Town to Crete to keep its island cruising schedule. As a result the cruise was relatively cheap and would keep us busy while we waited for our truck. As an added bonus Laura our Daughter had a couple of weeks free in Europe from her gap year. We arranged to stay on the cruise for two weeks around the Mediterranean to catch up with her as we hadn't seen her in four months.<\/p>\n

We really enjoyed this leg of the cruise. The ship normally has around two thousand five hundred passengers, however due to it just being at sea for most of the trip, there were only three hundered passengers, but eight hundred staff. Service was excellent.<\/p>\n

We did dancing lessons twice a day and gained our silver ballroom certificate from the German Dance Sport Association. I also partnered Evelyn for her Bronze Certificate. We ate and drank excessively as the food was delicious and drinks were included. Surprisingly I did not notice anyone drunk.<\/p>\n

The ship passengers were all German speaking except for us. This didn't cause too much difficulty. Many of the guests spoke a little English and the staff all spoke English. The staff were from all over and English was the common language. One of the waiters said they hadn't given out an English menu for the restaurant for five months. Very few German staff, however the ship was run as a German would expect - on time and efficient.<\/p>\n

The T20 Cricket World Cup was on while we were cruising. It was fun to talk cricket with all the Indian staff. Later the Indians eventually won the cup.<\/p>\n

Along the way we saw a few pods of dolphins. There was also a massive dust storm that dumped sand all over the ship off Morocco.<\/p>\n