Carnival Pride Europe Cruise Review: Day 16 – Zeebruggefeatured
A few years ago, I won a free cruise on the Carnival Horizon by posting a picture on Instagram. We spent a glorious week and a half sailing through the Mediterranean. After our trip, I went home for exactly eight days (where I spent half that time in a leadership development course) and then I flew back to Europe to tag along on one of my friends business trips (which you can read about it here!). She was in Belgium for a week, and who was I to say no to a (mostly) free trip to Europe? I had a blast. My boss was not thrilled, but the stories I have from that trip still make me smile to this day. I wouldn’t do a thing differently.
One of the highlights of my time in Belgium was a visit my friend and I made to Ghent. We hopped on a train from Antwerp and spent the day exploring the city on a canal cruise, wandering the streets, eating waffles and frites and spending an obscene amount of money on Belgian chocolates. I’ve been telling Stephanie and Mom for years how much they’d love Ghent, so having Belgium on this itinerary was a highlight I planned on taking advantage of.
We initially missed our chance — there’s not a great or easy way to get to Ghent from Zeebrugge and we waited too long to book our excursion. Carnival had initially only offered one tour to Ghent that sold out quickly before our voyage, and the remaining tours were to nearby Brugge. Once we boarded, though, Carnival added an additional departure time for the Ghent excursion and we hopped right on it!
When we woke up, we had just begun pulling into port. We were docking a bit later than some of our other ports, giving us the luxury of a few extra hours of sleep — much needed ones after such a long day in Le Havre!
We took our time getting up and getting ready and then headed upstairs to the Lido deck for breakfast. I would have preferred Port Day breakfast in the dining room but even on port days, they kept their hours incredibly limited and were often done serving before we even woke up. The options in the Lido Marketplace were more limited than any Carnival cruise I can remember sailing on (they didn’t even have bacon every day!) so we often stuck the Blue Iguana Cantina, where the made-to-order breakfast burritos and arepas were the tastiest and most consistent options available.
Our meeting time for our excursion was moved up by almost an hour, so after breakfast, we headed down to the Taj Mahal to get our stickers and soon after, down to meet our tour bus and our guide, Inga.
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it, but the gangways on this cruise were some of the most difficult, steep gangway’s we’ve ever had to navigate. On most days, we were going on and off from deck 2 or 3 instead of deck 1, so just something to know if you have mobility challenges! Additionally, you can’t walk out to the city at the Port of Zeebrugge — you have to take a shuttle. Much like the other ports, Carnival failed to secure enough buses (we had heard they had only paid for one and the port provided three). As such, as soon as the ship was cleared, a massive line hundreds of people deep formed. We read in our Facebook group that at its worst, it took over an hour and a half to get on a shuttle. I know it’d been awhile with the pause and this was just the start of the European cruising season, so I hope this is something they work out for subsequent cruises because it was a big failure and poor planning that cost many cruisers hours in port.
Thankfully, because we were on an excursion from the ship, we got to walk right to our bus without any lines or waiting. Much like our other ship tours, this one was very small — just 13 people — so it felt like a private tour more than a tour organized through the ship!
Inga walked us through the itinerary for our half-day excursion: it would take us an hour and a half to drive from Zeebrugge to Ghent. From there, we’d have a 20 minute walk to the canals, where we’d board an hour-long guided canal cruise. After that, we’d have an hour of free time to wander, shop and eat, and then we’d meet back up at the canals for a 20-minute boat ride up to the tour bus.
I think there’s so much to love about Ghent. The colorful buildings, the distinctive Flemish architecture, the waterways and views from the boats — it’s all stunning. It’s less flashy than Bruges, but that’s what I love about it. Most visitors will flock to Bruges, which makes it a little more touristy. Ghent is a college town (according to Inga, it’s home of one of the biggest universities in Belgium!) so it feels a little less touristy, a little more local and a little quieter.
We hopped off the bus for a bio break and then began our walking tour to the canal boats. The walk is flat, though there are some cobblestoned sidewalks. I was just absolutely taken by everything we walked past — the uniqueness of Flemish architecture is just so beautiful to me!
The boat we boarded said it fit 38, but I couldn’t imagine it fitting more than 15 or 20. The boats are small and close to the water, which gives such an interesting perspective to view the city from. Our captain was wonderful, giving us all of these interesting details that I never knew about the city! Seeing Ghent on land is lovely, but seeing it from the water provides for such a unique vantage point and another way to admire all of that beautiful architecture.
After an hour on the water, we disembarked for free time and I had our time mapped out: there was a chocolate shop I just loved the last time I visited and I wanted to buy some chocolates for the flight home. We stopped at a McDonalds for Coke Lights and set out to find the chocolate shop, only to discover that despite an active Google listing saying they were open, the shop disappeared and no longer existed!
We quickly hopped on Google to find another spot — Inga had mentioned that real Belgian chocolates will run at least €30 per kilo and anything that cost less was likely blended chocolate. We quickly found a listing for a chocolatier named Neuhaus and bought some of their delicious chocolates to take home.
With only a sliver of free time left, we snapped some (more) pictures and then set out to find some waffles because you just can’t go to Belgium and not have a waffle or frites or just something deliciously Belgian!
The last time I was here, we just got waffles off a street vendor, but those were fewer and far between this time, so we found a spot not far from the chocolate spot, ordered a few waffles to go and enjoyed them al fresco.
It was a quick walk back to the canal for the last bit of our canal cruise. I kept looking at Mom and Steph to see if they were loving it as much as I do, if they were seeing and appreciating the beauty that was there. I couldn’t help myself — when I love things, I just want to share them and have others around me loving them, too!
We hopped off the boat at a small dock near the fringe of the city and boarded the bus back to the ship. I got in a solid bus nap and before we knew it, we were back in Zeebrugge. We bid farewell to Inga and stepped back onboard for the final night of our cruise!
I find the end of a cruise a bit morose, but having a port day as the final day helped that a bit. It felt a bit more normal, a bit less “this is the last time for XYZ” than a sea day does. I’m terrible with procrastinating but I was determined to pack before it became a hassle! We bought too much, as usual, but we made it work, got everything packed and treated ourselves to a burger at Guy’s as a reward!
We did some more packing and tidying in the room and sat outside on the balcony, just enjoying everything for as long as we had it. It was a stunningly beautiful day in Belgium — sunny and warm and it was just a fitting way to end our cruise.
The next morning would be an early one — we’d dock in Southampton, say goodbye to the Pride and make the long drive into London for the final leg of our trip. Usually we linger around the ship, take everything in a little more, one last time, see a show or sit in one of the lounges with some live music. We reminisce, we take it all in and we look ahead to the next one. This time, though, we just put our bags out and went to sleep. It’s always a little sad closing the chapter of a cruise you’d anticipated so widely and for so long but we had so much to look forward to with our first proper trip to London, and we were ready to finally experience everything that exists outside the confines of Heathrow!
