I’ve found the perfect, affordable holiday to keep every generation happy

The prospect of an extended-family holiday is either a source of joy or dread, depending on your relatives. Happily, my cacophony of cousins are close enough that it’s a treat – over the years, we’ve travelled from Thailand’s beaches to Las Vegas’s casino floors, and our bond has lived to tell the tale.

Still, experience has taught us that large-group holidays are an exercise in wrangling competing desires. So, as our travelling tribe expanded to an age range of 16–60 for a special year of milestone birthdays, my eldest cousin put forward a solution: a cruise. We could each choose our own adventure, while remaining together. We’re not the only ones who are on to it: with a 50 per cent rise in groups bookings over the past three years, multi-generational families in the UK and Ireland are “a rapidly growing part of the guest base,” for cruise line MSC Cruises.

So after five months of discussion and planning, 14 of us were scattered across the sun-drenched deck of MSC Preziosa as the 4,345-passenger ship glided from Buenos Aires. Some were sipping all-inclusive beers while looking out to sea, others joined the shipboard aerobics class for a giggle and the remaining crew were sinking into a bubbling whirlpool. A cruise was just what we needed.

This 10-day South American voyage won unanimously in the WhatsApp poll we used to decide our holiday, not least because the alternative among the choices of those celebrating their birthdays – a two-week Philippines trip at £1,542pp for just travel and accommodation – was a little too far flung for our allocation of annual leave. The latter cost £2,077pp with two people sharing a cabin, but it included flights, the cruise, onboard activities, food and drink. The all-in price felt like good value and avoided the dreaded admin of splitting expenses (although for shore days, Splitwise came in handy). For those further booking ahead, an eight-day cruise with a similar itinerary is available from £664pp, without flights, based on two sharing an interior cabin.

It helped that the ports ticked all our boxes. I was intrigued by Punta del Este, Uruguay’s flash coastal destination favoured by glitterati like Zinedine Zidane, Shakira and Ralph Lauren. The beachgoers were keen on Balneário Camboriú in Brazil, where skyscrapers dominate so completely that the beach was artificially extended in 2021 to give sun-seekers a chance of escaping their shadow.

The ship also stopped at Santos. As the breeding ground for players such as Robinho, Neymar and Pelé, that immediately appealed to the football-mad among us.

I had initially believed Santos to be a port city cosplaying as a tourist destination. Once we’d clambered onto a minibus for our excursion, our guide, Romi, confessed, “even we’re not sure if Santos is a city built around a port, or a port built around a city”. But upon touring the well-executed Pelé Museum, Estrela de Ouro (a pay-by-weight restaurant), and Porchat Island for views of the Sao Vincent (the first permanent Portuguese settlement in Brazil), it was clear the heritage ran deep. “Brazil is a nation of immigrants,” Romi said. “It’s like a fruit salad: the more fruit there is, the better the salad.”

Back on the Preziosa, evenings followed our makeshift tradition. We gathered at the Preziosa Bar to grab cocktails – the batida de vodka was as delightful as the story the enthusiastic bartenders told with it, about how its ingredient of brigadeiro (fudge-like sweetened condensed milk) was created during wartime.

Then came sit-down dinners with the whole group, followed by optional tomfoolery – whether the nightly show in the Platinum Theatre, the casino or themed club nights (the South American passengers, skewing younger than European cruisers, knew how to party). At karaoke, witnessing two nephews perform “Smack That” by Akon in front of perplexed passengers waiting for their turn to sing ABBA was worth the holiday fund alone.

On sea days, we tried staying in contact via MSC’s onboard app, but patchy internet combined with constant moving around meant we largely gave up and instead congregated around our favourite spots. The lively top deck bar was where the younger contingent among us people-watched on sunny days, while the infinity pool at the stern suited the older crowd as a calmer place to soak up the sun.

Coffee shop Il Cappuccino was our place for Flip 7 and Monopoly Deal, the card games that brought us together. Especially as Ligia, the cafe’s personable waitress, immediately remembered us and our complicated latte orders (as the only English-speakers among largely Brazilian and Argentinian passengers, we stood out).

Admittedly, naps were taken, but judgement was reserved. As cousin Bhav put it: “It’s fine, our group is large enough that if you want to disappear, you can, and the ship is contained enough that if you want to be social, you can.” Perfect for an ambivert like me.

These unstructured times were where we really connected. I shot the breeze with my cousins’ children in a way I hadn’t before, given our geographical distances span from Brighton to Liverpool.

“I’ve talked to you more on this holiday than I have my whole life,” my kind-of nephew said, and we both gawped realising that wasn’t hyperbole. I wondered if it would have been the same if we’d been let loose in the Philippines. As we made our way to the White Night party, batida de vodka in hand and surrounded by family I’d known my whole life yet gotten to know again, I was content to not have found out.

How to do it

MSC has an seven-night South America round-trip cruise from Santos, Brazil, from £684pp for an inside cabin, not including flights.   

More information

Specialist cruise insurance can cover medical care, emergency evacuation and cabin confinement if a passenger is ill onboard or there is a virus on the ship.