SNCM Ferries – The Napolean Bonaparte

Whenever I travel to the mainland by car, I normally leave from Propriano which means that I have the choice of the Scandola or the Girolata – both mixed freight and passenger ferries operated by CMN. This time, I’d been staying with friends in the north so I decided to leave from Bastia, and managed to bag a place on the Napolean Bonaparte.



SNCM have two ‘cruise’ ferries which are the Danielle Casanova and the Napoleon Bonaparte. I’d travelled on the Danielle Casanova before when we went to the Ardèche last summer, so I was hoping that the Napoleon Bonaparte would be the same. I was really surprised at how huge it was, and although I’d taken the cheapest grade of cabin, I was still impressed.



Fortunately, I’d had the foresight to give my mobile number when I made the reservation, as I had a text from SNCM the day before to say that due to festivities at Bastia port, I should check in at 16h30 instead of 19h. I was slightly miffed to say the least, but it turned out to be good advice as the journey to the port which should normally take an hour and a half actually took two and a half hours – eek! Luckily they also let us board early so we could explore the ship, swim, go to the shops/restaurants etc. so it wasn’t all bad.



The next morning we were due to arrive at 7h30 and I wanted to be up and on dock before we arrived to see if I could replicate the photo I took last year which was on an SD card that subsequently died. It was really windy and I was worried that my glasses would blow overboard (or worse, me!) so I gave up in the end and went back inside. Maybe next time.