MSC’s chocolate cruise is the ultimate sweet treat

MSC Cruises has a flair for offering innovative and exciting food and wine theme cruises, with recent initiatives including five popular Facebook competitions for UK, French, German, Italian and Spanish guests in which the lucky winners each set sail with one of their nation’s famous chefs.

Sharpening its creative culinary skills further still, MSC Cruises has now joined forces with Gerry Wilton, international chocolatier and founder of the world’s first chocolate themed hotel, the chic and unique Chocolate Boutique Hotel in Bournemouth, to offer a voyage of discovery with a difference for guests on board MSC Opera from 13- 23 May 2012.

Combining visits to Northern Europe’s most fascinating Baltic capitals with a veritable ‘choc fest’, guests will witness the transformation of MSC Opera into a chocolate factory as she departs from Southampton for an 11-day cruise, visiting the cities of Amsterdam, Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen before returning to Southampton.

During the four full days at sea, Wilton will host a series of mouth-watering, hour-long chocolate classes, starting every morning at 11.00 and every afternoon at 15.00. These are not your typical theory classes in which the teacher holds court, but rather ‘hands on’ tutorials where the emphasis is very much on interactive fun.

Guests will learn all about the history of chocolate and the fascinating production process from bean to bar and generally enjoy every calorie-laden minute. They will taste samples from all over the world, learn how to make both moulded chocolates and Belgian truffles and even paint portraits of themselves - using delicious white, dark and milk Belgian chocolate - which will then be framed for them to take away.

Guests of all nationalities can book their classes directly on board, while lucky UK guests can book their chocolate class in advance through their travel agent, call centre, or through the MSC Cruises’ UK website. Snyder Travel / Cruise Planners.