We arrived in Santorini this morning. We noticed as we looked at the island that it is impossible to imagine scaling these shear cliffs to build those towns at the top of the mountains. We are parked out in the water inside the crescent hollow. The island is shaped like a crescent and we are moored right in the center looking up at these incredible shear cliffs with lots of white buildings on the top. There is a zig zag path that goes up the mountainside to the town of Fira.
Since we weren't docked, that meant that we would need to tender in on boats. We have an excursion scheduled today to go to the town of Pyrgos, and then on to a wine tasting and then to Fira for walking about. So we got into our tender and we were taken to a dock at the fr end of the island. The waves were quite active and it's always amazing how good these boat captains are at their jobs. We pulled right up and were able to get off very easily. On the way in we passed an American navy ship. No name but the number 60 on it. So Carol, let us know who it was.
After we got on the ground at the dock, it was off to our bus. Here is yet another island with narrow roads and a big bus going up mountains with incredible switchbacks. Someone is getting run off the road and I'll bet the bus wins. We headed up the mountain and of course ran a small smart car off the road at about the third switchback. We headed up to the top of the mountain and when we go there we were very surprised to see the other side of the island was was flat! We saw the airport over on the flat side. Don't know why they don't have a dock on that side of the island. Anyway, we headed up to the very top of the mountain where there was a military installation but our guide said it was the best views. So the bus stopped and we got out and took pictures.
Then it was back in the bus to go to the beautiful mountain town of Pyrgos. We got there and it was an amazing little town with white and blue buildings. We are struck with how clean everything is here. We climbed up and down the stairs going to churches, restaurants and beautiful little houses. It seemed everyone had stairs to their roofs and there were tables and chairs on the roof for them to eat their meals and look down at the ocean views. We walked around there for about an hour. It was really lovely. Hope you like the pics we took. After everyone had a chance to get a cup of Greek coffee we got back in our bus to head to our wine tasting.
We quickly arrived at our destination, Phyrgos Restaurant. It was a beautiful place and we were shown in to the tables by a big bay window. They brought us water, then they brought decanters of white wine, and then a plate of greek snacks. A man at our table asked the proprietor what kind of wine it was. We knew it was a local wine, but we weren't sure if it was a sweet wine, dry or what. Also we kind of wanted to know the name of the wine. The proprietor's response was a terse "white wine". Rude and unhelpful. The snacks included bread, hummus, spanakopita, sausage and some sort of fried tomato thing. We were sitting with four people from Maryland and two women from Vegas. We all had some laughs and ate our food and drank our wine. We kept expecting that they would come out and tell us about the wine. Everyone else was sure we would be getting a red wine or a sweet wine with our dessert. Well we never saw the proprietor again. No dessert, no red wine. I can see a bad review coming on this tour from someone in our cabin.
We all loaded back into the bus and headed to Pyrgos. We were riding along the top of the mountain and Pyrgos is right there on top of the mountain. We got a couple of instructions from the guide about the local bus and where to catch the cable car down to the tender boats. Then we were left on our own. We had about five hours before having to get back to the ship. So we shopped and ate gelato and took pictures. The streets here were very clean too. And with all the buildings painted white, everything just looks clean and fresh.
At this point I need to go back and tell you about you get from the tender boats up to the town of Pyrgos. We of course took a bus around the island and ended up on top of the mountain, but lots of other people just go straight up the mountain. The traditional way is on a donkey!!!! I put some pics of the donkeys in the file. Also some of their poop!! Anyway, we were told on the ship NOT to take a donkey. To take the cable car up the mountain. As for getting down the mountain, there is the cable car or the donkeys, or walking 865 steps down the zig zag path to the docks. The steps are not straight stairs. They are long strides sometimes two or three steps before you step down again. And they are not level. They are made of rocks and cobblestones and are pretty slick. We would have walked down however if we could have found the way to get on the path. So we climbed up to the cable car to ride down. The line wound all around the town. People were saying it was one and a half hour at least to get to the cable car. By this time it was hot and the line was in the sun. But we sucked it up and got in line and just made jokes. Turns out it moved very fast and we were at the bottom within forty minutes.
So we got back on our tender boat and headed to the ship. Again we showered and hung out on our balcony watching the shore and the tender boats go back and forth. At 6pm we headed down to dinner and then to the Centrum to listen to the band. The show tonight was the Tango group we saw on the first cruise (the crossing) and they weren't good enough to go see again. We really miss the Burn the Floor performers from NCL. Oh well, so that being the case, we headed to our cabin and I wrote this up!! Tomorrow we land in Athens. Can't wait to see the sights.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Day 19 - May 24th Rhodes, Greece
We docked in Rhodes Greece and Bill and I had absolutely no expectation for the island. I knew it was part of Greece but didn't know anything about it. Well, it I our favorite so far. First off as you can see in the pictures, the city is a walled fortress. So we were very enamored of the way it looked. Like a story book castle and town.
We had breakfast and went to meet our tour group. We boarded our bus and headed out of the city of Rhodes and headed up the side of the island. As we passed the beach just near town and made the turn north our guide told us that at this beach the Aegean Sea and the Mediterannean Sea meet. So if you swim there, you are swimming in both seas. So that was pretty cool. Also since we were in a big bus on a small island with narrow roads we knew there would be a lot of near misses. Our guide said that many accidents happen because drivers are distracted by looking at the nude sun bathers. The road is so close to the beach.
The island is over run with wild goats, though we didn't see many. The guide pointed out the oleander bushes everywhere. She said that its the only thing you can plant that the goats won't eat because they are poisonous. Although she called them Laurel bushes. She also said that we would see lots of hibiscus but the greeks called them roses and that is how Rhodes got its' name.
We drove up the shore for about 20 miles and then headed inland and up. We arrived at the ancient city of Kamieros. It was a city built originally in the 6th century b.c. They started excavating it when a goat fell in a hole and they found artifacts. They have also established that at some point the city was abandoned and rebuilt in the 2nd century b.c. The astounding things they found were terra-cotta pipes feeding water from cisterns at the top of the mountain and from underground springs to all the homes. The homes also had indoor bathrooms. It is really an interesting place.
We got back in our bus and headed to Rhodes city. Rhodes claim to fame is that the Crusaders came from Italy, Spain and France. The Crusaders that came were doctors and they they established a hospital. They also built the fortress and they occupied Rhodes from the 13th century a.d. through the mid 1500's. They were the Order of St. John. The town was divided into three areas. The Grand Master's house and his administrative people, then the Crusaders and the military (although the doctors wore armor and fought and killed over 40 thousand invaders) and the rest of the inhabitants including a Jewish quarter. The fortress had a double moat. So there was one moat about 40 meters wide and then later the closer moat was about 20 meters wide. Both moats were dirt and not water because the fortress was so far above the sea level.
The city was exceptionally clean. Of course the cable stones were even worse than they are in Malcesine. Think of river rocks that are about 6inches long and 3 inches wide and maybe an inch or two thick. Then they paved the road with them set on their sides and sticking up about 2-3 inches. Really hard to walk on. The hospital is now their archaeological society and the Grand Masters house is now a museum. Just before the 2nd world war, Greece was trying to get Mussolini to make the Grand Master's house is vacation home. So some of the furnishings are from the 15th century and others were brought in from Italy in the 1930's. But the war broke out and he never came.
After our walking tour we were left on our own in the city. We had about 4 hours until the all aboard for the ship, so we walked around and shopped. Of course we stopped and had gelato. We do that first as soon as we are turned loose all the time. The city is a big vacation spot for rich Russians so there are lots of fur stores. Which we thought was pretty funny since it is never cold in Greece. But I guess they can import them and sell them to the Russians for cheaper than the Russians can get back home. We walked around for a little more than an hour when I had to pee, so we headed for the WC's. All the little outside cafes have people who "hawk' you in to their restaurants and tell you all about their food. So as we are walking to the WC we escape several 'hawkers' and we find out that the WC is a half a euro to use. But I didn't have and 50p coins so we turned around and headed out and there is a restaurant right there and the "hawker" offers me his bathroom. So after I go, we are guilted into sitting down and ordering wine. So he brings us wine glasses filled to the top with red wine. So we figured ok we are here for a while. I'd been using my Google Translate and was saying good morning and thank you in greek. I got asked a couple of times if I spoke Greek, but I fessed up to using Google Translate. After a while sipping our wine, we asked for some spanakopita, but they didn't have any so they brought us garlic/cheese toast, cheese croquettes and tzatziki sauce. So we were there for a couple of hours. The food and the wine were good and watching people on the square was lots of fun. Turns out we were in the old Jewish quarter and I got a picture of the memorial to the Jews who lost their lives in WWII.
After we finished our meal, we continued our stroll around town. We went out the gates and down by the docks. I hope you enjoy all the pics of Rhodes.
After we re-boarded the ship, we showered and then sat on our balcony and watched peopled coming back to the ship. Everyone would walk past the gate and then try to figure out how to get to the ship.The women always figured it out first, and it was very funny to watch.
Dinner was light. We didn't order a starter or a dessert since we ate so much in town. At the show that night, it was Legends and Divas. Performed by two of the featured production cast. They asked ho was celebrating anniversaries and we chimed up. Since we were the longest married in that crowd and we were in the front row, Melissa (the singer) invited us to come up and dance to Etta James' 'At Last' that she sung for us. Then Jesus (the singer) brought us a bottle of Champagne. Bill hates t get bottles of Champagne because you have to drink the whole bottle after you open it. Oh well. Then it was off to bed and we will wake up in Santorini in the morning.
We had breakfast and went to meet our tour group. We boarded our bus and headed out of the city of Rhodes and headed up the side of the island. As we passed the beach just near town and made the turn north our guide told us that at this beach the Aegean Sea and the Mediterannean Sea meet. So if you swim there, you are swimming in both seas. So that was pretty cool. Also since we were in a big bus on a small island with narrow roads we knew there would be a lot of near misses. Our guide said that many accidents happen because drivers are distracted by looking at the nude sun bathers. The road is so close to the beach.
The island is over run with wild goats, though we didn't see many. The guide pointed out the oleander bushes everywhere. She said that its the only thing you can plant that the goats won't eat because they are poisonous. Although she called them Laurel bushes. She also said that we would see lots of hibiscus but the greeks called them roses and that is how Rhodes got its' name.
We drove up the shore for about 20 miles and then headed inland and up. We arrived at the ancient city of Kamieros. It was a city built originally in the 6th century b.c. They started excavating it when a goat fell in a hole and they found artifacts. They have also established that at some point the city was abandoned and rebuilt in the 2nd century b.c. The astounding things they found were terra-cotta pipes feeding water from cisterns at the top of the mountain and from underground springs to all the homes. The homes also had indoor bathrooms. It is really an interesting place.
We got back in our bus and headed to Rhodes city. Rhodes claim to fame is that the Crusaders came from Italy, Spain and France. The Crusaders that came were doctors and they they established a hospital. They also built the fortress and they occupied Rhodes from the 13th century a.d. through the mid 1500's. They were the Order of St. John. The town was divided into three areas. The Grand Master's house and his administrative people, then the Crusaders and the military (although the doctors wore armor and fought and killed over 40 thousand invaders) and the rest of the inhabitants including a Jewish quarter. The fortress had a double moat. So there was one moat about 40 meters wide and then later the closer moat was about 20 meters wide. Both moats were dirt and not water because the fortress was so far above the sea level.
The city was exceptionally clean. Of course the cable stones were even worse than they are in Malcesine. Think of river rocks that are about 6inches long and 3 inches wide and maybe an inch or two thick. Then they paved the road with them set on their sides and sticking up about 2-3 inches. Really hard to walk on. The hospital is now their archaeological society and the Grand Masters house is now a museum. Just before the 2nd world war, Greece was trying to get Mussolini to make the Grand Master's house is vacation home. So some of the furnishings are from the 15th century and others were brought in from Italy in the 1930's. But the war broke out and he never came.
After our walking tour we were left on our own in the city. We had about 4 hours until the all aboard for the ship, so we walked around and shopped. Of course we stopped and had gelato. We do that first as soon as we are turned loose all the time. The city is a big vacation spot for rich Russians so there are lots of fur stores. Which we thought was pretty funny since it is never cold in Greece. But I guess they can import them and sell them to the Russians for cheaper than the Russians can get back home. We walked around for a little more than an hour when I had to pee, so we headed for the WC's. All the little outside cafes have people who "hawk' you in to their restaurants and tell you all about their food. So as we are walking to the WC we escape several 'hawkers' and we find out that the WC is a half a euro to use. But I didn't have and 50p coins so we turned around and headed out and there is a restaurant right there and the "hawker" offers me his bathroom. So after I go, we are guilted into sitting down and ordering wine. So he brings us wine glasses filled to the top with red wine. So we figured ok we are here for a while. I'd been using my Google Translate and was saying good morning and thank you in greek. I got asked a couple of times if I spoke Greek, but I fessed up to using Google Translate. After a while sipping our wine, we asked for some spanakopita, but they didn't have any so they brought us garlic/cheese toast, cheese croquettes and tzatziki sauce. So we were there for a couple of hours. The food and the wine were good and watching people on the square was lots of fun. Turns out we were in the old Jewish quarter and I got a picture of the memorial to the Jews who lost their lives in WWII.
After we finished our meal, we continued our stroll around town. We went out the gates and down by the docks. I hope you enjoy all the pics of Rhodes.
After we re-boarded the ship, we showered and then sat on our balcony and watched peopled coming back to the ship. Everyone would walk past the gate and then try to figure out how to get to the ship.The women always figured it out first, and it was very funny to watch.
Dinner was light. We didn't order a starter or a dessert since we ate so much in town. At the show that night, it was Legends and Divas. Performed by two of the featured production cast. They asked ho was celebrating anniversaries and we chimed up. Since we were the longest married in that crowd and we were in the front row, Melissa (the singer) invited us to come up and dance to Etta James' 'At Last' that she sung for us. Then Jesus (the singer) brought us a bottle of Champagne. Bill hates t get bottles of Champagne because you have to drink the whole bottle after you open it. Oh well. Then it was off to bed and we will wake up in Santorini in the morning.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
DAY 17 & 18 MAY 22-23 Sea Day and Mykonos
Well May 22 was a sea day. We were traveling from Sicily to Mykonos, Greece. Started out pretty slow. Bill has been feeling like he had a sore throat so he has been taking Tylenol. So he didn't get up to exercise. He actually slept in late, like until noon. I got up and was very quiet and completed all the blogs I needed to catch up on. When Bill got up and we thought about going out of the room, he went to take another Tylenol and discovered that he has been taking Tylenol PM. So that's why he has been sleeping so much!! Too funny. So we searched through all of our drugs and found the regular Tylenol, but not until I had gone down to the shops and bought some. Thats's $12 we'll never see again.
Well now that we know why he is sleeping so much we have fixed it and we went up to the pool area to find a place to hang out for a while. The pool was too noisy so we headed to the bow of the ship and found two chairs in a quiet area. But it was so windy that it was cold. So we picked up our stuff and headed to the stern of the ship and set up on two chairs. We laid there for quite a while. Long enough to read and get quite hot. So we moved to the Solarium and found one chair. We dumped our stuff on it and got into the pool there. Nice and cooled off. We got out and found one more chair and sat and read for a while.
We got u intake to go get ready for dinner and headed down for dinner at 6pm. It was a formal night so we got dressed up. I wore my new coral necklace from the jewelry store in Sicily. The show wasn't worth seeing again so we went off to our cabin and sat on the balcony and went to bed early.
We arrived in Mykonos early Wednesday morning. We got up (no exercise for Bill), had breakfast in the Tradewinds Buffet and watched us dock. Then we headed to the Safari Lounge to meet up with our tour. We were heading to a beach. Not a nude one this time. It was a short ride. The country side is very rocky and barren. All the houses are white and blue. Everyone seems to have a little church with a red roof near them. Our tour guide said it is people who fish have built these churches to bring good fishing luck to the family.
The beach was very nice. There were sun beds for rent (25euros) that included 2 bottles of water in an ice bucket. The water was icy. No swimming here. There was a nice taverna right there too but since we had just eaten, we didn't need anything. We had a wonderful three hours there at the beach and then it was time to board the bus and head back to the ship.
We arrived back at the cruise port and we jumped on the Sea Bus that would take us to old Mykonos town. It was 4 euros each for round trip fare and they left every half hour. We spent a lovely afternoon in old Mykonos town. Shopping and looking and eating gelato. Caught the sea bus back to the ship and took some well needed showers.
Dinner was quite nice. It was a casual night and I wore a beautiful hand painted 100% artificial silk scarf with my dress to diner. After dinner we sat and listened to the RCCL orchestra play big band music. The show tonight is the guest talent show. So that's a pass for me. Bill says he might go to it. Well tomorrow we are in Rhodes, Greece. See you then.
Well now that we know why he is sleeping so much we have fixed it and we went up to the pool area to find a place to hang out for a while. The pool was too noisy so we headed to the bow of the ship and found two chairs in a quiet area. But it was so windy that it was cold. So we picked up our stuff and headed to the stern of the ship and set up on two chairs. We laid there for quite a while. Long enough to read and get quite hot. So we moved to the Solarium and found one chair. We dumped our stuff on it and got into the pool there. Nice and cooled off. We got out and found one more chair and sat and read for a while.
We got u intake to go get ready for dinner and headed down for dinner at 6pm. It was a formal night so we got dressed up. I wore my new coral necklace from the jewelry store in Sicily. The show wasn't worth seeing again so we went off to our cabin and sat on the balcony and went to bed early.
We arrived in Mykonos early Wednesday morning. We got up (no exercise for Bill), had breakfast in the Tradewinds Buffet and watched us dock. Then we headed to the Safari Lounge to meet up with our tour. We were heading to a beach. Not a nude one this time. It was a short ride. The country side is very rocky and barren. All the houses are white and blue. Everyone seems to have a little church with a red roof near them. Our tour guide said it is people who fish have built these churches to bring good fishing luck to the family.
The beach was very nice. There were sun beds for rent (25euros) that included 2 bottles of water in an ice bucket. The water was icy. No swimming here. There was a nice taverna right there too but since we had just eaten, we didn't need anything. We had a wonderful three hours there at the beach and then it was time to board the bus and head back to the ship.
We arrived back at the cruise port and we jumped on the Sea Bus that would take us to old Mykonos town. It was 4 euros each for round trip fare and they left every half hour. We spent a lovely afternoon in old Mykonos town. Shopping and looking and eating gelato. Caught the sea bus back to the ship and took some well needed showers.
Dinner was quite nice. It was a casual night and I wore a beautiful hand painted 100% artificial silk scarf with my dress to diner. After dinner we sat and listened to the RCCL orchestra play big band music. The show tonight is the guest talent show. So that's a pass for me. Bill says he might go to it. Well tomorrow we are in Rhodes, Greece. See you then.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Day 16 May 21 - Sicily
Well we got to sleep in a little. Bill got up and did his exercise as he always does, but then he comes back and gets back in bed. At 9 we headed up to the buffet for breakfast. We sat out on the stern outside and watched as we sailed into the straits of Messina. We could see the toe of the boot and the island of Sicily. It was pretty cool. We are docking around 11 and then leaving on a tour to Taormina, Mt Etna, Wine Tasting and Jewelry factory. It will be a really full day, lots of time in a bus but lots of fun too.
The bus picked us up at the dock and we headed out of Messina in the middle of the day on a Monday. The town was really bustling. Messina is the third largest city in Sicily. It's hard to believe how they drive these buses on these tiny streets. And there are cars parked two deep on the other side of the road. Unbelievable. Well we finally got on the motorway or Autostrada for a one hour drive to Taormina. About 15 minutes outside of Taormina we got off the motorway and headed up the mountain to Taormina. It was a zig zag two lane mountain road. As we approached the switchback (tight curve) the drive would honk his horn about six times to let the on coming traffic know he was about to use up the whole road. Sometimes we'd have to stop and have the on coming traffic back up so we could get by. I was sitting on the left side of the bus at the window so I could see everything. I thought we were going hit these cars and some times buses and trucks. But.....we never did. So we got to Taormina and headed up through the parking lot to the top level (7 flights) where the town was. Bill walked all 7, I walked 3 and then caught an elevator. On the top of the parking garage we had great views of Mount Etna the active volcano. There are plenty of pictures in the shared picture file. There is alway steam or smoke coming out of the top and there is usually a cloud up there too.
We walked into the town down the ancient Main Street and our first stop was for gelato!! Yummy. Then off down the Main Street, looking in shops and trying to get to the greek amphitheater before we have to get back to the bus. We had one hour and fifteen minutes in Taormina. The shops were so cool but we can't possible buy anything because we can't fit everything we have in our luggage now. So on towards the greek theater. It was a much longer walk than we thought and we got to the greek theater with twelve minutes left before we had to be back on the bus. So we had that long walk back and now no time to go into the amphitheater. So we could see it from the outside, but didn't want to pay 20 euros to get in with no time left. So I snapped a couple of pictures and then we high tailed it back to the bus. We got there and we thought we were the first, but when we got on the bus, we were almost the last ones there. If you miss the time to get back, they won't wait, they will leave you!! Yikes. So now we were heading to a lava flow on Mt Etna.
So the bus is now going through tiny little towns, narrowing missing cars and buildings when it turns. Then we find out the road we are supposed to take is closed and we have to take a detour on even smaller roads. This puts us behind schedule. We finally get to the lava flows and we meet these ladies selling honey. They give us all tastes of lemon honey, pistachio honey, strawberry honey and a couple of others. It was great and Bill got a piece of lava from Mt Etna for Ann. Then back on the bus we go. Now we are headed to the wine tasting. I swear we are traveling in circles because I recognize the buildings and churches and town squares.
We arrive at the vineyard but the bus is too big to go up the road. So he parks and we all get out and have to walk about a half mile up hill to this vineyard. Our guide says we can only stay 30 minutes because we are behind schedule. Bill and I laugh because some of these people won't make it up the hill in 30 minutes. The winery is very pretty. They have cheese, bread, sausages and all kinds of things laid out for us to eat. They serve us a sparkling wine, Spumonti, then a light white wine, then a rose and finally a red blend. They are very nice. So much better that the wines we tasted in Alicante. The folks on our bus went through the food like locusts. Americans are so rude. Then almost an hour had past and we started back to the bus.
Our next stop was supposed to be at a jewelry factory. Our guide said that it looks like a private residence. So of the bus went, up and down tiny little roads and then into a residential area. The bus really did not fit on these streets. Then across from some nice apartments, we had arrived. The house was beautiful from the outside. They came out and invited us into the courtyard. There were beautiful statues and fountains. Then we went inside. Inside there were frescos on the ceiling and beautiful rugs and staircases. The manager introduced himself and told us about the company and invited us to see their stuff. They had a very small factory room in the basement. Only two employees there making jewelry. They took us down and we watched them working. They told us about the jewelry they make with precious stones and also the local lava, coral, turquoise, pearls and amber. They work with sterling silver and with 18ct gold. After we saw the factory, they took us upstairs to the showroom. No pressure to buy, but we would get 15% off any of their sale prices and no VAT. Also they had a buffet for us on the terrace. Bill headed to the terrace and I headed to the showroom. The pieces really were beautiful and the prices were reasonable. The SS pieces with coral and lava ran from 15 euro to 500 euro. The 18ct gold ran from 200 euro to the thousands. So I hd a blast picking out stuff.
By now we were still very behind schedule and our guide had to chase us all to the bus, but five people were still missing. Evidently they were completing purchases and we couldn't leave without them. The ship was supposed to leave Messina at 7:30pm and we were 45 minutes away at 6:50pm. So we were going to be late, but it was a ship sponsored tour so they would have to wait for us. We arrived at the ship at 7:40pm and they did wait for us. We took our stuff to our cabin and then headed to dinner. We sat at a shared table because it was so late. It was a great meal with good company. And after, we headed to bed. See you tomorrow. It's a sea day so probably not much to tell.
The bus picked us up at the dock and we headed out of Messina in the middle of the day on a Monday. The town was really bustling. Messina is the third largest city in Sicily. It's hard to believe how they drive these buses on these tiny streets. And there are cars parked two deep on the other side of the road. Unbelievable. Well we finally got on the motorway or Autostrada for a one hour drive to Taormina. About 15 minutes outside of Taormina we got off the motorway and headed up the mountain to Taormina. It was a zig zag two lane mountain road. As we approached the switchback (tight curve) the drive would honk his horn about six times to let the on coming traffic know he was about to use up the whole road. Sometimes we'd have to stop and have the on coming traffic back up so we could get by. I was sitting on the left side of the bus at the window so I could see everything. I thought we were going hit these cars and some times buses and trucks. But.....we never did. So we got to Taormina and headed up through the parking lot to the top level (7 flights) where the town was. Bill walked all 7, I walked 3 and then caught an elevator. On the top of the parking garage we had great views of Mount Etna the active volcano. There are plenty of pictures in the shared picture file. There is alway steam or smoke coming out of the top and there is usually a cloud up there too.
We walked into the town down the ancient Main Street and our first stop was for gelato!! Yummy. Then off down the Main Street, looking in shops and trying to get to the greek amphitheater before we have to get back to the bus. We had one hour and fifteen minutes in Taormina. The shops were so cool but we can't possible buy anything because we can't fit everything we have in our luggage now. So on towards the greek theater. It was a much longer walk than we thought and we got to the greek theater with twelve minutes left before we had to be back on the bus. So we had that long walk back and now no time to go into the amphitheater. So we could see it from the outside, but didn't want to pay 20 euros to get in with no time left. So I snapped a couple of pictures and then we high tailed it back to the bus. We got there and we thought we were the first, but when we got on the bus, we were almost the last ones there. If you miss the time to get back, they won't wait, they will leave you!! Yikes. So now we were heading to a lava flow on Mt Etna.
So the bus is now going through tiny little towns, narrowing missing cars and buildings when it turns. Then we find out the road we are supposed to take is closed and we have to take a detour on even smaller roads. This puts us behind schedule. We finally get to the lava flows and we meet these ladies selling honey. They give us all tastes of lemon honey, pistachio honey, strawberry honey and a couple of others. It was great and Bill got a piece of lava from Mt Etna for Ann. Then back on the bus we go. Now we are headed to the wine tasting. I swear we are traveling in circles because I recognize the buildings and churches and town squares.
We arrive at the vineyard but the bus is too big to go up the road. So he parks and we all get out and have to walk about a half mile up hill to this vineyard. Our guide says we can only stay 30 minutes because we are behind schedule. Bill and I laugh because some of these people won't make it up the hill in 30 minutes. The winery is very pretty. They have cheese, bread, sausages and all kinds of things laid out for us to eat. They serve us a sparkling wine, Spumonti, then a light white wine, then a rose and finally a red blend. They are very nice. So much better that the wines we tasted in Alicante. The folks on our bus went through the food like locusts. Americans are so rude. Then almost an hour had past and we started back to the bus.
Our next stop was supposed to be at a jewelry factory. Our guide said that it looks like a private residence. So of the bus went, up and down tiny little roads and then into a residential area. The bus really did not fit on these streets. Then across from some nice apartments, we had arrived. The house was beautiful from the outside. They came out and invited us into the courtyard. There were beautiful statues and fountains. Then we went inside. Inside there were frescos on the ceiling and beautiful rugs and staircases. The manager introduced himself and told us about the company and invited us to see their stuff. They had a very small factory room in the basement. Only two employees there making jewelry. They took us down and we watched them working. They told us about the jewelry they make with precious stones and also the local lava, coral, turquoise, pearls and amber. They work with sterling silver and with 18ct gold. After we saw the factory, they took us upstairs to the showroom. No pressure to buy, but we would get 15% off any of their sale prices and no VAT. Also they had a buffet for us on the terrace. Bill headed to the terrace and I headed to the showroom. The pieces really were beautiful and the prices were reasonable. The SS pieces with coral and lava ran from 15 euro to 500 euro. The 18ct gold ran from 200 euro to the thousands. So I hd a blast picking out stuff.
By now we were still very behind schedule and our guide had to chase us all to the bus, but five people were still missing. Evidently they were completing purchases and we couldn't leave without them. The ship was supposed to leave Messina at 7:30pm and we were 45 minutes away at 6:50pm. So we were going to be late, but it was a ship sponsored tour so they would have to wait for us. We arrived at the ship at 7:40pm and they did wait for us. We took our stuff to our cabin and then headed to dinner. We sat at a shared table because it was so late. It was a great meal with good company. And after, we headed to bed. See you tomorrow. It's a sea day so probably not much to tell.
Day 15 May 20 - Departure from Civitavecchia
Well we all met for breakfast in the main dining room this morning for our last meal together. We sat at a sharing table with some folks from Georgia. That was nice until they revealed they were Trump people. So we tried to keep the conversation away from that. Mike is kind of funny when he is talking to strangers. Sometimes he over shares and sometimes he doesn't realize that there are other people around when we are talking. So on the trip, some guys that Mike and Steve met made up a trigger word so that Mike would know he needed to stop talking, that word was bamboo. So at breakfast we were saying bamboo to Mike.
Well after breakfast, Mike and Steve had to go to the theater so that they could be released to leave. Bill and I just went off the ship and waited for them in the luggage area. It's interesting when you make a crossing, since we arrived in Italy from an EU country, Spain, we didn't have to clear immigration or customs. So any what we weren't sure what we were going to do today. The ship ports at Civitavecchia and it is an industrial port. So there is NOTHING there. You had to take a shuttle to the entrance to the port just to get a taxi. So when Mike and Steve got off the ship, they claimed their luggage and we went out with the mass of people waiting for arranged rides. It was about 9:30am and Mike and Steve's driver wasn't due to come until noon to take the to their Rome hotel. We saw our table mates, Anna and Rene and swapped phone numbers and said good bye again. Then just kind of hung out. We didn't want to take the shuttle with their luggage. So Steve called his car company and asked if they could come earlier to pick them up. They said yes, the car would be there at 10:30. So we hung out and talked until the driver came. We sent them off to Rome to continue their trip.
We decided that we didn't want to go into town, so we got back on board the ship. Wow, what an eerie feeling. It was really empty. We wondered around and ended up on the top and went and played putt putt. By the time we finished, it was after 11 and we could go to our new cabin and unpack. So we met our new cabin steward, Putu and got all unpacked and changed into bathing suits and headed up to the pool. We found a nice warm sunny chair that wasn't by the really loud speakers and sat down to read and to ........ of course, nap. By 2pm lots of people were on board and the drinking had begun. We hung out by the pool until 3:00. Then we headed back to our cabin to shower and change and watch them cast off the lines. We had to leave at 4 for the mandatory life board drill. Our muster station was in the main theater so that was good. We met some Canadians who loved Trump and hated Trudeau. So I guess we won't seek them out on the trip. When the drill was over we headed back to our cabin to watch the cast off from our balcony.
Well it got to be 5pm when we are supposed to cast off and nothing. I was leaning over our balcony and I could see a guy standing at the gangway with a suitcase. So I don't know what was going on but he was talking on a cell phone and we weren't leaving. After about twenty more minutes and other suit case showed up and then two people came off the ship and the they and the two suit cases were taken off the dock. Then they pulled the gangway up and threw off the lines and we backed away from the dock. Very strange. We don't know why they got off.
So then it was time to head to dinner. During the crossing we had a shared table and now for this leg of our journey we will be having a table for two right by a port side window. Of course the tables are all so close together that you may as well be sharing. The meal was pretty good. I had really good chicken marsala. After dinner we went to the theater for the evening show. These are always little teasers of the shows to come during the trip. At the very beginning when they tell you to not take pictures or videos, they also said that RCCL did not tolerate abusive behavior, abusive language and that all incidents would be dealt with harshly. Wow, we had never heard them make this kind of announcement before. Now we are wondering if the two people who got off the ship may have made some kind of scene that caused RCCL to eject them from the ship. I guess we'll never know.
We sailed down the coast of Italy all night so we could arrive in Sicily first thing in the morning. They said we would be arriving around 10am.
Well after breakfast, Mike and Steve had to go to the theater so that they could be released to leave. Bill and I just went off the ship and waited for them in the luggage area. It's interesting when you make a crossing, since we arrived in Italy from an EU country, Spain, we didn't have to clear immigration or customs. So any what we weren't sure what we were going to do today. The ship ports at Civitavecchia and it is an industrial port. So there is NOTHING there. You had to take a shuttle to the entrance to the port just to get a taxi. So when Mike and Steve got off the ship, they claimed their luggage and we went out with the mass of people waiting for arranged rides. It was about 9:30am and Mike and Steve's driver wasn't due to come until noon to take the to their Rome hotel. We saw our table mates, Anna and Rene and swapped phone numbers and said good bye again. Then just kind of hung out. We didn't want to take the shuttle with their luggage. So Steve called his car company and asked if they could come earlier to pick them up. They said yes, the car would be there at 10:30. So we hung out and talked until the driver came. We sent them off to Rome to continue their trip.
We decided that we didn't want to go into town, so we got back on board the ship. Wow, what an eerie feeling. It was really empty. We wondered around and ended up on the top and went and played putt putt. By the time we finished, it was after 11 and we could go to our new cabin and unpack. So we met our new cabin steward, Putu and got all unpacked and changed into bathing suits and headed up to the pool. We found a nice warm sunny chair that wasn't by the really loud speakers and sat down to read and to ........ of course, nap. By 2pm lots of people were on board and the drinking had begun. We hung out by the pool until 3:00. Then we headed back to our cabin to shower and change and watch them cast off the lines. We had to leave at 4 for the mandatory life board drill. Our muster station was in the main theater so that was good. We met some Canadians who loved Trump and hated Trudeau. So I guess we won't seek them out on the trip. When the drill was over we headed back to our cabin to watch the cast off from our balcony.
Well it got to be 5pm when we are supposed to cast off and nothing. I was leaning over our balcony and I could see a guy standing at the gangway with a suitcase. So I don't know what was going on but he was talking on a cell phone and we weren't leaving. After about twenty more minutes and other suit case showed up and then two people came off the ship and the they and the two suit cases were taken off the dock. Then they pulled the gangway up and threw off the lines and we backed away from the dock. Very strange. We don't know why they got off.
So then it was time to head to dinner. During the crossing we had a shared table and now for this leg of our journey we will be having a table for two right by a port side window. Of course the tables are all so close together that you may as well be sharing. The meal was pretty good. I had really good chicken marsala. After dinner we went to the theater for the evening show. These are always little teasers of the shows to come during the trip. At the very beginning when they tell you to not take pictures or videos, they also said that RCCL did not tolerate abusive behavior, abusive language and that all incidents would be dealt with harshly. Wow, we had never heard them make this kind of announcement before. Now we are wondering if the two people who got off the ship may have made some kind of scene that caused RCCL to eject them from the ship. I guess we'll never know.
We sailed down the coast of Italy all night so we could arrive in Sicily first thing in the morning. They said we would be arriving around 10am.
Day 14 May 19th - Our Anniversary Sea Day
Well the day of our anniversary finally arrived. It is a sea day. We are traveling from Valencia, Spain to Civitavecchia, Italy. On our way we will pass the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. We are hoping to still have day light when we go through the straits. We should have Corsica on our left and Sardinia on our right.
After breakfast I headed up to the solarium to get some chairs saved for the day. I got four chairs together and texted he guys. The temperature in the enclosed solarium was just right. Out by the pool the wind is pretty strong and it can be chilly. So we always start out in the solarium on sea days.
The guys got there pretty quick and we alternated from reading, talking, getting in the hot tub, getting in the pool back to reading and sometimes napping. Sounds pretty boring, right? but we like it. It's how we spent he seven days of the crossing. We really haven't played any of the cruise games. A little trivia the first couple of days, but we abandoned that for napping.
Bill and I had to go to a meeting in the main theater to tell us about how we will be processed when the ship gets into port in Civitavecchia. We are changing state rooms. Going to the starboard side, about the same amount forward. They told us that we need to pack our bags and the cabin steward will move everything including our hanging stuff to our new room and that it should be ready for us at 11 am. We arrive in port around 7am. Our new Sea Pass cards will be delivered to us tonight. And it seems it will be pretty easy. So back to the solarium we go. If I haven't mentioned it before now, we generally only eat breakfast and dinner. So there is no having to get up and go to lunch.
Tonight we are going to dinner in the specialty steak house on board with Mike and Steve in honor of our anniversary. We head to the Schooner Lounge just outside of the Chops restaurant to have before dinner drinks. While we are there we start to see Sardinia off the starred side of the ship. So Sardinia is very mountainous. We had a good time watching the island as we sailed. Then all of a sudden there was a dolphin swimming and jumping along side of the ship. This is the first time we have seen a dolphin on the trip. We only saw him for a minute, I think he jumped three times and then he was gone.
When we went into the Chops restaurant, We had a window on the port side of the ship and we could see Corsica. Also very mountainous. We had a great dinner, great wine and great friends to spend time with. At the end of dinner, they brought us a piece of red velvet cake with Happy Anniversary on the plate. It was a pretty nice evening.
After dinner we went to the show in the Theater. It was Carlo Truzzi & Simona's Shadow Show. In case you are wondering......yes it was a guy and girl making shadow pictures with their hands!!! I can't believe this is booked on a cruise line. They had a whole music sound track to go with the shadow puppets. And I guess he was pretty good. He not only did animals but people too. Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Tina Turner and a bunch of others. But it was shadow puppets. Come on Royal Caribbean get some real talent in here like NCL's Burn the Floor. Oh well.
So that's it. Then we went back to our cabin to pack up the stuff in our cabin. So out come the suit cases and we start packing everything except the clothes on hangers. Well guess what?? Our stuff has either multiplied or it has grown because we filled out suit cases completely and we had a ton of stuff on hangers. I don't know how we are going to get packed for the train ride up to Lake Garda. After this horrible packing experience we headed t off to bed and I don't need to give you and more details.
More tomorrow.
After breakfast I headed up to the solarium to get some chairs saved for the day. I got four chairs together and texted he guys. The temperature in the enclosed solarium was just right. Out by the pool the wind is pretty strong and it can be chilly. So we always start out in the solarium on sea days.
The guys got there pretty quick and we alternated from reading, talking, getting in the hot tub, getting in the pool back to reading and sometimes napping. Sounds pretty boring, right? but we like it. It's how we spent he seven days of the crossing. We really haven't played any of the cruise games. A little trivia the first couple of days, but we abandoned that for napping.
Bill and I had to go to a meeting in the main theater to tell us about how we will be processed when the ship gets into port in Civitavecchia. We are changing state rooms. Going to the starboard side, about the same amount forward. They told us that we need to pack our bags and the cabin steward will move everything including our hanging stuff to our new room and that it should be ready for us at 11 am. We arrive in port around 7am. Our new Sea Pass cards will be delivered to us tonight. And it seems it will be pretty easy. So back to the solarium we go. If I haven't mentioned it before now, we generally only eat breakfast and dinner. So there is no having to get up and go to lunch.
Tonight we are going to dinner in the specialty steak house on board with Mike and Steve in honor of our anniversary. We head to the Schooner Lounge just outside of the Chops restaurant to have before dinner drinks. While we are there we start to see Sardinia off the starred side of the ship. So Sardinia is very mountainous. We had a good time watching the island as we sailed. Then all of a sudden there was a dolphin swimming and jumping along side of the ship. This is the first time we have seen a dolphin on the trip. We only saw him for a minute, I think he jumped three times and then he was gone.
When we went into the Chops restaurant, We had a window on the port side of the ship and we could see Corsica. Also very mountainous. We had a great dinner, great wine and great friends to spend time with. At the end of dinner, they brought us a piece of red velvet cake with Happy Anniversary on the plate. It was a pretty nice evening.
After dinner we went to the show in the Theater. It was Carlo Truzzi & Simona's Shadow Show. In case you are wondering......yes it was a guy and girl making shadow pictures with their hands!!! I can't believe this is booked on a cruise line. They had a whole music sound track to go with the shadow puppets. And I guess he was pretty good. He not only did animals but people too. Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Tina Turner and a bunch of others. But it was shadow puppets. Come on Royal Caribbean get some real talent in here like NCL's Burn the Floor. Oh well.
So that's it. Then we went back to our cabin to pack up the stuff in our cabin. So out come the suit cases and we start packing everything except the clothes on hangers. Well guess what?? Our stuff has either multiplied or it has grown because we filled out suit cases completely and we had a ton of stuff on hangers. I don't know how we are going to get packed for the train ride up to Lake Garda. After this horrible packing experience we headed t off to bed and I don't need to give you and more details.
More tomorrow.
Friday, May 18, 2018
Day 13 - May 18 Valencia, Spain
Well last night we had the best menu ever in the main dining room. We had for appetizers - crab cakes, caprese salad, escargot, and roasted tomato soup. Then for our main dishes we had offered - prime rib and lobster tail. Then for dessert there was baked Alaska. So it was a good night.
Then after dinner we went to the main stage show to see Tango Buenos Aires. There were two special dancers and special band members. On the whole, the dancing is still not up to the standard of the NCL Burn the Floor dancers. I'm afraid that we have been very spoiled by those performers.
After the Tango show, we headed to the Centrum to watch the comedian juggler do a short show. He said he was going to throw his diablo (like a yoyo thing) all the way up to the 11th floor through the Centrum. I have a video of it in the shared photos. Everyone was concerned because there is a huge chandelier that hangs in the Centrum.
He definitely managed to get it up around nine or ten. We were watching from the 5th floor. He had to stay over to the side to make sure he didn't get the chandelier. After that show we headed to the Schooner lounge to have a drink. We ended up taking our drinks back to our balcony so that we could watch the Spanish coast as we sailed up to Valencia.
We landed in Valencia, Spain around 7am this morning. We did not have any tours planned. The four of us (me, Bill, Mike and Steve) planned on getting a shuttle into the old town and shop and take a hop on hop off bus around town. So we walked to the hop on hop off stop and took a two hour tour of the town. Then we got off the bus and found the Lladro store. There were some beautiful pieces that are only available in Spain. Steve bought a Flamenco Dancer and Bill and I bought some Love Swans for our anniversary.
After our little shopping spree, we stopped at an outdoor cafe and had brucetta and coffees. After that we got back on the hop on hop off and took the route that got us back to our ship. The architecture in Valencia is incredible and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain.
So now we are back on the ship and our entertainment tonight is a vocal gourd from Spain called Fourever.
So tomorrow is a sea day traveling across the Mediterranean to Civitavecchia. Also tomorrow we will going to a presentation for back to back guests. So we will find out what to do with our luggage and how we will get our new cabin cards. We are moving from the port side of the ship to the starboard side. When we get to Civitavecchia, we will get off the ship and check out the city and the way to the train station so we will be prepared when we return on the 30th.
So more news tomorrow.
Then after dinner we went to the main stage show to see Tango Buenos Aires. There were two special dancers and special band members. On the whole, the dancing is still not up to the standard of the NCL Burn the Floor dancers. I'm afraid that we have been very spoiled by those performers.
After the Tango show, we headed to the Centrum to watch the comedian juggler do a short show. He said he was going to throw his diablo (like a yoyo thing) all the way up to the 11th floor through the Centrum. I have a video of it in the shared photos. Everyone was concerned because there is a huge chandelier that hangs in the Centrum.
He definitely managed to get it up around nine or ten. We were watching from the 5th floor. He had to stay over to the side to make sure he didn't get the chandelier. After that show we headed to the Schooner lounge to have a drink. We ended up taking our drinks back to our balcony so that we could watch the Spanish coast as we sailed up to Valencia.
We landed in Valencia, Spain around 7am this morning. We did not have any tours planned. The four of us (me, Bill, Mike and Steve) planned on getting a shuttle into the old town and shop and take a hop on hop off bus around town. So we walked to the hop on hop off stop and took a two hour tour of the town. Then we got off the bus and found the Lladro store. There were some beautiful pieces that are only available in Spain. Steve bought a Flamenco Dancer and Bill and I bought some Love Swans for our anniversary.
After our little shopping spree, we stopped at an outdoor cafe and had brucetta and coffees. After that we got back on the hop on hop off and took the route that got us back to our ship. The architecture in Valencia is incredible and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain.
So now we are back on the ship and our entertainment tonight is a vocal gourd from Spain called Fourever.
So tomorrow is a sea day traveling across the Mediterranean to Civitavecchia. Also tomorrow we will going to a presentation for back to back guests. So we will find out what to do with our luggage and how we will get our new cabin cards. We are moving from the port side of the ship to the starboard side. When we get to Civitavecchia, we will get off the ship and check out the city and the way to the train station so we will be prepared when we return on the 30th.
So more news tomorrow.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Day 12 May 17 Alicante Spain
Well dinner on Wednesday night was with Mike and Steve and Anna and Rene in the main dining room. I have a picture of Rene and Anna in the shared folder. They are from Puerto Rico. Because Mike and Steve had late seating in the main dining room and we had early reservations in the My Time main dining room we had to get assigned to a sharing table at the early seating in order to eat with Mike and Steve. So we met Anna and Rene. Anna is a retired nurse and Rene was the CEO of four hospitals in San Juan. They were both widows and met when they were married to their first spouses and they got together when they met again after they were both widowed. They have been together now for six years.
After dinner the main theater show was a Comedian Juggler. He was hilarious. He reminded Bill of a younger Robin Williams because you never knew what he was going to do and he was manic and full of energy. We didn't go to the fourteenth birthday party for the ship. We saw the cake as it passed through the dining room.
This morning we were able to sleep in a little because we didn't pull in to port in Alicante, Spain until 11am. Then Mike and Steve and Bill and I went on an excursion to Novelda. this is a city just 30 minutes outside of Alicante. We went to a beautiful castle and church there. Lots of pictures are on the shared site. One unique feature of the castle was a three sided tower. No reason for the tower to have three sides but it did. Bill climbed all the way to the top while Mike and Steve and I had espresso's.
Then we all went into the church and it was beautiful. After the church we went to Case Cecila to taste some local wine. The man who owns the place bought an old hacienda from the 1800's and refurbished it for his wife who had family in Novelda. She didn't really like it so he decided since lots of grapes are grown in this region that maybe he would try his hand at making some good wine. He had several businesses and he had lots of money so when he went into the wine making business it was for his own pleasure and not to make money. He hired all the right people because the wines are very good. We got a tour of the the whole winery and then tasted a white and a red wine. Both were worth it. They tasted very good. After the tour, we headed back to the ship.
Tonight we will have a main stage show with some Argentinian tango dancers backed up by the RCCL production dancers. Also the comedian from last night is doing a short show in the Centrum.
So take a look at the pictures and I'll write more tomorrow when we go to Valencia Spain and the LLadro factory.
After dinner the main theater show was a Comedian Juggler. He was hilarious. He reminded Bill of a younger Robin Williams because you never knew what he was going to do and he was manic and full of energy. We didn't go to the fourteenth birthday party for the ship. We saw the cake as it passed through the dining room.
This morning we were able to sleep in a little because we didn't pull in to port in Alicante, Spain until 11am. Then Mike and Steve and Bill and I went on an excursion to Novelda. this is a city just 30 minutes outside of Alicante. We went to a beautiful castle and church there. Lots of pictures are on the shared site. One unique feature of the castle was a three sided tower. No reason for the tower to have three sides but it did. Bill climbed all the way to the top while Mike and Steve and I had espresso's.
Then we all went into the church and it was beautiful. After the church we went to Case Cecila to taste some local wine. The man who owns the place bought an old hacienda from the 1800's and refurbished it for his wife who had family in Novelda. She didn't really like it so he decided since lots of grapes are grown in this region that maybe he would try his hand at making some good wine. He had several businesses and he had lots of money so when he went into the wine making business it was for his own pleasure and not to make money. He hired all the right people because the wines are very good. We got a tour of the the whole winery and then tasted a white and a red wine. Both were worth it. They tasted very good. After the tour, we headed back to the ship.
Tonight we will have a main stage show with some Argentinian tango dancers backed up by the RCCL production dancers. Also the comedian from last night is doing a short show in the Centrum.
So take a look at the pictures and I'll write more tomorrow when we go to Valencia Spain and the LLadro factory.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Day 11 - May 16 Gibraltar, UK
Hello again. I'll start with our entertainment last night. The Sax player was Julian Smith who took 3rd place in Britain's Got Talent the same year that Susan Boyle took second place. He was phenomenal. He plays the soprano sax like Kenny G. I didn't think I could be entertained for an hour by just a sax, but I was and he was wonderful.
Immediately after Julian's show, Gary Williams, the singer from the night before did a concert for an hour in the Centrum. We stood on the 7th floor looking down into the Centrum (on 4) because there were no seats anywhere to be had. I've included pictures from the Centrum for you in the shared photo file. After Gary's show we went on to the Schooner bar where we like to hang out because they have a great piano player. We stayed there for and hour or so before we decided to go to bed.
This morning we got up and had breakfast and then went on a tour of the British Territory, Gibraltar. We had a wine tasting of some local Spanish wines. The whites they served where horrible. They had been aged in wooden casks where scotch had been aged. The reds were more bearable. We had three whites and two reds. I left three glasses with wine in them.
After our wine tasting we went to Main Street for shopping. We walked up and down main st and just window shopped. They have all the traditional British shops there including Marks & Spencer.
Gibraltar has been under British rule since the mid 1700's. There are about 32k people living on and around the Rock. The space of 3 square miles. Some notable weddings that have taken place here include Sean Connery (twice) and John Lennon married Yoko Ono here.
The ship left port around 4:30pm local time (six hours ahead of you) headed for Alicante, Spain. So we are completely in the Mediterranean now. So I hope that means we will have calmer waters. The last four days its been a real pain.
Tonight's entertainment is a Comedian Juggler. Should be interesting. Also tonight they are celebrating the Jewel of the Seas fourteenth birthday. So that should be interesting.
Talk to you more tomorrow.
Immediately after Julian's show, Gary Williams, the singer from the night before did a concert for an hour in the Centrum. We stood on the 7th floor looking down into the Centrum (on 4) because there were no seats anywhere to be had. I've included pictures from the Centrum for you in the shared photo file. After Gary's show we went on to the Schooner bar where we like to hang out because they have a great piano player. We stayed there for and hour or so before we decided to go to bed.
This morning we got up and had breakfast and then went on a tour of the British Territory, Gibraltar. We had a wine tasting of some local Spanish wines. The whites they served where horrible. They had been aged in wooden casks where scotch had been aged. The reds were more bearable. We had three whites and two reds. I left three glasses with wine in them.
After our wine tasting we went to Main Street for shopping. We walked up and down main st and just window shopped. They have all the traditional British shops there including Marks & Spencer.
Gibraltar has been under British rule since the mid 1700's. There are about 32k people living on and around the Rock. The space of 3 square miles. Some notable weddings that have taken place here include Sean Connery (twice) and John Lennon married Yoko Ono here.
The ship left port around 4:30pm local time (six hours ahead of you) headed for Alicante, Spain. So we are completely in the Mediterranean now. So I hope that means we will have calmer waters. The last four days its been a real pain.
Tonight's entertainment is a Comedian Juggler. Should be interesting. Also tonight they are celebrating the Jewel of the Seas fourteenth birthday. So that should be interesting.
Talk to you more tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Day 9 & 10 Gran Canaria and a Sea Day May 15th & 16th
Hello. It looks like I'm only getting to you guys every other day. So we finished up in Tenerife during the last post.
We returned from our tour of the World Heritage sites and wine Tasting and got on the ship around 3pm on Saturday.
The dinner on Sunday night was okay. I'll let you know if we ever get a spectacular meal. Of course you need to remember, I am doing a KETO diet so I'm not eating the breads or the starchy vegetables. I am just eating the broccoli and the meats/fish. We are drinking wine with each meal and that has been great.
After dinner Sunday night we went to the MainStage show and the performer was a "Confusionist". That's how he billed himself. Actually he was a Magician. And he was an incredible magician. He did mostly close up magic so everything he did was projected up onto a big screen.
He started with asking a volunteer to come up and get a gift box, but to just hold it and not open it or shake it. Then he had a lady come up and he did a bunch of card tricks. Towards the end of the show he asked if anyone had a one hundred dollar bill he could use. He actually got a volunteer for this. He had the man sign his name on the one hundred dollar bill. Then he did a bunch more magic and he turned the hundred dollar bill into a one dollar bill. So when the guy wanted his hundred back, the magician called up the volunteer who was holding the wrapped gift box to bring it to him.
He had the man whose hundred it was open the box. He did and there was a lemon in it. So the magician took the lemon and peeled with a knife to discover there was a hard boiled egg inside the lemon. So then he had the man smash the egg and inside there was a walnut. The magician then took a nut cracker and cracked open the walnut and inside was..............the signed one hundred dollar bill!! It was amazing.
After the show we went and listened to big band music for a short time and then we headed to our cabin. I have to say, we are taking a lot of naps on this cruise. Anyway when we got to our cabin, golf was on so Bill got to watch the Players Championship.
We got up on Monday and met Mike and Steve for breakfast before going to catch our excursion to Maspalomas Beach. It was a chilly 62 degrees with an overcast sky when we were getting ready so we had lots of warm clothes over our bathing suits. The beach we went to was all the way on the southern tip of Gran Canaria and it took us about 40 minutes to get there. What a surprise that there at the each there were clear blue Skys and a very warm 76 degrees. So the four of us headed to the beach and rented some chairs. This beach was clothing optional. There were several women with no tops (see shared photos). The guys, Mike, Steve and Bill went for a long walk and found the completely nude beach and the nude gay beach. Bill said one guys who was buck naked was doing jumping jacks near the water. Interesting! Unfortunately we only had three hours at the beach because the ship was sailing at 2:30. So we packed up all our stuff and headed back to the ship at 1:30.
That evening the entertainment was Gary Williams who sang Rat Pack hits. The seas were wild and I didn't feel good so I stayed in the cabin and Bill sent to see him twice. The seas stayed wild all night and into Tuesday morning. Tuesday is a sea day. Wednesday we will be arriving at Gibraltar.
So for some reason, we slept in on Tuesday. You'd think with all the naps we've been taking that we would have been up and having fun around the ship, but we slept in until 11. They had a ceremony for everyone who was doing an Atlantic crossing for the first time. So we got dressed and headed up to where we could get our sheets for our togas and then it was on to the ceremony. So if you see the toga party pictures I posted, that is why we are dressed in sheets. We processed to the atrium with Poseidon. There the captain of the ship came and asked Poseidon for fair seas. Poseidon said he would grant this if the captain would marry Poseidon's niece. Then Poseidon said that there were some crew that had been disrespectful of the sea and he want the captain to punish them. So they were named and they came up in twos to get their punishment. o if you look at the pictures, you'll see where they are getting lots of goop poured over their heads. When the punishment was finished, Poseidon invited us Polliwogs to come get christened. So I took or attempted to take some selfies as Poseidon poured water over my head. All goo fun. Then we drank champagne. Then we went to lunch.
So believe it or not, then I went to a Wines of the World wine tasing. So I was tasting wines from California, Portugal, France and Austria. It was only Steve and I. Bill and Mike both went to take a nap in their cabins.
So tonight the entertainment is a solo sax player who took 3rd place in Britain's got talent. I'll let you know tomorrow how good he was. Take care and go look at the pictures.
We returned from our tour of the World Heritage sites and wine Tasting and got on the ship around 3pm on Saturday.
The dinner on Sunday night was okay. I'll let you know if we ever get a spectacular meal. Of course you need to remember, I am doing a KETO diet so I'm not eating the breads or the starchy vegetables. I am just eating the broccoli and the meats/fish. We are drinking wine with each meal and that has been great.
After dinner Sunday night we went to the MainStage show and the performer was a "Confusionist". That's how he billed himself. Actually he was a Magician. And he was an incredible magician. He did mostly close up magic so everything he did was projected up onto a big screen.
He started with asking a volunteer to come up and get a gift box, but to just hold it and not open it or shake it. Then he had a lady come up and he did a bunch of card tricks. Towards the end of the show he asked if anyone had a one hundred dollar bill he could use. He actually got a volunteer for this. He had the man sign his name on the one hundred dollar bill. Then he did a bunch more magic and he turned the hundred dollar bill into a one dollar bill. So when the guy wanted his hundred back, the magician called up the volunteer who was holding the wrapped gift box to bring it to him.
He had the man whose hundred it was open the box. He did and there was a lemon in it. So the magician took the lemon and peeled with a knife to discover there was a hard boiled egg inside the lemon. So then he had the man smash the egg and inside there was a walnut. The magician then took a nut cracker and cracked open the walnut and inside was..............the signed one hundred dollar bill!! It was amazing.
After the show we went and listened to big band music for a short time and then we headed to our cabin. I have to say, we are taking a lot of naps on this cruise. Anyway when we got to our cabin, golf was on so Bill got to watch the Players Championship.
We got up on Monday and met Mike and Steve for breakfast before going to catch our excursion to Maspalomas Beach. It was a chilly 62 degrees with an overcast sky when we were getting ready so we had lots of warm clothes over our bathing suits. The beach we went to was all the way on the southern tip of Gran Canaria and it took us about 40 minutes to get there. What a surprise that there at the each there were clear blue Skys and a very warm 76 degrees. So the four of us headed to the beach and rented some chairs. This beach was clothing optional. There were several women with no tops (see shared photos). The guys, Mike, Steve and Bill went for a long walk and found the completely nude beach and the nude gay beach. Bill said one guys who was buck naked was doing jumping jacks near the water. Interesting! Unfortunately we only had three hours at the beach because the ship was sailing at 2:30. So we packed up all our stuff and headed back to the ship at 1:30.
That evening the entertainment was Gary Williams who sang Rat Pack hits. The seas were wild and I didn't feel good so I stayed in the cabin and Bill sent to see him twice. The seas stayed wild all night and into Tuesday morning. Tuesday is a sea day. Wednesday we will be arriving at Gibraltar.
So for some reason, we slept in on Tuesday. You'd think with all the naps we've been taking that we would have been up and having fun around the ship, but we slept in until 11. They had a ceremony for everyone who was doing an Atlantic crossing for the first time. So we got dressed and headed up to where we could get our sheets for our togas and then it was on to the ceremony. So if you see the toga party pictures I posted, that is why we are dressed in sheets. We processed to the atrium with Poseidon. There the captain of the ship came and asked Poseidon for fair seas. Poseidon said he would grant this if the captain would marry Poseidon's niece. Then Poseidon said that there were some crew that had been disrespectful of the sea and he want the captain to punish them. So they were named and they came up in twos to get their punishment. o if you look at the pictures, you'll see where they are getting lots of goop poured over their heads. When the punishment was finished, Poseidon invited us Polliwogs to come get christened. So I took or attempted to take some selfies as Poseidon poured water over my head. All goo fun. Then we drank champagne. Then we went to lunch.
So believe it or not, then I went to a Wines of the World wine tasing. So I was tasting wines from California, Portugal, France and Austria. It was only Steve and I. Bill and Mike both went to take a nap in their cabins.
So tonight the entertainment is a solo sax player who took 3rd place in Britain's got talent. I'll let you know tomorrow how good he was. Take care and go look at the pictures.
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Sunday - Mother's Day Canary Islands May 13th
Happy Mother's Day to all of my kids and friends. I am having a great Mother's Day.
This blog will cover Friday through Sunday afternoon.
Friday night on board the ship we had a variety show by the Royal Caribbean Production Singers and Dancers. Everyone is getting excited about seeing land again. We have been at sea for 6-7 days. Saturday we landed in the Canary Islands. There are seven islands in the Canarys. They are all volcanic islands and the last eruption was in 1909. Here are some facts about the Canary Islands.
The island we landed at on Saturday is La Palma. We didn't have any excursions planned so we just got off the ship and walked around town. The architecture and the shops were very pretty. Prices were very reasonable also. I bought a pretty scarf and a dress in La Palma. We were back on board last night and had dinner again in the main dining room, Tides. Food was okay. After dinner we went to the atrium and listened to big band music and watched people dance. At 9pm they presented a variety show made up of crew and passengers.
The first act was passengers who got together and learned Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. Then they created a choir of passengers who came on and sang Big Girls Don't Cry, Sherry Baby and Walk Like a Man. They were just ok.
Then one of the passengers from California, an older (my age) woman who is cruising with her mother, came out and did stand up comedy. She was pretty good considering how hard stand up comedy is. Next we had a line up of passengers singing solos. Pretty bad over all. Then the Indonesian crew members came out and did some sort of dance that was telling a story. The story I got out of it was that it was too long. The Cruise Director came out and tried to get them to end it and they just kept going on. Finally they left the stage and the Indian crew members came out and danced. That almost went on as long. The Cruise Director had to shoo them off as well. Then we had a couple of old guys and an old lady coming out and singing solos. Only one was worth hearing. This guy sang My Way in Spanish and he had a great voice. The last act was an older couple who came out and played a classical piano duet. So overall it lasted about 30 minutes longer than it should have. But I didn't die from it, so I guess it was okay.
This morning we landed in Tenerife. We took a World Heritage tour that included wine tasting.
Because the islands are so isolated, the grape vines here were not affected by the blight that took out vines in other places in the world. So there are some wine vines here that aren't found any where else. We tasted several wines and all I can say is.......Bill loved them. That of course means that they were all sweet. It was real hazy and we didn't get to see the top of Mount Tiede. The first part of the tour was a walking tour around town. We went to the local market and to some churches. then we did the wine tasting. We got back to the ship around 2pm and I caught up on my blog. So that's all for today. Enjoy the pictures!
This blog will cover Friday through Sunday afternoon.
Friday night on board the ship we had a variety show by the Royal Caribbean Production Singers and Dancers. Everyone is getting excited about seeing land again. We have been at sea for 6-7 days. Saturday we landed in the Canary Islands. There are seven islands in the Canarys. They are all volcanic islands and the last eruption was in 1909. Here are some facts about the Canary Islands.
- The birds are named for the islands - not the other way around
- The islands are names for dogs (canaria in latin is dogs) the first people thought they heard dogs barking so they named it Canary. It turned out that the sound they heard were seals barking.
- Mount Tiede the volcanic mountain on Tenerife is the highest mountain in Spain. Higher than the Pyrenees.
- The Canary Islands are part of Spain. They are several hundred miles from Spain and only 63 miles from Africa. Bill would have really liked it if we had landed in Africa so he could mark off another continent, but we didn't.
- There is a whistling language called Silbo that is taught in all the schools as a mandatory language. It was developed in the Canary Islands so the people could communicate over many miles. I put a video clip in the shared photo album of our tour guide demonstrating it.
- Christopher Columbus used the Canary Islands for restocking on his way to the Americas.
- The worst aviation disaster in history happened in Tenerife. 583 people died on two Boeing 747's that collided on the runway in 1977.
- There are seven islands in the Canary Archipelago, we are visiting three off them - La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canary.
The island we landed at on Saturday is La Palma. We didn't have any excursions planned so we just got off the ship and walked around town. The architecture and the shops were very pretty. Prices were very reasonable also. I bought a pretty scarf and a dress in La Palma. We were back on board last night and had dinner again in the main dining room, Tides. Food was okay. After dinner we went to the atrium and listened to big band music and watched people dance. At 9pm they presented a variety show made up of crew and passengers.
The first act was passengers who got together and learned Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. Then they created a choir of passengers who came on and sang Big Girls Don't Cry, Sherry Baby and Walk Like a Man. They were just ok.
Then one of the passengers from California, an older (my age) woman who is cruising with her mother, came out and did stand up comedy. She was pretty good considering how hard stand up comedy is. Next we had a line up of passengers singing solos. Pretty bad over all. Then the Indonesian crew members came out and did some sort of dance that was telling a story. The story I got out of it was that it was too long. The Cruise Director came out and tried to get them to end it and they just kept going on. Finally they left the stage and the Indian crew members came out and danced. That almost went on as long. The Cruise Director had to shoo them off as well. Then we had a couple of old guys and an old lady coming out and singing solos. Only one was worth hearing. This guy sang My Way in Spanish and he had a great voice. The last act was an older couple who came out and played a classical piano duet. So overall it lasted about 30 minutes longer than it should have. But I didn't die from it, so I guess it was okay.
This morning we landed in Tenerife. We took a World Heritage tour that included wine tasting.
Because the islands are so isolated, the grape vines here were not affected by the blight that took out vines in other places in the world. So there are some wine vines here that aren't found any where else. We tasted several wines and all I can say is.......Bill loved them. That of course means that they were all sweet. It was real hazy and we didn't get to see the top of Mount Tiede. The first part of the tour was a walking tour around town. We went to the local market and to some churches. then we did the wine tasting. We got back to the ship around 2pm and I caught up on my blog. So that's all for today. Enjoy the pictures!
Friday, May 11, 2018
Sea Day 6 - Friday May 11th
I'm not doing too well at getting a post out every day. We get so busy at night. So writing it in the middle of the day while I'm laying at the pool is what I am doing.
Last post I told you the comedian had an adult show that night at 10:30. The Royal Caribbean production crew did a variety show at 7 & 9. They were ok. I think NCL has better productions.
I seem to be completely over my sea sickness. Of course I'm now wearing a patch and the seas are more calm than they were on Monday.
We are having a great time. We are being completely lazy. Bill is still getting up early and going to work out every morning. I gave up after my first day when I got sick. We have been moving our clocks ahead one hour every day. So after the late show, I figure out what city to use to set my iPhone and then it's so late, I just go to bed.
Landry's late show was really great. Of course he called us out during the show, but at least we didn't have to go up on stage. It was very 'blue'. I think he only cussed a couple of times and his jokes about farts and sex were not too dirty.
Thursday Michelle Murlin had a matinee show and it was wonderful. She is so full of energy and she is a Mezzo Soprano. I think so any way. She hit the soprano notes and alto notes too.
Thursday night we had a ventriloquist named Brad Cummings. He got a married couple up on stage with him and he put the marionette masks on both of them and then pretended to be a marriage counselor and he moved their mouths. It was very funny and I'm glad I didn't let Bill raise his hand. After that he picked on a guys sitting a couple of seats from us and ended up bringing him up on stage and making a 'dummy' out of him. He also did a bit with a hand puppet that was a tyrannosaurus just hatched. That was pretty funny too.
As usual we ended the evening at the Schooner lounge listening to the piano guy. We are eating dinner now at a shared table. So we have Mike and Steve there with us and a couple from Puerto Rico, Rene and Anna. Rene is just recently retired and they are a nice couple. They ended up with us at the piano bar last night. Of course we didn't stay late because I set my phone time ahead and by the time we had one drink, it was midnight. I had to get up early today so I could get us chairs in the solarium. Every other day it was completely full by 10am. So I got up at 8 and come and saved our four chairs.
So far the food in the main dining room, Tides is okay. We aren't scheduled to eat in a specialty restaurant until the 19th, our 45th anniversary. I have been a little bad on my Keto diet this week. I've eaten a couple of desserts. We got a chocolate cake the second night for our anniversary package I bought and I've had a piece of that every day. I weighed myself the first day and haven't gone back to weigh again. I'll definitely go weigh tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow we arrive in La Palma, Canary Islands. Then Sunday we will be in Gran Canary and Monday in Tenerife. So I'll update you tomorrow. If you have questions, leave a comment.
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
AT SEA DAY 4 May 10th
Well Steve brought me a scopolamine patch and my sea sickness is gone.
We saw a great show on Sea Day 2. It was the Royal Caribbean Production Dancers and singers. They were very good, but not as good as the NCL Burn The Floor.
We finally managed to get our dinner reservations fixed so that Steve and Mike can eat with us. We are now at an eight person sharing table with a Puerto Rican couple - Renee and Anna. Renee was the CEO of the Mennonite Medical System in San Juan, PR. It was compromised of four hospitals. He just retired on March 29th and he is trying to relax on this trip. Anna doesn't know much English so we kind of wing it with her.
The Cruise Director on this ship is Andrea. He is Italian and speaks a bunch of languages. He is holding Italian lessons every day. We went to the first one and he gave everyone a hand out for hand gestures common to Italians as well as a phrase sheet of common phrases.
The show last night, (Sea Day 3) was a Broadway singer, Michelle Murlin. She said she is married to one of the Letterman. She sang Memories from Cats and sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. She also did some impersonations of Marilyn Monroe, Bette Midler, Cher and Liza Minelli. She was very good and she will have another show later this week.
After the show we talked with the Comedian, Landry who was siting behind us. He has an adult show tonight at 10:30. He told us that he has performed at The Loft in Columbus, GA. Then we took off to listen to piano music in the Schooner Bar.
Bill is still getting up and going to work every morning at 6:30am. I did it for the first day, but then I slept in yesterday and this morning.
Here's Bill with some Blog of his own.
Deni mentioned that we met Landry, the comedian, on the first evening on the cruise. We were seated in the front row (of course) and somehow we became part of his act! He asked Deni her name. It took him a couple of tries but he did get it. He then said so if your "Denny" is he, pointing to me, IHOP? I said yes and he got a laugh. After the show we talked with Landry for a while and learned about his stint at the Loft that Deni mentioned. The next day, at a meet and greet, we sat next to a couple we had never met before and when Deni introduced herself the guy looked at me and without missing a beat said so you must be IHOP! We all had a good laugh so for the rest of the cruise we will be known as Denny and IHOP. Last night at the show we saw Landry sitting behind us at the show. After the show we stopped to talk to him. Before we could speak he extended his hand and said Bill and Deni right? We told him about our encounter with the other couple and all shared a good laugh. We'll see Landry again tonight on the main stage when he performs again.
I was very surprised when we arrived at our room the first day to find the wonderful decorations Deni arranged for celebrating our 45th anniversary. I was really touched. She is a wonderful wife and friend. I love her!!
We saw a great show on Sea Day 2. It was the Royal Caribbean Production Dancers and singers. They were very good, but not as good as the NCL Burn The Floor.
We finally managed to get our dinner reservations fixed so that Steve and Mike can eat with us. We are now at an eight person sharing table with a Puerto Rican couple - Renee and Anna. Renee was the CEO of the Mennonite Medical System in San Juan, PR. It was compromised of four hospitals. He just retired on March 29th and he is trying to relax on this trip. Anna doesn't know much English so we kind of wing it with her.
The Cruise Director on this ship is Andrea. He is Italian and speaks a bunch of languages. He is holding Italian lessons every day. We went to the first one and he gave everyone a hand out for hand gestures common to Italians as well as a phrase sheet of common phrases.
The show last night, (Sea Day 3) was a Broadway singer, Michelle Murlin. She said she is married to one of the Letterman. She sang Memories from Cats and sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. She also did some impersonations of Marilyn Monroe, Bette Midler, Cher and Liza Minelli. She was very good and she will have another show later this week.
After the show we talked with the Comedian, Landry who was siting behind us. He has an adult show tonight at 10:30. He told us that he has performed at The Loft in Columbus, GA. Then we took off to listen to piano music in the Schooner Bar.
Bill is still getting up and going to work every morning at 6:30am. I did it for the first day, but then I slept in yesterday and this morning.
Here's Bill with some Blog of his own.
Deni mentioned that we met Landry, the comedian, on the first evening on the cruise. We were seated in the front row (of course) and somehow we became part of his act! He asked Deni her name. It took him a couple of tries but he did get it. He then said so if your "Denny" is he, pointing to me, IHOP? I said yes and he got a laugh. After the show we talked with Landry for a while and learned about his stint at the Loft that Deni mentioned. The next day, at a meet and greet, we sat next to a couple we had never met before and when Deni introduced herself the guy looked at me and without missing a beat said so you must be IHOP! We all had a good laugh so for the rest of the cruise we will be known as Denny and IHOP. Last night at the show we saw Landry sitting behind us at the show. After the show we stopped to talk to him. Before we could speak he extended his hand and said Bill and Deni right? We told him about our encounter with the other couple and all shared a good laugh. We'll see Landry again tonight on the main stage when he performs again.
I was very surprised when we arrived at our room the first day to find the wonderful decorations Deni arranged for celebrating our 45th anniversary. I was really touched. She is a wonderful wife and friend. I love her!!
Monday, May 7, 2018
Sea day 1 addendum
Hey everyone, I just read the last post and saw some typos. I promise I'll proof better and try not to post anything with typos going forward.
Oh and Bill said I forgot to tell you that our cabin was decorated for our Anniversary. On May 19th we are celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary. We had a sign on our door, decorations hanging down from the ceiling and a photo frame and a photo hanging cable that we can take home. We will also get a cake at dinner tonight.
So anyway, talk to you later.
Oh and Bill said I forgot to tell you that our cabin was decorated for our Anniversary. On May 19th we are celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary. We had a sign on our door, decorations hanging down from the ceiling and a photo frame and a photo hanging cable that we can take home. We will also get a cake at dinner tonight.
So anyway, talk to you later.
AT SEA Day 1 and Before May 6th
Well here we are on our first day at sea and I haven't even posted anything for getting here. So let me catch you up.
Saturday morning we were picked up by our Villages Airport Van at our house and taken to the transportation area to catch the shuttle for the airport in Orlando.
Our driver was great and gave us little Village history and future plans information on our way to the airport. Just a standard hour and a half and we were there. No problems getting though security. We were TSA pre check so it was really easy.
Got to our gate checked things out and then went to Burger King for lunch. Nothing to interesting. Then we boarded our plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico. You may not know, as Donald didn't know, that Puerto Rico is actually an island!!! Who knew?!?!?! 😎
Well once we got to San Juan, we took a cab to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard in Miramar. Once there we were upgraded to a suite (because of my Platinum Elite status) and gave our friends Mike and Steve a call.
We made arrangements to go to dinner in Old San Juan district. Steve had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant that the 'locals' eat in. The name of the restaurant was Riaces. We took an Uber there and were seated outside on the street so we could people watch. The specialty of the house was Mofongo. This is a dish made of fried, unripened plantains. After frying them, they mash them in a Pestle with pork rinds and garlic. Then they serve it topped with a marinated meat, pork, beef, seafood. Mike and Steve go that, Bill got beans and rice and I got crab salad served in fried plantain cups. The food was great and after dinner we walked around Old San Juan. Very pretty and quaint. Lots of street music. We'd walk and then stop and listen to one band and then move on and listen to another.
We Uber'd back to our hotel and slept in until 8:30 in the morning. At 9am on Sunday we met Mike and Steve in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The guys had Caribbean Cherry juice and thought it was really tasty. The coffee they served was incredibly good and the eggs and link sausage with the best I 've ever had. Enough about breakfast.
We headed to the ship around 1pm so we would miss all the early arrivals. We dropped our luggage and headed on board. Check in was quick and painless.
On the ship we headed to our stateroom on deck 7. We have a balcony room and the balcony is very spacious. We walked around the ship for a half an hour or so and headed back to our room to see if our luggage had been delivered. There was a card in our door telling us that one of our bags had 'failed' the X-ray inspection and we had to go down to claim it. When we got down to security, I figured the bag had been identified as having a steamer in it. And indeed that was what caused it to fail. We opened the bag and showed them the steamer. They were satisfied that it didn't have any metal pieces that would cause it to be a fire hazard, so we were able to keep the steamer and take our bag up to our room. While we were in security, there were lots of people down there opening their bags for security and the security people we confiscating the bottles of booze the people we sneaking on.
Headed back up to our room with Bill's bag and hoped my bag was delivered. But it wasn't. So it gave Bill time to unpack his bag and I went out on the balcony and watched them throw off the lines and prepare for pushing away from the dock. By the time Bill finished unpacking, I looked out of our door to see if my bag had arrived and I ran into our cabin steward, Gierrmo. He said he would go look for my bag, after I described it to him, and he was back in minutes with my bag. So then I got to unpack and get situated before we had to go down to the theater for the mandatory muster drill.
Our muster coordinator is Devin, one of the productions dancers. He looks like he is 12, and he is from Nebraska. He was very nice and we talked about performing on the ship and how he went through the audition process.
After the drill we went back to our stateroom and watched the 'sail away' from our balcony. Then it was time for dinner! We ate in the Main dining room, Tides. Tides is two stories high. The lower floor is for the Early/Late Dinner Seating and the upper floor is for the My Time Dining. We were doing My Time Dining so that's were we headed. We told them when we checked in that we had friends who had chosen Late Seating Dining and wanted to change to eat with us at the My Time Dining. They said they could accommodate them that night but we would have to talk to the restaurant manager to change the rest of the cruise.
We sat down, order wine and started to unwind. Dinner was good. I had a shrimp cocktail and Prime Rib. Bill had baked Cod and French Onion soup. After dinner we wandered around until it was time to go see the Welcome Aboard show in the main theater. The Cruise Director on the ship is Andrea and he is Italian from Genoa. During his welcome he spoke at least seven different languages, welcoming everyone.
The show was great, the band played and the production dancers and singers came out and did a tease for the coming shows. Then the comedian, Landry came on and he was hilarious. He is a Canadian living in Atlanta. He is mixed race. He said his father was Jamaican and his mother was redneck! He said they got together over weed and moonshine. He really was a hoot. Can't wait to see him again. Of course we were in the front row and he asked my name. When I told him, Deni, he asked like the restaurant? I said yes. So he motioned to Bill and asked, so is his name IHOP? So now people on the ship are calling us Deni and IHOP.
We wandered around again after the show and found a piano bar we want to go back to during the cruise. It is all the way aft on deck 6. So then we figured it was time for bed and back to our cabin we went. Once we hit the big open water we had seas of 5-6ft. So sleeping was like being rock to sleep.
We both got up and went to exercise bright and early Monday morning. Bill went up before me to do his own thing and joined him at 7am for the stretching class. While laying on the floor doing the stretching, I started feeling queasy. So after the stretching class I went back to the cabin and enjoyed the dry heaves while Bill continued to the abs class. So I took a shower and got ready for breakfast.
When Bill got back, he got ready for breakfast and we headed back to the Tides restaurant. We both had eggs and bacon/sausage. Not nearly as good as what we got in San Juan.
After breakfast we met up with Mike and Steve to say hi and talk about dinner times and such. After that we headed to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. Royal Caribbean had ten gifts that they raffled off. From pens and t-shirts to bottles of wine. We didn't win anything but there was a gift exchange that we were involved in so we did walk away with something. Both of us got gifts from a couple who live in Mexico. I got a hand made shawl and Bill got hand blown drinking glasses. So very cool. after that we headed to our cabin as I was again queasy. I'm going to need to find a way to get rid of this. The seas are now about 8-9ft swells so It won't be going away, I need to get some drugs. I've never been sea sick before, so I didn't bring anything with me.
Well I'll end for now here mid-day on Sea Day 1. Talk you to tomorrow.
Saturday morning we were picked up by our Villages Airport Van at our house and taken to the transportation area to catch the shuttle for the airport in Orlando.
Our driver was great and gave us little Village history and future plans information on our way to the airport. Just a standard hour and a half and we were there. No problems getting though security. We were TSA pre check so it was really easy.
Got to our gate checked things out and then went to Burger King for lunch. Nothing to interesting. Then we boarded our plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico. You may not know, as Donald didn't know, that Puerto Rico is actually an island!!! Who knew?!?!?! 😎
Well once we got to San Juan, we took a cab to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard in Miramar. Once there we were upgraded to a suite (because of my Platinum Elite status) and gave our friends Mike and Steve a call.
We made arrangements to go to dinner in Old San Juan district. Steve had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant that the 'locals' eat in. The name of the restaurant was Riaces. We took an Uber there and were seated outside on the street so we could people watch. The specialty of the house was Mofongo. This is a dish made of fried, unripened plantains. After frying them, they mash them in a Pestle with pork rinds and garlic. Then they serve it topped with a marinated meat, pork, beef, seafood. Mike and Steve go that, Bill got beans and rice and I got crab salad served in fried plantain cups. The food was great and after dinner we walked around Old San Juan. Very pretty and quaint. Lots of street music. We'd walk and then stop and listen to one band and then move on and listen to another.
We Uber'd back to our hotel and slept in until 8:30 in the morning. At 9am on Sunday we met Mike and Steve in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The guys had Caribbean Cherry juice and thought it was really tasty. The coffee they served was incredibly good and the eggs and link sausage with the best I 've ever had. Enough about breakfast.
We headed to the ship around 1pm so we would miss all the early arrivals. We dropped our luggage and headed on board. Check in was quick and painless.
On the ship we headed to our stateroom on deck 7. We have a balcony room and the balcony is very spacious. We walked around the ship for a half an hour or so and headed back to our room to see if our luggage had been delivered. There was a card in our door telling us that one of our bags had 'failed' the X-ray inspection and we had to go down to claim it. When we got down to security, I figured the bag had been identified as having a steamer in it. And indeed that was what caused it to fail. We opened the bag and showed them the steamer. They were satisfied that it didn't have any metal pieces that would cause it to be a fire hazard, so we were able to keep the steamer and take our bag up to our room. While we were in security, there were lots of people down there opening their bags for security and the security people we confiscating the bottles of booze the people we sneaking on.
Headed back up to our room with Bill's bag and hoped my bag was delivered. But it wasn't. So it gave Bill time to unpack his bag and I went out on the balcony and watched them throw off the lines and prepare for pushing away from the dock. By the time Bill finished unpacking, I looked out of our door to see if my bag had arrived and I ran into our cabin steward, Gierrmo. He said he would go look for my bag, after I described it to him, and he was back in minutes with my bag. So then I got to unpack and get situated before we had to go down to the theater for the mandatory muster drill.
Our muster coordinator is Devin, one of the productions dancers. He looks like he is 12, and he is from Nebraska. He was very nice and we talked about performing on the ship and how he went through the audition process.
After the drill we went back to our stateroom and watched the 'sail away' from our balcony. Then it was time for dinner! We ate in the Main dining room, Tides. Tides is two stories high. The lower floor is for the Early/Late Dinner Seating and the upper floor is for the My Time Dining. We were doing My Time Dining so that's were we headed. We told them when we checked in that we had friends who had chosen Late Seating Dining and wanted to change to eat with us at the My Time Dining. They said they could accommodate them that night but we would have to talk to the restaurant manager to change the rest of the cruise.
We sat down, order wine and started to unwind. Dinner was good. I had a shrimp cocktail and Prime Rib. Bill had baked Cod and French Onion soup. After dinner we wandered around until it was time to go see the Welcome Aboard show in the main theater. The Cruise Director on the ship is Andrea and he is Italian from Genoa. During his welcome he spoke at least seven different languages, welcoming everyone.
The show was great, the band played and the production dancers and singers came out and did a tease for the coming shows. Then the comedian, Landry came on and he was hilarious. He is a Canadian living in Atlanta. He is mixed race. He said his father was Jamaican and his mother was redneck! He said they got together over weed and moonshine. He really was a hoot. Can't wait to see him again. Of course we were in the front row and he asked my name. When I told him, Deni, he asked like the restaurant? I said yes. So he motioned to Bill and asked, so is his name IHOP? So now people on the ship are calling us Deni and IHOP.
We wandered around again after the show and found a piano bar we want to go back to during the cruise. It is all the way aft on deck 6. So then we figured it was time for bed and back to our cabin we went. Once we hit the big open water we had seas of 5-6ft. So sleeping was like being rock to sleep.
We both got up and went to exercise bright and early Monday morning. Bill went up before me to do his own thing and joined him at 7am for the stretching class. While laying on the floor doing the stretching, I started feeling queasy. So after the stretching class I went back to the cabin and enjoyed the dry heaves while Bill continued to the abs class. So I took a shower and got ready for breakfast.
When Bill got back, he got ready for breakfast and we headed back to the Tides restaurant. We both had eggs and bacon/sausage. Not nearly as good as what we got in San Juan.
After breakfast we met up with Mike and Steve to say hi and talk about dinner times and such. After that we headed to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. Royal Caribbean had ten gifts that they raffled off. From pens and t-shirts to bottles of wine. We didn't win anything but there was a gift exchange that we were involved in so we did walk away with something. Both of us got gifts from a couple who live in Mexico. I got a hand made shawl and Bill got hand blown drinking glasses. So very cool. after that we headed to our cabin as I was again queasy. I'm going to need to find a way to get rid of this. The seas are now about 8-9ft swells so It won't be going away, I need to get some drugs. I've never been sea sick before, so I didn't bring anything with me.
Well I'll end for now here mid-day on Sea Day 1. Talk you to tomorrow.
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