Synagogue, cats and huge drinks

Today was Rhodes, and we were docked. It was the second of the two ports we didn't have tours in.

We agreed that we'd meet our friends at the Passport Bar at the not too early time of 10:00 am. We headed down to breakfast, and then back to the room to get our stuff. (Since the restaurant closes at 9, we knew we'd have time. Glen had a couple of things to do in the room, so I went down. When I got to the bar I got a text from JoEllen telling me to go to Cafe Al Bacio instead. Up I went. Alan forgot his hat, and so she was waiting while enjoying a coffee. I figured in a few minutes, I'd go down and get Glen, but he found us. Alan soon joined us. Our other friends overslept and had to work on hurricane preparations for their kids, (they would text when they were ready), so the four of us set out.

One of the things we'd wanted to do was visit the synagogue and the holocaust memorial. JoEllen read it was by the Seahorse statue. We asked in a shop as you entered the walled old city and she sent us to the right down the main street of the old city. She also told us to take the second left. It was little hard to determine what a left was - road or path. We found the statue, and the memorial for the Jews of Rhodes who were deported and killed. There were, if memory serves, 1600 people, 1450 who died. Some came back and JoEllen said she read that there were 31 Jewish people with one active synagogue in Rhodes.

After taking pictures of the memorial, we tried to find the Synagogue. Google Maps said we'd arrived. We asked in a few places, and people kept pointing us in the right general direction. Finally we found the street that we knew it was on, and soon found it. We found a door, but it was locked. JoEllen had apparently booked a tour, but the guide was sick, and she thought maybe that was the only way you could see the Synagogue. However Glen found the actual entrance, it was open.

The entrance went into a nice courtyard, with the gift shop ahead and the synagogue to the left. It's an old Sephardic synagogue, meaning the bema (equivalent to a pulpit) in the center of the room, surrounded by pews on 3 sides. A docent was there greeting people. He told us he spoke Greek, Spanish, Italian and French, but his English wasn't good. He did show us the tattoo on his arm indicating he is a Holocaust survivor. He gave us a handout with the history of the Synagogue in English, and suggested we sit and read it.



After reading it, we entered the courtyard on the other side of the Synagogue, which was where the locked door was. To the side, is the entrance to the museum, so we went through that, learning about the history of the Jewish people of Rhodes. As mentioned earlier, the was a thriving community in a (mostly) tolerant greater community until the Nazi occupation of Greece.

After visiting the synagogue and stopping by the gift shop, we decided to have a drink in one of the many restaurants. We chose the nearest one called The Orange Bar (I think). Alan and Glen asked for a local beer, and JoEllen and I wanted a mixed local cocktail. The server asked what size we wanted and we all said small.

So what came out was two boots of beer (literally a glass shaped like a boot, and a full size small boot) and two mixed drink with the drink part the size of a soup bowl. I can't imagine what their large size is. After getting partway through the drinks, we decided food was a good idea, so we ordered dolmas (stuffed grape leaves). JoEllen tried Octopus, and we shared a greek salad. The rice in the Dolmas was very, very good, and more like a risotto.

Glen and Alan did very well in finishing their drinks, we did not. So, when we were ready to leave, the server brought us to go cups (coffee to go cups, actually). Poured the remainder of our drinks in, and away we went. JoEllen and Alan went straight back to the ship, but we decided to wander a bit outside of the old city to find an ATM. Outside of the gates, we saw a bunch of what are probably feral cats. Apparently a lot in this part of the world.



We walked to what looked like a commercial part of any city, with a gas station, restaurants, and a park area to walk in. No banks, though. I thought I'd ask Siri, but she was of no help, so I used Google maps. Turns out there was a ATM back in the old City, a bit further than we'd gone. So back in we went, went to the ATM and then back to the ship.

It was about 1pm, and we weren't quite hungry, so back to the ship to do basically nothing. After an hour or so, we decided we were a bit hungry, so we went to the mast grill to get some hotdogs. It was way too windy to eat up there, so we went to the buffet. On the Equinox I wasn't too impressed with the burger, here I wasn't too impressed with the hotdog. Oh well, we had a nice dinner planned.

Next we decided to practice our dance choreography. First stop was the Sky Lounge - nope an event going on these. Next was the studio below - a couple practicing there too. So we went to what they call the entertainment or activity foyer on deck 4, and practiced there for a bit. Following that, we went to Cafe Al Bacio for a coffee, then back to room, then to Michael's club for a while. While there, I asked about using priority tendering for our group of 6 going to Santorini together. They said just bring everyone to them. I let the group know to meet in Ensemble at 8:15 (We were meeting the guide around 9 am).

The show tonight was the cast singing broadway, so we went to that. It was good, not great - basically just the leads and two others singing songs from various broadway shows. I think the most recent was from Dream Girls.

After that back to the room to prepare for dinner at 8:30 in Tuscan Grill. There, a problem developed - the toilet wouldn't flush, so I tried calling Guest Relations. No answer, so I called the concierges in Michaels club. They, of course answered the phone, and said they'd forward the message.

We left a bit early for dinner (and to use the restrooms downstairs), and ran into JoEllen and friends on our way to Tuscan.

The dinner in Tuscan was very good. I'd heard some not good things about it on the Equinox, and when I was on the Equinox they were offering discounts like crazy. I had the beef Carpaccio, burrata salad and filet mignon. I think Glen had a calamari, a caesar salad and the ribeye. We, for reasons I'm not clear on, also had the Antipasta board. (Next time I'll just ask for the gorgonzola and fig jam). For dessert we shared a strawberry shortcake type thing.

While there, we noticed two things. First, Rick Steves and his gang at a table across the room, and plumbers working frantically in the area between the specialty restaurants and the Ensemble lounge.

After dinner, we watched a little bit of the Myst show that the singers and dancers do in the Atrium. We had a tour the next day, so went back to the room after trying to dance a bit in the stair bank on deck 7. Got back the room, the toilet worked, but only for a while, then it stopped again. This time I called guest relations because our concierges were gone for the day.

Went to bed hoping to have a flushing toilet by morning.

Windmills and not much else expect total fan girl evening

Today was Mykonos (which I just learned how to spell) and the first of four back to back port days. It was a tender port, meaning the ship anchors in the harbor. Apparently this is one port where tender is better since the dock is about 2 miles away from the old (read: interesting or tourist) town.

We caught the end of breakfast in Luminae, and I asked for eggs Benedict with regular american bacon. I was not optimistic, but it was correct, including a pretty decent run on the eggs (often they are overcooked and come out closer to hard boiled). The hollandaise was tasty, so all good.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room to get our stuff, and our butler Arun called to see if we were ready to go to the tender. Apparently, they escort you to the next one. We said 5 minutes, and 5 minutes later there he was. We headed down to deck 3, and then through the closed side of the stairs to the line. It sort of felt like cutting, but nobody said anything. The way Princess usually does it for their elite skip the wait people is to have them go to the room, and when they announce the next tender group, they tell the elites in the room to go too.

It was about a 15 minute tender in, and I noticed a Costa ship, an MSC ship, and a Pullmatur. We'd read the Rick Steves book (this isn't what I'm talking about when I teased this post yesterday) and he said Mykonos has not much there, except a lot of people. He was right. The tiny twisting walkways of the old town were pretty much packed and mostly featured stores. After a little but of wandering, we decided to see the only site nearby - the windmills. We thought about the archeological museum, but it was a mile and half away along a tedious route with only a few things worth seeing. We opted for the windmills. We looked at the map and figured - follow the coastline.



We did that and after about a 15 minute walk on more crowded pathways, there they were. Basically just like in all the post cards. One had an open door so we peeked inside. Not much to see.

We walked back to the pier, and decided it was just too crowded, so we went back to the ship. We talked to a British couple on the tender - like us (more or less) it was their first Celebrity cruise after many with Princes. We all agreed the food was overall better, but we miss our free laundry and other perks (nobody does loyalty benefits like Princess).

We stopped by Michael's club to get some water and ended up chatting with one of the Indonesian waitresses there about her life - the crew dining and other topics. After spending some time there, we went to our room, dropped our stuff and headed to the buffet for lunch.

It was not crowded, although I missed where Glen was sitting, so I ate mine quickly, then found him and finished up. After that, we headed up to the Sky Lounge to just enjoy the view from the front of the ship. Glen felt a nap coming on, so we decided to head back to the room. On the way out we noticed a couple practicing cha-cha. We started talking to them, asking if that was the cha cha they taught on the ship yesterday. No, they dance at home in London. We talked a bit about the difference between American and International styles and then headed back down. They'd mentioned the floor was sticky and the background music was distracting.

While at the Sky Lounge we noticed a deck just below. It looked like it was just in front of the fitness center, so we decided to investigate. On the way, we found a small studio with a wood floor that was quiet. We did find a way onto the deck, and practiced our choreography a bit. On the way out we decided to go back up to the lounge and let the couple know about the studio. We did, and walked them down there.

Then back to the room. I went to Michael's club to have some tea and work on the blog. I was there for a while, and Glen eventually joined me. There was a solo performer in the pre dinner show, and I didn't know what he did, so I asked the staff at Michael's. They told me he was an extraordinary hypnotist, so we decided to check him out at 7.

Eventually, we headed to the room, changed clothes, and went to the show. The performer first asked for volunteers - he wanted about 50 onstage, but it was a small crowd, so got about 20 if that. He had them try an exercise to see how susceptible they were - the idea was for them to hold out their arms and lock their fingers. He then tried to convince them that their fingers were glued together. If they couldn't spread them they stayed, if they could, they left the stage. He didn't have enough left, so he asked the entire audience to try. He ended up with about 10 people, but I think would have preferred more. He then had them all do things like play imaginary instruments, etc. Kind of cheesy, but fun, until he started pitching his CD to help you stop smoking, drinking, etc.

We left at that point.

We still had some time before dinner, and Glen's SD card had become stuck in his camera, so he decided to go the I Lounge (a licensed Apple reseller) to get a thunderbolt to USB cable. The staff member there didn't want to sell it without seeing with the camera (in case it didn't work), so we decided to go tomorrow. We went back to the room to get Champagne for dinner, and realized we probably had enough time to get the camera, determine it worked, and maybe get the camera back to the room. I grabbed the champagne in case we didn't have time to go back to the room - that way I could go to dinner, and Glen could drop off the camera.

We did have enough time, though, so dropped the camera, and headed up to the Lawn Club Grill. Originally, we were a table for 4 but now we were 6. We were seated first, and then Adele and Frank showed up, followed by JoEllen and Alan. I'd had the concierge notify the staff that it was Frank's birthday. We ordered a couple of flatbreads (small think crust pizzas, and we each ordered a meat course. They told us they'd bring all the sides, as well as one each of the three skewers on the menu. It was very good and a lot of food.

Midway through the meal, Alan noticed that one of the gentlemen at the next table was Rick Steves, the travel expert on PBS, and book publish. Adele, it turns out, is a total fan girl, so she started waving at him. He waved back and then came over to our table. We chatted with him, and he asked how we knew each other and seemed fascinated by the idea that we met on cruise critic. It was very friendly and I thanked him for the advice on previous trips, including the restaurant in Paris with the good GF menu (Le Petit Troupet by the way).

A few minutes later he came back to get our room numbers. They are doing a TV show and may want to film some people if we were willing. We all were. They left, and about 5 minutes later, he's back. They'll be filming at the party up on deck, and if we want, we should go, find his cameramen, tell them who we are, and they'll maybe film us.

So after dinner, we went to the party. It was, of course, packed, Eventually we found both the cameramen and Rick. He called us over, so Glen, Adele, JoEllen and I danced with him. He kept giving Glen high fives. Eventually the camera guys left, a conga line started, and Rick gave us all goodbye hugs and left.

All in all, one amazing evening. Perhaps, when the show airs you will see me. I'm in a blue top with gem flowers around the neck. If I get pictures up, you'll see it.

After that, we walked JoEllen and Alan to their room, took a look at a balcony room (I'd seen one but Glen hasn't. We said goodbye and called it a night.

A whole lotta nothing

Today Monday, was the first of the two coveted sea days. (Med itineraries are very port intensive). We slept in and missed breakfast, since I thought it ended at 9. Turns out it was 9:30, so if I'd hustled a bit, I could have made it. Instead we went to Cafe al Bacio for a latte and a pastry. After that was the cruise critic ship sponsored meeting. The event director was at the door of CellerMasters with nametags for everyone. Only about 20 people showed up if that. I think the problem was that there had been a time change the night before, and people were an hour behind. I saw at least 4 people come in while we were chatting after the event look around and leave. After that, we decided to go ahead and book another cruise, so we went to the future cruise desk. Unlike Princess where there can be an hour wait, they have multiple people and long hours, so the wait was about 10 minutes max. We decided we wanted to go back to Antarctica and Princess doesn't go there anymore, but Celebrity does. There were two cruises in 2019, one in January and one in February. The February one was probably a better date, but it was pricier and had less availability in mini(Sky) suites, so we went with January. After that we went back up to the room for a bit, and then down to lunch at Luminae - one of 3 days it's open. We ran into a couple of our cruise critic peeps, so we decided to have dinner together. I made a reservation on our way out.

We then spent a while in the room, while getting caught up on this blog. Turns out, it's a lot of time to write - now I sort of see why people do it when they get home, but I'd forget everything. I also put on the on demand movie "A Dog's Purpose". It was cute. I'm glad I didn't take the time to go to the theater to see it, but we enjoyed it.

Following that, and about 3/4 of the way through my Malta post, we decided to go practice our choreography, since our dance coach went through a lot of effort to give it to us before we left. First, I suggested Glen find the spreadsheets he did for it. He couldn't get the google sheets to load, or the video. Oh well, down to the deck.

We worked on it for a while, I know there were some mistakes, but we got to a point where the sequences worked together. We'll continue to review. Following that, we headed to the Martini bar to try their Martini's. We ordered at the bar, but no tricks. On the Equinox, I really liked the Candied Apple Martini, but I decided to be different I'd get a Banana Split one. It was good, but not as good. They line the glass with chocolate syrup, and I'm not really a chocolate fan. I really couldn't taste it but I still like the other better.

After that, back to the room to get ready for dinner. Glen made the mistake of checking his work email and a minor crisis popped up. So at about 6:55 (our reservation was at 7), I headed to the restaurant while he finished up. He followed about 10 minutes later.

We joined our friends and had a lovely formal night dinner. Both Glen and Claude ordered the lamb from the dining room menu. Because of the proximity to the dining room (they share a galley) you can order from either menu. Carolyn and I had the steak with bernaise sauce. It was great. Good dinner, good conversation.

After dinner, we found a solo guitar player in the foyer playing danceable music. I had a purse with me, and that was getting in the way, so after a few dances we decided to go back to the room to dump it. I looked at the schedule and noticed the house band was coming on at 10:30. We headed back about then, did a few more dances and called it a night.

Up next - Mykonos and Rick Steves.

Where's the puppy and the bird?

Today was Valetta, Malta. First thing, find out where Malta is. Oh wait, I don't need to know - I'm not driving. Next, find the falcon, or the puppy or the Cross, or the malted milk. Never mind.

We'd joined a tour a fellow cruisecritic member had organized for 4 of us. They had to cancel, but fortunately, Adele and Frank stepped in. Once again, we met at the Passport bar to meet for finding our guide.

Disembarkation was fast, and we walked out of the pier area. One other ship was the there - the Mein Schiff 2 (Mein Schiff is a joint venture between RCI and TUI shipping - a German company). I subsequently learned that the ship was originally the Celebrity Mercury.

We were to meet our guide, Therese at a bar at the end of the pier. After getting directions, we arrived at the bar and her at at exactly our meeting time 8:30. We jumped into her 7 seater car, and away we went.

The first part was a quick drive around Valletta, with a stop at the old looking walls of the harbor. (Pictures coming - promise!). We looked some churches that are getting ready for a feast or festival or something - the neighborhood was decorated, and it was all very festive. Therese started us off learning about Maltese food with some puffed pasteries - one stuffed with ricotta and the other with mushy peas. Both good.


Following that, we went to a fishing village and took some pictures. In addition to fishermen selling fish, there were a lot of local vendors selling purses, clothes, toys and the ubiquitous fidget spinners. Yes, they have made it even to small fishing villages.

Following that, and driving through other villages (Malta is made up of a couple of cities and a lot of villages) we arrived along the coast at the Blue Grotto - a rock formation where the water is very, very blue. We watched the tourist boats come and go for a bit.

Of course here it is:

We then stopped at a bar in a village called, I believe, Siggiewi for a tasting. I tried a local wine - a light wine made from Cabernet grapes, Glen & Adele had beer, and Frank a soda. The proprietress also served us some dip that was a cross between hummus and bean dip, a vegetable and egg dish that was roughly a quiche and maybe a sweet - neither of remember. We bid a warm farewell and headed to our next destination - Mdina.

Mdina is an old walled city in Malta. It was the capital of Malta on and off under different names, and it's history goes back over 1000 years. There are only a limited number of cars allowed, so we marked out side and walked in. The architecture is a mix of medieval and byzantine. It was a fascinating walk through the inner city.

From Mdina, we went to Therese's general home area for lunch in a restaurant that's known for it's local food. It was packed since it was lunch time on Sunday, so we decided to finish the north part of the tour, and eat on the way back. So we headed to the north of Malta.

On the way to the far point of our tour, we were quite surprised to see what looked like a New England building at the top of a ravine. When we got to the ravine, there was an entire little New England village! Turns out that was the exterior set for the 1980's movie Popeye. Malta agreed to let them film there, provided they leave the set intact. It was then turned into a theme park. We could see a stage in the middle where Popeye and Olive Oyl were leading the guests in a line dance or something.

From there, we drove towards the ferry to Gozo, but took a side road to the view instead. Therese said she liked that because the cruiseship busses couldn't get there. We drove to the end of the road, hopped out and took some pictures of Goza. We also watched the ferry heading to it's dock in Malta.


Back into the car, and back down to lunch. It was still busy in the restaurant, but there was a table for us. Lunch was included in the cost of our tour, and was very filling and good. There was bread with tomatoes and olives, rolled stuffed beef, stuffed eggplant, pork chop and stewed rabbit. I tried one bit of that. Not my thing. There were also roasted potatoes and fries. For dessert, there was a pastry stuffed with almond paste, but since almond is expensive here it was fake almond. She also gave us some halvah.

We went back to the car and then she stopped to run into a small grocery store. She gave each couple a jar of honey and some halvah. She also bought some prickly pear fruit to try. Not bad if you can get past all the seeds.
We drove back to Valletta stopping at the village of Mosta to look at their cathedral. A few more views of Valletta and back to the ship.

Tonight was our night for our first specialty dining at Qsine. We had a couple of hours before dinner, and we wanted to see the Beatles tribute show at 7:00 so we went up to the room to drop our stuff, relax and prepare for dinner. I took advantage of the time to call my mom and sister, who are still in France. This would be my last chance to talk to them in the same time zone. While I was chatting with my sister and explaining the differences between the Reflection and the Equinox, Arun came in to explain a few things about tomorrow night. (We get reserved seats at the show). We asked about making sure the laundry was out by 9:00 and he said just leave it and they'll get it when they make up the room.

We had a bottle of champagne that came with the room chilling in the fridge and thought we'd bring it to dinner. The issue was keeping it cold. At first we thought we'd drop at the restaurant on our way to the show, but we both ran out of time to drop and explain, and we weren't sure they would get it. So then we decided that since there wasn't time to go back to the room, we'd have our butler bring it down. No time to call him, so on our way to dinner, we stopped in Michaels club to ask them to call him. Apparently that was successful because the champagne did arrive.

We met Adele on our way to the restaurant and quickly got seated at a window table. Qsine is a tapas style restaurant, although not your mother's tapas. Our waiter said they recommend 6-8 things, and let them pick the order. He also said that he would do a few as a started, bring a "main", followed by the favorite tower of middle eastern treats and then we could decide what else we wanted.

We got through the main and the tower and then decided to go straight to dessert. I guess that happens a lot. Next time on a ship with Qsine, we'll go twice. For the food details, visit the cruise critic thread. Or I'll add later.

After dinner we walked around on the outside promenade deck, and up on top for a bit, and called it a night. We'd been up early, so after that off to bed, and I decided to write this on the sea day.

The Godfather Part 4

Today was our first of many port days. We woke up at 8 to get to breakfast before they closed at 9. At that time, we were sailing into Messina Sicily, accompanied by the pilot boat. We were scheduled to dock at 10. Breakfast was in Lumenae again, and we finally got a window table. yay.

Following that, we headed up to the room to gather our stuff (money, etc). While there, I called our lovely butler and asked him to switch around some reservations - go to Tuscan before Murano. He said he'd take care of it.

For Sicily, we'd booked a tour with some cruise critic friends that included driving to Mt. Etna. We met at a bar at 10:15 and headed out. Our guide, Ignatio (aka Iggy) was waiting for us at the pier, and we headed to his van, and drove out of town.

Our first stop was Savoka, a small arty town, most famous for being a filming location for the Godfather. It hosted the church where Michael Corleone got married. Also we encountered a local resident who as an extra in the movie, played his wife's mother. She still lives there.

We also tasted olive oil and almond cookies and wine. It was good, but not, in my opinion only, as good as the olive oil we get in Napa. We did walk to the church as well.

Back into the van and then off to Mt. Etna. We drove to 6000 feet, stopping on the way at another tasting room. We tried a wide variety of wine, olive oils and honey. We also learned about the honey making process. We thought about buying some, but honestly, it would just probably go bad.

Next we went up to an area at 6000 feet. From there, we could see the actives craters of the volcano. It is the largest active volcano in Europe. At that location there were several restaurants, Also there were several craters which had previously been eruptions. We did walk up to them and peered in, but it was very windy and hard to walk around. Iggys original plan was that we'd have our lunch there (a capresse sandwich and pastry) but it was too windy. So we drove to Taormina, a nearby municipality known for it's views and old churches. We had our lunch and walked the main street which was a lot of shops and old churches. We even watched part of a wedding. Glen and I wandered the streets, looked at the old theatre (probably Roman), and some interesting streets. We thought the two hours we had there were too long, so we stopped at a bar and had some Gelato. It was the messiest ice cream we've ever had, as it was melting pretty continuously. By this time, we had about 20 minutes until our meeting time so we headed to Porto Messina to wait for the others. We'd had two hours, which we thought was about 1/2 hour too long. At about 8 minutes early everyone else, including Iggy arrived and we headed back to Messina and the ship.

When we got to Messina we had time to goto an overlook to see a view of the city, as well as some remnants of old forts, etc. After that, we stopped at the Cathedral that features a clock tower with moving figures, that move at noon. It was, of course well past noon when we got there, so I guess we'll go to You Tube to see it.
Following that we went back to the ship, arriving either before or after the busses, since it was quick to get on the ship.

After a rest, we headed to the theater to see Elysium, which I'd seen on the Equinox. It was pretty much the same, even the lead girls looked similar. The acrobats were very good, the dancers just a touch out of sync. We then headed to the restaurant for dinner. It was packed, with no good location for a table for 2. The hostess said she had a couple of people leaving soon, so suggested we go to Michaels club for a drink, and she'd come and get us when a table was ready. It ended up taking about 40 minutes, but we did get a window table (not sure why I need one at dinner since it's dark out)

Dinner was good, although about midway through our waiter disappeared and someone who seemed to be a maitre'd (but not the restaurant maitre'd) finished up. The service was good, but not as good as the night before - as we left I asked the hostess, and she said that because of the late port, everyone came at the same time. Usually, it's more spread out.

From there, we went to Silent disco. It was packed, but we were able to get headphones right away. The dance floor was packed, so we went over to a seating area with some space and danced a few swings and went back to the room.

My key got demagnetized, so I went down to guest services and had a very nice chat with the agent there. I asked about some of her strangest requests and she gave me one that I have to share.

A guest came down to complain about her room. She said she'd paid for an ocean view, and now didn't have one. The agent asked if she'd moved rooms, and the guest said no. She said that yesterday she'd had an ocean view, but now she just had a view of the port.

I leave you tonight with that one. Today was crazy busy, but I did figure out how to put pictures on cruise critic. I have some on my phone that I will upload tomorrow. At some point, maybe on the sea day, I hope to figure out how to get Glen's pictures to the phone so I can upload some of his much better ones. Good night.

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Where's the driver?

So, at long last it was time to board the ship. WE tried to sleep until 9 am and Glen did. Was up at 7 for a while, but then went back to sleep until the alarm went off. We dressed and packed, and went down for breakfast. After breakfast, it was 10am, and we went up to get the bags and check out.

Our driver was supposed to arrive at 10:15. 10:15 came and went. At about 10:20, I asked the front desk to call the number on the confirmation. She said it didn't work. Slight panic set in, and I emailed the contact. A couple of minutes later I got a text saying the car had broken down and they were sending a new car in 15 minutes. Ok, not what I wanted. About 10:44 I sent another text, and then the driver pulled up. We loaded the bags and away we went. About 1/2 there, he stopped for gas. Then it started pouring with a full out thunderstorm. That didn't delay us much (I was, for grins, running waze on the route) and about 11:45 we pulled into the port (about 40 minutes after I wanted to).

It was still pouring so we waited until he could pull up close to the covered area. He helped us with our bags and then when we went to pay, he couldn't break a 50. Total was 125, and given how late it was, and the gas stop (also he was taking pictures with his phone and such while driving - completely illegal where I live), we didn't want to give a 25 Euro tip. Finally, he found a friend to break it, and we paid him and said good bye.

Next up was to figure out where to put the luggage - there were a bunch of bags out front, and then, inside the building (there was a covered area in front) there was a sign directing those with luggage tags to the right, without to the left. We went to the right, and an authority there told us to go to the left and opened a rope to let us through. We gave our bags to someone who was handing them to the porters and hoped we'd see them again.

Next, trying to get to checkin, the entire way was blocked by bags. I really wish I had a picture to share. Finally we squeezed our way through, and entered the building. We were given what they called an embarkation number - we apparently were in group 91. Hopefully they'd started by now.

As I put my stuff through security, they held the line, because the line to move through the room to check in had extended to security. Glen suggested a sing along while we waited. After a couple of minutes, the line moved and we got in line. It took about 15 minutes, and once we got our room cards they let us go directly onto the shop. I think it took about 30 minutes total.

First stop was Michael's Club. We have a minisuite (called a Sky Suite) and we get some suite privileges, including Michael's Club lounge and the suite restaurant. We went to Michaels to work out our specialty dining with our friends, and just ourselves.

It took a few minutes but we were able to work out Qsine with our friends Adele and Frank for the time they'd selected. It got a bit more complicated for Jo and Alan at the Lawn club because her original reservation had been for the same day as our Qsine, so she changed it online, but the ship never got the message. So I had to call and ask her to come down to Michaels. We got it all straightened out. She mentioned they wanted to try the Porch, but since that's sea food, we passed. The concierge there was happy to help her out. They also let her know that because she's in Aqua, she can use the Concierge class concierge. After that, I booked Murano and Tuscan and we were set. At this point, they announced the rooms were ready, so we said goodby for now and headed to our room.

We dropped our bags, and headed to Luminae for lunch. We had a nice lunch (a few pictures coming soon) and I tried the famed Luminae burger. It was good. After lunch, we did some ship exploration, until time for Muster drill.

At some point, we stopped int the room and met our room steward. He was vary nice. Just before the muster drill our butler stopped by to introduce himself. Since it was just before Muster, we agreed he'd come back later.

Soon the alarm sounded and off we went to the Tuscan grill for Muster. We found some seats, but then noticed they were behind the single screen. There were many people behind the screen, but the crew in the room didn't require them to move to see it. After the video we expected a life jacket demo but nothing, except saying the station leader would take over. Ours just said let us know if you have questions. Then dead silence for about 5-10 minutes. I believe that they were waiting for the bigger muster stations to call out the names of the people who weren't checked off. Then the captain made a brief have fun announcement and we were done. Honestly? This was a total waste of time. In the event of an actual emergency any new cruisers on this ship would have no clue what to do. As many know I mostly sail Princess, and they take their saftely drill very seriously. I felt this ship only did one because they had to, and did as little possible to say they did it. Maybe the Carnival Corp ships take it more seriously because they lost a billion dollar ship in 2012. Off my soapbox now.

After muster, we went to the Cruise Critic sailaway party at the sunset bar. For whatever reason we were on the smoking side, but it was still fun.

At 6, we headed down to unpack and meet our butler. He explained the room lights, and a few other things, and what he could do for us. Anything, apparently.

After that, we dressed for dinner and went to the Grand Foyer to dance to the orchestra. We danced through their set, and then went over to guest relations so Glen could fix his internet package (he'd signed up for the 90 minute plan rather than waiting for his code for unlimited).

We then stopped in Michael's club just to see it when it wasn't packed, and ended up staying for a drink. It was then getting on dinner time. I'd looked at the Blu menu and the appetizers looked good, so I decided to see if we could eat there instead. The host told me probably not since it was very busy. So off we went to Lumenae. we had the same waiter for dinner as lunch, and it was enjoyable and good. During dinner, I got a text from JoEllen that they were at Blu at 8:50 and there was a wait.

We finished dinner just before 10, and since there was nothing interesting going on, we came back here to call it a night.

All roads lead to Rome (at least that's what the signs indicated)

Woo-hoo we're in Rome!

Our flight to Rome was uneventful. Long, but uneventful. I watched Hacksaw Ridge and tried to nap. I may have slept some.

Our flight left Chicago 20 minutes but arrived only one minute late. Processing at the airport was fast, at least when we got there (being at the front of the plane helps) - it took about an hour from pulling into the gate to arriving at our room. We're staying at the Rome Park Marriott, listed as an airport hotel. It turns out that it's about 1/2 way between the airport and the city. They have a shuttle that's 5 Euro per person to the hotel. They recommend booking the shuttle in advance for going back to the airport, but of course we're not doing that. We have a car coming at 10:15 directly to the port.

When I contacted the hotel and asked about the shuttle, I also asked about the easiest way into the city - although both of us have been to Rome before, it seemed a shame to just hang out in a hotel. They also have a bus to the Piazza dei Tribunale - on the Tiber near St. Peter's and the Pantheon. It's 6 E each way, or 10 round trip. We decided to reserve for 6 pm and set up a dinner with some from our roll call.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we got settled, and decided to go in at 4pm instead of 6 pm - after a power nap and showers.

On our way to the Shuttle, we asked the concierge what we should do with a couple of hours to sightsee. He gave what we called a circle tour of 4 sites walking distance from the shuttle. We called it the "place you don't need to go into" tour. We went to the Spanish Steps (got hustled for money but didn't bite), Trevi Fountain (I don't recall being there before, the Pantheon (we did go in - I didn't know it's a church) and Piazza Navone. It took just under two hours and then we had about 90 minutes before our dinner meeting time. We headed to Campo d' Fiore and found the restaurant nearby. We then went back to a bakery we'd seen called Il Forniao. We know it just means the baker, but the font is similar to that of the restaurant chain near us. We had coffees and a bottle of water. I decided I don't really like Evain water, but I'm not sure why.

We still had some time so we wandered a bit more and found a grocery store. Glen needed toothpaste, so we got some. We then decided to go to the hotel next door to the restaurant, which is where our friends were staying, and hange out in the lobby for a half hour.

It was airconditioned and pleasant and after a while JoEllen and Alan came down, and we joined the others for dinner.

It had been a bit of a problem trying to get the dinner reservation, as I'd asked the concierge to call and they couldn't reach them. JoEllen had the American Express concierge call, and they called the hotel next door, which said that the restaurant was closed for vacation through much of September. We made other arrangements, but about three days ago the restaurant confirmed. It came highly recommended, so we were thrilled they were open.

JoEllen and Alan had taken a food tour this morning and the guide said that while one of Rome's specialties is Jewish fried artichokes, they are out of season, so restaurants shouldn't have them. If they do, they are suspect as to their freshness. The guide also said to beware of large menus. This restaurant had both. Oh well.

The food was good, but not great after that. The company, however was fun and we spent about 2 hours enjoying dinner together. We had to catch the 11 pm shuttle back to the hotel, so we said goodbye until tomorrow. We used google maps to get to the shuttle (During our touring we were having fun following the map the hotel gave us, but at night google seemed easier).

We had enough time to stop and take some picutres, and still make the 30 minute shuttle back to the hotel.

And then it was write this, call my mom who's visiting France with my sister (yes, that sister from the Equinox trip), and now to get more than a few hours of sleep - the first time since Monday. I will have some pictures tomorrow.

up next - the ship!

The next adventure begins

I'm back on the second of my month apart Celebrity cruise - this time with my husband.

On Friday, we board the Reflection for an eastern Med cruise. I've got both a camera (not just a phone), and a husband with a new camera, so I really will try to both post pictures and post in a timely manner (I don't think he'll run around with a tablemate until 2 am like my sister and I did on the Equinox a few weeks ago).

So where am I now? It's about 11:45 pm and I'm in an airport hotel in San Francisco. The hotel is located right by the runway, and thus every 3 minutes it gets very loud in the outside. It's not the hotel we usually stay at and an experiment with a Starwood property (I'm a Marriott person). So far, pre cruise Starwood is 0 for 2. I usually stay at the Marriott, a couple of miles away, but they were very expensive for tonight.

We leave at 8:30 tomorrow Am, hence the hotel tonight, arriving in Rome via Chicago (so glad I didn't connect through Houston) at about 11:00 am Thursday. I may post from Chicago tomorrow, but hopefully with nothing particularly exciting to report. I'll also bring back my thread on the Princess board if I notice anything new and different. And last but not least, I'll also put this on my blog.

Good night all. Any typos are due to husband distracting me by putting pillows over the computer. Apparently he wants the lights out. Too bad, I had two cups of coffee and one ice tea at dinner.

Farewell Miami - see you next year

Sadly, it’s debarkation day. We awoke around 7 and were happy to see that our bags were gone. We dressed, packed up and headed to the buffet for a final breakfast, since we’d missed the dining room. Never did make it there for breakfast. It was possibly the busiest place we’d been all week. We finally found a table, and grabbed some food - I had a final eggs benedict and our last really good orange juice. We still had quite a while before our group would be called - we were in group 40 and I think they were up to about 7, so we went to the sky lounge to wait for our number. Our official “meet time” was 9:40 and at about 9:55 they called all the final groups. We headed off the ship into a fairly long line at the bottom of the gangway. It seemed to take a while, although honestly, it was probably more like 10-15 minutes. Once at the bottom of the escalator (which was probably the reason it was slow, it was fairly fast to get through immigration. We then went to the baggage claim, and there were carousels. I’m used to wandering through a section of a warehouse looking at every bag. It didn’t take long to find our bags and head outside.

It took a while to figure out where the rental car pick up was - we never did figure it out. I saw a Budget truck drive by so I ran (as much as I could with suitcases) and found the van past the port area, and at a lunch truck. I asked the drivers if that was our van, and they told me to hop in. I called Beth and once we were on, and they were finished with their snack, it was off to the Budget office.

I’d heard stories of long lines on turn around days, and when we dropped the car on the way in there were lots of people waiting. Since the Equinox was the only ship in, and we were the only ones on the shuttle, there was no wait and the car was ready.

We were flying out of Ft. Lauderdale in the evening so lots of time. First thing we decided to do was visit the Wynwood Walls - an art exhibit of graffiti on building walls - the area was previously warehouses, and now features work by well known street artists. We walked around for about an hour, including a stop at a coffee house. It was very warm, so we left after an hour.

Next stop was the Holocaust Memorial in South Beach. Beth said it gets great don’t miss reviews on trip advisor. If you drive by, you see a sculpture of a hand reaching up, but if you park and go in, you see all the people sculpted with around it, and around the base. If you walk to the center, you walk among the sculptures - very moving. The walls also have panels with victims names - apparently the names are those that were submitted to them.

After that, we decided to head up to Ft. Lauderdale for lunch and then the airport. Several years ago we’d spent Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale, so were familiar with it. We knew the mall there had some good restaurants, so we headed there. We ended up at the Capital Grill having burgers - very good, and better than what we’d had on the ship. From there we went to Starbucks, and put gas in the car. (When we rented they said for 14.00 we could return without gassing up - since we put in about 5.00 worth, we were glad we didn’t do it.

At the airport, we were disappointed we weren’t in the same terminal, so Beth walked me to my security checkpoint, since it was nearer to the rental car return, and we said see you in November. We both then went to our delayed flights.

My first flight was about 20 minutes late, and I had a 55 minute connection in Denver. It looked like the gates would be about 5 apart and we’d only be a few minutes late, so I was told it wouldn’t be a problem, and there were 16 of us connecting to San Francisco. When I arrived in Denver the flight to SF was going to be 30 minutes late - and I think it was just announced, since I was checking constantly while on the first flight. It ended up, by the time left, being almost 2 hours late, and I got home at 2:00 am.

It was a fun trip, and now time to start thinking about my next one - I’ll be back from the Reflection in just under two weeks.

Last sea day AKA Cruiseship highway

We decided to sleep in so hit the very late breakfast. There was a decent set of choices, even with what they called late breakfast - no poached eggs (Benedicts) available, but you could still get omelettes, etc. We were there so late that they were setting up lunch, and we happened to see a whole display of gluten free desserts. Two of my nieces have Celiac, so that was very reassuring for Beth.

We then had a sort of do nothing day, until we went to lunch a couple of hours later. We were seated at a 4 top table, and right after we sat down, we noticed that Tom and Michelle, from our St. Martin tour, were walking to a nearby table. We had them join us and we had a very nice and delicious lunch, that lasted a long time.

After lunch, we went to Guest Relations to get Beth’s card replaced yet again (it had demagnetized before lunch, and I noticed people with disembarkation tags. We’d never received anything. So while at the front, I asked about it. We should have received a disembarkation letter and tags, so the agent gave them to me for our preferred time. (Last debarkation time since we weren’t flying out until evening).

After lunch we did a final use the OBC shopping trip (I found some very nice earrings) and then got ready for dinner and, sadly, pack. Originally, Beth had arranged with Manny and Steve that we’d come and get them at 6, and go to the Casino before dinner. The Celebrity Today showed Beauty and the Beast playing at 5:15 and we thought it would be fun to watch the start of that. So on our way, we stopped by their room to let them know we’d meet them in the Casino around 6.

We did watch the first 50 minutes or so of the movie and then headed to the casino, where Steve and Manny were waiting. They said the casino was too dead, so we went to the GastroPub bar. They all ordered drinks from the gastropub, but I went to the Martini bar to get my last Candied Apple Martini (yes, it’s very sweet). Beth and I wanted to see the last of the shows - Life. Manny decided to go with us, and then we talked Steve into it. He said he’d go but only if we sat near an aisle so he could leave early. Deal struck and off we went. We did sit by an aisle, and Steve made it through all but the last number of the show. I felt this was the weakest of the shows. There was minimal costuming and set, and I guess the very vague story line was boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, or something like that.

We then went briefly back up to the room to grab pen and paper to exchange contact information and went to our last dinner. We were all there, although many tables seemed to be empty nearby. Steve and Manny had brought a bottle of champagne, so we had several toasts. The best, had to be Beth’s, who toasted that this was the best table she’d ever had on a cruise (remember this is her first cruise). After dinner we bid a fond farewell to our waitstaff (and Manny who decided to go to bed early) and headed back up to the Sunset bar to watch for the meteor shower, which was supposed to peak tonight. We spent time chatting and looking, but all we saw were a lot of cruise ships going every which way. We did, after about an hour, see one, so we gave up and decided to call it a night, since everyone has to be up early.

But first, we headed to the front of the ship to the Sky Lounge where they were doing the second of two instances of Silent Disco. That, if you’ve never been to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah lately, is where participants wear headphones playing music and they dance to it. There are 3 channels so everyone’s dancing to different things. There was a short line to get headphones, so I decided to join it. Although Steve said he thought it could take hours, he decided to join too, as did Beth. We then bid Terry and Claude a fond farewell.

It took only a few minutes to get our headphones, and we joined the party. First step was to order our parting drink from the bar and then we danced. Beth and I found some of our favorite songs that were played at the Susan Koman 3-day (an event we are part of every year) and other songs that I’d love to dance to. After about 45 minutes, we returned the headphones, and head back to our rooms. We bid Steve a fond farewell, put out our bags very late, and made one last trip to Guest Relations to take care of a couple of odds and ends. Thus ends our last full day.

Where do those stairs go? Don't go

This was our first of two final sea days, and the first time that we could sleep in a bit since San Juan. We grabbed a late breakfast, and during breakfast heard the days announcements. Up at 11:30 was the Great Equinox cook off - a, what top Chef would call a Quick Fire, cooking challenge between two Marine officers and two hotel officers. We decided to attend that.

Before that, though, we headed to future cruise sales to figure out next year’s trip. Beth has limited time to travel based on her kids schedule and other things, so we worked with the representative to find the perfect cruise - same ship, a week earlier and Western Caribbean.

Then, on to the Cook-off. Each team had similar ingredients, but a different protein - they first introduced the hotel team. They walked over to station 1, and then switched to station 2. Apparently station 1 had salmon and 2 steak - and they decided Marine should do Salmon.

The teams had 15 minutes to make and plate a dish (two plates each). The judge was the food and beverage manager. The clock started and Sara (cruise director) and hotel guy (forget his name) entertained the crowd with jokes and comments about the food and beverage department. They did point out that on the ship, none of the chefs cook, so are probably very out of practice. The marine team had Nina, a security officer from Romania, who apparently cooks a lot at home. They made a salmon with a garlic aioli, with a side of veggies. The hotel team made a steak with veggies and fingerling potatoes. I’m not exactly sure what their preparation was, since the dishes were never described.

The first comment about the steak dish by hotel guy was that the one dish had one extra carrot and the other one extra piece of steak. The hotel team responded by eating them. The tasting was pretty even (and pronounced delicious) but the Marine team won because they had the better plating. As we walked out we could inspect the dishes. We took advantage of that, and spent a few minutes chatting with Sara. We suggested maybe more commentary on what they were making and we also found out about her background. She’s from the Basque part of Spain, and was given English lessons as a child, so that’s why a non-native-English speaker can be a CD. (Every other one I’ve ever has has been from an English speaking country, usually Canada or the UK). She actually has been one of the better ones - spending about 5 minutes each morning explaining the days activities but leaving us alone to do them after that.

Today, we decided to go to the Gastro Bar for lunch. They have a la carte pub menu that looked good. We both decided to order burgers and maybe a side. We thought about truffled fries, but Beth doesn’t like truffles. We agreed that the Cheddar soup sounded good, so we decided to split one although not perhaps, the most obvious choice with burgers. The waiter did warn us that it could take a little while and asked if we wanted the soup first. He also offered to bring the soup first.

After a time (I don’t remember how long it took - not long enough for me to worry about it) he brought two bowls of soup and two burgers. The burgers came with the truffled fries, so he said he’d bring Beth some plain ones. The soup was absolutely delicious - and the burgers were good, but the burgers and the fries, were not very warm. I think the problem is that the food comes from the dining room galley, which is at the back of the dining room. So in addition to the time it takes for the waiter to walk the food through the dining room to the bar, he/she has to go back to check for it. I’d probably do it again, but maybe just get soup and eat the rest of lunch elsewhere.

We then wandered around the shops for a bit, and then got ready for our evening. Since this was Friday night, somebody had set up a Friday night service (Jewish). I know they are passenger hosted, and have always been curious so we decided to go. It was led by a young man from London, and he seemed to know what he was doing. Because there were people from different branches of Judaism, the service was a little different - but I don’t go very often so I can’t be very specific as to what was what. The ship (I assume) provided wine (Manachevitz) and Challah (bread). They only set out about 6 wine glasses, and somebody suggested we all share, but we weren’t exactly up for sharing with strangers. Someone found a stash of wine glasses, so Beth and I shared a bit, and we all shared the bread. Apparently some people dip it in honey so there was exactly one individual package of honey (the size you get with the sugar for coffee and tea). We did speak to the leader afterwards, and it turns out he’s a cantor (singer in the synagogue) and on his honeymoon. There were also prayer books, so I’m thinking the ship has them, since I doubt people bring 10 identical hardcover books on board.

We had about 40 minutes after it ended before dinner, so we decide to walk around for a bit. And at the nearest bar we ran into our stablemates Steve and Manny, so we sat and had a drink with them, and then headed to the dining room for a fun dinner.

Since this was supposed to be the start of the annual meteor shower, we headed up to the rear of the ship to watch for meteors for a while. We hung out there for a while, and then gave up. Terry and Claude (our other stablemates) went to bed, and the rest of us went to the casino. Manny played a bit of slots, with us taking turns pushing the button. It took about 10 minutes to lose 20.00. He played a second game while we watched. Next it was roulette, and Steve talked Beth into playing some roulette.

At this point, I decided that I wanted to change my shoes from heels to sneakers. I went up from the casino on 4 to our room on 10, carrying a bottle of water, a glass of ginger ale and my shoes. Got to the room, and my key had stopped working. So back down to Guest Relations on 3, new key, back up to 10, back down to 4. Did I mention I did all this via stairs? When I returned, Steve was still there with Beth, who’d already played and lost her small chip set. Then we watched Steve play 3 card poker for a bit. Finally, we decided to go back up to the top to see if the meteors had shown up. I’d brought my phone so I could Face Time Glen, so I decided to text since it was getting late his time, and I wanted to let him know I’d try to call. The message didn’t go through, because it was text - I was on the wifi, so I thought it would go through as iMessage. I then tried FaceTime and it said it was awaiting activation. After about 10 minutes of trying, I got a text from Glen (via iMessage) asking if I’m seeing (or saw) the Carnival Magic behind us. I did, and figuring that iMessage, and FaceTime would work, I called him for a bit.

By this time, it was getting on 2:30 am, so we decided to go to bed. Steve decided he was hungry, so we stopped by the buffet. On the way, we noticed a crew door open with stairs. Steve suggested that we go down and find the crew bar. Beth and I said no. On arriving at the buffet, we found nothing there. This surprised me, since it was a cruise ship, you’d think there would be food 24x7. Apparently you could order from room service, but after 11pm, there’s a delivery charge. We gave up and went to bed.

What country are we in?

Today was Sint Maarten, St. Martin. In this port, we'd worked with a local guide, Tony Dublin, to provide a 5 hour taxi tour. We'd be joined by two couples from our cruise critic roll call. Late yesterday, I received an email from one telling me that 1/2 had broken her knee and they'd have to cancel. I asked if they were able to continue the cruise. No reply. The pricing was based on a minimum of 6, so if only four went the price would go up. We hadn't heard from the other two, and didn't meet them at the gathering, so if they didn't show, we'd have the whole price, unless we could recruit our table mates. We couldn't, so if it was just us, oh well.

We did a room service breakfast, and because we had concierge rooms, we got an expanded room service menu. Yesterday, we'd ordered a bunch of stuff, but today, we decided that a cold cereal breakfast plus some bacon was perfect. We learned that if you order cereal, you do need to order enough milk for it. Then, Beth put her tea bag in my coffee, so another call to replace. At least I made the order taker laugh.

We then made our way down to where we agreed to meet. We were pleased to see that not only did the people who hadn't cancelled show up, the people who did were there too. Turns out her knee wasn't broken, so if she didn't have to do serious walking, she could do the tour.

We then headed off the ship, and it took them a little while to get off, since, because she'd been taken to a hospital yesterday, she had to be cleared to leave the ship in port. They'd cleared her, but there was no record of it or something. After a few minutes, the clearance was recorded, and off to meet Tony.

He took us all over the Island, explaining much about the history, the culture and other interesting facts. We did see a lot of the well known beaches, including Orient Beach and the small communities there.

We also visited a farm that is a day resort. They have a restaurant, gift shop, pool, hiking trails and activities. They are thinking of making it a hotel with rooms, and if they do it will be a very nice place to stay. We then went to Marigot, the capital of St. Martin. We stopped to walk around and visit any of the shops or restaurants. We went to Sarafina, which is considered the best pastry shop around. We had fruit beignets which were delicious.

From there, back to the dutch side. We made several stops for the view, and also visited Maho beach, known for being right by the airport runway (you might recall a woman died from a jet blast a few weeks ago). We didn't time it right for a big plane, but did see a small one come right over us. A few more stunning views and our tour was over.

We then shopped the port a little bit, but really didn't see anything we needed. Then back to the ship. Since it was almost 3 and we'd only had a snack since breakfast we headed up to lunch. Turns out that the buffet ends lunch at 2:30, which to me seems early considering people often come in from excursions later than that. They had what they called afternoon snacks, which was basically pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads. I tried a burger from the grill and wasn't too impressed. We ate with our fellow cruise critic and tour participants, and had a nice time.

We finished around four and headed downstairs for some relaxation time before dinner. I went up to the sky lounge to watch the sail away. Dinner was the usual lively affair, and we pretty much closed the dining room. Two of our tablemates want to attend a homage to Miles Davis, and so the rest of us went to the casino. I don't gamble so it was just to hang out. We stayed for about an hour just watching, while Steve (our tablemate) decided that Beth should meet a high roller. We spent some time talking about whether the ring on his left hand was a wedding or signet. Well, actually Steve talked about it. After that to bed, another fun day in the books.

Saltfish and goat and okra oh my!

Saint Thomas! Today, we have a two hour walking tour called the Tasting and Cultural tour. We were told to be at the Ft. Christian entrance for a 10:00 tour, and to be 15 minutes early. We figured it was about a 40 minute walk, and I had google map printouts of the route. So at about 9am we left the ship. It was very hot, so we opted to take the shared taxi to downtown. It was 4.00 each. So, everything I googled and printed said Ft. Christian. I told the taxi service I wanted the Courthouse. No idea why I did that. I'm sure the driver was surprised why anyone would want to go there.

When we got there, we checked the voucher and then realized it was Ft. Christian. Fortunately we were 20 minutes early. We asked at the Courthouse they said to turn right and it was the big red building a block away. Needless to say, we arrived in plenty of time.

Just before 10, Gerard, our guide arrived. Turned out we were the only two people on the tour today, so we set out. The tour was a tasting and cultural tour of the downtown area. We learned about the US purchase of the Virgin Islands, how Charlotte Amalie was built up, slave revolts and other fun facts. We visited a tea shop for hibiscus tea, saltfish quiche and a small salad. The next stop was for Rum Cake at a bakery owned by a nonprofit that helps at risk kids get job training. They opened a very good back for those kids to work at. Next stop was Gladys's cafe - a well known cafe featuring local favorites - a conch fritter, a cornmeal and okra mix and callaloo soup. Beth pointed out that there was a Cosby episode about Callaloo soup. Our final food stop was at a place called Cuzzins, where we were served goat stew, rice and beans and a plantain. The plantain was the best I've ever had. We finished the tour at a bar, and were served a bushwacker a local drink with about 5 kinds of liquor in it. Google it for a recipe.

Following that, we decided to see the building where Camile Pressaro, the father of modern impressionism was born. It turns out, while it's called the Pressaro building, it's pretty much retail with a lawyer and doctors office. There is a plaque indicating that's where he was born, but that's about it. After that, we went to the synagogue - the oldest in North America, and one of three with a sand floor. They have a small museum and we learned a bit about it's history. Pressaro's family were members back in the 19th century.

We also went to a craft shop run by a retired english teacher, and Beth bought a Moko Jumbie for her doll collection (that's a Carnivale stilt walker). I also bought a pair of earrings with a local stone. After that, we decided to head back to the ship. Our guide had told us that to get a shared cab back, we should cross the main street on the beach (they drive British side but with American left side drive, driver in the weeds) and find an indent in the road. I thought we were at a taxi stop, because it said Taxi parking only, but Beth thought it wasn't indented enough. An open air taxi stopped, but by the time we asked how much, he drove on because the light changed. About 5 minutes later a closed van taxi came by, and told us it was 4.00 each back. He told us to hurry in, so we did and back to the port we went.

It was a zoo when we got to the port, probably because the Allure of Seas (nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Seas by some of us when it was new) and it was dumping over 5000 people. It had been docked for a couple of hours, but I suspect that people had lunch and then left. An hour later it was quiet again.

We didn't want lunch, so went to Cafe Bacio for coffee, and then sailaway. After that, we didn't do much until dinner.

It was great going back to our regular table for dinner. The dinner was the usual good, and featured the menu we thought we'd have the prior night. All was well in the food world. We enjoyed our dinner, and pretty much closed out the dining room. We wanted to keep the conversation going, so we decided to go to the sky lounge up on deck 14. Once we got there we discovered it was Latin Night with the DJ and impossibly loud. So we decided to move to the Ensemble lounge on deck 5. Back down we went. We ordered drinks, and then a subset of the orchestra, the jazz ensemble, started playing jazz loudly. Too loud to talk, so decided the library would be good. The library is on the 10th floor, and opens up to the atrium. There was a party going on in the atrium and the music was very loud, and carried up all floors. That wasn't going to work. Finally we settled on going outside to the back of the ship. We found a table, chatted for a while and finally around midnight called it a night. Quick facetime to Glen and then bed.

A tale of two restaurants

It was the best of meals, it was the worst of meals ...

Actually, not the worst, it just went with the title. Stay tuned on this ...

So our first port day, but not until late afternoon, so we decided to a late breakfast at the buffet. Once again, a lot of choices but I settled on a eggs bennie with some bacon. Because of the drink package, we could get better OJ which was interesting to me. I also liked that the servers came around with a plate of pastries. Nice touch.

During breakfast we heard that the galley tour started at 11. I've been on a few on Princess, but Beth's never been so we headed to the restaurant for that. It started with the Cruise director introducing the various department heads, and then a long q&a while they called groups of 2-20 people for their tour through the main galley. Why the number varied was that as you entered or stood in line to enter, you were given a ticket with a group number. Some groups were very small so I guess people left.

Our group was headed by one of the pastry chefs - I think the head pastry honcho. We went through various salad, main, side, etc stations. As I learned on previous tours, entrees are cooked to order, although some things that take hours are prepared in advance, much like a restaurant. We also learned that they have a completely separate area for preparing food for those with allergies, or gluten issues. The tour ended at the entrance to the specialty restaurants with a redo of the food demos and the crew ready to take your reservations. They do push those restaurants hard.

We then took a brief break before lunch and then headed to the dining room. Lunch is on deck four (we are in fixed and on deck 3) so that was interesting. We were seated at a table for 8 with a group of four from Montreal. We enjoyed talking with them. However, we both ordered the every day beef hotdog, and they brought Beth a sandwich by mistake. The waiter sent the assistant waiter for a hot dog and it took many minutes for it to arrive. And by many, I'm talking over 10 minutes - at one point the hostess from the front came by and asked how everything was - we pointed out that she still hadn't received her food. She went to go check, but it still took a while - by the time she got everyone else was just about done. If this were a restaurant, the meal would have been comped. It did eventually arrive, but with not even an apology. The servers also slightly messed up the desserts as well. Overall the service has been very good, so this was surprising. ,br>
From the table, we watched the sail in to San Juan. After lunch, we decided to head to Cafe Bacio (notice this is becoming our favorite hangout) to meet with some Cruise Critic folk to head into town for drinks for us, drinks and dinner for them.

A couple of people showed up, but it was supposed to be 6 of us. We waited about 15 minutes, then gave up and headed off the ship. Luckily, we were docked in Old San Juan, so walking distance from just about everything. Beth wanted a Walgreens and there was one right there. We didn't know where the bar was that our group was going to, but Michelle (one of our group) knew the name, and I had google maps and Waze, so we found it. It's on the rooftop of a small hotel. When we got up there, the rest of our group was there, so we settled in for some conversation and really good strawberry mojitos. We also order some fried cheese balls to have something to eat with my drink. It turned out it was happy hour, so two for one Mojitos. Whoo hoo!

After a while we left to do the drugstore run and headed back to the ship. We opted to skip the comedian for the night, and just did a Cafe Bacio run followed by in room relaxing before dinner.

We fully expected our tablemates to be there tonight since none of said we were eating in town. We headed to our entrance and were told it was closed, because there was only open seating due the late departure. They then told us to go up a deck to the open seating level. When we arrived, we asked to share a table for 6, not 8. They told us they only had tables for 2, and took us to one in the back area of the dining room. It was a a table for 4, so they could have added a couple of people. They handed us the menu, and in looking at it, we realized it was the menu that was listed as the menu for the next day on the onscreen menus. We decided that was the least appealing menu, and that's why we'd booked specialty for it, so maybe we'd leave and throw ourselves on the mercy of the specialty restaurant host to see if we could move the night.

On arrival, they said they were booked, but if we could wait until 9pm they would likely have a table for us. Another host came by and pointed out a table we could have. We were in!

Dinner was in Murano, the steakhouse/french restaurant. We had a great server from Serbia, who explained you could either have the 5 course fixed menu or the a la carte menu. Both were the same price, it was just how you ordered. We opted to start with 3 shared appetizers - a poached pear in phyllo, a goat cheese souffle and caprese salad. All were excellent, although the caprese salad was the least interesting. We skipped the optional caviar course, and went straight to entrees, rack of lamb for Beth, veal for me. Both very good. For dessert, we did the souffles (Grand Marniar for me, Chocolate for Beth) and also split a strawberry crepe, with the sauce flambed table side.

By this time it was after 11 and we were sailing - up to the room, actually call Glen, and bed. Tomorrow - St. Thomas.

Wandering around doing nothing on day 2

So today was a, to quote Mary Poppins, a practically perfect day.

Our first event of the day was the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle, hosted by Celebrity. On our gatherings over the years on Princess, we've never had one hosted by them, although occasionally some officers show up to say hello. Sara, the cruise director introduced all the officers with a brief description of what they do to help us. We spent some time with the Guest Services director, who hails from Glasgow Scotland. He was most impressed that my sister and I have been to the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow.

Right after that, we noticed that there were tables set up for cooking demos. There was on station for each specialty restaurant and of course plenty of staff around to take your reservation. We watched a chef from Silk Harvest make Orange Chicken, Sushi on 5 guy demo'ed making a shrimp tempura roll, watched a pasta maker from Tuscan Grill and finally a Murano chef make their special lobster (the preparation looked wonderful, but since I don't like lobster, maybe they'd make it with chicken. Somehow, I don't think it would be same.

After a break in the room to check email, we decided to try the buffet for lunch. We arrived at the pool deck just before 1:30, just in time for poolside line dancing! We joined in and did about 5 dances. There were two guys from the cruise staff kind of leading them, but not really teaching them - just follow them. Fortunately, I've done enough of this that I know the Electric Slide, and their line dance to "Happy" used a cha-cha basic, which I know well. It was a bit challenging in part, but fun.

From there, it was our first buffet meal. The buffet has many stations, and honestly, it was a bit overwhelming to decide. I finally settled on Indian Papadam with a beef fajita burrito like thing. Also some salad.

After lunch, time to go to the "not to be missed" Corning Hot Glass show. It's up on the lawn, and sailing through the Eastern Caribbean in August is very hot. The three young glass blower ladies must have been sweltering up there. Apparently, they make both pieces such as vases and also what they call cane (think of Venetian glass) that will be used later. And I guess, to have it all make sense, you need to go to all shows. It was interesting, and what they make is gorgeous, but about an hour and a quarter is pretty much all I need to know. Most interesting to me was that one of the blowers has her fine arts masters from Chico State, which I attended remotely a while ago. Yay.

After that, we went to what is now Beth's favorite place- Cafe Bocio for tea and coffee. Tonight was Smart Casual night, and we decided to go see Elyseum, the production show, before dressing for dinner. It was entertaining - a cruise ship broadway style show with some Cirque du Soleil type stuff thrown in. There was apparently a story line that neither of us got, but it was still fun to watch.

After that, down to dinner - all of us showed up and we had a nice dinner. We'd been given a bottle of sparkling wine (pretty sure the house stuff is not actual champagne) so we decided to share it with our table. The dining room staff also gave us a rum punch thing, so lots of not drunk alcohol.

Tonight was the first silent disco, but we weren't going to make the start time. After dinner, we walked over to it with our table mates, and it was a very crowded area with people with headphones. Maybe we'll try the next one. We did head to the Celebrity Central, a smallish theater used mostly for lectures and watched Alone in Berlin, a movie based on a real couple fighting Nazism by writing cards suggesting overthrowing Hitler. Here's a bit of trivia for you - it starred Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson. A couple of trivia questions for you - what movie franchise did they also do together? Question 2 - what blockbuster franchise does Brendan's son appear in?

After that, up to bed - but wait, on my nightly step out on to the balcony, I noticed we were having a fantastic thunderstorm. We don't get them in California, so it was pretty spectacular. We watched that for about an hour, then decided to get some ginger ale. We went up to the 14 deck to the lounge, it was too loud and busy so decided to walk across the open deck to the buffet. Uh, no - pouring. Went down, got the ginger ale, had it and finally went to sleep around 2 am.

Arrival night and first day

Picking up where I left off.

Flight was uneventful (yay). I watched a movie (Gifted) and a lot of Family Feud. Steve Harvey is a very good and funny host. Especially when you're watching the Pro Wrestlers tournament.

At arriving at the airport, I was meeting my sister (who henceforth will be referred to as Beth since that's her name) at baggage claim. Got a text said she'd be there as soon as she figured out how to get there since the airport didn't believe in signage or working doors. She was there before the bag arrived, so all good. Went to the hotel and then took Lyft to dinner.

We went to Versailles - a well known Cuban restaurant. Very busy, but very fast service, and very good food. Then to the heart of little Havana for ice cream and back to the hotel.

Sunday morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast, and drove to the Budget office nearest the port. There were a lot of people there with luggage so I was wondering how many shuttles we'd have to wait through. Turns out most were coming off a cruise, and waiting on cars. We're doing that next Sunday since we have evening flights out of Ft. Lauderdale and don't want to spend the day at the airport, so will drive and stop along the way. After about 10 minutes a shuttle arrived, and all who wanted on, got on. Most were going to the Carnival Visa. They got dropped first, then the four people for the Equinox. Luggage drop was efficient, as was checkin. The boarding line was a little chaotic as some were waiting for the photographers, others weren't. Once past there it went quickly and I believe from dropping the car to onboard was less than an hour.

Upon boarding we were offered (and accepted) champagne or mimosas and then we went off to explore. I had my backpack and those reading this from Princess - you can't go to your room so I had it with me. We were in Concierge class, and there is a lunch for concierge in the dining room, so we took advantage of that. In the dining room there was a place to leave your carry on stuff. Somewhere in all this we made a dinner reservation for the second night in in Murano.

We sat with a very nice family and as lunch was ending, they announced the rooms were ready, so we headed up to the room to drop our stuff. We found the menus on the TV, so went through them to decide which night to do Murano. We determined that night 4 was the least appealing, so back I went to the dining room to change it. Which I did, about 15 minutes before the mustard (as my niece calls it) drill.

In the room, we found an invitation to watch sailaway from the helipad. After attending the drill - a demo of the life jackets, a video humorously covering the the safety information, followed by a tedious reading of all the cabins that weren't marked off as being there (they did a manual mark off) we were free to go. We went up to the helipad, got another drink (not sure what it was) and sailed out of Miami. As we entered the channel we left to go to the Sunset bar to meet up with our Cruise Critic group. That was a nice gathering.

We went back to the room, got ready for dinner and then went to a Rock and Roll review show in the theater with a band playing hits from the 50-80s. They were pretty good, and I missed dancing with my husband, who is working this week so my sister and I could do the cruise.

A little more ship exploring - the fun part for me because I know Princess ships like the back of my hand, but this is my first Celebrity- we got in line for our 8:30 fixed seating. Because Celebrity doesn't put the table information on the cruise card but on a card in the room, it's a bit slow the first day. If you have your card, great - if not, they have to look it. We brought our card, so were seated quickly once we got to the front of the line. We were at a table for 6 as requested, and there were actually 6 of us.

Starting tomorrow, I'll try to post food porn and describe dinner. For tonight, I'll just say food was good, service was good, and it was nice having both a sommelier and a drink package.

We were going to try to see a movie after dinner, but they close the doors after the movie starts and we couldn't get in. We'll try again tomorrow. We then went up to look at the top decks, saw the sky lounge and called it a night.

A new cruise!

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but since I'm having a brand new cruise experience, I figured I'd blog it. I'll be doing the original posts on Cruise Critic and copying here.

I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight in about 20 minutes. I now remember why I don't like traveling in August. Airport is crazy, and I don't understand parents who, when traveling with 2 children under 5, don't check their full size suitcases (22 inch) - instead, they have the kids struggle with them (they're bigger than the kids, actually, and hold up the line.

So by way of background, my sister and I decided a cruise would be just the thing while my nieces are in camp. She didn't want to come to the west coast a 3rd time in a month, so we selected a Celebrity cruise from Miami. It's her first cruise and my first time on Celebrity so we'll see how it goes. More tomorrow, unless the flight is interesting (I hope not!)