Towel Animals

Our Steward likes making towel animals. Here's our collection so far.

Polar Bear

Sea Turtle 

Elephant 

Doggie 

Penguin

Giraffe 

Messina, Sea Day, La Spezia

Ship Fun

We stayed on the ship for all three days - Messina, the Sea Day and La Spezia! We did not do any tours in Messina (day 3), nor did we get off the ship. We enjoyed the day in the Sanctuary. The following day was a sea days. The Sanctuary was much busier but we were still able to find shaded spots after the noon hour.

Scavenger Hunt

Q and I did a family treasure hunt that was fun and got you out exploring the ship. One of the treasure hunt items was to propose to a stranger.

Q Proposing to a Stranger

Formal Night and Some Entertainment 

It was "formal night" so the boys upped their game a bit. I even managed to talk them into taking one picture! We went to One Hit Wonders triva - I never know the names of songs, let alone the artist, but I still enjoy going. We also caught the end of the Top 10 game show. The boys went back to the cabin and I went to the 10 pm production show - Stage Struck. There were plenty of seats available and I thought the show was very good. It was a perfect performance to showcase the round stage.

 

Love by Britto

Love by Britto

is one of the specialty restaurants.  The food presentation was fabulous so I took pictures. All of the food has a heart in it some where.

This was the bread and butter. The bread was in the shape of a heart made.of three sections to form a heart. It was like a croissant. Delicious!

Next week had a Ravioli appetizer with carrot foam (foamy stuff at.the top).

Q and I had drinks. His was a watermelon based mocktail and mine was strawberry based in a heart shaped glass. 

Q and I had the salad - goat cheese, beets, carrots, tomatoes. Yummy!

Pat had the Mushroom Cappachino soup.

Palate Cleanser

Pat and Q had Lobster. Pat said the lobster wasn't the best. It was the first time Q had Lobster.

I had the Beef Two Ways. Very good!

Desserts

Q had Chocolat Lava Cake

Pat and I had the Salted Carmel Ice Cream 

Everyone got an Assortment of Chocolates 

Naples

Pompeii 

Our first port of the cruise was Naples. Pat bailed on this tour - it was the one tour he picked! We did a Princess Tour,  with Aldo as our tour guide.  It consisted of the obligatory "cameo factory tour" which is just an excuse to sell you jewelry. It was short and they had plenty of clean washrooms so fair enough. We then continued on in the air conditioned bus to the boat. The boat ride went past three or four villages on the Amalfi Coast. There were options to sit outside in the sun or shade or inside the boat.  There were beverages and snacks available for purchase. We stopped at one village, Amalfi, I believe, for shopping, etc. Q and I wandered around, stopped for some Gelato and wondered some more. I had to use the washroom, and we stopped for a beer for me and Q had some water so I could relieve myself in their reasonably clean washroom. Back on the boat, we returned to the bus to carry on our journey back to where we started from. Continuing our bus ride, we parked the bus near Pompeii and walked to a hotel where we had a lunch of bread, Gnocchi, chicken, peas, potatoes and ice-cream (not Gelato). There was water and red and white wine to drink. We ate with a lovely Australia couple and another couple from Alabama. Then it was off to tour the ruins of Pompeii. We were split into two groups, to make smaller touring groups. Q and I were in Ava's group. Pompeii was interesting as usual. This was my 3rd time to Pompeii and I learn something new each time. It was definitely hot slogging during the warmest part of the day.

At Amalfi 

Pompeii and.Mt. Vesuvius in the the background 

More Pompeii 

Roads of Pompeii. The raised stones are to cross to the other side of the street during heavy rains/flooding. Our modern crosswalk borrow from this image.

Pompeii Amphitheater 

It was a long day to Pompeii!

Embarkation

Embarkation 

I am behind in my posts... Ive had challenges with internet connections except on the ship or in the hotel, and I haven't spent much time in either. My tech support (AKA DH) ensured me I'd have internet access off the ship. I might need to find new teach support! Hopefully I can get caught up today!

Because of the delayed embarkation notice, I was expecting a zoo at the port. People arriving from Rome to the port mostlikely had transportation booked that would unlikely be able to be changed. People staying at a port hotel, would most likely have an 1100 checkout, so what were they to do? 

Our shared shuttle arrived at the port about 1030. It was mass people and luggage. Port staff informed us, these were people disembarking and lined for shuttles to the port and the train, and that as soon as they cleared, the doors to the terminal would be opened for us. They told us where we would kine up and where to stand to access the pending line. We were standing in a shaded area and in about 15 minutes we were checked in and waiting in the VIP lounge area. This was just a roped off area of the terminal that had some comfy seating, washrooms, pastries, coffee, tea, and water. By 115 we were on board. Easy-peasy, no drama. 

 Once on board, we dropped our bags in our suite, met Billy, our steward, and quickly checked out the suite lounge. DH or Pat went to the cabin to lie down and then Q and I did a quick tour of the ship from top to bottom. 

I have to tell you, I LOVE the smart elevators. No more waiting and guessing what elevator will arrive or waiting for an elevator only to have people who just arrived get on before you and you have to wait again or no more elevators stopping so full of people you couldn't get another small child in there.

The ship layout is very different from other Princess ships. It is broken up, so you don't have long corridors of shops and restaurants. They are almost in little nooks and crannies, giving a big ship a smaller ship feel. The center area of the ship, the piazza, is open with various bars surrounding it on each floor and continuous entertainment. I'll see how I feel about this layout in a few days. I didn't visit the dome as Q was with me and it is adults only. I did pop into the Sanctuary Club (16 and up). It looks like it will be a great relaxing spot.

Meet and Mingle (M&M)

Our Cruise Critics (CC) M&M was at 4:30 in Bellini's lounge. For our M&M we had some prizes from CC in celebration of their 30th Anniversary. Our CC Master had the prizes and stickers, and I had sharpies for name tags. Unfortunately our CC Masters luggage had not arrived by the time of our M&M at 4:30. There were about 40 people there - I didn't get a count from Amitava Mukerjee AKA CC Master. I also did not get any pictures at this meeting. We agreed to meet in the Wheelhouse bar at 8:30 too do the prize draw. Unfortunately we had a smaller group for this. It's hard to pick a time in the evening, people have dinner reservations and plans. I've posted several pictures of the M&M on CC.

KLM Houses

House 11
Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink
Pijlsteeg 31 Amsterdam, Built 1689
Released 1960

House 23

Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink

Pijlsteeg 31 Amsterdam, Built 1689

Released 1964

House 29 Stadstimmerwerf Kort Galgewater 21 Leiden  Built 1612

Released 1966

Rome

Hello from Rome! 

It's been a busy few days with no time for posting and internet challenges, I will catch you up now.  

KLM fights

I was a bit underwhelmed by KLM. The lounge at YYZ is small and the food selection is minimal, however most of the food we tried was tasty. The flight was delayed about 30 minutes. Boarding was smooth, having BC seats we walked right onto the plane. This aircraft was an A330 with 2x2x2 seat configuration. GS and I had the first row with the extra leg room. DH was in a center aisle a couple rows back. GS enjoyed discovering all the seat gadgets. There is not a lot of storage space in these seats, however the extra footwell space in row 1 helped. The food service was super slow. The menu was different from what I'd posted before and was a teriyaki chicken or tortellini. GS had the chicken and said it was good. I had the tortellini and it was not good. Since we were the last people in BC serverd, the tortellini around the edge of the dish was dried out. The pasta that was in the sauce was good, but 25% of it was rock hard. I can't say anything memorable about the food. For food service, they started well after take off and on the right hand aisle. Since we were seated on the left, we were literally the last served. Orders were not taken like I’ve seen on most BC flights, this was served from a cart. Breakfast was not much better. I had crepes, but it was a bowl full of crepes - narry any fruit to be found anywhere. The seats were not the most comfortable for sleeping. If a matress pad were provided, I think it would go a long way to improve that. I did manage to sleep about 3 hours and felt reasonably human the following day. The staff were all super friendly and lovely. We each had our pick of.one of the collectible dutch houses KLM gives to each passenger as a gift. These are all based on real houses in Amsterdam.  

Our transfer in AMS was smooth and although we were in the smaller KLM lounge (the European side and not the larger Internationallounge), it was a huge improvement over the YYZ lounge. Great selection of food, drinks and various seating options. The boarding at AMS to FCO was ridiculous. We were delayed and there were horders of people slamming the small gate area.k The food on the second leg was a cold pasta salad with tuna, which no one in my travel party ate. It looked good, but I don't eat tuna. It was accompanied by some rice crackers and macaroons. Both of those were good. Besides the usual beverages they also served a small bottle of strawberry juice. Seats are just regular seats with the middle seat blocked. And, again, the crew were lovely. After deplaning, our luggage arrived with minimal delay. Our driver met us at the exit and we had a pleasant ride to the hotel. 

Rome Hotel

Our hotel was a reasonable size, the bathroom we very decent. There was a small fridge and a safe (but I didn't find it until the last day). I'd stay there again - Hotel La Residenza.

Tours

We were in Rome about 20 years ago. I was prepared for the heat and the crowds due to the Jubilee. As much as you can prepare for either of those. The crowds were not as bad as I was anticipating and the heat, well, I don't do heat well. Even though the temps had cooled down from the previous weeks, the heat and humidity was hard to take. Temps were in the low 30's, but I was still dripping sweat every time I walked out the door. 

We did 3 tours in Rome. There first was the Colosseum. Our tour guide was great. He trained as an urban planner and was very much into the history of Rome. He did not like the sun or crowds, so he was always hearding us to a spot in the shade as he pointed things out. I booked another tour for the afternoon and in between tours we stopped for lunch. Q and I shared a pizza, DH had a colossal Gelato sundae that we all shares. DH bailed on the afternoon crypt tour. Our guide was hilarious and we went to three different crypts, each depicting a different era in Roman history. It was cool in some of the crypts and we had an air conditioned bus for transport between the crypts. PRO TIP: Does not book more than one tour in a day, - it is just too hot and exhausting. We had dinner at our hotel the first evening. It was very good; excellent service. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Veal and Gnocchi 

The last day in Rome, we just wandered around in the morning. Went to.the Parthenon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps. We stopped for gelato near the Parthenon. 

Gelato Menu

Our last tour was on our last full day in Rome. I booked a Basilica tour and audio guide directly from the Vatican site for 6 pm. We took the metro there. Our hotel desk clerk gave us excellent directions. No problems getting there. You need to arrive for your tour about an hour early to go through security. We were there 2 hours early and went for a bite to eat. Q had a fruit plate, I had bruschetta, and Pat had fettuccine Alfredo. And it took FOREVER for the fettuccine. It came 10 minutes before we had to check in.for.the tour. DH wolfed it down...said it was good. We we able to almost walk right into the Basilica with the tickets we had. The audio guide was terrible. None of us could follow it. No markings for each station, etc. The Basilica was very crowded and they were setting up for a mass on Tuesday. We walked home, as once you go through the Vatican you are on the other side of it on exiting so the metro was quite a hike. The last.part of the walk home involved walking UP the Spanish Steps! Pat barely made it  between his knees and his asthma.it was a challenge.

Colosseum Arena Floor 

Q at the Colosseum 

Crypt Tour

Q at the Trevi Fountain 

Trevi Fountain (we were there at a time it.was closed for maintenance)

The Parthenon 

This one is for Mari

I discovered Q does has no interest in history. He wasn't impressed with any of the tours! I will definitely cancel our Florence tour once we get.on the ship. I wasn't keen on that one, but thought Q would be interested in the statue of David and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I See More Drama Ahead!

We received notification that our ship would not be boarding until 1 pm due to an immigration check required, as opposed to the normal 10:30 or 11:00. GREAT! We have a shared shuttle to the port leaving at 8, meaning we should be at the port by 10:00. Of course most people have transportation arrange and will unlikely be able to change it last minute.

Last Minute Glitch

Drama,Drama, Drama Yesterday! 

Flight checkin was at 4:45 pm and at 2:25 pm, as I was leaving my nail appointment, I received an email from KLM saying we were downgraded to economy from business class (BC). WHAT? I've had this flight booked for over 6 months, I had selected seats. I've been talking up BC to the Q and getting myself all psyched. All packed according to flying BC. I am not flying economy! So on the phone to KLM. I was in transit at the time and didn't have easy access to booking numbers, etc. Michael at KLM was very helpful, gave me his name and extension so I could call him back once I got home. At home I could see a couple of other flights that had room for 3 in business. I was able to reconnect with Michael and he put me on hold and said he'd work on it. He did get me another flight, but wanted to charge me 689 per person! NO! Not my fault you bumped me. Okay, well it will be 500 something without the tax. NO. Then he booked me on something else, BC, no charge. He gave me the flight number but I had no booking or confirmation number and I could no longer see my original booking. He said, I'll send you an email, you should have booking info in 2 hours. Then we got disconnected. Okay, so now I'm really panicking; it's almost checkin time for the original flight (that I have no access to) and I looked at the KLM site and saw no modified booking. I phoned my friend Michael back and got him. He confirmed I had a flight, departing later, in BC. I asked about booking seats. He said he could do that, did it, and that it would be 200 per person to book a seat. I said NO!, Since when do you pay to book a BC seat; I'll book it at checkin. At this point I'm not sure if I have a flight at all, and if it is economy or BC. I still could find no flight on any website or had a email.

I had initially booked these flights through my bank points plan (RBC Avion). Time to phone them. I would have started with them, but found the KLM phone number first while I was doing this in transit, and Michael seemed capable and was trying to help. Okay, RBC looks at it and says it looks like it is AF. She's going to call the airline. While I'm on hold, I check the AF site and find, YES, yes I do have a business class flight booked, like Micharl said. I go to book seats, but it wants me to check in. My passport info was there, but DH wasn't there any more. Fortunately his passport was sitting on the desk and I entered it. Feeling much better now and the RBC lady comes back on the call. She can't help me now, as the airline has taken the booking over. Okay, I thank her, tell her I found the flight on the AF site and I think I'm good. Called Q and got his passport info, because his is gone too. Okay now we are checked in and I go to select seats. Low and behold, the seats Michael talked to me about and wanted 200 each for, were booked. I did change them to available seats more to my liking and printed that boarding pass PRONTO! I don't know if I was misunderstanding Michael with all those fees he wanted to charge. Or if that is just a money grab they try. I had to rebook our car pickup from the hotel and one tour that we will not arrive in time for, I rebooked to Monday.   

It's all over and done with (I hope!) and if truth be told, I prefer the new fligh times better to the prior ones. Fingers crossed, we get on that flight with no further drama.