Cruise Day 7 - At Sea

Today was our second at sea today. The day went fast. I started off by getting up at 7 am to do some laundry, but when I got to the laundry room, it was 6:45 ... I'm still not sure what time I woke up, but laundry got done! I had to wait for a washing machine! I can't believe people were up doing laundry before 7? After laundry, I had time for a quick shower, which was needed after the sauna called the laundry room, then off to Palo's for lunch. Kirstyn couldn't attend, as she is not yet 18, so she went off to check out shutters and tried to catch a movie. The movie was full, so she came back to the rooom and surfed (the web that is). Palo's brunch was fantastic! I loved the Stollen (sp?) and the Hummus, plus all the desserts.

After Palo's I relaxed, as I was quite tired after the early morning start. Then at 4 am, we met on Deck 9 for a DIS meet. Captain Tom actually joined us! He was quite nice and posed with us. Kirstyn and I then roamed the deck and had an early dinner. We wanted an early dinner, as tomorrow is a 7:15 departure for Florence! Tomorrow we get to see the statue of David!! More tomorrow!

Cruise Day 6 – Civitavecchia aka Rome

Hello, the big day has arrived. Today we are finally visiting Rome. Our port is actually the town of Civitavecchia. Phonetically it is pronounced Chi-vi-ta-vek-e-a (is that right Daria?). According to our tour guide Frederica, the name means Old Town. I forget the whole story, but the town dates way back.

Today we took the tour “Jumping Back into the Eternal Rome”. The tour started off early, so we had to get up and out of the room by 7:30. First stop was Topsiders, for the breakfast of champions, donuts! We met our tour in Animator’s Palette. We were on bus 20. Due to the size of the port in Civitavecchia, we had to take a shuttle bus to the entrance of the port, where we caught a bus to the train station. We took the train to St. Peter’s station, where we were met by another bus and made our way to the first stop, the Coliseum! To think you are walking in the steps of the mighty gladiators. It was really quite awe inspiring. Our next stop was a walk through central Rome. We first visited the Trevi Fountain, after receiving a lesson on how to throw a coin. You throw the coin with your right hand, over your left shoulder. If you throw one coin, you will return to Rome, two coins means you will return and fall in love, and three coins means you will marry the love you fine in Rome! Kirstyn and I chose to only throw one coin!

After the Trevi fountain we walked to the Pantheon, the pagan temple dedicated to all Gods. This temple is one of the best preserved temples in the world. It is really beautiful. Our third stop on our walking tour was the Plaza Navona. Unfortunately, the statue was being renovated, so our view was obstructed, but what we saw was awe inspiring. The fountain is a tribute to the four corners of the world. North America wasn’t represented as there were not enough Catholics (or so our guide say), and Australia wasn’t represented as it wasn’t discovered yet. We then walked to the bus and made our way to an Italian lunch of lasagna, antipasto, and tiramisu. Again, very good. After lunch it was back on the bus to our final destination, the Vatican.

At the Vatican, we toured the square, and made our way into St Peter’s Basilica. The Pope wasn’t there at the time, and we noticed that his home was being worked on. We didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel, but did see the roof of the building it is in. All in all, the tour was very good. After the tour of St. Peter’s, we made our way by bus and train back to the ship.

Once on board, we caught the ship premier of Ratatouille. A very cute movie, that I’m sure will be a hit for Disney. It is time to go off to dinner at Parrot’s Cay! Take care all!

Cruise Day 5 – Olbia, Sardinia

Today we arrived at the beautiful port of Sardinia! The first thing I noticed were the houses. In London, Paris, and Palermo, all we saw were apartment buildings, and along the Amalfi Coast, there were houses, but they were stacked atop each other on the mountains. In Olbia, we saw houses, nice one and two story homes. It was very nice!

Today’s tour was the “Panoramic Tour of La Maddelina”. It was a very relaxed ride to Palau in Sardinia. The drive was curvy, but nowhere near as twisted as the Amalfi Coast! When we arrived in Palau, we took a ferry over to the island of La Maddelina. It was a pretty island, surrounded by the beautiful emerald Mediterranean Sea. I can see why they call the area Costa Smerelda, or the Emerald Coast. We took a tour of the island by coach. We got to see the villa where Mussolini was held captive in before he was executed. We also found out that Peter Gabriel lived in this area.

We got back on the ship and got to have our photos taken with Donald Duck and Sorcerer Mickey. Tonight’s dinner was at Animator’s Palette. It was semi formal night, plus the night when the dining room changes colour. It was a really exciting show! Oh well, tomorrow is an early night, as we have a 7:45 excursion! Later then! Take care all, and I hope all is well at home!!

Cruise Day 4 - Naples

Today is one of the days I was waiting for. We are in Naples, and we are visiting Pompeii. Our tour was an early one as we had to leave the ship at 8 am; 2 am to you folks at home! It was a good thing I got Banana Bread from dinner to go last night, as we didn't have time for breakfast! Those who know me, know I never get up in time for breakfast, and Kirstyn is following in my footsteps! So it was 7:56 and we ran out of the room with banana bread in hand and made it to the meeting point just in time!


Today's tour was "Amalfi Coast Drive and Pompeii" The drive was first and I have never experienced anything like it. To those reading that have done the tour, our guide was Manuella and our driver was Ciro. Ciro deserves applause for the way he drove that big Mercedes Benz bus around those narrow corners, without a single ding! The drive took us through Sorrento, Positano and many others to end up in the town of Amalfi! On the way, we stopped at a wood working shop and had a coffee break. In Amalfi, we stopped for a traditional (??) Italian lunch of pasta, pizza, wine, and espresso! It was really nice, and the bathrooms were fantastic!

After Amalfi, we made our way to Pompeii. The first visit was to a Cameo factory. It is really impressive how they make them. Then it was into Pompeii. The ruins were gorgeous. You could see the opulence in the way they lived, plus you could really tell the difference between the upper class and the slaves. It was interesting looking at Pompeii and seeing Vesuvius in the background! We toured Pompeii for about an hour, they headed home. The tour was 10 hours long, and well worth it. Anyhow! Talk to you all later. It looks like it is only letting me post one photo at a time! Ciao!

Just wanted to add that the sea is pretty rough tonight! We are experiencing 8 to 13 foot waves. I know it is not as bad as the repo, but I'm feeling it. Take care!

Cruise Day 3 - Palermo

Hello from Palermo. Today is day 3 and our first Italian port of call. Palermo is very crowded, yet also very pretty. I was surprised at how mountainous it was. There was quite the mixture of old and modern. Again, the drivers in Sicily match, almost, the drivers in Paris!

Anyhow, this morning we slept in a little. I was up at 9:00, but Kirstyn didn’t get up until 10:00. We got up, checked out our email, then went to get some breakfast. It was actually lunch, as they stopped serving breakfast at 10:30, and it was almost 11:00. We took our time getting to lunch, as we checked out Palo’s on the way. After lunch we strolled some more, then made our way back to the cabin to get ready for our excursion.

Today we did the “Mysterious Palermo” tour. We started off with a panoramic tour of Palermo until we got to our first stop, the Spasimo church. It was built in the 16th century. It was rather beautiful. On our way to our next stop we had a Gelato break. I mixed my flavours. I had sour cherry, lemon and strawberry. My favourite was the lemon; however, Kirstyn liked the sour cherry.

Our next stop was the catacombs. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, so I got some postcards. In the catacombs are remains of people; some were skeletons, and some were mummified. There is a two year girl that died at the age of two in 1920. Her body was mummified and is in excellent condition. The problem is that the person that mummified her died before he had time to tell anyone how they did it. Our next stop after the catacombs was the Ziza castle. It was built in the 12th century by the Normans. Some of the floors crumbled, and a lot of secrets were revealed; such as how they got water running through the castle from the palace.

On the way back to the ship, we ran into the traffic issues. I’m amazed there aren’t more traffic fatalities in Sicily. We made it back to the ship with 15 minutes to spare. It was cool, as Pluto was waiting to greet us as we boarded. Tonight we are hoping to make it an early night as our excursion leaves at 8:00 am. (At least I’m hoping to!) I’ll hopefully add more later, and maybe some photos. Ciao!

Still having problems posting Photos!

Cruise Day 2 – At Sea

This morning was our first at Sea day. I woke up at the early hour of 8:00 am and quickly made way to the laundry room. I was running out of clean clothes. Two and half hours and 4 loads later, I was done, and everything was clean!! The laundry facilities were good here, except that I could only do two loads at a time as someone else beat me to the other 3 washers.

After laundry I woke up Kirstyn, she finally got to sleep in, and we explored the ship some more. We headed up to deck 9 to get some food. On the way we stumbled on the Art Auction. The prices were a little out of my range, as they had original Picassos and Dali’s. We watched and had fun, then headed to Deck 9. By this time it was lunch, and we enjoyed some great pizza! Kirstyn then tried out the Quarter Master Arcade, we watched some of the deck show, had our picture taken with Donald Duck and then I was ready for my Hot Stone Massage. Jaklyn from Buffalo area was my masseuse. It was really quite nice, and something I will have to look into further when we get home.

It was now time for the Golden Mickey’s show. This show was like an Oscar party. We entered on the Red Carpet, with cameras flashing, and Rona Rivers interviewing important guests. The show itself was great. We had guest appearances by Snow White, Tarzan, Cruella Deville, Simba, Turk, and of course Mickey Mouse himself. After the show, we had to quickly dress for dinner as it was the formal night. Everyone was in there finest! The dress ranged from tuxes and evening gowns to jean skirts and Mickey Mouse t-shirts. The latter was from a poor couple who lost their luggage! For dinner, I had Chicken Samosa’s, Watermelon Mint soup, Chicken wrapped in Ham and Chocolate Cake. Kirstyn wasn’t as adventurous, but her Strawberry Sundae for dessert looked really good. After dinner we stopped at shutters to look at the photos, then made it back to the room. The day doesn’t sound like much, but it sure whipped by.

Today we are in Palermo. We have a tour at 12:45. I’m letting Kirstyn sleep in a little, then it is off to breakfast. More later!

PS ... Having problems posting photo! Will try later!

Cruise Day 1 - Barcelona

First … Apologies for not posting sooner, as it has been a busy day. We checked out of the Hilton around 11:00 am, then went down to the lobby to wait for our transfers. Because of our late arrival, our key to the world card wasn’t ready, and we would have to check in at the port. We got our bus tickets then waited. We finally boarded our bus to the ship shortly after 12:30. We then made our trek through Barcelona to the Disney Magic.

When we arrived, we first had to clear security. The lineup was long, but it moved pretty quickly. Next we had to line up to get our key! This was really short, as most people already had theirs. We now got to board the Magic. It was really cool, in that we had a red carpet to walk down! Once on the ship, we hurried to our cabin, as we had 15 minutes to make it to our excursion! We checked out the room, brought our luggage inside, and then ran to the excursion.


Today’s excursion was “Panoramic Tour of Barcelona”. We went by bus to see the site of the 1992 Olympics, got a photo op looking down on Barcelona, had a ride through town, then stopped at the Sagrada Famillia. Here we had 45 minutes to shop and take photos. We also got a drink voucher. The bus ride was fun and relaxing, not too much walking.

When we got back to the ship, we had to unpack. This took a while, and before we knew it, it was dinner time. Tonight we ate at Lumieres. I had a spinach filo pastry appetizer, sangria bisque soup, and beef Wellington. Kirstyn had grilled tomato, the bisque and chicken. We didn’t have dessert, as we ran to catch the sail away party. My dinner mates are Denise and JMSaunders from the DIS Boards. Our waiter is Ivan, our busboy is IKetut from Bali and our room steward is Roldolfo!

After dinner was the sail away party. We met on deck 10 as we planned on the DIS. Up here we met quite a few others. It was great putting faces to names. We left Barcelona in glory with “When you wish upon a star” on the horn. More later! I promise.