mimmy52

The view from another angle.

Continuing--carefully--along the wall.

I went inside the room that seemed to be the end, but it was set up for a Halloween scare and not so interesting.  Another view.

Looking down at the folks who stayed below and a dog walker.

The dog was sweet and popular with everyone and when I was down I had to pet her a few times too.

Looking back as we move on.

The morning glories were glorious.

As we walked along, we were told more about the city, but I don't take notes and I can seldom remember much of what was said.  So we passed these places.

We spot a produce shop and we all stop as if we've never seen fruit and vegetables before.

We entered the courtyard of a museum devoted to Etruscan times.  Our guide talked about the Etruscans and their burials and how little is really known about them.

We started walking through the very picturesque city.

Me, less picturesque than the city, but what a beautiful spot.

We didn't need to ponder--our guide knew the way.

Once we went through the archway, we saw this.  Either they'd had a big Halloween bash or they're planning one for tonight.

We were able to go up the stairs and walk along the wall.  The steps were uneven, so not everyone did.  Fortunately, there were railings.

Nice view from above.

Saturday, November 2 - Civitavecchia, port of Rome, Italy

The weather looks a little gloomy as we pull into port this morning, and the forecast calls for rain.  It's cooler too with a high forecast in the 60s.

Some interesting ships in port.  I think the Batman one is a ferry.

Some passengers are disembarking today which means there will be other embarking.  Goodbye!

There's one lonely sailboat in the harbor.

All in our group have been to Rome before, so four of us decided we would do the "Tuscania and Tarquinia" excursion.  Nan decided she would walk into Civitavecchia since the Daily Program said you can easily visit the city center on foot, and the youngster is going on a walking tour of Rome.  We met for our excursion in the Zebra Bar at 9:45 and were on the bus and on our way by 10:00.  We are on a bilingual English/Italian bus.

As we are leaving the port, we pass Forte Michelangelo built at the order of Pope Julius II.

We also pass the old city walls which were built at the direction of Pope Urban VIII (if you believe the Daily Program) or Pope Urban VII (if you believe Wikipedia). (Now I'm trying not to get bogged down thinking about the name Urban and a city being an urban area.  Which came first?)  The bus had started speeding up so I got not only reflections but also blur.  It's still the best one I had.

We are going to Tarquinia first and on the way we pass an ancient aqueduct.

We also pass what Tarquinia is most noted for--its Etruscan painted tombs.

I thought we would pull into a parking lot and visit, but the tombs weren't part of the excursion.  I had to read the excursion description again later to know that it was never said we would visit them.  But now we pull into Tarquinia.  This city was a power as early as the 8th century BC.

The national museum.

3 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

I'm sitting here with bated breath waiting for your next installment.

Hope you're not out of breath yet, Oakman.  I take a lot of photos and it always takes me a while to decide which ones to include.  This trip I took a lot of them with my phone too so I've been going back and forth deciding.

On 11/24/2019 at 1:14 PM, cmdchiefthom said:

I hate to rank cruise lines by food, but here goes my top to bottom of the lines I've sailed aboard:

 

HAL: ALWAYS TASTY

NCL: UP UNTIL JACK DEL RIO TOOK OVER, THE FOOD WAS PRETTY GOOD! NO WAY NOW!

PRINCESS: I WAS PRETTY HAPPY WITH THE FARE ABOARD PRINCESS' SHIPS

MSC:  ONLY ONE CRUISE ABOARD THE SEASIDE, IN THE YC AND THE FOOD THERE WAS SATISFACTORY.  I HAVE 25 DAYS COMING UP IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS ABOARD THE DIVINA FOLLOWED BY THE SEASIDE.  WE'LL SEE HOW THAT GOES😉

 

 

Cmdchiefthom, you're so fortunate to have cruised often enough that you can make comparisons.  25 days is a long time to be cruising so I hope it not only lives up to, but also exceeds, your expectations.

19 minutes ago, cmdchiefthom said:

Mimmy52,

Your comments about the Baked Alaska brought back memories from when I began cruising aboard ships of the Holland America Line in the late 1990's.  The dish was served only one night during a 7 day cruise, but the presentation was like a military parade. 😉The  Baked Alaska was brought as the lights were dimmed in by the waiters with sparklers lit up on large silver trays held up above the tables with the waiters parading through and around all the dining in all the dining rooms!  Quite an image!😃

Sparklers would have been cool.  The parade always seemed something of a hurried event and they never came down the aisle by our table.  I once was at a dinner as part of a conference where the waiters came in on skates carrying baked Alaska on trays and they were actually flaming.  It was in a restaurant though, not a cruise ship, so guess they could do that.

Gosh, it's time to eat again.  We certainly did a lot of eating on this cruise.  A starter on the menu tonight was fried olives stuffed with mixed meat.  I love olives and I love fried olives so I don't know why they had to ruin it by stuffing them with meat (which I don't eat).  But Rose ordered the olives.  There were only three on the plate and they're small.  Yet the starter I had at lunch, the potato mozzarella croquettes, could have been a meal in itself.

I had the Mahi-Mahi.  Usually I enjoy Mahi-Mahi.  It was only okay, and not nearly as good as the perch I had at lunch.

Rose had a pork chop.  She said it was very good.

One of the desserts was coconut rice pudding.

The white chocolate mousse cake was more my style.

After our nightly stop in the Zebra Bar, we took our seats in the theater.  There was often some comedy for pre-show entertainment.

Tonight's show was "The Mystery of China in Tao."  It was very good and the costumes were great.  There were acrobats and aerial acrobats and contortionists.  Other than the theme, it seemed much like the first show I saw.

We met a couple from Texas who said this was their fifth MSC cruise.  They think the food is hit and miss but they come for the shows because they think they're the best around.

Mari and I finished off the night in the Pigalle Lounge.  It was almost empty.

She wanted to hear Duo Hot Pepper because she liked the saxophone.  They played two songs, only one with the sax, then took a break, so we left to get ready for tomorrow.

Friday, November 1 - Sea Day

The nice thing about sea days is we get to eat breakfast in Le Fontane.  I ordered from the children's menu today--chocolate chip pancakes that came with a chocolaty syrup.  They were really tasty.  I had some eggs from the buffet so I'd get some protein.

The bad thing about sea days was just that this was our fourth one.  Carol complained that there was nothing to do.  There were some things to do, most of them at the pool area, but she meant nothing that interested her.  Although I still enjoyed sitting on the balcony, the ship had turned and now our balcony was shaded and cooler, so not as much fun.  There's always arts and crafts in the Bar dei Poeti but never anything I felt compelled to make.  Today it was paper flowers.  Mari and I walked on deck 7 and we went to the pool deck to watch Men vs. Women.

And we did line dancing.  We only seem to last about 20 minutes.  We were enjoying a talk on our balcony when Jo called to see if we were coming to restaurant, so we went down to Le Fontane.  I tried the spaghetti omelette from the buffet, but it was really dry.  I didn't eat much of it.

The potato/mozzarella croquettes were a starter and they were really good.

That would have been enough for me, but I'd already ordered fillet of perch in potato crust that was delicious.  We'd talked several times about the lunches often tasting better than the dinners.

Jo had ordered Roman-style semolina gnocchi.  It looked different from gnocchi I've seen before.  I guess that was the Roman part of it.  Jo didn't think it was very good.

After lazing the afternoon away, mostly in the room reading or napping since it had turned windier on the balcony, we had a view of the sunset.

Some other attempted frights.

The show tonight was "Paris Fou."  But first, we were given a look at the kids' costumes.  That was a nice touch.

Paris Fou was all about costumes and dance.

And the can-can is a must.

Cruise director Nicholas had the costumed crew parade in front.  They were hard to see.  Wish they'd had them all walk across the stage.

I called it a night after that.

My starter tonight was smoked salmon and its roe with potato pancake and yogurt and it was good.

I also had cream of asparagus soup that was also good.

My risotto with porcini mushrooms only okay.  

Several of the group had grilled king prawns and they said they were great.  I don't want my food to look at me.

Tonight was another night where they dimmed the lights and the waiters paraded through with trays above their heads.  I lightened the photo so it's possible to see.  Since one of the desserts is baked Alaska, I figured that's what was on the trays.  It wasn't flaming but they did have some kind of a light on it.  Everyone was waving their white napkins again.  Is that a thing on cruises?

Then it was the opportunity for the chefs to walk through so they could be acknowledged with applause.

After all that, the baked Alaska was kind of disappointing.

We've settled into a routine.  After dinner we go to the Zebra Bar which is next to the theater.  Some of us have a drink.  Tonight we had decorations.

Some cruisers were in costume and this was one of them.

We were sitting near the zebras in the Zebra Bar.

Some crew members were in costume and were sneaking through the bar trying to scare people.  I noticed it was always women they picked on.  Maybe we give more of a reaction?  I'd been scared once when I was walking through the bar looking for our group, and a creature was crouched on the floor by my feet.  I almost tripped over him.  When I sat down, my back was to the main area of the bar and at one point I turned and came face to face with the same creature.  He left to scare someone else and jumped on a table to do it.

15 hours ago, cmdchiefthom said:

I can only say WOW!!!!  I've had the pleasure to visit Madrid while stationed in Crete, but never made it to Barcelona!  The architecture is simply astounding!  You have made me put that city on my bucket list!  Your photos are amazing.  Thanks for sharing😃 

Thank you, cmdchiefthom.  Barcelona is unique.  I hope I can get back there some day.

We are getting close to the port.

I forgot to mention that our excursion group was English and German so we were again getting all descriptions in both languages.  And I said my roommate Mari was with me on this tour, but now that I look more closely at my notes, I see that I was by myself.  

Every tour group seemed to get back at the same time, so there was a crowd waiting to get through xray.

Then we waited to get on a shuttle to the ship.

Mari caught up with me when we were on the shuttle.  We headed to Le Fontane for lunch as soon as we dropped off stuff in our room.  I love the ceiling decorations in Le Fontane.

All in our group enjoyed their tours, although Nan thought they had a little too much time in the Picasso Museum.  My starter was New Zealand mussels au gratin and they were delicious.

And just some pasta for the main course.

Carol had ordered Hake fillet en papillote and it came wrapped.  She was skeptical of it before even a taste and then she decided she didn't like it.  I thought I was a picky eater, but she has me beat hands down.

I had chocolate carmelised banana from the buffet.  It was different from the chocolate carmelised banana ordered from the menu.  The picture is the one from the buffet.

We left port while we were eating, the earliest departure yet at 2:00, so when we returned to our room we were leaving Malaga behind.

A little later we were trying to decide if it was raining.  It wasn't hitting our balcony but there seemed to be a different look to the ocean.

Suggested dress for tonight is elegant.  That was a little disappointing since today is Halloween.  I was a little more casual tonight since I'd brought a top just for Halloween and I didn't intend to take it home unworn.  Didn't think to have someone take my picture though.  My photos have stopped cooperating, so I'll take a break.

There were a lot of interesting shops near the cathedral and it was fun just to walk around.

I spotted a shop with an ice cream cone in front and decided that would be a good way to end the tour.  I sat on a bench near the cathedral to eat it and enjoyed the small garden.

I also fell into conversation with the woman from Australia sitting next to me who was also on our tour.  She said she'd hurt her back (or maybe it was her shoulder) lifting her suitcase off the baggage carousel in Rome and has been getting cortisone injections in the medical center on the ship.  I was very surprised about that.

Then it was time to meet up with our guide again so I walked back to the front of the cathedral.

Time to walk to our bus.

This would be a nice city to spend more time in.  I hated to get back on the bus. But we're headed back to the port.

I was so enthralled with the cathedral that I started wandering around.

The choir stalls

Aren't saintly people supposed to be kind?  Maybe he's driving out evil doers.

Here's the kind person.

About this time I realized I had walked away from the tour group and decided I'd better find them.  I did.  Our guide was describing some of the side altars, but either I didn't hear her or I forgot what she said about them.

I don't know what the head in a box is all about.  I should pay closer attention.

We were then given some free time.  Someone had asked about bathrooms and the guide said there weren't any in the cathedral, but as we were leaving by the exit, she pointed out a ladies room.  The woman who asked said she'd been asking for her husband, so I guess he was out of luck.

One of the back doors of the cathedral.

A building nearby.  I think the guide had said it belonged to the bishop.

A cemetery alongside the cathedral.

We saw the church where Picasso had been christened.

Then walked to another plaza where we had a view of the Alcazaba, another fortress.  There's a walkway from the Gibralfaro fortess to the Alcazaba but it wasn't something our tour covered.  Beneath the Alcazaba are the ruins of a Roman theater dating from the first century BC.

The Roman theater.

Our guide led us to a glass enclosed area in the plaza.  It covers the remains of Roman ruins.  She said there are places like this all over the city.

Looking down.

Another view of the Alcazaba and the Roman theater as we start walking again.

We are coming to our next stop, the Cathedral of Malaga.

It was very impressive!

Back to the buses to ride into the city.

Off the bus to walk around.

They're gettng ready for Christmas here too.

In the plaza, it's time to hear about Pablo Picasso who was born in Malaga.

Our tour guide next to, in her words, "the world's best 20th century painter."

The house where Picasso was born.

I've been on some tours where the tour group is given earphones and the guide speaks into a small microphone.  Using those devices, you can wander a little and still hear what is being said.  None of our shore excursions had that option and I like to take pictures (surprise!).  So there were times I missed what was said.

A rare moment that Picasso is alone on his bench.

We started walking again.

We passed a pharmacy that our guide said is touted to be the building where Picasso's father would have coffee with friends every morning.  She said a pharmacy had been there since 1700 something and Picasso wasn't born until 1881, so she doubted the story about Picasso's father.  But there is a sign that claims otherwise.

We entered a museum with a layout of buildings that have been in Malaga for centuries, the fortress and the cathedral among them.

That's all we saw in the museum because we were here mostly for the views.

A look down at the bullring.

Some good views

I zoomed in to see both the Poesia and Celebrity Reflection.

What we saw of the fortress was the outer walls.  I don't even know if you can go inside.

There's a sign by this tree saying its name is ficus, it's over 100 years old, and you will hurt it if you climb on it.  The tree is near a cafe and the bathrooms.

Time to leave.  At the most we were here 45 minutes and that included time to enter the museum and to use the bathroom.

Forgot to mention that the Daily Program informed that the city center is approximately 15 minutes by bus, and a shuttle bus service is available for 6.99 euros per person.  It said you will find the tickets in your cabin.  Since there were no tickets in for the shuttle in our cabin, I presume those who didn't have excursions planned would get tickets.  If you wanted to use them, you filled in the information and signed the ticket and proceeded to the buses located outside of the port.  You'd hand your ticket to ship personnel and it would be charged to your onboard account.

But we are on our excursion bus and driving through Malaga.  A few pictures taken from the bus. Seldom do many of my photos from a bus take without blurring.  We must have hit a lot of stop lights or else a lot of traffic.

We passed a bullring

We were climbing higher

And then we were at Gibralfaro Fortress.  In the crowded parking area anyway.  It took a while for buses to untangle and find parking.

It was a nice area

Thursday, October 31 - Malaga, Spain - Happy Halloween

We woke up when we felt and heard the ship docking and went on the balcony to take pictures.

Still dark

We kept running in and out to take sunrise photos while we were getting ready for the day.

After breakfast in the buffet, Mari and I went to the theater to await our 8:30 excursion simply called "City Tour."  Rose and Jo are going on "Mijas, the White Town," and Nan and Carol chose "Malaga and the Picasso Connection."

The tour buses were able to pull right up to the ship.

I thought he was washing the windows but he's just cleaning the window sills.

On our way out of the port, we pass the yacht "Octopus."

Thank you!

At one time I thought I read there was no hair dryer in the Epic studio cabins.  Can anyone tell me if this is so?  I'll be on a Southern Caribbean cruise in January and I would sure hate to have to add a hair dryer to my luggage.

October 30 - Sea Day

It's beautiful weather for a sea day.  We went to Le Fontane for breakfast.  After we returned to our room, we had a post breakfast.  We each had a custard tart that we'd purchased yesterday and had in the fridge.

Today's post is mostly food.  We walked deck 7, we walked around deck 14, we played shuffleboard, we sat on the balcony, we took naps, and we ate.  

We met up at 1:00 in Le Fontane for lunch.  I had the potato leek soup with mussels and clams from the menu.  Meh.

And grilled fish, green beans, and delicious potatoes from the buffet.  One of our group had rice noodles with crispy vegetables.

Our view for the day.

After a snack in the afternoon, gosh, it was time for dinner!  I will mention that because we had early dining at 6:30, we missed almost every sunset since we were in the dining room.  Our greeters in the dining room.

My starter was the Farmers Salad.

But Rose had the marinated octopus and pickled vegetables.

For the main course I had salmon fillet.  I love salmon but this was only okay.

Desserts!  First up, dark chocolate parfait with wild berry compote.

Strawberry and yogurt cream.  It looks better than it sounded.

And I had the boring cheese selection.

We sat in the Zebra Bar while waiting for show time.  I found there is a five euro Cava on the drinks menu, and that had become my bar drink.  The show tonight was "L'Amour," a short version of the opera Carmen, a tragic love story.  The costumes were beautiful, the singing magnificent, and the classical trio was excellent.  A nice end to the evening.

The suggested dress for tonight is Elegant. We took the birthday girl's photo with Kathy, the waiter's assistant.  She was very conscientious at keeping us satisfied.

They seemed extra busy in the dining room tonight, rushing around much more than usual but we didn't know why.  I had steamed asparagus with pastry puff as a starter.  It was very good.

I had the "chef's recommendation" of Seared Monkfish Medallion for the main course.  I didn't care for either the monkfish or the rice, but the veggies were good.

The others had coffee (I don't like coffee) and they had now all adopted Mari's method of adding ice cream to the coffee in place of the unavailable milk.  We'd ordered a birthday cake for Nan, and when we heard the happy birthday song and clapping start, we expected them to come to our table.  But they went to the table behind us.  Rose said, "Sorry, Nan."  But then the singing and clapping began again, and this time it was for our table.

She seemed happy with it.

They took it away to cut it, then served us each a slice.  We had to ask that she be given what was left, although as it turned out it was too big to fit in the little fridge so it went to waste.  I wondered what they usually did with the rest of the cake.

After dinner we went to the Zebra Bar and listed to Duo Sol and Fe, my favorite group.  The waiters are happy to let you sit if you don't want a drink.  Then we went to the theater to see the show called "Born to Rock."  There was a hilarious comedy skit beforehand that would be hard to describe, but it's amazing what can be done without words.

We all really enjoyed the show.  It featured music of the Beatles, Aretha, the Supremes, Tina Turner, Elvis, and Queen.  There were two main singers and the dance troupe.  It was excellent.  I guess I was enjoying it too much to take pictures.

We went to Bar dei Poeti after to have a final birthday drink with Nan and enjoy the piano music.

We turn the clocks forward tonight so it was a later night than usual for us.

This was taken in the Zebra Bar before the show.

There is a long wall along the port with representations of various ships.  I wondered if it was like the wall in Skagway, Alaska, where the crew paints a ship's logo on the wall the first time the ship is in port there.  

We put our purchases in our rooms, then hurried to Le Fontane for lunch since it was only open until 2:00.  We are greeted at the entrance.

I had cornflakes-coated fried fish that was outstanding.  We've found that the salads at lunch are better than those at dinner.  Those at lunch have a better tasting dressing.  You can barely taste any dressing on the dinner salads.  It's as if the dressing is watered down.

Mmm, chocolate ice cream for dessert.  No photo needed.  We went back to the room to relax a while, and then joined Nan at the Mojito Bar on the pool deck to celebrate her 65th birthday.  Her shirt announced it was her birthday.  Everyone had a cocktail except me.  I had my usual wine.

The pool isn't busy today.

A look at the port from the back of the ship.

29 minutes ago, bigblue1952 said:

Great review and beautiful pictures.  Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Thank you for following, bigblue.