GenerationX

So I’ve been intentionally holding off on this because I want to be as fair as possible and give it a few days living in it before fully deciding on my thoughts and reporting, but thus far, to quote Michael Kors judging Project Runway, “I’m underwhelmed.” I really do want to give it a little more time before sharing details behind my feelings because in fairness, my last Beyond cruise I had what I’m told was one of the best butlers in all Celebrity, Elaine. So it would be tough to meet the standard she set again even without the cutbacks. I’ll do a more detailed post in a couple of days once I’ve lived in it longer, and my position may well change by then, but my initial impression is that there’s NO WAY I’d pay the full 5 figure price being charged these days for a sky suite in E-class on Celebrity when I consider what I get and could get on other lines for the same or a bit more/less money. But I promise I’ll do a full “new world” sky suite life experience post once I have more data to go on. Sorry, I think the extensive analyzing/assessing is a lawyer thing. It drives Jeremy crazy too. lol

No need to apologize because you aren’t wrong at all. The siren song of MSC yacht club pricing is pretty hard to resist!

You are quite right! Don’t get me started though on how right now $6K doesn’t get you nearly as close to a week in the retreat on e-class in the Caribbean as it did last year…but here I go sounding like I need a shawl and a nap “in MY day…” 😂

Oh @zitsky you are a terrible influence and I think we all need to sail together (poor Jeremy 😂). So…how’s your calendar look for a March Caribbean sailing? P.S. To each their own but I for one am a firm believer in “if you love it, can afford it and can fit into it, rock it.” To me gender is a trivial matter when it comes to Chanel suits! 😂

QUICK UPDATE FROM BEYOND So the ladies in the handbag shop remembered me from my spring cruise (and the vintage Louis Vuitton wristlet I bought after too many peaches and bourbons and hitting a minor jackpot in the casino). They told me if I buy this decadent $6K Chanel bag, they’ll throw in the Hermes scarf it’s displayed with for free… I’m hiding out in Craft Social watching rugby and drinking a (delicious) Blush Up in order to avoid completely torpedoing both my savings account and my marriage.

Oh wow, this is a high complement because there are some really great writers on the boards! Thank you so much!

Good morning from our first sea day on the way to Greece! As evidenced by my current 10am attire and beverage selection, our first night on Beyond did NOT disappoint. It’s tough to know which was better about our first night dinner in Eden: the food or the service. I always try to get my Eden reservation around 8/8:30 because there’s usually a live acoustic set going on in the bar upstairs about that time that really adds to the dinner ambience. After a beef tartar palate cleanser, we decided to start with the bazaar bowl, shrimp and the risotto. Our waiter, Lhindon somehow read my mind that I also really wanted the crab cake and also brought one to the table. The only complaint we could come up with was Jeremy said he would’ve liked a little more chorizo in the shrimp. For entrees I was torn between my favorite the lobster casserole and the fresh caught grouper that I discovered in Eden on my last Beyond cruise (served in an outstanding sweet and spicy Thai curry sauce). I decided to go with the grouper and crossed my fingers that Jeremy would order the lobster so I could steal bites (this is the whole point of marriage, right?). Alas, this man had the nerve to get the lamb. Fortunately Lhindon was at it again and when our entrees came, a smaller portion of the lobster was also placed right between us! We had no intentions of leaving any of that lamb, lobster or grouper on our plates and as a result, we found ourselves far too full to order dessert. We did however partake of the customary little tower of treats served with our after dinner espressos. The strawberry brittle and coconut almond cake bites were highlights. I ignored my husband’s halfhearted plea that we’ve already gone over budget on Italian wine on this trip and jumped on it when the sommelier mentioned he had just a few bottles left of a nice Amarone that he didn’t think would be restocked until the ship crosses to Miami. (Jeremy knows by now that he has a better chance of growing wings and taking flight than stopping me from buying wine.) After dinner we tried our luck in the casino for a bit. Tried and failed. The slots were a lot stingier than they were on my spring Beyond cruise. A lady at a machine near me who was on B2B said they were similarly stingy the cruise before this. We gave up before we blew all our wine money and headed back to the martini bar for a live music set by the house band where we made friends with two nurses from Scotland and joined them for a few rounds. About 1:30 in the morning we realized (far too late) what a bad idea it was to try and keep up with Scots when drinking is involved. Jeremy is still completely down for the count, but I’m not going to survive without caffeine much longer so I think I’ll pull myself together and head to Al Bacio to sip and do some more writing. Then I think I’ll take advantage of being free of my shopping warden to check out the onboard vintage handbag offerings before lunch.

Happy to share! I’m having trouble getting the Viator site to load but here’s a screenshot of the booking from my app. I think you can search for the name on Viator and it should pop up.

No apology necessary! I have a family history of kidney disease and also take hydration very seriously. In my land life I keep a yeti tumbler of ice water with me all day. Of course, this has also led to my friends declaring me the connoisseur of good public restrooms in the St. Louis metropolitan area. 😂

Thank you, I thought it was very strange too. I looked all over for retreat signage but didn’t see any and asked multiple workers if we were in the right place/line for suites, just to be sure I could report back accurately. Jeremy was getting embarrassed and said I was starting to sound elitist 😂 I wonder if maybe we were just there too early/late for it?

Hello from onboard Beyond! I know we still have to talk about Jeremy and I’sq Tuscany day, but wanted to share a bit about our embarkation experience and first hours onboard while it’s fresh in my mind. We booked a private transfer to Civitaveccia with Transfer Service Rome. The driver arrived at our apartment about 15 minutes early and we were on our way to port in a spotless van by 10am. Traffic wasn’t bad so it only took about 50 minutes to make it to the port from Trastevere. When we arrived, the Retreat “priority embarkation” experience was literally nonexistent. After a porter took our checked bags, everyone went through the same security line, did check in and were given a little ticket with an embarkation group number on it and were told to wait in a sitting area until their number was called. No Retreat boarding lounge, etc Fortunately it was early and not very busy when we arrived, so we waited less than 15 minutes to board. When we sat down they were boarding group 55 and we had a ticket for group 60. Not having the Retreat embarkation experience wasn’t a big deal to me having paid such a low price for our moveup, and how quickly things went, but if I’d paid over 15K for a sky suite at regular price, it’d probably have put a little salt in my mouth starting the cruise. When we got onboard we went to our room and dropped off our bags then headed to my office at sea aka the martini bar. When we arrived I was greeted by some of the same bartenders who were working on my solo spring cruise. They were very exited to meet “Mr. Charla” 😂 and surprised us with special espresso martinis! I was also happy to see them still giving out Evian for premium package bottled water (I had read some reviews it was getting hard to find onboard). After a cocktail, we headed over to guest services to put some cash on our onboard account so it isn’t sitting in the safe and convert some more from USD to Euros for port spending. This is one of those places where MSC still beats out Celebrity for me. In Yacht Club, the concierges have full banking capabilities. They can do currency exchange and account cash transactions without having to go stand in the line at guest services. Once again we were lucky having boarded early though and the wait in line was only about 10 minutes. While we were doing our transaction I heard a man at the next desk ask about changing his stateroom and be told that the ship is completely sold out for this sailing and no cabin changes or upgrades are available. After getting money in order, it was off to grab our traditional first peaches and bourbon in the Retreat lounge and head to our first meal in Luminae. We got there about 12:45 (lunch served till 1:30) and were seated quickly. On our way in the hotel director for the ship was greeting guests as we came in to dine. When we said hello he looked at me with a big smile and said “welcome onboard! first time sailing with us on Celebrity?” and Jeremy choked on his sip of peaches and bourbon. As we were walking away “FINALLY! There’s somebody who works on this ship who doesn’t know you already!”. For appetizers Jeremy had the ceviche which he cleaned the bowl of and I tried the short rib borscht. I’m used to having borscht be served cold but this one was warm. I liked it much better than the chicken consumme that often makes an appearance on the Luminae lunch menu though. Jeremy said his Luminae burger was good as always. My steak in my steak frites was a bit overdone. As is my custom I asked for it with the truffle fries that come with the burger rather than the thick wedges. We had my edge class traditional first night dinner reservation at Eden so decided to save our appetites and skip dessert. Speaking of which, we are all dressed and ready for said dinner! I even found the perfect Eden themed dress on a clearance rack for $18 and paired it with my favorite necklace, made from the first cut of steel for Beyond’s hull. Stay tuned for a catch up post about our last land day in Italy yesterday and a report on our stateroom and the “modified” sky suite experience thus far. Pics from our first hours onboard as well as elite plus captains club event schedule below.

Thank you! You are so right. It was odd, this morning for the first time in all my cruises I was a little sad to be getting on the ship. We could’ve easily spent a whole week just in Rome really enjoying the city. I could’ve spent a full day in Vatican City alone. We’ve decided that next Europe trip our goal will be to save away vacation time at work so that we have 5-6 days in Rome on land pre-cruise.

Happy Embarkation Day! It’s map dress time in Roma!

Well, we’re back on our bus making our way back to Rome from Tuscany and I’m sure no one will be surprised to see that we have wine in tow. While my husband is snoring off his last glass of Brunello, a report on our Twilight Food Tour of Trastevere last night… The tour took us to several restaurants all around the Trestevere neighborhood. As we walked in between, our guide shared information about the neighborhood’s history and how it affected the local food scene over the years. It was sold as a small group walking tour with a maximum of 12 guests. Our group ended up being only 4 very friendly couples so it was very intimate. At each stop we had a generous portioned food sample, in almost all cases paired with wine, beer or a cocktail. About a few of the highlights: -Our first stop was a restaurant called Ercoli where we had seated service of a charcuterie and cheese platter paired with an aperol spritz. The mozzarella was the best mozzarella I’ve ever had. Apparently according to our guide, most of what we’re sold as “fresh” mozzarella in the US is anything but, and boy could you taste the difference. While we were there we got a glimpse of the amazing meat and cheese selection and some of the other dinner plates going to tables and it all looked so good, we’re planning to go back there and have a late dinner tonight. -We also stopped in a bakery called La Ranella that is known for supplying all of the breads and focaccia for the best restaurants in Trastevere. However they also sell (and we got to try) a porchetta sandwich made with super tender, juicy flavorful pork and a focaccia that was perfectly crunchy on the outside but soft as a cloud inside. -The next few stand and munch food stops were for pizza, fried artichoke and suppli paired with local beer, which weren’t bad but didn’t wow us either. -For our “entree” stop, we had a sit down meal of 2 different pastas at Peppo Al Cosimato. Both were ok but the pizzas I saw coming out of the wood fire oven and going to other tables looked amazing. I was wishing that could have been our pizza stop! Fun fact: our guide told us to beware of any restaurant in Rome claiming to serve brick oven pizza where you don’t see the oven in the dinning room. Apparently there are regulations in place that prohibit keeping the brick oven back in the kitchen, so if you don’t see one in the dining room, it’s most likely false advertising. To pair with the pasta, we were poured a red table wine from Vatican City that is produced and served under papal seal. Pretty good stuff too. It’s good to be the Pope. -By the time we ate and drank all of that, our group was pretty stuffed (and fairly well lubricated) and we were questioning the wisdom of one last restaurant for dessert and moscato, but our guide insisted we wouldn’t want to miss the experience and he was not wrong! The tour 100% saved the best for last as we visited Spirito di Vino. The restaurant is in a building which was a synagogue. The building was erected on top of an ancient Roman building. When we arrived we were invited down into the basement wine cellar of the restaurant to see the still standing ancient Roman foundation! Our guide pointed out a photo hanging in the restaurant of a sculpture of Apoxyomenos and told us that the statue, which now lives in the Vatican museum, was found during the excavation of the restaurant basement to make the wine cellar! For dessert we were served an incredibly decadent panna cotta paired with a glass of moscato. Actually I should say “glasses” of moscato because at this restaurant after they filled our glasses they left the half full bottles on the table and invited us to help ourselves to refills. After a couple of glasses, Jeremy called me out for starting to stare a bit too longingly at that photo of Apoxyomenos. I then promptly called him out for feeling threatened by a random Greek male model who has been dead for over 2,000 years. After all the wine glasses and panna cotta bowls were empty, our guide offered to walk anyone who needed it to the nearest taxi stand. Fortunately the restaurant turned out to be only a 3 minute walk from our apartment so we were home in bed in no time. Overall I was very happy with the tour and felt like we definitely got more than our money’s worth in terms of the amount of food and drinks provided. It was very walking intensive (great for counteracting some of the calories!) so it’s definitely one to wear comfortable shoes for and perhaps schedule for an evening when you haven’t already been tearing up the streets all day. Once our bus makes it back to Rome, our plan is to get some laundry put in while we enjoy some of our newly purchased wine. Then once we swap clothes to the dryer we’ll do as the Romans do and head to a 9:30pm dinner reservation at Ercoli. After dinner it’ll be straight to bed to get a good nights sleep before getting up early to pack and make our way to Civitavecchia! With all the amazing experiences we’ve had the past couple of days I almost completely forgot we have an entire 10 days of cruising ahead of us too! Final countdown is on to embarkation!

Sharing a link to the VRBO listing for our apartment for those who are interested. Please let me know if it doesn’t work. One thing to consider: the last couple of days it’s been a little warmer out and we’ve used the air conditioning in the afternoon. As is common in older Italian apartments, it is single room A/C units operated by remote control rather than central air. It’s been strong enough to keep us comfortable, but we have wondered how well it would keep the place cool in the sweltering temps of July and August. https://www.vrbo.com/en-au/holiday-rental/p1893811

Ciao from our truck stop breakfast in Umbria on the way to spend the day in Montepulciano! I don’t think I’m going to have as much trouble losing my cruise weight after this trip as I thought. After eating like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach that dense dry cardboard we Americans dare to call bread for months. I’m so sorry I haven’t checked back in sooner! As soon as we got out and about in Rome we fell down a Holy Roman rabbit hole of art, history, food and wine. I can’t believe how much we’ve already done and how much I have to share! I’m going to have to pare down the pictures so I don’t break cruise critic. I’m struggling with where to even start with filling everyone in. I’m thinking while we make our way through the Italian countryside, let’s start with our incredible first full Italian day yesterday . For the morning I booked a half day private golf cart tour of Rome through Viator. I was thinking it’d be a great way to make sure we get at least a taste of all the key sites we wanted to see in an efficient way and I was right! Our guide Lisa picked us up in a very comfortable cart equipped with bottle water, umbrellas and rain walls that could be put down on the sides (which came in handy when showers moved in right around the Vatican). Even if weather had been perfect, having a guide was definitely the way to go. Lisa knew so much about the historical significance of the things we were seeing, we not only saw a lot more but got a lot more out of it. We managed to hit all the big spots: -Colosseum -Pantheon -Trevi Fountain -Circus Maximus -Vatican City We also saw the ruins of Julius Caesar’s Palace and the forum where he was assassinated. She also took us to a few less traveled spots, like an orange tree garden hidden behind a church that had a beautiful overlook of the city. The tour was fully customizable so Lisa was happy to add or skip any stops we wanted. When there were places we wanted to stay and look around longer, she’d drop us off at a convenient spot and then park and wait for us. After our morning of sightseeing, we had lunch at il Barroccio a few blocks away from the Pantheon. The restaurant is definitely a tourist hangout (in fact, shortly after we were sat, a massive MSC excursion group was marched in to dine in an upstairs room) but the Italian food was very good and the service was excellent. When the MSC group arrived, the manager came over to our table bearing a complimentary order of bruschetta (oh, btw Americans, we also know nothing of proper tomatoes and olive oil) and apologized that the kitchen may be a little slow. We assured him we were in no hurry and planned to enjoy a bottle of wine and multiple courses and rest our feet from our long morning of sightseeing. He responded “ah good, you already learn to eat like Italians!” He asked if we were on our honeymoon and I said no but we weee celebrating Jeremy’s birthday. After our meat and cheese platter and pizzas (both fantastic), the manager reappeared with a complimentary tiramisu and poured us shots of limoncello to drink to Jeremy’s good health. After lunch, we walked around to do a bit more sightseeing on our own. I’d mentioned to Lisa in the morning that I was very interested in historical churches and artwork (she assured me I was in the right city) and before we left her for the morning she wrote down the name and addresses of a few she recommended we check out. My favorites was Basilica S. Maria sopra Minerva (so named because the church is built on the ruins of a temple to Minerva) where we stumbled upon sculptures by Michelangelo! On our way back to the apartment we went for a walk along the Tiber then went for a happy hour aperitivo in Piazza Di Santa Maria a few blocks from our apartment. In case I hadn’t fallen in love with Rome already, the city sealed the deal with the fact that happy hour here comes with a full table of delicious complimentary snacks! If you like something light and fruity, please allow me to suggest this peach aperol Paloma at Bar Santa Maria. After our drinks and snacks it was time to get ready for our twilight food tour, which Ill share a full report on later today on our drive back (if I’m not too tipsy from wine tasting). Salute from Italia!

Safe smooth travels! I hope we get to meet you onboard!

You guys, I feel like I’m living in a dream! Jeremy and I were just woken from our afternoon nap by the sounds of ringing church bells echoing through the cobblestone streets outside our apartment. Speaking of said apartment, when we finally made it here (Rome morning rush hour traffic is no joke. Easily as bad as Chicago), our hostess Antonella met us at our taxi and she and our driver helped bring our luggage into our gorgeous traditional Roman home for the rest of the week! Can you believe we got this massive apartment for hundreds less than we would’ve paid to stay in a 1 king bed room at a Marriott? The apartment is on the second floor but fortunately there was a small elevator so Jeremy didn’t have to lug my heaviest bags all the way up. There are a few stairs inside the apartment and up to the doorstep, so this probably wouldn’t be the best choice for anyone mobility challenged. The second bathroom has a European style washer and dryer which I’m going to have to google up some directions on how to use. But will definitely come in handy to be able to do some laundry before we get on the ship. Antonella showed us around and left us a sheet with some suggested restaurant info and a number where we can reach her with any questions or issues at any time. We’re going to shower and dress and head out for an early dinner and exploring in Trastevere. Then we’re planning to grab some gelato and maybe some suppli (watch, I’m gonna gain back all 12 pounds I lost in preparation for this trip in like 48 hours). We’re still recovering a bit from our long trip and not getting much sleep the past week getting ready (plus a 2 week European tour is a marathon not a sprint) so our late evening plans tonight are to be chill and break open the welcome vino that Antonella left us and enjoy the evening breeze on our terrazzo.

Ciao from Rome friends! We and all of our bags made it out of FCO in less than 20 minutes including a bathroom stop and now we’re in the taxi on our way to Trastevere! Can I just say, Flagship Business Class has spoiled flying for me forever. You guys, I saw a lady boarding the plane wearing an exquisite Hermès dress that I’ve seen in Vogue that costs like 3 of our mortgage payments and I think she may have been traveling with Isaac Mizrahi. I asked Jeremy if he could confirm my star sighting but his response was “who’s Isaac Mizrahi?” Men…sigh…🤦🏾‍♀️ But let me back up and share from the beginning of our Flagship experience. At ORD, the Flagship Lounge is one floor below the Admirals Club and shares an entrance from the terminal. When we came in the shared entrance and scanned our boarding passes, we were given black laminated Flagship Lounge invitation cards to be given to an attendant waiting to greet passengers getting off the elevator on the flagship lounge floor. We actually started our long layover a floor up in the admirals club though thanks to a very happy coincidence (that I think also says something about the extent of our cruising addiction). I made a wheels up social media post about our flight and ORD layover before we took off from St. Louis and as we were coming off our STL to ORD flight, we were surprised at our arrival gate by friends we made on my 40th birthday Bermuda cruise on Summit last year! They saw my post just as they happened to be arriving in the same airport a few gates down from a trip to Ireland!!! We all had a catch up drink in Admirals Club and shared lots of hugs all around, then they headed to make their domestic connection while we went to see how the 1% does airport lounges. When Jeremy and I walked in the Flagship Lounge we were greeted with flutes of champagne (took me back to the old Celebrity embarkation days, but with actual champagne) and given a tour of the lounge when we told the attendant it was our first time visiting. There are make your own cocktail stations and a full buffet of sushi, salads and hot food that is much elevated from the food stations and the always a line a mile deep guacamole kiosk in Admirals Club. I tried a little bit of the hummus, Caesar salad and the white wine chicken and all were very good. Jeremy spotted Patron on the make your own cocktail bar and his eyes lit up like Gen Z’s coming in the living room on Christmas morning. When it was time to board our flight, as evidenced by his face in the photos, it was very clear that my husband had no idea what all “board and turn left” entailed. Nobody tell Jeremy but I got this upgrade for a very good price and I’ve now been made some marital promises in exchange for this expression of love that well outweigh my ticket investment. We were greeted on boarding with welcome glasses of champagne which were refilled regularly during boarding. Dinner was served in courses with warm bread service. Jeremy and I both had the cheese enchiladas which didn’t wow me but still definitely beat out any first class meal I’ve had in non-Flagship. The star of the meal was the ice cream sundae dessert course. After eating and a couple of glasses of cote de Rhône, I put my seat into lie flat, curled up in my Casper pillow and blanket and slept like a baby until the lights came up for breakfast service. Nice little transition into Rome time. Apparently Flagship is where AA has been hiding the decent eggs at breakfast too! The only complaint I have is that wifi didn’t work for the entire flight. As a result, there’s some work I was hoping to wrap up in the air that I’ll have to take care of once we check into our VRBO. More to come later today from Rome!

You know us too well! We aren’t even off the ground in STL yet but already on our second round of mimosas! 🥂 Ill be sure to give a full report on the Flagship experience!

Buongiorno! Today is the day!!! Jeremy and I are in the car on the way north to STL. This morning before we left home, he got to open his smaller surprise birthday gift from me. (Guapo is our nickname for his alter ego that comes out when he gets on the tequila.) He immediately put it into his suitcase. I can’t wait to see his reaction when he finds out about my other surprise gift when we get to the airport: I upgraded our flights out to Rome to Flagship Business Class! For the trip to Rome we fly STL-ORD-FCO with a 3.5 hour layover in O’Hare (an hour of which I presume we’ll spend doing the delightful O’Hare domestic to international terminal excursion). Flight options back from Rome were much less abundant at the very end of the tourist season. The only option that got us back to STL before November 1st has us flying Iberia code share from FCO to MAD then back on AA from MAD to PHL and PHL to STL. Normally I feel ok trusting the bag tracking function in the AA app. But for this big of a trip and the number of plane changes we’re doing, I decided to invest in AirTags on our checked luggage just in case. As of now, both our flights are showing on time departure. Please send good vibes our way for safe, smooth travels!

Oh Dawn I’m so sorry to hear about your accident! I don’t think my writing can ever compare to being on a transatlantic cruise, but I’m glad I can do a little something to take the edge off! I hope you continue to heal well and quickly! I’ll be thinking of you enjoying tropical shores on Beyond in January when I’m up to my ankles in snow!

Current Situation: Just a couple of 40 somethings drinking bubbly, binge watching Italian food travel shows on the DVR and packing enough luggage to stay in Europe for a solid month. First thing tomorrow morning we leave for the airport!

Good morning from my pre-cruise spa day! How bad is it that I spend enough time here that when I pull up to the valet stand, the attendants open my door and immediately say “Welcome to the Four Seasons Ms. Claypool. Headed to the spa again today?” Jeremy, son of two accountants, says he’d love to get an afternoon perusing my solo checking account (not a chance, buddy) to see how much of my market share this spa, Celebrity Cruises, Total Wine & More and Amazon are splitting on an annual basis. 😂 In any event, while I’m starting my day the right way, a little about our plans for our 2 weeks overseas! Let’s start with a disclaimer. As you can probably tell from this shot, this review is not likely to be one you’ll want to read on an empty stomach. Food and wine pictures will abound. During our pre-cruise time in Rome I’ve made us reservations at several restaurants I’ve been dreaming of trying ever since seeing them on my favorite travel shows (thank you Tony Bourdain and Stanley Tucci!). We also have some excursions planned that I booked through Viator, including a night time food tour of the Trastevere area where we’ll be staying (neighborhood suggested by a sorority sister who grew up in Rome). I made a rookie mistake when it came to planning accommodations for this cruise. I didn’t get around to looking into hotels until early summer. By then, every hotel for our dates that was centrally located was either completely booked up, cost over 600 Euros a night, or had TripAdvisor reviews that are still giving me nightmares. Luckily I quickly found a solution via VRBO. We’ve rented a charming traditional Roman apartment in Trastevere that’s just steps from lots of great restaurants and night spots! Our host Antonella has been super responsive and helpful and has even arranged a taxi to meet us at the airport. A quick caution if you’re thinking about VRBO for a Rome stay: be sure to not only look at the reviews and ratings, but also at the dates they were posted. There was an apartment we were in love with that seemed to have great reviews, then I looked closer and realized that they were all reviews from pre-pandemic. I of course understand there was a good long gap there where Italy was in total lock down and no one could go to even write a review. But we all know how much an accommodations experience can have changed since the pandemic. We didn’t want to take the risk on a bucket list trip. I’ve been told that Rome is extremely English speaker friendly, but for me part of the fun of international travel is learning the local language, so I’ve been learning Italian for about 6 months using Babble, watching Italian language movies/documentaries on Netflix with subtitles and a bi-weekly “speak Italian only” wine and canapé date with my mother in law (Jeremy is particularly nervous about which words I’ve learned from that last one). I also found an Apple Music podcast that teaches Italian for travel that I listen to on my drive to and from the office every day. The ports for our cruise will be Olympia, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Sicily, Naples and Florence. Between our onboard booking offer and cashing in points from our Celebrity credit card, we had quite a bit of onboard credit, so we ended up booking quite a few excursions through Celebrity. Our interests trend towards food, wine and historical sites so our adventures will feature those heavily. We’ve also booked specialty dinners at Eden, Le Voyage and Raw on 5 (not my favorite specialty, but this man still owes me a seafood tower that I never got on Apex, and I didn’t get where I am in life by not collecting on debts). We also had a butchers cut reservation just because Jeremy liked it so much on Apex. But I cancelled it after we got our move up because on Beyond at least, the Luminae food beat my butchers cut experience by a mile. So now I have more OBC for sea day massages for my sore legs and wine events! I’ve been lurking weather reports and it looks like at least the first part of our trip is going to be relatively warm for fall (temps in high 70’s Fahrenheit) but grey and very rainy. Luckily I have made solid investments in several very cute but lots of walking comfortable waterproof fall shoe options and an adorable Burberry rain coat I got for almost 80% off via rewards redemptions and final sale discounts at Neiman Marcus! My wardrobe for this trip is heavy on layering options. Lots of dresses that will be comfortable in warm temps but can still work for cooler weather when paired with boots and/or leggings and a cute sweater or jacket. The fun part will be hitting the maximum 50lb per checked bag weight limit for Iberia airlines (which we have to fly as a codeshare on the way back from Rome) with room to spare for the additional shopping I plan to do abroad. We are flying home on Halloween and I tried my best to convince Jeremy that we should dress as Waldo (of Where’s Waldo?) and Carmen San Diego for the journey, but I was sadly overruled. Well I’m off for my body scrub, facial and pedicure! As always please feel free to jump in on the review with any questions/comments/suggestions. Less than 48 hours till wheels up for Rome!

Me: Oh by the way honey I’ll be home from work a little late. I have to pick up my dry cleaning and then run to the mall to finish my cruise shopping. Jeremy: What do you mean “finish” your shopping? The Amazon and UPS trucks have been delivering packages every day for a week! You can’t possibly need anymore stuff for this trip! Me: Oh you’re absolutely right. I’m pretty much set, I’m just getting a couple more small things… Behold my couple of small things!