dickinson

He plays all sorts of songs from mostly the 50’s, 60’s and beyond. He takes lots of requests. One set he did songs from the rat pack. Tomorrow night when we will be off he is doing a show in the main theater. He is a very accomplished musician and has studied (in school) all parts about music. he does Elton John, Beatles, Glen Campbell. He has thousands of songs in his playlist, just request something. He has a great voice.

He is on till September 29. Then onto the Grand around Australia and New Zealand October 28-January 28 approximately. I found it on his websites.

Mostly 8 pm and 10 pm. Tonight is the last night so one show at 9 pm. Watch the patter for AJ Clark in the piano bar. In Crooners. He is the best!! I’ll try to find out how long he is on for.

We’re on Enchanted and had the order form. It went in the trash.

So far today we have seen a demonstration by the head chef. He is best friends with the maitre d (restaurant operations now). They were funny. We then went through the galley. Ate a small lunch on Lido deck because they were having a pastry extravaganza (or as the Patter says Extra Vaganza). Needed room for our desserts! One thing I have noticed is that we have not seen much of the cruise director, Olivia. Mostly just announcing the shows in the Princess Theater. Kind of like the old days before they had an Entertainment director along with a Cruise director. I'm used to seeing the CD at the game shows, etc but not this one. I can't rate her because I have barely seen her. Boy, do I miss Matt O!!!!! I also noticed that on the Lido deck the dishes were not plastic but breakable. Looked like stoneware. I may have mentioned this before.

I had tried to find out how much time needed on the Spain boards but never got a good answer other than that airport is always busy. Obviously at that hour every minute of lost sleep counts! Have you ever been there AND had an early flight? Our flight from there goes to Rome where we change planes for our long haul flight back to the East coast.

Not sure how to delete the second post. all pictures are of Herculaneum. I really liked the mosaic floor. It was outside a house.

Today's port stop was Naples. Because we have been here before and did Pompeii, Amalfi coast and Sorrento we decided this time to go to Herculaneum. We did a ship excursion which wasn't til 1:00 pm. We decided to do laundry in the morning. One dryer had a door that didn't shut and the other ate the token we put in. We put in another token and that did the trick. We did alert Guest Services. Herculaneum was quite interesting. It is smaller than Pompeii and the buildings are more intact. It used to be a port town but it is now about 600 meters from the ocean (if I remember correctly). One third of the city has been excavated and the other 2/3 is not because the city of Naples is built upon it. We got back to ship shortly before dinner. We have been lucky to have picked out a nice two top table all by itself next to a Wall and have been able to have it all week. Tonight was surf and turf. We both got it and thought it was fine. Overall the food has been what I remembered. Only had one meal (leg of lamb) that was overcooked. Should have sent it back but I didn't. Tonight's desert was the chocolate pistachio dome. I don't like that they changed the outside to green. Dh says it tasted good but in no universe should the outside be green. It was soft which I don't remember it being that way. Overall we enjoyed it but feel it used to be better. The evening performance in the theater was a singer Ross Hunter. We remember seeing him before. He sings great but we were not thrilled with some of his song choices. Mostly it was our taste as opposed to anything he did. Lastly we spent some time in Princess Live playing a couple of games. Tomorrow is our last day... a sea day and of course packing. We are spending a day in Barcelona but it will be an early night as our flight in the morning is 6:05 am which means being at the airport 3 hours earlier. Almost not worth going to sleep if we have to be picked up at 2;30 AM!!!!!!! We have had a wonderful time with several people we will especially write up on our review.

Today's port stop was Naples. Because we have been here before and did Pompeii, Amalfi coast and Sorrento we decided this time to go to Herculaneum. We did a ship excursion which wasn't til 1:00 pm. We decided to do laundry in the morning. One dryer had a door that didn't shut and the other ate the token we put in. We put in another token and that did the trick. We did alert Guest Services. Herculaneum was quite interesting. It is smaller than Pompeii and the buildings are more intact. It used to be a port town but it is now about 600 meters from the ocean (if I remember correctly). One third of the city has been excavated and the other 2/3 is not because the city of Naples is built upon it. We got back to ship shortly before dinner. We have been lucky to have picked out a nice two top table all by itself next to a Wall and have been able to have it all week. Tonight was surf and turf. We both got it and thought it was fine. Overall the food has been what I remembered. Only had one meal (leg of lamb) that was overcooked. Should have sent it back but I didn't. Tonight's desert was the chocolate pistachio dome. I don't like that they changed the outside to green. Dh says it tasted good but in no universe should the outside be green. It was soft which I don't remember it being that way. Overall we enjoyed it but feel it used to be better. The evening performance in the theater was a singer Ross Hunter. We remember seeing him before. He sings great but we were not thrilled with some of his song choices. Mostly it was our taste as opposed to anything he did. Lastly we spent some time in Princess Live playing a couple of games. Tomorrow is our last day... a sea day and of course packing. We are spending a day in Barcelona but it will be an early night as our flight in the morning is 6:05 am which means being at the airport 3 hours earlier. Almost not worth going to sleep if we have to be picked up at 2;30 AM!!!!!!! We have had a wonderful time with several people we will especially write up on our review.

Thanks! Good to know.

Here are a few pictures from Taormina.

No, Princess just says a 7 day cruise is two formal nights. Because we took just carryon we only brought one “formal “ night. Dh just brought a dress shirt and tie. No one dressed white and gold except we saw a group of women enjoying a drink before dinner wearing it.

Sorry but we are not coffee drinkers.

At 5 pm they announced that there was a folkloric show in the Theater. We went but it really didn’t hold our attention. On to dinner which was Italian night. Delicious. We both had chicken parmigiana. For dessert I decided to try the Nee version of Love Boat dream. I actually liked it. For entertainment we have been listening to AJ Clark in Crooners. He is on break now so am listening to Xcite. At will be back at 8:45 with Broadway tunes.

We did but nothing happened. They even had some tech person come down. Funny thing though it worked today a day late ! I took a video standing two feet from the board and two women, without saying excuse me, walked right in front of me! I had some words with her explaining what I was doing and she didn’t apologize. You can’t fix stupid!

Yesterday was no Kotor day. We did some trivia and ate. Did some trivia again and ate. See a theme? Last night we celebrated our 50th anniversary. It is actually a few days after we get off. Apparently I had told them it was Monday but basically nothing happened. We were told that the electronic boards by the elevators would say Happy Anniversary to us as we walked by. Our waiter at dinner was supposed to give us a cake. We went to guest services and changed it to last night. We got the cake and a few waiters sang happy anniversary to us. The guest services rep contacted someone who was trying to figure out why nothing showed up on the screen. No idea if problem was solved because frankly I don't care 😉. After dinner we went to Crooners to hear AJ Clarke. We listened to both his sets. In between we could hear Xcite, the party band, downstairs in the Piazza. They draw quite a crowd! Today was Messina, Sicily. We were supposed to be there around 1200 but because we missed Kotor we are having a full day. A lot of tours (all?) were moved earlier. Instead of being able to sleep in we had to be in Princess theater at 8:30. We took a tour to Taormina. At first it wasn't crowded but by 11:30 it was mobbed. It is a quaint old town with a large Greek and Roman amphitheater and beautiful scenic views. . Our guide was ok. She could speak English but with a heavy accent so it was hard to understand everything she said. I admire anyone who can speak more than just one language. We went to World Fresh Marketplace for a light lunch. Well, I had a light lunch but dh had a big meal. Hope he is ready for dinner in 2.5 hours! One thing I noticed on this ship is that in the World Fresh Marketplace the plates, bowls, etc are not the typical plastic but are actually breakable. Did they change all the ships?

Enchanted had an order from in cabin. Didn’t look carefully but either door knocker or give to steward

We’re going to take scenery so will go with all Norway.

Unfortunately at this point I can only take 7 day cruises. I’m on one now and will see when I get off if my mal de debarquenent is higher than my “new” normal and how long it lasts. Every cruise could be my last if it gets worse. 😞

Would love to sail with you again but alas Norway beckons more than Iceland and Greenland. The cruises that are 50% off all sail soon so not good for us.

Looking at Norway. 2024. August 3 for 7 days on Sky. All ports in Norway. Other cruise is August 24 on Sky for 8 days. 2 ports in Norway and 3 in Denmark. For those in the know, which would you pick?

Last night was formal night. Todays Patter says Gold and White. The rest all say casual. Very deceptive as many people wanting to dress up probably brought two outfits.

Just announced: no Kotor. We are in the bay but it is not safe for us to get closer due to wind and something else. They are picking up some people who missed the ship in Athens, couldn't get to Santorini, but made it to Kotor. Also taking off one person who is not feeling well. Tomorrow we will get to Messina much earlier (in the morning instead of around 12:00) so will have a full day there. Luckily we have been to Kotor although we were looking forward to walking around.

Tonight was formal night. We have a table for two against a wall with no other tables. I have a good view of people walking in. I noticed many men wearing all sorts of things. From what I observed, It was about 40% men in sport coats and 60% in either dress shirt with tie (or no tie), polo short and a few in shorts. Shorts were not in abundance but rather a few were worn. After dinner we saw a great performance in the Princess Theater. It was called Just Paul and John. They were two brothers who were dressed liked Beatles and did cover songs of theirs. They were fantastic. Next we went to Vista Lounge where they had something called Jim Henson Silliness. It was some of his early works. It was just ok. Maybe kids would like it but I'm not sure. Next we went to Crooners because AJ Clarke was going to sing songs of the Rat Pack. He was great as always. Next was running to Princess Live to catch the end of Karaoke. It was the first time in ages that I saw the place filled. My dh wanted to sing a song which he got to do. Tonight we set the clocks back an hour for our upcoming stops. Tomorrow is Kotor, Montenegro.