CruzerDeb

Day Three - Crete, con We visited a local pottery maker; cool to see how quickly they make such beautiful vessels and learning the process. There is a store (of course) where you can purchase items.

Please note - posts are no longer LIVE.

I am trying to finish this trip report.

Day Four - Heraklion, Crete We booked the “Crete Villages & Folkloric Show” (easy activity) through Princess. We met in the Princess Theater, where we were assigned our group for the day. This was very organized. We were soon off the ship and on our comfortable tour bus for the day. Crete is absolutely beautiful! We enjoyed the very scenic drive and learning about all the olive trees (35M!!) and wineries. Most cheese is made from either goat or sheep milk.

Day Three - At Sea A sweet day with nothing planned except grabbing a lounger in the sun by the pool! Regal had us set our clocks forward an hour, so sleeping in until 8:00 (unusual for me), was really sleeping in until 9:00! Did I even have a chance?? I’m normally on Lido and getting a chair by 7:00, so I wasn’t confident. And when I say “getting my chair”, I mean my butt is in said chair, not claiming one to come back to in a couple of ours; I’m no CHOG. 😂. Mom wanted to eat first, which put us out there a little later. Miracle of miracles! We found two loungers together in the perfect spot. She sat with me for an hour and then sought some shade nearby. We really did nothing of note and just enjoyed a relaxing day. Today was formal night and we did not dress up and ate in the buffet. Tonight’s entertainment in the theater was the Princess production show “Bravo” which we really enjoyed.

Thanks! It was amazing and I’ll update soon!

The Wi-Fi sucks. The Medallion app sucks, with it working every now and then just to give one a glimmer of hope. On the Wi-Fi issue, I had whatever was included in my booking; don’t know if you can pay more for better service.

We are both fine! I couldn’t get CC to open at all. Ugh. So much to tell …

Guys, Wi-Fi was terrible and I was unable to continue with my LIVE report. Sorry to let you all down. We disembarked in Athens this morning, followed by a fantastic 5-hour private tour. Got some rest, wrangled with the Swiss Air app (still not able to check in) and now we’re on our way to dinner. Our flight leaves at 7:00a tomorrow. I’ll try to post some more after dinner (depending on wine consumption, lol). Should have time before our flight, but who knows?!

Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m going to continue today as we are finally off the ship and I am once again able to post.

@CarnevaleJust saw in today’s Patter (day 3 - Heraklion) that there will be a “Ballroom Dance Music Hour” in the Vista Lounge from 7-8. I doubt we’ll make it there to report back on how many people were there.

Thank you!

Day Two - Naples, con. (2nd time trying to post this; first one disappeared.) We had reservations at Crown Grill for dinner and it did not disappoint! I had black & blue onion soup, filet mignon, loaded baked potato and triple chocolate treasure. The only slight disappointment was with the loaded baked potato; it was a little small (which turned out to be the perfect size), there weren’t very many toppings and it was barely warm. The dessert was amazing!! We rushed from dinner to the show in Princess Theater, which was a singer named Paul Blake. He was excellent. After the show, I had to get a Bellini from Bellini’s and we listened to the great music in the piazza.

Day Two - Naples We booked “Easy Naples” through Princess and were told to meet in Symphony MDR at 1:00. There were 5-6 different groups meeting there for several different tours. They were very organized and had water available to purchase before the excursion. Some people were upset that it wasn’t free. There were @40 of us a large, air-conditioned bus for this very informative tour. We enjoyed our guide, Ida. We made two stops, one Oceanside so we could get pictures of Mt. Vesuvius and Capri, and another so we could enjoy either a free scoop of gelato or a soft drink. It was a very informative tour, with the only negative being the inability to really take any pictures around Naples.

Thank you! We really tried to see as much as possible. I wore my mom out. All of our upcoming shore excursions, booked through Princess, we’re on the “easy” activity level (except Mykonos which didn’t have any so we had to book a “moderate” one). We’ll have to see what sights we’ll be able to see. Setting myself up for a return trip with my husband!

There’s music in many venues on the ship, including the Piazza and Crooners. Different couples were doing some ballroom dancing in both venues last night. If you like the music, get up and show us how it’s done! I love to watch.

The Uber was €145, for two people and was a Mercedes car. Very professional driver. Time of day affects prices; when I had looked the evening prior it was $253! I scheduled my ride 2 hours in advance and it worked out perfectly!

Hey @PacnGoNowthanks for the head’s up about the ottomans - we have two now! Also, the balcony is 1/2 covered.

We’re on Dolphin and I’d say it’s probably 1/3 covered. Thanks for the ottoman suggestion; hope we can still get one when we get back to our room and see our steward again. I’ll let you know about any problems with soot or people smoking we might have.

I’ll try to post the name of the place first and then inside the venue.

Day One - Around the Ship I took a few pictures and will share a few, but this post isn’t very comprehensive We have a deluxe premium aft balcony and our balcony is pretty big!

Day One - Boarding / Civitavecchia I scheduled an Uber from our hotel (Albergo del Senato) to the port; driver arrived on time at 9:20am. It took about and hour and 15 minutes to get here. We were dropped off right at our ship, met by a porter and immediately joined the check-in line. No one looked at the app to see what our arrival time was or what color lane we were supposed to be in. Once we arrived at checkin counter, she wasn’t able to scan our app, so had to provide passports, vaccination cards and negative Covid results. We then walked right onto the ship; we were through the whole process in 30 minutes! Went straight to our room and dropped off our carryons. We watched the muster and ship info on our tv and then went to our muster station to check in. Toured the ship a bit and then had lunch in the MDR (Concerto) because I have heard this is the only time they serve the orange soufflé and I just had to try it! The ship is beautiful!

We purchased a pass on the street from the vendor using local currency.

Unfortunately, the walk to our next location was too far, too hot and too fast for my mom. We had to drop out. 😭 We sought air conditioning, seating and solace at Burger King. Once she was rested, we took an Uber back to our hotel. Looks like I’ll have to make my husband bring me back so I can visit the Sistine Chapel.

The Basilica was simply amazing!