Live From The 10-24-2013 Ruby Princess to Florida (51 Days)

[homeinboca]

Loving your updates, it brings back fond memories of our trips to these places. I'm curious to know how the Thriller dance went! That would be awesome to see!

[bcnvcanada]

We did it off the ship. Since it is late in the season, I am not sure about

the train, also this was two years ago.

[lovevacadays]

I am not chatting with you all during this cruise in order to conserve my minutes. Normally I have Judy's minutes to fall back on, but she has discovered on-line gaming with her IPAD, so alas my backup minutes are no longer available.

 

so I blog offline, then read the thread, then upload the latest and log off.

 

So I'm not ignoring you all, I'm being very frugal...

 

Ok. No problem. I was just letting you know I enjoyed your posts.:)

[ccrain]

10-31-2013 Halloween Update

 

Mykonos was a lot of fun. We will do the Delos trip on the next go around, but wandering around this tiny little town in the narrow streets and alleys was really interesting. Little Venice it’s just not quite, no canals to fall into or find with no bridge. Lots of little shops and grocery stores to wander around in, found a great little Grecian fisherman’s cap for the granddaughter that collects hats – so she’s taken care of.

 

We took the shuttle for $10 USD (7E) each. The road can be walked, but its two lane and no walking path through the narrow parts along the cliffs. You could walk it, but we weren’t going to chance it. The shuttle drops you off a bit north of the beach area and you can make your way into the narrow alleyways, past lots of little shops, to more restaurants and eventually to the windmills. Absolutely stunningly clear water, a picturesque little town and the Ruby at dock across the bay. If only the air would have been clearer, it would have been perfect.

 

Back aboard the ship we prepped for Halloween. We brought 7 pounds of jolly ranchers to hand out to the crew and any kids we found during the night. I in my Caesar costume and Judy in her Aphrodite costume, the long one, not the short one, wandered about the ship giving candy to every crew member we came across. The HC crew really enjoyed it, especially the cooks in the back. It was a lot of fun. I just wish we could have brought more.

 

About a dozen of us passengers dressed up in costume, and a lot of the more visible crew, all of the cruise staff, most of the photo staff.

 

We went to the Liars club, which featured Dan (CD), Eve (ACD) and the art auction guy Chris. It was one of the best with Dan stealing the show as he verbally lanced with Colin, the deputy CD who was dressed as a headless guy, the entire show. It was one of the better ones.

 

We stayed up until 2200 to do the Halloween show and dance, won a bottle of champoo for the mummy wrapping contest and danced for a while before crashing. Severely crashing in preparation for Kusadasi.

[Cupcrazy]

I am now all caught up. Thanks a lot for doing this live report. Ruby was the last Princess ship I was on so the memories are still in my head. Enjoy the rest on your time on board and I'm looking forward to cruising with you along the way.

[ccrain]

11-1-2013 Kusadasi and Ephesus

 

I forgot to mention that we made it to the dining room for dinner last night. On Italian night of course, one of our favorite menus – and it has changed a bit. The eggplant parmesan looks a little different, but tastes just as good, and there is a new shrimp and mashed potato dish on the menu which was pretty good. Most the menu items are their full Italian names, so they are just simply impossible to reproduce in this log right now. The star of the dinner, which it is so often, was the Penne Ariabattia, cooked by one of the head waiters and it was excellent. I would have preferred my pasta just a little bit more aldente, but the spice level of the red pepper flakes was fantastic. Probably a little higher than most people would like it, but it was nice and spicy. The lemoncello was excellent and the lemoncello sorbet for dessert really, really good.

 

The food has been really, really good on the ship. From the HC to the IC to the grill, to the dining room, we have not been disappointed. The vegetable cream soups are absolutely incredible and properly spiced for our salt craving American palates. The cold salads for me are fantastic in the IC and the HC. I love the grilled vegetable salad and the shrimp salad in the IC. The variety of cold salads in the HC are also quite good, but Judy cannot enjoy them as most of them has mayo in them and she is allergic to mayo. The desserts are also fantastic with a little more sweetness than the typical European dessert, but less than the sugar filled American style. Suffice it to say that no one should ever go hungry on this ship.

 

Service continues to be exemplary with water brought promptly and with a smile. And of course you finished plates, spoons, utensils, small children, pets and loose objects continue to be magically whisked away from you table upon completion. We have begun saving things, a plate, a used napkin, a fork, empty cup, so that the servers are not disappointed when we have nothing for them. It’s a like an offering. If we have something, they take it and are happy, if not, they leave sad. Better to make them happy!

 

This turned out to be far better than I could have ever imagined. Ephesus has to be on everyone’s to do list for ancient Greek constructs. This actually was more interesting and more WOW, than the Acropolis. Sorry Athens, but it was. We did 050, the lunch at the terrace houses, the house of the Virgin Mary and Ephesus 4 (the Basilica of St John) and Ephesus 3 (the main location of the ancient Ephesus), excursion. It was an incredible trip though history at both Ephesus’, or is it Ephesi, with the terrace houses actually being a highlight rather than an ‘oh well that’s nice’.

 

Ephesus had been built in 5 different locations, with Ephesus 5 being the existing town near Ephsesus 1 and 4. The city moved with the harbor and as the river silted in the bay, the harbor moved, until today it’s about 2 miles from Ephesus 3 - the main attraction of the area that was built and lived in from about 350BC to 400-500 AD.

 

Our tour guide, Mustafa, was engaging, funny, knowledgeable and extremely opinionated (positive) about the fonder of modern Turkey – Attah-Turk – in the 1920’s. The entire excursion was very good, although the carpet visit at the end was more of a shopping channel event than a real learning event.

 

We started at Ephesus 4, the location of the basilica of St John, built by the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian in the middle of the 6th century AD. This building would mark set the stage for what we would see at Ephesus 3 later in the day as the architectural blends of 4 different civilizations or important periods of Western civilization would come together – pre-Hellenistic (blends of Greeks and Persians), Hellenistic (Alexander the Great), Roman and Byzantine. And this mix is quite easy to identify as the lower stone foundations would be of simple cut marble blocks with no mortar (Greek), fluted columns with Doric tops and bottoms pre-Hellenistic, covered by Roman bricks/mortar and concrete, covered by the Byzantine habit of recycling everything in a mixed pattern of marble blocks or chunks mortored in with combinations of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and mixed Corinthian/Ionic columns. Being an engineer I could appreciate how each civilization used the materials at hand.

 

The trip to the Virgin Mary’s house was interesting, but a lot of time standing in line for a quick glimpse of the interior. During the heat of the summer it would be quite uncomfortable. I was not aware that the Catholic church had indeed “endorsed” this particular house as being Mary’s, but several popes have held mass here, so who am I to argue with the popes! It is very well done, and surprising enough, I have to read more history, according to Mustafa , Mary is mentioned in the Koran as the mother of Jesus – so many visitors to Mary’s house are Muslim. Cool!

 

After Mary’s house was the trip down the valley of Ephesus 3 with a side trip up into the terraced houses. The only thing I found a little odd was the way the “restoration” effort has simply stacked stuff for simple aesthetics – a Corinthian column next to a Doric column in the same building. Just wouldn’t have been that way in the actual city. But the rest is simply WOW. Clay water pipes in the streets to deliver water with male and female joints, all standard sized. The upper streets of marble, with fountains to wash the streets down in the afternoon to get rid of the horse manure, the public toilets, and then the terraced houses with floor mosaics comparable to anything in the Renaissance. Intricate patterns not from dye or paint, but from simple selection of stone color. These houses had FORCED AIR HEATING, possibly hot and cold running water! They even had CHAIR RAILS along the walls. This blew my mind! We love our granite kitchen countertops and hardwood floors. These places had stone floors and marble walls that would make $MMM house owners green with envy and they are 2000 years old!

 

And of course, just when you think it can’t get any better, we leave the terraced houses and see the library (right across the street from the brothel, complete with secret tunnel – brings a whole new meaning to “research”. So was the kama sutra in the library at that time?). WOW. Yes some of the columns and stones are just not quite right, but it is an amazing reconstruction. The arches into the market place are just fantastic, and then it gets even better. You walk up from the market place and Mustafa deliberately directs your attention to the left down the Harbor Blvd. WOWSA. That is one impressive roadway. As you walk down the Harbor BLVD snapping pictures, imagining the docks and cranes and ships at the end of the blvd, you glance back over your shoulder and see the theater! OMG! Seating for 24,000 people, which meant 240,000 lived in Ephesus at the time, and includes renovations from all four civilizations from the bottom to the top.

 

After all that walking we were starving, so we walked down the Harbor blvd, past the rope even, to a nice grove of olive trees for our lunch. I only wish we have more time to eat rather than wolf down food quickly in order to stay on schedule – hey Princess, drop the carpet sales pitch and give us an extra 30 minutes to enjoy this Turkish delight of a lunch! Fresh tomatos, not chilled, still garden fresh, fresh cucumbers, arugula salad, sidewalk salad, olives, goat cheese, sandwiches, desserts, white or red wine, beer. It was fantastic – one of the best lunches and locations for lunch.

 

After lunch, everything else is simply anti-climactic. The carpet factory visit was fun, informative, but mainly a sales pitch – although it was not real high pressure, Oh sure, I would love to have a silk table runner for our dining room table, but I’m not paying $3k for it that’s for sure…

 

We dragged our carcass’ back to the ship, blisters and all, about 1600. But we had the most traveled party to still go to, so I will save that tale for later as its time to take a shower and get some food after being in Santorini.

 

Later…

[ccrain]

11-1-2013 – Kusadasi Evening

 

I forgot to point out one thing about the Ephesus tour we did. It is not for mobility challenged people at all. There is no way to get a scooter or a wheelchair in and out of the places we went. Just not safe. And for people with a cane or any kind of difficulty walking, the terraced houses have lots of stairs, up and down and they are not standard stairs and could be very challenging at times. Highly recommended, but not for the mobility impaired at all.

 

We actually got invited to the most traveled party. It was at 1930 in Skywalkers and it was pretty well done. The most traveled on this cruise only has 545 days! I bet the most traveled on the transatlantic will be over 1000 days. It was a cocktail party, not a luncheon, but they did have some killer nibbles like tempura shrimp, a chicken wing drumette lollipop, bacon wrapped prunes, a little baby quiche and all you could drink – including a shot of frangelico to go with dessert – a crepe filled with nutella and strawberries/whipped cream on the side.

 

The captain mingled, he is getting off in Rome next week, and Commodore Romano is taking over. We thoroughly enjoyed the party and hope to get invited next cruise as well, but I hold out little hope for the transatlantic.

 

Very nicely done!

[ccrain]

11-2-2013 - Santorini

 

I was looking forward to Santorini, but quite frankly it was pretty much underwhelming. This might just be the island to rent a car and drive around on, because the tour was pretty boring. Tendered to the new port to catch the bus and went to the winery. Nice wine, especially the dessert wine, but at 0830 in the morning, it’s a bit early for wine even for me. We then drove up the island to Oia and was essentially escorted to a great view, then left on our own. Our tour guide was neither interesting or excited about anything in particular. Pretty much going through the motions – and hence the tour was pretty much going through the motions. Definitely not worth the money spent.

 

Yes, it was a cloudy overcast day, but even after the tour on our own, the shops and restaurants were pretty much overpriced and underwhelming. Same old, same ole, from store to store. The ride down the cable car was probably the most interesting - I would have loved to talk to a geologist about the layers you can see down the side of cliff from town – and it was interesting watching people ride the donkeys.

 

So underwhelming was the entire trip that I will definitely cancel the excursion we had on the next stop in Santorini seriously consider not getting off the ship and letting Judy get her massage done at port day prices. Paul and Elizabeth went to ancient akrotini and had a pretty ho-hum day as well.

 

Finally got a great catch up power nap in the afternoon and then hit the elite lounge for chips, guacamole and pico de gallo. That was definitely good stuff and the El Major margaritas were particularly tasty and dangerous. Then did the necessary shopping for grandkid’s Christmas – I think we’re going to get the oldest granddaughter one of those pendants that have her name spelled out in Greek – bought some more FCCs, found all of our photographs, ordered the DVDs and then watched the Lone Ranger.

 

As a person who literally grew up with a black and white TV, rabbit ears, a whole 3 channels and us boys were the remote controls for dad, it was a pretty screwed up movie. It’s one thing to make a movie franchise from a Disney theme park ride, but another to have one of my generation’s greatest boyhood desires (having a horse like Silver), climb trees, eat scorpions and fly. Oh come on. But he was the best actor of the bunch – digital effects and all. Oh well. It was so stupid at times it was fun.

 

Ok, I’m now caught up with the present time, so tomorrow we are at sea with Naples on Monday, turnaround day on Tuesday…

 

Night all…

[ccrain]

11-3-2013 At Sea Headed to Naples

 

Finally a day of rest. These successive port schedules have their advantages and disadvantages – they get you to a lot of places in a short amount of time, but they are tiring if you try and do it all. Forget about night life beyond eating that’s for sure. But it is very economical considering the number of ports and the sights you can see.

 

For most of the ports, I can see the advantage of a DIY with a tour guide and split between multiple people (four at a minimum – 8 to 10 max), but a guide can make or break the tour. A good guide makes it an experience, a so-so guide makes it pretty much a waste of time, but a great guide really brings the sites and histories to life and we’ve had two really good guides on this trip so far. We did not know about the 5 different Ephesus’, or the inward lean of the Parthenon, or the dating of ruins using the types of construction – Greek = marble, no mortar, perfectly cut; Roman – red brick and mortar; Byzantine – recycled everything from Greek and Roman. We found out who inspired Michelangelo’s sculptural techniques – hundreds of years prior. A great guide imparts knowledge and has passion about their subject. It’s like a favorite teacher.

 

This particular 12 day itinerary is highly recommended – we have enjoyed it immensely.

 

So for the day at sea in the patter. We have the onboard outlet sale this morning, the culinary demonstration, the MUTS movie this morning is Mama Mia, a pub lunch in the wheelhouse, bingo, a backstage tour, On Deck for the Cure, final, final before the final art auction (want to bet there will be another tomorrow night?).

 

We have line dancing, cha cha class and then Zumba this afternoon. Tonight is a formal night and it is Captain’s Circle night. Afternoon and early evening movie is the Great Gatsby with Sunday night football tonight. Tonight is a mix of David Copperfield comedy and Mercury Rising music. Tonight is also the Marriage Game show. We will think about whether or not we sign up.

 

Dancing on this ship has been great. The canned music in Club fusion has been great followed by either Jean and George in the wheelhouse or Atomic in Explorers. But with this intense an itinerary, there is not a lot of people up late. That will of course change drastically during the TA part of the cruise. We will definitely be doing a lot more dancing next cruise as our excursions will be more DIY, shorter in duration and definitely not up at o dark thirty in the morning.

[Eileen G]

Loving your review. It brings back great memories. We have done this itinerary twice and the Rome to Venice once. We almost always DIY. We don't go on private tours either. This way when we are ready to go back to the ship we can. We can also do a half day whenever we want to.

 

We really love Santorini and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it that much. We have always rented a car and just explored on our own. One of our favorite places on Santorini is ancient Thera. Not many people visit it but it is a beautiful place. It is high on a hill on the coast near Kamari and the views are spectacular. It is a Roman ruin from about 1 or 2 AD. The ruins are not in very good shape but just wondering how they lived up that high and where they got their food and water is fascinating. It is such a beautiful island with so many really different beaches and cute little towns it's a shame to just stay on the ship.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Eileen G

[ccrain]

11-04-2013 Napoli

 

Up at 0530 again for the day long tour including Pompeii, an Amalfi coastal cruise and shopping. We did Pompeii, lunch just outside of Pompeii, but the Amalfi coastal cruise got cancelled due to rough seas and we ended up spending an afternoon in Sorrento. Not a bad trade considering how motion sick Judy gets. The weather was great. High of 72, no rain, breezy enough to cool things off, partly cloudy. Can’t get much better than that.

 

But we got a good guide, not a great guide. When compared to Constantina or Mustafa, she simply paled in comparison. She was not an archaeologist, or a history professor, but a professional guide. She did her job adequately, but not with passion – and as such, quite frankly, Pompeii was a real snoozer compared to Ephesus or the Acropolis. We did need to go there, see it and move on. The most interesting and poignant part of the tour was the bodies, especially the dog. I wanted to hear about their stories, but got nothing of import. There had to be a story behind the dog, frozen in his death throws, or the pregnant girl, or the boy. How did they die, when did they die, what did the experts say? (We did hear that they did not all die the same day and that most of the population got away.) We hopefully will learn more when we visit the museum in Naples on Wednesday, the next leg of the trip.

 

The lunch was adequate, but once again paled in comparison to the lunch at Ephesus or the lunch at the Plaka. Catalone, chicken with red sauce and mozzarella cheese, green beans, potatoes, topped off with a ice cream – not smooth enough to be considered a gelato. Wine flowed freely, which was a good thing, and it was a pretty good wine at that, both red and white, with Proseco to start off with.

 

The bus ride to Sorrento showed us part of the Amalfi coast. Not a lot, but enough to see the sheer rock cliffs. Beautiful countryside.

 

Sorrento was interesting and we had fun shopping the narrow alleyways, tasting lemoncello as we went, along with several different varieties of different liquors. Finally found a really nice lady in a place that made its own lemoncello and bought some candies and a coffee liquor that Judy really liked. Time to break out the vanilla ice cream!

 

We wandered around Sorrento for about an hour, getting back to the ship about 1630. Not a bad day, not a great day, but I’m glad we did it. We can’t have perfect guides every cruise.

 

On the other hand we were hungry when we got back, so we hotfooted it up to the Elite lounge where they were serving the sushi specials. Someone doctored the red seaweed and gave it some real spice, so I practically ate an entire plate of it, it was so good! A couple of Japanese slippers later and we’re ready for some new comedy. Gary Delens, a US comedian, just joined the ship and did a show. He hit on about 50/50 of the jokes. At least we got some of them. We’ll probably see him again during the next cruise.

 

So that wraps up one of the four cruises. Tomorrow is turn around day in Citavecchia. We are not planning on going into Rome. The forecast is for rain, so we will probably wait until the next time around. I really don’t want to wander around the forum in the rain.

 

Stay tuned. I will continue this travelog on the next cruise, which is basically a return trip to Venice on the same itinerary, in reverse, but this time we are doing most of the ports DIY.

 

E’ya all later…

[calmom55]

11-04-2013 Napoli

 

Up at 0530 again for the day long tour including Pompeii, an Amalfi coastal cruise and shopping. We did Pompeii, lunch just outside of Pompeii, but the Amalfi coastal cruise got cancelled due to rough seas and we ended up spending an afternoon in Sorrento. Not a bad trade considering how motion sick Judy gets. The weather was great. High of 72, no rain, breezy enough to cool things off, partly cloudy. Can’t get much better than that.

 

But we got a good guide, not a great guide. When compared to Constantina or Mustafa, she simply paled in comparison. She was not an archaeologist, or a history professor, but a professional guide. She did her job adequately, but not with passion – and as such, quite frankly, Pompeii was a real snoozer compared to Ephesus or the Acropolis. We did need to go there, see it and move on. The most interesting and poignant part of the tour was the bodies, especially the dog. I wanted to hear about their stories, but got nothing of import. There had to be a story behind the dog, frozen in his death throws, or the pregnant girl, or the boy. How did they die, when did they die, what did the experts say? (We did hear that they did not all die the same day and that most of the population got away.) We hopefully will learn more when we visit the museum in Naples on Wednesday, the next leg of the trip.

 

The lunch was adequate, but once again paled in comparison to the lunch at Ephesus or the lunch at the Plaka. Catalone, chicken with red sauce and mozzarella cheese, green beans, potatoes, topped off with a ice cream – not smooth enough to be considered a gelato. Wine flowed freely, which was a good thing, and it was a pretty good wine at that, both red and white, with Proseco to start off with.

 

The bus ride to Sorrento showed us part of the Amalfi coast. Not a lot, but enough to see the sheer rock cliffs. Beautiful countryside.

 

Sorrento was interesting and we had fun shopping the narrow alleyways, tasting lemoncello as we went, along with several different varieties of different liquors. Finally found a really nice lady in a place that made its own lemoncello and bought some candies and a coffee liquor that Judy really liked. Time to break out the vanilla ice cream!

 

We wandered around Sorrento for about an hour, getting back to the ship about 1630. Not a bad day, not a great day, but I’m glad we did it. We can’t have perfect guides every cruise.

 

On the other hand we were hungry when we got back, so we hotfooted it up to the Elite lounge where they were serving the sushi specials. Someone doctored the red seaweed and gave it some real spice, so I practically ate an entire plate of it, it was so good! A couple of Japanese slippers later and we’re ready for some new comedy. Gary Delens, a US comedian, just joined the ship and did a show. He hit on about 50/50 of the jokes. At least we got some of them. We’ll probably see him again during the next cruise.

 

So that wraps up one of the four cruises. Tomorrow is turn around day in Citavecchia. We are not planning on going into Rome. The forecast is for rain, so we will probably wait until the next time around. I really don’t want to wander around the forum in the rain.

 

Stay tuned. I will continue this travelog on the next cruise, which is basically a return trip to Venice on the same itinerary, in reverse, but this time we are doing most of the ports DIY.

 

E’ya all later…

Love your updates....we are on the Nov 17th - Nov 29th with you

can't wait to see you and Judy cut a rug

[Oahucruiser]

Civitaveccia is a wonderful little town to wander around. There's a great open market at the top (left) of the pedestrian street, nice cafés on the road facing the sea and good shops as well as great gelato. We really look forward to a day in this town.

[kellor]

I'm so loving your updates and cruising along with you. We were looking at this area for one of our next cruises but my husband walks with cane and I'm thinking I should rethink this. Keep have an wonderful time! Lori

[ccrain]

11-05-2013 In-Transit Civitavecchia

 

It was pouring down rain in port this morning when we docked at 0430. Apparently the aft port Dolphin deck balcony drains plugged this morning and there was about a ½ an inch of standing water out on the balconies for several of the aftmost cabins. That would have really sucked to walk out in your stocking feet on disembarkation day into a puddle of water!

 

Because of the rain, we did not go to Rome, but then of course it cleared up and we probably should have. Oh well, we have two more stops in Rome before the end of the cruise. Paul and Elizabeth moved from a Caribe balcony cabin to a Dolphin deck mini-suite. They’ve been used to traveling with Mom and staying in an inside cabin, and now they have a whole mini for the two of them. They will probably get lost rattling around in that cabin.

 

Started off with an issue this morning on excursion billing. They credited our excursion yesterday $39 (total for both of us) for missing the Amalfi coast cruising. So essentially we got an excursion 2 hours less than expected (we were 1 hour late in leaving and 1 hour early in getting back) to Pompeii and then to Sorrento for shopping. The difference in price between our excursion and the Pompeii and Sorrento shopping was $140. With the refund the difference was $101. Lunch was not worth $101. Not going to make a big deal out of it. It is what it is, but I will let them know I am not happy about it.

 

There are only 20 of us in-transit people. They had us go to the Deck 4 gangway and get our old cards logged out and our new cards logged in. Had we went ashore, we were given in-transit cards to use and a shuttle to and from the port gates.

 

Looking at the patter for the cruise we have 3 production shows: Once upon a dream (pretty good), Stardust (did not see) and Ballroom Broadway (pretty good as well). Comedian David Copperfield (not going), Comedian Gary Delena (maybe), Vocalist Nik Page (not sure), Mentalist Alex Crow (nope), Comedy Vocalist Siobahn Phillips (nope) and Comedian George Casey (haven’t seen). We have the standard cruise cult classics that we might actually make this time since we are not doing all day tours and excursions. For MUTS we have Red 2, The Wolverine, Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, Oblivion, The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, World War Z, Star Trek into Darkness and The Way, Way Back.

 

Atomic is still in Explorer’s, Jean and George still in Wheelhouse. Canned music in Fusion for the early evening.

 

The sea days, two whole ones, are formal, all the others are smart casual.

 

We have planned to do the Delos tour on Mykonos, Athens on your own in Pireaus, but will cancel the Santorini volcano hike as we talked to people who did it last time and were not impressed that much. We are on our own in Naples (Museum and Pizza), Santorini (don’t know right now), Kusadasi (shopping and lunch), Athens (Acropolis Museum, shopping and lunch in the Plaka), Katakolon Corfu and Dubrovnik (wandering, shopping and lunch), Venice (Murano and Lido).

 

So that’s the plan. We’ll see if it hold up!

[ccrain]

I'm so loving your updates and cruising along with you. We were looking at this area for one of our next cruises but my husband walks with cane and I'm thinking I should rethink this. Keep have an wonderful time! Lori

 

I highly recommend the Acropolis and Ephesus. Of the two, Ephesus is the less strenuous, all walking downhill, but the marble can be slick and the surface is uneven. The Acropolis is a lot of walking up hill on steps on uneven and slick stone.

 

You could choose the Acropolis and National Museums in Greece as an alternative - they are great, but I'm not aware of an equivalent in turkey. Pull up You tube videos of Ephesus and see what you think.

[melody hounddog]

I am really enjoying this review! Thank you. You are very lucky to be able to do 3 B2b. One day, hopefully....

[ccrain]

11-06-2013 Napoli

 

Back in Naples, #2 of 3 stops in Napoli. Makes planning stuff a lot easier as you do not have to jam everything into one day. Today’s plan is to visit the archaeological museum and Pizza. Not sure yet whether or not we’re going to walk or take a taxi. Elizabeth may not be able to walk that far, but we definitely want to walk back. Yesterday was a do nothing day and we didn’t get hardly any walking in at all.

 

Went to Crown Grill last night with Paul and Elizabeth and cracked the 8E bottle of Santa Margharita Pinot Grigiot we got at the coop store in Venice. It was pretty good. (We’ll have to pick up another bottle or two in Venice when we get back.) Crown Grill was good. The service was excellent. After a couple of weeks of pasta, sushi and junk food from the Elite Lounge, we were looking for a steak. I had the Porterhouse, Paul and Elizabeth had the filet and Judy had the New York strip. All were cooked perfectly. The sides were a variety of garlic fries (oh Yum), creamed spinach, mushrooms and grilled asparagus. Since this was our anniversary (our 32, Paul and Elizabeth’s 42), we all got two of the Princess specialty “cakes”. Dessert was basically death by chocolate in various forms. We are still stuffed this morning.

 

Got a good sunrise look at Vesuvius this morning without a cloud top. Holy missing mountain Batman! Pictures simply do not do the missing portion justice. No wonder the local towns were buried! The weather is gorgeous with not a cloud in the sky and a high of 70F predicted. Perfect touring weather. We are bound to hit rain sometime, but so far it’s been near perfect for touring the Med.

 

So now for the daily patter. We arrive at 0700 and all aboard is at 1830. Judy has her “sushi” massage today at 1430 – so we have to be back by then. The port special is 115 minutes at the 75 minute price. She’s going to come back to room all de-stressed. The dancers are doing a beatles medly twice in the Piazza. The Mentalist Alex Crow is headlining the theater tonight. Man of Steel is on MUTS. The game shows are Jeopardized, name that tune and karaoke. Lots of dancing opportunities with Jean and George along with the band in wheelhouse, atomic in explorers, Chris is DJing in Skywalkers.

 

Oh and the Elite lounge has the El Mahor margarita for $5 and CHIPS AND SALSA WITH GUACOMOLE! Oh Yeah! Junk food for dinner again. Yummmm.

 

So that’s the plan for the day…now just to execute!

[woohooTOO]

Thanks for all the great information. We join the cruise in Venice on November 17 for the trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Looking forward to a fantastic cruise.

[Oahucruiser]

Enjoy your next arrival and departure from Venice. The latest news is that big ships will be banned from using the Grand Canal as of November next year.

[ccrain]

11-06-2013 Napoli Evening Update

 

WOW! Great day of cruising and walking around Naples, Italy. Since we were here just last cruise, I was determined to see the museum and have pizza in Naples. We did both and it was great. We started out in the IC with coffee this morning and then headed out with Paul and Elizabeth to the museum. About a 45 minute walk, really simple and straightforward across the main drag to Via Toledo and then up to then up to the museum. The museum is great. It has a ton of copies of greek statues, but copies that were made in 100 to 300 AD from statues in the 400 to 100 BC time period, plus a lot of example of the Romans recycling old statues by putting contemporary heads on older period statues. Kind of interesting if you ask me.

 

Incredible frescos from Pompeii along with really well done mosaics. These were intricate in detail. One of a sea scene really caught my eye with several different fish, shellfish, octopus and cuttlefish accurately detailed with tiny colored stones. We even got into the “adult” Pompeii section, which was not that interesting after all.

 

We could have easily cabbed up and back as there is a cab stand outside the port and outside the museum, along with going by the #4 bus as well, but we wanted to walk and the weather and temperature was perfect. Besides dodging the sales pitches of the taxis at the port, did not run into any problems or issues along the route – we were off the main tourist route after all, plus it was early in the morning.

 

After the museum we wandered around the upper part of the neighborhoods looking for pizza places identified in tripadvisor and trying out the gps on my phone. It has been very hard so far to get a good gps signal in amongst all of the taller buildings and narrow streets, but since this part of naples faces south west, not so much of a problem.

 

Judy had a 1430 massage appointment, so we headed back to the ship via the back streets and found a café, and plopped down for lunch. Not sure if it was the best pizza in naples, but it was pretty good and pretty darned expensive. 20E for a combination pizza for two. (In fairness the margharita pizza was 4E.) For the 4 of us, two pizzas, two cokes and a sparkling water, 62E with service charge included. That’s not cheap. But regardless, we successfully scored the museum and the pizza in Naples.

 

The terminal in Naples was incredible. Chocolate shops with chocolate in every form, flavor and type was everywhere. Really a nice atmosphere, but with prices to match. Good thing we had lunch or we would have stocked up on some sweets. I hope they have this again on the next time through so I can make plans to score some chocolate to take home. They also have a couple of wine shops in the terminal and there are some wine shops close by the port across the street as well.

 

Tonight was chips and salsa and guacamole in the elite lounge. A lot more elite or platinum on this cruise as the lounge was almost full. The skywalkers staff we had the last cruise has rotated to the wheelhouse, so we had to go say hello and dance a few dances with Jean and George, then off to explorers for dancing with atomic.

 

We’ve put 20K steps on Judy’s pedometer today – 8.7 miles of walking and dancing. So we are bushed, tired and beat…

 

Night all…

[ccrain]

Thanks for all the great information. We join the cruise in Venice on November 17 for the trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Looking forward to a fantastic cruise.

 

 

We'll try to leave some stuff still on board...

[ccrain]

Enjoy your next arrival and departure from Venice. The latest news is that big ships will be banned from using the Grand Canal as of November next year.

 

I'm sure there are dozens of ports in Greece, or Italy for that matter, that would absolutely love to host cruise ships and their passengers with lots of money to spend, overnight.

[seamwoman]

Thanks for doing this live. It brings back a lot of memories of our Med cruise and provides ideas for tours on future cruises. Karen

[cnelle605]

Thanks for all the information. Now for a quick question: can you find out the time for the muster drill on Nov. 17? Princess says they don't know. We need to know so we can use our sight-seeing time in Venice fully.