The Inaugural Vista's Official Trippingpara Mayhem in the Mediterranean Review

[antiquitys]

Loving the pictures

[llg13]

beautiful pics & great review so far!!

[GOLDENBONNY]

TESTING...

 

 

Can anyone see this one?

 

no:o:o

[inco]

More, more....6999 more to show us....:D

[trippingpara]

Loving the pictures

 

beautiful pics & great review so far!!

 

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoy them!

[trippingpara]

More, more....6999 more to show us....:D

 

LOL, yep, your count is about right!! :D

[deladane]

Loving the review so far!! And OMG those photos of Slovenia were AMAZING!!!! It's incredible that there are places in the world that look like that!! Thanks for sharing :D

[mykindaparty]

OMG...your pics and review are spectacular as always...and then it took a turn for the better (if that's even possible) when I saw the pic of Java blue and shake spot, and there she sits in all her glory BLUE VELVET CAKE!!!!!! [emoji7][emoji7]Lol, I am a red velvet cake addict but the blue is divine. Carry on with the review now please, sorry to interrupt. [emoji4][emoji846]

[tmackel]

Awesome review and picture! Thanks for sharing!

[trippingpara]

Loving the review so far!! And OMG those photos of Slovenia were AMAZING!!!! It's incredible that there are places in the world that look like that!! Thanks for sharing :D

 

Thank you so much! I must have read your Med review on the Sunshine at least 5 times before we left. Your review had us so excited. Your photos were excellent! Thank you for helping us prepare and plan for this trip!

[trippingpara]

OMG...your pics and review are spectacular as always...and then it took a turn for the better (if that's even possible) when I saw the pic of Java blue and shake spot, and there she sits in all her glory BLUE VELVET CAKE!!!!!! [emoji7][emoji7]Lol, I am a red velvet cake addict but the blue is divine. Carry on with the review now please, sorry to interrupt. [emoji4][emoji846]

 

Awesome review and picture! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you so much for such kind words! I guess I should probably get back to writing this. No better way to spend a birthday then by reliving a wonderful cruise by writing a review!

[kmarie10531]

Your review has made definitely put the Mediterranean on my bucket List . I've never wanted to visit before ( just didn't really want to ) . Yet those pictures are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! !!!

[trippingpara]

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Monday, May 2nd – Adriatic Sea – Sea Day

Thankfully, the hangover demons did not come to visit us this morning. Curse Ben Gentry for creating such a fun atmosphere! And curse those bartenders for making such delicious drinks that just kept appearing in front of me! Since it was a Sea Day, we were in no hurry. We slowly got up and did or normal morning routine. We then headed up to the Lido Deck to visit our favorite breakfast spot…Blue Iguana Cantina! Love those breakfast burritos!! We spent the day in a pretty hazy, lazy mood. We meandered around the ship exploring some more and spent most of the morning on the SportsDeck. That’s one fun place! Our main focus for today was just to relax and go to our Roll Call Meet and Greet.

 

Ya know, I gotta say, this was by far the BEST roll call I’ve ever been on. Thank you Kevin_Mac for kicking it off! It’s been a week and a half since the cruise ended and people are still posting on there! Now that’s dedication!! I was really looking forward to meeting the peeps that were going to be on the couple tours we were leading as well as meeting the peeps that were leading some of the tours that we were on.

 

Our Roll Call Meet & Greet was set to meet at the Red Frog Pub at 2:00 pm. Of course being the Trips, we had to be fashionably late. Which killed us! We are never late. Okay, never say never. It is a very rare occurrence for us to be late. Lady Trip was pacing around mumbling “we’re late, we’re late.” The truth is, I just didn’t want to be the first one there like I usually am. So we arrived around 2:15 (which is VERY late for us!). There was already a pretty decent crowd on hand. We strolled over to the check in desk where a lovely young lady was pointing to the badge that had my Cruise Critic name. “Hi, I’m Trippingpara,” I said. She smiled and introduced herself and her husband. And that was the beginning of our friendship with Surrealistic (if you know them, then you know that they are a fabulous and extremely cute couple!). Little did we know that we would meet some of the best people we’ve had the pleasure of cruising with before! Hats off to my brother from another mother and my brother in arms, Mr. Rosesgt (and his lovely wife, the Rose Queen) and those crazy Canadians CarnieAddict and Lady Carnie to name just a smidgen of the long list of names of fabulous peeps that we met there. A lot of laughs and good times were shared with these guys!

 

Enough yakking, here are the Fun Times with some more ship photos on the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Your review has made definitely put the Mediterranean on my bucket List . I've never wanted to visit before ( just didn't really want to ) . Yet those pictures are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! !!!

 

Thank you so much! Do yourself a favor and go to the Med. You will not regret it all at!!! Beautiful scenery coupled with beautiful people. You can't beat it!

[trippingpara]

The Havana Bar area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Sports Square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[inco]

By my count there are still lots more pictures to post here. Taking days off and not posting after a cruise? Hmm - jet lag or lack of cruise fever?

[trippingpara]

By my count there are still lots more pictures to post here. Taking days off and not posting after a cruise? Hmm - jet lag or lack of cruise fever?

 

I do apologize my friend. It is a case of 3 weeks off of work while leading 2 major projects finally catching up to me! I saw be posting more this weekend (in between bouts of working of course!)

[inco]

Projects - you are letting that interfere with our enjoyment of your hard picture taking work. Jeepers something else getting in the way - priorities Mr. T.

 

Being retired has it's advantages - right? Oh Wait, maybe you aren't. Well in that case time management skills need an updating. You have hundreds, maybe thousands, of cruise fanatics hanging mid air and waiting for your pictures. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Those projects - well I suppose they do need attention and we can tolerate.

Then again, if you ignore them, it could lead to unlimited amount of free time for picture posting and maybe even more cruising. :D:D

[trippingpara]

Projects - you are letting that interfere with our enjoyment of your hard picture taking work. Jeepers something else getting in the way - priorities Mr. T.

 

Being retired has it's advantages - right? Oh Wait, maybe you aren't. Well in that case time management skills need an updating. You have hundreds, maybe thousands, of cruise fanatics hanging mid air and waiting for your pictures. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Those projects - well I suppose they do need attention and we can tolerate.

Then again, if you ignore them, it could lead to unlimited amount of free time for picture posting and maybe even more cruising. :D:D

 

LOL, I'll see what I can do about that work thing! I'm currently trying weed through the 638 photos of Dubrovnik to find some good ones to upload here. I promise to be posting some more a bit later today. I will then start working diligently on my time management skills. Lord knows if I don't keep these projects in line, I'll end up with more time on my hands than I know what to do with!! :eek:

[trippingpara]

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Tuesday, May 3rd – Dubrovnik, Croatia

The harmonious sounds of Volbeat gently woke us up. The only problem is the fact that we could have used several more hours of sleep! But, we were pulling into Dubrovnik harbor better known as Graz Harbor. Our plan for today was a very simple one…nothing! I had pre-purchased the Dubrovnik City Card which got us into the city walls, numerous museums and free bus passes for the day. It worked out beautifully for us. It was only a couple kunas more than the city walls alone were and we didn’t have to worry about finding an ATM to pull out any kunas (the local currency in Croatia) just to gain entry to the walls.

 

After we completed our morning routine, we headed up to the Lido Deck for some breakfast. We were now firmly entrenched into our old habit of the Blue Iguana for their breakfast burritos. Yummy-yum-yum!! We then tried to head down to Deck 0 to exit the ship. Except they blocked off our exit and forced us to head up not down. After getting multiple instructions (all different) from different Carnival entertainment peeps, I finally tore into a gentleman from Jamaica named Orlando. He pleasantly told us that they haven’t given clearance yet, thus the elevators won’t go down to Deck 0. Oh. Okay. Orlando had an excellent manner about him that instantly calmed me down. Its not that I was mad per se, more frustrated that nobody seemed to know what was going on. I understand that this was their first official port of call and there were still some bugs that needed to be worked out. A minute later we got the clearance and headed down to the gangway. What do you know, we were the first ones off! I guess we were a little overly anxious to see Dubrovnik. So we were the first Carnival Vista passengers to set foot in Dubrovnik! Ok, so maybe it really wasn’t that big of a deal but we were excited about it. It’s the simple things for us!

 

Once we got our photos taken we grabbed a cab to Pile Gate. Carnival offered shuttles to the gate but you had to wait for the shuttle bus (full size bus) to fill up before they left and since it was so early, a lot of the passengers still hadn’t disembarked from the ship. Being impatient, the cab won out. A few minutes later, we arrived at Pile Gate. We jotted over to the nearby Tourist Center to pick up our Dubrovnik Card (you can order it online but you still have to pick them up in person). We then entered the ancient medieval city and began our climb up the stairs to the impressive city walls. For all of you Game of Thrones fans, Dubrovnik is Kings Landings. Now that I’ve been there, it’s cool to watch the series because we can now recognize areas of the city. Again, it’s the simple things! We spent a couple hours walking along the city walls taking hundreds of photos. The city is amazing and beautiful!

 

Pulling into Graz Harbor

 

 

Welcome to Dubrovnik!

 

 

 

 

"Hrvatska" - Croatian for Croatia!

 

 

Pile Gate

 

 

A closer view of Pile Gate with a photobombing pigeon

 

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[trippingpara]

A view of the city walls as you approached from Graz Harbor

 

 

The famous Stradun or Placa Street - before all of the crowds got there

 

 

The Croatian flag

 

 

Looking down on the Stradun from the top of Pile Gate

 

 

Looking back over Pile Gate to the main drop off area outside the walls

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

My incredible soulmate, Lady Trip

 

 

Looking over at Tower Lovrijenac

 

 

Workers are still working on rebuilding the ancient city. Some of it has just fallen into disrepair while some of it is from the destruction of from the Serbian shelling during the Homeland War of 1991-1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, walking the city walls are not for those that have mobility issues

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Your typical Croatian basketball/soccer field!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me taking a photo of Lady Trip taking a photo of...

 

 

...me taking a photo of...haven't we been through this already?

 

 

Yeah, that looks safe!

 

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