costa victoria 24th nov part 3.

[seabourndt]

nov 25th.

today we arec arriving in naples, not until 1pm though. so i decided to go to lunch early in the fantasia restaurant. had a table to myself by the window. bean soup and mussels, plaice and small veg, to start with the service was quick. but as the restaurant got crowded the service got slower. i had ordered a dessert but i couild see i would never get it. so i left as my excursion left at 1.15pm. made my way to the corcorde plaza to find the guide. we found our way to the bus which was small due to the smal number of english onboard. so they put some french with us. we stopped in the town where we visited a sort of jewellery shop where they had broches that were hand made but they were very expensive. after a short while we had a while to lokm round the shops. there were a few people that kept pestering people to buy things but not too bad. then off on the tour of pompei i was surprised how big the place was, it was very interesting there. i got talking to a few others who it turned out were travel agents. an american couple had 3 children with them. 2 were a right handful with no interest in the ruins and the very young girl. all she did the whole time was cry, it was very hard to hear the tour guide talk at some points due the crying. the walking tour of the ruins was quite long but i really enjoyed it. we returned back to the town before returning to our ship. i had to buy another phonecard as the 2 i bought in england would'nt work in italy. the one i bought was only for use in italy, as my mum was out i would have to wait until we returned to italy to use it. there was a shop with every postcard of every ship called at naples. i thought they were for sale but they were the owners own private collection. i found the queue to get back on board the ship very long. i found out later why it took so long to get on board the ship. this was because costa did not take pictures of passengers for their cruise card. so we had to show a passport as well as the cruise card. it was lucky i had ny passport with me, as i thought it was for non e.c passengers. after 45mins i8 got back on board ship. tonight i had the 1st sitting for dinner, i had to wait while they found me a table. first i had one for 6 all to myself then put me with the man i had met on the tour. there was no tap water as on other ships. but one had to buy bottled mineral water. had mussels,onion soup,swordfish which was lovely, and sundae and sambuca which was great too. had a look at the pictures taken getting on ship, it took ages finding them. they were not too expensive 8euros for the smaller ones. then went to the show, all the shows were fantastic, much better than the last time i was on thios ship 8 years ago. had a cigar in club near atrium with a margurita.

 

friday 26th nov.

today we were in malta or would be at lunchtime. had breakfast in fantasia rest today. was sat with a german couple who ignored me the whole time, i'd rather sit on my own. had ommlette which was nice. sat out balcony afterwards. changed monry at reception and got s0me stamps for my postcards. although we were in malta today these would not go untuil we arrived in tunisia. i had a buffet lunch on deck which was very nice. by this time we had arrived in malta. as i had been to malta before and did the walking tour wanted to do my own thing. since finding out that "POPEYE" was filmed there i wanted to see the village. unfortunatly it was on the other side of the island. i asked if a bus was an option was told no as you had to get 2 buses. so i agreed to hire a taxi for a 2 hour tour 48euros not cheap. it took 40mins to get there. had around an hour to have a look around. the lady at the entrance said i could have gone by bus as most of the peopple there had done. i saw quite a bit there, not much to buy in the souvenir shop, very little popeye stuff. no dvds of the film that i found a bit odd. the taxi dropped me off in the town. i made my way to the harbour. there was "COSTA MARINA" and the "NEW FLAMENCO" she was originally the spiruit of london. there was a duty free shop in the port, which you had to go through to get back on the ship. i showered and washed as there was the captain's cocktail party. i gotb the feeling i was overdressed as it was suposed to be a formal occosion. i noticed a lot of people did not even have a jacket or tie on. the couple in front of me, german's i think stared at me, i still don't know why. had a piture taken of me no captain until later on. usually you get a picture taken with the captain. had some champagne and some snacks.

dinner was at 7.15pm. i was expectuing my friend to be there. as they were doing fdilming for the dvd of my cruise. so i gave them my table number. it was a bit of a let down as i was all dressed up, and sitting on my own.

i had a letter in my cabin telling me alitalia was on strike the day i got off the ship. so my flight had been cancelled and made later on. this was not good. it was bad enough having to go 2 and a half hours on a coach for the flight back from milan. if my travel agent had told me i could have flown from genoa if i had taken gatwick instead of heathrow but he did'nt.