Dubrovnik
We arrived this morning in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a walled city on the Dalmatian coast with colorful buildings, rooftops and people. We planned on waking up at 8 and leaving the ship as soon as it docked at 9am, but since we have no window in our room and Brooke can’t do the math of the 6 hour time difference for an alarm, I woke up at 9:15 and got ready before I woke up the Byington girls. We ate breakfast at the buffet and then jumped on the shuttle to the Old City, which is a beautiful fortified city on a sort of island. The inside was covered in white marble and orange rooftops of all shades. It must have been amazing when it was less commercialized, however, now it is very touristy. We ran into a nice pirate who had 5 different parrots – a Macaw, a Cockatoo, and 3 others – and just put them on us and took our pictures. They were so funny, and I was very surprised when he just threw two small parrots at me and they grabbed onto my arm very tightly. The one on Jessica’s shoulder took her headband off of her head and she was freaking out, but it was hilarious and we got it back, unbroken. The streets wind around through the city walls, with stairways and lanterns all over the place. We stumbled upon a nice little market with local arts and food and bought a few nice items. After that we just wandered around and explored for a little while. We saw some awesome views of the ocean and rocks, it was so beautiful. We got back on the shuttle to the boat, changed into our suits and hit the sun deck for some sun (or clouds) and views of the cove we were docked in. We didn’t get much sun, so my legs are still white as ghosts and my face and arms that were burnt in Venice are still a nice shade of red.
Night at Sea
Last night was the captain’s welcome meal and “party,” so it was a formal night. We are all still jetlagged, so we didn’t want to really get all spruced up, as Brooke put it. They had a champagne fountain and complimentary champagne and mimosas for a bit, and we partook. And we made fools of ourselves on the cruise video giving a toast to the captain. Not in a we had too much to drink way and did something stupid, but in a the camera man was in our face with bright lights and asked us to toast to the captain and we didn’t say the same thing kind of way. Memorable.
We went to dinner and sat with, you guessed it, another couple of newlyweds. They were from outside of Vancouver and were so adorable as well. The woman was Eastern Indian and the man was Canadian, and they had been dating for 10 years, keeping it a secret from her family for 8 years. Crazy, but just adorable.
We made it back to P220 and wanted to pass out, even though it wasn’t even 10pm. However, our night went a little differently. Jessica half changed into her pajamas, but was also half wearing her dress, and was unpacking and organizing, taking over the entry way. I was in my bed with my eyemask as a headband and just looking like a wreck. And Brooke was reading, cuddling with her teddy bear, and wearing her retainer. The picture of contentment on the inside and loserville on the outside. There was a knock at the door and Jessica, being the closest and the only one not in bed, pushed her way through the clothes and shoes blocking the door. She pried the door open and a nice young lad in a tux was on the other side, who invited us to the hot tub to enjoy a nice glass of wine. We accepted, but wondered if he almost regretted it as he looked into the dungeon of girls who had checked in for the night. It was very enjoyable to finally talk to young people who were not married. They were both from Florida and are sophomores at Florida State. And they made me feel far older than I should. Which was not the best feeling the world, but hey, I couldn’t help it.
We went to dinner and sat with, you guessed it, another couple of newlyweds. They were from outside of Vancouver and were so adorable as well. The woman was Eastern Indian and the man was Canadian, and they had been dating for 10 years, keeping it a secret from her family for 8 years. Crazy, but just adorable.
We made it back to P220 and wanted to pass out, even though it wasn’t even 10pm. However, our night went a little differently. Jessica half changed into her pajamas, but was also half wearing her dress, and was unpacking and organizing, taking over the entry way. I was in my bed with my eyemask as a headband and just looking like a wreck. And Brooke was reading, cuddling with her teddy bear, and wearing her retainer. The picture of contentment on the inside and loserville on the outside. There was a knock at the door and Jessica, being the closest and the only one not in bed, pushed her way through the clothes and shoes blocking the door. She pried the door open and a nice young lad in a tux was on the other side, who invited us to the hot tub to enjoy a nice glass of wine. We accepted, but wondered if he almost regretted it as he looked into the dungeon of girls who had checked in for the night. It was very enjoyable to finally talk to young people who were not married. They were both from Florida and are sophomores at Florida State. And they made me feel far older than I should. Which was not the best feeling the world, but hey, I couldn’t help it.
The Crown Princess
I bet you all are wondering about the ship I am calling home for the next month, as you should be. I have been on a cruise before, but this Crown Princess is far more than I could have dreamed of.
First, our room. It is about the size of a Kuhlman Hall dorm room, but more boxy than rectangular. Two beds fold out from the walls, but since we are one woman down, the room feels a little more open. We have managed to shove all of the contents of our over-packed suitcases onto every shelf and hanger available to us. Our steward, Gaetano, I believe takes good care of our room, but it is sometimes overwhelming. Brooke refuses to call him anything but Geotechno though. Not sure why, but it’s amusing. To get to the rest of the ship, we have to walk through an art gallery, where we see new things every day. The art gallery opens up to a three story piazza, with shops, cafés, a library and other sorts of things. There is a “Titanic”-esque staircase as well. We feel fancy when we are walking through there. Every night, we have a choice of two restaurants, the Da Vinci and the Michelangelo. They look the exact same, except the art on the walls is that of each artist. We sit with new people every night, which we like a lot because we are making new friends. Most of them are newlyweds or older retired couples, but they are lots of fun. Anyways, back to the ship.
There are 16 Decks, and we are on Plaza Deck 5, which I think I may have mentioned before, but I’ve been so out of it, I don’t care if I mention it again. The Lido Deck 15 has 2 pools, 4 hot tubs, a buffet, and an area that shows movies at all times during the day called Movies Under the Stars. Beach chairs are lined up like movie theater seats and you can also be in the pool and hot tubs while enjoying movies like Avatar and Under the Tuscan Sun. I haven’t had a chance to watch one yet, but I’m planning on a few of them. There is also a full gym, theatre, casino, a few clubs and restaurants. Something for everyone and as Jessica put it, “Anna can do her puzzles and I can lay out. It’s great for all of us!” :)
However, we are discovering there is too much that we want to do and not enough time. Tonight, for example, there is a hoe-down, Avatar in the theatre, Nine in Movies Under the Stars, a comedy show, Big Band dancing, trivia, etc, etc. How on earth can we possibly choose what we can do when we want to do all of it?!
Meals have been excellent so far; I even tried duck last night as a starter! Very out of character for me, I know, but it was delicious! I’ve had alfredo, spring rolls, all sorts of soups, Moroccan vegetable surprise (not its real name, but that’s what I called it), and wonderful chocolate desserts. I’m making myself hungry…
First, our room. It is about the size of a Kuhlman Hall dorm room, but more boxy than rectangular. Two beds fold out from the walls, but since we are one woman down, the room feels a little more open. We have managed to shove all of the contents of our over-packed suitcases onto every shelf and hanger available to us. Our steward, Gaetano, I believe takes good care of our room, but it is sometimes overwhelming. Brooke refuses to call him anything but Geotechno though. Not sure why, but it’s amusing. To get to the rest of the ship, we have to walk through an art gallery, where we see new things every day. The art gallery opens up to a three story piazza, with shops, cafés, a library and other sorts of things. There is a “Titanic”-esque staircase as well. We feel fancy when we are walking through there. Every night, we have a choice of two restaurants, the Da Vinci and the Michelangelo. They look the exact same, except the art on the walls is that of each artist. We sit with new people every night, which we like a lot because we are making new friends. Most of them are newlyweds or older retired couples, but they are lots of fun. Anyways, back to the ship.
There are 16 Decks, and we are on Plaza Deck 5, which I think I may have mentioned before, but I’ve been so out of it, I don’t care if I mention it again. The Lido Deck 15 has 2 pools, 4 hot tubs, a buffet, and an area that shows movies at all times during the day called Movies Under the Stars. Beach chairs are lined up like movie theater seats and you can also be in the pool and hot tubs while enjoying movies like Avatar and Under the Tuscan Sun. I haven’t had a chance to watch one yet, but I’m planning on a few of them. There is also a full gym, theatre, casino, a few clubs and restaurants. Something for everyone and as Jessica put it, “Anna can do her puzzles and I can lay out. It’s great for all of us!” :)
However, we are discovering there is too much that we want to do and not enough time. Tonight, for example, there is a hoe-down, Avatar in the theatre, Nine in Movies Under the Stars, a comedy show, Big Band dancing, trivia, etc, etc. How on earth can we possibly choose what we can do when we want to do all of it?!
Meals have been excellent so far; I even tried duck last night as a starter! Very out of character for me, I know, but it was delicious! I’ve had alfredo, spring rolls, all sorts of soups, Moroccan vegetable surprise (not its real name, but that’s what I called it), and wonderful chocolate desserts. I’m making myself hungry…
Somewhere Beyond the Sea...
Bon Voyage! We have set sail from Venice and our en route to Dubrovnik, Croatia, but I will catch you up on the happenings of the past 50 hours or so...
Packing the night before a month long cruise is one of the worst ideas possible. Packing the day of the flight is possibly worse.
Brooke and I woke up around 9am Wednesday morning and started shoving our clothes, shoes, and unnessecary things into our bags, believing them to be under the 50 pound weight limit. A few errands and very disgruntled US Bank employees later, we were on our way to the airport. We arrived to CVG one hour before our departure time, believing that to be enough time to get through what I thought was a small-ish airport. We could not have been more wrong. After being rushed through check-in, believing our plane was about to take off, we had to weigh our bags. Brooke weighed in at 56 pounds, and mine, The Hercules (a very fitting name), weighed in at 63 pounds! The man was not happy with me and said I must make it 50 pounds or pay $150 of my precious cruise money to get The Herc there. We both started grabbing and stuffing everything from formal dresses to plastic bags of underwear into any nook and/or cranny of our carry ons. Which reminds me that I must write to Vera Bradley and thank them for making such durable and flexible bags, so for all of you who criticize my addiction to them, they are very practical for situations like this and I refuse to give up on them now! :) Anyways, so we get to the security gate and are trying to force our Veras to zip, and its not happening. They somehow fit into the x-ray machine, but we have to stop every few minutes to gather the Disney Princess socks and teddy bears that have fallen out. We made it to our gate in the nick of time, but not in enough time to claim one of the coveted large overhead bins, so the Veras took up all of our leg room. Brooke and I got to sit next to each other after a nice young gent who was next to me agreed to switch with Brooke. We were finally able to relax and stop sweating, hence vaction mode had begun. Brooke and I experienced complimentary, juice box wine and attemped to sleep, but failed miserably.
After the longest 7 and a half hours of my life, we arrived in Paris. And vacation mode was not actually in place yet. We had an hour to get from one side of the airport to the other, to go through customs, and security again. The man at security thought I spoke French because of my near perfect pronunciation of "bonjour," but when he asked if I had a laptop or camera in my bag and I couldn't understand, he just looked at me like the dumb American I am. Anyways, we got to the gate as they were boarding...again...and this time we got overhead storage so we could stretch our legs a bit. I sat next to and chatted with some honeymooning newlyweds from DC - Danielle and Todd - and it turns out they were on our cruise too, but only until we got to Rome. We found out that we somehow booked a double cruise or something like that and most of the people would be getting off after 12 days.
We landed in Venice a short hour later and claimed our bags and walked out into the fresh Italian air. It felt so nice to be back home, and it felt as if I had never left. The air had such a familiar warmth to it and the language actually didn't seem so foreign any more. We got a taxi and I discovered how much I did not miss their insane driving. We swerved in and out of semis and other crazy Italian cars and Vespas, but made it to the port safely. They took our bags right out of the taxi and right on to the ship and we went to explore the bustling, beautiful city of Venice...on foot...for 6 hours. My feet have never hurt so much, but it was nice to see everything when it was sunny and warm and nice, and when I didn't need a sweatshirt and a winter coat on. We wandered through the maze of sidewalks and colorful street vendors shouting anything to get our attention. We ate lunch on the Grand Canal, right by the Rialto and had caprese and quattro formaggi pizza. I forgot how much I love Italian pizza. I swear I will never eat another kind ever again. We dragged our poor feet and sunburnt lobster faces back to the dock and boarded the Crown Princess. We had a few hours before Jessica was supposed to meet us, and since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours and our feet felt as if someone had beaten them with a baseball bat as Brooke put it, we found our room on the Plaza Deck 5 and passed out. We were suddenly awoken four hours later by our hall staff member, a nice Italian man whose name I cannot remember at the moment, when he knocked on our door to check if we were eating and if Jessica had arrived. It turns out she had, but had been wandering aimlessly around the ship trying to find our room. After we got her settled in, it was time for dinner. We sat with an elderly couple from England who had been married for so long the woman forgot how many years they had been married and another newlywed coupld from Montreal. Each couples' story of how they met nearly had all three of us girls in tears, both of laughter (the Canadian man had been asking the woman out for over 5 years before she agreed to go on a date with him) and of happiness, I guess is the word, for the couples. It was just too cute. And the dessert was to die for - flourless chocolate cake. Yummmm.... :)
We tried exploring the ship a bit, but we were so worn out physically and mentally, we ended up in our room, not able to sleep until 3am. To help pass the time, Brooke and I unpacked and organized our combined 119 pounds of, for lack of a better word, crap in our room. We counted outfits, just to see how many weighed so much, and in this competition Brooke came out the winner with 45 outfits, not including formal wear. I had 25 outfits, so needless to say, we will not be repeating outfits this entire month! Oops... ;)
Our alarm went off far too early at 7am, but we showered and ate breakfast and prepared to show Jessica the sights, smells and sounds of Venice in only two hours. We were wise today and used a water taxi shuttle to Piazza San Marco so we wouldn't waste much time. And we wore much more comfortable shoes. After hitting the major sites and walking through the food market, we got back on the taxi and back to the ship for embarkation.
We sat next to a window for lunch and watched Venice go by and then explored the ship. Brooke and Jessica are currently passed out, and we have a champagne waterfall and formal night tonight, so it should be exciting. I'll write some more about the ship tomorrow and post more pictures, but for now, this will have to do! Arrivederci amici! :)
Packing the night before a month long cruise is one of the worst ideas possible. Packing the day of the flight is possibly worse.
Brooke and I woke up around 9am Wednesday morning and started shoving our clothes, shoes, and unnessecary things into our bags, believing them to be under the 50 pound weight limit. A few errands and very disgruntled US Bank employees later, we were on our way to the airport. We arrived to CVG one hour before our departure time, believing that to be enough time to get through what I thought was a small-ish airport. We could not have been more wrong. After being rushed through check-in, believing our plane was about to take off, we had to weigh our bags. Brooke weighed in at 56 pounds, and mine, The Hercules (a very fitting name), weighed in at 63 pounds! The man was not happy with me and said I must make it 50 pounds or pay $150 of my precious cruise money to get The Herc there. We both started grabbing and stuffing everything from formal dresses to plastic bags of underwear into any nook and/or cranny of our carry ons. Which reminds me that I must write to Vera Bradley and thank them for making such durable and flexible bags, so for all of you who criticize my addiction to them, they are very practical for situations like this and I refuse to give up on them now! :) Anyways, so we get to the security gate and are trying to force our Veras to zip, and its not happening. They somehow fit into the x-ray machine, but we have to stop every few minutes to gather the Disney Princess socks and teddy bears that have fallen out. We made it to our gate in the nick of time, but not in enough time to claim one of the coveted large overhead bins, so the Veras took up all of our leg room. Brooke and I got to sit next to each other after a nice young gent who was next to me agreed to switch with Brooke. We were finally able to relax and stop sweating, hence vaction mode had begun. Brooke and I experienced complimentary, juice box wine and attemped to sleep, but failed miserably.
After the longest 7 and a half hours of my life, we arrived in Paris. And vacation mode was not actually in place yet. We had an hour to get from one side of the airport to the other, to go through customs, and security again. The man at security thought I spoke French because of my near perfect pronunciation of "bonjour," but when he asked if I had a laptop or camera in my bag and I couldn't understand, he just looked at me like the dumb American I am. Anyways, we got to the gate as they were boarding...again...and this time we got overhead storage so we could stretch our legs a bit. I sat next to and chatted with some honeymooning newlyweds from DC - Danielle and Todd - and it turns out they were on our cruise too, but only until we got to Rome. We found out that we somehow booked a double cruise or something like that and most of the people would be getting off after 12 days.
We landed in Venice a short hour later and claimed our bags and walked out into the fresh Italian air. It felt so nice to be back home, and it felt as if I had never left. The air had such a familiar warmth to it and the language actually didn't seem so foreign any more. We got a taxi and I discovered how much I did not miss their insane driving. We swerved in and out of semis and other crazy Italian cars and Vespas, but made it to the port safely. They took our bags right out of the taxi and right on to the ship and we went to explore the bustling, beautiful city of Venice...on foot...for 6 hours. My feet have never hurt so much, but it was nice to see everything when it was sunny and warm and nice, and when I didn't need a sweatshirt and a winter coat on. We wandered through the maze of sidewalks and colorful street vendors shouting anything to get our attention. We ate lunch on the Grand Canal, right by the Rialto and had caprese and quattro formaggi pizza. I forgot how much I love Italian pizza. I swear I will never eat another kind ever again. We dragged our poor feet and sunburnt lobster faces back to the dock and boarded the Crown Princess. We had a few hours before Jessica was supposed to meet us, and since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours and our feet felt as if someone had beaten them with a baseball bat as Brooke put it, we found our room on the Plaza Deck 5 and passed out. We were suddenly awoken four hours later by our hall staff member, a nice Italian man whose name I cannot remember at the moment, when he knocked on our door to check if we were eating and if Jessica had arrived. It turns out she had, but had been wandering aimlessly around the ship trying to find our room. After we got her settled in, it was time for dinner. We sat with an elderly couple from England who had been married for so long the woman forgot how many years they had been married and another newlywed coupld from Montreal. Each couples' story of how they met nearly had all three of us girls in tears, both of laughter (the Canadian man had been asking the woman out for over 5 years before she agreed to go on a date with him) and of happiness, I guess is the word, for the couples. It was just too cute. And the dessert was to die for - flourless chocolate cake. Yummmm.... :)
We tried exploring the ship a bit, but we were so worn out physically and mentally, we ended up in our room, not able to sleep until 3am. To help pass the time, Brooke and I unpacked and organized our combined 119 pounds of, for lack of a better word, crap in our room. We counted outfits, just to see how many weighed so much, and in this competition Brooke came out the winner with 45 outfits, not including formal wear. I had 25 outfits, so needless to say, we will not be repeating outfits this entire month! Oops... ;)
Our alarm went off far too early at 7am, but we showered and ate breakfast and prepared to show Jessica the sights, smells and sounds of Venice in only two hours. We were wise today and used a water taxi shuttle to Piazza San Marco so we wouldn't waste much time. And we wore much more comfortable shoes. After hitting the major sites and walking through the food market, we got back on the taxi and back to the ship for embarkation.
We sat next to a window for lunch and watched Venice go by and then explored the ship. Brooke and Jessica are currently passed out, and we have a champagne waterfall and formal night tonight, so it should be exciting. I'll write some more about the ship tomorrow and post more pictures, but for now, this will have to do! Arrivederci amici! :)
just ran through cvg
Off to a hectic but memorable start! Got to check in as they were closing it. Both of our bags were overweight so our carry-ons are overflowing. Ran to the gate. Played musical seats until we got seats together. Sweating profusely. Bags won't fit in the overheads.... more when we land in Venice. :)
Oh and the people behind us were cracking up as we tried to get situated.
Oh and the people behind us were cracking up as we tried to get situated.
Packing!!
So, here we are, 14 hours before our flight leaves out of CVG...packing. We've had so much time to get everything together and we wait until the last minute to pack for our month long cruise around Europe. Typical Brooke and Anna. And I'm sure Jessica and Colleen are doing the same thing in Boston and NYC...
So here's our itinerary for the next month... It's going to be intense, but I can hardly wait! :)
THU 05/27/10 VENICE, ITALY
FRI 05/28/10 VENICE, ITALY
SAT 05/29/10 DUBROVNIK, CROATIA
SUN 05/30/10 CORFU, GREECE
MON 05/31/10 OLYMPIA, GREECE
TUE 06/01/10 ATHENS, GREECE
WED 06/02/10 MYKONOS, GREECE
THU 06/03/10 EPHESUS, TURKEY
FRI 06/04/10 RHODES, GREECE
SAT 06/05/10 SANTORINI, GREEK ISLE, GREECE
SUN 06/06/10 AT SEA
MON 06/07/10 CAPRI/NAPLES, ITALY
TUE 06/08/10 ROME, ITALY
WED 06/09/10 FLORENCE/PISA, ITALY
THU 06/10/10 GENOA, ITALY
FRI 06/11/10 CANNES, FRANCE
SAT 06/12/10 BARCELONA, SPAIN
SUN 06/13/10 AT SEA
MON 06/14/10 GIBRALTAR, GREAT BRITAIN
TUE 06/15/10 LISBON, PORTUGAL
WED 06/16/10 AT SEA
THU 06/17/10 AT SEA
FRI 06/18/10 DUBLIN, IRELAND
SAT 06/19/10 GREENOCK, GREAT BRITAIN
SUN 06/20/10 AT SEA
MON 06/21/10 PARIS, FRANCE
TUE 06/22/10 BRUSSELS/BRUGES, BELGIUM
WED 06/23/10 LONDON, ENGLAND
Hopefully, I'll be able to update everyday, but if not, I will be sure to fill you in with all the adventures! :) Next time I post, I'll be in Venice! :) Ciao, ciao!
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