Day 17: Athens

I know I said just last night that I was not a fan of Athens, and I guess I’m still not (like Rome, I consider my maximum tolerance of the city to be one day), but, wow, what a great time we had there today. It helped a great deal that the weather could not have been better. It was sunny and warm (not hot) with low humidity. Perfect!

But this was not an alarm clock day; we decided we would sleep until we woke up naturally. For me that was around 7:30am and I went down to breakfast in the Windows dining room. G slept in a little later, so I sat with him in Raffles Buffet while he had his breakfast. It was after 10am when we finally walked off the ship, thinking we might take the HOHO bus today that we had taken last time. But instead of a city tour, we really just wanted to climb the Acropolis and tour the Parthenon. The last time we were in Athens, there were protests taking place and our day was cut considerably short as they wanted all cruise passengers out of the city before they started. Though we had climbed Mars Hill next to the Acropolis, the site where the apostle Paul had preached to Athenians, we did not have time to climb the Acropolis. Today was the day. 

In the interest of time, we hired a taxi to take us from the port city of Piraeus to Athens, about 30 minutes away. Though it was a Sunday, the good weather had everyone out and traffic was fierce. Our driver Nikolas (he said to ask for Nik the Greek if we got separated, like that would really narrow it down) stopped at a couple of overlooks on the way. We saw the basketball venue from the 2004 Olympics (I texted a pic to the boys) and the swimming/karate and soccer venues. 

When we arrived at the Acropolis, we discovered that, because it was the first Sunday of the month, it was a free day, saving us the €15 admission. The good news is it was a free day. The bad news is it was a free day. First we had to navigate through a race around the bottom of the Acropolis promoting breastfeeding (I wondered why everyone there was pushing a stroller or wearing a baby) just to get to the ticket booths for the Acropolis. Once we had these free tickets, we had to pass through visual security only and start the climb to the top. The place was packed. It’s a bit tricky climbing up- the marble steps are polished to a slippery sheen by centuries of foot traffic, and the rest of the path is very rocky and uneven- but if someone fell they would be propped up by the people all around them. 

We first saw the Theater of Dionysus, offering expansive views of Athens and the Mediterranean Sea beyond.  

  

Theater of Dionysus where Sophocles’ plays were performed. 

We continued to climb higher, and the mass of people increased. As we climbed the steps up to the Propylaea, it was rough going until we were near the top, where wooden steps with handrails had been constructed over the original marble steps. The Prophlaea was built around 430BC, just after the Parthenon was finished and served as a grand entrance gate to the Acropolis. It was after we passed through this point and had our first up close view of the Parthenon that I experienced one of those ‘OMG I can’t believe I’m actually here!’ moments like I had when I first saw the moai at the quarry of Rano Raraku on Easter Island or Mt. Opunohu on Bora Bora or, frankly, every time I see Sydney Harbour. These are the places that take my breath away (and not because I had just finished climbing up that mountain!). 

The Parthenon, 2500 years old and the largest temple of the ancient world. 

The crowds on the Acropolis

We circled around the Parthenon to see another major ruin of the Acropolis, the Erechtheion. Legend says this was the spot where Athena and Poseidon fought for naming rights to the city (guess who won!). Attached to the Erechtheion is the Porch of the Caryatids, where six statues of ladies based on models from Karyes, known for their upright posture, support the roof. 

The Erechtheion, a temple for the veneration of ancient gods. 


The Porch of the Caryatids. Five of these are reconstructions; the originals are in the Acropolis Museum.  

We took some time to read the signage boards about the Parthenon restoration project that had been started in 1976 and was still ongoing. All around the Parthenon were pieces of it that had been deconstructed and cataloged to be re-assembled eventually like a jigsaw puzzle. Most pieces will be re-used, but some are being replaced by marble mined from the same quarry used 2500 years ago (!!) to build the Parthenon. 

We joked that the builders didn’t follow the instruction manual and had extra parts left over, but these are actually cataloged pieces that are part of the Parthenon’s renovation, started in 1976. Like pieces of a puzzle, they will eventually be put back in their correct positions. 

It was time to make our way back down the Acropolis, and I wasn’t looking forward to this at all. Those steps are slippery and uneven and the crowds made them even more of a caution. But while we had faced people climbing down all the way on our ascent, we passed almost no one on our descent, allowing the crowd to fill the entire width of the steps. Once we reached the bottom, we saw why. The line at the bottom was hours long now, as people were being held there until the congestion at the top had abated. 

Squeezing through the Propylaea Gate on the way down

I’m so glad I made the climb. I don’t need to make it again. If we ever return, we will spend the day at the new Acropolis Museum to gain a greater appreciation for what we saw with substantially less effort. 

Nik the Greek swung us by the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch on the way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard. The crowds were huge there, too, but we had a front row view the last time we were here and gotten great photos then (click on the Athens link in my blog to see them). Today we just wanted a few photos of the Evzone and got them after the crowd dispersed a little. 

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier


Inspection time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of Parliament. 

Every part of the Greek Evzone guard uniform has historical significance. For example, there are exactly 400 pleats in the kilt (fustanella) representing the 400 years the Greek endured under Ottoman rule. 

We were sightseeinged-out then, and returned to the port. I sat with G while he had a beer in the terminal, which had barely decent enough WiFi that I could upload a few photos to this post…at least until my battery pooped out. Once back on the ship, we showered and were at dinner in the Windows dining room when it opened at 5:30pm. The Norwegian Spirit is continuing to impress us. Some of the food items that are available every night are Most Traveled Guest luncheon quality on Princess. The service is incredible and friendly. Wait until you see the menus (which I won’t likely post until we are in Hawaii). It’s nearly impossible to choose, and our waiter Rico often brings us two different things when we can’t. 

Another thing I keep forgetting to mention…we have live music accompanying every dinner. It’s been either a guitarist or pianist playing quiet background music every night. I haven’t seen that since we were on Celebrity years ago. Again, I don’t know if these things are unique to this ship or are fleetwide on NCL, but we are soooo happy we booked this cruise on a whim and it’s turning out to be the high point of our season. 

The major entertainment tonight was The Voice UK finalist vocalist Leanne Jarvis performing in the Stardust Theater. We sat on the upper level in the ‘just in case’ seats, but she was fantastic. The sound quality is much better up there, and, though it wouldn’t be my first choice of seating area for a production show (side views), it’s perfect for a vocalist. 

We followed our habit of stopping in the Raffles Buffet afterward for G to get ice cream and me to get a crepe. I’m addicted to those things (I had strawberry tonight). There is a big toga party tonight, but we have to skip it. We still have over a week of port days in a row facing us, and we need to get our sleep. 

Day 16: Mykonos, Greece

My friend Jenny texted me today that she was missing seeing photos in my posts. I understand...I miss posting them, and already have over 200 favorite photos to upload. But uploading photos in volume requires three things: high speed internet, adequate battery life and time, and I rarely have any one of these let alone all of them simultaneously. However, we had a late departure from Mykonos tonight, and we still have a weak LTE signal coming from some Greek island. My battery is down to 6%, but that was enough to upload just four photos to a draft post. I’ll recharge the battery enough to write the post before I go to sleep tonight, and publish the whole thing tomorrow morning from Athens. 

Have I mentioned that I love Greece (Athens excepted)?  I know I have, but have I mentioned it lately? We booked this cruise to return to some of our favorite Mediterranean ports on the islands of Greece, and we were thrilled to have sunshine today for our first stop of the cruise, Mykonos. When we were in Mykonos last time, it was bitterly cold and grey and windy. It was still very windy (the Norwegian Spirit is doing a major list to starboard right now), but only a little chilly today, and it was wonderful to see Mykonos in a better light. 

It didn’t hurt that we were able to sleep in this morning. We had been up rather late last evening, and moved clocks an hour ahead to boot. I didn’t finish writing yesterday’s blog post until almost 2am, so it’s not a surprise that it was nearly 10am when we went to breakfast in the Windows dining room. The breakfast menu there appears to not change from day to day, but that’s fine. With its two kinds of eggs Benedict, pancakes, French toast, waffles, eggs all ways, omelets made to order, scotch kippers, biscuits and gravy and…well, there is no shortage of breakfast options.

Armand told us today that Windows dining room is only open for lunch on port days when the ship bass late arrival (such as today, when we arrived in Mykonos at noon). However, today we ate breakfast so late that we didn’t need lunch at noon. 

We went up to the Galaxy of the Stars lounge at the top front of the ship to watch our arrival into Mykonos. Even if we had not been able to see the Greek flags taut in the wind, we would have known it was windy from the 20 minutes of thruster action that were required to get the Norwegian Spirit against the pier. We let the first mass of passengers get off the ship before we put on jackets and walked off ourselves. It was definitely chilly in the shade on the water but very comfortable in the sun. NCL had arranged free shuttle buses to take us into town, or we could have taken the seabus boat for €2 each way, but it was too windy to want to be on the boat. Even the harbor had white caps!  In fact, we had really wanted to take a boat to the nearby island of Delos, the birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis in Greek mythology, but the shore excursions manager told us it would be a very rough boat ride. 

Instead, we spent the afternoon just walking around Mykonos town, revisiting places we had seen two years ago in a much better light (literally). We stopped in to the tiny chapel of Agios Nikolaos on the waterfront, and I continued my candle lighting mission. Just like with urinary euros, we don’t go anywhere without a few candle lighting euros in our pockets. We walked through the scenic Little Venice area, where wealthy merchants built colorful homes on the waterfront, wandered the very narrow stone paths between shops and restaurants, and saw the only Catholic Church on the island(there are 400 small Greek Orthodox chapels). 

The narrow street and coastal homes of Little Venice.

Finally, we reached the five windmills for which Mykonos is known along a high ridge called Kato Myloi. These windmills used Mykonos’ notorious winds to grind grain for the merchant ships that stopped at the island. 

Kato Myloi

We considered having a late lunch/ early dinner along the waterfront but we have such a perfect table for dinner in the Windows dining room that we don’t want to lose it. Instead we took the free shuttle bus back to the port and reboarded the ship about 5pm, giving us just enough time to get to dinner at 5:30pm. Rico and Derek took great care of us. When I couldn’t decide betweentwo different fish entrees, Rico suggested the almond crusted trout and it was delicious. G is thrilled to have a New York strip steak always available and tonight he had slices of whole roasted sirloin. We were so wrong when we thought the food would be substandard in the free dining rooms. Instead, it rivals the best food we’ve ever had on a cruise- HAL’s Nieuw Amsterdam four years ago or our Celebrity cruises of 15 to 20 years ago.

We skipped dessert in the dining room to go to the Stardust Theater for the 7:30pm performance by Beatles tribute band Moondog Beatles. This was fun but kind of wild; the four musicians are Italian and when they sing they sound like the Beatles but when they talk it’s in heavily accented English.  We sat further back in the middle of the theater tonight, and the sound was considerably better but the seating was horrible. There was no leg room and the seats sit extremely low. We have heard that this ship, because it was built for Asian cruisers, had some lower seats and handrails and, at least in the theater, that’s very true. 

We went up to Raffles Buffet afterward for dessert and coffee. Ever since I discovered they do made to order crepes up there every night (very non-vegan), these things call to me. And G loves all the desserts, which taste even better than they look. I still don’t like how dark the Buffet is in the evenings, but, darn, the food is amazing. 

As we sat there, we had a cellular signal from some island we were passing, and enjoyed some texting with friends at home. Our opportunities to do that are going to soon disappear because of the time difference between where we are and home, so it’s nice to do it while we can. And now we are in the cabin, with G mindlessly and endlessly changing TV channels trying to find something (anything) worth watching. As much as we love the Norwegian Spirit, we very much miss the Sapphire Princess’ on demand TV!!! 

Day 15: At Sea

We had the best night’s sleep we’ve enjoyed…well, I was going to say “since we were home”, but sleep was fairly elusive that last week at home, so I’ll just say it was the best sleep we’ve had in a long time. The mattress is perfect for both of us (I’m not quite sure how NCL managed that), and the sheets are not so slippery that they are discombobulated when we awake. Superb!  

My hand washed slacks and shirt were fully dry by this morning. What a system!

Breakfast hours in the Windows dining room today were from 8am to 10am, so we didn’t feel rushed.  G left the cabin before I did and the nice thing that NCL does is scan our ship’s card before we are seated, so that they were able to tell me, after they scanned my card, exactly where G was seated (and the waiter taking me to the table was able to address me by name, asking me “Mrs. Fish, how did you enjoy your first day on the Norwegian Spirit?” Royal Caribbean has a similar system and it leaves a nice impression. 

Our waiter at breakfast was Armand from Albania, and when I tell you we’ve already completed one of NCL’s cruise hero cards on him (indicating stellar performance that made a difference in one’s cruise), you’ll know we had the friendliest service imaginable. G had the eggs Benedict (and said they were the best he’s ever had on a cruise ship,  very fresh and soft) and I had several kinds of fruit (again, the presentation was beautiful) and oatmeal with soy milk. 

We were determined to cover the ship today, top to bottom, forward to aft, to figure out where everything is located. On the passenger cabin decks, the carpet is shades of blue with thousands of little fish swimming in the same direction on it and all we have to remember is that the fish always swim toward the front of the ship. (We call walking to the back of the ship, “swimming upstream”). On the public spaces deck, it’s a little trickier, but I’m quite proud that, by tonight, we knew exactly which way to go to get to every venue, and, most importantly, which way to turn after we get off an elevator. My ship map is nearly dog-eared already, but can probably be retired tomorrow. 

It was actually kind of fun for us to explore together, and it was also very rare for us to spend an entire sea day together. We spent a lot of time talking with fellow cruisers that G had already met yesterday. I have no idea how he does that. 

It a truly stunning moment, we were walking down the curving staircase in the atrium and I heard someone ask, “Are you Pescado?” I. Was. Gobsmacked. And that’s how we met blog reader Maria and her husband Allen and we stood right there and talked for the longest time (and eventually our husbands were carrying on their own conversation and Maria said that Allen didn’t usually do that and I said G always did (he could talk to a wall)). They travel at least as much as we do, and have been to many more places than we have, and she blogs too (Maria, don’t forget to send me a link to your blog if you haven’t by the time you read this). She had been surprised when she read that we were going to be on this ship at the same time they were, and recognized G from his photos in my blog. She and her husband are two of the more than 25% of passengers who are doing B2B cruises on this ship. And she told me I look much younger in person so naturally she is my new BFF. ;-) 

One of the places we couldn’t wait to see was the bridge viewing room. This is an a small area, a museum of sorts, that is down a small circular stairway below the Galaxy of the Stars lounge at the very front of the ship. This room contains lots of memorabilia and photos of the ship being built at a shipyard in Germany. On its walls are the plaques that are gifted the ship when it makes its maiden calls at ports all around the world. And one entire wall is a window looking into the bridge (and at the view of the sea beyond the bridge, basically the bridge webcam view).  I suppose for the bridge officers it’s a bit like working in a fishbowl, but it’s a rather unique opportunity for passengers to see the bridge in action. 

We returned to the Windows dining room for lunch (I had salad and a different kind of shrimp pasta than yesterday). We continue to be amazed by the menus, the food and and presentation, but found out today that there are just two different dining room lunch menus and they alternate.  If I’m still not sure if the dining room will be open for lunch on port days but, with only port days remaining on this cruise, I’ll have plenty of opportunity to find out. 

The afternoon was spent out and about much like the morning had been. Frankly, we stopped walking around today only when we sat down during our meals. We found a restaurant called the Garden Room that has the same menu as the Windows dining room (they share a galley), but with a more casual  atmosphere (shorts are fine at dinner). That’s a nice offering but it’s not for us. It’s a little too crowded and noisy; we prefer the more formal dining experience and the ambience of the Windows dining room. 

And speaking of formal, tonight was the closest thing NCL has to a formal night. It’s called Norwegian’s Night Out, and we did see one man (not my husband) in a tuxedo. Really, it was an ‘anything goes’ experience. I wore my formal outfit, G dressed in black pants and a black collared shirt and we fit in fine. We did have our photo taken with the captain, quite a handsome guy. They get younger every year, don’t they, much like doctors?

We are only going to eat at one specialty restaurant this cruise, and booked the steakhouse (Cagneys) for 8pm tonight. It was an a la carte menu for us, since we didn’t get it for free as a promotional offering or loyalty perk. I would put it on par with the Crown Grill on Princess. I was able to have a wonderful seafood platter in lieu of a steak; G had a filet mignon and we were both very pleased. 

The first production show of the cruise was performed tonight, called World Beat. Parts of it were excellent, other parts were good. The African drumming music (which I love, and have hours worth on my iPhone) was a favorite, as was the Greek dancing. It’s hard for me to compare it to Princess. It was superior to what’s performed on the Pacific Princess but less impressive than what is shown on a larger Princess ship (and, I’m sure, the largest NCL ships). The ability to provide a higher quality of production show with more set changes and costume changes is one advantage of larger ships. The sound in the Stardust Theater still bothers me. We may sit in a different area next time to see if it’s better. 

We move clocks ahead an hour overnight (to 7 hours ahead of EDT), but, thankfully, don’t arrive in Mykonos, Greece until noon tomorrow, and stay until 8pm. You know that’s my favorite kind of cruise schedule!

A Greek islands cruise on a beautiful ship with excellent food and a friendly crew. 

Life is soooo good. :-)

Day 14: Embarkation on the Norwegian Spirit

It’s just 1 pm and we are seated in the Windows Dining Room on the Norwegian Spirit. So far, we love the ship. Our cabin is perfect, the shower is huge, the lunch menu is amazing and the crew is very friendly. It’s fun to come on a cruise expecting nothing and knowing even less. 

Oh, and if you been waiting with bated breath for this season’s disaster...I think we got it out of the way early (at least I hope so!). We are fine, just a little worse for wear when our hotel room flooded this morning. 

I’ll fill you in, finish writing about our day and publish an update from Mykonos in two days. 

Thanks for your patience!

It is much later on embarkation day. We are still learning our way around the ship but are fairly settled in our cabin. I think we’ll be very happy here for the next nine days.  But it’s been a busy few days, and we are tired. Tomorrow is one of those sea days that we are really looking forward to. 

We fell asleep early last night at the Hotel Traiano, but I forgot to silence my phone, and we were awakened by text notifications and calls received from home about 1:30am (we don’t have that problem when we’re on a ship, because our phones are in Airplane Mode), and never did really fall back asleep. At 3am I was on Amazon ordering a care package to be delivered to one of the twins older sisters who is in her first year at the US Air Force Academy (we’re just a little proud of her!!).  This ability to spend money at night while in bed is one of the most dangerous parts of the internet, isn’t it?

Around 7am, G gave up trying to sleep, and went to take a shower and that is when things went horribly awry. I was in bed, oblivious to the fact that all his shower water was draining onto the tile floor of the bathroom and bedroom. I heard him shut off the shower and let out a yell, and I saw a flood of water soaking anything that was sitting on the floor. Luckily our large suitcases were still closed and upright, and the wheels prevented the water from reaching our clothes, but our backpacks, shoes, socks and the jackets we had hung on the back of a chair were soaked. And the bedspread had soaked up so much water we couldn’t lift it up, so it continued to absorb more and get heavier. 

Making the situation even more difficult was that we couldn’t walk across the slick tile floor without slipping and falling, so we couldn’t even dress and notify the hotel’s management. That’s when we devised a quick plan…I would stay on the floor and mop up water using the two thin bath towels and two thinner hand towels, then throw the soaked towels to G. He would stay in the bathroom and wring the towels out in the sink, and throw the towels back to me. And so we did, for over an hour, with him repeatedly warning me not to touch anything electrical (though the electrical cords were sitting on the floor covered with water).

We had no idea how this had happened or if we were the only ones affected. Our first thought was that the hard rain we had overnight was causing sewers to back up, but, thankfully, the water was clean. Our second concern was that it was flooding the room below ours and I half expected our floor to collapse down into that room. 

After about 45 minutes of mopping and wringing, G asked if we were making progress, and I told him that the whitecaps had receded, but a large puddle still covered most of the room. We finally called it done when the only puddle remaining was under the bed, and the rest of the floor, though still wet, had  no standing water. To add insult to injury, I couldn’t risk taking a shower, lest we have a repeat so I was simultaneously wet and cold and dirty.  What a way to start a day!

We dressed in our wet socks and shoes and went down to notify the reception desk of our catastrophe and then eat breakfast (and the only good part of the morning was that they offered decaf cappuccino, which most of Italy has never heard of). 

We gathered up our wet backpacks and jackets and relatively dry suitcases and went down to the lobby to take the 10am shuttle to the port. Our original plan was to go over at 11am but there was no point in sitting in the mess that was our room. We had been very happy with the room and the hotel until the flood, but it was hard to remember that afterward. Still, we were counting our blessings. The water had been clean, no electronics were ruined and we didn’t slip and fall, proving that no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse (and just because they could’ve worse doesn’t mean they weren’t bad). 

The Norwegian Spirit used a brand new terminal in the port of Civitavecchia for check ins. It was just like an airport terminal, very flash, but they apparently spent no money on WiFi. I had counted on our one day in Civitavecchia to update all my apps, but that didn’t happen either at the Hotel Traiano or in the cruise terminal. Luckily, none of my financial apps need to be updated. We were given boarding group 5, and waited for about an hour before we were checked in. We were on the ship by noon. Our cabin was immediately ready, though some were not available until 2pm. We dropped off our carry on bags, and I unpacked and put away toiletries and the over the door shoe rack and we went to Windows dining room for lunch. 

Our cabin is near the top of the ship in the front; Windows is in the back of the ship on a lower deck. Along the way we were getting our first look at the ship, and it is really beautiful. The Norwegian Spirit was built in Germany in 1996 for an Asian cruise line, and was called the SuperStar Leo, so, just as the Pacific Princess is not like other Princess ships, the Norwegian Spirit has no resemblance to other NCL ships. And, in my opinion, that’s not a bad thing. It does similar itineraries to those the Pacific Princess does, ports where the larger ships can’t always go. 

The atrium is like those on Royal Caribbean ships, open from decks 7 to 12, with waterfalls and panoramic elevators. There are multiple dining rooms around the ship, many of which are considered specialty restaurants and so are extra cost, but there are numerous ways, through booking promotions and loyalty status, to dine at those restaurants for free. 

We had opted to book our cabin with no promotions, such as free specialty dining, excursion discounts or a drink package, and in doing that saved a few hundred dollars per person on our cruise fare, but I had feared that the experience in the no charge Windows dining room might be sub-par. Au contraire!  We were blown away by the lunch menu and the presentation and taste of the items we chose. (I am taking photos of all menus and many food items and will post them eventually). I had a Greek salad minus the feta cheese (no problem getting that) and shrimp and penne arrabiata (because you know I’m a fan). Our service was extremely professional and friendly and we loved the table for two by large, floor to ceiling windows (sure, the view right then was of the port terminal, but still…). 

Embarkation day lunch menu

We continued exploring the ship again after lunch, looking exactly like the newbies that we are. The main pool area is very pretty with four separate hot tubs and lots of loungers, and there is another kid-themed pool on the back of the ship with a fifth hot tub and lots of loungers in an amphitheater layout so parents can keep an eye on their kids (not that there are many on this cruise). 

Kids pool area on the back of the ship

The only area that didn’t wow me was Raffles buffet, not because of the food but because of the chaos there, but it was embarkation day afternoon, and that’s kind of inevitable. I was impressed by the made to order stir fry and pasta, and an entire station of vegetarian food options including my favorite dal.

Muster drill took place on the Promenade Deck, never my favorite spot, but, really, not all that much different than our muster on the Sapphire Princess last cruise, where we had to stand in the Photo Gallery for its duration. We didn’t have to wear, or even bring our life jackets and the instructions were only given in English, which was a plus. I remember Celebrity Cruises muster drills on ships in Europe from 15 to 20 years ago. We wore the life jackets, stood outside on the Promenade Deck and the instructions were completed in about five different languages. Those were tough!

We eventually made our way back our cabin where we found our two large suitcases and unpacked the items we might need on this cruise. It’s hard to top a Princess inside cabin for storage, but this cabin comes very close. The inside cabin on our only previous NCL cruise was postage stamp sized, and that, in large part, is what turned us off to the cruise line (though the insurance convention that was held on the ship that cruise didn’t help). But this cabin is roomier than a standard Princess inside cabin and actually has a small loveseat which we are not very used to having but which does a great job holding those clothes that are clean enough to wear again. 

But where this cabin has Princess beat by a mile is the size of the bathroom, the size of the shower (almost as large as ours at home and with sliding shower doors(!!!!!)) and a shower wand. There are two large shelves for storage in the shower and the four shelves around the sink. Very, VERY nice!! And, I must add, my first shower on board was especially appreciated after train rides to and from Rome, an afternoon in that city and crawling around on hands and knees mopping up a flooded hotel room, all of which had occurred since my last shower. 

We went to dinner right at 5:30pm in the no extra charge Windows dining room (so named because of the three extra large palladium windows across the back of the dining room overlooking the wake) and were seated at a wonderful table for two next to one of the side, floor to ceiling windows. Our waiter and his assistant, Rico and Derek, both from the Philippines, were wonderful and then the maitre d’ (Masir from Jamaica) stopped by to check on us and…well, we will enjoy that table and those waiters for the rest of the cruise, courtesy of Masir. Perfect!  

Again, the menu was incredible, and I had a shrimp and crab cake to start, then a spinach salad minus the bacon, and salmon and quinoa as an entrée. The coffee is really no better than Princess’, but I doctor it up with soy milk and it works. 

Embarkation Day dinner menu

The Welcome Aboard show in the Stardust Theater was the usual variety show with a couple of this cruise’s entertainers doing short sets, the singers and the dancers doing two numbers, and the introduction of the senior officers from the Hotel Department. The Stardust Theater is two stories high and impressive, and the seating is roomy but not especially comfortable (all the seating I’ve sat on so far on this ship is hard as a rock); however, the sound system was horrible. I’ll see if it improves at tomorrow night’s show. If it doesn’t, I’ll be wearing my nighttime earplugs to the shows. 

Before we fell asleep, I washed out the quick dry T-shirt and quick dry pants I’d worn for two days, and hung them up to dry (our stretchy clothesline was the first thing we put up in our cabin). We’ll see if they’re dry in the morning. If they are, I may get by wearing the same clothes all cruise long. 

Hey, we don’t know these people anyway! ;-)

Cruise #2: Eastern Mediterranean and Greek Isles

This cruise is very fast-paced, but, with the exception of Crete, we’ve been to all of the ports in the past, so we can allow ourselves an occasional slow day.  WILL we allow ourselves an occasional slow day?  You'll have to ask my Mr. Motion. ;-)