With our arrival in Valletta, Malta not scheduled until 1pm today, this was another quasi-sea day. Despite that, we were up early and in the Windows dining room when it opened at 8am. I ate lightly, just toast and OJ, because I knew we’d most likely be eating lunch in that dining room when it opened at 11:30am (and we were). We had a busy morning scheduled, and started by swinging by the Shore Excursions desk to see if we had cleared the waitlist on a Naples excursion we’d like to take (no luck).
While we were there (in the atrium), we also stopped by the dining reservations desk to see if there were any openings for Teppanyaki, the Benihana-like hibachi table restaurant. It had been booked solid all cruise long, but- surprise!- there were two cancellations for the seating at 5pm tonight. We booked them, and though that shortened our time in Valletta to just a few hours, we’d been there before and would be again in ten days.
At 10am, Cruise Director Dave (from Mexico, and one of the top five CDs I’ve ever cruised with) held a’Behind the Scenes’ session about the three different departments on the ship. They are exactly the same as on Princess: the Deck Department, the Technical Department and the Hotel Department. Then immediately afterward, the captain, the chief engineerand the hotel director did a Q and A session. Both of these were held in the Galaxy of the Stars Lounge and were extremely well attended.
When this...
...and this are the views from your table at lunch,
Life is good! :-)
As predicted, we did go to lunch in the Windows dining room and watched from our window as the Norwegian Spirit entered Valletta Harbor. The view of the beige stone walls surrounding the city’s old town is unparalleled. Malta really is one of the most unique places to visit in the Med. We went up to the open decks behind the buffet to watch the pier-side arrival activity, and settled into loungers in the sun to wait for the ship to be cleared by the local authorities. The sun was hot and the air temp was just a tad chilly and the combination of the two nearly put us to sleep.
It took a while for the ship to be cleared and it was just after 2pm when we finally walked off the ship. We wanted to be back on board by 4pm to get cleaned up for dinner, and that didn’t leave us much time at all. We simply walked around a bit, and sat at an outdoor café for a beer and Pellegrino (frou frou fizzy water).
The glass elevator to the top of the wall and the old part of the city.
The old warehouse area next to the pier has been converted into restaurants and high end residences.
These are the texts we receive everyday when we take our phones off Airplane Mode as we come into port.
Back on the ship, we got ready for our early dinner. Teppanyaki is a very popular restaurant and we were lucky to be able to enjoy it. The dining charge is $29pp plus a 20% tip, which we felt was worthwhile when compared to the cost of Benihana in Hawaii (because you know we never splurge like that at home).
We are currently listening to live music in the Galaxy Lounge and using the local cellular network to internet wildly before we sail at 9pm. We haven’t had high speed internet access since we were at the Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace Rd. three weeks ago. One day soon, possibly before we fly to Dubai, we are going to have to spend a few hours somewhere that has high enough speed WiFi for us to do the many updates our iDevices need. Luckily, so far none of our financial apps need updating, because it’s always an issue when we are prevented from accessing them until the update is complete.
Also at 9pm tonight is another show by the Beatles Tribute band on board. We have really enjoyed the live musical entertainment on the Norwegian Spirit.
Today’s port of Valletta, as well as Messina, Sicily tomorrow and Naples the day after that will be repeated on our Pacific Princess cruise. We have tentative plans in place, but know that what we don’t see this time around we can get to next cruise. This flexibility is certainly welcome after three busy weeks.