Day 6 - At Sea

Today was a good day to kick back and not do a whole lot. We woke about 8 o'clock and headed up to the breakfast buffet.. which seems to be our daily routine. After breakfast we headed out to the deck by the pool to grab some seats for the day. Jen layed out, and I had signed up to be in a volleyball tournament, so I headed to the back deck for that. Another guy and I teamed up and played around 10 games throughout the day.. pretty exhausting! In between games I found time to scale the rock wall they have on the ship. Once 4 o'clock rolled around Jen and another girl went off to play bingo... but unfortunately didn't have any luck. While she tested her luck at bingo I took a dip in the pool and hung out there for a bit.

Once we were all showered and cleaned up we headed out with friends to the ships steak house, so far this has been our favorite meal. We both got filet mignon and mashed potatoes.. for dessert Jen got creme brulee and I tackled another Caesar salad (it was good)! After dinner we head in to the theatre for their "Dance Through the Decades" show. We headed to bed around 1 o'clock.. which we consider early compared to other nights.. time on the ship seems to be a lot different than when we're at home.

Today we tackle Athens...

Day 5 - Sicily

Today the shipped docked in Sicily at the town of Messina. We didn't have any excursions planned for today so we went off on our own. Unlike other stops where we'd arrive sometime in the early morning... this time we rolled in around noon which allowed us time to relax in the morning. After eating lunch on the ship we headed out into Messina to hunt down Italy's version of the Metra. We walked for about 10 minutes and soon stumbled on the dumpy station and trains. After using hand signals to communicate what we wanted we were soon on our way with roundtrip tickets in hand. The train ride to the city we were going to took us an hour and a half. We got to our destination around 3:45 and grabbed a cab into the mountains to the town of Toarmina, where we were told was some good shopping.

We arrived in Toarmina around 4:00 and unfortunately only had about 45 minutes before we needed to catch a cab back to the station to catch the 5:20 train back to Messina. Even though we only had 45 minutes it was well worth the time and hassle of getting there because the view we had was pretty nice. The cab ride down was rather interesting too. For some reason the mojority of cabs on this trip have been Mercedes.. and nice ones to. The ride down consists of a lot of tight turns and narrow roads, our driver was driving like he was on I88.. driving fast and passing cars all the way down, he almost had a mess to clean up in his car!

Our train arrived back in Messina around 6:45.. so before our 8:30 curfue to get back on the ship, we toured downtown Messina. Unlike the United States, Italy takes three hours for their lunch breaks. So when we had left the ship Messina was a ghost town... and when we returned it was the happening place. We ended up boarding the ship around 8:00 and grabbed some dinner, played a couple games of bowling and headed to their magic show in the theatre. After the theatre they did a game called "How Well Do You Know Your Co-Worker" in the atrium, which I didn't participate in but we did watch. After the game we decided to turn in for the night.

We hope everyone is doing good.. and yes even though we're on a cruise ship we did hear about Michael Jackson, and the rest as well! Hope you have a good day.. we'll chat tomorrow!

Day 4 - Rome

Get comfortable... today was a lot of fun, so I have a lot to cover! Originally we thought we would be completely on our own today but we decided to sign up for the tour "Rome On Your Own"... which basically provided transportation to Rome, then from there we were on our own. After grabbing breakfast, which by the way seems like a never ending buffet of anything you can think of... we boarded our buses. From the port into Rome it was about an hour and a half, so that gave us the opportunity to see a lot of Italy as our bus director narrated the ride for us.

We pulled into Rome at about ten thirty and got off the bus at the Vatican City / Sistine Chapel. Once off the bus we were completely on our own and free to do whatever... our plan of attack was to see as much as we could, which meant a lot of walking, thank goodness Jennifer wore her flip flops!

Our first stop was the Vatican City. We just walked around the outside of the church and city rather than paying and eating up a lot of time touring the inside. Actually St. Peters Square was full of people because the Pope was there addressing the crowd, so we were able to see him from a distance! From there our next stop was the Colosseum, which happened to be across town. It probably took about a half hour to walk... but was well worth it! It was pretty cool because the way we took, took us down a long street where the Colosseum was sitting at the very end. Once we got there and before looking around we stopped at an outdoor cafe to have some "real" Italian pizza... which was really good! Once we were finished with lunch we toured around the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus. We originally didn't plan on going inside the Colosseum, but it was too cool that we had to see the inside. So for twelve "euros" each we were in the Colosseum! It was pretty crazy to be there and see it in person... there's really no words to describe it, the building is massive and sat right in the middle of the city!

Our next stop took us to the Trevi Fountain. What your supposed to do when visiting the fountain is stand with your back to the fountain and with your right hand toss a coin over your left shoulder and wish for the following. 1 coin = you'll return to Rome, 2 coins = you'll get married and 3 coins = you'll get divorced... so we threw 3... kidding we actually didn't throw any, it was pretty crowded. Next we made our way over to the Spanish Steps... not sure the history but it was marked on our map so we thought we should see it. The two big "eats" in Rome seem to be pizza and Gelato. So during our walk and after our pizza we stopped and had some Gelato, if you ask me it's just a fancy name for ice cream, but every time we saw a place that sold it Jennifer got weak knees. It actually was very good, I got the lemon ice and Jennifer had some chunky cherry thing?

So pretty much after the Spanish Steps we made our way back to our meeting place. Even if we weren't able to see any landmarks, just experiencing Rome was cool... everything about the city, the way people live, drive and act is so different from what we're used to. So far in each city, motorcycles / scooters seem to be the preferred method of transportation, they're everywhere!

We got back to the ship about six thirty and met some friends for dinner at eight, we went to the French restaurant on the ship. I had to prepare myself and check out the menu before dinner... but Jennifer and I ended up both getting their beef tenderloin. For dessert the four of us split ice cream, chocolate fondue and desert crepes... don't worry Bev, Jen said yours are still better! After dinner we tried our luck at the casino and actually walked out with a hundred dollar bill!

That was it for today, as I'm writing this we're on our way to Sicily. The weather so far has been perfect, each day has been sunny, around 80 with no humidity! Well that's it for now... off to tour Sicily!

Day 3 - At Sea

Well we didn't do a whole lot today. Monday night we stayed out pretty late so we took advantage of sleeping in Tuesday morning. We grabbed some lunch and headed out to the pool for some laying out... which we did for most of the afternoon. Once we got ready for the night we headed out to dinner with some friends. We end up just going to one of their larger "nicer" restaurants.. I had a steak which was good and Jennifer had chicken breast. It's been a lot of fun grabbing some good food to eat and leaving once we're done.. no check needed! After dinner we checked out the casino on board where several people have been getting lucky.. one girl actually walked out with a $1000 win while we were there. Once ten o'clock rolled around we headed into the theatre for their show "Music Inspired From Around the World"... it was a good show.

After the show we took a walk to the other end of the ship where they had a buffet and grabbed some snacks and ice cream!

Sorry, we didn't take any photos today... but I included one I snapped just now of us pulling into Rome.

Day 2 - Barcelona & Montserrat

Two days down! Yesterday (Monday) we had the day to spend roaming through Barcelona. The day started with everyone who was go on a tour to meet in the theatre. Two of the ships captains came in down by one of the front rows and pulled a worker from between the seats with a sheet wrapped around him.. apparently some of the workers went out in Barcelona the night before and he passed out in the theatre for the night! Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera!

The tour we did was a trip up in the mountains to Montserrat and then a driving tour through Barcelona. The drive up to Montserrat was nice... through the mountains, tight roads and nice scenery! We spent about 3hrs touring Montserrat... they had little shops and the church to see. We actually got to sit in on a 20min mass that they had, the had a really nice kids choir. After that we headed into Barcelona for a driving tour.. the guide on our bus gave us the history as we drove. It was nice to get a flavor of where April spent some time!

We got back to the ship around four.. ordered room service then passed out. We did get a nice alarm at six o'clock when the captain came on the intercom to announce the boat drill. So we woke up, grabbed our life jackets and headed to our meeting spot. After, we went back to sleep until eight or so.. the time change messed us up a little. Then we headed to the theatre for a show for a taste of things to come show. They had each of the ships acts perform a little something to give us a flavor of what to expect on our trip. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Mexican restaurant.. and met up with some people to hang out the rest of the night.

They day was pretty busy and non-stop so we're looking for to the day at sea today!

PS: The photos are from our point and shoot camera.. we'll have to show you the good ones when we get back!

Day 1 - We Made It!

Hey everyone.. well we made it, we're officially in Barcelona, Spain! From the moment our car touched the Rockford parking lot we've been getting the first class treatment.. it's been fun! Right away they grabbed our bags from us in a special check-in spot in the parking lot and directed us to where the valet parking was! We sat in the airport waiting for our flight which was actually scheduled to leave at 11:45pm. They had snacks, drinks and music set up for us, so it wasn't too bad.

We boarded our MD-11 airplane about 11pm.. and were one of the several unfortunate guest to sit across the aisle from each other rather than right next to each other. But it was nice that we were each on the aisle for stretching and getting out! The flight was just under 8 hours.. throughout the flight they spoiled us with our choice of steak or chicken a salad and appetizer. Unfortunately neither of us ate just because it was around 1am in the morning.. however we did partake in the Ben and Jerry's ice cream at 3am during one of our movies! Then again towards the end of the flight when they served us breakfast. The flight wasn't so bad, but each of us was able to only get around 3hrs of sleep!

Once arriving in Barcelona they walked us all through the airport to the several shuttle bus waiting to take us to the ship. So far we've been impressed at how smooth every things been going. They really went over the top on the amount of staff they took on to help with everything.. all which sport a fluorescent green "Trip of a Lifetime" shirt. We arrived at the ship around 3:30pm or so (8:30am Chicago) and went through a process similar to checking in for a flight. Our room is on the 9th floor of the ship and has a balcony that looks over the Mediterranean. We had about an hour to explore the ship before we needed to get ready for the nights event! Around 7pm we boarded another shuttle that took us away to a Spanish village about 15mins from the ship where we stayed til around 11pm. The event was a lot of fun.. we started at the entrance to this village where they brought in a bunch of sidewalk acts (painted people), to perform as we walked in. We navigated our way through the cobblestone village where we were able to stop at the little shops along the way to shop. Our destination was a large center courtyard where they had food, drinks and entertainment! Words can't really say what this look like but it was pretty impressive! The food was a bit over the top... probably the highlight was the deer leg they had clamped in this contraption as they sliced meat from it's leg! Needless to say the mozzarella sticks and potato skins tasted good once we got back to the ship!

I'm typing this and it's about 7am and were preparing to tour the streets of Barcelona today! Unfortunately the phone we brought doesn't look like it will work.. but we'll try to figure something out! We'll be checking email throughout the day so feel free to email! We miss everyone, especially Riley.. but watching the other couples wrestle with their kids confirms we did the right thing! Thanks for reading!

Welcome!

Welcome to the "Cruise" Blog!  Well it's almost 3pm which means just under 8hrs until takeoff.  As you can tell from the picture we're bringing a lot of stuff with us.. 4 bags and a couple carry ons to be exact.  Anyway, next time you hear from us we'll be in Spain!  Keep us in your prayers as we prepare for our close to 10 hour flight over the Atlantic!