Our Med Cruise 07

Pre-cruise Rome

2007-08-14T00:41:00.001-07:00

August 1st, Daniel left by car at about 5am and started driving with most of our bags and one from the Levy family. We weren't flying out until around 5pm on Ryan Air, which now has a strict 15 kilo limit on each bag. Except for a bit of traffic around Milan, Daniel made good time, arriving before we did. The trip is about 1100 kilometers but Daniel makes better time when there aren't fights and throwing up going on in the back seat!

These are from our first night. We are obviously very tired and took these pictures at a fountain near the hotel.

Here's the hotel I found. It was tough to get two connecting rooms, for only two nights, in August in Rome. Hotels kept recommending other hotels and finally I found this;

http://www.hotelbritannia.it/en/index.htm

It was charming and the service was great. The reception set up our taxis at reasonable prices and the breakfast was good. We were also very central. The only drawback is that the rooms were tiny and we did hear a lot of garbage trucks in the early morning, easily fixed by closing the windows at night. It wasn't super delux but for the short time we were there, it was fine.

Here are the kids in the lobby;

The next day, our only one in Rome, we opted to take the open top tourist bus. This has been a great option in London and Barcelona. Daniel had to work in the morning and getting around big cities with three little kids isn't too easy and these, albeit tourist rip-off buses work great in this situation.

The kids in front of the Vatican;

Embarkation Day!

2007-08-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

August 3rd was departure day and we had no other real plans for the day. We actually had a little extra time to kill as the ship wouldn't officially let us on until 2:30pm so we stopped to take a few photos at the Trevi fountin with the kids. We were not alone! Even getting these pictures involved getting through the huge trongs of tourists.

Turns out that they were able to let us get on earlier and have lunch onboard. I was very annoyed as all the information I gave them on the internet didn't appear so we had to redo the whole registration. Finally, we walked towards the ship.

Here are more detailed pictures of our ship on another site;
http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/aspgallery/view_ad.asp?Ad_ID=2512

I was worried that the rooms would be too small, since they're usually smaller than those in hotels. It was but it wasn't too cramped and yes, we took two rooms that connected. Very few family suites are available on all cruise ships and many accomodate four, not five. We had a nice big window, which of course was completely closed and safe for the kids. We could control the temperature but not the fan, which blew quite hard.

The girls checking out their room.

All ships have to hold an evacuation drill before leaving the first port. We were all required to don our lifevests and head to our designated rescue boat. The children were also required to wear a plastic wrist band the whole cruise, designating which lifeboat to where they were assigned.

Davina had to have a special tot lifevest. She looked a little overwhelmed but very cute in it. Taking pictures posed a problem as the reflectors shined back from the flash and we didn't have time nor access to outside to take pictures.

Ronnie was cute in his too.

Talia was pitching a fit over having to wear it at all so I didn't manage a photo. She probably objected more to the color and how it matched her outfit...

The girls dressed in their "matchy-matchy" dresses the first night.

Davina, later chowing down on pizza;

Our first at-sea sunset;

Messina, Sicily

2007-08-14T00:39:00.000-07:00

This is who greated us on our arrival in Messina;

The view of the town of Messina itself from the ship;

Béatrice, Sarah and I took an organized tour to Taramina, which meant I had to go with my fellow Frenchmen! But it was beautiful and useful to have explanations.

The city itself;

The ampitheater ruins;

Athens (Piraeus)

2007-08-14T00:37:00.002-07:00

We were actually at the port of Piraeus and it was kind of a haul into Athens itself. I shared a cab with a French family going in and took the very-similar to the London Underground metro back. Big mistake! I had to walk ages but hey, good exercise (like I wouldn't be getting enough soon!).

I was glad that the one place I'd been to was one of the first.

Piraeus itself was a madhouse with all the ferries going to the various islands.

Mykonos, Greece

2007-08-14T00:37:00.001-07:00

Without waking them, I was able to get these shots in their cabin;

I knew when looking at it, that my pictures would be prettier than it actually was. Kind of strange but I was disappointed, yet it was very photogenic.

You can see the Galaxy docked in the distance. We had to take a shuttle into the village.

The girls wore their "sort of matchy" outfits that evening. The material of Talia's top matches that of Davina's dress. Cute, without being too much so...

Whoops!!

Kusadasi Turkey

2007-08-13T23:49:00.001-07:00

The view of Kusadasi from the ship. I'm assuming that the statue is of Ataturk.

Instead of one of the many tours offered, I joined the Levy family and we hired a cab just to take us to the Ephesus.

Béatrice, Sarah and myself.

We were not alone!

Sarah and me.

Again, Béatrice, Sarah and me and yet more ruins.

If you're a Roman ruin fan, rejoice! Actually though, I was a little dismayed at how unprotected these ruins actually were.

Sarah in a nook.

The library was especially impressive.

Sarah doing the goddess pose in the library;

The second theater was even bigger;

The view upon our return. You can see the Galaxy in the distance;

I actually went to the Fun Factory and marched my three off the ship so that they could claim that they've at least set foot in Turkey. This was easier said than done. About 5 minutes into our adventure, which simply consisted of walking off the ship and into the shopping area right there at the port was met with cries of "When can we get back on the ship?" or in Davina's case "I want to go back to the hotel".

This is what Davina is looking at;

Rhodes

2007-08-13T23:48:00.002-07:00

The French consulate in Rhodes, the old French knights' quarters;

In the kids' club, they had a special event. They got to visit the bridge! One small problem, parents weren't allowed. Not that I was that keen. I was ashore anyway but I handed over my camera, with a little lesson on how to use it. Needless to say, the adjustments were all off when I got it back but at least I have some photos.

These aren't too clear but don't blame me!!

These would have been such nice shots of the kids (don't ask about the flash...)

More fuzzy pictures of the bridge;

I bought two little Greek dresses for the girls. Just to be on the safe side, I bought both in bright pink, as to not have any disputes over color. They loved them. I loved less the fact they were a bit sheer, even with such a dark pink. Little details of their underware were left to the imagination.

Papa to the rescue!

Santorini

2007-08-13T23:48:00.001-07:00

Waking up in Santorini was very dramatic. This was the one time we weren't at a dock. All the cruise ships have to park in the bay and small boats, called tethers take them back and forth.

Daniel and the girls came with me (with Ronnie refusing to leave the kids' club...as usual!) but when Daniel saw the huge line for the cable car, he didn't want to face that. The girls went back with him on the very same tether. They thought it was great fun and didn't realize that there was anything more! I saw two little curly heads sticking out of the boat. As cute as they were, I wanted to yell "get back in there!"

The line moved quickly and I was soon on my way up the cliff;

The view on the way up;

Reaching the top;

Our ship way below;

The view near the cliff;

The Catholic church;

The Greek Orthodox church;

There was a great museum behind the Greek church with prehistoric objects, one figurine dating from 3000 B.C.E. There was a community that was pretty sophiticated there around 1700-1800 B.C.E. who were wiped out when the volcano erupted and turned Santorini from a round island into the dramatic crescent shape it has today. I found it rather humbling. Also, it should be noted, they've only dug up about 5% of the settlement...

Just walking around Fira village;

I like these statues;

I did have some wonderful Greek food in a restaurant up there. I was afraid it would be the usual tourist fare (like I had in Rhodes).

I opted to walk down, rather than wait for the cable car. It was paved but a mess from the donkeys. A lot of visitors complain about the donkeys. Some are upset about the fact they are made to wait in the sun and often mistreated. There are basically too many of them and were, quite frankly, dangerous. I had to walk between them, which meant they could have kicked up and really hurt me. I was told to never walk behind a horse for this reason and found myself squeezing between their backsides!

Also, they mess up the path, making it both smelly and slipery. If you ever go to Santorini, please don't ride the donkeys! I hope they can eliminate or at least reduce them in the future. If tourists pay, this business will continue...

Returning to the dock;

My ship awaits me!

Here the donkey trail that I went down can be seen;

Leaving Santorini. The views from the deck of the ship.

Ronnie's Birthday

2007-08-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

Luckily, the 11th fell on a "Day at Sea" with no ports of call. This meant that there were no distractions to the festivities!

It was also the last "formal" night with the goodbye bash. I'm glad they didn't do it on the "real" last night, which involved packing, etc. so everyone dressed up and I took advantage to get some photos done by the professional onboard. I'll post those here when I get around to scanning them...

First, our room steward decorated the kids' room;

Then there were the presents (that I bought in Mykonos).

Ronnie helps Davina open the door;

Ronnie's happy with the decorations;

...and the presents!

The opening begins;

Ronnie is thrilled with his Rhodes "Middle Ages Knight" T-shirt. So what if he was off by a few centuries??

The Fun Factory ordered a beautiful cake but unfortunately, due to fire regs on the ship, they couldn't light the candle I bought.

Attempts at getting Davina to look at the camera fell short;

I made Ronnie dress up for these. The girls were thrilled to wear their dresses. Ronnie did share their sentiments and changed right back to the T-shirt and shorts afterwards;

This was the professional photo;

That evening was the last formal dinner. The girls attended briefly and went back to the club, where Ronnie had been the whole time! I took some pictures of them on the deck as we passed through the Straits of Messina (with Sicily on one side and mainland Italy on the other).

I get a lot of pictures of Davina like this because she'll only stand still for a nano-second and then want to see the photo...the one she's just ruined!

Dancing in the wind!

Here's the actual dinner, after the girls were gone.

They did a little parade of the desserts;

Beatrice taking a picture while we're waving our napkins;

The photographer took these;

Naples

2007-08-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Waking up in Naples in pretty dramatic. These were taken from the deck of the ship. I had to get up early to do my tour.

Hello castle!

Good morning Mt. Vesutvius!

I signed up for an all-day tour of Pompeii and the Almafi coast. Don't remind me that it would have been better to have arranged a private tour, as well as cheaper but I was never able to hook up with the other passengers. I don't think Celebrity even wants us to do that for obvious reasons. So I took their overpriced but still good tour...

From the first glance, it wasn't that dramatic;

The town of Almafi itself.

Pompeii

Pictures from the Brothel. These were drawn 2000 years ago!

The marketplace;

The courthouse;

The view from the courthouse;

Returning to the ship;

Leaving Naples;