It seemed like the longest single day ever although we were about 6 hours shy of a 48 hour day. We sa
id goodbye to the kids as they left for school and ran by Kmart to pick up a few things for our trip (Lactaid, Downy wrinkle releaser, and luggage locks). We got on the road right on time and reached the airport uneventfully. Our flight to Washington DC arrived early and we stopped in at Vino Volo in Dulles to have a bite to eat. We hadn’t had lunch except for a protein bar and water so we were starving by the time we reached Dulles. 
Vino Volo is a wine bar in the DC airport where we each ordered a “wine flight” (red for Seth and rose for me) sampling 3 different wines each. We also had a large order of 2 “tapas” type dishes – pork tacos and sausage/chickpea chili. The food was good as well as the wine.
id goodbye to the kids as they left for school and ran by Kmart to pick up a few things for our trip (Lactaid, Downy wrinkle releaser, and luggage locks). We got on the road right on time and reached the airport uneventfully. Our flight to Washington DC arrived early and we stopped in at Vino Volo in Dulles to have a bite to eat. We hadn’t had lunch except for a protein bar and water so we were starving by the time we reached Dulles. Vino Volo is a wine bar in the DC airport where we each ordered a “wine flight” (red for Seth and rose for me) sampling 3 different wines each. We also had a large order of 2 “tapas” type dishes – pork tacos and sausage/chickpea chili. The food was good as well as the wine.We stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts for dessert and the guy behind the counter had a hard time understanding that we wanted chocolate crème filled donuts. We also ordered a berry smoothie but it was absolutely awful tasting so we threw it away.
After a while, our Rome flight finally appeared on the departure monitor and we made our way to the gate where we met our first Cruise Critic friends: Tony and Trudy from Florida (Daytonams). We had exchanged pictures on line and recognized each other right away waving at each other from across the gate area. Our flight finally started to board and after settling into our United Economy Plus seats, we were on our way to Rome – only a little bit late.
I was surprised on the flight that not only were we entertained with many different movies shown on personal tv monitors but we were also actually served dinner (meatloaf, potatoes, salad) and breakfast the following morning (yogurt, bear claw). After watching Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, it was lights out on the plane and we tried our best to get some sleep. By this time, it was about 2 am, Rome time. I did manage to get some sleep on the plane but don’t remember having so much difficulty with my legs/knees hurting. I finally gave up on getting anymore sleep at about 5:30 am and watched a few more episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy, the first season” before packing it in for our landing. For a long 8 hour flight, it did go by relatively quickly and we landed right on time in Rome at 8:50 am local time.
Arriving in Rome, I was surprised at how simple customs was. There was one checkpoint – “passport control” where our passports were stamped with the agent barely looking up at us. We made our way to the baggage claim and waited, waited, and then waited some more. Italians really do seem to operate on a slower/more relaxed schedule than the rest of us. Tony and Trudy got their luggage pretty quickly and went to meet up with a Celebrity agent – there were many scattered around the baggage claim area. After waiting an eternity until almost 9:45 am, we finally received our bags – all 4 of them. It looks like we’ll finally have a Celebrity trip without lost bags.
After gathering our luggage, we met up with Fabio of Rome in Limo who was dutifully holding up a sign with “Switzer” on it as we exited the baggage claim area. Fabio introduced himself in near-perfect English and immediately took one of my suitcases.
We walked the short distance to the parking garage, noting the proximity of the train station that I had read about as an option of getting to the port. I really couldn’t imagine negotiating the train with all of our luggage in tow. We boarded Fabio’s van – a large Mercedes van – and headed to the Rome Hilton which was, literally, less than 5 minutes away.
We thanked Fabio as he dropped us off and each couple paid $65 Euros for the service ($59 Euros plus tip per couple). Our tagged luggage was whisked away to the ship immediately and after a brief panic looking for m
y passport that I thought had fallen out of my pocket, we headed to the passenger check-in area. We stopped to take a picture in front of the ship but were hurried along by the ship staff. As we entered the large tent, we were given health questionnaires to fill out – are you having diarrhea? Are you having fever? Etc, etc. We were then shown to the check-in lane and were quickly checked in after being handed a number 7 card. This is the first time that we’ve ever been on a cruise where the cruise line kept our passports.
After the obligatory embarkation photo (having just spent over 12 hours travelling, we were a little on the scruffy side), we were directed to a holding area to await our number to b
e called to board. The boarding area was a little crowded when we first arrived but numbers 2-6 were boarded pretty quickly and eventually it was our turn to board. We stopped to hand over our room key/charge cards and a picture was taken quickly. We were given glasses of champagne as we entered – it was about 11:30 am.
Our rooms would not be ready until about 1 pm so we spent a little time exploring the ship and taking a few pictures even stumbling upon the (empty) topless sunbathing deck. The Oasis café buffet wa
s calling our name by about 12:30 and after having some salad, a samosa, pad thai (which neither of us thought was very good), and ice cream, we headed to our cabin (1102) just shy of 1 pm. A steward was just finishing up vacuuming our cabin. We gladly dumped our things off and took a 3 hour nap punctuated with intermittent knocks on the door as our luggage arrived one piece at a time and, finally, a fruit basket was delivered (one of the perks of Concierge Class).
Our head waiter, Alexander from Serbia, introduced himself and expertly took our orders, served our courses, and answered questions with a smile. The food was delicious as expected – Seth ordered the Chef’s recommendation for the evening. I ordered the baked goat cheese with red peppers, tomato and garlic soup, classic Caesar salad, and herb encrusted white
fish. For dessert we had the vanilla crème brulee.
After saying good night to our table mates, we headed back to the cabin and called it a night. I downloaded my pictures from the camera, synched my ipod, and started my blog but could barely keep my eyes open. It was about 11 pm when the lights went out.
We arrived at the hotel at just past 10 am to find Steve, Marcy, Stan, and Claire waiting in the lobby – 2 couples we had also met on Cruise Critic who would be also sharing our Athens and Kusadasi tours.
After having a brief lesson on the proper pronunciation of “Civitavecchia” (chi-veet-a-vek-ia), we were on our way to the port to board our ship. We chatted all the way for the approximately one hour that it took to get there with Fabio giving us a constant commentary about life in Italy and the countryside all the while expertly negotiating some hairy traffic as we entered the port area.
We thanked Fabio as he dropped us off and each couple paid $65 Euros for the service ($59 Euros plus tip per couple). Our tagged luggage was whisked away to the ship immediately and after a brief panic looking for m
y passport that I thought had fallen out of my pocket, we headed to the passenger check-in area. We stopped to take a picture in front of the ship but were hurried along by the ship staff. As we entered the large tent, we were given health questionnaires to fill out – are you having diarrhea? Are you having fever? Etc, etc. We were then shown to the check-in lane and were quickly checked in after being handed a number 7 card. This is the first time that we’ve ever been on a cruise where the cruise line kept our passports.After the obligatory embarkation photo (having just spent over 12 hours travelling, we were a little on the scruffy side), we were directed to a holding area to await our number to b
e called to board. The boarding area was a little crowded when we first arrived but numbers 2-6 were boarded pretty quickly and eventually it was our turn to board. We stopped to hand over our room key/charge cards and a picture was taken quickly. We were given glasses of champagne as we entered – it was about 11:30 am. Our rooms would not be ready until about 1 pm so we spent a little time exploring the ship and taking a few pictures even stumbling upon the (empty) topless sunbathing deck. The Oasis café buffet wa
s calling our name by about 12:30 and after having some salad, a samosa, pad thai (which neither of us thought was very good), and ice cream, we headed to our cabin (1102) just shy of 1 pm. A steward was just finishing up vacuuming our cabin. We gladly dumped our things off and took a 3 hour nap punctuated with intermittent knocks on the door as our luggage arrived one piece at a time and, finally, a fruit basket was delivered (one of the perks of Concierge Class). After putting most of our things away, we donned our life jackets at about 5:15 and headed to muster station D (the casino) negotiating our way past the crowd gathered at the door after our names were checked off the list. The life boat drill took a total of about 30 minutes as we listened to the drill announced over the loud speaker in English and everyone groaned as we listened to it again in Spanish. Fortunately, we were on the side of the ship where the deck was shady. I was waiting for the version in Italian but, luckily, we were spared a 3rd version. We lumbered back to our cabin and put our life jackets away when Charlie called from their cabin to introduce himself and Wade – yet another couple we had met on Cruise Critic and whom we would be sharing our Athens, Kusadasi, and Naples tours. We agreed to pick them up at their suite (1226) and go for drinks in the lounge.
We knocked on Wade and Charlie’s door at about 6:10 and got a quick peek at their Sky suite with a larger bedroom, MUCH larger veranda, and bathroom with marble countertops and a bathtub. We headed to Michael’s Club and sat for a while chatting in large, blue, comfortable seats. Another couple from Scotland, Peter and Joyce, that Charlie and Wade had met the night before at their hotel in Civitavecchia, joined us as well. The bartender made a very good Flirtini for me after being asked to make something “fruity” by Wade. We enjoyed our drinks with them a great deal and chatted until about 7 pm when they had to get to the dining room for their early seating dinner. Seth and I finished our drinks then headed back to the cabin after thanking the bartender whose name was “Isaac – like the Love Boat”. I went to the fitness center and used the elliptical trainer for about 30 minutes. There were about ½ a dozen other people in the gym working out as well.
When I returned to the cabin, we got ready for our late seating dinner at 8:45 pm. I showered, changed, and quickly dried my hair 
with a hair dryer that I found in the bathroom – better than the usual hair dryer attached to the wall. We arrived at the Orion dining room at just about 8:45 pm but the doors were still shut. We wandered around briefly in the shops then headed back down to the dining room waiting in line for a bit to be seated. We were shown to table 600 which turned out to be a large table for 10 right by the starboard aft window. Soon our tablemates arrived – a couple from England, Steve (decorator and soccer ref)and Elaine, and a family of 6 from New Zealand living in Scotland and Prague. The woman sitting next to me, Lucy, had been a head waiter on Carnival cruise lines and carefully inspected all the plates and silverware before our food arrived.
with a hair dryer that I found in the bathroom – better than the usual hair dryer attached to the wall. We arrived at the Orion dining room at just about 8:45 pm but the doors were still shut. We wandered around briefly in the shops then headed back down to the dining room waiting in line for a bit to be seated. We were shown to table 600 which turned out to be a large table for 10 right by the starboard aft window. Soon our tablemates arrived – a couple from England, Steve (decorator and soccer ref)and Elaine, and a family of 6 from New Zealand living in Scotland and Prague. The woman sitting next to me, Lucy, had been a head waiter on Carnival cruise lines and carefully inspected all the plates and silverware before our food arrived. Our head waiter, Alexander from Serbia, introduced himself and expertly took our orders, served our courses, and answered questions with a smile. The food was delicious as expected – Seth ordered the Chef’s recommendation for the evening. I ordered the baked goat cheese with red peppers, tomato and garlic soup, classic Caesar salad, and herb encrusted white
fish. After saying good night to our table mates, we headed back to the cabin and called it a night. I downloaded my pictures from the camera, synched my ipod, and started my blog but could barely keep my eyes open. It was about 11 pm when the lights went out.
No comments:
Post a Comment