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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 11: Rome, Italy

September 18, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 17th – Rome, Italy

The day had finally arrived! After months of planning and anticipation, I was finally going to Rome!!! This was obviously one of the ports I was most looking forward to when planning this trip. As soon as I knew my cruise would be going to Rome, I knew I wanted to see as much as I could in 1 day since I had never been there before. The problem was, my mom spent 4 days in Rome less than a year ago and she had no desire to repeat everything she just saw. It didn’t take much time for us to realize that we should split up for this port day and each do our own thing. She ended up organizing her own tour with Rome in Limo, geared towards people who have been to Rome before (Jany even let her use the 50 Euro discount for booking multiple tours, even though I was also benefiting from that discount for my tour!)

I booked the Rome Highlights tour and found 7 people from the roll call to join me. Like usual, I woke up at 6:15am, ate breakfast on Lido, and met my group at 7:45am in the lobby. We met our driver Enrico just outside the port area at 8am. Enrico told us a tidbit that made me even happier I booked all these tours with Rome in Limo… he said that he and all the other Rome in Limo drivers arrive at the port 1 hour before our tour is scheduled to start! He had been in the port area since 7am even though we weren’t supposed to meet him until 8am! He said that way, the drivers can discuss any traffic issues they know of, and if someone has problems with their van, they have time to get a new van before the tourists get off the ship.

We drove for 1 hour and 20 minutes from the port area in Civitavecchia into the city of Rome. Our first stop was the Pantheon. Enrico left us right next to it and gave us 20 minutes to explore. I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I walked around and took lots of photos. Sadly, it was an overcast day, and the light streaming in from the oculus didn’t create the direct beam of light effect which I have heard sometimes happens. The room seemed brightly lit, and lacked the spiritual effect that I was hoping to experience.

Next, we drove to the Trevi Fountain, and Enrico left us a 5 minute walk away, pointed us in the right direction, and told us to meet him back at the van in 20 minutes. When we arrived, there were a few people there, but it wasn’t very crowded. Of course, we all threw coins over our shoulder in hopes the legend would come true and we could all return to Rome someday!

After we got back in the van, Enrico drove us past a few other famous landmarks. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to walk/sit on the Spanish Steps and that we couldn’t take 5 minutes to hop out of the van to take a decent photo of these iconic Rome sites, but I guess there were just too many other things we had to get to…

The Spanish Steps

The Victor Emmanuel Monument

We got back out of the van when we reached Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill. Enrico explained a bit of the history, and even showed us a book with pictures of how it likely looked when there was actual a stadium there…

Up next, we drove to the Roman Forum, and we had about 20 minutes to take photos and walk through the museums on Capitol Hill to meet Enrico at the bottom of the stairs.

Incredibly, we had done all of that and it was still before 11am! Our next stop was the Coliseum. Enrico dropped us off and said to meet him at the Arch of Constantine in a few minutes while he parked the car.

Unfortunately, the Arch of Constantine was half covered in scaffolding…

When I was planning this trip, my goal was to pre-purchase tickets to as many attractions as possible. My mission was accomplished with one exception: The Coliseum! For some reason, they never updated their website to sell tickets for any dates in September. I literally checked it multiple times every day, but for whatever reason, they never had tickets available for our date. I had emailed Jany a few times about the problem, and she said she was aware of it, that everyone was having the same problem, and not to worry about it. We told Enrico about it when we first met him at the port that morning, and he was able to purchase our tickets magically so that we had our skip-the-line passes by the time we arrived at the Coliseum later that morning!

After he parked the car, Enrico escorted us directly to the entrance. We literally had no wait at all, but there was a HUGE line waiting to get in (Enrico said they had at least a 2 hour wait! The skip-the-line passes were well worth the minimal extra charge!!) Enrico said to meet him at the van in 30 minutes, so I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I quickly walked around the first and second levels and took tons of photos. It was a bit rushed, but in the end, I don’t think I missed anything by not staying longer.

For our last stop before lunch, Enrico drove us to the top of a hill with several embassies. He told us to look through the keyhole in the doors of one of the buildings, and we had a perfect view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica! Sadly, the Basilica isn’t visible in my photos, but you can just imagine how cool it was to see it through that little key hole!

Enrico gave us two options for lunch. We could get some take away food in a market or go to a sit down restaurant. Enrico said we had the time to sit down, so we chose the restaurant option. We went to a place called L’Insalata Ricca.

They offered very reasonable prices and a huge menu with many options for appetizers, salads, pizzas, pastas, and entrees. They also allowed us to do separate checks.

I ordered the brushetta with garlic and olive oil:

They brought out each dish from the kitchen as it was ready, but mine was last to arrive and came 15 minutes after the last person before me, so everyone was almost done eating by the time my dish arrived. The waiter said it was because we did separate checks, but that did not make sense and I think they probably just forgot about my dish.

I ate very quickly, and we paid and left to drive to the Vatican. We arrived at the back entrance to the Vatican at 2pm to meet our guide Marco. He has not given many Vatican tours before, but he was a great guide. He warned us that we would have to walk/run fast to see everything in just 2 hours. We had pre-purchased tickets online, so we went through the metal detectors and exchanged our vouchers for real tickets.

Marco took us through several rooms and halls, and stopped along the way to explain the history and art. It was very crowded inside, but Marco moved fast and dodged between people so we had to rush to keep up with him! It was worth it though because we got to see a lot.

I was amazed by the ceilings throughout the Vatican… I think I gave myself a neck ache by the end of the day because I spent so much time looking up!!

Marco explained each of the paintings inside the Sistine Chapel before we entered because you cannot talk inside. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed but it was incredible to view in person, especially considering Michelangelo had no prior experience painting before he did this project!

Once we left the Sistine Chapel, we made our way back outside and ended up in St. Peter’s Square.

Marco lead us into St. Peter’s Basilica. I was not prepared for how grand it is inside this building! The ceilings go so high and looking down the hall, it looks so majestic.

Marco showed us the tomb of Pope John the XXIII. I was very weirded out by it because his body is so well preserved despite him passing 50 years ago.

Marco then lead us out to the exit at 4pm, which was timed perfectly to see the changing of the guards!

Here are a few photos from standing in St. Peter’s Square…

We met Enrico with the van on a side street right next to the Square. Our last stop was a bit of a surprise, as it was not scheduled on our original itinerary! Enrico took us to see Piazza Navona and to get some gelato. Marco gave us 20 minutes to see the square, take photos of the fountain featured in the drowning scene from Angels and Demons, and to buy gelato. It was delicious and the perfect way to end a fabulous day in Rome!

On the 1 hour drive back to the port, I read some of the information in the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports book to try to take in all that I had seen and learned all day. It is a jam-packed itinerary, but it was fabulous and well worth the extra expense over doing it yourself on public transit. We really saw all of Rome in 1 day!

We got back to the ship at 6pm and said goodbye to Enrico before boarding the ship to get ready for dinner.

My mom got back from her tour at 6:30pm, and neither of us was hungry at all, so she called Irena in the MDR. Irena said it would be okay if we came to the late seating in the MDR. She sat us with our usual wait staff because one of the tables was empty as they ate at the Italian specialty restaurant. It was kind of funny to have a table for 8 all to ourselves, but we were grateful that she accommodated us and we could avoid eating from the buffet.

Mediterranean Seafood Chowder

Hawaiian Fruit Plate

Duck a l’orange

Dessert menu

Pistachio and Almond Clafoutis

We finished dinner at 9:30pm and we were completely exhausted! We were very happy we didn’t have the late seating for dinner every night haha We went back to the cabin and were asleep by 11pm.

Up Next: “Under the Tuscan Sun” in Pisa and Florence!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 10: Naples, Italy

September 17, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 16th – Amalfi Coast (Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii), Italy

Another port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! Yummmmy! I wish I could have one right now haha The port area offered beautiful views of the sunrise over Mt. Vesuvius:

Today was the first of 3 days when I organized private tours with people from our roll call. For all 3 Italy ports, we used a company called Rome In Limo. They received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it was a breeze to organize tours with their company. They have a great website which outlines the many different itineraries that they offer, and they answered all of my questions within a few hours via email (sometimes I could swear that Jany, the lady who I coordinated with, never slept because she replied at literally every hour of the day!) As a special perk for booking 3 tours with their company, Jany gave us a 50 Euro discount on each of the tours. They charged 600 Euros for the 8-person van (but we only had to pay 550 Euros with our discount), and they even offer a tour sharing website to help you fill your vans if you are not able to do so via your roll call. They might charge a little more money than some other companies, but they were fabulous to deal with, and all of our tours were great, so I thought it was worth the extra expense.

Ok, back to Naples… Our group met down in the lobby at 7:45am so we could all walk off the ship together, but we were surprised to see that today, we exited from deck 3 instead of deck 0, so we actually exited right next to where we were meeting anyway! We met our guide, Diego, right outside the port terminal. Diego was very enthusiastic and spoke near-perfect English, although sometimes we thought he offered a bit too much information and wouldn’t stop talking! haha

We all got in our 8-person van and drove 20 minutes to Pompeii. As we were approaching Pompeii, we noticed some dark clouds in the distance. Diego promised us that it would not rain today, and told us to leave our umbrellas in the van. He said that the tour would be free if it did rain. I’m sure you can guess how that turned out… it rained for about 20 minutes, but sadly, the tour was not free haha

As I have already mentioned, we requested to have a private guide in Pompeii for an extra 100 Euros total (which we paid her directly at the end of our tour). Our guide’s name was Libby and she spent 2 hours walking us through Pompeii. Libby was fantastic and worth every penny as she really made the ruins come to life.

Pompeii was empty at first, as we arrived right when it opened at 8:30am. Even though it did grow more crowded as the morning went on, Libby knew where to go to avoid the crowds.

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the brothel. It was incredible to see how well preserved it was! This engraving in the street paving stones pointed the direction towards the brothel:

This projection outside the building was how they knew which door to enter for the brothel:

The beds inside the brothel didn’t look very comfy… guess the ladies didn’t want the men to stay too long!

These frescos were featured above the doors of each room. I was shocked at how graphic they were!

Men would etch ratings for each girl on the walls of her room to tell other men if she was good or not (and if she had any diseases!)

I knew people had said it was interesting to see the brothel, but really had no idea what to expect. Libby’s commentary to point out all of the details inside really made it come alive and it was an experience I will remember for years to come.

We also visited the bath houses, gymnasium, several homes and stores/restaurants/bakeries, and the amphitheater.

Entrance to the bath houses

Inside the bath houses

A restaurant

The Amphitheater

The gymnasium- notice the mosaic on the floor of the front entrance:

After 2 hours, we paid Libby, used the rest rooms, then got back in the van to continue our day. We drove for 30 minutes along the Amalfi Coast, with a brief stop to take some photos along the way.

Our next stop was Sorrento. Diego dropped us off and said we could have 2 hours to shop and eat lunch, and he pointed us in the direction of the stores. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the pedestrian street, selling every type of lemon product you can imagine- soaps, lemoncello, candy, candles, clothes, etc.

I bought several souvenirs as we walked around the town, and I also bought a prosciutto and provolone sandwich for lunch.

There were also several gelato shops, but Diego told us to go to one called Gelato Primavera because it was famous for it’s over 70 flavors!

I ordered straciatella and mint chip

Diego met us at the arranged time, and we drove along the Almafi Coast to Positano. The drive was beautiful, and we stopped at another view point on top of the hill to see the coast before descending into the town.

Diego dropped us off in town and said we could have 1 hour to walk around. I walked all the way down the hill and down 85 stairs (yes, I counted!) to the black sand beach. The views were amazing, and it was worth the work out.

This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. He was painting the church up on the hill:

Now it was time to head back up the stairs…

The lemons are HUGE… just for reference, these are my sunglasses!

Diego was always aware of the time and knew that all aboard was at 6:30pm, so he said we had to leave Positano by 3:45 in case there was traffic. We got back to Naples at 5pm, so Diego drove us around Naples briefly and let us walk around the town square for 10 minutes.

When we got back to his van, Diego had bought us a little snack- he said it was Naples’ version of a canoli. It was a pastry with an orange cream filling. It was okay, but I didn’t think it was worth the calories haha Diego then drove us back to the port, and he gave us a bottle of lemoncello to share on the ship. Overall, this was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to return to the Almafi Coast and spend more time exploring!

We took very fast showers and arrived at dinner a little late at 6:15pm, but it was fine. We got to watch the sail away at 7pm as we ate dinner.

Udon noodles with seafood and chicken as a starter

Escargots

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Dessert menu

Amaretto cake

Sunset as we left the port of Naples

No one knew any details about the show for tonight except that it was called “Man of Steal.” It turns out, the performer was a master pick-pocket and he was the best solo performer of the cruise! He was very funny and a unique entertainer. After the show, we went back to the cabin to rest up for Rome and my favorite towel animal was waiting to greet us!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 9: Messina, Sicily

September 16, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 15 – Messina, Sicily

Today marked the first of 6 straight days with a 6:15am wake up time. Boooo! On the bright side, it was beautiful to watch us sail into Messina while I ate breakfast on Lido.

We arranged a private tour with 8 of our friends from Cruise Critic, and we all met down in the lobby at 7:45 to walk off the ship together. Our guide, Antonio, was waiting outside the port area with our 8-person van (2 people sat up front with Antonio, and there were two 3-person rows behind that). Antonio gave us small bits of information during the drive, but he was not nearly as informative as our guides had been in Athens and Turkey.

We drove for about an hour down the coast to a scenic view point on the water. I think Antonio said this was where the Greeks first settled when they came to Italy.

Notice the black rocks from the volcanic ash…

Our next stop was a park called Gole Alcantara to see the views and waterfalls.

On the same grounds, they set up a little store which offered free samples of olive oil, spreads, wines, and liquors. It was fun to taste all the different flavors, and of course you could also purchase the products if you wished.

Next, we visited an old abandoned church on the countryside.

Behind the church, Antonio lead us on a short walk out to the river and to see another waterfall.

Out in the distance, we saw a little surprise wagging his tail!

We decided to walk a little further to see the cow up close…

On the walk back, we sampled some of the figs and grapes growing on the trees…

Next, we drove to the quaint old town of Castiglione. It was a Sunday morning, so the town was mostly deserted except for a group of about 10 men sitting together outside (Antonio said their wives were all inside cooking!). We walked around the town for a little while, and then headed up the hill to explore an old castle.

The pacing of the day seemed a bit weird to me because that was all we did by 11:30am, but we still had a lot to do on our itinerary. It almost seemed like Antonio was stretching out our stops so we would arrive at the right time for lunch.

We drove up a steep, curvy mountainside road to our next stop, the Gambino Winery.

The winery was very pretty and offered beautiful views. Apparently, they recently renovated their tasting room and just opened it one week before we arrived!

For 20 Euros each, they had a wine tasting with 1 white wine and 3 red wines, and lunch including breads, cheeses, salami, olives, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and sausage. The food was served on large platters and they continuously refilled as we needed more. Everything was incredibly delicious and fresh!

Here was the wine list and shipping prices in case anyone wanted to purchase a bottle:

The food and wine were all very tasty, and we stayed at the winery for an hour and a half. Remember how I mentioned my mom’s food allergies? Well they did something very nice to take care of her… When we first arrived, my mom spoke to them about her allergies and they said that they would prepare a separate platter for her with things that were safe for her to eat. They brought her a few types of cheese, salami, and her own plate of sausage, so she basically ate the same thing as everyone else, but it was plattered separately to avoid cross-contamination from the items that she was allergic to. When she went to pay, they told her they were not charging for her meal because “She didn’t eat anything” That was far from true, as they gave her many options and she definitely ate her share of food, but they refused to let her pay! She ended up leaving her 20 Euros as a tip because they took such good care of her haha

After lunch, we piled back in the van and drove to Taormina. Antonio gave us 1 hour to shop, and suggested 2 good canoli shops (since canolis were invented in Sicily, so of course we all wanted to try one!) When I researched Taormina prior to the cruise, I had read about a Greek amphitheater which was supposed to be beautiful and worth a visit. I never ended up finding it (oh well!), but other on my tour said that it was crowded and cost 8 Euros to enter, so I guess I didn’t miss much. I spent my time enjoying the ambiance of the town, looking at the lava rock and Godfather souvenirs, and eating a delicious canoli.

Godfather stuff everywhere!

Lots of souvenirs made from volcanic rock:

We got back to the pier by 4pm for our 4:30pm all aboard time, and got showered and ready for dinner.

My cold was now hitting me with full force, so it was convenient that the MDR offered chicken soup on tonight’s menu!

I also shared Oysters Rockerfeller with my mom:

Petite Fillet Mignon and Braised Short Ribs

One of the couples at our table were going to celebrate their anniversary on Tuesday. That was the day we were going to Rome, and none of us knew if we’d get back to the ship in time for dinner (the one night when the 6pm dinnertime wouldn’t mix well with our 8pm all aboard time!), so we ordered them a cake for tonight to celebrate. They were very surprised!

They cut up the cake for everyone to have a piece

But I also wanted a dessert from the menu… Diet Apple Pie!

Tonight’s entertainment was Niels Dunger, Comedy Juggler. He was okay, but I’ve seen better on previous cruises. He dropped things a few times, and he wasn’t very funny. After that, I went to bed early again to try and fight off my cold and rest up for tomorrow in Naples!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 8: Sea Day

September 15, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 14 – Sea Day

It was lovely being able to sleep in and wake up naturally without an alarm… unfortunately, I was up at 8:30am anyway because my body was getting used to all those early wake up times. I ate a light breakfast on Lido deck, then went down to the lobby and sat on a couch by the window to write in my trip journal.

We met our friends at the comedy brunch at noon, and redeemed our coupons for a free drink from being a past guest.

Cheers!

The Cruiser

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Hash Browns, Turkey Bacon

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

Brunch took about an hour and a half, then we walked around the ship for a while. It was very windy outside and the temps were only in the 70s, so it was too cold to sit out on Lido deck. Instead, we sat at the tables near Blue Iguana because they were shaded from the wind. They had the chocolate buffet this day, but I was too full from brunch to enjoy it.

The Game of Love (formerly known as the Marriage Show haha) was scheduled for 3pm, so I was glad to have an excuse to be inside on this chilly day. They asked the same questions as on my last cruise, but it was still funny and entertaining. After that, we played 60’s trivia and “all about nothing” trivia, and we won a ship on a stick!

This ended a little after 5pm, so we quickly got changed and ready for the second formal night. It was fun that they had a different menu for this formal night (the menu with escragots and chateaubriand came later in the week), and there were so many great appetizer options that I ordered 3 of them!

langostino cocktail

Crepes filled with spinach and ricotta

beef carpaccio

lamb chops

Dessert Menu

Diet chocolate cake

After dinner, we went straight to the theater to wait in line for seats because we knew the line would be long. We were first in line downstairs and waited a half hour for them to open the doors. We were trampled by people when the doors finally opened, only to see that they opened the upstairs doors several minutes earlier and no good seats were left! We were rather annoyed to have wasted the half hour waiting in line for no reason, and we took seats on the sides of the theater with partially obstructed views from the columns. The theater was completely full by 8:10pm for the 8:30 show.

Tonight’s show was Studio VIP. It was a fun 70’s music disco-themed show with great dancing and costumes. They brought people up on stage from the audience to dance in several songs, so it was funny to watch and sing along. After that, I went straight to bed at 10pm because I had been coming down with a cold for the last two days and I wanted to rest up for Sicily.

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 7: Izmir, Turkey

September 14, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 13 – Izmir, Turkey

Uh oh! It’s Friday the 13th!! Good thing nothing scary happened today. I woke up to my alarm at 6:15am, got dressed and went up to Lido for my usual breakfast. When I got to the omelet line, it was way too long for my limited patience, so I went in search of an alternative and found the breakfast burrito bar just as it was opening at 7am! I am very happy to have found it because this was the first of many mornings when I ate here.

There was another beautiful sunrise this morning as I ate.

Like yesterday, we booked a private tour with 11 people from our Cruise Critic roll call. We met the group at 7:45 in the lobby and exited the ship together by 8am. As we got off the ship, they handed us a paper from customs which we had to return when we got back to the ship that afternoon. Everyone was unsure of how things would work because Turkey is not part of the European Union like most of our other ports were, but it turned out that we did NOT need our passports to get on or off the ship. However, the form did ask for our passport numbers, so it was a good thing we had them in our purses! We actually opted to always carry our passports hidden in a secure pocket of our bags when we were off the ship, just in case we ever did not get back in time (which luckily never happened and we never needed our passports during the cruise).

Anyway, back to the tour… We met our tour guide Bill in the cruise terminal. Bill spoke English well and was very informative and funny, although he had a tough act to follow as Kali was so great yesterday in Athens. We were unsure if we would even be able to dock in Turkey because of the crisis and the travel alerts for the Eastern side of the country, but I was glad we went because I never felt unsafe in the touristy areas of the West coast.

We drove 1 hour on the highway in our large air conditioned van through the countryside to Ephesus. Bill talked a lot about the history of Turkey and the current political and religious situations. We passed the ruins of Ephesus a little after 9am and noticed hardly anyone was there. I kind of wished we just stopped there because it would have been nice to see it when it wasn’t crowded and hot outside yet, but Bill said our first stop would be the House of the Virgin Mary.

Several big tour buses were already there when we arrived, so there was a 30 minute wait to enter the house. The ladies went to use the restroom while the men waited in line… they had possibly the best restroom sign I’ve ever seen. Notice her facial expression…

We spent some more time waiting in line, and then finally got to walk through the house. It was small and quaint, but no photos were allowed inside so I only got to take photos on the grounds.

After we walked through the house, we had 15 minutes to shop at the little stores on the grounds.

We met up with Bill at 10am and got back in the van to head back to Ephesus.

By the time we got back to Ancient Ephesus, it was much more crowded. Bill did a good job of finding a tree where we could stand in the shade while he explained the history, but most of the time we were just out in the 90+ degree direct sunlight.

We spent about an hour and a half walking around, taking photos, and avoiding the heat in the sun.

Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory… notice the ‘swoosh’?

As the morning went on, it got more and more crowded and hot (notice the people carrying umbrellas for shade?)

The Terrace Houses were inside a tent/building to keep the moisture out, so it was shaded in there but still quite warm. Luckily, even though the forecast said the high temperature would be 95 degrees, it was not humid so it felt more comfortable than Athens yesterday (which was 95 degrees with high humidity!) The Terrace Houses charged an admission fee above that of the entrance to Ancient Ephesus, but it was included in the cost of our tour so it was nice to see Bill paying for all of these tickets and we didn’t have to take out our wallets. Here are photos from the Terrace Houses…

When we exited the Terrace Houses, we spent some more time walking through Ephesus to see the Celsius Library, the marble streets, and the large amphitheater.

Looking back towards the amphitheater:

Sarcophagus:

After we exited Ephesus, Bill gave us 15 minutes to shop. He told us the stores outside the exit gate were cheaper than those immediately inside the gate, so I took his advice and went out to the stores. I loved the lamps but was afraid of how to transport them back home, so I decided not to buy one.

I saw signs for “genuine fake watches” in several stores in Turkey and I thought it was pretty funny… but no, I did not go into those stores!

I ended up buying a purse and a trivet, and I was able to bargain them down to 8 Euros for the two so I was happy with that (I think it was originally 6 Euros for each item).

Next, we went for lunch. In planning this trip, I read many reviews complaining of terrible experiences at pushy carpet stores who forced you to buy rugs after you ate their lunch. I did not want that to happen to us and ruin our day, so I was hesitant about making a lunch stop. Luckily, we had a fantastic experience! Bill took us to a school where students learn to make rugs. It was in the countryside with pretty views, and they were waiting for us to arrive.

They set up tables outside under the shade of a canopy, and served very good food for lunch. Appetizers included an eggplant dish, 2 types of salads, a yogurt mint dip (which reminded me of Greek tzatiki sauce), and bread. That was served family style, then they brought out individual plates with our entree of grilled marinated chicken breasts, rice, french fries, fried cheese, and tomato. We could buy a can of soda for 2 Euros, or wine and beer for 4 Euros, but the food was included in our tour price.

After we ate, we spent half an hour learning how they make the rugs, starting with getting silk from the cocoons:

Next, they showed us how they dye the yarn to the correct colors:

Finally, they showed us how they use a loom and a pattern grid sheet to tie a double knot and create the rug.

Next, they took us into a room and laid many different finished rugs on the floor for us to see the different patterns and levels of quality, ranging from 100 to 1200 knots per square inch! They encouraged us to touch the rugs and to walk on them. They said we could buy them if we wanted to, but I never felt pressure to buy anything, and we were free to exit whenever we wished.

Here are a few more photos from the grounds of the carpet school…

Next, we made a quick stop at the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and with views of a fort built by the Crusaders.

After that, we made the hour-long drive back to Izmir to get back on the ship. We hit a little bit of traffic on the way back, but arrived at the pier at 3:30, with a 4pm all aboard time. I did a little shopping at the pier and bought a small hand-painted bowel and a magnet for 6 Euros (of note, it was cheaper here than at the shops outside of Ephesus!)

When we were standing in line to get back on the ship, there was a crew member on line behind us and we overheard on her walkie talkie that 361 guests had not yet returned from their Carnival shore excursions at 3:45pm, but the ship waited for them because we ended up leaving port late, a little after 5pm.

I knew I wanted to ride the water slide at least once on this cruise, so I decided to do it now since I still had 2 hours before dinner, and I was hot and sweaty from touring in 95 degree heat and I wanted to cool off. I climbed all the way up to the top of the water slides and was shocked that not 1 other passenger was there! I rode down the “Twister” yellow slide. It was fun, but I didn’t think it went fast enough. After that, I got showered and ready for dinner.

Pear and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

Steamed Muscles

Prime Rib

Dessert Menu

Variations of strawberries

which went very well alongside the Variations of Chocolate!

After dinner, we went to the show Epic Rock. It is similar to Rock of Ages, with an 80’s rock theme, and I LOVED it! They incorporated very cool visual effects with the video screens behind the actors, and I love 80’s music so it was a lot of fun to watch.

After that, we went to the adult comedy show. We arrived 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start and the lounge was packed!! We ended up sitting on the windowsill because all the other seats were taken. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it was better than standing the whole time. The comedian was okay, but not great. He had a few funny jokes, but I missed a few of them because he mumbled with a British accent, so I just didn’t understand what he was saying.

After that, we went to the piano bar. At first, there were no seats, but people left eventually and we took their seats. Seth was very funny as the piano bar singer, but I wished he would play more upbeat songs and fewer ballads.

When we got back to the cabin, we saw a flyer telling us to change our clocks back 1 hour to get back to the Italy time zone.

Up next: our second and final sea day

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 6: Athens, Greece

September 12, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 12th – Athens, Greece

Today was the first of many early port days, so I woke up to my alarm at 6:15am, got dressed, and ate breakfast up on Lido with a beautiful sunrise as my backdrop.

We were originally supposed to be able to get off the ship starting at 7am, but it was delayed until 7:45am. Luckily, that didn’t impact us much because we were already planning to meet our tour group at 7:45 in the lobby anyway. Once all 12 of us were together, we went down to deck 0 and met our tour guide Kaliope (Kali for short) in the cruise terminal. There’s always something reassuring when you first see that sign with your group’s name and knowing that the guide you booked privately actually showed up haha Kali spoke perfect English and was an excellent guide. She went with us into every attraction, while our driver Nicos stayed with the van so he could drop of off and pick us up at the front entrance to each site.

We loaded up into the van and drove directly to the Acropolis in an attempt to beat the crowds, as there were 7 ships in port today! We arrived at the Acropolis by 8:45am and there were very few people ahead of us in the line to buy tickets.

The tickets cost 12 Euros per person, and included entrance to the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, and the Temple of Zeus. Kali escorted us all over the Acropolis, stopping many times to explain what we were looking at and to give us time to take photos.

You can see in this photo that the crowds were starting to build as we spent our time exploring the Acropolis…

By the time we were ready to leave at 10:45am, there were thousands of people walking up the hill and narrow stairs to enter, so we were really glad we arrived early!

Luckily, Kali had a skill for weaving through the crowds (sometimes against traffic!) and we eventually escaped out to the entrance. The problem was that Nicos couldn’t drive the van up to meet us because of all the big tour buses and heavy traffic, so we had to walk a short distance down the hill to meet him.

After a short drive, we arrived at our next stop, the Temple of Zeus. We re-used our same ticket from the Acropolis and there was no line to enter. Kali escorted us to the only small area of shade as she explained the history of the site, and then we had some time to take photos. By the time we left, there was a huge line to enter because a tour bus had arrived, so we had some pretty good timing thus far!

Our next stop was the Ancient Panathenaic Stadium.

We got back on the bus and drove through Athens to the Prime Minister’s and President’s house just in time to watch the changing of the guards. It was very impressive how well Kali and Nicos timed all of our stops so we arrived just at the right time everywhere we went!

Up next, we drove through the city center and the Plaka to see the market area. We got off the van and walked through the market to eat lunch slightly off the main strip at Hermion Restaurant (per Kali’s recommendation).

We were bummed that we didn’t have time to shop at all the stores we walked passed, but the lunch was very good. I ordered pork souvlaki with a side of tzatziki sauce (my favorite!) The restaurant had a pretty outdoor seating area in the shade, and they were willing to do separate checks (although they had some trouble processing our credit cards!)

After lunch, we continued walking through the city center until we reached the Ancient Agora. We used our combo tickets once more to enter this site, and Kali walked us through to explain everything we saw.

Remember that temple I showed earlier from the view at the Acropolis? Well that is the best-preserved temple in Athens, and it is located down in the Agora, so we got to get up close to it.

Our next stop was a half hour drive up to the top of a hill which offered incredible panoramic views of the entire city.

It was a nice way to round out the day because we had views of all the places we had just visited up close, but I’m not really sure that it was worth such a long detour. By the time we got back down the hill and arrived at the shopping area, it was 3:30pm. Kali suggested we could have 20 minutes to shop, but our all aboard time was 4:30pm and we still had to drive back out to the port and were afraid there might be traffic considering there were 7 cruise ships docked today. We decided it wasn’t worth 20 frantic minutes of shopping to risk possibly missing the ship, so we opted to just drive straight back to the ship. Had I known how the timing would work out, I probably would have preferred to skip the scenic overlook to have more time shopping. Oh well! On the drive back, we passed a few of the venues built for the 2004 Olympics.

We got back to the port at 4pm and spent a few minutes shopping at the duty free stores in the terminal. Then we got back on the ship and got ready for dinner at 6pm.

Dinner Menu:

Prosciutto Ruffles

Sushi

Penne Mariscos

Dessert Menu

Warm Fig, Date, and Cinnamon Cake (one of my favorite desserts of the cruise… it was soooooo good!!)

Strawberry Cheesecake (it was disappointing)

After dinner, mom played a game of bingo (and sadly, she did not win) and then we watched the magician. He was not very good… he repeated the same jokes over and over to fill his hour on stage, so he was funny the first time he did the trick but not every time there after. We then went back to the cabin to unwind and get ready for our next day in Izmir, Turkey!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 5: Sea Day

September 11, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 11 – Sea Day

It was nice to finally have a chance to sleep in and not set an alarm… unfortunately, my body missed the memo and I woke up at 8am (which was really like 7am since we changed the clocks last night). My effort to sleep in was an epic fail, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin my day! Mom and I had talked about going to brunch at noon, so I decided to head down to deck 5 to check out what the Taste Bar had to offer for breakfast. I was hoping they would have an omelet station so I could go there on future port days to avoid the crowds on Lido… no such luck! They only had pastries, french toast, eggs, bacon, hot and cold cereals, and coffee/juice.

After breakfast, I went up to the Serenity deck and was able to get a lounge chair right near the pool at 8:45am. It was getting crowded but since I was by myself, it was easy to find one lounger alone.

I will take this opportunity to talk about Chogs… I stayed up there for about 2 hours, and as time went on, all the chairs were taken and there were several people walking around looking for places to sit. Unfortunately for them, the Chogs were out to play today. There was a whole line of chairs next to where I was sitting and they had books and towels on them for nearly the entire time I was sitting there, but it wasn’t until the very end that anyone actually showed up to sit down (way longer than the advertised 40 minute limit to reserve chairs). I never saw any staff members walk by to monitor this.

At least there were also a good number of people legitimately using their chairs and enjoying their time out on deck.

I never bothered to look for a lounger in the main Lido section, but I snapped this photo on my way back to the cabin at 10:30 and there were tons of open seats. It probably helped that it was a bit cool and breezy this morning so maybe people just didn’t feel like laying out or going in the pool?

I went back to the cabin to get showered and ready for brunch, and we headed down to the aft MDR at around noon. My last Carnival cruise was on the Victory so we did not have the comedy brunch then and I was excited to try the new menu.

I ordered the fruit plate, french toast with frosted flakes crust, hash browns, and turkey bacon.

I was totally stuffed and I only ate half of what they served me! After reading so many reviews before the cruise, I was so curious about the cereal-encrusted french toast and I’m so glad I tried it because I really liked it! It was very sweet and filling though, just a warning haha I wasn’t really hungry for dessert, but I wanted to try the churros so I ordered them anyway. I thought they were way too sweet, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way about anything before haha They were small and crispy- not really what I expected.

Towards the end of brunch, the comedian came on to do his shtick. I had read a lot of negative reviews about this, so my expectations were very low. Surprisingly, the comedian was actually very funny! He talked for about 10 minutes and made several funny jokes. If it’s not your thing, you can easily avoid the comedians because they only come on at the top of each hour, so if you go to brunch at a quarter after the hour, you’ll miss them and probably be done eating before they come back at the next hour haha

We also got some bad news while we were eating brunch… The captain came on the overhead to announce that one of the passengers needed immediate medical attention, and we would be diverting our path to head towards shore where they would tender the passenger to an ambulance which would take him to a hospital. The rumor around the ship was that he had a heart attack, but due to HIPAA, we will never know for sure. Hopefully he is doing okay and got the medical attention he needed. When the captain made the original announcement, he said he would come back later to let us know if and how the detour would affect our arrival in Athens. About 3 hours later, he came back to announce that we had made good timing so far, and we did not have very far to go to reach Athens, so he did not anticipate any delays. Luckily, he was correct and we arrived in Athens as scheduled at 7am the next day! This was our only medical emergency during the 12-day cruise (or at least it was the only one we knew about!)

We had a very active roll call on Cruise Critic before leaving on our vacation, so we set up a few activities for this sea day. We planned a 2-hour open bar (including liquors and beers, with dry snacks also provided) for $20 per person. After that, we also had a regular meet and greet for a third hour in case people wanted to skip the drinking portion. During that hour, we did a gift exchange and we also exchanged money for any privately booked group excursions. I think there were about a third of the group who did the open bar, and then another third of the group came for the last hour when the open bar ended. The last third of the roll call never came to the meet and greet, so I guess they were just too busy having fun elsewhere on the ship! All of this was pre-arranged through Carnival, and they gave us the comedy club lounge for our private use all afternoon. They had 2 servers and one bartender, so there was quite a long wait for drinks, but they didn’t stop us from ordering two (or four!) drinks at a time haha They served the drinks in very small cups and didn’t put much alcohol in them, so I’m sure Carnival still managed to come out ahead on this deal… Here is my Kiss on the Lips:

I had a great time at the meet and greet and was so happy to finally put a face to all the names I had been communicating with for months prior to the cruise. We felt special that they put this sign outside the lounge for us…

After the meet and greet, we went back to the cabin to get changed for formal night.

I was still really full from brunch, but I wasn’t going to miss my one chance to eat lobster for dinner!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Lobster Tail and Shrimp

Dessert Menu

I was so beyond stuffed at this point that I didn’t eat dessert. Oh no! The horror!! I never thought I’d ever come to that point! haha

After dinner, we went to the show lounge at 7:45 and the doors were still closed.

They opened the doors at 8pm and nearly every seat was taken by 8:05pm! It was literally like a stampede of people running for seats… every man for himself! There really are not enough seats in the theater, and that is unfortunate as I know a lot of people look forward to seeing the shows each night but won’t be able to because the theater is too small.

Anyway, tonight’s show was Motor City with a Motown theme. It was great and a lot of fun to watch. Before the show started, they pulled a few people up on stage, but after that, no more photos were allowed.

When the show ended, the dancers took the party out into the lobby and continued with 4 or 5 extra songs.

Today was September 11th. It did feel a bit odd to be having so much fun and singing and dancing on such a somber day, but I really appreciated what the ship did to honor the day. While I was watching the dancers in the lobby, I looked up at the glass elevators and I found this hanging above me…

The flag was HUGE and was hanging from deck 10 so you could see it from several different floors. After the dancers finished in the lobby, we went upstairs to take a few more pictures.

Then we went back to the cabin to get ready for bed as we had an early wake up the next day in Athens.

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 4: Dubrovnik, Croatia

September 10, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 10, 2013

We were scheduled to arrive in Dubrovnik at 10am, so I woke up at 8am to start getting ready. Mom ordered room service on the door tag the night before and it was delivered right on time at 8am. The Lido buffet was very crowded this morning, and the lines were very long for the two omelet stations in the Havana Bar. I ate my breakfast and went back to the cabin to finish getting ready for the day.

We arranged to meet our friends at 9:30am in the lobby bar area on deck 3 so we could share a taxi into town. We went out onto the deck to take some photos as we approached the port… unfortunately, those clouds didn’t look very promising.

We went down to deck zero to wait for them to clear the ship, but they said we had to go back up to deck 1. We were the first to arrive so we just stood near the stairs and waited until they started letting people get off the ship. Soon after, a crew member put up a rope and a line formed behind us. By 10am, there were hundreds of people lining the halls on deck 1, anxiously waiting to get off the ship.

They finally cleared us to exit at 10:10am and we were the first people off the ship. We got a taxi right outside of the gangway, and he quoted us 15 Euros for the 4 of us to go straight to the cable cars. It took about 15 minutes to drive there, and when we arrived, there was a long line already formed. There were one or two other cruise ships also docked in Dubrovnik today, but they arrived much earlier in the morning so even though we were the first people to arrive from the Carnival ship, we still had to wait inline behind them (boooo!).

We pre-purchased our tickets online, but needed to exchange the vouchers for a real ticket at the ticket window.

It took about 30 minutes for us to reach the front of the line, and the cable car ride lasted about 10 minutes. They cram about 30 people in each cable car, and there were two cars running at a time, going in opposite directions. The views were beautiful from the first second we left the gate.

Once we got off the cable car, we spent about 30 minutes enjoying the views. It was much cooler up on top of the mountain, and it was very windy and drizzling rain. They have a few different lookout decks, so we took lots of photos while we were up there. They also have clean bathrooms on the downstairs level.

We had a short wait to get on the next cable car going back down the mountain, and when we reached the bottom, we noticed the line wasn’t very long to go up.

Once we exited the cable car station, we turned right, and then immediately after the bus stop, we turned right again to walk down the staircase.

We kept walking down until we reached a fork in the road where the fort was directly in front of us (there was a Mexican restaurant on our right). At the fork, we turned left and continued down the street about 50 feet until we could see the drawbridge. We entered the city here at the Ploce Gate.

Dubrovnik is a beautiful old city and is very well preserved. Everywhere I turned, there was something else that was interesting to see and photograph. I wish we had docked earlier in the day so we could have spent more time enjoying the city, but instead, we had to quickly walk through town and along the Stradum because we wanted to have enough time to enjoy walking the city walls as well. Here’s a few highlights from Dubrovnik…

I had heard about a great candle store on the Stradum called Candle Kingdom, so I knew I wanted to check it out. The candles were beautiful, and they made them in every different color combination!

They were kind of pricey, but I decided to buy a small one to take home. They list the prices in Euros, but apparently they only accepted payment in their local currency of Kunas, and they did not take credit cards. I had not exchanged any money for Kunas, so the sales lady offered to take my Euros to the exchange place and get the Kunas for me. I think I probably came out ahead by doing it this way because I avoided paying any fees to exchange the money, and I didn’t have to do the running around haha It took her a long time, but she finally came back and I left with my new pretty candle:

The Stradum isn’t very long, but there are also lots of stores lining the side streets. Once we reached the end of the Stradum, we found the Pile Gate where we could enter the top of the city walls. While I was buying my candle, mom and our friends bought some gelato, and they were still eating it when they went to pay for their tickets to the city wall. Apparently it is considered very rude to eat while conducting a transaction like buying your tickets because the guards scolded them! They said that we would find it rude if they were eating when we came in to buy our tickets, so why is it ok if we eat in front of them? Point taken! Everyone quickly finished paying for their tickets and finished their gelato.

After we bought our tickets, we hiked up 87 very steep and narrow stairs to the top of the wall. Literally the minute we got up to the top, the skies opened up and it started pouring! There was no where to seek cover, so we took out our umbrellas and tried not to fall on the wet slippery stone of the city walls.

Luckily, the rain only lasted for about 10 minutes. Bands of dark clouds came and went all day, but this was our only period of heavy rain. It took 1 hour to walk slowly from the Pile to Ploce gate with many stops along the way to take photos. The beautiful red roof tiles contrasted with the blue water, and the views over the cliffs were breathtaking!

There was another side of the wall which would have let us go into the forts, but we decided to skip that part.

At 1:30pm, we walked back down from the wall and took some time to explore the side streets off the Stradum. I needed small bills changed from the 50 Euro bills I got at the ATM, but 2 banks and the currency exchange place all refused to help me. It was very frustrating because we needed small bills to exchange the money for our tours the following day, but there wasn’t much I could do. By 2:30pm, I was starving since I didn’t eat anything since breakfast earlier that morning. I read a few reviews on Cruise Critic saying that you could buy fried calamari in a to-go cup at many restaurants in town, but after searching unsuccessfully, I gave in to the hunger and just got a piece of pizza. This was one of the few times I neglected to take a photo of our food (mostly because I inhaled it within 30 seconds of sitting at our table!!), but it was very good and cheesy.

After eating, we continued along the side street to a jewelry store. I wanted to look at the silver ball charms I learned about on Cruise Critic. They are unique to Dubrovnik and are very pretty. Unfortunately, they cost more than I could afford to spend, so my only souvenir is this photo:

At 3:30pm, we left the city walls through the Ploce gate draw bridge where we originally entered. There was a taxi stand right there and we got right in a taxi with no wait. It cost 15 Euros for all 4 of us to get back to the cruise port. Along the way, the taxi driver drove passed the Pile gate and it was extremely crowded with thousands of people boarding busses and looking for taxis, so I was glad we used the less common exit.

When we got back to the port, our taxi driver would not drive through the port gate, even though we saw several other taxi drivers do it, so we had to walk back. Along the way, there was a large tent set up with several vendors along the pier. They all sold the same generic Dubrovnik souvenirs for about the same price plus/minus 1 Euro. Mom bought a few things, and I found a nice vendor who was willing to change my money for smaller bills. We got back to the ship around 5pm to get ready for dinner.

Here is the dinner menu and what I ate that night:

Chilled Langostino Cocktail

Pita crisps and beef kebab with greek farmers salad

Zuppa di pesce

Grilled NY sirloin steak

Dessert menu

Chocolate and hazelnut tart

Tonight’s entertainment was a comedy hypnotist. He brought about 15 people up on stage and had them do all the standard hypnotist things. We really weren’t sure if the show was that funny because the hypnotist was funny, or because the participants were great. There were 3 people up there who REALLY got in to it, and we were hysterically laughing at their antics for the entire show.

After that, we wanted to see the comedy show, but when we arrived at the lounge, there weren’t any seats left. Instead, we went back to the cabin to kill some time before the deck party. We went up to Lido deck at 11pm and the party was over! There were only 10-15 people left dancing and other than that, it was deserted. Considering it was supposed to start at 10:30, that seemed a bit odd, but we found out later that there were never all that many people there like you see on Caribbean cruises. I was a bit surprised considering the following day was the first sea day, but I guess people just don’t think about line dancing when they’re on a Europe cruise?

Anyway, we were hungry and looked around for a snack, but the Lido buffet had very limited options. Aside from the pizza (which I was avoiding considering how many times I ate it in port and that we would be in Italy for the following week), they only had hot dogs, ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, and brownies. Had we arrived a few minutes earlier, we could have gotten something from the deli, but that closed at 11pm. Mom had some ice cream and I ate a brownie.

Tonight they asked us to set our clocks ahead 1 hour due to the time change heading into Greece and Turkey. It was nice that they scheduled our one hour less of sleep to be on the night going into a sea day when it didn’t matter and we didn’t have to wake up early anyway.

Oh, I just found where I had the cabin bathroom photos…

I also wanted to post a photo from the show lounge…

A few things to note in this photo:

1) It was taken at 8:05pm before the hypnotist show which started at 8:30pm. Notice how full it is already? And this was at the very beginning of the cruise- by the end of the cruise, the entire room was filled and every seat was taken by 8:05pm. Before the cruise, my assumption was that the shows wouldn’t be too crowded because it was such a tiring port-intensive itinerary. Clearly I was wrong!!

2)Notice the curtains along the stairs on the left side of the photo? They were very annoying and partially blocked our view, but they were even more annoying for the people who did not get seats and were standing in the back of the room. The curtains make it so people without seats will only have a partial view of the show. I wish Carnival had thought this through a little better and maybe designed it so the curtains retracted all the way to the top of the stairs, out of view.

3)Notice the columns on the right side of the photo? They also blocked peoples line of sight during the shows. I understand that they are necessary as weight bearing support beams, but it unfortunate that they blocked peoples views and are something you should look out for when picking your seat for the show.

4)The seating on the ground level of the theater is no longer benches- it is now individual chairs. These chairs are a bit wide, so that limits how many can fit in each row. I think there is less seating available now as a result of these chairs, but I don’t know for sure. The chairs do move, and the staff arranged them differently depending on what the show was (they left a large dance floor in the middle during the disco show, and had two raised platforms for the dancers in the Epic Rock show), and they made announcements before the shows starting asking people to not move the chairs from where they were placed. I did see a few people try to carry chairs to near the outer round couches to sit with their friends, but the staff asked them to put the chairs back so I guess they were unsuccessful.

5)On a positive note, I liked how the upper seating area was a really steep incline so you could easily see over the people in front of you. We only sat in this seat for the first show… after that, each night we sat in the first or second row up on the left side of the theater and we always had a great view of the shows (but that’s because we arrived early enough to claim our seats!)

Ok, I think that’s all I have to say about the theater 🙂

Up next: Our first sea day!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 3: Sail Away!

September 9, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 9, 2013

Doge’s Palace in Venice, then Sailing Away on the Carnival Sunshine!

My alarm went off at 6:15am, and I quickly got dressed and headed up to Lido for breakfast.

I had left a lot of time for breakfast because I didn’t know how long the lines would be and I wanted to make sure I was finished eating on time. Since there were very few people eating breakfast that early, I was finished in plenty of time so I walked around taking a few photos of the ship…

Looking down from Lido into the atrium:

Lido deck:

Pour Your Own Beer station in the Lido Buffet area:

Serenity waterfall (they removed the net from the pool a few minutes after I took this photo):

Serenity deck:

I love when the outside decks are totally empty this early in the morning:

Waterslides area on deck 10:

I rode the yellow water slide later in the week… it was fun, but not as fast as I expected:

Sports Deck:

Hot dog stand- I never saw it open, but then again, I doubt I would have eaten a hot dog if it were open at 7:30am haha:

Havana Bar seating area during breakfast (very aft of Lido deck):

I read many positive reviews of the Doge’s Palace Secret Itineraries tour, so I knew I wanted to do that during our time in Venice. Unfortunately, the times of the English speaking tours were all in the mornings so we couldn’t go on Saturday (since our flight didn’t land until 11am) or Sunday (because we boarded the ship that morning). That left us with Monday morning as our only option, but we were a bit nervous about making it back to the ship from St. Mark’s Square before the 1:30pm all aboard time for sail away. The tour was only supposed to be one hour and 15 minutes long, so we booked the 9:55am tour, hoping it would end by 11:30am at the latest. Once the tour ended, we planned to go straight back to the vaporetto and hopefully we would have better timing and be able to make it back to the ship in 2 hours.

The Secret Itineraries tour costs 20.50 Euros, which I thought was a great deal considering it costs 16 Euros just to enter the Doge’s Palace, so the tour only cost an extra 5 Euros. If you want to take the tour, I recommend buying your tickets online in advance because the tours only have 25 people on them, and they do sell out.

We left the ship at 8am and took a free coach bus shuttle to the People Mover to save some energy and time. We rode the People Mover to Piazza Roma, and took the vaporetto route #5.1 around the outside of Venice (as opposed to the #2 route which went through the middle of Venice along the Grand Canal). Route #5.1 was a great option as it only took 20 minutes to reach St. Mark’s Square (3 stops), and it offered beautiful views of Venice and St. Mark’s Square (ironically, we saw the same views from a higher view point later that afternoon during sail away haha)

We arrived at Doge’s Palace at 9:20am for our 9:55am tour. I exchanged our online vouchers for real tickets, and we spent some time exploring the courtyard area. Unfortunately, we did not have much time to view the public areas of Doge’s Palace because they assume people will stick around after the tour to see those rooms, but we did not have time for that because we had to rush back to the ship. Oh well- I guess that’s a good excuse to come back to Venice some other time!

Our tour had about 25 people, and Cynthia was our guide. She offered lots of interesting information, but it was a bit hard to understand her with her accent. We started in the basement of the prison and walked up several flights of stairs, stopping to see a few prison cells on the way, until we reached the palace library. She took us to see Casanova’s cell and explained the story of his time in the prison and how he escaped. We were only permitted to take photos at the very beginning of the tour, but once we reached Casanova’s cell, we had to put our cameras away.

a prison cell:

Not a bad view looking out from one of the prison cells!:

The view looking out from the palace library

I really enjoyed the tour and thought it was worth the extra cost. It was great to be in such a small group and away from the crowds, and I learned a lot of interesting tidbits that I wouldn’t have known without the tour. The tour ended at 11:30am and we walked down the Golden Staircase to exit the palace.

We went back to the vaporetto stop for the last time and took route #5.2 back to Piazza Roma. We arrived at 12:10pm, took the People Mover back to the cruise port, and rode the Carnival free shuttle bus back to the ship. It took nearly one hour to board the ship due to the long lines, and they only had one metal detector opened on the ship which everyone had to pass through. That was very poor planning on Carnival’s part, but I guess they just didn’t have the space in the atrium bar area for more than one metal detector like they do when you board the ship on deck zero. We finally got back on the ship at 1:15pm. All aboard was supposed to be at 1:30pm, but there were still thousands of people on line behind us, and Noonan came on the overhead to announce that muster and sail away would be delayed until everyone was on board.

I went up to Lido for a quick lunch before the muster drill. I really wanted to try the wok at JiJi’s, but the line was super long and I didn’t think I would have time, so I opted for the pasta bar instead. It was okay, nothing great (especially compared to the fantastic al dente pasta I had the night before at the restaurant in Venice!). I ordered my lunch by filling out a paper menu, and it took them nearly half an hour to prepare my food. I brought my lunch back to the cabin to eat with mom- she had ordered a sandwich from room service since her food allergies prevent her from eating at both JiJis and the pasta bar. Here is my lunch:

Muster was held one hour late at 2:30pm. It was a necessary evil, but fairly uneventful. Sail away was originally scheduled for 2pm, but it was delayed until 4pm. Unfortunately, no one passed along that important bit of information to the passengers on the ship, so we all stood around outside for an hour anxiously awaiting sail away!

Finally, at 4pm, we felt the ship start to move! We stood port side on deck 10 and had great views (even though we had seen the same view many times from the vaporettos haha) I must have taken over 100 photos as we sailed around Venice, but I’ll just narrow it down to a few photos to share with you…

Notice the Whale Tail shadow on the water?

We passed St. Mark’s Square within an hour of sailing away, so I went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we chose the early fixed dining time at 6pm because we wanted to have the same wait staff every night because of my mom’s food allergies. We also liked the idea of eating dinner with the same people every night and getting to know them over the course of the cruise. I briefly considered eating at the 8:15pm late seating, but decided against it because I knew we had to wake up early every morning for all of our tours in port, so I thought we would be tired and want to go to bed fairly early at night. By eating dinner early at 6pm, that left us a few hours to enjoy the shows and other activities on the ship before going to bed around 10-11pm each night.

We were seated at a table for 9 in the back of the mid-ship MDR. It felt somewhat strange to eat dinner in a single-story MDR, since I was used to larger two-story MDRs on my previous cruises, but this didn’t really impact our experience. We always had a good view when the waiters did their dance numbers, and we could also see the maitre’d Ken as he sang a song each night before dessert.

Here is the every day menu which is offered every night in the dining room:

And here is tonight’s menu and what I ordered for dinner:

Mom ordered the chilled peach cream soup for her appetizer. I love how they pour it into the bowl right in front of you!

Smoked Duck

Fried Shrimp

Seafood Newburg

Dessert Menu

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (my favorite! of course I had to order it on our first dinner in the MDR!!) and the Bitter and Blanc:

After dinner, we went to the casino for a few minutes, then played 3 games of trivia in the comedy club lounge. The first game was Rock and Roll trivia, then movie quotes trivia, and the last game was the most fun… they used the video screen to show two celebrity faces combined into one picture, and we had to guess which two celebrities it was. Here is one that everyone knew immediately:

A lot of the pictures were hard to decipher, so we only got about half the questions correct. Oh well! After that, we walked around the ship a little more, then headed back to the cabin to get ready for bed.

When we got back, this little guy was waiting to say good night!

Up next: Dubrovnik, Croatia!

Cruise

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 2: Venice

September 8, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 8, 2013

Sunday, September 8th – Embarkation Day!!!

After months of planning, embarkation day finally arrived!!! We started the day with a great breakfast at the hotel. They set up a buffet with meats, cheeses, eggs (which were too runny), thick cut bacon, sausage, and lots of breads.

The hotel concierge said that there was a supermarket just up the street which opened at 8:30am, so we walked the two blocks there in search of soda and wine to bring on the ship. Sadly, when we arrived, they were closed! Apparently they sometimes decide to stay closed on Sundays, and this was one of those days.

We continued further up the street to get euros from the ATM, then returned to the hotel to pack up our bags and check out. We pre-booked a car from Venice Transfers to pick us up at 10am. Sun Transfers only provides transfers to and from the airport, so we couldn’t use them to get to the cruise port, but that turned out to be a good thing because I was much more impressed with Venice Transfers. Our driver arrived 15 minutes early and came into the hotel lobby to find us. He dropped us off right in front of the cruise port by 10:15am. We handed our big suitcases to the porters, and proceeded up the escalators into the cruise terminal.

There were only a handful of people there this early, and we were given a card for zone 4. Check in started a few minutes later, and our zone was called to check in at 10:45am. Next, we put our bags through the x-ray machines and walked up the ramps onto the ship. They took our photos for the Sign and Sail cards, and we were in the deck 3 lobby by 11am! The whole process was totally painless and moved very quickly. Since we were right there and there was no line, we stopped at Guest Services to request a mini-fridge for the cabin and to ask a few other questions. Then we went up to our cabin, but it was not ready yet. We found our steward Yalena and she said it would be okay if we left our carry on bags in the closets and put a few things in the safe until she was finished cleaning the room. We went up to Lido for lunch and ate our only Guy’s burgers for the entire cruise. One of the few downsides to such a port-intensive itinerary was that we only had 2 chances to eat lunch on the ship, so I knew I wanted to try a Guy’s burger this day. It was very good and really lived up to the hype.

We left the ship around 1pm and walked to the People Mover in 10 minutes. A word of caution- do not try to cut through this parking lot:

There is a fence around the parking lot which blocks you from getting to the People Mover entrance. You can see the raised track and station behind the parking lot in that photo. For those of you who don’t know, there is a water canal separating the cruise port from the main part of Venice, so you need to ride the People Mover to get into Venice (or you can walk a very round about path which takes a really long time… no thanks!!). It costs 1 Euro per ride, and runs very frequently. There are only 3 stops, with Piazza Roma on one end, the cruise port in the middle, and Tronchetto on the other end, and the ride is literally 2 minutes long. Since it was still very early, there weren’t many people on the People Mover with us…

We exited the People Mover at Piazza Roma and walked across the street to the vaporetto stop. Vaporetto routes #1 and #2 both run the length of the Grand Canal… #1 makes all local stops and takes a long time, but #2 makes limited stops at the major touristy areas. We took route #2 to the Rialto Bridge stop. While we were onboard, a lady came around to make sure we validated our tickets, so make sure you remember to do that or they might charge a fine.

It was very crowded near the Rialto Bridge, so we took a few photos and continued on our way.

With all of my research, I kept reading that one of the best things to do in Venice is to get lost in the back streets and canals. I knew we wanted to walk from the Rialto Bridge to St. Mark’s Square, but was not exactly sure how to get there aside from a vague idea of the direction we needed to go. We found a back road with tons of small shops and restaurants, and kept following the signs pointing the way “Per Marco”

We kept walking until we saw this…

We found St. Mark’s Square!!

We walked around the square for a few minutes, and stared in amazement as we watched a man lay face first on the ground in a sea of pigeons! Some things, I will never understand!!

We had an hour and a half until our scheduled time to enter the Basilica, so we decided to have a drink at Harry’s Bar. Harry’s Bar is located on the water, just a block or two off from St. Mark’s Square. To get there, we walked along a street with stores for every high end fancy designer we could think of! We did a little window shopping as we walked down the street, and eventually found this:

It is a tiny bar, but there were a few open tables, so we sat down and ordered prosecco and bellinis.

Once we finished our drinks, we walked back along the water until we reached the Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge where you stand to have a good view of the Bridge of Sighs:

Before leaving for Venice, we booked a skip the line ticket to St. Mark’s Basilica for an entrance time between 4:05 and 4:15pm. It was a good thing we did this because the line to enter was HUGE! The skip the line tickets cost 1.50 Euro (it is free to enter if you wait in the long line without tickets), but it was definitely worth the small fee to not waste our time standing in line.

Mom was carrying a small backpack, and they forced her to check it at their bag check location around the corner from the Basilica. We were allowed to bring in our purses and cameras (no flash allowed). They also enforced the dress code to keep our shoulders and knees covered. I knew it would be hot for most of our port cities, so I did not want to have to wear capris or pants all day just to meet the dress code at the handful of churches we wanted to visit. To solve this problem, I bought a lightweight tea-length black skirt and folded it up into a small pouch which I kept in my purse for the entire trip. Whenever we got to a church which required my knees to be covered, I slipped the skirt on over my shorts and instantly met the dress code (and I folded the skirt back into its pouch as soon as we left the churches so I wouldn’t get too overheated hehe)

Rick Steves was a huge help in planning this vacation. I bought the Mediterranean Cruise Ports book and cut it apart to make mini booklets to carry in each port city. We also both downloaded his iPhone app because he has a bunch of audio walking tours which I find to be more convenient than reading the information in his tour books. There was an audio guide for St. Mark’s Basilica, so we listened to Rick as we walked through the church. We actually found the guide to provide too much information, so we stopped listening halfway though. It was extremely hot inside the church, and we were both very sweaty, so I think that also contributed to our decreased interest. We opted not to pay the extra fee to see the treasury room, but if I went again, I would probably see that room as we saw photos that our friends took and it looks beautiful in there! Here are a few pictures from St. Mark’s Square/Basilica:

After we left the Basilica, mom picked up her backpack from the baggage storage room, and we walked back to the San Zaccaria vaporetto stop to take the #2 route to San Giorgio island.

The vaporetto stop is right outside the huge church, so we walked right in and headed to the back to buy our tickets to go up in the tower. The tickets cost 6 Euro each and they were well worth it for the amazing panoramic views! I considered going up in the Campanile in St. Mark’s Square, but decided this would be a far better option because there were no crowds, and you can’t see a view of the Square if you are IN the Square haha

Notice the Whale Tail popping up in the far left side of the horizon?…

The church itself was quite beautiful as well, so we spent about an hour exploring the church and enjoying the views from on top of the tower.

I loved the mosaic tiles on the floors all over Europe!

We took the same vaporetto back to St. Mark’s Square and walked around looking for somewhere to eat dinner.

One of the best parts of doing an overnight on the ship in Venice is that it allowed us to eat a local dinner, and to see the city at night! We found a great little restaurant towards the back of the Basilica and they offered a price fixe dinner for 18 Euros.

Spaghetti with mussels, zucchini, and shrimp:

Mixed Fried Fish:

Apple Pie (I don’t like tiramisu, so they let me order something else haha):

By the time we finished dinner, the sun had set and all the lights were lit around St. Mark’s Square.

I also wanted to see the Grand Canal at night, so we took vaporetto #2 back to Piazza Roma and enjoyed the peaceful nighttime views.

Once we reach Piazza Roma, we walked back to the People Mover and rode that back to the cruise port, and then made the 10 minute walk back to the ship. We were back on board by 9:30pm, and spent the rest of the night unpacking and getting settled in the cabin. We finally got to bed at around midnight after a long but exciting day in Venice.

Dana's Destination Diary

Tag Archives: vacation

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 11: Rome, Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 10: Naples, Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 9: Messina, Sicily

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 8: Sea Day

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 7: Izmir, Turkey

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 6: Athens, Greece

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 5: Sea Day

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 4: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 3: Sail Away!

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 2: Venice

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