Starting Over with the Bloody Marys

Today was a good one! In this vindication cruise, Mykonos day is where it all gets set right. 

4 years ago, I was sitting on the pool deck, sipping a Bloody Mary, when my cabin steward came to find me and put me in quarantine. 

So this morning, we ordered Bloody Marys at breakfast- determined to have a full reset! We ran into Mike and Diana in line for a table so they joined us and before long Ginny came down to eat, too. 

There was one problem, however. The weather forecast said it was going to be 60 degrees- which was ok. But, it also said the winds would be blowing at 50 MPH. I thought surely that must be a typo. I mean. 50? FIVE ZERO? Come on.

The good news was, that was indeed wrong. The bad news was, it was 42 MPH. That’s pretty darn hard to walk comfortably in and is honestly just a bit miserable all around.

HOWEVER - we were going to shore, darn it! The others decided to skip in since they’d all been before and I think I would have too in the same conditions.

There weren’t many who went ashore, I have to say! But the shops and restaurants were all open. We meandered around through the adorable little “streets”- which were sometimes not wider than about a foot more than my shoulder span! All the cute blue painted doors, flowers blooming like crazy, brightly colored scarfs and towels for sale blowing around outside the shops. 

We popped into several shops and bought some things- including baklava! I had a terrific sample in one shop. Such a treat. While in there, the shop worker offered a sample to another man who walked in. Here’s how it went:

Lady: Would you like some baklava?

Man: What’s that?

Lady: Baklava!

Man: Say it in English

Lady: Baklava!

HA! He was a good sport and tried it. 

Next, we set out looking for a cafe to sit and linger (our favorite activity) while dining on what was sure to be amazing Greek food. The challenge was finding one that was somehow still outside but not directly in the wind. We went round and round and finally found a few that would work. 

An interesting thing about the cafe culture in Europe is that there is always an older gentleman standing outside by the posted menu to greet people walking by and inviting them in. It’s not pushy or weird - it’s common. We’ve gotten used to it and even enjoy asking them a question or two. One question is always, “Do you have local wine?” The answer is always an emphatic exhale and, “OF COURSE!” Followed by a sweeping arm welcoming us to a table. 

The wait staff are also almost always older men. They are constantly on the move- squeezing in between tables effortlessly while carrying plates of food and glass of wine. They are generally quiet and efficient. Something like, “You are ready to get food, yes?” And you tell them and they leave. 

We ordered a bottle of Greek Chardonnay, some fava beans, and some anchovies. We are obsessed with eating all the small fishes while in Europe. After awhile, we had chicken souvlaki and a pork gyro. Too much food but we just wanted to try so many things and thankfully, normally the portion sizes here aren’t American sized:) What a stinking delight.

Then, we refused dessert but a tiramisu was delivered anyone and sorry…when in Rome and all that. And then, our waiters showed up with their local digestif- 4 little shot glasses for us to enjoy together, which of course we did. 

We then waddled back to the ship trying to not get sand blasted in our faces or blow off the pier! 

Our buddy Stefan, the sommelier, pinged us on WhatsApp to figure out where we’d be dining that night. Thankfully, we had reservations at the Hot Pot (like a fancy soup place) that night and nothing big like the steak house. Definitely not going to be hungry! Anyway, while we were seated in there, Stefan came cruising by with a bottle he wanted to share with us. HOLY COW was it delicious. It was a special partnership between a legendary French winery and one in Mendoza, Argentina. Absolutely incredible- what a delightful treat. 

At this point, we must have finally become our vacation selves because we somehow stayed up till midnight listening to the house band in the piazza. We probably needed that much time to digest so I guess it all worked out. 

Somehow, the following day we arrived in Athens which meant the first week was up and a whole lot of people were disembarking. This is always an interesting situation when you are staying on board. You never know what the instructions will be as they vary by country. This looked pretty simple - they give you pieces of paper that say “passenger in transit” or something similar to show when you are coming back in so that you don’t have to go through the whole initial onboarding process again along with all the new passengers just arriving. 

We didn’t have an excursion planned so we figured we would wait for all the people to clear out and then grab a hop on hop off bus (HOHO) to take us around town. Rich and Ginny were going to do the same so we had some loose plans to find them for that. 

Cognac, Turkey, and Tuscan Dinners

 We had another sea day, which we were thrilled about, and decided to go back to the brunch in the dining room because it was so delicious, but as we were reading the little newspaper for the ship before we went, we realized that there was going to be a cognac tasting at noon and that sounded different and interesting so we thought why not! we’ll go in there after we have breakfast. We went and hilariously, it ended up being just the two of us and this very lovely young man from Brazil named Yuri. We had texted Rich and Ginny to see if they wanted to come and before long Ginny came walking in so then it was the three of us . I asked Yuri where he was from in Brazil and he said São Paulo and I said I have been. He asked me if I liked it and I said I absolutely loved it and I bet that when I was there he wasn’t born yet so he said well when were you there? I said I was there in 1993 and 1994 and he said I was born in 94 and I said amazing — I was in São Paulo present for your birth in 1994 !!! and now here we are today tasting cognac together in the Mediterranean! What a life!

I’m trying to do some more laundry and this is quite the event as I said the other day. So all day on our sea day, I kept getting all of my laundry and walking all the way down the hall only to find all the washers full. So finally, I went down a floor and then another floor and then I went up a floor and then I went all the way up to 17 because those people up there get free laundry but even there the washing machine was full so I gave up came back to the room hand washed two sweaters, all of jason’s socks and all of our underwear and we got all of that hanging up in our shower. I will tell you I’m writing this three days later and my sweaters are still wet, which is a shame because today it is chilly and exceedingly windy and I do not have a sweater to wear.

That said, the morning before we went ashore in Kusadasi, I was able to get a washing machine. So we were able to catch up on all of the laundry, and when I put it in the dryer, I threw all the rest of our underwear and socks in there to finally get dry. Unfortunately, my sweaters can’t go in the dryer so they are still hanging up. Moments like this are frustrating, but it does make you appreciate how easy it is to simply clean your clothes when you’re at home. Also, I met a lady in the laundry room who was waiting for my washer who lives in Gilroy, California, which is just two hours up the road from us on the 101. Small world.

Anyway… We went back to Kusadasi, where in 2022 we last toured Ephesus and enjoyed all of the history and oddly saw 18 million cats, but this time we just wandered into town, looked around, ate some amazing seafood— definitely the best octopus I’ve ever had in my life, drank a great bottle of local white and enjoyed a lazy day in the port.

We had a five course wine pairing dinner that Rich and Ginny went to with us that night. The sommeliers were back in action though sometimes in those  things even though they use a microphone, it’s hard to hear so I’m not entirely sure what all we drank, but I did like it. The food was mostly good, although there was a little bit of a strange first course. It was beautiful looking but a little bit odd. But, for my main course, I selected the fish and it was hands-down the best fish I’ve ever had in my entire life— truly unbelievable.

After that, we wandered around and went back to try to hear a little more live music. This is something we always like doing, but the ship is so crowded. It’s just a little bit unfortunate. We also were trying to find the lovely lady that had served us a drink earlier when we had run out of small bills and we weren’t able to tip her. Most people on the ship do not tip. They certainly don’t tip for every drink or service. But we try to even if it’s just a dollar or so we know it really makes a difference to the workers and the huge big smiles they get are rewarding for us, too. A couple cruises ago during the Covid times when the crew was constantly scrubbing and sanitizing every surface, Jason started tipping those workers who were definitely not used to getting a tip and holy cow!! Their whole face would light up when he would walk up and say thanks for the hard work you’re doing and give them a tip. So we’re still doing that. We saw a guy on his hands and his knees with a toothbrush, scrubbing the baseboards, and Jason gave him a tip. And then we saw a lady down on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floors, same thing. We’re thankful that we’re able to do so and we’re having a nicer vacation because of the work that they do.

Sea Days, Crete, and Broken Bottles of Red

 We were up for our first sea day and if you know us you know that we were thrilled. We had a slow morning going and then ventured into our dining room for brunch. While there, Ginny texted that she got us seats at the wine tasting which was about to start so we hustled right over there. We were wanting to meet the sommeliers, so this was a good chance as they’d all be there. 

The tasting was pretty good and we did indeed meet all 5 Somms on board and figure out where they are all stationed in the evenings. We have been sad about the wine list on this ship. Not only if there no wine bar- we miss you, Vines!, but the selection is pretty lacking especially by the glass. Usually you find different wines in different bars around the ship, but this is pretty standardized. That’s a bummer, too. I mean, we’re not letting it get us down…I’m just noting it.

From there, we cruised on into the art auction to meet the art team. This cruise is not too into actually bidding it seems. Pretty dead crowd. There isn’t a nice space for the auctions- it’s in the back of a restaurant so the lighting isn’t great and sometimes the art is directly behind a post and you can’t see it🤣

We took naps and then headed back out to listen to a little music and have a glass of wine before dinner. Easy and chill day- minus the seas, which were not chill! We were rocking and rolling for most of the day but thankfully, I didn’t get sea sick! Woot! 

The next morning, we had an excursion with the whole Malbec crew in Crete. Unfortunately, Jerry hasn’t been getting around too well and this trip said no mobility devices so he and Sue had to cancel. The rest of us went to a working farm where they make olive oil, wine, and honey. It was a lovely spot and we had a snack of fresh veggies and bread and olive oil. We got to try their local appertif, which was strong!  We met an awesome family- an aunt and her niece and nephew- who sat across from us at the table. We enjoyed talking to them. The olive oil was fresh and delicious!

From there, we traveled into town and went to a beautiful restaurant for a wine tasting. The sommelier talked us through 5 wines, which we really enjoyed. We grabbed the two whites to bring back onto the ship to share with Sue and Jerry since they missed it. We had a little time in town and it was so cute- tons of little shops and open air cafes. As always, I wished we had more time to visit them all. Diana had a frozen (Greek) yogurt and said it was delicious!

When we got back on the ship, we popped over to the Buffett and grabbed a sandwich to share. We realized we hadn’t eaten much! There is a small but stocked area of grab and go sandwiches and salads. Such a nice to have thing. 

The Malbec crew all ended up in the private sun deck for sanctuary guests. There is a lovely wall of ivy with a bell. When you ring it, a small door opens and a white gloved hand appears with a glass of champagne! 🍾 everyone else was ready for dinner early, but our snack was messing us up! We decided to go anyway to be with the crew. We had a special surprise up our sleeves so this seemed like the right time. 

Now you probably know that when we travel, we always bring a wine suitcase. It works really well and we’ve never had any trouble. This time we brought 12 bottles and when Jason went to open the suitcase to unpack it, we very quickly realized there was some broken glass. A very large scene then unfolded while we tried to get the suitcase out onto the patio, carefully pick up all the glass shards and pieces, wash all the non-broken bottles and get them put away, and figure out where the heck did all the wine go from the bottle that broke??? Also, why did it break? It’s never happened before. We realize that that one side of the suitcase wasn’t fully strapped down. Now the suitcase has already been through a lot on this trip as you know. It’s been loaded on and off of a gazillion planes it’s been in several countries. There’s a whole lot of opportunity for somebody who have opened it and then not properly re-secured it. The bummer is we don’t know who so there’s really no one to ask for reimbursement from. I also feel bad for whatever took the brunt of a full bottle of red wine leaking onto it. Cause the wine wasn’t still in the suitcase.

That said most of the rest of the bottles were fine. There was one however, that was cracked around the cork, and it looked like the cork itself was holding the whole thing together. So when we met the sommeliers earlier, Jason asked one of them if we brought this in if they would be able to help us pull the cork out and filter the wine in such a way that we could guarantee that nobody would be drinking glass shards. They said bring and we’ll try it. 

So, we showed up at dinner with this precarious bottle of wine and we found Stefan the sommelier and sure enough he was able to uncork it and get it filtered. We, of course, gave him a small glass to try and he loved it and we knew from that moment on we would be best friends.🙌🤣🍷 welcome to Nicora, Stefan!

4 years later…Sorrento, Again! (And, Pompeii)

Now this is the morning I’ve been waiting for… So excited to return to Sorrento after four years. When we were last here, it was the spring of 2022. Covid was still very much alive and, in fact, we were on the first cruise ship to cross the Atlantic and things were just starting to open back up. We loved our time in Sorrento, even though most things — little shops and cafés — were not yet open again, but the little town was just an absolute delight and we remember thinking we have to come back here. Today’s the day.

When you have an excursion on a cruise ship, you always have a meeting place to get to by a certain time in the morning. We have to be at a dining room at 8 AM to wait for our bus to be called. We made our way down there with no problems in just a few minutes later our number was called. We headed out to the bus got on board and started on our way with the most spectacular guide a young man named Aldo.

We spent the morning in Sorrento exactly the way we had been envisioning. We retraced some of our walking steps and found the cute little British pub where we had a cappuccino. We did not have a cappuccino today but we stopped for this selfie.

Then, we meandered the lovely little alleys ways of shops and restaurants until we found our favorite Limoncello shop. We told the owner about our visit 4 years ago and he was thrilled for the repeat visit - like any small business owner would be. We bought a few bottles. 

Then, we marched along remembering the route from the recesses of our minds until we found the little Italian bottle shop we also visited last time. A sweet man came to greet us- but he was significantly younger than the kind man we worked with last time. Jason said, “Last time we were here…there was another gentleman…?” The nice man said, “Ah, yes, that’s my father. He’s still with us but he works less!” Wonderful!

We had a delightful conversation and then he helped us sort out a case of wine to ship home. What a stinkin’ delight. Another dream coming true. 

From there, we headed back to the main intersection in town and grabbed a great table in the cafe to people watch, drink wine, and greet all the dogs walking by. Our absolutely favorite thing about European culture is the cafe scene. Outdoors. People linger. No rush. Sit for hours and hours, if you want. So relaxing and easy.

As we sat there, we saw tons of cruise people and eventually, Rich and Ginny. When Ginny came up, she said, “Can i have a sip of your water? I’m so thirsty!” As I was saying yes, of course, she said, “I mean, take precaution, you know I have the clap.” And we all died laughing but then she quickly had to backpedal because the people at the table behind us heard that so she said,  “Just kidding! I don’t have the clap for real!!””

We enjoyed a terrific margarita pizza in the place where it was invented (Napoli!) and a shareable Caesar salad. 

Such a simple dream - but a dream nonetheless. I still hope we can return and spend a few nights there locally. Visit every shop and eat a bite or have a drink at every restaurant. The whole town is an absolute joy. 

By then, it was time to find the bus again and head to Pompeii. Last time we were here, we went to a winery and olive orchard just on the side of Mount Vesuvius - but we did not go to Pompeii. We had a terrific walking tour around something  like only 2% of the place. Apparently, most of it is still undiscovered underground. Aldo said they know this and are ok with it- leaving some discovery for future generations. Also, expecting at some point that another explosion will occur and further bury things.Amazing to hear things talked about in this way - delayed gratification and being ok with leaving some things untouched. So not the way we’d do it. And, so lovely. 

Pompeii is definitely one of those places that you learn about in school and somehow in your brain you know it’s real but you can’t really understand it in a real way because there is just nothing else like it in our lifetimes that we see with our own eyes. And yet, there I was, standing in it. Seeing the “leftovers” was shocking but also somehow unreal. Like it could have all been a movie set. Hard to imagine this is the reality of the place I grew up learning about. And this is why travel matters so much! 

We enjoyed our tour - surprised once again at how close we could get. There weren’t ropes and security guards and cameras. Our guide simply walked us around and through things, telling stories as we went. It was haunting and chilling and amazing all at once. 

With that, it was time to head back to the ship. We’d worn our selves out with the joy of retracing our steps and doing the things we’d been dreaming about…and then some. One thing I continue to love about cruising is the simplicity of having all your things stay in one place that you can come home to every afternoon. It felt good to head home after a great day on shore.

We popped into Crooners to grab a glass of wine on the way to the room and wouldn’t you know- our floor 10 for the win friends showed up, too! We finally found out their names, Shawn and Louise. And in the most unexpected event, walking talking, Louise told a story that involved her saying chlamydia! Jason leaned over to Shawn and said, “this might seem hard to believe but we’ve been here 2 days and already talked about the clap 3 times!”

Sun Princess Day 1, Sailing to Naples

Note: photos won’t load again. This platform honestly sucks for blogging. I just hate to think about changing now!

Now we have a very specific course of action when we first board the ship. We know that our state rooms probably aren’t ready because God bless the room stewards who have to get all of the previous passengers out, clean all the rooms and get prepared for the new passengers, all within a 5 to 8 hour window, let’s say. 

But, we’ve learned that if you are a super nice courteous human you have a really good shot of at least dropping by the room to politely ask if you could just simply tuck your bags into the closet and then immediately leaving so that you don’t stay in their way. Even better if you meet your room Steward— tip early. Now you’re in their good graces and they know you mean business. So that’s what we did. We met Lino who was lovely and we dropped our bags!

Right before we dropped the bags we added one new thing into the boarding process… we stopped by the laundry room and threw a load of laundry in. There was one washing machine available and we were overjoyed to find it. It’s always good to start the week with all of your clothes available. I’ll have you know that the ship is more than double the size of the last ship we were on, but they did not increase the number of washers and dryers. So there are two washers and two dryers available for guests on each floor and there are hundreds of people on each floor. It’s really a crap shot on whether you will be able to wash or not. 

While in the laundry room, another couple popped in and we really enjoyed chatting with them while they waited for a machine. They’ve been traveling for a month already and were from Australia. as we left, the guy shouted out, “floor 10 for the win!” I had a feeling we would probably be fast friends. ( our cabins are all on floor 10)

With those things done, and with our alarm securely set so we didn’t become those jerks that leave their stuff in the washing machine, we took off for the most important onboarding task, and that is -finding the bar to have our first gin and tonic.

I have to say we were feeling a bit, overwhelmed and even slightly confused because our princess vessel of choice is the regal. We’ve spent more than 50 days on her and we know every nook and cranny like the back of our hands. This ship is new and as I mentioned twice the size. I write this even two days later and I still haven’t quite figured out whether I’m coming or going.

Anyway, we did a very quick lap on all of the decks with bars and restaurants and entertainment, and found ourselves up on 17 aft on a gorgeous open air sun deck. There were maybe four other people out there and this was starting to look like a winner. We grabbed our gin and tonics and sat down on super comfy chairs and finally felt like we could take a deep breath. 

Sue had dropped by the Crown Grill to ask if they could squeeze us all in for dinner at five. Everyone had a reservation at that time already except for us because we always do everything late so by the time we went to book ours, we couldn’t get it until 8 o’clock. But Sue worked some magic and next thing you know we were all meeting up at five for dinner. The Crown Grill is a specialty restaurant, which means if you don’t have a separate package, you would need to pay extra to eat here. You can always eat for free at a bunch of different places, the main restaurants, the buffet, some other little pop-up places like a pizza grill outside by the pool. But on this ship, there’s also 5 to 10 specialty restaurants. They’re really nice when you start to get bored of the same old thing over and over again. That might seem strange if you haven’t cruised for longer cruises, but when you’re on a ship for a month, you really can wear out on some things. Anyway, we have the highest level package, which in addition to free drinks of all kinds, including specialty coffees up to higher-end liquors, it also allows us to eat in the specialty restaurants for free. “Free”. 🤣

We were sitting there waiting for everyone to show up and all the sudden there came Ginny and Rich around the corner and we hadn’t yet seen and it was awesome to see them again! With that the Malbec crew was reunited and we went to enjoy our meal. Sue and Jerry had graciously brought three bottles of wine that they purchased the day before in Montepulciano where we were supposed to have been wine tasting with them except we had to cancel because of our continued delays. We had a great meal and a great time catching up. 

One hilarious  moment occurred while we were dining. And that was Mike who loves to joke around with everyone asked Ginny what she had bought at a certain port on her previous cruise. She didn’t hear him so he said again what did you get there? And Rich immediately said, “she got the clap.” The whole table roared with laughter. (Note: she did not get the clap)

After, everyone kind of split up and went different ways we popped by the O’Malley‘s Irish pub with Ginny and Rich and listen to a little music and had another glass of wine. Wouldn’t you know that our laundromat friends came in and sat down next to us? See! I knew it! 

The Irish music was awesome. But, the place is a little small, the doors were closed, and I was a little too tired for music that loud! We grabbed our glasses and headed up to the room to unpack unwind and hopefully get a great night sleep. We knew we had to be up early for an excursion the next day to one of our favorite cities in the whole world - Sorrento! 😍❤️🙌

24 Hours in Rome…Sort Of

So, where we left off, I was sitting in the lobby drinking a Prosecco and Jason was taking a nap. We had 24 hours more or less in Rome, and I am confident that if you were full of energy, enthusiasm, and spunk, you could see a whole lot of room in 24 hours. In fact, last time I was here I did see a whole lot of Rome in 24 hours. So what I’m about to tell you about this 24 hours is not really a recommendation for how to proceed, should you ever be given this chance. But it is exactly what we needed.

When I finished the Prosecco, I went back up to the room to check on Jason. Mostly because I figured if he didn’t get up soon, he again would not be able to sleep all night. But when I got into the room, he was up and in the shower. 

I decided to walk around and check out the executive lounge which we get access to because of Jason status with Marriott. If you remember in some of our recent travels, we love having this access because we can often eat 1 to 2 meals a day for free in there and especially when traveling internationally get free drinks in the evening. This saves us hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the course of longer trips. So this executive lounge was down in the basement and it wasn’t very big, but it was well appointed. They had a really nice coffee machine so we got some delicious fancy Italian coffee. They had a bucket of ice so we were able to get ice water which is sometimes a feet over in Europe. They had several bowls of fruit out and multiple glass jars of nuts and savory snacks. We weren’t quite hungry enough for a snack, but figured we’d pop in later and see what they were serving for dinner.

Sure enough, later when we went there was a full spread. Certainly enough to make a meal out of. We had gone to the lobby bar first because they gave us a free drink coupon when we checked in so we thought we would see what they had. When we’re in Europe, we’d love to just say give us a local white or red because we’ve never had a bad one yet. So we went with a local White and it was delicious. Back down in the executive lounge. It was now so crowded. We had to go outside to sit. But the fresh air honestly it’s probably exactly what we needed, and there were only one or two other tables sitting outside. We sort of appreciated the garden area in the back for lack of a better word which was not perfectly maintained. it just looked like a regular grassy area with lots of trees. But of course it’s Italy so the trees are oranges olives, lemons, some other fruit trees we couldn’t quite identify. And while we were sitting there eating this plate of delicious free food and drinking some delicious free wine all of a sudden we noticed that there were a bunch of cats.

Yes, cats. So we decided to walk around the property looking for cats. We found this cute little guy laying under an orange tree.

We called it early and headed to the room to relax and attempt a good night’s sleep. One thing I can say about all this travel disruption, we weren’t jet lagged. We didn’t know what day or time it was but whatever it was, we were ok.

The next morning, we had to be up and at it because we hired a private car to pick us up at the hotel at 9:30 to make the drive to the port city where we’d catch the ship. We did ok with sleep- not great, but better. We enjoyed an amazing European breakfast spread- something we have learned to absolutely love over here. So much fresh goodness. Every bite delicious! Always some massive vat of Nutella. Coffee- amazing. US hotels have so much to learn with their powdered eggs, subpar coffee, and store packaged danishes and bagels with no flavor.

Our man Emanuele was there 15 minutes early with his car. I know this because he started texting me a lot in WhatsApp. Are you here? Are you out here? You know - I appreciate that he’s early and he’s eager. I’m not mad!! 

The drive was only an hour. Traffic - nope. As we cruised into Civitavecchia, I was looking around and could remember parts of it from our days here before. Precious memories, for sure. Fun fact, it was in Rome- when a freak snow storm popped up while we stood at the Coliseum, when I believe I came down with COVID. By the end of that day, my teeth were chattering so hard I couldn’t stand it. So glad to be back having a completely different experience. 

The most amazing thing then happened - we got out of the car at 10:45 or so. Boarding begins at 11 and if you’ve ever seen or heard or been a part of this, you know that sometimes it’s just a disaster. Well. Joyfully, this wasn’t that.

We walked in, got in  line, and immediately Jason noticed we were right behind Diane and Mike, and Jerry and Sue- most of our beloved Malbec crew. YAY for great reunions. Hugs all around. We all went through security and check in and then we were literally walking on the ship by 11. The best check in EVER.

I’ll write about our first days on the ship tomorrow.

Oh man does it feel good to have made it ship side!