Day 23, 12/10 – Nassau, Bahamas

It was nice to see land again although we did have a very nice crossing.  The sun was still shining and it was a beautiful day.

We all met in the lounge and walked off the ship about 9:30.  We caught a water taxi over to Atlantis and walked around for a few hours.

We have been there many times so I’ll post some pics taken during  our day in Nassau.

We received new Diamond pins because of the big RCL December Diamond celebration.  Tonight is formal night, then one more day at sea before we arrive in Galveston.

The guys and gals on our adventure

Atlantis

The aquarium in Atlantis

Two more days at sea

Days 20-22, 12/7-12/9 – At Sea

We have had calm seas and following winds the entire cruise.  I have not used my sea bands or any bonine. 

Our trivia marathon is over and we bombed the last game so we came in 5th.  The winners were taken to Portofinos for dinner! ugh, last year when we won we got a bottle of champagne.  We had a barrel of fun and enjoyed every second.

Del’s olympic team is still going for the next two sea days.

Lots of fun to be had in the concierge each night.  The food had been ok. 

Lots of big groups on board.

We booked the Galapagos trip for March 25, 2011.  Crucon has a deal going and Del has always wanted to go.  Four other couples will be going with us.  We fly to Quito, Ecuador and spend a fabulous week in the Galapagos Islands on a 100 person ship called the Expedition.  So looking forward to that one.

View from our aft balcony in the middle of the Atlantic

In the concierge having a good time

 

Tomorrow -  Land Ahoy:  Nassau

Days 17-19, 12/4-12/6 – At Sea

The weather has been beautiful and the seas calm.  It’s almost like we aren’t on a ship.  We’ve had lots to do and the days go by fast.

The CSI lectures have really been interesting – learning all about DNA, what it is, how they find it, what they do with it.  Today we learn about how some cold cases have been solved.

Del stays for NASA lectures while I go to the trivia marathon.  We are now in 4th place a happy as there are about 25 teams.

Del has joined the Olympics again this year – mini golf, longest drive, ping pong, and other very hard athletic games. :)  They have a fun team and having a fun time.

I won $120 in the casino one day but they haven’t paid off since. :(

We had a bridge tour – they are beginning to let everyone tour the bridge again.  You can take pictures but not videos.

There has been some good entertainment and some bad.  Making friends in the lounge at night – we have free drinks from 5:30 – 8:30 in the concierge lounge – and having a good time with our Diamond + buddies.

Crucon, our travel agent, has had a couple of cocktail parties to thank us for our business.  Last night they had a party for their Loyalty Club members – we ordered what we wanted and talked cruising and prices.  Enjoyed meeting new friends and the Crucon people.

Still have 3 more sea days ahead of us before we reach Nassau.

I hear we had some snow back home – same thing happened last year!

Del on the bridge with the Captain’s scooter.

Before the parade on the promenade.

The guys dressed up on formal night – Jim, Bill, Del and Ken

Day 16 – Thursday 12/3 – Tenerife, Canary Islands

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands with a population of 700,000.

We sailed into Tenerife under partly cloudy skies but still a nice day.  Our group met in the concierge lounge this morning at 10 and decided to walk off the ship together into the town.  We walked around about an hour and returned to the ship.

Another demonstration in Spain

Our group

Del with a Mime on the street – put coins in his cup and he gets very happy!

Sailing away from Tenerife

 

Tomorrow and the next six days – At Sea

Day 15 – Wednesday 12/2 – Madeira, Portugal

Funchal is the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira which is located some 350 miles from North Africa.

We have cruised to Madeira for at least 3 times and have enjoyed the beautiful island each time.  It is lush with beautiful flowers and has a beautiful botanical gardens.

This year, we had a celebration of life for Ken DeMore, who passed away last February on the Mariner of the Seas.  Ken was an avid cruiser and planned excurisons many times for many of us.  Last year he had planned the excursion with Strawberry World in Madeira, so it was good to remember him with a nice luncheon.

Del and I also remembered Richard Chavanne, another friend and avid cruiser who we lost this September.

Madeira as we arrive in port

 

 

A drink before a wonderful lunch

 

Tomorrow:  Tenerife, Canary Islands

Day 14 – Tuesday 12/1 – Day at Sea

Today we thought we could sleep in but a couple of lecture series are beginning that we want to  hear, so it’s up at 8 to begin the day. 

There was a forensic lecture at 9 and a NASA lecture that Del wants to hear at 10.  My trivia marathon begins at 10 each sea day starting today.  No rest for the weary.

The Forensic specialist was very interesting beginning with the CSI television series explaining how it began, who produced and writes it and how it became such a hit. 

Our trivia team of 6 didn’t do too well today – only 9 out of 20.  Gotta do better than that as there are many teams to beat out.

Had our Meet and Mingle this morning – almost 200 people had registered for the get together.  They had lots of food and drink and gave out prizes.   Instructions were given for the cabin crawl, pub crawl, slot pull and other fun things going on for our cruise.

The slot pull was today – there were so many signed up that we divided up into 5 groups of 20.  Each group decided which machine to play and the denomination.  Only one group came out on top with $15 profit.  The slots are Very tight!

We had a Crucon (our travel agency) cocktail party this afternoon.  Turns out that we were the top couple this cruise with a total of 11 cruises booked with them.  They presented us with nice windbreakers.

It looks like the sea days are going to be very busy!!

Cooking paella by the pool

The Solarium

Merry Christmas with Bill and Liz

Tomorrow:  Madiera and a celebration of life with Pene

Day 13 – Monday – 11/30 – Cartagena, Spain

Arrived to another beautiful day in Cartagena this morning.  We all decided to just walk off the ship and visit this small, clean city.

First glance at Cartagena

Boy with fish statue in the street

Del, Liz and Bill on the streets of Cartagena

 

Tomorrow :  A Day at Sea

Day 12 – Sunday – 11/29 – Barcelona

The first cruise is over and the second is beginning.  We returned to Barcelona today to drop off passengers and pick up others that will return with us to Texas.

We left the ship early to walk the Ramblas with Janice and Alvin.  We stopped along the way to have some delicious Spanisih hot chocolate which you can almost eat with a spoon it is so thick.

We continued to walk toward the hotel we stayed in last year – the Continental.  We stopped in to see that they had remodeled and looking pretty good.  We wanted to see a particular person who made our stay special only to find she had retired a couple months prior.

We decided to walk to another hotel down the street where some friends were staying before boarding this trip.   We stopped in at the Continental Palacete where we met up with Pene and Andrew.

Soon we were walking back down the Ramblas to the ship. 

Once onboard again, we met up with several friends we had made on previous cruises.

I had fogotten to take pictures of our cabin so took some on the way out.  When we got back from Barcelona we would be in another cabin.

Cabin #1388

 

Tomorrow :  Cartegena, Spain

Day 11 – Saturday – 11/28 – Toulon, France

Again a beautiful day arriving in Toulon around 7am.  We were supposed to port in Marseilles today however because of a port strike we were sent to Toulon.

Toulon is the center of the French Navy.  It is halfway between Marseilles and Nice on the coast of France. 

We took a bus to the center of town and toured the outdoor market, a church, bought some olives at the market, and walked back to the ship.  Again the seaside town of Toulon, is just like a picture postcard.  The South of France is certainly beautiful.

 

 

A shot from our balcony

Fruits and vegetable at the market

A luncheon party in our cabin after Toulon

 

Tomorrow: – Changing Cabins and Barcelona

Day 10 – Friday 11/27 – Villefrance, France

We have had such beautiful weather the whole time we have been in Spain, Italy and France. 

Today was no exception.  We (Del and I, Alvin and Janice, Bill and Liz, and Byron and Carol) all met in the concierge lounge early this morning, ate a quick breakfast, and left the ship the catch a bus to Nice.

We walked a few blocks and waited for the bus while watching the beautiful scenery around the seaside town of Villefrance.

We caught the bus, paid our 1 euro, and had a pleasant ride into Nice.  We enjoyed the outdoor market, eating a sandwich from a vendor, and just enjoyed being in France. We also tried to use an internet where we found the some of the keys on the computer to be in the “wrong” place.  The w was beside the x and the a was on the top row and the m was next to the l – quite puzzling and very hard to write an email! :)

 

Tomorrow – Toulon, France – a substitute for Marseilles

Day 9 –Thursday 11/26 – Livorno (Florence)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Today we stayed on the ship as we have been to Florence previously.  It is truly a beautiful city, and I would have returned if only to see the statue of David again at the Academia Museum.

But, we were tired and had to take a day to rest!

It is quite a distance from Livorno where the ship docks into Florence.  We dock at an industrial port where we are not allowed to walk from and the cost to get into Florence was a little more than we wanted to pay especially since we had been there.

I played a game of trivia and since it was Thanksgiving, the questions were about our holiday.  Our team won and I went back to the room with none other than luggage tags.

Our towel monkey!

Tonight, our concierge surprised the six of us with November birthdays with a nice cake and we celebrated!

Our nightly table in the concierge!

 

Tomorrow:  Villefranche (Nice), France

Day 8 – Wednesday 11/25 – Rome, Italy

SISTINE CHAPEL, SPANISH STEPS, COLISEUM

We decided to take the train into Rome with Alvin, Janice, Bill and Liz.  The six us of ate an early breakfast and headed for the train.  Europe has such good transportation and you can get around the city easily and very inexpensively.

We purchased our tickets and exited at the San Pietro (St Peter) stop.  We walked to the Vatican and decided to tour the Sistine Chapel.  We had all visited the Vatican several times but Del and I had never been to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums.

The museums were so much more than I had pictured them to be.  Halls, ceilings, and rooms full of beautiful paintings, tapestries, statues done by so many famous masters including Michelangelo and Raphael.

Ceiling Paintings in the Museum

Stained Glass outside the Chapel and Rodin’s “The Thinker” sculpture

Outside the Coliseum after a fantatic day of walking, walking, walking!

Tomorrow – Florence, Italy

Day 7 – Tuesday 11/23 – Naples, Italy

Naples is the third largest city in Italy with a population of over 1.5 million.

Places of interest around Naples include Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius, Isle of Capri, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.

A few years ago we had visited Naples and toured Pompeii.  We decided to walk around the city with friends and try to visit the archeological museum.  We walked a couple of miles to the museum only to find it closed. 

There was some sort of demonstration going on here but we managed to avoid the crowds.

We both bought leather coats on the street for 25 euros. :)

View from our balcony

Bill, Liz, Alvin, Janice and Del eating “real” pizza from Napoli

 

Castle in Naples

Beautiful facades on our walk

Another demonstration!!

Tomorrow:  Rome, Italy

Day 6 – Monday 11/23 – At Sea

A beautiful day at sea.  We have time to get completely unpacked and try to remember how to get around the ship.  This is our 4th transatlantic on the Voyager so we know her quite well.

We had the Meet and Mingle today with over 100 in attendance.

The slot pull was held after lunch and we almost won our money back.  We had put in over $2,000 in a machine and got most of it back.

We had a meeting with the Guest Services Director with all of the back to back cruisers (2 cruises in a row).  This is the largest B2B group RCL has ever had on any ship – 600 of us.  This is also Voyagers 10th birthday.  She was christened in 1999.  Her godmother is Katerina Witt, the ice skater.

We will have to move about 3 doors down on Sunday  - the start of the Transatlantic – we couldn’t get the same cabin for both cruises – they are making it very easy – just pack up the stuff in the drawers and they will move the suitcases and hanging clothes.  :)    :)

Two newcomers at our dinner table tonight.  They are from Seattle and are with a group of 300 from the Seattle area. 

Tomorrow – Naples, Italy

Day 5 – Sunday 11/22 – Voyager of the Seas

TRAINS AND SHIPS

Today we caught the AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona.  We packed up early and wheeled the luggage from the hotel to the train station (only a couple of large blocks).  These trains are great as they can take you anywhere at very little cost.  We had purchased our tickets on the internet for 45 euros – if we had bought them at the station they would have been 110 euros. 

The train was quiet with large windows and a perfect way to travel.

We arrived in Barcelona about 3pm and at the ship at about 3:30 pm.  Check in was fast and easy and we were in our room by 3:45.  We have room 1388 which is an aft cabin with a large balcony – very nice with plenty of storage room.

We unpacked and met up with our friends in the concierge lounge.   Nice to be on the ship!

Tomorrow – Day at Sea

Day 4 – Saturday, 11/21 – Madrid

PROTESTS AND PALACES

Started the day off with an innocent walk to the HOHO bus.  The bus isn’t too far from our hotel – we walked passed the train station, our favorite McDonald’s, and the Prado.  There seemed to be a lot more people than usual, but we said it was Saturday and more people would be out.  The more we walked, the more buses, cars and people we saw.  Then the crowds were there!  Wow!  Thousands of people were here, protesters in mass and we were right in the middle of them!  Apparently, the farmers in Spain come here annually to protest the government.  Each  year it gets larger and I know there were about a million people here.

The crowd was so thick you could hardly move.  Most were going the opposite way we were walking as we were trying to leave the protest area and everyone else was trying to get there.

We found a line of people trying to walk the same way we were and followed them but it was so tough trying to get through the crowds.  Eventually after about an hour of trudging through the crowds of protesters, we finally found a street that led to safety.  My what a start of the day.  At certain times it was quite scary.

Onward to find the bus.  After another long walk, we found the bus which took us to the Royal Palace.   Wow, what a beautiful place.  This  is the Palace of King Carlos and Queen Sophia of  Spain.  It is still used by royalty and you get to see certain rooms.

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures, but the Palace was beautiful.

After this day, we were glad to get back to the hotel and have our wine and cheese and go to bed.

Protests

Palaces

Tomorrow:  The train to Barcelona