Embarkation Day ~ Navigator of the Seas

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Geo: 42.0912, 11.7968

September 27, 2009 ~ At Sea


It's around 2:30 in the morning, Mediterranean time (or something like that), as I write this. I am in our cabin feeling the ocean breeze hit me, listening to the waves lap the side of the boat and hubby is on the balcony with the light on, reading. We love the ship. It is beautiful and very ornate. The room is awesome, too ~ we have a regular room with a king bed and a balcony and we are pleased as punch! So, to backup…

We started embarkation day around 7am at our hotel which provided free breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Apparently, as far as European hotels go, we had a very nice hotel ~ marble walls, slick hardwood floors, and of course, a bidet in the bathroom - I took a picture though neither of us dared to try it. Hubby says they have this to wash our bums with because they are too cheap to provide real toilet paper. Ha! The breakfast provided by the hotel was wonderful ~ lots of fresh pastries, yogurts, eggs, prosciutto (these people eat this with every meal apparently), etc. I have granola cereal with cranberries and a small coffee with thick cream. Hubby has yogurt, eggs and prosciutto. It is nice. Which reminds me, did you know there is little-to-no tipping in this area of the world? They include the 10% tip on most meals and/or you do not tip unless you get exceptional service or just not at all. We had thought this was the case but then this was told to us this evening at dinner by two of our dinnermates who are from northern England

. We have been tipping but not hubby's usual 20%. The dollar is currently down to the Euro ~ $1.40 to $1 ~ so, we are being careful with our dollars. Literally.

So, we decide the day is nice, not too hot yet, so we will pull our suitcases to the train station to catch the 50-minute train to the cruise port. The hotel says "five minute" walk ~ in the brochures and again when asking. We had looked at a map provided by the hotel last night and walked a different route near the station last night for dinner so we felt like walking would be good exercise and easy. It was both. It was, however, a full 25-minute walk. We were okay with that and it was a very easy walk. We got our tickets through the self-service terminal ~ again, we are doing quite well getting around this rather confusing country ~ it is much cheaper to use the green self-service ticket terminals versus standing in line for seemingly an hour (I never saw a line move) to purchase tickets from one of the many vendors. We figured-out where the depot for our train was and again, walked the five minutes to our train. Actually, you don't have a choice at this point ~ everyone has to walk to their train. It is a little confusing finding it however, we kept looking for "Civitavecchia" until we found the correct number corresponding with our tickets. When we arrived at our train is when we ran into lots of other cruisers ~ mainly nice Canadians and Americans ~ all catching the train to the ship's port. Today we met a couple on this cruise celebrating an anniversary ~ 25 years. They can't be more than 5 or 10 years older than us, however. Odd. We sat by the window on this train trip and saw lots of the Italian countryside. Yesterday, when we took the train from the airport to the termini (train station) near our hotel all we noted were rows and rows of old, rather ugly apartment buildings ~ all with tons of laundry hanging from the balconies and plants ~ every Italian must have lots of fresh laundry and lots of plants on their balconies, or so it seems. We also noticed, and were later informed, that most of the apartments and homes in Italy

do not have air conditioning because they were built so long ago that they are not wired to handle it. Every once in a while, we would see a place with a square white box attached to a window or balcony – this is a small air conditioner made by “LG” (cell phone company). We were informed that an apartment owner must be “rich” in order to afford such a thing. Geez, are we ever spoiled in the states with our big homes, our land, our washers and dryers, and of course, our beloved air conditioners! Well, today was definitely a day for air conditioning ~ low 80s but very sunny and very humid. It was actually a little too warm since the train's air conditioning system wasn't so great. Still, we made it to the port and waited for the Royal Caribbean shuttle bus. Apparently there was a problem today and the “every 10 minutes” shuttle bus did not arrive for nearly 2 hours. People were hot and not happy by the time it arrived. Hubby and I waited patiently and were too excited for the cruise to really be grumpy like several others. Waiting for the shuttle bus, however, is required by all cruise passengers~ the walk to the boat is over a mile from the shuttle and is supposedly illegal to do yourself since the port road to the ship is winding and dangerous and they don't want people walking it. We saw a few passengers who had tried this trek on their own and they looked miserable and hot and on a very dangerous, windy road.

Check-in at the boat went super-quick and smoothly. We had purchased a bottle of Lemoncello the evening before ~ vodka, lemon rinds, sugar, etc ~ like vodka lemonade ~ very popular in Italy
and made famous by the movie “Under The Tuscan Sun.” Royal Caribbean has a strict no-alcohol onboard policy but I showed the guy the Lemoncello and asked him to hold it for us until the end of the cruise and he said “O! LEMONCELLO!! YOU BUY HERE IN ITALY??!! O! GOOD! YOU KEEP WITH YOU!” So, we were allowed, amazingly, to bring one small bottle of alcohol onboard. We drank it within minutes of sitting on our balcony. I didn't like it but I don't like vodka. Hubby thought it was okay but not the original stuff we will probably get at a restaurant tomorrow or a homemade type we can get at an out-of-the-way bar maybe. We shall see tomorrow in Genoa, Italy (pronounced Genova).

So, we get to our room and we are in love. For starters, our room has a big silver banner across the outside door saying “Just Married” and is decorated inside with Happy Honeymoon stuff ~ a gift courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. In-Law (hubby's charming parents). The balcony is awesome ~ two chairs and a little table. Hubby can smoke on the balcony. The room has plenty of storage and the bed is huge. The shower is teeny tiny but does a fine job. So, we marveled at our room, cranked the a/c down and explored this absolutely beautiful ship ~ Navigator of the Seas. We had a quick late lunch at the smorgasbord ~ Hubby had a piece of shrimp and corn pizza and a muscle (odd choosings, I thought) and I had a piece of cheese pizza and a leg of roasted chicken with a bite of a dry lemon sponge-like-cake stuff. Lots of things are lemon here. I love lemon. Hubby does not.

So far... there are times on this honeymoon that Hubby and I think we can't get a break – our inability to sleep on the plane, the 2 hour walk to our hotel room, the non-smoking hotel room with no plug-in adaptor, the nearly 2 hour wait for the shuttle – but today really upset me (I didn't cry, I'm just saddened and hoping for the best) – within five seconds of us entering our room, giddy with excitement and taking pictures of the honeymooners decorations, I dropped my beloved camera. I love this camera ~ it is truly awesome because the shutter speed is sooo quick. Regardless, it broke. It won't even act like a camera anymore. I was crushed but fully willing to buy another camera ~ it's a must for me. It just so happens that tonight they had a digital camera showing on the promenade deck so I went looking while hubby read. Lo and behold, they have a nice little Fuji camera that will use my 4gb camera card and it comes with all the bells and whistles - $135- not bad. I want to check in port tomorrow – Genoa, Italy – first, to see if I can get a better deal – one day without a camera won't kill me. However, for the crap topper of things today, about an hour ago I realized that when I was looking at the display model camera, I left my 4gb storage card in their camera. So, I don't know what will happen tomorrow but I am going to the photo deck first thing and seeing if someone can help me – I would really like to retrieve that card so we can have the first few days of our honeymoon in pictures. Ugh. This is why hubby & I think we can't get a break at times. I know, I know, I'm in Italy and complaining but these picturse are rather sentimental.

So, to end today on a nicer note, however… our dining time is 6:45pm and we are at a window table next to the ocean (quite lovely cuz the sun is going down at this time). Since Mr. and Mrs. In-Law are not here (as they were previously booked on this cruise also but health matters prevented them from traveling), the table is simply Hubby & I and a lovely couple from Northern England area. Wonderful people that talk exactly as you would think they talk. Very interesting, laid-back, funny people ~ Elaina and Martin. Dinner was good. I had prime rib (well done), veggie mix, and a baked potato (didn't eat much of it) and hubby had roasted pork medallions in gravy with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli. Dessert was chocolate cherry cake for him and peach spiced apple cobbler with ice cream for me. Yummy! We came back to the room and we were asleep by 9pm and awake a little after midnight, our seemingly usual routine so far ~~ we pretty-much did the same thing last night ~~ we were wide awake in our hotel room at 3am. The six-hour time change sounds like nothing but it really makes a big difference in daily routines. Regardless, we have 24-hour room service so about an hour ago he had a cheeseburger and I had a turkey sandwich and raspberry/lemon cheesecake with two tall glasses of iced tea with lemons. I think we need to consider selling our home and buying a permanent spot on this ship. Well, hubby is snoring next to me now and the waves are swishing away outside so I best get some sleep before we meander to a new part of Italy tomorrow. Chao!

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