Cruise

We were in an early boarding group but still had to sit around for a couple hours before boarding. I believe we went to our cabin, 8026, where Deb had ordered balloons, flowers and gin for the room. We met our cabin guys.

We have a nice cabin with a balcony. We are on the starboard side so will have sun most of the time. We have been on this ship before. It has been refurbished so we now have a large screen TV - nice. The TV channels available are CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, BBC and two ESPN channels. Not bad. Plus a lot of movies. (Extras)

We took a look around then went up to the Lido deck for lunch while waiting for our bags to be delivered. Then back to the room for a minute. At some point we did the lifeboat muster.

We hiked around the ship to see what's new. Finally we sailed.

The Crow's Nest has been refurbished. Some interactive maps have been added to the library area. Also a lecture room and a ship status display. This place used to be the place to meet for "martini madness", trivia and other activities. It now seems the biggest thing going on here is jigsaw puzzles and reading Kindles.

Below we found the stairs in the atrium have been removed as well as the atrium bar on deck one. Guess somebody got hurt on the rather tricky steps. We hiked around the promenade deck.

The classical music area has been reconfigured. The piano bar is expanded and open with two pianos. The piano players were an attractive girl and guy. They were GREAT! We didn't hear enough of them.

Other areas are also spruced up. We often walked on various decks to get from one end of the ship to the other. Looooong hallways.

The casino is "no smoking". The auditorium is spruced up.

We won about $80 at craps then a couple nights later gave it back. Oh well, we had fun.

Of course everything seemed fresh and new. Ship pictures (Extras)

Our main activities seemed to be eating and drinking. We went to the 4pm happy hour where Deb had a French martini each day, plus fancy free appetizers. The bar guys were nice. (Extras)

We went to the cocktail tasting at 5pm in the "Gallery Bar". This has replaced martini madness we enjoyed in the past. Three different cocktails for $4 each. We generally got three and shared. This used to be a wild time. We'd meet people, play bar games, get wound up and have a great time. Unfortunately it was pretty dead. We actually quit going because we'd be the only ones there. (Extras)

Dinners seemed nicer then in the past. Lots of options and good food. The greeters got to know us by name. We got the wine package. We'd have a couple glasses then save the rest for tomorrows lunch. (Extras)

We had dinner at the Canaloni with some friends we met. (Extras)

We also ate lunch in the dining room. We had breakfast in the room.

One of the fun things is meeting people at lunch and dinner. Lots of nice people. We ran across a guy we'd had dinner with in the past - Raymond. Too bad we couldn't work it out to see him again.

We ran across friends from our past trip - Phil and Marian (spelling?). Nice seeing them again. Also talked with Eddie who asked about Stephen from a previous cruise.

We went to most shows. The dancers and musicians were great. The magicians and comedians pretty good. Deb likes to sit down front. (Extras)

The big TV in the room is great. We watched a few movies. I think venues were not crowded because people were in their rooms watching movies. We'd discuss them and exchange reviews with people at dinner.

Deb enjoys the towel creatures. (Extras)

We went to various celebrations such as the captains welcome, mariner thanks and Indonesian lunch.

I was pretty ill the whole trip. First I had a cold. Then I developed "crusty" eyes and an ear infection. Deb told me if I went to the doctor they would toss me off the ship. I didn't want to be tossed off on the island of Madeira. So after we left Madeira I saw the doctor - a nice south African woman, perhaps Indian. She gave me some antibiotics and eye drops. I took them but I was still hurting by the time we were approaching Barcelona so I went and saw her again. She gave me more antibiotics and ear drops. I was feeling better.

We did get off the ship in Madeira and had a nice lunch. We walked around and looked the cathedral and at the fish market which was closing. Deb bought some nice flowers for the cabin. Sweet.

Darn I have developed a second cold.

At Lisbon we just looked at the rather beautiful city. Sorry, I was too sick to go ashore.

We went to a couple other ports where we stayed on the ship. One was a new one - outside of Seville - Huelva. I wish I felt better. People told us there wasn't much to see there anyway. We did get off at Cartagena - (new Carthage) and looked around a bit (see previous visits).

Finally Barcelona. We got off what seemed last and got our bags. The taxi line went quickly. Off to the airport and Milan.