November 26 - At Sea

Last night we left the Port of Livorno Italy for Cartagena Spain.  We went north of Corsica and then travelled southwest toward the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.  In the middle of the night the seas turned rough.  By morning the ship was battling 10m waves.  With all this rockin’ and rollin’ going on you just don’t feel right.  No one that we know has seasickness but you’re constantly aware that you’re not stable.

As the evening has progressed the sea has claimed down and it has started to feel normal again when walking through the hallways.

This is our first full day on the sea, so for entertainment we went to three trivia contests.  The questions are unbelievable hard. Our team tied for first in the first contest.  We didn’t rank in the second round but in the third contest, which was based on 60s music, we scored 38 out of 40 and finished tied for second.

Marg and myself both agreed that the staff is the friendliest crew that we’ve encountered on any of our cruises, with the possible exception of the Scenic river cruise that we took a couple of years ago.  They are always smiling and are very helpful.

Tonight was our first formal dinner.  Terry Wallace from Hamilton, who sits at our dining room table, went in full Scottish attire.  It came complete with jacket, puffy shirt and a kilt.  Larry who is a lawyer/actor from Los Angles wore his tux.  Joan R. would be happy to know that I wore my black suit with a white shirt to match my hair.  Marg wore her long formal black gown with her elegant red, black and gold top.

For dinner Marg had lamb chops and I had seared duck with a dry Riesling from Australia.  I was especially happy because they finally had cold fruit soup as the second course.  Tonight it was Pear and Honey soup.

November 25 - Pisa and Florence

This morning we arrived at the port of Livorno Italy, where we started our tour of Pisa and Florence in the Tuscany district of northern Italy.  The first thing we noticed when we woke up and looked out our window was that you could see the Italian Alpine mountains and they had lots of snow on their peaks.  We knew we were in for a cold day.

Last year during our Italian tour we stopped in Florence for a day and a half but we missed Pisa. So we were excited for this second chance.

Our bus trip to Pisa took about 30 minutes where we first passed by an American military base which was home to about 1000 families and was 400 km²  in size.  I guess the cold war is still not over. 

After departing from our tour bus in Pisa we had quite a long trek to get to famous Leaning Tower.  Here we took a lot of pictures including several of usual ones with one of us pretending to hold up the tower.  The cathedral was under repair but the tower and the baptistery were in their full magnificent glory.  While we were there, an engineering crew was measuring the slant of the tower.  I guess this a periodic safety check to ensure that tower remains stable.

More pictures from Pisa

The tour then travelled to Florence, which is about an hour drive from Pisa.  After lunch in S. Croce Square, Marg went shopping and I went to some of the famous sites that I missed last year.  I went to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge to see the goldsmiths in action.

 

I then followed the path through the major sites of the old part of Florence that are described in Dan Brown’s novel “Infernal.”  Most of the museums were closed as it is their custom to close on Mondays. 

It was so cold in Florence that it started to snow for a short period of time.

Walking on these cobblestone streets really is hard on the joints.  Everyone on the bus seemed to be limping, by the end of the day.

More pictures from Florence

For dinner we had a Spanish Rojas wine, which Marg really liked.

After dinner we went to the stage show and saw a Welsh comedian/singer named Mike Doyle.  It was a very funny and entertaining show.  Head and shoulders above the shows that we were subjected to on the Holland American cruise we went on last year. 

November 24 - At Sea

As we write this entry we are in the Tyrrhemian Sea between Corsica and Grosseto Italy, on our way to Livorno.  There is a bright half moon rising to the east over the water.

Today we boarded our ship the “Celebrity Constellation” for the Three Continents Cruise. The ship at first appearances is excellent.  There are lots of recreation areas, many spacious lounges and wonderful dining facilities.  There many hot tubs and a therapeutic pool, which should help my tendonitis.  The room is a normal size for a cruise ship but the mirrors on the wall make it seem to be much larger.

The embarkation procedure was very quick.  There were no hassles and the documentation process was quick and painless.  When we boarded we were met with a very tasty lunch buffet.

At the hotel we talked with several couples who were also going on this cruise.  They all had travelled with Celebrity before and gave it high marks.

At dinner we were seated with four other couples.  They were from California, Florida, Alaska and Hamilton Ontario.  The Hamilton couple were wondering if there was a sports bar because they wanted to know the results of the Grey Cup.  I told them that even though it was 9pm on the boat, the game still had yet to start in Regina.   The Americans loved to talk politics and of course Toronto’s mayor Ford was a topic of conversation.

The diner was a four course meal.  Marg had shrimp Louis, Gazpacho soup, seared salmon and a dessert.  I also had the shrimp, along with a salad and a thick pork chop with a banana/blueberry crepe for dessert.

November 23 - Rome/Civitavecchia

While staying in Civitavecchia, we've been staying at the Hotel Treghetto.  It is a nice locally owned hotel with very friendly staff.  The concierge has been great. He has helped us with tips on where to visit and where to eat in the village and the best values in getting to Rome and back.

The rooms are large with marble floors. If I had one complaint, it is the size of the bathroom.  It is very small by North American standards, but not unusual for older European hotels. The breakfast is huge with all the foods that you normally see in the Italian hotels.  Lots of fruit, chesses, cold cuts, cereals and pastries.

If someone suggests going to Italy in late November or December, run away and ignore them.  This is their rainy season and it rains alot.

We decided to go to Roman neighbourhood known as Trastevere and take a nice leisurely stroll through it.  This is a residential area adjacent to Vatican City.  It has many bars, restaurants, shops and magnificent looking apartment buildings.

We started the tour by taking the subway to the Circus Maximus, where Charleton Heston raced chariots 2000 years ago.  In a plaza next to the Circus Maximus there was a political demonstration going on with many marchers and brass bands.  That was quite colourful.

From there we crossed over the Tiber River into Trastevere.  Because it was raining so hard we stopped in a bar called “The Hole” for lunch.  The bar was in a quaint little square filled with other restaurants and apartments.   After lunch we continued our walk about the neighbourhood, but was raining so much and was so cold that it was not really enjoyable.

It was raining so hard that my jacket was totally soaked.  So I had to stop into a store and buy a warmer waterproof coat.  It looks very continental.

For dinner we decided we go back to Piazza Navona.  Last year we had a wonderful meal there.  It was Sea Bass that was cooked in a thick salt crust.  Despite all that salt it does not take on the salt flavour and it was moist and tender.  We went back to Tre Scalini in the Plazza Navona and we ordered it again.  It was fantastic, just we remembered it.  Well worth the walk in the cold rain.

I swear that if I lived in Italy I would weigh about 600lbs and still not be able sing opera.

A word of warning about the tourist maps of Rome.  If you use them, you will most likely end up lost and walking blocks in the wrong direction.  Our walk to Plazza Navona should have taken about 15 minutes but by following the map it took at least twice as long and we only found the square by good luck. 

Pictures from Rome

Novemeber 22 - Rome/Civitavecchia

Today we went into Rome from Civitavecchia.  The purpose of this trip was twofold. First we wanted to visit Marg’s favorite restaurant “Le Caveau”.  Secondly Marg wanted to buy some leather boots, which are all the fashion these days. 

We left Civitavecchia by train for a one hour ride into the city.  This electrical train was a very fast, clean and quite.  The ticket cost about $17 and it included a return trip on the train and the unlimited use of the public transit system while in Rome.  It traveled south along the coast where you can see many fabulous estates along the beaches.  I can’t imagine what it costs to own these places, but I expect it is significantly more expensive than the homes on the water in Port Stanley.  On the east side of the tracks there are many farms.  The fields seem to be lush but I’m not sure what their produce would be.

After about 30 minutes, the train took a sharp turn east and headed into the suburbs of Rome.  There were many stations along the way including a stop in the Vatican City. When we reached the main terminal, I was surprised how clean and spacious it was.  I had read the very opposite in many travelled columns.

Once outside of the station it took us a couple of minutes to get our bearings.  From the station it was about a 15 minute walk to Le Caveau.   Wouldn’t you know it, as we started our trek it started to pour.  Fortunately when it rains in Rome there is no shortage of illegal street vendors with umbrellas for sale.

Marg was looking forward to having lunch at this restaurant because it was the first place we had lunch in Rome, when we visited the city last year and she loved the Gorgonzola cheese pizza.  Also the waitress had given her several shots of Lemoncello on the house.  As we approached the restaurant we could see a large yellow notice attached to the door.  You guessed it, the place was closed for holidays and wouldn’t be opening again for another week!

It had stopped raining after we had lunch, so we decided that we could walk to the street where we knew Marg could find shops that sold leather boots.  Unfortunately it is very easy to get turned around in Rome.  So after about an hour walk, we stumbled across the hotel where we had stayed in last year before we went on our tour of Italy.  Marg went inside for directions.  There she was instructed to take the subway to an area of town known as Spagna, where the Spanish Steps are located.

As we left the subway station it started to pour again and I mean a torrential downpour.

All the shops here are from the high end fashion designers and retailers.  Marg was able to find a store called Harrison that had the boots she wanted and in her size.  It seems strange that shoe sizes here are measured in centimeters, so for example a size 6 in Canada would equate to a size  25 over here.  After acquiring the boots Marg then found a leather store where she was able buy a nice purse and gloves.  

So it was a successful day of shopping for her.

Because restaurants don’t open for dinner until after 7:00pm, we found a pub to have a drink before dinner.  It was called the “06 Cafe”, in honour the numbers on our grandson’s, Jase and Cooper, hockey jerseys.

For dinner went to a placed all “Babbettes”.  It was a nice cozy place off the main road through the Spagna district.  I’m thinking that it might have just recently opened.  The wait staff was always looking at this one table, where it appeared that couple were taking notes and pictures of the food.  Maybe they were food critics from a local newspaper?

I had rabbit and Marg had duck.  The wine was a Chianti from Marchese Antinora, which was excellent.

All in all it was a very pleasant day.

Pictures from Rome

November 21 - Civitavecchia, Italy

Today because we were so tired from our trip yesterday, we decided to just walk around the town and see the sites of Civitavecchia.   The old town dates back to Roman Empire but most of the artifacts from that era have long since disappeared.  There is a defensive wall around the harbour which dates back to the middle ages, but most of it has been destroyed during the Second World War.

We stared our walk by going down to the harbour to see which cruise liners were in port.  There was a ship for the Costa and the Queen Elizabeth 2 was also in port.  There was also a three masted tall ship

During breakfast we talked to a couple, from South Africa who were taking that cruise to the Greek Islands and then to South Hampton. I can’t imagine what that cruise costs.

The old village of Civitavecchia is nothing ordinary, but interesting none the same.  There is a walkway along the harbour, which is very relaxing, as it spans the harbour and the fortifications that protected the town over the centuries.

Along the beach there is a statue of a sailor kissing a nurse which is a copy of a famous picture from Life magazine from VE day during the Second World War.

There is a shopping district, where Marg almost found a pair of leather boots that she liked. Unfortunately the zipper on one of the boots was defective, so we’ll look somewhere else.

We stopped at a sidewalk cafe where Marg had one of her favorites, hot chocolate.  This is the equivalent of warm chocolate pudding. It tastes great but it would put my blood sugars way over the limit.

After we got back to the hotel Traghetto, Civitavecchia was hit by a vicious thunderstorm  that dumped a lot of rain on the village.  Luckily it stopped before we went out for dinner.  The restaurants here don`t open here before 7:00pm, so it gave us enough time to rest before we went for dinner.

The concierge for Hotel Treghetto here has been fantastic.  He has told us where to find the best restaurants, how to get to Rome, and even lent us his umbrella to protect us from rain this evening.  He has been very friendly and is a cut above the normal hotel staff you will meet.

For dinner we  went to restaurant La Rocoa, This is a restaurant that is embedded in an old metal shop that is in ancient city wall.  The cavern is at least 500 years old. Here Marg had Tempura shrimp, Carbonara tuna and a mixed fish platter which she shared with me.  I had Octopus salad, along with Cabonara tuna and the fish platter.  We had two bottles of Piero Mancini Cacuione  wine for dinner, which was delicious
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http://www.vignetipieromancini.it/index.php?lang=eng.

For dessert Marg had a Grandmother Cake, which was amazing.

Alan, the head waiter, who as a child had visited Toronto and loved KFC, then took us  over to the new location for their restaurant which they hope to open next spring.  It is also located in the old city wall along its harbour.

Pictures from Civitavecchia 

November 20 - Civitavecchia Italy

We made it to the Italian port city of Civitavecchia, near Rome, after a long day in transit.  We left home in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday and arrived early in the evening on Wednesday, Italian time.  As one would expect we were exhausted.   We had a nice meal in a restaurant overlooking the marina and then slept for 11 hours.

We met a nice couple from South Africa at breakfast this morning.  They were in transit for 31 hours. We don’t know how they do it.  I wonder how long it took our friends, John and Heather to recover from their trip home from Africa, which took 33 hours.  Six hours in those small cramped seats are just about our limit.

We flew with British Airways and found it to be about average with the other airlines that we have traveled with.  Our connecting flight from Heathrow airport in London to Rome was delayed about an hour because the plane we were scheduled to be on had been hit by lightning on its way into London and they had to prepare another plane.

Our taxi ride to the hotel was an experience.  The taxi driver was driving most of the time about 120Km/hr with a cell phone in one hand and scratching his head with the other.

It looks like we brought over those strong winds that have been battering Port Stanley the last couple of weeks.  Last night the wind was howling and today most people here are wearing their winter coats.

Today we are going to walk around the village here.  The Queen Elizabeth 2 is in port and that should be interesting to see.

Some problems that eventually get ironed out

While booking our shore excursion I ran into nothing but trouble with the Celebrity Cruise web site and their call centre.  I was so frustrated that I send them the following letter and had our travel agent fax a copy to her contacts.  Celebrity to respond to the complaint very quickly and everything was sorted out to our satisfaction.  Anna Oliva, our travel agent, was even able to get us a $50 onboard credit for our troubles.

Our letter to Celebrity Cruises.

I wish to complain about your web site and call centre. Today I made numerous attempts to book shore excursions and beverage packages for our upcoming cruise. I was met with what can only be described as incomprehensible incompetence resulting in failure and frustration.

At 9:00 I on went on your web site to book our shore excursions and beverage packages. I logged into our previously created user account and when I went to the shore excursions page, the web site froze. Several subsequent tries produced the same result. I then called you call centre, where I was informed that the web site was functioning properly.

After trying to access this page with two other leading web browsers and meeting with the same result, I phoned your call centre again. This time I was told that, yes there was a bug into the system and I could by pass this problem by logging into the site with my reservation number instead of my user account. Again this did not rectify the problem.

I then tried your call centre call back service provided on your web page. I did received a call back immediately and was placed in a queue which was not answered during my thirty minutes of waiting.

I phoned your call centre again, which was answered within one minute, indicating that the problem was not call volumes but a non functional call back system. Luckily, this time I was provided with someone who knew what was going on. They told me that shore excursion booking application had been non functional ever since an update had been performed, some point in the past. They subsequently told me that I could book the beverage packages online with no problems. They also told me where I could find the information on shore excursions with the proper identifiers that could be used to book the side trips using your call centre.

I was finally able purchase the beverage packages that I wanted. I was also able to find the tour code and title for the shore excursion that we wanted on your web site under shore excursions available for transatlantic cruises. We were looking at the Camel Ride to Fire Mountain on Lanzarote. Unfortunately when I phoned the call centre to book this excursion, I was told that this excursion was not available on this sailing.

The agent then emailed us a document with all the excursions available on this sailing. In this document this excursion is listed albeit with a different tour code. Why the agent was not able to see that the tour has multiple tour codes and make the proper reservation defies belief.

I sincerely hope that the incompetent and unprofessional service that I encountered today is not going to be a harbinger of the quality of service we will receive on our cruise.

Introduction

Earlier this summer, Marg and myself were trying to decide on what vacation we wanted to take in the fall.  We had tentatively decided on renting a cottage in the 1000 Islands.  One night I was looking at an article on repositioning cruises, where cruise lines move their ships from one seasonal  vacation area to another, and I decided to check into what cruises were available.  I looked at Caribbean, Hawaiian, Panama Canal and transatlantic cruises and found a Celebrity cruise that was leaving the Mediterranean and going to Florida, stopping in the West Indies.  As good fortune would have it I send the wrong web page link to Marg and that link turned out to be a much better cruise that stopped in Morocco and the Canary Islands on its way to Fort Lauderdale.

So for a very reasonable price we are going on what has the potential to be a fantastic three continent 16 day cruise.

Prior to departure we are going to be staying in Rome's port city of Civitavcchia for four days.  This gives us a chance to visit Rome again and visit some of our favorite restaurants and sites.

While docked in Agadir Morocco, we are taking a tour to Merrakech, to see a culture that neither of use has had exposure to. 

Cruise Itinerary

Day	Date	Port	Arrive	Depart
Day 1	Sun, Nov 24	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy /		5:00 PM
Day 2	Mon, Nov 25	Florence, Italy / Docked	7:00 AM	7:00 PM
Day 3	Tue, Nov 26	At Sea
Day 4	Wed, Nov 27	Cartagena, Spain / Docked	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 5	Thu, Nov 28	At Sea
Day 6	Fri, Nov 29	Agadir, Morocco / Docked	7:00 AM	10:00 PM
Day 7	Sat, Nov 30	Lanzarote, Canary Islands / Docked	12:00 PM	8:00 PM
Day 8	Sun, Dec 01	Gran Canaria, Canary Islands / Docked	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
Day 9	Mon, Dec 02	At Sea
Day 10	Tue, Dec 03	At Sea
Day 11	Wed, Dec 04	At Sea
Day 12	Thu, Dec 05	At Sea
Day 13	Fri, Dec 06	At Sea
Day 14	Sat, Dec 07	At Sea