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Emerald Princess Rome to Barcelona September 26 -October 3 2015 in photos and video


Bimmer09
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Avast there, shipmates!!

 

This is the tale of a daring sea voyage on the Emerald Princess, sailing from Rome to Barcelona in the year of 2015. If ye have a mind, pull up a comfy barrel, pour yerself a tankard o' rum (it's BYOB as I am not made of money), fill yer pipe with Old Ahab's Sea Shag, munch on some bole weevils and sit a spell while I tell my tale....

 

We (Carol and I) have the sea in our blood-in my case heavily diluted by Guinness-and we had a hankering to sail Mare Nostrum (the Med) again after last year's Venice to Rome cruise on the Ocean Princess. "We have to come back to Rome at some point" we said without putting a date on our return.

 

Once home in Chicago we looked at our booking on the Caribbean Princess- August 25th from Southampton to ports in Norway....and cancelled it once we found the Rome cruise in the Cruise Atlas. The warm Mediterranean and a return to Rome won out over the cool fjords. We will get to Norway some other time.

 

After two minutes of planning we decided to have two days in Rome and two in Barcelona to bookend the cruise.

 

So here is the itinerary that will unfold day by day over the next few weeks.....

 

DAY 1 AND 2

 

ROME

 

 

DAY 3

 

CIVITAVECCHIA SAILAWAY



 

 

DAY 4

 

PALERMO, SICILY



 

 

DAY 5

 

SALERNO, ITALY



 

 

DAY 6



SEA DAY

 

 

To be continued....

 

Norris

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Norris,

 

Each time I think that your pictures can't get any better you out do yourself once again.

 

These pictures are stunning.

 

Eagerly waiting for more (especially food).

 

Judy

Edited by jlf1
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Norris,

 

Each time I think that your pictures can't get any better you out do yourself once again.

 

These pictures are stunning.

 

Eagerly waiting for more (especially food).

 

Judy

 

Judy, welcome aboard!

 

You are the first to comment and win the GRAND PRIZE!!!! A Princess lanyard!!

Thanks for the photo comments. The cameras (I used 3) got a lot of use.

 

FOOD PORN?? Yes. All will be revealed in time as this will be written chronologically. I would say that it is my best food porn ever. We ate well every day.

 

Norris

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WHAT'S UP AHEAD?

 

ROME



 

Two days of walking the streets in beautiful weather

FOOD PORN Annie and Judy prepare yourselves

XXX COFFEE PORN at the famous Sant Eustachio

ROME walk at 5 a.m-dark empty streets

Sunsets

A beautiful morning in the FORUM

ROME from the roof of the Vittorio Emanuel edifice

Dining outdoors at night

 

CIVITAVECCHIA



 

Transfer from Hotel Albergo del Senato to the Port via ROME IN LIMO



Embarkation lunch

Beautiful sail away

Other ships in port

Crown Grill dinner

 

PALERMO



 

Sabatini breakfast



City and beach tour (lots of TRASH PORN on the video)

MDR woes

Formal night

 

SALERNO



 

Excursion to HERCULANEUM ruins



Princess Theater show

 

LIVORNO

 

Excursion to Florence- Accademia, Uffizi, PONTE VECCHIO



 

SEA DAY (Tuesday)



 

Photos and video of RAIN



Pub Lunch

$10 watch sale

Princess Theater show

CC Meet and Greet

 

GENOA



 

Excursion to CINQUE TERRE



Boat trip

Train trip

Bus trip

Walking tour

Ancovy and Sea Bass PORN

Photos and video of Costa Concordia

 

SEA DAY



Biblical rain



Cancelled port

Another $10 watch sale!

Crew talent show

 

BARCELONA



 

Big rainstorm at docking



4 hour guided tour of SAGRADA FAMILIA and PARC GUELL

TAPAS PORN

Panoramic view of Barcelona from MONTJUIC

Tour of LA PEDRERA and CASA BATTILO

Morning walking tour in the dark down Las Ramblas before the city wakes

 

Along the way, life on the EMERALD PRINCESS

 

Norris

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Checking in and accounted for!

 

Chris!

 

Welcome aboard. Muster drill is still a few days away so I hope you don't mind looking at photos of Rome in the meantime...

 

Norris

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Chris!

 

Welcome aboard. Muster drill is still a few days away so I hope you don't mind looking at photos of Rome in the meantime...

 

Norris

 

I'm here as well!! Photo away Norris. :cool:

 

(OH, and looking forward to both of the $10 watch sales for sure.....)

Edited by ar1950
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THE STORY SO FAR...

 

 

We flew to Rome on September 23rd, a Wednesday, on the last scheduled DIRECT flight of the summer by United Airlines. We were first on the Waitlist for Business Class but all those people showed and so we sat in Economy Plus. We had an empty seat between us which came in handy.

 

The plane took off around 6 pm and we did the same as we were strapped into the seats and had no other choice.

 

9 hours of eating, drinking, watching on demand movies (about 200 to choose from) and using our Bose Noise Canceling headphones (highly recommended) we traded the darkness of night for views of the sunny beaches to the west of Rome and were soon on the ground, right on schedule at 10 am and soon in the crazy scrum of baggage claim-a case of too small an area for too many people.

 

 

Once we had the bags and had passed through customs we were able to spot my name held aloft by our driver from Rome in Limo. We introduced ourselves in Italian, he took our luggage and we walked a couple of hundred yards to the garage where a black Mercedes E Class was waiting. He didn't speak fluent English but with our Italian, some mime and a few smoke signals we chatted on the drive into the center of Rome.

 

 

Our thanks as always to Jany from Rome in Limo who is always bringing her A Game when it comes to bookings.

 

NEXT UP.....

 

 

Norris

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looking forward to the entire review but really can't wait to see your photos of Cinque Terre and Barcelona!

 

Thanks for coming aboard.

 

The Cinque Terre and Barcelona sections are a long way off but in each I went berserk taking photos-maybe 500 between the two. Both spectacular.

 

Eat your Wheaties and stay with me....

 

Norris

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ROME

 

Founded-oh, let's just say a long time ago, predating the Selfie Stick by over 2500 years. It was founded by two brothers, Romulus and Remus who were apparently brought up by a she-wolf which really casts a dim light on parenting back in the day. Despite a diet of wolf-milk and howling at the moon lessons on a nightly basis one of them turned out pretty well-he founded a city that visitors flock to, while the other one is pretty much forgotten these days.

 

The Greatest Roman of them all, of course, was Julius Caesar, some of whose books adorn my bookcase. He was so great they stabbed him with their steely knives and then burned his body just to make sure he was 100% not going to cause any more trouble. And he didn't. I'll show you a photo of the spot where they burned him later.

 

We checked into our hotel at noon. The same one we stayed in last year. Albergo del Senato.

 

Here it is-in Pantheon Square (Piazza Della Rotonda)

 

 

Our room (3rd floor from top) had a window onto the square and one to the narrow alley on the side so we had light from two sides.

 

 

As is our custom we entered the hotel and began babbling away in Italian as the only way to get better is by using it and then being corrected/laughed at.

"Io ho una stanza prenotate-sono Signori Adair" and that brought a big smile and a welcome. Loosely translated I said "I ran over a raccoon on the way here-can I borrow a shovel?" Si, Signori!

 

I said I have a reservation. They welcomed me back. A bellboy brought our luggage and us to room 302. As is our custom Carol immediately unpacks while I go outside to savor Rome and have a cigarette sitting on the walls of the Pantheon.

 

THAT'S THIS THING...

 

 

IT HAS BIG COLUMNS

 

 

AND LOOKS OUT ON A LIVELY SQUARE

 

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After my brief visit to the outdoors it was time to return to our room for a Planned nap of 90 minutes duration.

 

VIEW FROM THE ROOM



 

 

VIEW DURING THE NAP IN A DARKENED ROOM



 

 

After the nap we will go to a place where XXX COFFEE PORN is their business....

 

Norris

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Norris,

 

Glad I found this review early. I usually don't see it until it's 20 pages deep. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to tagging along on another of your terrific reviews. Your photos are simply amazing.

 

John

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Great so far, can't wait for the rest of the review. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

 

Thanks Jase- I am happy you found this ramble.

 

The rest of the review is "coming right up" and will be completed about a month from now (judging by past experiences)

 

Welcome.

 

Norris

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Norris,

 

Glad I found this review early. I usually don't see it until it's 20 pages deep. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to tagging along on another of your terrific reviews. Your photos are simply amazing.

 

John

 

Glad to see you here again!

 

20 pages deep? That's usually dinner at the end of the first day...and it might just be the case. Our first dinner is a doozy-can't wait to show you the food-best we have eaten in Rome.

 

Thanks for the photo compliments-under the circumstances of always being in either crowds or walking the streets in the dark I used the main camera (Canon Eos Rebel T3i) in auto mode which means I have to look at and tweak every photo before posting. 1800 photos....yikes. I always had to be aware of pickpockets and camera thieves and keep my wits about me, so I changed lenses less than I might have in say the villages in Cinque Terre where there was less of a threat of losing the camera. I also avoided shooting in RAW as I knew I would be taking a lot of photos and RAW eats up the memory on the card faster.

 

I didn't lose anything to pickpockets or early-morning muggers, thankfully. I've watched several pickpocketing videos on youtube and am all eyes and ears when walking the streets in Europe. You'll see some of my 5 a.m Rome stuff in a few days.

 

Money? I wore a Rick Steves moneybelt.

 

Norris

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Enjoying your amazing photo review! :D

 

Thank you!

 

I enjoy seeing new faces in my reviews-and rejoice (usually with another beer) when old friends pop in.

 

Hope you like very long reads.....

 

Norris

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