maxs mom

Brrrrrr! As I said.....it was refreshing! The rest of the wusses stayed on board. When we got out, Yuri rinsed us off with some warm water! That felt good.

We sailed on some more and took in all the sights!

The Lady of the Rock church. It was crowded when we sailed by the first time, so we waited and went back onto the rock later.

Ed......my swim buddy!!

We stopped in a nice place good for swimming. Even though the air temperature was warm......the water was pretty cold. Only two of us went in the water.....me ......and Ed.....from Canada!! It was very refreshing!!!!

I got our group of 10 together right from our roll call and that worked out great. It was about 1:15 when we got underway and we sailed all over the bay. Beautiful views.....very relaxing.....either under cover or out on the bow of the boat. We all settled in for a fabulous ride. We were treated to beer or wine, fruit juices, and water. Cherries and nectarines were there for us.

Ha! We ran into Hayden and Chelsea on the pier. They were in line for their tour on 4x4's!

Today we rented a yacht (sailboat) from a former Russian Submariner that we used the last time we were here 4 years ago. I accidentally discovered him when another sailing venture fell through. It worked out perfectly last time, so I got in touch with him again. He not only remembered us, but used some of my pictures that I sent him on his website.....and oh, by the way.....you can go for free this time!! Ha!! Anyway.....I have kept in touch with him over the years. Glad I did!! The owner of this company (Parus M) is Yuri and his lovely wife, Vesna, works with him on the boat. Four years ago......they had no idea how to get reviews started on Trip Advisor, so I set that up for them and they were very grateful.

They were assisted today by the first mate....Alexi.

Vesna met us first out by the boat.....which was a short walk from where we got off the tender. We were soon all on the boat and I had my reunion with Yuri. Such a nice guy!

We all got settled in and first sailed right by the Brilliance!!

The wonderful Ricardo got us tender tickets for Tender number 1 for our whole group. There were ten of us today.

Around noon we prepared to get off. We met in the Schooner Bar and listened for them to call tender number one. It was fairly organized and we were soon on our way. Lots of tenders......one after the other!

John and Linda had the best seats!!

Of course the photographers were there on the pier to document our arrival!!

Thursday ~ June 16, 2016

Well.......I've saved the best for last!!

When we were looking at Med cruises for this year, I saw that this itinerary had Kotor at the end. That sealed the deal!! On our last Med cruise, Kotor was substituted for Corfu....and we were at a loss for what to do. I wasn't familiar with this port at all. But it turned out to be the highlight of that cruise. More later.

We didn't drop anchor until 12:30 today, so we were able to sleep in a little bit. We had a nice breakfast in Chops once again. Only a few people there.....great service!

We spent the morning in the DL. Andrea and Michael joined us in there and had their breakfast. We were able to watch the magnificent sail in to Kotor from there.

This is one wonderful sail in!! Don't miss it!

Meanwhile....back on the ship.....Andrea and Michael did not get off today, and I found them camped out by the pool......so I joined them. I felt like it was just the right time for a mojito!!!

Can't go on a cruise without getting a mojito!! I hate how expensive these drinks have gotten! Anyway.....we enjoyed sitting out by the pool when it wasn't so crowded. Most folks were still off the ship....out and about. I kept falling asleep out here.....so I finally had to go back to the cabin and do that there!!

Drinks in the DL that evening.

We were able to have dinner in the MDR again. Another strange menu......things I have never seen before. And things that did not appeal to me and I'm NOT a picky eater! So I got the salmon off the alternative menu. It was ok. John and I split a white chocolate cheesecake.....again....just ok.

A little casino time tonight and then off to bed. It has been so hard to feel rested on this trip. Great trip......but exhausting!

Lots of high end shopping here!!

Some other cruise buddies went in and did the church route to see the mosaics and they said it was really fabulous.

Anyway .....we had a nice visit here for the morning and it is definitely a nice cruise stop. We went to the shuttle to go back to the ship and we were there before noon.

Cappuccino stop!!

I always run into these little buddies everywhere!

Some nice tree lined streets:

Our bus was waiting for us!

Home, sweet home!!

More shots from Ravenna:

So we got ourselves together and made our way to the shuttle bus. You have to walk outside the gate to get the bus and one came right away. Very nice bus and a pleasant ride into town.....probably about 20 minutes.

They drop you off in a convenient little square. Very neat place.

There was a very nice lady there to explain to you where to go, etc. So we struck out in the direction that she pointed! Now if you can do a lot of walking, you can get a map that shows you where the churches are with the beautiful mosaics. We couldn't do that much walking......so we just found the main area and looked around a bit and grabbed a cappuccino.

We were warned to watch out for the bicyclists......and there were a lot of them!! Most of the streets were cobblestone, but there was a neat middle of the road that had smooth pavers for the bicycles. Really cool.

We had a leisurely stroll over to one of the main squares, then walked a bit on the side streets. Quite a lovely little town.

I'm back!!

Wednesday ~ June 15, 2016 ~ Ravenna

We had planned to just stay on board today, but when we woke up and saw how pretty and quaint the port looked......we decided that we would, indeed, go into town and look around. The shuttle was free (ha ha), so why not. The town of Ravenna provided the shuttle....which makes sense. Looks like RCI just had to get their fingers in the pie by charging now! From the ship, you could see the beach area and it looked pretty nice. Will have to check that out next time. (Not paying $22pp for a shuttle!)

We had a wonderful breakfast in Chops. Best ever! This is what I get every day:

Here is the beach area that you can see from the ship:

While on the way to breakfast, we were walking by the stairwell on deck 6 and noticed some officers there. We looked down and saw that a woman had fallen down the stairs. She did not look too good! We went on to breakfast and later heard the Alpha call. When we left breakfast, we walked by that stairwell again......and an officer was there with a tape measure, measuring every aspect of those stairs!! I think that I heard that the woman had to leave the ship for a nearby hospital, but that's all I know.

Here we are parked at the dock. Really nice facility.

So True. Hard to believe. And it just keeps happening! A good friend of mine was in Paris when those attacks happened.

Heading home today so I should be up and running some time this afternoon.

Thanks for holding down the fort!!

Daily check in from McD's! Hi Everyone.

So sad to hear the news from Nice! Sounds like that was the area where we spent our day. Yikes!

The reason we took the "shuttles' in Venice is because John has mobility issues with walking......can't do to much of it. He didn't even go the second day.You can certainly walk it, but that's not for me either. Our friends, Ann and Vic did, though. Believe me.....we got a lot of walking in on both days! But these fees for shuttles are horrible. Can't believe that about Ravenna. I understood that the town provided that shuttle in order to get shoppers in. I don't think we would have gone in to town if there had been that shuttle fee on our cruise.

Gotta run.......going home tomorrow,s o I'll be back with more review tomorrow afternoon! Thanks, y'all! it

Hi everyone. Checking in from McDonald's in the middle of nowhere! Glad to see some conversation goin on!!

Yes....for those lifestyle pics.....you have to be willing to get a little crazy......or not......it's up to you.....but they always come out well.

And Rominlimo is who we used. Send them an e-mail and Jany will call you back on the phone on her dime. SHe is wonderful to work with.

And Steve is absolutely correct......July and August are brutal!!! Have done that twice and the last time I thought I would simply perish from the heat!! And the crowds were horrible. May and June are God as well as October.

Check y"all later!

Everything OK?

 

I love the Venice posts: you saw much more then me! I went out on my own, because Bill didn't feel good; and I didn't want to leave him for too long!

If we went with you, this time, I wouldn't be able to go at all; so thank you for sharing this with all of us!!!

 

Only one pic with Ricardo????

Everything is fine......we have to go work at our "country home" for a while. Repairs, renovations, and such. Nothing fun.

So......I am going to have to be off the grid for the next few days.....unfortunately. So y'all hold down the fort and talk amongst yourselves until I get back. Lots more to go with two more wonderful ports. I'll get back as soon as I can. I should be able to check in each morning from a McDonald's while I am eating breakfast......but I won't be able to post pictures or anything. Should be back up and running in just a few days.....so keep checking back. Thanks for reading!

jane, I have not heard about freestyle pictures. Could you explain a little more about them. Do you go to the photo studio and what is the cost. Yours came out really well, thanks.

Oh....they are the best and so much fun. Just look for an area where they have the big white background that goes on the floor, too. You take your shoes off and they pose you in all kinds of fun ways. We are usually laughing so hard. There is no cost to do this. We usually buy a good many of them when we have them done......they have this special where you can get 5 for $50 and that's what we usually do. Try it next time. You'll love it!

After dinner I tried my luck at the craps table again. Had fun but didn't win anything. We slipped over to the Masquerade Ball in the Colony Club for a few minutes and it was really something. Lots of folks with their Venetian masks on......lots of dancing......real nice.....very elegant as the dress code suggested.

I Went back to the casino and tried my luck at the slot machines and had my best luck on a penny machine!

I went on to bed after that.

]

Dinner was in the MDR again. New table and wait staff. They called and wondered where we were. Dinner was just OK. I had the filet of beef and John ordered chicken tenders off the child's menu and was perfectly happy with that.

After dinner we saw an opportunity to have some Freestyle Pictures made, so we went for it. If you haven't ever had one of these done, you really should. They come out so well. Our group always has some done. We have serious ones done, but always, always have the traditional silly one done as well!! This is what happened tonight.

Double Trouble:

And the best one of the bunch:

Michael and Andrea had some made of just them as well.

We then made it back to the vaporetto and to the ship. By this time the sun had come out and it was quite hot. We got back to the ship in plenty of time and still had a bit of rest time before the evening.

The suggested dress code for the evening was "Elegance". First time I have seen that. Everyone was in various types of elegance for the evening from evening gowns to whatever. There was to be a masquerade ball tonight, so we took our masks along. We were able to watch the sail away from Venice in the DL and had a wonderful panorama of that from up there. So nice to have our drinks and watch that show!

Finally we found our way back to San Marco. We got there from the complete opposite direction from the way we set out. I should have done a map my walk thing so we could see exactly were we walked!! Of course, by that time.....we were ready for some gelato!!!

Andrea was looking for a t-shirt for her son. She found a model (another cruise passenger) to check out the size!!

Before we went back to the ship, I took Andrea and Michael to see the Hotel Danielli.......made famous in the movie "The Tourist". We went inside to look around. Neat place.

We really saw a lot of Venice today. Much more than I have seen before. The best way to see Venice is just put on your good walking shoes and take off down those alleyways and wind around all over the place. It's amazing what you will see.

More wandering.

Wow! Lots of good conversation this afternoon! Looks like everyone's questions have been answered so I will continue.

After lunch....we wandered some more trying to find our way back to San Marco. We just followed the signs on the buildings and found our way back. In the meantime, it was fun walking through the little squares and alleyways that we came upon.