Port Intensive and Picture Intensive Trip Report for Jewel's E Mediterranean cruise

I sat on the balcony a while after dinner and even slept with the balcony door open until P came back. He went to the 70s show, which he said was fun as usual. Tomorrow is a sea day and we are looking forward to it!!

Today was a much needed and much appreciated at sea day!!!!! I woke up at 6 am, but it did not look like there would be a sunrise, so I went back to bed until 8 am! Yeah, me! It was just a beautiful day at sea. We went to Chops Grille for breakfast, meeting M&F at 9:30. Wow, it was a shame that we did not do this any other day because it was so great. But we had been limited in our options due to time with such a port intensive itinerary! Very nice service, food, and ambience. The order of "pancakes" actually only has 1 pancake, but it was a “real” pancake such that I have never had a pancake so good on a cruise ship before! Windjammer was a madhouse so we were so happy not to go there. Delicious!

Three different butters…

A few shots of the ship on our way to the helipad.

We went to the helipad to get some pictures. You can’t do this on all of the ship classes. It was pretty windy -- but much warmer than Alaska when we went to the helipad on the Radiance!

Crew area

We went back to our cabin, but the steward was cleaning, so P&I walked around for a while and then sat at the smoking station on deck 5. 😊 He doesn’t smoke anymore, but it is always a nice spot to sit and there is rarely anyone there! This is the first time that I have mentioned our steward, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t good. He was great! His name was Iskander and he was very on the ball. He always had ice for Phil’s beer bucket and he brought a sugar caddy to the room on his own, when he saw all the sugars that Phil collected for his morning coffee.

We had 2 ship tours today, the bridge tour and the galley tour. We have been on both before on other ships. The bridge tour included a pat down by security. 😊It was a nice tour. The guys on the bridge were very knowledgeable and polite.

Floor window

Crew area

Awesome review and pictures!

Awesome review and pictures!

Thank you!!

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The 2nd tour, the galley tour, was bizarre. There were words between Diego (the concierge) and the head chef (if that is who he was). Then, after Diego left, the chef gave the most half-*ss tour we had ever seen. Once he held out a plate and said, “This is a plate.” When Maria went to look at it, thinking there had to be something unusual, he waved her away. Then, he herded us all towards the exit very soon after it started and we left. Someone behind me asked if this was the end of the tour, and I said I didn’t know but we were leaving! Apparently, it was not the end because, later, we met another couple from the tour in the elevator. They said it went from bad to worse when Diego came back, and he and the chef got into an argument. They were yelling at each other in another language, and the chef made a motion pointing with 2 fingers from his eyes to Diego’s in a time-honored fashion that typically means watch out, I’m going to gut you in your sleep. LOL!! That night in the concierge lounge, Frank went up to Diego to see if any problems had resulted for Diego from that because, if so, we would be happy to stick up for him. That chef was awful! Diego said all was fine and taken care of now.

Evil chef.

I spent the rest of the day on the balcony reading and dinner was in the MDR. Prime rib was very good. I didn’t write anything else down and I don’t remember another thing from this day. LOL!! There was a gorgeous sunset, though, and I have the pictures to prove it.

My pictures also show tonight was the 2nd formal night. M&F had had issues with their steward walking into their room on a couple of occasions, barely knocking and giving them no time to get situated. Well, tonight the steward had walked in and M had jumped as she was putting on her stockings and she really hurt her hip. She could barely walk with that on top of her torn Achilles heel. Horrible pain!! Luckily, it was much better by tomorrow because Malta had a lot of walking!!

Today was Malta. What a unique port it was! Started with a beautiful sunrise.

Very Moorish looking port. What an amazing sail in! I didn’t see the other side of the port when we sailed in, but later, when I did, I was amazed that the ship could make that turn!!

Hard Rock Café is right across from us in the port so that should make getting the requisite t-shirt as easy as possible.

There was an ambulance waiting for the ship when we got there. They took the person away on a stretcher.

I also think I saw the clueless assistant waiter from the first night walking off the ship with his luggage. I don’t know for sure, but it looked like him from the back. I feel bad, but maybe better for him in the long run…

We had full day Malta Loop tour with My Maltese Guide (400 euros). It was a later port pick up at 9 am so that was a nice change. Again, I had not been aware at booking, but we were provided a driver and a guide. The guide was Josette and the driver was Noel from Ireland with a true Irish accent. Noel was hysterical, so funny, and so personable. He made the trip very pleasurable. He knew a lot of places M&F have gone in Ireland and NY. He gave his card to F at the end of the tour because he comes to the U.S. a lot. He is just helping out his friend, who owns the company. He trains police and military around the world, including in the U.S., and he is THE person who is called in this part of the world when there is a terrorist attack. He wrote a book on it. We did not believe 100% of what he was saying because we are not just off the banana boat, but he was so nice, we did not care. But F looked him up when we got back to the ship, and everything he said was absolutely true. LOL!!! Anyway, regardless, Noel made it a wonderful experience.

There was a lot of walking today. Over 11,000 steps. My daughter told me not to tell anyone how many steps because 10,000 is a goal on fitbit, but that is a lot of steps for us! It was hot and crowded in Malta too. The sights here were very interesting and unique, the churches were beautiful, and the views were gorgeous.

There were 2 churches directly across from each other. They were very quaint and beautiful.