Dr. rdsqrl's Renaissance Passage: Review of the Pacific's Rome to FLL

[Ethel5]

More, please! :)

[Mommypig]

Loving this! Keep going!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Woobstr112G]

Simply amazing pictures.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Wehwalt]

As a veteran of the PP's 2012 Renaissance Passage, I am enjoying this very much.

 

If you think Vesuvius looms ominously, you should have seen Etna …

 

I remember Gibraltar somewhat fondly, it was swell until the Costa Morbus pulled in beside us, not only disgorging thousands of rude Italians but giving us the Norovirus ...

[regnig]

:D Trust me you have a SRO audience so keep it up.

[flamomo]

This has to be one of the best threads ever!! Love all the photos. I was happy to see a few of Gibraltar, because I will be visiting it for the very first time on the cruise that is just under a year away.

 

Please ... DON"T stop now!!

[jlf1]

Love it, love it, love it............can't wait for more.

[CruzinNoony]

I am thoroughly enjoying your review. Love the pictures of the PP. We will be on her in a week.

[slc22]

What a way to celebrate your Doctorate, congrats, Annie;

 

Your commentary is so refreshing... Thanks for sharing with us! Looking forward to more ...

[chamima]

Love your acerbic commentary and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pictures of the ship. We spent 28 wonderful days on her sister, the Royal (which now belongs to P & O :( ) and 22 on the old Tahitian (currently the Ocean) and your interior pictures brought back wonderful memories.

We also had a cabin directly across from the rear elevator/stair lobby and never heard anything.

Never had a desire to go to Naples, but I do now!

[treesah]

Reading, reading, reading. Thanks for the library pictures. You're a riot, lady.

[windsor26]

Great information keep going please

[rdsqrl]

Oh, my. Thanks. I'm glad y'all are enjoying this so much; I was afraid everyone was all googley-eyed over the new big ship. Nice to see the little girls have their fans.

[rdsqrl]

Wait, wasn’t there another port? Yes. However, despite what they say in the movie, not everyone comes to Casablanca. Our extended stay in Gib meant that something had to be dropped, and that something was our stop in Morocco. Having already been there, I wasn’t too upset; some people were very annoyed. All together now: if you are dead set on seeing someplace, a cruise is not a reliable way to ensure that.

 

 

Madeira. Wow. This place is beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And warm in December (it was about 65). Thereby, one would think, catapulting itself near the top of my List of Places I Would Like To Live. Except, wait, what’s up with all these hills??

 

 

I said it in my Live and I’ll say it again, Madeira is not the place for the acrophobic. (Or, I imagine, for the lazy, or the easily winded.) I am acrophobic. In fact, I am the most acrophobic person I’ve ever met – I get nervous standing on a curb; when I wear high heels, I have to not look down at the floor. Here in lovely Madeira, most streets seem to go straight up, there are hairpin turns with dizzying drops every few meters (oh dear god, only 10 days in and I’m already starting to speak metric. Granted, I still don’t know what a “meter” actually is, but it sounds so very Euro.) . . . not the place to score the front seat of the tour bus, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

 

I picked a tour last-minute and without much thought. To be honest, I totally forgot we were going to Madeira at all until about a week before departure. This is why I would never take a World Cruise – I’d never be able to keep the ports straight. (Yeah, that’s the reason. Because I just have 35 Large just lying around doing nothing.) I picked the scenic overlook and wine tour . . .

[rdsqrl]

We went first to a terrifyingly high overlook, which was as nothing compared to what was to come. By the way, the first words out of the guide’s mouth, after introducing herself and naming the driver: “He’s a very good driver.” You have no idea how tightly I clung to this bit of information in the ensuing hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vegetation on Madeira is lush and the flowers are beautiful. They seem to grow a lot of potatoes, there are vineyards, of course. Much of the fruit and veg grown on the island is actually exported and they import for their own needs. I don’t know; this made sense when the guide explained it.

 

 

 

Note the mist where, I promise you, the sea is. It began as a foggy morning and some of it was still hanging around.

 

Our next stop was the highest cliff west of Everest, or something like that. Cabo Girao, which stands some 1500+ sheer meters (which here I assumed meant “miles”) above the sea. They have constructed a lovely little overlook, complete with glass floor, so you can walk out and see the rocks below upon which you will be dashed when the bolts inevitably give way and the whole thing crashes down. I was taking photos with my eyes closed, so any recognizable image is strictly down to luck:

 

 

 

[rdsqrl]

More photos from Cabo Girao, which I assume is Portuguese for Cliff of Terror.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The floor:

[rdsqrl]

Against all odds, the skywalk did not collapse, a gust of wind did not blow me over the rail, and we all survived to pile back into the tour bus. Some of us needed a drink. But wait – we still had to get back down from the top of this cliff.

 

 

 

 

Note the small white blocks in the front of the bus . . . those are the “guard rails” -- yes, the road is making a sharp turn here. I wanted to close my eyes but at the same time, I wanted to see it coming.

 

 

 

 

This is the cute little fishing village, Camara de Lobos. It actually isn't all that cute until you've had the near-death experience of driving down from Cabo Girao, at which point even your basic urban slum would look like Shangri-La.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I understand why they pair Cabo Girao and Madeira tasting in the same itinerary. We reached Funchal where the bus dropped us off on a main street about a block from the winery, Blandy Wine Lodge. This was a very quaint little place, with tasting rooms and a shop:

 

 

[rdsqrl]

Not as much information about the wine as we had at the Sicily vineyard but we did get to taste one very sweet Madeira and then one of six other options for our second glass. I tried the driest; I think that the sweeter was actually better. Still somewhat shaky after my morning ordeal, I decided some shopping would help calm me down. I bought a few postcards (I love sending postcards -- for a mere handful of pocket change, you can make all your friends at home green with envy). I also bought a t-shirt. I’m not really much of a t-shirt wearer, but I think there will be few, if any, others at my gym wearing Blandy Wine Lodge tees.

 

Our guide gave us detailed instructions on time to be back at the bus and what to do if we wished to go back to the ship on our own and then turned us loose. I strolled through Funchal and was hijacked into a restaurant where some of my dinner table companions were having an early lunch. I joined them briefly, strolled a bit more through the city, and then headed back to the ship.

 

Note the lovely patterns on the sidewalks:

 

 

 

Tied up behind us was this American naval ship.

 

 

 

 

We sailed from Madeira around 2, so a short day in port – longer would have been nice, of course. Anyway, looks like we left one step ahead of weather, so maybe it was for the best.

 

 

 

 

Our friendly pilot:

 

[rdsqrl]

And before we leave Madeira, two last photos that I forgot to slot in earlier. Despite my terror, this really was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I'd go back . . . with a large bottle of Valium.

 

 

 

 

[skrapngal]

Loving this!!!

[rdsqrl]

And now we were off on our trans-Atlantic portion, five glorious days at sea, boldly going where Christopher Columbus and the Vikings went first. But for this review, I’m gonna skip ahead and talk about Bermuda, then I’ll do a section on shipboard life before I wrap up.

 

Bermuda:

It was very exciting to see land after five days. No, actually, it wasn’t. Because this meant we were three days away from the end of the voyage. However, Bermuda is so lovely that it cheers you up.

Like Madeira, we were only here for part of a day, which was definitely a bummer. I had planned to go to the beach but was a little worried about the timing, especially given my propensity to lose track of time when in or near the ocean. Plus, I was a little sunburned from the previous day. So I decided to just wander around Hamilton, doing a little desultory shopping, some eating, mail some postcards, etc.

 

Nice thing about the Pacific is that it docks right downtown on Front Street (although I do really like the museums at the Dockyard).

 

This is the Queen Elizabeth II garden, which I think is new since my last visit here.

 

The garden’s noisiest denizens:

 

[rdsqrl]

I love this sculpture.

[Hulagirl]

Loving your pictures and review. It is like being there with you. Can't wait for the next set to show up here. Appreciate your taking the time to share with us. These are my favorite type of reviews!

 

Glad you had such a great trip.

[rdsqrl]

Just some random shots from downtown:

 

 

 

The Cabinet Building:

 

They were really into the decorating spirit:

 

 

 

[rdsqrl]

You can get some very nice photos of the ship up close here.

 

 

 

 

And all too soon, we were sailing away:

 

 

A few humble shacks: