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Barcelona SOS Mediterranean Greek Isle Cruise w/Paris and Copenhagen Review

crvng4mr
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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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Going to the Med in September on Celebrity....your review is fantastic! I am sooooo ready for my turn!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

:D

Thank you!!! I am excited for you too! It will be unbelievably awesome!:D

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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This is an amazing review - thank you very much for all your work!

 

You learned GREEK while working in a surgical office!!! You must be a genius - I bet you learned how to be a surgeon too!!!! :-)

 

Cheers,

Jayna K

 

Thank you! Yes! Can you believe it. I can't read it or write it though. And only basic conversation. No genius but thanks, lol. I did actually learn how to do quite a few procedures and at the next surgical office I worked at diagnosed a patient for a young new doctor. I did impress myself that day.

 

That was my thought, too!:eek::D I work in a hospital in Phoenix with a heavy Mexican population, took 4 years of Spanish in high school, plus a year in college (that was a few years ago, admittedly) and I still can't carry on a conversation, although I can read Spanish fairly well. But just pick it up? No way!

 

I am sure you know more than you are admitting to. When every other patient or more speaks greek and you here turn right, left, upstairs, bathroom etc you pick it up. I have no idea about greek letters though!

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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I wanted to have Salerno up way before now but somehow my pictures on my phone from facebook disappeared and that was how I was loading them through tapatalk.

 

Now my phone says that the sync system is temporarily down. I will figure something out by late morning and get this show on the road.

 

Thanks for being patient.

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jkloni

jkloni

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Hi!

Just read all 13 pages and loving it! Thanks for telling your story!

 

We will sail the Serenade soon.... Sept 5th - 12 nights round trip Rome. I think we only have Rome and Salerno as ports together, but loving your review just the same. And we have 2 RomeinLimo tours booked too for Rome and Salerno.

 

Carry on. :)

 

Kathy

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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Hi!

Just read all 13 pages and loving it! Thanks for telling your story!

 

We will sail the Serenade soon.... Sept 5th - 12 nights round trip Rome. I think we only have Rome and Salerno as ports together, but loving your review just the same. And we have 2 RomeinLimo tours booked too for Rome and Salerno.

 

Carry on. :)

 

Kathy

 

Thanks Kathy!

 

Lucky you! Salerno will be up by sometime tomorrow. Romeinlimo is the best, at least in my book. I hope you get Diego, as he was awesome! Definitely a contender against Michel from Revelation Tours for first place.

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zales

zales

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Hi Zales!

 

Not that I know of but I wouldn't as I had euros. I can say that I say all the pricing in euros but that doesn't mean they wouldn't take USD.

 

Basically, I said all of that to say I do not know. Lol

 

Thank You Ayasha:p

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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This is a fantastic review. I love your enthusiasm, your family is adorable (your son in his bow-tie is so precious!) and your pictures are great. Looking forward to the rest.

 

Thank you! At 12 he is usually only precious in a bow tie.;)

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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Is this really our last port!!!! Oh no! It seemed to all go by so quick. I mean wasn't it just yesterday that we were boarding the beautiful Serenade. At least we have almost a full day in Barcelona, Paris and Copenhagen to look forward to but it won't be the same without the Serenade.

 

Today there would be 16 of us riding in 2 minivans. We resumed our normal morning routine and met in Vintages. It was decided that all the children would go in one van with their parents, guardians etc and everyone else would be in the second van. Well, I offered that the children go in a van with the others but for some unknown reason they weren't okay with that.:rolleyes: Moving on we departed the ship and like most of the ports it was very industrial. There were many men with signs. (I just realized that there were many, many men and no women. I wonder what that is all about.) But there where none with my name. I saw anther group of 5 that had previously joined some of my tours. I had no more room so they booked one together with RIL as well and they didn't see there name either. I was really starting to get anxious again. You know I have a problem when I am not in control or feel like I am losing control.

 

That feeling quickly disappeared when the other group's driver finally arrived and said there is a big hold up coming into the port. Then as we turned around we saw one of our driver's and then the 2nd one about 3 minutes after. Well our driver was Diego and boy did we get the best. I guess you could say it was an even trade since the others didn't want to ride with the kids, lol. No seriously he was the best, not that the other driver was bad he was just very business driver like and Diego was......funny, entertaining, knowledgeable and energetic. He was also a fast driver, which is a plus in my book.;)

 

As usual we discussed how everyone thought the days events should go and then we were on our way. The first stop would be Pompeii where our guide was already waiting for us. On the way there Diego kept referring to me personally for all the group decisions. It was very awkward for me as I always like a consensus and never want anyone to feel like I am in charge, unless of course they are my children or I am in charge. I don't think anyone else felt that way but sometimes I think way too much about small stuff.

 

It took all of 20 minutes to get to Pompeii. Well for us it did, lol, the others were about 4 minutes behind. It was just opening as we walked up. There was much talk of some rain but I knew we would have a great day with little or no rain. I could feel it and we had great weather all 10 other days and our sailing was special.:D Our tour guide was Paola and I just wanted to take her with s after we left Pompeii she was so good and interesting. I could see her and I becoming fast friends. *sidenote* there is a washroom right by the ticket office before you get to the front. I need to remember to have someone else hold my purse, camera etc when using the facilities in Europe as they of course don't have any hooks like in the USA and they tend to be much smaller in space.

 

Right after we purchased our tickets, well I gave Paola my money to purchase while we used the bathroom, the other group of 5 arrived and asked if they could share our guide. Of course it was fine with me and i just checked with Paola to make sure she was up to having 21 of us instead of 16. No problems and we started our adventure in Pompeii. I say adventure because that is what it felt like. She spoke as if we were walking back in time and you could visualize the hustle and bustle of daily life. I don't think she missed a thing and answered all of our questions as we were so enthralled with what we were seeing.

 

I have wonderful pictures as you will see of Pompeii completely empty as we were one of the first ones in and to arrive. This by far was my favorite ruin out of all we had seen the entire cruise. It felt like a city I could relate to and didn't have to visualize too much to actually see the entire picture and it looked like a city. It was also beautiful out. We saw were the wealthy, school teachers, and regular folk lived along with the brothels (the kids got a kick out of this, us adults too) and the bath houses, spas, theatre. The list is too long to go on. In the theatre they were setting up for a concert. It was so nice to hear that they still use this space today. Can you imagine going to listen to a concert in Pompeii? Woah!

 

We ended our tour a couple of hours later. I don't think Paola wanted to leave us yet either. She walked us to the parking lot where our drivers were waiting. Across from the entrance and parking are places to get drinks and food. I believe our water was 1E which was the cheapest we had seen in Italy so far.

 

As we were all loaded up and the door closed about 30 seconds later it a gentleman opened it again. Who was this random person? He looked straight at me and smiled and then looked at Diego for a second and then back to me. He said how lucky Diego was to drive and tour me around. How he would love to have that chance for such a beautiful woman. (Can you see me blushing yet) And he hoped to see us in our next stop maybe Sorrento. I just shook my head, lol. Ciera was rolling her eyes and Cai was staring him down. Then he told me he was a driver also for RIL and he closed the door. First thing out of Cai's mouth was, "Who is that man?". :)

 

I don't know what the others in my van were thinking or the looks on their faces. It would not be the end of this man or the conversation amongst us in the van about him. Had I found a husband in Pompeii? Of course I would move to Italy!

 

Stay tuned for more....pictures of Pompeii next!

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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lol-- oh my god, that's hilarious! We've seen the brothel, but missed this little "sign". How funny:D!

 

Stef

We all found it quite funny as well! Only way we saw it was because our guide pointed it out.[emoji3][emoji23][emoji85]

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crvng4mr

crvng4mr

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Hey!!!! I'm back! We last left off with us getting ready to leave Pompeii when a cute, funny Italian man was flirting with me.

 

As we set out to Sorrento Diego explained that the man's wife would probably be thrilled if I took him off her hands. Yeah but I don't work that way. Still it was nice to be flirted with in Italy by an Italian.

 

Diego explained different sections we would drive through on our way to Sorrento. We briefly discussed the captain of the ill fated Costa ship and also pasted where cruise ships where built and went to die sometimes. It is a very scenic route and Diego expressed great delight in the fact that the names of the beaches there are very well thought out and out of the ordinary, not. Such as, Bikini Beach, lol.

 

He also knew a great back route to take through a quaint little town so we wouldn't get caught in traffic. As he dropped us off he made sure we knew where to meet him and when as he had arranged for all of us to have lunch together also in Sorrento. I believe we had about an hour and 10 minutes to explore. I love Sorrento and I intend to go back as it was just not enough time to really explore and enjoy. Of course we tried shots of Limoncello, my first. I didn't like it at first, stay tuned. We also tried Limoncello candy and that was very good. I was able to get my postcard here as well.

 

Of course there were many tourist where we were but there were many locals as well which I quite enjoyed. I also found it to be a place with lots of artist. There was a young group of men performing informally in a small square and quite a few shops to by paintings. The kids of course had gelato and the boys saw a soccer store and spent a good ten minutes in there. By then it was time to make our way back to the meeting spot.

 

Diego and the other driver were on time as usual and whisked us away to have lunch. The restaurant was literally a 5 minute drive. We were all seated at one long table and it seemed to be a local establishment that other RIL drivers also took there tours to as well. We all ordered and there was an extensive menu. There was some confusion as to who would wait on the whole table or would we have 2 waiters and that lead to half of our party not getting their meals for quite a long time as the restaurant was also very busy. Lucky for those of them that ordered starters as they received them timely.

 

During lunch, guess who pops in? My flirty married Italian friend! So he flirts some more with me in front of everyone and then has the restaurant give us a free shot of Limoncello. This Limoncello I loved!!! I should have gotten the name of it. Of course we had to explain to the others who were in the second van what had occurred right before we left Pompeii.:)

 

After such a delicious and very inexpensive meal those of us in my van heard that there were some talks of them wanting to switch vans for the rest of the day. Haha! No thanks, we love Diego and weren't giving him up that easily.:D

 

Next stop Positano...but first pictures form Sorrento!

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