The Inaugural Vista's Official Trippingpara Mayhem in the Mediterranean Review

[trippingpara]

Awesome! Just amazing!

 

Thank you very much, glad you are enjoying it!

[trippingpara]

After visiting the Sistine Chapel, we went over to St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. Again, WOW!! The cathedral was beautiful and is the largest in the world (which I guess is fitting!). On the floor of the cathedral marked the size of all the major cathedrals in the world so you can see just how big St. Peter’s is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Since it was a Wednesday, the Pope had just given mass in St. Peter’s Square so there were hundreds of chairs filling the square. I would have loved to have seen the square empty to really appreciate its true size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a motley crew if I'd ever seen one!!

 

 

 

Our good friends, CarnieAddict and Lady Addict. Hmm...maybe we should call her Lady Carnie instead!!

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Well, it was finally time to go. It was getting late and we still had over an hour drive back to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. During our drive back, the 8 of us yucked it up the entire way back. It was amazing at how quickly and how well we all got along. Spending with day with these 3 couples made the tour even that much better. Now this is how a proper tour is done!!

 

When we got back to the ship, we went back to our room and cleaned up some and then headed straight up to the Alchemy Bar for some libations with Kevin_Mac and Lady Mac. That trip to the Alchemy Bar started my love affair with “The Remedy” drink. Man oh man, was that good!! The rest of the night was a whirlwind as we were absolutely exhausted from the long day in Roma and we had an early start to our day tomorrow in Livorno. Until next time….

 

 

Here are a couple shots of some of our neighbors at the dock in CCBB.

 

 

 

 

The Norwegian Epic

 

 

 

The legendary Sea Cloud, considered to be the greatest windjammer of all time

 

 

 

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas

 

 

 

Costa's Magica

 

 

 

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[sweethart9510]

The illegal photos of the Sistine Chapel are jaw-dropping!! Unbelievable!! Just wow!!

[trippingpara]

The illegal photos of the Sistine Chapel are jaw-dropping!! Unbelievable!! Just wow!!

 

 

LOL, thank you. I figured with all of the crazy things I've done while growing up and during my time in the Marines and God still accepted me, taking a couple photos of a masterpiece in his honor wasn't going to do me much more harm!

 

There were a lot of people trying to take photos. Guards were plentiful and they would yell out "No photos!!" in a stern voice at anyone that tried to take a picture. But I never saw them attempt or even threaten to take the cameras away from people.

 

 

 

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Edited July 20, 2016 by trippingpara

[LIMPIT]

Fantastic review, great balance of content, factual, humour together with super photos, credit to CC.

We are sailing aboard Vista Oct 1st out of Barcelona, and have a Cloud 9 Spa Balcony, the post has been extremely useful and entertaining for us [emoji106]

Edited July 20, 2016 by LIMPIT

[cbj1958]

Hmm, I'm able to see them. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

I even got hopelessly lost while following a map. How the heck does that happen??

 

I can't see them either. I'm viewing in my Chrome browser.

[trippingpara]

Fantastic review, great balance of content, factual, humour together with super photos, credit to CC.

We are sailing aboard Vista Oct 1st out of Barcelona, and have a Cloud 9 Spa Balcony, the post has been extremely useful and entertaining for us [emoji106]

 

Thank you so much for such kind words. I'm very glad that you found my review helpful. You are going to have such a great time aboard her! Even though we really liked our Cove Balcony, this would have been a great cruise to have a spa balcony. With such a port intensive itinerary, it would have been great to simply waltz into the thermal suites to relax!

[trippingpara]

I can't see them either. I'm viewing in my Chrome browser.

 

Can you see the photos a couple pages after that post? I was having problems with the original hosting site but I switched to a different one and I haven't heard of anyone else having any more problems seeing the photos after that.

[Shih-tzu]

Amazing photos of the Sistine Chapel. Too bad that your camera picked that time to start acting up and the shutter randomly working on it's own :D

 

Wonderful trip (and aren't Canadians great??)

[trippingpara]

Amazing photos of the Sistine Chapel. Too bad that your camera picked that time to start acting up and the shutter randomly working on it's own :D

 

Wonderful trip (and aren't Canadians great??)

 

Thank you. It was pretty amazing how the shutter on my camera just started firing away like that there. The funny thing is the camera stopped acting up as soon as I stepped out of the chapel. Odd. Hasn't done it since either.

 

LOL, and yes I have to say Canucks are pretty cool. Even when they say "eh?" every ten seconds!

[cruiseonthebrain]

This continues to be an excellent review. Thank you so much for the in depth review of the Chef's Table. I have been wavering over keeping the reservation for our cruise next month. We will definitely be doing it!

[trippingpara]

This continues to be an excellent review. Thank you so much for the in depth review of the Chef's Table. I have been wavering over keeping the reservation for our cruise next month. We will definitely be doing it!

 

Thank you for the kind words. You will NOT regret the Chef's Table. I was a bit hesitant at first too. Our cruise was very expensive across the board and I wasn't too sure if I wanted to spurge that much for a dinner. Plus I didn't see any bacon cheeseburgers with a fried egg any where on the menu. Nor was there any fried mac-n-cheese fritters or even a hot dog. Not one single mention of bacon at all. Clearly it could not be worth that much!! Oh how wrong I was my friend, how wrong I was!! Thank you for taking the time to leave such nice feedback, I appreciate it!

[trippingpara]

Fun Times for Livorno

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

________________________________________

Thursday, May 12th – Florence/Pisa, Italy

 

Unfortunately, we were too late in joining CarnieAddict on his Rome in Limo tour to Florence and Pisa so we decided to start our own group with Rome in Limo. Again, we capped the tour at 8 peeps. However, we were a little nervous about this since we have never lead a tour before. There were going to be 3 other couples on the tour with us. Two of the couples we met at the Roll Call Meet and Greet but one couple did not show up. Since the M&G was at the beginning of the cruise, we have spent the past week and a half worrying if we were going to get stiffed with their bill (as the tour leader we were responsible for the entire bill). The other two couples paid us at the M&G. Apparently, this one couple was not comfortable giving me money in advance and then wanted to hand the money over directly to the tour guide at the end of the tour. Really?? I’m stuck on a ship with you. You had my room number, my name, my CC name…where the heck was I going to go with your money?? One of the couples that did pay us at the M&G asked for a receipt for the money. Which was no problem and didn't bother me, but not showing up or even communicating with us that you wanted to pay the money directly to the tour guide? If they had just let us know that they were more comfortable paying the guide directly at the end of the tour, I would have at least known that they were in fact still planning on attending.

 

Any ways, and there is the problem with being a tour leader (not to mention I heard of many other tour leaders that did get stiffed with the bill when people did not show up for the tour). I can’t even fathom doing that to someone. If you agree to join a tour, then be a man and stand by your word. If you’re too sick or tired to go on the tour, you still pay for it. You just don’t stick someone else with the bill! Sorry, rant over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did our normal morning routine and got off the ship well before our scheduled time to meet. We wanted to make sure that we were the first ones out there and were able to find our tour guide. We found our guide among the plethora of people waiting for their passengers. Within 10 to 15 minutes, all 3 couples showed up. Of course Rosesgt and Lady Rose were the last ones. If you’ve ever met Mr. Rosesgt you’ll know that it takes him forever to get ready! Every hair has to be in the right place (the very few there are!) and then he has to apply the rouge…seriously now, I kid. The Rosesgts and us hit it off right away. Pretty much from when we met during our Roll Call Meet and Greet at the Red Frog Pub, we got along. We would end up spending quite a bit more time with them over the next few days. Which usually consisted of Mr. Rosesgt and I throwing ziggers and barbs at each other. Lady Rose and Lady Trip would just roll their eyes and chat about whatever ladies’ chat about. The four of us had a lot of good, hearty laughs together!

 

Back to the tour…we piled into our Mercedes van and began the hour long trek up to Florence. Here's a few photos of the Italian countryside...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Shih-tzu]

I wish there was a " like" button we could hit for the photos! Lovely pictures of Italian countryside (eh?)

[trippingpara]

As we entered the city, we made a photo stop overlooking the city. It was a great vantage point to see the old and new town of Florence. We had taken a slightly longer but much more scenic route that had culminated at this view point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

I wish there was a " like" button we could hit for the photos! Lovely pictures of Italian countryside (eh?)

 

LOL, a "like" button would be nice! There are a ton of wonderful photos and comments on these boards!! Thank you for adding in the ubiquitous "eh"! Now you sound more Canadian!! :D Don't worry, I'll start spelling things with my accent like "caaaah" for car or "lobstah" for that lovely garbage cleaner of the ocean that we all love so much here in New England.

Edited July 23, 2016 by trippingpara

[pghsteelerfan]

Just jumping in to let you know that I am still following along and to let you know how much I am enjoying this. This is definitely an "epic" review!!! I can't say enough about your pictures, breathtaking. Kind of makes me wish I was on this cruise or could do it. Who knows, maybe Vista's sister ship (???). I love how your camera acted up in the Sistine Chapel...I may have had the same problem with mine. :D I don't know if you mentioned your service to our country in your previous two reviews or not. Thank you for your service. I have a few friends whose sons are currently serving, so know first hand what their families go through and appreciate it so much more. Again, I'm really enjoying your review.

[trippingpara]

Just jumping in to let you know that I am still following along and to let you know how much I am enjoying this. This is definitely an "epic" review!!! I can't say enough about your pictures, breathtaking. Kind of makes me wish I was on this cruise or could do it. Who knows, maybe Vista's sister ship (???). I love how your camera acted up in the Sistine Chapel...I may have had the same problem with mine. :D I don't know if you mentioned your service to our country in your previous two reviews or not. Thank you for your service. I have a few friends whose sons are currently serving, so know first hand what their families go through and appreciate it so much more. Again, I'm really enjoying your review.

 

 

Thank you so much for such kind words. I really do appreciate it! I'm very glad that you're still following along. I know that this review is taking forever to do and is starting to turn into the Cruise Critic version of War and Peace! Good luck to your Steelers this year. Looks like their star running back just got suspended AGAIN! But don't worry, my Browns are still nowhere near challenging them yet.

[trippingpara]

From the overlook, we drove down into the city for our main stop, the Accademia. This is the museum that houses Michelangelo’s David statue. We arrived there and our guide told us that we needed to exchange our vouchers for actual tickets. One of the members of our group volunteered to exchange them for everyone, so he collected all of the vouchers and ran down the street to the ticket office. Rosesgt being…well, Rosesgt, he forgot to print up his voucher so he went down to the ticket office as well to try and print them up (apparently he had quite a bit of problems trying to get an internet connection but was finally able to get some tickets).

 

Within a few minutes, the rest of our group got our tickets and entered the museum. The Accademia is considered to be one of the world’s premier art museums. It also houses a small museum of musical instruments as well. Now let’s face facts here. I’m not the biggest connoisseur of art. Remember what I was saying earlier about the spa? I’m a pretty simple guy. My idea of good art is watching an old show of Bob Ross painting a pretty little tree. Trying to determine the true meaning behind a painting is like trying to find an honest politician. An exercise in futility! Nonetheless, I do have to say that seeing the statue of David up close and in person was awe inspiring. When you see an object or building so many times in photos, books and movies, its rather humbling when you get to see it with your own eyes in person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from the famous statue of David, there were hundreds of other statues, paintings and various other forms of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

After the Accademia, we still had an hour or two of free time. So we strolled along the ancient streets of old town before we stopped in a nice café on the edge of a large piazza. It did rain pretty good for a few minutes and then the clouds parted and the sun came out for what turned into a beautiful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Love2Cruz2015]

 

 

 

 

 

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Now we know where the 80's hair bands got their style from...:cool:

[trippingpara]

Now we know where the 80's hair bands got their style from...:cool:

 

I think that was the Renaissance era's version Twisted Sister!