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

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Ha ha, on the way to the concierge lounge, we stopped to hear the music in the Centrum from our deck. M was kidding F and said let’s dance. He said no then. What????? So then, he tried to dance with her at the elevator and she told him it was too late so he was chasing her around. Too funny!

 

 

 

 

 

Concierge lounge had pigs in a blanket again! Yeah!

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Dinner was in the MDR. The menu was not great again, so M&I got the Chops steak. She was not impressed with hers, but mine was delicious. (She had hers well done and they split it to cook it, which made it dry.) Menus have not been all that good the 2nd week. But I guess that is to be expected with such a long cruise and with such picky eaters. (We are not very adventurous when it comes to different foods as you may have noticed. I make no apologies for it…) The boys asked for Chops mushroom soup since we were both getting the steaks. Very cheeky of them! The waiter had to check with the head waiter to see if it was possible, and the headwaiter came over and said you want the Chops soup??? He looked at us and we held our breath! Then, he smiled and said yes. 😊 I guess complaining once in a while does pay off. They love that soup!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Saturday,11/4/17, Day 16, Day 11 of the cruise – Messina, Sicily, Italy

 

Today is the day I have been waiting for! Sicily!!! Had a moon setting view as well as a bit of the sunrise. Gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Quite a beautiful sail in for this quaint port!

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We planned to meet up with my sister, Therese, and her husband, Nino!! T&N had come in by train the day before and would be leaving the following day. It was a nice getaway for them. I booked them in the Hilton Giardini Naxos, which was about 45 minutes from the port of Messina. I could not find any hotels that I really liked in Messina and I wanted one that would make it easy for me to handle all of the details up front from the U.S. In fact, I was able to eMail the hotel and worked out a lot of the details to make sure things went seamlessly for them and even got information on how to get from the train station to the hotel from them prior to the trip. They were terrific!

 

My sister and her husband live on the Palermo side of Sicily (the other side) in a very small town, so it was a trip for them! Nino is from Sicily. He lived in the U.S. for several years where he met my sister. (Well, they met in the U.S. when they were both working at his uncle’s pizza place, had a deep relationship, he went back to Sicily, married, divorced, came back to the U.S., met again, fell back in love, and married.) There were a lot of deaths in our family and it made him think that he needed to go back to Sicily to live to be with his mother as she grew older and ill. They moved to Sicily about 5 years ago. When I saw her in November, she had only been back to the U.S. once. She just came last month for a visit, so it was nice to see her again so soon after our 1-day tease!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

I had originally contacted Rome in Limo for this port tour because Fabrizio of All Around Italy did not do tours here and I was not a fan of the website of the guy he had recommended. Probably, if I had met Fz first, I would have used his guy regardless because we loved Fz! I needed the tour company to pick us up at the ship, pick up T&N at the Hilton about 45 minutes away, go on the tour, drop off T&N at their hotel, and then drop us off at the ship. I had provided all of this info when I booked the tour on Rome in Limo’s website. Anyway, as it got closer, I began to think it might be better to spend more time with Therese so I contacted Rome in Limo to see if they would pick up T&N first at the hotel, then get us at the port, just so we could have more time together. Also, I noticed on the Royal website that our docking time changed from 7 am to 9 am, which necessitated a change in our plans anyway. (Note – check your itinerary on the website to see any updates prior to the cruise if you have made outside plans!) When I contacted Rome in Limo, Jany said it would make more sense for T&N to meet us in Taormina since their hotel was about an hour away from the port and to drop them off in Taormina after the tour before going back to the port. Otherwise, the extra cost from pick up and drop off would be 350 euros, on top of the 600 euros for the Taormina and Mt. Etna tour. Ummm, no. (Both T&N suffer from anxiety and were nervous about the train ride there anyway. I did not want to add any more stress to what I wanted to be a wonderful weekend away for them. They do not get to do things like this.) At that point, I became nervous and reminded Jany that I made the reservation with the information regarding picking up and dropping them off at the hotel as included in the price. I was willing to pay more for changing the timing – basically an extra hour – but the Hilton was already in the itinerary. She responded that, of course, it was doable, even if she couldn’t find the original email exchange as it was a long time ago, but she pointed out that we would miss precious time of the tour in both cases. It would still be 350 euros more to pick them up first.

 

Well, since my original email was included in the message I sent her, I was not impressed or happy with this message or the astronomical cost. I immediately put out a few requests online for other tours. Within a short time, I had an awesome response from Sicily Shore Tours. His suggestion was to pick T&N up first, come to Messina and pick us up, go on tour of Mt. Etna and Taormina, drop us off at the port first so we could spend even more time with T&N, and then drop them off at the hotel. All of this for only 325 euros. OMG, how wonderful! So yes, I cancelled Rome in Limo and went with Sicily Shore Tours. The tour driver was young and maybe not as knowledgeable as some guides we have had, but he was wonderful. He did not care that we spent most of the time talking and visiting, and he showed us great sights and took our pictures and was so sweet and laughing with us. He was helping Nino teach Frank Italian so he could speak Italian with Fabrizio when he saw him again.

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

So, obviously, this was my favorite port. It was so wonderful to see Therese. She had no problems getting picked up at the hotel. Port security, however, would not let the van into the port area with them in it. ☹ I was watching from the balcony, so I knew what was going on. She waited outside the gates and everyone around them (port vendors, etc.) knew what was going on. She was calling to me as I came out – “There’s my sister!!!!!” It was so exciting!! We laughed and laughed all day. After a while, M sat in the very back with T and me and we just talked and talked and laughed and laughed. A lot of childhood memories to discuss! The men talked to each other and the driver and knew not to interrupt us too much! I was just so happy.

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We went to Mt. Etna. Man, it was cold on the top of the volcano. We did not go all the way to the top. It would have been 60 euros each to take the cable car.

 

My sister and her husband

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

F had to buy a sweatshirt like a tourist in the shop because it was so cold and he didn’t bring his jacket. It had “Italia” on it. LOL! (Yes, I am well aware that we ARE tourists and I personally revel in that!)

 

 

T&I bought each other little trinkets as a reminder of this wonderful day.

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

There was a man with a goat there for people to take pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Walking was a bit nerve wracking on the volcano without the proper shoes and we did NOT have the proper shoes…

 

 

So, we did not hike down the crater. Yeah, that was the reason we did not hike down there…😊

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

After the volcano, we stopped at the statute of Maria SS della Provvidenza where the lava stopped flowing right before it hit the town. They believed she stopped the lava from continuing on and destroying the village and put the statute up in thanks. Very picturesque!

 

 

 

Surrounded by volcanic rocks

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Then, we stopped at a winery / honey / olive place. LOL! We picked up some odd wines for Phil’s son and wife, because they like that sort of thing. 😊 Everyone was trying samples of the wine, honey, and other things. T said, “Debbie do you want some lunch?” They had all these little spoons out for people to take tastes of the honey. No, thanks… She asked M where to put the dirty spoons. M said to put them in the bowl. T said,“What!!!! That’s where I got the spoon!!!!” And she did! AND she had given F a taste from her spoon. We almost wet ourselves we were laughing so hard and had to run to the bathroom.

 

At the same time this was going on, F was trying to communicate with the cashier to get a blank piece of paper to write down a phrase in Italian to say to Fabrizio tomorrow. N and the driver were helping him out with that. He wanted to say: “Brother from another mother, I missed you!” It was so funny P said watching F pantomime to the cashier.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Nino was a great help in interpreting for us, especially in Taormina. The driver dropped us off and said that we just walk through town, get lunch at one of the many restaurants, and meet him on the other side of the big arches. Taormina was a lovely town, with a quaint church and an amphitheater and lots of shops and eateries.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We stopped at a nice restaurant to have lunch. We were treating so I wanted it to be nice, Nino wanted it to be cheap. He thought we were getting ripped off because we were tourists. Of course, we are! They were somewhat mean at the restaurant, though. It was Granduca Ristorante Pizzeria. It was a lovely place with great window views overlooking the water. We asked to sit by the window but were told no, you did not book. The service was bad – they clearly did not like Americans and did not like us having someone who knew Italian as he was able to tell them what we needed when they were ignoring us. Food was so delicious! We all had some kind of pizza, except for F who had spaghetti. They forgot to bring his spaghetti and had to be reminded. They also charged 18% “coverage” – what about no tipping in Europe??? Lucky, we had N who saw it and told us not to leave a tip… And no one ever sat in the table by the window that we had requested…

 

 

Restaurant was downstairs and very pretty:

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

There was artwork IN the floor:

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

The table we wanted in the corner that sat empty the entire time. There was a beautiful view.

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Our little tourist…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]