Golden Jewel

[traveling1969]

Why is she golden? Because of Royal's 50th anniversary? Well, maybe that's part of it but mostly it's because we are joining her for a tour to Greece to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Originally, we had planned to stay on at the end of this cruise to continue on the transatlantic back to the states. Due to a change in deployment for the Jewel, our plans changed a bit. Now we will be staying in Rome for a few days prior to joining the Brilliance of the Seas in Barcelona for her transatlantic back to Tampa. Four more days in Europe? I think we can deal with that.  Well, we made it! Got up Saturday at 7am, took the shuttle to the airport, flew Jet Blue to JFK, Delta to Milan then Alitalia to Rome. Our driver was waiting for us and carried us to Civitavecchia where we checked into our Hotel . The owner prefers that we call it a guest house as there are only seven rooms but it's more like a bed and breakfast. It's called Alibrandi Palace and it's our first choice of places to stay when we cruise out of Rome. Rome's cruise port is actually in Civitavecchia. Here are a few pics of our room. The owner gave us the suite room with its huge wrap-around balcony for the princely sum of 60 euros per night to make up for the last stay which didn't work out so well. He didn't notify Booking .com and he had to put us up at a friend's B&B when there was no room for us. We freshened up a bit then headed to a favorite cafe for some vino and people watching. They fed us so much and so well on our flight that we weren't hungry for lunch. We'll go out later this evening for a light dinner. We'll try to stay up till 10 or so tonight to defeat the jet lag although that will be 36 hours since we last slept. We board the ship tomorrow for our 9 day 50th anniversary cruise with stops at Mykonos, Athens and Santorini in Greece, Malta, Messina and Naples. then back to Rome. We are SO ready to get on board.

[Tee & Chilli]

Nice start 

[traveling1969]

The Adventure continues. We boarded the ship yesterday and went to our stern balcony cabin to check it out. It was a typical Royal Caribbean cabin but the balcony was HUGE! Joyce was grinning from ear to ear and immediately grabbed a book, stretched out on a lounger and got into cruising mode. Our luggage came soon after so we unpacked, and strolled down to the centrum for a martini and a little music. Shortly after we attended the muster drill then headed up to the Concierge Lounge for a couple more adult beverages. We promised ourselves that we would be good as it's no fun to be hung over on the second day of the cruise. Well, we tried! They had a fantastic array of hors d' oeuvres, mini lamb chops, seasoned goat cheese on toast, pate's, and a varied selection of sushi. We opted for late (8:30pm) dinner so we didn't have to worry about ruining our appetites. We headed to the casino for a quick stop. Joyce liked the look of one of the machines so threw a twenty in it and won $11.20 on the first pull. We couldn't figure out how to change the game or the number of simultaneous games played so we plowed on. Long story short, she cashed out $50 and we headed for dinner. Joy had the prime rib and I opted for the spaghetti bolognese. We finally headed back to our cabin and lo and behold, there was a fantastic arrangement of rose petals waiting for us along with a complimentary bottle of champagne from Royal Caribbean. We read a few pages and collapsed into bed. More to follow.

[tcmagnum]

7 hours ago, traveling1969 said:

fantastic arrangement of rose petals

Lovely!!  Happy cruising...