Live from the Regal - July 2-23 - Med Cruise - R/T Barcelona

[Ken the cruiser]

5 hours ago, karabear15 said:

We love liars club! I hope it's one of our evening entertainment opportunities. 

I’m sure they will, as it’s always a big hit!

[Ken the cruiser]

We interrupt this broadcast for an import news filming update. Now that a lot of the passengers have gone ashore, it’s a lot quieter on the ship. So when I heard talking from our balcony down on the promenade, this is what we saw. 
 

[Ken the cruiser]

4 hours ago, Manderius said:

Ken are you waiting to book your excursions the day before or have them booked with princess already? Just asking because your reference to no doing one in Naples 

As we are both retired military, are CCL shareholders and booked the cruise with FCDs, we had a bunch of pre-cruise OBC we could use to prebook the excursions we really want to go on. But, we have also found the price of some of the more popular Princess excursions do creep up once we’re onboard. On the 3 remaining excursions on this leg, 2 of them have increased $10 pp with the third one just going up $1 pp.

 

The reason we canceled the one in Naples on this leg was because it was just a “filler” excursion which was basically a walking tour around town that went to a few museums and stopped to sample some of Naple’s world famous pizza. But since we have an awesome excursion booked when we return to Naples on the 3rd leg, we figured we could cancel this tour, use the refund to offset the cost of the Marseille excursion we booked onboard on the last cruise, and take a day off as this leg is pretty port intensive. 
 

But, yes, a majority of the time we prebook our excursions so we get the ones we want, especially if animals are part of a tour.

[Ken the cruiser]

Holy socks!! I realize we’re in port with a vast majority of folks off the ship, of which we will be in a few minutes. But check out the internet speeds. No wonder Facebook was loading up so quickly!! 😂

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re back from our 2 hour self-guided walking tour to the city center and back, with periodic stops to enjoy the views and wildlife along the way. 😁

 

After we took the short mandatory shuttle bus ride from the ship to the terminal, we found the yellow line that leads you to the city center, sort of. 

 

 

 

Our first sighting of wildlife on our trek!

 

 

Along the way we found a shady spot to sit and rest for a few minutes. 

 

Where we also did a little bird watching. 
 

 

Then it was time to head inland and up the hill until we got to the fountain and city center. 
 

 

Then after soaking in all the sights and tons of people, which took about 5 minutes, we started the second phase of our trip. Walking back!

 

 

Of course, we had to stop and take another wildlife picture!

 

 

 

 

Then, once we got back to the ship, we headed to the buffet for a tasty lunch. But while sitting on the starboard side, we noticed the large white dome-like structure and could not figure out what it was, even after asking Ms Google. Any ideas??

 

[insidecabin]

34 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’re back from our 2 hour self-guided walking tour to the city center and back, with periodic stops to enjoy the views and wildlife along the way. 😁

 

After we took the short mandatory shuttle bus ride from the ship to the terminal, we found the yellow line that leads you to the city center, sort of. 

 

 

 

Our first sighting of wildlife on our trek!

 

 

Along the way we found a shady spot to sit and rest for a few minutes. 

 

Where we also did a little bird watching. 
 

 

Then it was time to head inland and up the hill until we got to the fountain and city center. 
 

 

Then after soaking in all the sights and tons of people, which took about 5 minutes, we started the second phase of our trip. Walking back!

 

 

Of course, we had to stop and take another wildlife picture!

 

 

 

 

Then, once we got back to the ship, we headed to the buffet for a tasty lunch. But while sitting on the starboard side, we noticed the large white dome-like structure and could not figure out what it was, even after asking Ms Google. Any ideas??

 

Looks like a radar/sat dome.

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

Looks like a radar/sat dome.

Thanks! After confirming with Ms Google search, that’s definitely what it is! 😁  We knew it had to be something special. We just couldn’t figure out what it was. 
 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[insidecabin]

It's in a restricted military area south of the airport.

(pixilated on google)

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Then after soaking in all the sights and tons of people, which took about 5 minutes, we started the second phase of our trip. Walking back!

 

What, not even one lovely cold beer, whiling away 30 minutes and watching the world go by !

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

What, not even one lovely cold beer, whiling away 30 minutes and watching the world go by !

LOL! For us sitting on a shaded balcony watching life go by is a lot more fun than sitting in a crowded area stressing over if someone might start coughing nearby. 😂

 

Which got me thinking. This is our 100th day of cruising during the pandemic since last August. One way we’ve been able to do that is to develop a strategy of avoiding close encounters if at all possible when we’re either on the ship or in port on a tour or just walking around. 
 

When we started cruising about 10 years ago, it was all about the ports, as we had never been to most of them. Now, 500+ days later, it’s all about the journey and staying healthy enough to go on the next one! 😁
 

[wowzz]

Just now, Ken the cruiser said:

LOL! For us sitting on a shaded balcony watching life go by is a lot more fun than sitting in a crowded area stressing over if someone might start coughing nearby. 😂

Fair point- we found a lovely bar in Heraklion,  under shady trees, plenty of room between tables, and enjoyed an excellent pint ! I can understand you wanting to avoid a crowded bar, but this was a great place to  stop.

[Mary loves to travel]

8 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

The short answer is it’s easier to social distance from others as most folks like to sit towards the front of the bus. If you look at the two bus tour pictures we took, you can see this, especially on the one to the Vatican. 

I thought that might be the reason 🙂

Since we plan to follow your protocols to avoid covid, we will likely do the same.

 

Thanks!

Mary

 

 

[jy_cruisefan]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Fair point- we found a lovely bar in Heraklion,  under shady trees, plenty of room between tables, and enjoyed an excellent pint ! I can understand you wanting to avoid a crowded bar, but this was a great place to  stop.

Hello. You had me at "Excellent pint". This is our plan for Heraklion. Any chance you remember the name of the bar? 🙂 

Thanks.

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Fair point- we found a lovely bar in Heraklion,  under shady trees, plenty of room between tables, and enjoyed an excellent pint ! I can understand you wanting to avoid a crowded bar, but this was a great place to  stop.

That is true. Heraklion definitely has a variety of cool restaurants to sit outside and watch the world pass by.

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, jy_cruisefan said:

Hello. You had me at "Excellent pint". This is our plan for Heraklion. Any chance you remember the name of the bar? 🙂 

Thanks.

We just wandered around and stumbled upon it. 

Looking at Google Maps, I think it was the News Cafe in Heraklion.

[Denmal]

Just a question about a previous port.  Genoa.  Was there a shuttle bus into town or should we take a taxi.  We will be there in November.   Thank you

[jy_cruisefan]

19 minutes ago, wowzz said:

We just wandered around and stumbled upon it. 

Looking at Google Maps, I think it was the News Cafe in Heraklion.

Found it. Thanks.

[wowzz]

37 minutes ago, jy_cruisefan said:

Found it. Thanks.

I hope the beer didn't make me think the place was better than it was !

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Denmal said:

Just a question about a previous port.  Genoa.  Was there a shuttle bus into town or should we take a taxi.  We will be there in November.   Thank you

The ship pretty much is docked right next to the town which you can walk to the center of in 25-30 minutes, but there is a slight incline some of the way. However, I do believe there was a shuttle that will take you to the center, but there is a charge. I don’t know what it is, though, as we took a tour that dropped us off in the center before we went on our 3 hour walking tour of the city, before we chose to walk back on our own.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Fair point- we found a lovely bar in Heraklion,  under shady trees, plenty of room between tables, and enjoyed an excellent pint ! I can understand you wanting to avoid a crowded bar, but this was a great place to  stop.

<deleted> ... I see further down you already answered.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Steelers36

[jy_cruisefan]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

I hope the beer didn't make me think the place was better than it was !

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Tonight after dinner we watched a very entertaining mentalist, Marc Paul, in the main theater. 

 

 

Then afterwards we watched Deal or No Deal which was also very entertaining! 
 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 12 - July 13 - Kusadasi, Turkey

[Esprit]

It was our first time in Heraklion . Reminded me of a larger version of Rhodes but that has a much easier walk into the town centre.

The wife was ecstatic as we stumbled across a Zara store🙄. She was over the moon with her purchase as they didn’t have her size in the Naples Store. I’ve visited more Zara stores around Europe than ancient wonders!

[Esprit]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We saw him at 10 pm but really struggled with his act so left when he started his finale.

I’m not a clever person so didn’t find him entertaining for my level of intelligence!