ekerr19
November 30th, 2004, 04:32 PM
Well, here is the second part - I must warn you, it's a tadbit long... sorry.
Day Three
We had a day in Monte Carlo, Monaco. We decided to strike out on our own as the excursion that interested me did not depart until 2:00 pm and I don’t like to break up the day that way. We headed (by foot) up the top of the hill, the area known as Monaco Ville. DH wanted to see if the Aquarium would be of interest. It is a great walk, glad we decided to do this first, and if we’d waited until the end of the day – I don’t think I would have enjoyed it. We did quite a bit of walking!
We visited the Musée Océanographique and the Palais du Prince and the Cathedrale De Monaco (we did not enter – we weren’t really dressed for it) but it was very impressive from the outside. I also managed to get a great shot of one of the guards at the Palais – it wasn’t time for changing of the guards, but he stepped out briefly just as I happened past. We then took the little red tram that goes around the city and stops at the Grand Casino (which we also decided to take a pass on). The cost for the tram was about $6 EU, a pretty good deal. We really enjoyed Monaco; I think it is probably the cleanest, well-maintained city I’ve ever seen.
After awhile, we headed back to the tender dock and waited only a few minutes for the next tender. I was surprised to see about 12 suitcases that had finally made it and were being brought onboard to some very happy passengers, I’m sure. There was a group of older ladies who all bought matching red HAL T-shirt dresses for the first formal night, so I knew they’d be happy to see their bags!
Dinner that evening was casual – on the menu, DH had Linguini with Prosciutto and Gorgonzola, Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Swordfish Steak and Pineapple Flambe (DH loves the flambé of the day!) and I had Low Carb Seared Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio (Chef’s Recommendation), Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup, California Gourmet Mixed Greens with Herbed Goat Cheese, Spanish Style Paella (Chef’s Recommendation) and the Mixed Berry Crisp for dessert.
I can honestly say, the only entrée I did not enjoy as much as I thought I would was the Paella. Our tablemate, Linda ordered it as well (in fact – we joked that she and I ordered almost identically during most of the cruise!) and she did not care for it that much either.
I lost the daily program for this day for some strange reason, so I cannot tell you anything more, sorry!
Day Four
Today we are in Marseille. We booked a rare shore excursion because I wanted to go to Avignon. What a delightful day it turned out to be! The weather was not the greatest, a bit cool and windy, but the sun was out the entire time. We did the Chateau Neuf du Pape & Avignon excursion, which I HIGHLY recommend. The cost was $101 per person, and the tour included a wonderful lunch a charming French Café. We started out by the infamous bus, we managed to get seats right up front and the tour narrator was very fun and informative. The drive to Chateau Neuf du Pape was a little over an hour, being Saturday morning there was little traffic. We arrived at the Chateau where we began our tour and wine tasting. It was a unique experience and the wines were very good – though it took some imagination for some folks to taste wine at 10:30 in the morning. I had no qualms – DH was not surprised about that! We got to spend time in the gift shop, many people bought quite a bit of wine, we didn’t want to have to lug it around (or home) so we passed on wine, but I got a really cute red apron embroidered with “Chateau Neuf du Pape” and the chateau. I also bought an anti-drip wine bottle ring and this really neat little gadget I’d never seen, it’s a small silver flexible disk that you fold and insert into the bottle opening for pouring. Very cool, I love it!
Off to lunch in Avignon. The bus parked outside the city walls and we walked in and went down a couple of side streets and into the restaurant. They had long tables set up and everyone sat where they wanted. On each table, there was no less than 12 bottles of wine and DH & I got the table with all the fun folks! I think we were the only table that finished almost all their wine – of course there were about 20 of us at the table! The lunch was superb. They started out with an appetizer that was grilled eggplant filled with all sorts of fresh grilled veggies, then we had a soup, the entrée was grilled chicken breast over pasta with a very good alfredo type sauce, but it was not as heavy as alfredo – very light and tasty. Dessert was an apple baked in some type of very light puff pastry. I only took a bite of DH’s, I was stuffed – what I tasted was fabulous and everyone raved about it.
After lunch, we got to explore Avignon on our own for a few hours. I really enjoyed the city and the shops. All the people we encountered were very friendly and helpful, which I didn’t really expect to find in France, I’d heard so many negatives about the French, but we found them quite the opposite. We bought a few small souvenirs and walked off our lunch, then headed back to the bus. All in all, a very wonderful experience.
I think it was Informal night in the dining room, for some strange reason, I don’t have this program either – I thought I had them all, but I must have misplaced some of them.
Tonight’s dinner: Lime Marinated Grilled Scallops (me), Thai Spring Roll (DH), Double Consommé Mille Fanti (egg drop type soup) for DH and Minestrone for me, Sliced Sweet Tomato, Red Onion and Basil Chiffonade (me, even though I don’t like the tomatoes on board any ship), DH had the Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast and I had the Seafood Bouillabaisse. For dessert, it was the Banana’s Foster for DH (no surprise there!) and I was baaad, I had the cheesecake sampler plate! Yikes! Good thing we were going dancing that evening – I need to work off some of those calories.
We went to the Piet Hein lounge after dinner and met up with a group of new friends. As I mentioned in Part I, there was a singles group on board from Atlanta. Most of the group was women and when they found out DH likes to dance, they snapped him up pretty quickly. They were a lot of fun, and we usually stayed there for an hour or so before heading up to the Shanty Bar and Hornpipe Club.
We attended the Filipino Crew Show (we always try and see the crew shows) and we saw one other guy, I think he was Canadian, he called himself the “Mirth Giver” – it was pretty funny, but when a woman came in and sat right next to me and started really coughing (all over me, yuck!) I left – the show was almost over anyway, but I just couldn’t believe someone would do that… oh well; at least I didn’t get sick.
We played Team Trivia on days when we could. I enjoy that game, but I must say – this cruise had some really “cut throat” players that took a lot of the fun out of it. Towards the end of the cruise, we were getting a kick out of just beating them! We did win some neat HAL stuff – a nice silver plate picture frame that says “DAM Memories” and of course, the navy blue coffee cup with the big white “N” on one side and “DAM” on the other… I think I took home about 6 of those! I tried Bingo a couple of times and lost – came close once or twice, but no winner. Our new single friend Colleen won one of the free cruises at Bingo. For some strange reason they did the free cruise Bingo twice on our voyage.
On my Part I thread, I know someone asked if I knew what ship the Captain was heading for, sorry I don’t – but will try and find out. We are in touch via e-mail with a few of the officers who were on board, one of them may know.
More to come later…
Day Three
We had a day in Monte Carlo, Monaco. We decided to strike out on our own as the excursion that interested me did not depart until 2:00 pm and I don’t like to break up the day that way. We headed (by foot) up the top of the hill, the area known as Monaco Ville. DH wanted to see if the Aquarium would be of interest. It is a great walk, glad we decided to do this first, and if we’d waited until the end of the day – I don’t think I would have enjoyed it. We did quite a bit of walking!
We visited the Musée Océanographique and the Palais du Prince and the Cathedrale De Monaco (we did not enter – we weren’t really dressed for it) but it was very impressive from the outside. I also managed to get a great shot of one of the guards at the Palais – it wasn’t time for changing of the guards, but he stepped out briefly just as I happened past. We then took the little red tram that goes around the city and stops at the Grand Casino (which we also decided to take a pass on). The cost for the tram was about $6 EU, a pretty good deal. We really enjoyed Monaco; I think it is probably the cleanest, well-maintained city I’ve ever seen.
After awhile, we headed back to the tender dock and waited only a few minutes for the next tender. I was surprised to see about 12 suitcases that had finally made it and were being brought onboard to some very happy passengers, I’m sure. There was a group of older ladies who all bought matching red HAL T-shirt dresses for the first formal night, so I knew they’d be happy to see their bags!
Dinner that evening was casual – on the menu, DH had Linguini with Prosciutto and Gorgonzola, Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Swordfish Steak and Pineapple Flambe (DH loves the flambé of the day!) and I had Low Carb Seared Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio (Chef’s Recommendation), Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup, California Gourmet Mixed Greens with Herbed Goat Cheese, Spanish Style Paella (Chef’s Recommendation) and the Mixed Berry Crisp for dessert.
I can honestly say, the only entrée I did not enjoy as much as I thought I would was the Paella. Our tablemate, Linda ordered it as well (in fact – we joked that she and I ordered almost identically during most of the cruise!) and she did not care for it that much either.
I lost the daily program for this day for some strange reason, so I cannot tell you anything more, sorry!
Day Four
Today we are in Marseille. We booked a rare shore excursion because I wanted to go to Avignon. What a delightful day it turned out to be! The weather was not the greatest, a bit cool and windy, but the sun was out the entire time. We did the Chateau Neuf du Pape & Avignon excursion, which I HIGHLY recommend. The cost was $101 per person, and the tour included a wonderful lunch a charming French Café. We started out by the infamous bus, we managed to get seats right up front and the tour narrator was very fun and informative. The drive to Chateau Neuf du Pape was a little over an hour, being Saturday morning there was little traffic. We arrived at the Chateau where we began our tour and wine tasting. It was a unique experience and the wines were very good – though it took some imagination for some folks to taste wine at 10:30 in the morning. I had no qualms – DH was not surprised about that! We got to spend time in the gift shop, many people bought quite a bit of wine, we didn’t want to have to lug it around (or home) so we passed on wine, but I got a really cute red apron embroidered with “Chateau Neuf du Pape” and the chateau. I also bought an anti-drip wine bottle ring and this really neat little gadget I’d never seen, it’s a small silver flexible disk that you fold and insert into the bottle opening for pouring. Very cool, I love it!
Off to lunch in Avignon. The bus parked outside the city walls and we walked in and went down a couple of side streets and into the restaurant. They had long tables set up and everyone sat where they wanted. On each table, there was no less than 12 bottles of wine and DH & I got the table with all the fun folks! I think we were the only table that finished almost all their wine – of course there were about 20 of us at the table! The lunch was superb. They started out with an appetizer that was grilled eggplant filled with all sorts of fresh grilled veggies, then we had a soup, the entrée was grilled chicken breast over pasta with a very good alfredo type sauce, but it was not as heavy as alfredo – very light and tasty. Dessert was an apple baked in some type of very light puff pastry. I only took a bite of DH’s, I was stuffed – what I tasted was fabulous and everyone raved about it.
After lunch, we got to explore Avignon on our own for a few hours. I really enjoyed the city and the shops. All the people we encountered were very friendly and helpful, which I didn’t really expect to find in France, I’d heard so many negatives about the French, but we found them quite the opposite. We bought a few small souvenirs and walked off our lunch, then headed back to the bus. All in all, a very wonderful experience.
I think it was Informal night in the dining room, for some strange reason, I don’t have this program either – I thought I had them all, but I must have misplaced some of them.
Tonight’s dinner: Lime Marinated Grilled Scallops (me), Thai Spring Roll (DH), Double Consommé Mille Fanti (egg drop type soup) for DH and Minestrone for me, Sliced Sweet Tomato, Red Onion and Basil Chiffonade (me, even though I don’t like the tomatoes on board any ship), DH had the Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast and I had the Seafood Bouillabaisse. For dessert, it was the Banana’s Foster for DH (no surprise there!) and I was baaad, I had the cheesecake sampler plate! Yikes! Good thing we were going dancing that evening – I need to work off some of those calories.
We went to the Piet Hein lounge after dinner and met up with a group of new friends. As I mentioned in Part I, there was a singles group on board from Atlanta. Most of the group was women and when they found out DH likes to dance, they snapped him up pretty quickly. They were a lot of fun, and we usually stayed there for an hour or so before heading up to the Shanty Bar and Hornpipe Club.
We attended the Filipino Crew Show (we always try and see the crew shows) and we saw one other guy, I think he was Canadian, he called himself the “Mirth Giver” – it was pretty funny, but when a woman came in and sat right next to me and started really coughing (all over me, yuck!) I left – the show was almost over anyway, but I just couldn’t believe someone would do that… oh well; at least I didn’t get sick.
We played Team Trivia on days when we could. I enjoy that game, but I must say – this cruise had some really “cut throat” players that took a lot of the fun out of it. Towards the end of the cruise, we were getting a kick out of just beating them! We did win some neat HAL stuff – a nice silver plate picture frame that says “DAM Memories” and of course, the navy blue coffee cup with the big white “N” on one side and “DAM” on the other… I think I took home about 6 of those! I tried Bingo a couple of times and lost – came close once or twice, but no winner. Our new single friend Colleen won one of the free cruises at Bingo. For some strange reason they did the free cruise Bingo twice on our voyage.
On my Part I thread, I know someone asked if I knew what ship the Captain was heading for, sorry I don’t – but will try and find out. We are in touch via e-mail with a few of the officers who were on board, one of them may know.
More to come later…