PurpleTraveller

We left Savoca at 11.15 am and drove back down the twisting road with the switchbacks that we had come up. The views along the coast were great. It was another 45 minute drive to get to Forza d'Agro up another twisting road with more switchbacks. Like Savoca it had also been used for scenes set in Corleone in The Godfather and Godfather 2 movies. At midday we started our walk through the very pretty town to go to the Cathedral. The Cathedral Maria S. Annuziata was built in 18th century and was also used for a scene in a Godfather movie We then walked through the pretty streets, stopping at a viewpoint to admire the view of the coast. We walked to Piazza SS Trinita so that we could visit Chiesa SS Trinita which was built in the 16th century. There were views from the square along the coast and up to the town's old castle.

June 10 - Messina We woke to an overcast morning and watched the ship docking at Messina. The harbour was busy with ferries going to and from the mainland. We had breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe and looked out over Messina. The ship docks right next to the city which is very convenient if you are staying in the city for the day. Having been to Messina previously when we went to Taormina (very pretty town with a lovely ancient Greek Theatre) and knowing there's not a lot to do in Messina, we decided to book a Celebrity shore excursion. Despite never seeing any of the Godfather movies we booked the "In the Godfather's Footsteps" excursion so that we could go to small villages out of the city. We met at the theatre at 8.30 am where they were handing out KN95 masks as it is mandatory in Italy to wear a P2 or KN85 mask on all public transport, including on planes flying into Italy. We left at 9.00 am and I was pleased to see that everyone on the bus was wearing their KN95 masks on the bus and continued to do so for the entire tour whenever we were on the bus. Despite this being a full sized tour there were only 28 participants on the tour which was actually less than the small group tour we went on at Kotor. We had a 45 minute drive along the coast and then up a twisting road with many hairpin turns. The bus had to stop a number of times so vehicles coming the other way could reverse up so that we could make the turn. Our first stop was at Savoca where scenes set in Corleone in The Godfather and Godfather 2 movies were filmed. The views from the main square were wonderful even though it was overcast. We went to a bar in the main square where we had a lemon flavoured Granita and some type of bread stick to dip in the Granita. They were both delicious. Across the road from the square was Bar Vitelli which stared in a scene in one of the Godfather movies. We had some time to go into Bar Vitelli to look at the Godfather memorabilia and to browse in a shop with beautiful ceramics. We then gathered together again to move on. Just as we were about to leave there was a short downpour but fortunately we were still undercover. After the rain eased we walked through the very pretty village to Chiesa San Nicolo. Chiesa San Nicolo was originally built in the 13th century and was restored in the 15th and 18th centuries. A wedding scene for one of the Godfather movies was filmed there. There were great views of the town from the church and as we walked back to the square we ran into some donkeys. By the time we got back to the square the sun was out and we then got back on the bus to go to our next stop. I liked this statue of a donkey on the roof of an artist's gallery.

June 9 - Sea Day After a busy few days (just calculated that we walked about 11 kilometres or nearly 7 miles in Dubrovnik) it was time for a wonderful relaxing Sea Day. During the Captain's daily update he announced that there were 19 Covid cases on board. After this when he made his daily update he didn't give any numbers, just that there were more cases. We had a relaxed breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe and then we found sun lounges on the Solstice Deck and sat back to read and relax. The forecast was for the weather to deteriorate throughout the day so we wanted to make the most of the sun while it lasted. We watched the coastline of the sole of Italy's boot for a while until we left to get a burger from the Mast Grill for lunch. When we went to get lunch the forecast was proved to be correct as it became overcast with a few spots of rain. As the day progressed the weather got worse and by 4.00 pm it was raining. To be honest I can't remember what we did for the rest of the day after lunch. It obviously wasn't anything major so we must have just sat back and relaxed. We had dinner at the Opus Dining Room again. Here are a few photos from around the ship.

Hi, Just wanted to update those of you who were so helpful when I was initially in this situation. I received a full refund of my cruise fare and shore excursions to my credit card on July 6. The refund actually came through before we got back to Australia. I find this amazing considering the lack of assistance at the time and that I was told the refund would take 30 - 45 days. Well done to Royal Caribbean admin in Australia on getting my refund done as soon as they responded to my email. They have restored my faith in Royal Caribbean. Thanks to everyone. 😊

Thank you! We love Kotor. On a previous visit when we walked up the wall to the Fort the views were magnificent. The old city is also lovely. We are always very happy when a cruise itinerary includes Kotor. Enjoy your visit next year!

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the remainder.

Thank you! Hope you enjoy the rest of the review. 😊

We were at the front of deck 15 so we could watch the whole view and move to one side or the other if I wanted to take photos. The islands and Perast are on the left during sail in and right sailing out.

Thanks! I want to go back to Croatia.

One thing I love about cruising is finding out what others have done on the cruise. You can speak to three people and hear three completely different experiences. I agree that the bar has been set high. We had a fantastic cruise!

When I disembarked Celebrity Reflection on June 13 the free shuttle bus stop was still at the new and less convenient Varco Vespucci shuttle stop. I got the free shuttle bus from the ship to Varco Vespucci to get another shuttle to Fiumicino airport. When leaving for the airport I could see the old Largo della Pace shuttle stop and it looked deserted.

Sounds like a fabulous trip. Enjoy! 😊

Thank you! So pleased that you are enjoying the review and following along. 😊

Sail away was at 5.15 pm. We went up to the top decks and enjoyed every moment of the sail away. As it was Formal Chic night and we were planning to eat at the Oceanview Cafe we had no time restrictions and ended up staying there until we sailed out of the Bay of Kotor into the Adriatic Sea. We passed Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Islands again. We were following a MSC ship out and as she passed through the narrowest point of the bay you could see how little room there was for these large ships to manoeuvre. As we got close to the exit of the bay to the ocean we passed a disused submarine tunnel built by the Yugoslav Navy in the 1970's. As we sailed into the Adriatic Sea we passed Prevloka Fortress on our right and Mamula Island on our left. The fort on Mamula Island was built in 1853 and was an Italian Concentration Camp during WWII. It is currently being converted into a luxury hotel and resort. There was another lovely sunset. After dinner we went to the Martini Bar where we met some friends to help her celebrate a significant birthday. At 10.00 pm the ABBA-Mania & Disco Times show in the Grand Foyer kicked off. There was a lot of singing and dancing but when it got too loud to talk and extremely crowded we returned to our cabin to get a good night's sleep .

As it was only 2.30 pm we still had time to go into the old city of Kotor. The old city is just across the road from the dock and since our last visit they have put an underpass with escalators under the road so now you don't even have to cross the road. We made our way to the old city and had time to walk around the cute city and buy some of the lovely ceramics they have there, before heading back to the ship on a tender at 3.45 pm.

We then got back on the bus for a very short ride to the Savina Monastery. There we saw the church, cemetary, vineyard and could taste their wine at a cost of €2.00 each. We got back on the bus and had one last stop at a viewpoint opposite Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Islands. We had five minutes to get out and take our photos before get back on the bus and returning to Kotor. We got back at 2.30 pm. We really enjoyed our shore excursion and were very lucky that the weather turned out to be sunny. It was a very relaxed and easy excursion to a lovely town with great views.

We made our way back down to the town and visited the local market where the stallholders were very friendly and we tasted some delicious local cheese. We then found a bakery where we bought lunch which we ate back at Belavista Square. The group met up and we walked through the very pretty streets to St Jeronim Square to see the Catholic Church of St Jeronim and it's Bell Tower. This square was also lovely with views across the bay. We then walked down to Fort Mare Fortress which also had great views.

After visiting the church we were given free time from 10.45 am to midday. We decided to walk up to the Kanli Kula Fortress and visit the Blood Tower. It cost €3.00 each and was worth every cent for the magnificent views. There wasn't much to see in the fortress - it was all about the views!

When we got off the tender the bus was waiting for us on the dock and we left at 9.25 am. When I had booked the excursion for some reason I assumed that a small group would be 15 - 20 participants. It was my fault for not checking but I was surprised that our small group numbered 29. On the bus we were the only people wearing masks. So much for the Celebrity "All guests are required to wear face masks during transit in Shore Excursion buses". We made sure to sit on the left side of the bus so that we could enjoy the views of the waterfront and bay as we drove to Castelnuovo or Herceg Novi in Montenegrin. The very scenic drive took one hour. When we got there the bus parked on the edge of the town as buses can't drive into the centre and we walked into town. We passed through a square to the clock tower. In the archway underneath the clock tower was a "black Madonna". We continued on through the very pretty town to Belavista Square. There we visited the Orthodox Holy Archangel Michael Church. The square was lovely with the church, a fountain, restaurants and the Town Hall.

June 8 - Kotor We have had the pleasure of sailing to Kotor twice before so we knew we had to get up early to enjoy the sail in. It was overcast but the views didn't disappoint. It was very serene as we glided in with the clouds low over the mountains. The sun was just peeping out from behind the clouds We sailed past the two islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Island and the lovely town of Perast. As we got closer to Kotor the mountains got more rugged. When we got close to Kotor we could see the old city walls rising high above the city. On our previous visits we had walked up the old walls to the St John Fortress on our first visit and caught the local bus to Perast and then got a boat to Our Lady of the Rocks island on our second visit. This time we wanted to go further afield so we booked the Celebrity Small Group Castelnuovo and Forte Mare Fortress shore excursion. The original meeting time in the theatre was 8.15 am but we had received a message the day before to ask us to be in theatre at 8.00 am. We arrived at 7.50 am to get our tour number (Yellow 10) and sat down to wait. As the rules were to wear masks in the theatre during shows we were rather surprised to find that even though the shore excursion participants were seated much closer together than during shows, that about 75% of passengers were not wearing masks. As there were Covid cases on board and the captain had announced that another two passengers had tested positive it seemed to be an instance of inconsistent mask policy. There was a delay in the shore excursions being tendered to the dock and we didn't leave the theatre until 8.50 am. When I saw that they were using small local boats to tender I understood the delay. We went to deck two to get on the tender and it took about ten minutes to get to the dock. The weather was still very overcast and we had had a few rain showers but the captain had told us that the local weather forecast was that the weather would clear up and be sunny by 11.00 am and he was correct

Thank you for following along. We had a great time on the wall and we were lucky that as it was early in the day it wasn't very crowded.

Thanks, I'm so pleased that you are enjoying the review. I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. It's a great itinerary and the ship is lovely. It's great that you are spending extra time in Italy, one of my favourite countries, before you board your next cruise. Also hope you have a wonderful time on your cruises down under. Happy sailing! 😊

Thank you! Your trip of Croatia sounds fantastic. Pre Covid we were considering a small ship cruise of the Croatian coast and after our wonderful day in Dubrovnik I think I may have to revisit that idea.

What I do remember is that along with orange and apple juice they ran out of English Breakfast Tea bags at the self service stations in the Oceanview Cafe one or two days before the end of the cruise, so it is a good idea to bring your own.

Thank you! All photos were taken on my Oppo A54 phone which is an Android. I have a DSLR but didn't bring it as we were travelling light but I'm happy with the photos I took. For the life of me I can't remember what brand of tea was on board and I love my tea! I know that the tea I made for myself in the Oceanview Cafe was 1,000 times better than what was served to me at Cafe al Bacio. I want to say Twinings but I can't be sure. Sorry. Maybe someone who knows can chime in. You could bring your own tea bags and use the hot water available at the self service drink area in the Oceanview Cafe.