drummerdavebmth

So now we were approaching 'Our Lady Of The Rocks'.......a church built on a man made island that was built on rocks...

From Wikipedia: According to legend, the islet was made over the centuries by local seamen who kept an ancient oath after finding the icon of Madonna and Child on the rock in the sea[2] on July 22, 1452.[3] Upon returning from each successful voyage, they laid a rock in the Bay. Over time, the islet gradually emerged from the sea.[4] The custom of throwing rocks into the sea is alive even nowadays. Every year on the sunset of July 22, an event called fašinada in the local dialect, when local residents take their boats and throw rocks into the sea, widening the surface of the island, takes place.[2]

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Jen is getting some good footage on her GoPro for our honeymoon cruise video!

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Nearly out at sea again...

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Of course we couldn't stay here forever (as beautiful as it was), so for sail away we headed to the Helipad and took in the views as we made our way through the Fjord back out to open sea....

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We also used this time to have a wander around the pool & top decks to take in the views and general vibe - I really loved being here (kept on having to pinch myself).

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When we got back to the ship, we went to the Windjammer for a spot of lunch before spending some quality pool/hot tub time (both the outside pool and the gorgeous Solarium - one of our favourite places!).

Here's a photo looking back up to where we had climbed in the morning (taken from the tender boat on the way back to the ship).

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Wow, awesome pictures, thoroughly enjoyed them and thanks for posting. I've been to these ports so brings back some great memories!

 

I love that class of ship, perfect size. I'm on the Radiance March 2017 for Australia!

 

Thanks again!

Thanks for the kind words.....We loved the Radiance class too and would definitely sail on that class of ship again. :)

Enjoying your review - Great photos!

Thanks :)

Great pics of Kotor Dave! Ah the memories of the climb, one of the best memories ever! Say, were you not woken up by the wind storm in the early hours that morning when the ship listed??!!

Thanks! :D

Oh yes!! Jen just reminded me about that storm - believe it or not, I pretty much slept through it! Jen told me that she had got up to go to the toilet in the night and when she came back, she found herself walking up a slope to the bed. She then noticed the lightening outside. :eek: I vaguely remember her coming back to bed and thinking "this is strange, I feel like I'm going to roll out of bed"....then I went back to sleep!

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Where we had just climbed up to!!

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And then it was time to climb some steps - and climb we most certainly did!! Great exercise for working off breakfast and the views were jaw dropping!! I'll let the pictures do the talking....

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Time to explore the old town of Kotor (which was really quiet - I think we were the first ones to arrive!)

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Ok. Jen and I were really looking forward to visiting Kotor, which is located at the end of a long Fjord - It reminded us a lot of our first cruise, which was to Norway on Indy.

I woke up early and marvelled at the views from our balcony as we sailed silently by...

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

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Are you on our "page" dave ?

Yep! Both the 14th and 17th one :)

Checking in to this pictorial review because we're on the Serenade (first-time RCCL) in a couple of months. Love the ship pics.

 

And ... this has convinced me that a Med cruise must be in my future some time.

 

Love the pic of the ship taken from street level in Malta; the ship looks like it's parked right on the street!

Glad you're enjoying the review/pic's. You'll love 'Serenade of the Seas', she's a beautiful, elegant ship with lovely public areas. Lot's more photo's to come! ;)

Eventually it was time to get the shuttle coach back to the port area where the tender boats were busy going back and forth to our ship.

We timed it well to see Splendour departing. It was quite magical somehow seeing Serenade & Splendour together (of course, there was the accompanying horn battle!). It's a shame to see Splendour leaving the fleet...

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Bye, bye Splendour....(sniff, sniff)

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So........after all that walking around old Corfu town, we started to get hungry. We'd done a Greece land based holiday before and one thing we both remembered enjoying was "Giros". We found a nice little restaurant with some outside seating..

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The Greek style meze "starter" was huge and could've been enough by itself!!

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We were both pretty stuffed after that - more walking was required, so off we went again exploring

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Drummerdave!!!! How are you guys? I really hope you're doing well :)

I am so glad I lurked onto CC this morning and found your review... perfect timing with all the Med itineraries coming up for summer. You're doing a great job! Can't wait to see your Kotor/Venice/Dubrovnik pics. Thx for the shout out. Hope to cross paths with you again someday :D

Hey there!! We're doing great thanks ....hope you're doing well too. We both loved your review of this cruise (bought back memories and was nice to re live the cruise again from someone else perspective/experience). We enjoyed your Quantum review too....we're going on Ovation next week, so we're super excited for that!

Hope our paths cross again some day too :)

Any of you lot going on the 14th of April ?

My wife and I are going on the 14th April, then staying on for the 17th April 5-nighter. Back-to-back, but we're thinking of it as an 8 night cruise :)

Now it was time to explore Corfu town itself with it's narrow lanes and and taverna's

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From left to right: Broken down ship, Splendour, a NCL Ship (tendered) and the Serenade (tendered)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1499/26223650986_337e21f53c_b.jpg' alt='26223650986_337e21f53c_b.jpg'>Splendour of the Seas & Serenade of the Seas - Corfu, Greece by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

Good Morning Corfu!!

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Our Cruise Director, Mercedes, kept us up to date with all activities on the ship and information about our pots of call during the 'Morning Show'.

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Now, see where that ship with the blue hull is docked in the left of this photo? This was where we were meant to have been docked. However, the blue ship had broken down so we had an un-scheduled tender day! And yes, the ship docked next to the broken down one is the 'Splendour of the Seas' (soon to be leaving Royal Caribbean, or already left depending when you read this). Splendour's tender boats helped out in getting us ashore!

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Enjoying the review. We'll be visiting some of the ports you visited next month so looking forward to the rest.

Thank you, glad you're enjoying it. The ports of call of this cruise were all amazing :)

That evening, there was an ariel show in the Centrum.....Jen secured us a great spot!

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By this point I was starting to feel a bit groggy, as my cold was starting to really take hold. Time for bed.......the next day, we'd be in Corfu, Greece!!:cool:

Sea Day!!! :D

After lunch, we went to the cinema (I love the fact the Radiance class ships actually have a cinema) to watch the re-boot of 'Robocop'. Then it was time to have a quick dip in the pool and get ready for dinner in the MDR.

Our favourite pre-dinner drinks place...

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The day we were in Valletta, they were preparing for that evenings celebrations. Malta was celebrating 50 years independence from British rule....It looked like it was going to be quite a party!

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That evening we were reminded on the time change. The next day was to be a Sea Day, as we sailed from Malta to Corfu (Greece).

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