Raschueler

Here we are at the Library of Celcus.

We also did the terrace houses. It loved all the mosaic “rugs.”

This was the view from the top. There were lots of steps inside of the Terrace Houses.

Sorry for not posting for awhile! Nursing school has been getting the best of me. I also was going through some PCD (post cruise depression!) and had to solve that by figuring out another cruise to book. A 9-night Southern Caribbean cruise has healed me (:

Today was our day in Kusadasi, Turkey. We booked our tour through Best of Ephesus and Typhoon was our guide. We started our day early at the advice of our tour guide to beat some crowds. I believe we met at 8am. We were the first people to this site! It was amazing to be there with only 9 other people. This was carved directly into the mountain side. The acoustics were incredible.

There were also tons of stray animals here! Matt was missing our cat, Maestro.

Our tour guide had lots of information to give us. This was a hole in the wall outside of the stadium that was used to chain the slaves up when they misbehaved. They were left out in the sun without food or water.

This was also very interesting. It was a road map to the brothel. Typhoon explained that it means, “You will find love if you have money.”

We had an amazing lunch at a small restaurant our guide took us to. It was clear that she brought people here a lot, but it was affordable and delicious. Matt ordered a hamburger. A hamburger!!! In Greece…Ay ay ay. His hamburger surprised him when it came out without any bread.

I went a bit more Greek and ordered moussakas. Delicious! It’s sort of like lasagna, but it’s made with eggplant, meat, potatoes, and béchamel sauce. I ended up making this once we got home because I enjoyed it so much.

We finished up our tour with some shopping and small sites. Overall, it was an amazing tour!

We were exhausted after this day though! Once back on the Reflection, we not only napped through the show that I wanted to see at 7:15, but we randomly woke up at 8:43 for dinner! We quickly through our clothes on and got to dinner. We only ended up being about 10 minutes late. Not too shabby!

We went to the main tourist sites, and a few smaller architectural sites. Honestly, after this day I became ruined out with the small sites. I was excited when we found this old jack. Matt’s a mechanic, so I made him take a picture with it (:

We also got to see where the old Olympics were held. I can’t remember if our tour guide said if any events were held here during the recent Olympics.

Seeing the changing of the guards was really amazing.

We went through the flea market with our guide who kept warning us about gypsies and holding on to our belongings. This made me really worried, but everything turned out alright.

We woke up in Piraeus, Greece to see Athens. The wonderful bisabella organized this tour for our through Private Greece Tours. We had a great experience with this company. We started our day at the Acropolis before most of the crowds arrived. We walked around on our own since we had a set meeting time with our bus.

Matt didn't like that everything was reinforced with steel and rebar. He didn't feel like it was as authentic that way. I thought it was incredible that these structures were moved around so many times!

At the Acropolis they had a concession stand, and I saw lemon slushy-type drinks. I got one because I was hot and they looked delicious. Turns out they were basically just sweet-and-sour mix. Yuck! It was expensive, but I ended up throwing it away in order to not make myself sick drinking it.

Have enjoyed reading all about your cruise! My husband and I have been to Rome about five times and want to go back again! Love the city...

 

Hope you and your hubby have a fabulous life together! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much! We loved the city as well.

Same to you and your hubby! Maybe our traveling paths will cross one day (:

Have enjoyed reading all about your cruise! My husband and I have been to Rome about five times and want to go back again! Love the city...

 

Hope you and your hubby have a fabulous life together! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much! We loved the city as well.

Same to you and your hubby! Maybe our traveling paths will cross one day (:

Thanks for picking this back up. Enjoying your review.

We'll be on her this April celebrating (early) our 35th!

Of course! Sometimes life just seems to get in the way. I'm working on my Athens post now, so it should be up either tonight or tomorrow (:

Congratulations on 35 years of marriage! I hope you have a great cruise.

Once we were dressed and ready for formal night, we headed to dinner. Frog legs were on the menu, and I had never tried them, so I gave it a shot. My country-boy husband laughed about frog legs being “fancy food” since growing up they’d go “giggin” frogs. PS frog gigging is basically like spear fishing, but with frogs. Lovely, right? Matt said they weren’t as good as his mama’s, and I said I felt like I was eating breaded ligaments.

We chose safer entrees. I don’t remember who ordered what, but I remember that we ended up sharing the shrimp alfredo (I think that’s what it was, don’t hold me to it!) because it was so delicious.

This evening’s show was at 10:45 which was really nice for us. I enjoy the late dinner since we eat late at home. I also like time to either nap or relax by the pool after a day at port, and then have time to get ready for dinner and see the show afterwards. The rest of the shows we attended were all before dinner. After the show tonight, this woman was waiting for us when we walked out of the theatre. It was definitely entertaining and different. We also saw her in the customs line at PHL airport when we got home! Small world.

We got our towel animals on our formal nights, and Matt was pretty excited about this one.

I set my alarm for around 4:15 am because I wanted to see us going through the Messina Strait. I know I already posted this picture above, but here is some town through the Strait! For some reason I thought that the sun would be coming up, so I just crawled back after snapping a few pictures since it was still dark. After just now looking at my Celebrity Today, it says that sunrise was 5:32 am. Maybe I meant to set my alarm for 5:15am. Maybe I had too much fun with my drink package the night before (:

We attended the CC Meet and Mingle to meet the people I have been talking to for months! It was nice to put faces to names. It was at 9:45am at Cellar Masters. After finding and talking to my CC friends, I had Matt assured that all of these private tours would work out just fine.

We had a real sea day this time. Relaxing, drinking, eating, exploring. What else could you ask for (:

This was the only time we ever found ourselves on the lawn. We have grass at home, so we’d rather be by the pool, or on our balcony staring off into the sea, or really anywhere else on the amazing ship. Maybe if you live in a city without grass this is exciting? I was just excited about the giant chairs and added it to my dream “honey-do” list for Matt to build for our backyard.

There was live music, trivia games, and plenty to do around the ship.

Really enjoying your review so far! We are going on the Reflection in December for our honeymoon, on an Eastern Caribbean itenirary. Congrats on your wedding!

 

Hey, do you remember your stateroom number.....that appears to be the same category that we have booked. Also, does the Sunset Bar really serve their drinks out of plastic cups, even champagne?!

I just realized I only answered part of your question. Yes, only plastic except for beer bottles. They would ask if you wanted your beer in a glass, so I guess they would pour it into plastic. I always just kept it my bottle though, so I'm not positive. I found that if I grabbed a drink on my way there, and got another while at the Sunset bar, they would reuse my glass if I asked them to. This way, I avoided the icky plastic.

Congrats on your wedding. We'll be on the Reflection for our 26th anniversary in 2016 and are, very much, looking forward to the rest of your very nice review.:p

Thank you! Congratulations on 26 years :) Here's to the next 26!

The sights were amazing on this cruise as compared to our usual Caribbean cruises. We were really glad that we booked a balcony. Speaking of us booking a balcony, originally we were going to just go the cheapest that we could with an inside room. But, with the Pick your Perk promo and my wonderful travel agent, upgrading our room to a balcony got us free beverage packages, free $300 OBC, and my agent threw in free gratuities. So, for an extra $1,000 on our end, we got all that and an amazing balcony! You do the math (:

The show for the evening was a pianist. I was excited about this, so we to see Antonio Salci perform. At first, he played a loud rock song along with the band that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I looked at Matt and said that we might need to leave. I hadn’t read too many good things about the entertainment on Celebrity, so I thought this might be what people were talking about. We stayed and gave it another shot with the next song. He played another song that I enjoyed more, and by the third song, he had me sobbing. He played Josh Grobin’s, “You Raise Me Up.” It was amazing hearing it without the words. The rest of the show was fantastic. We enjoyed all of the shows we attended.

When we came out of the show, Friendly Feud was also being played. We stopped to check it out. We had some good laughs with this one!!

Once that ended, we headed to the Martini Bar for some pre-dinner drinks. I didn't upgrade my package to premium, and had no problem finding something great to drink. I was able to get beer, wine, margaritas, and other mixed drinks at the Martini Bar. I had read here that you can get mini-martinis from the Martini Bar with the non-upgraded beverage package, but never felt the need to try. This really seemed like the place to be most nights. The bartenders were great, and there was basically always live music down on deck 3.

Dinner was delicious as usual, and I thought this cheesecake was quite adorable. Really doesn’t take much to please this girl.

Pretty much every day, we got breakfast delivered from room service. Matt even brought our flowers out to our table. What a thoughtful husband (:

We had a relaxing sea/port day by the pool and enjoying our balcony since we wouldn't be in Sicily today. I had an itch to go shopping or at least just check everything out, but none of the shops were open because we were still at port. The casino also wasn’t open for you gamblers! But, hopefully being stuck at this lovely port won’t happen to you.

We went to the Sunset Bar (again!) to watch sail away. We were finally moving!

Great posts so far. I'd also like to know your cabin #. My father and I are cruising on Reflection in January. We're in a Verandah cabin (6196) on Deck 6, apparently with life boats just below. If your views are representative of that deck then I'm pleased. I like the long views, not worried so much about looking down.

 

You seem like a lovely young couple. I hope married life is treating you well.

 

Cheers!

HTP

:cool:

Thank you! Sounds like a nice cruise for you and your father. I'm also looking into January cruises now too. Our cabin was 6207. The views were perfect for looking out.

We have really been enjoying married life, but would love to be back on the Reflection!

Really enjoying your review so far! We are going on the Reflection in December for our honeymoon, on an Eastern Caribbean itenirary. Congrats on your wedding!

 

Hey, do you remember your stateroom number.....that appears to be the same category that we have booked. Also, does the Sunset Bar really serve their drinks out of plastic cups, even champagne?!

I sure do (: We stayed in cabin 6207. The location was really convenient because it was central and very close to the elevators. There are also automatic sliding doors between the elevators and the hallway, so noise wasn't an issue for us. Congrats on your engagement! Are you also getting married in December? I know some couples hold off on the honeymoon for awhile (:

Here is our planned itinerary.

Our CC group planned a pre-meet and mingle to meet one another since we had many tours planned. We planned on meeting at the Sunset Bar for sail away. We got our name tags, chit-chatted, and had a great time.

We waited for sail away, but then there was a delay. Being lost in conversation, about an hour went by after our planned sail away time, and we were still sitting.

An announcement from the captain informed us that there were technical difficulties and that we would be staying in Civi until tomorrow at 2pm. We were also going to miss going to Messina, Italy. We were offered a free shuttle to Civi for the next day. We just decided to stay on the ship. We were so exhausted from Rome, and even though I really wanted to see Sicily, I could use a “sea day.” Many people were really disappointed, but it’s not like we were stuck in an airport terminal, we were on a gorgeous ship with plenty to do! We ended up being credited $200 for port fees and missing the port which we appreciated.

We stayed and chatted with fellow CC members until it was dinner time. The MDR is beautiful, and I only had two entrees out of ten that I wasn’t crazy about. By the time the entrée came out, I wasn’t really even hungry due to the first courses, so it was fine. I had requested to sit at a table of 8-10 because I really enjoy meeting new people and usually make good friends from my tablemates, but we were sat at a table for two. It was fine just being with my hubby, but we were together 24/7 for two weeks, so hearing about other people’s adventures at port would have been nice at dinner!

Our first table for two was next to a couple speaking another language near the waiter’s station. The next night we were moved to a window seat after we received a note in our stateroom saying they were putting us there since we were celebrating our honeymoon. We enjoyed our new seat by the window for the sights. The close tables for two are a little awkward though because you can hear the entire conversation between the two sitting next to you.

Next, it was time to explore the ship! The Reflection really is a gorgeous ship.

Here are some photos of the solarium.

We were fascinated by the ice bar, and received great service here throughout the entire cruise.

Anyways, we made it to the ship! We were so relieved. We painlessly checked in, and were on our way to check out the ship. We were greeted with champagne and went straight to the Sunset Bar with our new friends.

I wanted another glass of champagne, so Matt went and got one while I talked to my new friend. Pretty much all of the drinks at the Sunset Bar are served in blue plastic cups, and when I went to drink my champagne, I noticed bright pink lipstick was on my glass. EWWWWWW. I was really grossed out. I hate to be a complainer, but I was not happy. I showed the bartender the dirty glass my drink was poured in. He brushed it off like it was nothing. Then, I saw another woman sit down, order champagne, and her glass was the same way! I pointed it out to her, and she just laughed it off and the bartender wiped it off with a napkin. Disgusting. I ordered a good ole Coors Light in a bottle knowing no one has drank out of that! Not the best start to the cruise. For the rest of the trip, I avoided the blue plastic glasses and made sure to check all of my glasses before sipping my drink.

There was an announcement that all of the rooms were ready, so we went down to check out our veranda room. We have never had an ocean view balcony. We were really excited. It also turned out that our new friends from the train were only a few rooms down the hall!

Our stateroom was wonderful. We really enjoyed the balcony as well. It was an obstructed view because the lifeboats were right below, but there was a space to see the ocean straight down, and you could still see the view while sitting down. Every time I saw the lifeboat a little bit, I thought of how much money we saved this way!

The bed was so comfortable, especially after the rock we slept on at the Italian B&B. We met our attendant, and I asked for him to please empty the mini fridge which was done without a problem.

Storage was fine for us, I had brought extra hangers, and we used the above the bed storage. Feel free to ask any questions about the room!

Okay, let’s head to the Reflection! Our mode of transportation was the train. I had read a good bit here on CC about taking the train to Civi, and I figured we could do it. I’m going to refer to the port as Civi because I have no idea how to spell it and never mastered how to say it, so in my head it is the Port of Civi. We got to the station early and made it to platform #28 while people were trying to help us with our bags and validate our tickets. No no no no no. The people all over my sweet husband made him a little stressed. On top of that, the doors kept shutting on poor Matt when he was trying to carry his luggage onto the train which lead to a not-so-happy hubby. He was already not too happy with the walk because his cheapo luggage wheels were completely ripped-off/disintegrated on the way over. Yikes. He said next time he is packing and I better like what I have on cause I’d be wearing it a lot. Whoops, bad over-packing wife. On the bright side, we were on the train and ready to go. Covered in sweat, but ready to go!

We ended up meeting another honeymooning couple on the train who was going to be on our cruise. It felt good to know they were doing the same thing as us! We were the blind leading the blind. All of the directions I had copied off of cruise CC were sitting safely at home on my laptop. We started walking and eventually found people with suitcases walking towards us leaving their cruise, so we knew we were headed the right way. The walk wasn’t too bad, but not having luggage wheels made it a little difficult for Matt. Luckily he’s strong! There were places to stop for water, so we took advantage of that. We walked for awhile, and then found a shuttle. The shuttle took us to the port, and then we had to switch to a bus (and then maybe another bus?) I felt like if we didn’t lose our luggage between the train and all these shuttles and buses, we would never lose it in a million years.

As I was reading through my report preparing to tell you all about our train ride, I realized that my morning post for day 3 didn't post. So, this post should be right before post #30. Let's call it Post 29.5. Sorry for any confusion!

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast again in our room, and my goal for the day was to go to Termini, buy our tickets, and find the platform for the train. Buying our ticket was easy. There were machines that you could set to English and then use cash or a credit card to buy your ticket. With tickets in hand, we looked for the platform, and there were people trying to validate them for us. NO! Matt said he wanted a t-shirt with the word “NO” on it to wear while walking around Rome. No, I don’t want roses. No, I don’t want that weird glowing bouncy ball. No, you can’t help me with my bags. No, I am capable of sticking my ticket into a clearly labeled machine to be validated. Ahhhh. Matt was a little stressed with the train station, so I am glad we went the day before to find everything because doing that with all of our luggage would not have been fun. Anyways, our platform was #28. It was not printed on our ticket, but we found it on a poster on the wall, so maybe it always stays the same? It’s basically the furthest platform away.

After sort of figuring out the train station, we jumped on the tour bus again. We wanted to get over near the Vatican, explore, and then get back closer to our room since there was no way we were walking back to our room from there!

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay in my posting. My internet has been ungodly slow, and for the safety of my laptop and router, I had to take a break from my laptop. I’ve mustered up some patience, so here we go!

Later that day we decided to just get a cheap dinner since lunch added up quickly. We decided to go back to that little pizza place by our B&B for a dinner under 10 euros! We had to repack all the clothes I tore out of our suitcase, and I wanted to be ready for our train adventure. When we got to dinner, the owner of the store quickly recognized us from lunch the other day, came over and gave me a big hug, and, of course, two kisses. We got a discount on our already cheap dinner, and made the man very happy that we came back to his shop. After dinner, we decided to just take a walk and enjoy our last night in Rome. We ended up sitting by the fountain in Piazza della Repubblica eating gelato, and people watching. We had a great low-key night in Rome and were ready to head to the ship!

Heading to the roof! It costs 7 euro pp to get to the roof. My husband has to talk me into this one. 14 euro to get up there seemed a little steep (haha) to me, but it ended up being worth every penny.

Here is one of the many views from the top!

There were plenty of numbered maps to identify the different buildings.

Here are my horses I’m obsessed with. My grandmother has a horse farm, so horses have always been important to me. She has been to Rome a few times, and says these horses are the reason she believes in God because she has no idea how they could have gotten up there. Turns out they were put up there between 1908-1925 according to a sign posted below it. Boooo. I thought they were ancient!! Learning this ruined the horses a bit for me. Shhhh! Don’t tell Mom Mom!

After lunch, we (I) did some shopping. I love buying things for our home on trips so that I can be reminded of the places all the time. We ended up near the Capitol building. I wanted to get closer to get pictures of the guards and the horses on top of the building. I have a slight obsession with these horses. After my first trip to Italy, I always told people how amazing they were and how I had no idea how they got them up there thousands of years ago without cranes. Turns out I was completely wrong. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit.

There are manned gates in front of the building, so I thought that maybe you had to pay to get in. I was very pleased when I found out it was free.

Inside I was happy to find some sort of a war museum and incredible architecture.

Up next: we get on the roof!!

So sorry to hear about the break of the engagement. I only read the first page when I posted my original comment. Hope all is well with you.