Cool Girl & Crazy Mom do the Med-Venice: A (very delayed) review of a Serenade voyage

[SolsticeAZ]

Great review so far -- looking forward to the rest!:D

 

Thanks also for the note about the photos.... is anyone else having trouble seeing any photos and if so, can you tell me which post#? When I look through, I see them all (but some are smaller at the beginning when I was using a different program). I want to to try to get it straightened out ASAP so no one misses out on the photos :eek:

For me, the photos in post numbers 31, 54, and 63 are not showing up. The rest look great. Hope that helps, and good luck!

[Kcruiser2014]

I'm viewing on my iPhone and they are all showing up for me. Thank you do much for this review, I am subscribed!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[kirian]

Great review so far -- looking forward to the rest!:D

 

 

For me, the photos in post numbers 31, 54, and 63 are not showing up. The rest look great. Hope that helps, and good luck!

 

I'm viewing on my iPhone and they are all showing up for me. Thank you do much for this review, I am subscribed!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

First off, that you both for your kind words and for joining in the fun:D

Second, thanks for the report back that photos are working for some folks, but not all. Unfortunately, I can't go back and edit the posts in question to use new links, but I think I have plan....

[Kcruiser2014]

Uh oh!!! LOL!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[kirian]

For those that might not be able to see the early photos, I am going to try quoting my post and changing the links. Hopefully this will work... it's essential that you see the mountain of luggage :D

 

 

On October 20th, 2013 we headed out for our adventure. Since you have yet to “see” us… here we are

 

 

(I‘m the tall one…. CM is the munchkin… and yes, I thank God every day I didn’t get her side of the genes when it came to height)

 

This is the munchkin…errrrr… I mean CM and my luggage:

 

 

Now, before you say anything, YES, I KNOW…. Wayyyyyy tooo much luggage. Believe me though, this was a coup d’état on my part getting it down to just 3 checked bags. You don’t know CM. The woman irons underwear!!!! Just trust me, this was as light as we could pack on this trip… 12 nt cruise plus a total of 5 extra night on land (but FYI – I “explained” that on our upcoming 2015 TA, there would be no 3rd checked bag).

 

Disclaimer #10 – we did actually use almost every single thing we packed…. But after schlepping it across Barcelona, I would have insisted on using an abacus if we had packed one.

 

We left my house at 9:25a for a 10:50a flight to ATL.

 

Disclaimer 11: the airport in Wilmington, NC (ILM) is less than 10 miles from my house and only has about 4 gates (despite the fact that the airport might call them gates 4-8…. There are only about 4 jetways). You will need to leave more time if you are flying out of a “real” airport like JFK :p

 

BTW – my dad (aka “bless his heart….”started driving us insane at about 9:15a…. get in the car, you’re going to be late….etc, etc….)

 

We checked our 3 bags (yes, paid for the 3rd… $100 on each of three different legs throughout the journey)… all three were well under the 50# limit. On-board the plane, we each took a small suitcase (yes, in this case, they really were small….. we each could have squeezed them under the seat if need be) and one “large” purse/personal item each.

 

When we first booked our flights, the route across the pond was ILM(Wilmington)>Atlanta>Barcelona. Perfect!!!! However, a few months before our departure, Delta removed the direct flight to BCN from ATL, so we had to add a dreaded stop at JFK (ugh!). I HATE takeoffs more than anything, so having an additional one definitely was not pleasant… but nothing an extra Xanax couldn’t take care of (yes… I hate flying that much that I need drugs)

 

I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details of all the flights. Let’s just say we had the usual run-ins with people that had carry-ons that were wayyy too big, passengers that didn’t think the rules applied to them, yada yada….. but BONUS – free wine on the transatlantic leg (I am not a wine snob, I mean, I drink 3 buck Chuck from Trader Joe’s daily, so I was completely satisfied washing my Xanax down with some free boxed wine). Suffice it to say, we landed relatively on-time and unscathed in BCN :D

[kirian]

[quote name='Kcruiser2014']Uh oh!!! LOL!!


[/QUOTE]

LOLOLOL! Don't worry, it wasn't too scary of a plan... just quoting my own posts.... but you never know with me, so it's wise to be wary :eek::D

Hopefully this will work for folks that were having trouble. I will repost the other 2 that had trouble and then get back to the regularly scheduled program :cool:

[kirian]

Repost of #54 for those that had trouble with the photos



[quote name='kirian']Ok, where did leave off? Oh yes, I think we had just landed in BCN....

There is one thing (beside free wine) that I like about European flights… the fact that people clap when you land. And I wasn’t disappointed! Not only did my fellow fliers break into applause upon landing, but our pilot managed to touch down 30 minutes early. Sweet!!!!

We collected our luggage (ALL of it), made it through customs with no trouble, and headed for the Aerobus.

Based on other reviews I read and my own research, we decided to use the Aerobus to get from the airport to downtown Barcelona. It was super cheap (about 6E each) and fast (we were downtown in no time since it only makes a few stops). Now, dealing with our luggage was a different story.

The buses have plenty of room to handle luggage (there are racks inside), but we had that stupid extra bag to drag on the bus. [B][U]Mom – I know you’re reading this….NO 3rd bag next time!!!!!![/U][/B]

We took the Aerobus to the Placa Catalunya stop which is in the center of town. From there, our hotel was about a 200m walk. Of course, we had to stop every block or so to adjust our grip on the mountain of luggage that we were rolling down the street, but we made it….eventually.

For those of you flying into BCN before your cruise, I can confidently recommend the Aerobus. Really, there is no need to pay a fortune for private transportation here (unless you over-pack like us... bu "us" I mean the munchkin). It’s quick, convenient, easy and cheap.

For our pre-cruise stay, we chose Hotel Curious. It was a good location about a block off Las Ramblas and a block or so away from the big market. The hotel had a somewhat cold, modern décor, but it was super clean and we had a nice little balcony. I think it cost just under $200 for the one night (but this seemed to be low-average for hotels in Barcelona that were near the heart of things).

[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/2cn9tvr.jpg[/IMG]

When we finally got our luggage up to our room (took 3 trips up in the tiny little elevator), I couldn’t get the lights or power on in the room. What!!!! I was not feeling up to moving a small country’s worth of luggage to another room. Then I remembered something I had read on another CC review…. There was a trick to it! Next to the door was this little box and you apparently had to put your room key into the slot to make the power work (take your key out and poof….off go the lights). So, it was nice to always know where the key was, but for those of us that don’t travel to Europe often, this was a new thing for us. Thank goodness I remembered what I had read on CC about this or else I would have felt like a big idiot (bless my heart) if I had gone to the front desk to complain about no power.

[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/oh8mmr.jpg[/IMG]

Now that we had finally made it (and figured out the whole power enigma)…. Let’s go sightseeing!!!!![/QUOTE]

[kirian]

Last but not least, a report of some of the Barcelona pics of Sagrada Familia and the Gothic Quarter.

If I missed any and you need me to repost a photo so one of my comments make sense, just let me know the post number and I will be happy to upload it again!

[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/5miu6p.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/2rzb6hj.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/xc2hf.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/10xr31u.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/ns2tc.jpg[/IMG]

[kirian]

[B][SIZE="3"]Embarkation Day part 2 of 5 (yes, I know, earlier it was 1 of 3, but there was more to embarkation day than I originally remembered once I started reviewing my notes....lol!)[/SIZE][/B]



Getting on board….. WOW! This had to have been the EASIEST boarding EVER! We exited our taxi at 11a and we were onboard at 11:25a. 25 minutes to clear port security, get our Sea Pass card, AND clear security on the ship. Now that's what I call SWEET!

There were a bunch of questions going around the boards regarding if you had to go through ship security before or after the duty free shops in the Port. In our case, ship security was after the duty free ships and was actually onboard as soon as we crossed the gangway. Is it this way all the time in Barcelona? I have no idea, but that’s how it was for us. Also, I had both bottles of our wine in my carry-on (we were allowed 2 total). Ship’s security never asked to see what was in my bag when it went through the scanner, nor did they even ask if I was bringing wine onboard. There was a table at security though that seemed to be for contraband that they found that shouldn’t have been allowed. Is it this way all the time in Barcelona?…. Again, I have no idea.

One tip though… don’t put away your Sea Pass Card and passport until you get through ship’s security. I say this because we kept putting it away only to find out there was someone else to show it to around every corner between the time you get the card to the time you get through RCCL security. Seriously, it was actually to the point of getting funny. You would be asked for these things by one RCCL person, only to be asked by another one 10 yards away. They definitely weren’t about to let anyone onboard that shouldn’t have been there…lol!

Once onboard, we walked all around the ship to acclimate ourselves (it had been several years since we had been aboard the Serenade). It was super easy to catch an elevator to whatever floor we wanted… of course, the ship was still pretty empty at this point.

Around 11:45a/noon, we noticed the Park Café opened for business in the Solarium. We by-passed this and went to the Windjammer. It was 12:15p and PACKED!!!! (this photo doesn't even do it justice... it was insane... just trust me)


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/rmip6o.jpg[/IMG]


We took a few photos on the insanity and then headed back to the Park Café. It was so nice and quiet there. CM got the tuna on ciabatta and said it was very good. I had the “famous” roast beef sandwich.


[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/2s5xt81.jpg[/IMG]


Sadly, I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't bad, by any means, there was just too much bread for the amount of roast beef. For those of you that love it, does it normally look like the photo above when you get it (bread to meat ration)? Since everyone raved about it on the boards though, I decided to try it again one day in the future.

The drink station in the Park Café serves great lemonade. They seemed to have this as an option most days. They also had two juice-type drinks (usually one was sugar-free), as well as coffee and hot tea. Sometimes we lucked out and they also had iced tea here.

I also tried the salad bar here.


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/v8hn5l.jpg[/IMG]


I didn’t start from scratch though… instead, I had the lady behind the counter take one of the pre-made chicken salads and jazz it up with some of the other items at the salad bar. Yummy!


[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/346x740.jpg[/IMG]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"](Oh look ^, it's my journal under my knife... you didn't think I had a photographic memory after all this time, did you???)[/COLOR]


There was no problem with her doing this. We found the folks that worked at the Park Café to be very accommodating (not that we are very high maintenance though... except when it comes to CM wanting to iron all of her clothes, but I won’t go there… let’s just say I scored another coup when I won the battle against sneaking a travel iron on board.... but I digress....again).

The only thing I will say I found “odd” about the Park Café was the total lack of napkins. We always had a difficult time locating napkins of any type (paper or cloth) and when we asked for them at the counter, we were given one little square (Hey, can you spare a square? Sorry, Seinfeld reference)

BTW - there was this VERY weird fella staring at me throughout lunch.... can you say "creepy"?!


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/1235xs6.jpg[/IMG]

[Moondawgie]

Good job, kirian. We are on the ship now! You crack me up.:)

[LABCHICK]

[quote name='kirian'][B][SIZE="3"]Embarkation Day part 2 of 5 (yes, I know, earlier it was 1 of 3, but there was more to embarkation day than I originally remembered once I started reviewing my notes....lol!)[/SIZE][/B]



Getting on board….. WOW! This had to have been the EASIEST boarding EVER! We exited our taxi at 11a and we were onboard at 11:25a. 25 minutes to clear port security, get our Sea Pass card, AND clear security on the ship. Now that's what I call SWEET!

There were a bunch of questions going around the boards regarding if you had to go through ship security before or after the duty free shops in the Port. In our case, ship security was after the duty free ships and was actually onboard as soon as we crossed the gangway. Is it this way all the time in Barcelona? I have no idea, but that’s how it was for us. Also, I had both bottles of our wine in my carry-on (we were allowed 2 total). Ship’s security never asked to see what was in my bag when it went through the scanner, nor did they even ask if I was bringing wine onboard. There was a table at security though that seemed to be for contraband that they found that shouldn’t have been allowed. Is it this way all the time in Barcelona?…. Again, I have no idea.

One tip though… don’t put away your Sea Pass Card and passport until you get through ship’s security. I say this because we kept putting it away only to find out there was someone else to show it to around every corner between the time you get the card to the time you get through RCCL security. Seriously, it was actually to the point of getting funny. You would be asked for these things by one RCCL person, only to be asked by another one 10 yards away. They definitely weren’t about to let anyone onboard that shouldn’t have been there…lol!

Once onboard, we walked all around the ship to acclimate ourselves (it had been several years since we had been aboard the Serenade). It was super easy to catch an elevator to whatever floor we wanted… of course, the ship was still pretty empty at this point.

Around 11:45a/noon, we noticed the Park Café opened for business in the Solarium. We by-passed this and went to the Windjammer. It was 12:15p and PACKED!!!! (this photo doesn't even do it justice... it was insane... just trust me)


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/rmip6o.jpg[/IMG]


We took a few photos on the insanity and then headed back to the Park Café. It was so nice and quiet there. CM got the tuna on ciabatta and said it was very good. I had the “famous” roast beef sandwich.


[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/2s5xt81.jpg[/IMG]


Sadly, I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't bad, by any means, there was just too much bread for the amount of roast beef. For those of you that love it, does it normally look like the photo above when you get it (bread to meat ration)? Since everyone raved about it on the boards though, I decided to try it again one day in the future.

The drink station in the Park Café serves great lemonade. They seemed to have this as an option most days. They also had two juice-type drinks (usually one was sugar-free), as well as coffee and hot tea. Sometimes we lucked out and they also had iced tea here.

I also tried the salad bar here.


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/v8hn5l.jpg[/IMG]


I didn’t start from scratch though… instead, I had the lady behind the counter take one of the pre-made chicken salads and jazz it up with some of the other items at the salad bar. Yummy!


[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/346x740.jpg[/IMG]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"](Oh look ^, it's my journal under my knife... you didn't think I had a photographic memory after all this time, did you???)[/COLOR]


There was no problem with her doing this. We found the folks that worked at the Park Café to be very accommodating (not that we are very high maintenance though... except when it comes to CM wanting to iron all of her clothes, but I won’t go there… let’s just say I scored another coup when I won the battle against sneaking a travel iron on board.... but I digress....again).

The only thing I will say I found “odd” about the Park Café was the total lack of napkins. We always had a difficult time locating napkins of any type (paper or cloth) and when we asked for them at the counter, we were given one little square (Hey, can you spare a square? Sorry, Seinfeld reference)

BTW - there was this VERY weird fella staring at me throughout lunch.... can you say "creepy"?!


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/1235xs6.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

To answer your question about the roast beef sandwich. We had them on both the Oasis and the Allure and we had a lot more meat then you got.

[windjamming]

Great review, Melissa!! I love your sense of humor!!

[quote name='kirian']
I had the “famous” roast beef sandwich.

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/2s5xt81.jpg[/IMG]

Sadly, I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't bad, by any means, there was just too much bread for the amount of roast beef. For those of you that love it, does it normally look like the photo above when you get it (bread to meat ration)?
[/QUOTE]

Hmm...this sandwich does look a bit meat-challenged. Smart move avoiding that icky mustard relish. (Mustard, good. Relish, good. Combined, not so much for me.)

[quote name='kirian']
I didn’t start from scratch though… instead, I had the lady behind the counter take one of the pre-made chicken salads and jazz it up with some of the other items at the salad bar. Yummy!

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/346x740.jpg[/IMG]

[/QUOTE]

This is a BRILLIANT idea!! See, this is what I love about Cruise Critic. You go on a cruise. On CC you meet others who write reviews about the same itineraries, and voila, you learn an amazing tip.

Can't wait for the rest .. you're totally bringing me back to our cruise on the Serenade in August! Edited July 8, 2014 by windjamming

[marci22]

[quote name='LABCHICK']To answer your question about the roast beef sandwich. We had them on both the Oasis and the Allure and we had a lot more meat then you got.[/QUOTE]

I find that this is typical when they start cost cutting. The sandwich starts out good, then they start putting half the amount of filling in. Then it's gone.

That happened with the shrimp salad sandwich at Promenade Cafe. They were really good, then they started decreasing the filling; we would take 2 sandwiches and make it into one. Way too much stale bread. Then they were gone.

Nice pictures OP Edited July 8, 2014 by marci22

[kirian]

[quote name='Moondawgie']Good job, kirian. We are on the ship now! You crack me up.:)[/QUOTE]

Haha! I aim to please, moondawgie :D

[kirian]

Judi, Windjamming & Marci - thanks for confirming my tastes buds hadn't just missed the boat on this one (haha... I crack me up :rolleyes::D)

Like I said, the beef was good, the bread was good (the mustard relish... I'm with Windjamming... kinda weird). But the bread and beef together.... just so-so. However, it won't keep me from trying it again. Cool Girl doesn't give up [I]that[/I] easily :cool:

Windjamming - I am so glad you like my idea/tip about the salad bar. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask and they were definitely willing to do it. Some days, they wouldn't have chicken as a separate option in the actual salad bar toppings, but they usually had the pre-made chicken salad.... so I had them jazz it up a couple of times.

Marci - I'm glad you're enjoying the photos. I'm definitely NOT the world's best photographer, but as long as I don't cut anyone's head off, I think I do ok :eek::D

Melissa

[crvng4mr]

I subscribed from the first post you wrote! You writing style is wonderful. Yay, there are a few reviews going now for this cruise. How awesome is that? I will try in mine not to post the same pictures they see in another review so they can experience the most of it!

I agree with you about the bread to roast beef ratio. Many times we just had the roast beef. And the best lemonade was at the Park Café. I would go there every night just for the lemonade :D. It was different everywhere else.

Thanks for writing this review as I am reliving it again.

[EmpressofPurple]

[quote name='marci22']I find that this is typical when they start cost cutting. The sandwich starts out good, then they start putting half the amount of filling in. Then it's gone.

That happened with the shrimp salad sandwich at Promenade Cafe. They were really good, then they started decreasing the filling; we would take 2 sandwiches and make it into one. Way too much stale bread. Then they were gone.

Nice pictures OP[/QUOTE]

Ooh I forgot about the shrimp salad, that was good, I missed it a lot on my last cruise...

Op, ask for double meat on the kimmelweck (a tip I picked up here). Had one on the oasis, it was delish.

Love the photos (including creepy statue in park cafe).

While I tremendously envy you this itinerary, I "worry" about port intensive med cruises, being tiring, and also that you don't get to enjoy all the amenities of the cruise ship because you're touring so much. So far, looks like you and cm are enjoying both the best of Europe and the best of the cruise. Looking forward to more, I'm really enjoying your writing style too. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[kirian]

[quote name='crvng4mr']I subscribed from the first post you wrote! You writing style is wonderful. Yay, there are a few reviews going now for this cruise. How awesome is that? I will try in mine not to post the same pictures they see in another review so they can experience the most of it!
[/QUOTE]

Ahhhh, yes you did.... thank you for that :D It really helps to know that you aren't here all alone...lol! Regarding the pics, sometimes you just can't help it. It's part of that "camera takes control" thing :p BTW - everyone reading this, be sure to also check out crvng4mr's review of her Med-Greek Isle cruise as well... it's a great read! Here's the link [url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2067096[/url]

[quote name='EmpressofPurple']

Op, ask for double meat on the kimmelweck (a tip I picked up here). Had one on the oasis, it was delish.

Love the photos (including creepy statue in park cafe).

While I tremendously envy you this itinerary, I "worry" about port intensive med cruises, being tiring, and also that you don't get to enjoy all the amenities of the cruise ship because you're touring so much. So far, looks like you and cm are enjoying both the best of Europe and the best of the cruise. Looking forward to more, I'm really enjoying your writing style too. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[/QUOTE]

Empress, thanks for the suggestion on ordering the kimmelwick with double meat. I will definitely try that!

This cruise was pretty port intensive, but we also had some days at sea (which I love). For me, personally, I wouldn't want to do a cruise that had a port every single day. Sometimes I just enjoy being on the ship. That being said, CM and I still have yet to go on a cruise where we truly felt like we had enough time to enjoy all the things the ship had to offer... but that's going to change when we do our first TA in Sept 2015 (we have 7 port days and 7 sea days). I'm truly happy to hear you're enjoying the review :D

[kirian]

OK, so I suddenly realized you folks have no clue where we on about to embark to on this grand adventure. I suppose I could leave you hanging, but I won't.... cause I'm just nice like that :cool::D. So, this was our itinerary:

1 Nt early arrival in Barcelona
Day 1 depart from Barcelona
Day 2 Cannes, France
Day 3 Le Spezia Italy
Day 4 Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Day 5 Naples, Italy
Day 6 Sea Day (finally!)
Day 7 Venice, Italy
Day 8 Venice, Italy (we overnighted in Venice.... awesome!)
Day 9 Ravenna, Italy
Day 10 Dubrovnik, Croatia
Day 11 Sea Day
Day 12 Sea Day
Day 13 arrive in Barcelona, fly to Rome
Spent 4 nights total in Rome 9 which I will also cover in this review)

Total trip was 17 nights.... WOW!!!!!

OK, now that we have cleared that up and you know where we will be going, let's continue with Embarkation Day (yes, we're [I]still[/I] there...lol :p)

[long_shot45]

This is like the TV show "24".....It will be Christmas before we get to Rome. I love her style but she is going to lose me.

[kirian]

[quote name='long_shot45']This is like the TV show "24".....It will be Christmas before we get to Rome. I love her style but she is going to lose me.[/QUOTE]

Sorry Long_shot :( I really don't mean to keep folks waiting. I truly wish I could just sit at my computer all day and type up my review, but sadly, if I want to cruise in the future, I have to work at my "real" job as well :D

I should have the next installment up shortly. Hopefully you can hang in there with me ;)

[crvng4mr]

[quote name='kirian']Ahhhh, yes you did.... thank you for that :D It really helps to know that you aren't here all alone...lol! Regarding the pics, sometimes you just can't help it. It's part of that "camera takes control" thing :p BTW - everyone reading this, be sure to also check out crvng4mr's review of her Med-Greek Isle cruise as well... it's a great read! Here's the link [URL]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2067096[/URL]



Empress, thanks for the suggestion on ordering the kimmelwick with double meat. I will definitely try that!

This cruise was pretty port intensive, but we also had some days at sea (which I love). For me, personally, I wouldn't want to do a cruise that had a port every single day. Sometimes I just enjoy being on the ship. That being said, CM and I still have yet to go on a cruise where we truly felt like we had enough time to enjoy all the things the ship had to offer... but that's going to change when we do our first TA in Sept 2015 (we have 7 port days and 7 sea days). I'm truly happy to hear you're enjoying the review :D[/quote]

Thanks for showing my review some love!

[kirian]

So, feeling refreshed with somewhat full bellies, we decided to stroll around a bit more while waiting for our cabin to open at 1p.

They made the announcement right on time that the cabins were now available, so by 1:15p we were there and had dropped our carry-ons and headed for the helipad. We had it all to ourselves. It was so nice. I never understood why so few people ever go to the helipad. Even coming into Venice it wasn’t really crowded.

Anyway, around 2:45p we headed back to our cabin to get our Mardi Gras beads for the Sail Away party and guess what? Our luggage was there….[B]ALL[/B] of it. I was so happy it was there already and that we would be able to start unpacking as soon as we wanted. We also briefly met our cabin steward, James, but as you can imagine, he was pretty busy, so we didn’t chat long.

For those of you that have never seen an interior dungeon cabin, here you go


[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/5cxg8o.jpg[/IMG]


We also found our “free” champagne that was part of our booking promo. Obviously, people that drink wine from juice boxes are perfectly fine with this “vintage”….lol… whatever it was. We are (obviously) not picky…. Besides, after the first two glasses, it all tastes the same, right?


[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/zvdaaq.jpg[/IMG]


Here's what 3 suitcases of "stuff" looks like hung in the closet (and remember, there was "stuff" in drawers too


[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/n1w5f9.jpg[/IMG]


Now, I had never taken one of the small shoe holders for the door, but after this trip, I will never be without it again (it just made grabbing those little things you use every day so much easier (this one took up about as much space a 2 sheets of paper in my suitcase and I bought it the Dollar Store for... you guessed it... a dollar)


[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/28rrbd.jpg[/IMG]


Finally, the other little gadget I thought I would try this go around.... a little mesh shower caddy. I was really great! When you get teensy-weensy inside cabins, the showers on VERY tiny. This gave CM and I some added space without taking up much room on our luggage (again, folded it was about the thinkness of 3 sheets of paper). I got this one on Amazon for about $5 (major splurge....lol)


[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/10cj9et.jpg[/IMG]


We didn’t want to be late for the Sail Away since I had tried to play a part in setting it up for our roll call (although, truth be told, all I did was say what time and where we would all meet). As most roll calls do, we had suggested the wearing of beads to be able to spot everyone. Just in case some people didn’t have beads, CM and I made sure we wore extras to share.


[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/2e5twrl.jpg[/IMG]
(they were practically strangling me... I was glad to ditch, I mean share, some of the extras with those that didn't have any)


Next up, the Sail Away Party where we would finally get to meet all of the wonderful people we had been chatting with on our Roll Call!!!!!

[Canadian Tyler]

[quote name='kirian']Sorry Long_shot :( I really don't mean to keep folks waiting. I truly wish I could just sit at my computer all day and type up my review, but sadly, if I want to cruise in the future, I have to work at my "real" job as well :D

I should have the next installment up shortly. Hopefully you can hang in there with me ;)[/QUOTE]

I'm really enjoying your review and love long reviews that I can read over many days. It's no fun when it's over as quick as it started! You're doing a great job.


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[kirian]

[quote name='Canadian Tyler']I'm really enjoying your review and love long reviews that I can read over many days. It's no fun when it's over as quick as it started! You're doing a great job.

[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, my Neighbor-to-the-North :D I'm like you in that I enjoy the long, detailed reviews (like those by Kreuzfahrtneuling and Middle Aged Drama Queen). I know that's not everyone's style though, and that's ok. Some folks just want the down and dirty style reviews that are all said and done in 5-7 days (at most). Nothing wrong with those, but I can promise you, mine won't be in that group :cool: