I’m back!! My Jewel of the Seas Greek Isles Travel Blog Round 2

[singinalot]

did that meal ruin our day? not even a little bit not even at all...in fact the best was yet to come.

 

we took a taxi back to port for 35 euro and back on board at 4pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[singinalot]

remember on our Crete day when I mentioned we met a lovely couple from AU, Aaron and Tracy? Well we had exchanged instagram info and all week had been trying to meet up for a drink.

When we got back on the ship we went up to deck 12 to take in the views, and they happened to be up there sitting with a large group. They invited us to join and we did. We all laughed and enjoyed stories together until 6:30! We decided we were the new UN...such a eclectic group of us: Americans, Aussies, Brits, and a couple folks from Dubai! I think one of the things I love so much about cruising is that everyone is there for the same purpose...and it makes it easier to talk or even not talk to people. We’ve met so many wonderful people over the years.

Nate and I had 3 Miami Vice each.












We enjoyed each other’s company so much we decided to do formal night dinner together and made plans to meet back outside Tides at 8:15.


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[singinalot]

I keep calling it formal night [emoji85] old habits die hard.







don’t mind the messy room...did I mention we missed having a balcony cabin???



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[singinalot]

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[singinalot]

That night we set the clocks back an hour

I’ll upload the Athens vlog today.

Next up our final sea day and the crowning glory of this trip: our excursion day to the Amalfi Coast.



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[singinalot]

I'm kind of proud of how this one turned out!

 

[Sobro]

Thank you so much for this prenuptial trip review. It's making me want to cruise the Med even more.

 

I do have to laugh at your All Health Data reports because your height changes every time.

[singinalot]

Thank you so much for this prenuptial trip review. It's making me want to cruise the Med even more.
 
I do have to laugh at your All Health Data reports because your height changes every time.

isn’t that weird? the app did an update halfway through the cruise and I’m guessing it had some kind of bug to iron out


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[singinalot]

The following day was a sea day and we slept til 9. Both of us sick from something we ate yesterday...we’re guessing the gyros since that’s the only thing we ate that was the same.
We went up for breakfast n WJ was packed! We ate out back with a breeze n small mist in the air. I took 2 notion sickness pills JIC.

look y’all! i switched it up n got pancakes instead of waffles!


you can barely tell but there were a lot of waves




I went to look at pics in pixels...so busy!!!! will go back later. We walked outside on deck 5. very very windy and tried to go up to the helipad on deck 6 but wind was so powerful we decided not to risk it.
The remainder of my notes for the day:
I sat on pool deck reading while Nate napped. I watched the line dance class until it started raining. got lunch in the solarium...bbq chicken pizza n mozzarella sandwiches...neither were great
wifi barely working today
second lunch at WJ. sat outside and Roger and Lisa came out (the folks from cleveland that we shared our shuttle ride with)...talked to them for quite some time n came back to the room at 4 to find luggage tags and debark instructions.

We went to the casino around 4:15. I lost another $60 for $100 total on the cruise.











After the casino we went back to the room and got ready for dinner


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[Domino D]

7 hours ago, singinalot said:

it was a 10 minute walk from the palace to the stadium. Directly across the street from the stadium are WCs...Given the look of the outside we thought they’d be nice...I didn’t use but Nate said it was one of the worst he’d been in (remember he used the hole in the floor in Crete).



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Public Restrooms was the biggest surprise we had in Europe.  I'm sure it is discussed in blogs, but I had no idea until we got there.  1. You better have a few Euros cause you're gonna have to pay.  2. Toilet seats are not necessarily going to be on the toilets.  3. The cleaning lady doesn't care that you are going to the bathroom here.  4. Just because you're paying doesn't mean they will always be clean and maintained.  5. The Outside does not match the inside.  Santorini, crappy little building in the corner of the bus lot near Oia, cleanest public bathroom of the trip.  I used the restroom at 2 train stations, and would have preferred a hole in the ground.

[silkismom]

When we lived in Europe, wwwaaaayyyy back, we used to go to McDonalds for the bathroom, free & clean.

[singinalot]

 
Public Restrooms was the biggest surprise we had in Europe.  I'm sure it is discussed in blogs, but I had no idea until we got there.  1. You better have a few Euros cause you're gonna have to pay.  2. Toilet seats are not necessarily going to be on the toilets.  3. The cleaning lady doesn't care that you are going to the bathroom here.  4. Just because you're paying doesn't mean they will always be clean and maintained.  5. The Outside does not match the inside.  Santorini, crappy little building in the corner of the bus lot near Oia, cleanest public bathroom of the trip.  I used the restroom at 2 train stations, and would have preferred a hole in the ground.

I couldn’t have said this any better! Most of the time I tried to hold it for the ship.

When we lived in Europe, wwwaaaayyyy back, we used to go to McDonalds for the bathroom, free & clean.

ooohhhh that’s a great idea


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[Domino D]

1 hour ago, silkismom said:

When we lived in Europe, wwwaaaayyyy back, we used to go to McDonalds for the bathroom, free & clean.

Yes, who would have thought, McDonalds is the bathroom of choice. 

[singinalot]

We followed dinner with a stroll on deck 13 and watched as we sailed between Sicily and Italy. That night we were in bed by 9!




sadly the gnocchi was not good...food is subjective I know










this surprised me with it being such a lazy day:



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[Domino D]

4 hours ago, singinalot said:

The remainder of my notes for the day:
I sat on pool deck reading while Nate napped. I watched the line dance class until it started raining. got lunch in the solarium...bbq chicken pizza n mozzarella sandwiches...neither were great

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The main dining room servers on the Jewel were awesome and we had great tables around us.  The food however, was MEH.  It wasn't bad but we never had anything great.

[singinalot]

The last port day we awoke in Naples. I had been emailing with Carmine since October 2018...so an entire year of anticipation went into this day.


Do you know how much the ship wanted for this type of private excursion? It was insane.


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[singinalot]

We love Rick Steves and in his book he recommended Carmine. I had initially looked him up for our 2018 cruise but had decided on pompeii in the end...
When we booked this cruise this was the first thing I did...reach out to Carmine. I wanted to see this Amalfi Coast I hear so much about.
The excursion included the towns of: Ravello, Amalfi and Positano for 8.5 hours.

And 300 euros for it to be private???? Spoiler Alert: Nate and I both said it was worth so much more at the end of the day.

breakfast...shocking I know











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[singinalot]

ohhhh before I keep going...I mentioned I went to Pixels...I bought one photo...for $24! [emoji85]



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[rhuntington3]

Beautiful couple!

[singinalot]

love this photo


As we waited for debarkation to open we stood in line talking with OB and Brenda whom we had met earlier in the cruise. They were off for a day in Capri. When we saw them again the next morning they said it was packed and not as enjoyable as they hoped.

We made our way off the ship as soon as they opened the plank


looking back at the ship and from whence we came



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[singinalot]

We met our guide, Anna, (I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t Carmine himself, but hang in there!), and our guide, Chiro, exactly where I was instructed to go: directly outside the port at 8am. We were escorted for the day in a nice BMW.

According to Anna there were 7 ships in port today and it was going to be busy!

Here we go!!! Nate has no idea what’s coming...only that I’ve been excited and the few pictures I’ve shown in him on Instagram










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[singinalot]

We headed into the Milky Mountains. Anna was a wonderful guide...let us soak everything in without talking so much that we couldn’t just be in awed silence.
They’re called the Milky Mountains because they have a lot of goats and cows that give a lot of their dairy products.
Anna told us that she speaks 4 languages and all of the different dialects of italian...each region has its own dialect. She’s going to school for foreign relations. She will do great! I find it fascinating that most everyone we meet in Italy or Greece spoke at least 2 languages. I don’t feel that’s quite as common here.
Anna told us she does this excursion almost every day and doesn’t get sick of it. I can imagine!

We pulled over at an overlook to take some pictures




We continued on towards the town of Ravello.



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[singinalot]

The view from the “parking lot” Chiro dropped us off at...It’s really 3 parking spots in the middle of a hill. There is a WC there also.




We had an hour to spend in Ravello as we pleased. Anna gave me her what’s app info to contact her should we need to.







this was interesting...prior to taking this photo we watched a tiny little cart come down the track. I wish I would have gotten that shot. Cutest!





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[singinalot]

There’s no other word for me for Ravello other than quaint. It was so peaceful!








After 45 minutes we decided to message Anna for them to come pick us up. If we had gone inside the Villa there we would have needed more time but we opted not to.

https://www.ravello.com/attractions/villa-rufolo/

When we got in the car Anna asked us if we wanted more time at either Amalfi or Positano and we said Positano for sure.



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[lola2013]

Third photo down in the recent post...found AMAZING gelato in the shop to the right of "Bric A Brac"...thanks for taking me back!