This is our first full day of the cruise and we are relaxing at sea which after a long couple of
days of travelling is the perfect way to start the cruise.
The weather was in the high 70’s and almost crystal clear.
After breakfast and lunch and just relaxing, it was time to
the evening.
Tonight’s dress code is Evening Chic which replaces the formal
nights of several years ago.
The show tonight was a very good production show called Tree
of Life.
Then we went to dinner and Barb had Duck and Ed had Salmon
with a Tuna appetizer.
After that we made our first appearance in the casino and
found out that the entire senior management team we had met before, from the
Manager to the Pit Bosses on duty as well as several dealers.
That was really fun and we spent more time talking to them
then we played.
Finally Barb lost a little and Ed won a little and we broke
even for the evening.
Tomorrow is our fist port Katakolon, Greece. This port is the gateway to the original Olympic
site and as we have already seen the ruins, we just stay close to the ship in
the tiny port city.
Not many pictures today as we didn't do anything!!
Nite
ps - I went back and made the previous pictures larger.
We dropped off Becker at Jason and Sharon’s house and then
went to the airport to pick up our rental car for the trip to Chicago.
For the first time, we were flying Air France both going to
and returning from Europe.
The first leg was an 8-hour flight from Chicago to
Paris.While the flight was delayed just
a litter, it didn’t matter as the second leg from Paris to Rome was after a 5 hour
wait.
We went to the Air France business lounge to wait for the
plane.Their lounge was being remodeled
so we were told to go to the Swiss Air lounge which was about the smallest we
have ever been in.It was comfortable so
it was ok.
When we finally arrived at the Air France boarding counter,
we found out that we had been bumped from our 2nd flight and instead
of leaving at 2:10pm from Paris, we were going to leave at 5:00pm!!
Terrible news but at least we would get there on the day we
were supposed to
Finally we were able to board out plane for the flight to
Paris.
The seats and our seating “compartment” were amazing.We each had a 21” television, headsets, a seat
the totally reclined flat for sleeping, a blanket and even warm socks to wear!!
Air France had sent us the menu to choose our 2 dinners a
week ago and Barb had a wonderful lamb dish and Ed had seafood and they were
both very good.
The flight was fun, great service and we watched the new Top
Gun before and after dinner, before settling in for a great sleep – well Ed
slept for about 4 hours and Barb dozed.
An hour before landing they served us a wonderful breakfast
and we landed in Paris at about 8pm.
Day 2 – Tuesday, October 4
While we were fortunate to have saved miles for these
round-trip tickets, just our flight today was priced at $7,500!!There were a few couples and the majority of people
in the first-class section were male, probably business people.
So we arrived in Paris about 9:00am and went immediately to
the new Air France lounge which was a 2-story huge lounge.It had private showers and what they called
nap rooms.
This is also where we found out that Barb was not able to
use her nebulizer as they did not have any US type plugs.A very nice employee by the name of Mary
looked in all their offices for a plug converter and couldn’t find one.We had one but it wasn’t in the carry-on.
Mary walked with Ed to and electronics store where he bought
a converter.Barb is supposed to do her
breathing treatment every 6 hours and we were way past that time.The unfortunate thing was that the machine did
not work!!We figured out that the breathing
machine had failed at the worst possible time.
So, Mary and Ed went to the largest pharmacy store in the
huge Paris airport and they did not have one.
They then went the to the airport doctor’s office/medical
center and they did not have any also.
We called a couple of pharmacies in the port city we were leaving
from and found one that had the machine that we could get the next morning,
before our cruise.
Our second leg from Paris to Rome was delayed so we finally
made it to Rome by about 8pm.
The hotel we are staying at had sent a driver to pick us up
for the 45-minute trip to the port city of Civitavecchia.
We had planned to do some sight-seeing in the city the night
we arrived; however, because it was so late, we just went to bed.
The hotel we are staying in is called the Hotel Borgo del
Mare in Civitavecchia, Italy and it was cute boutique type of hotel.Very clean, small rooms and a very friendly
staff.We ate dinner at about 10:00pm
and then went right to sleep.
Day 3 – Wednesday, October 5
The good news was that the pharmacy that Ed went to first
thing in the morning was only about a 20-minute walk.There are no Ubers in this city.
They had a machine to purchase so Barb was able to do her
breathing treatment before we left for the ship via the hotel shuttle.
The ship is the Celebrity Apex which is the same ship we
sailed on for this New Year’s Eve and we will also be sailing her this coming New
Year’s.It is the 2nd newest
ship in the Celebrity Fleet and it is very nice.
We arrived at 11:15am, It took basically an hour to walk
right on the ship, go to our room, unpack our carry-ons and go to eat lunch outside
on the back of the ship, our favorite lunch spot while cruising.
The show tonight featured a comic by the name of Ralph
Harris and he was good.
Then we went to our restaurant called Blu and had a
delightful meal with Barb having Duck and Ed having Salmon
We sat with a couple from England who were fun and
interesting to talk to.
After dinner, we were still very, very tired from the tiring
trip so we decided to go to bed.Also we
have to set the time ahead one hour because we are heading for Greece.
Night from our first day on the ship.
Even so, it was midnight before we were in bed.
Night from our first night on the ship and this trip is a
12-night journey and it should be fun and thanks for reading out blog.
The pictures are not in the correct order but since we have limited minuites, they will have to be this way.
