Day 3 (Mykonos)

Mykonos was our first port of call. However, we did not dock on the port until around 1pm. So we lounged around the ship and ate lunch before exploring the city. In the morning, we were invited to a honeymoon/anniversary celebration from the cruise. It was simple.....champagne and cake, music and dancing.

Mykonos is one of the Greek Islands in the Mediterranean Ocean. In Mykonos, we did not book an onshore excursion (tour) It's a smaller city and we figured we would be able to walk around by ourselves and explore. After taking a shuttle bus from the port to the edge of the city, we were welcomed by a beautiful coastline of white houses with blue doors and staircases......just like you see in movies!

We explored the city and walked through the tiny uphilled streets. It is a pedestrian city; meaning there are no cars within the city. It makes sense though. It would be impossible to drive in the tiny, paved and sloped roads. But I can't imagine walking these streets every day!

Tiny, uphilled streets

The cat is waiting for the birds!

The most famous landmark of Mykonos is the old style windmills on top of a hill. They were quite an impressive site to see when you first turn around the corner. There are several windmills around the island of Mykonos (it is a very windy place), but these are the most famous ones.

Since we were at our leisure, we took our time to walk around the city. We climbed up to a high area to get a very nice view of the city and the beach.

Another windmill on top of a hill. If you look in the background, those are the windmills we were at before.

Mykonos is a beautiful city with gorgeous scenery. It was very enjoyable just to walk around. 

One of the beaches in Mykonos

The ship was scheduled to leave around that night, so we returned to the ship, jumped in the pool to cool off and got ready for dinner.

And my dinner that night?:

Chilled Maine Lobster Salad with Lemon Herbed Aioli, topped with Caviar

Creamy Spiced Parsnip Soup with Carmelized Apples, Fried Shallots and Duck Confit

Carbernet Braised Short Ribs

Chocolate Crouton Cake with Carmel

Day 2 (Day 1 at Sea)

From Rome we sailed to Mykonos. However, it was a long ride over (821 nautical miles) so we had a day at sea.

We crossed the Strait of Messina.....which is the little path of water in the foot of the boot; between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy:

"X" marks the spot!

Strait of Messina

There were many activities to do on the ship.

One of our favorite thing to attend was a Hot Glass Show. Yes.....the ship had a hot glass stage set up. There are 3 people who are sent over by Corning Museum of Glass to put on shows and educate the general public about glass and glass making. They are a non profit organization, so they are there purely for education and not to sell things. We attended many of their shows. It was very cool to watch. You would watch this molten liquid turn into a beautiful vase or bowl. The people who did the show were also very funny and entertaining.

Dan with his starter bubble

Jamie adding a blown foot

Almost done!

 The night was also formal night. So we got dressed up for dinner!

Us in Blu

And what did I eat for formal night??:

Pan Fried Macadamia Crusted Sea Scallops with a Pink Grapefruit Emulsion

California Blue Crab Bisque with Caviar and Scallions

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

I forgot to take a picture of dessert that night, but I think I got a pecan honey icecream or something like that. Delicious!

Day One (kind of)

For the first day of our cruise, we had to fly from Paris to Rome. We got up at 5:30am that morning to catch our flight. Boy it was early! The flight was all on time and smooth. The problem was the train to the port once we got into Rome. Oy! We waited an hour and a half before a train showed up. The signs kept on saying that the train arriving at....10:30am is half an hour late....ok.....it's 10:50am now.....it should be 10 minutes away. "The training arriving at....10:30am is now 40 minutes late" And it kept added up more and more. We would have gotten a cab, but I'm sure the cab ride would have been at least 90€ to the port. Between this trip and last trip to Rome......Roman public transportation has definitely left a bad impression!

When we finally caught the train, it was about an hour to get to the station closest to the port. It started pouring! We were completely wet and we still had to walk to the port. From the entrance of the port to ship it was a bit of a walk too. They have shuttle buses, but everything was in Italian! And honestly....we were tired of waiting for transportation so we decided to walk.......and got even more wet. The ship was soooo far! Luckily a shuttle bus passed by and picked us up about half way through.

After our journey there, it was very nice to finally rest and enjoy our honeymoon. We boarded the ship welcomed by champange and dry towels. Our room was ready right away, so we were able to change and dry off. By now it's 3pm and we haven't eaten so the first thing we did was go to the lunch buffet. From there, everything was wonderful.

For dinner, we had (every night) an appetizer, a soup or salad, an entree, and a dessert. Our meal the first night:

Germain's cheese soufflet appetizer

My appetizer: chilled saefood napoleon with a saffron vinaigrette

Chilled avacado and lemon soup with poached shimp

Filet Mignon

Strawberry basket dessert

And since we got up so early that morning, we called it an early night after dinner.

We're back!

And we had quite a trip! The boat we went on was absolutely amazing.
 

The boat was beautiful. It is a bigger ship with a lot to see.

We first dropped off our luggage in our room before exploring. We booked an aqua class room. It has a veranda and it allows us access to a special exclusive restaurant as well as special areas in the spa. We also got automatically put in a handicapped room (we paid a cheaper price and didn't get to select our room, but in the end we got a pretty nice room) It was towards the front half of the ship so it wasn't too shaky and it was a third bigger than the normal rooms. Not too bad for a room on a boat.

There was a lot to see on the boat, but they don't always come out as impressive in pictures. But here are some areas in the ship.

Useless but one of my favorite rooms. I thought the lights and installation looked really cool!

The lounge

The Ice Bar

The Lawn. Yes there is live grass on this ship!

The grand foyer

Fun chairs in the club

The Library

A tree! Yes I think it's real!

For dinner, we dined the whole week at a restaurant called Blu. It's a smaller dining area then the general restaurant. We had open seating so we didnt' have to go at a set time (unlike the other one), there were more tables for just two people (so we never had to share a table with other people) and the staff was just absolutely wonderful. Really nice, attentive and happy. And it's not like they're working for gratuities. Because it's open seating, we may get a different waitor every night.

The outside of the restaurant

The rose sculpture on the wall

The night light scene of the boat was really nice too.

The jumping water in the Solarium

One of the dance floors

The outdoor pool

The theatre

Well......that's the ship in a nutshell. Of course, there are a lot more to the boat that I didn't get good pictures of so you won't be seeing those, but it really was a beautiful ship. Definitely recommend this company.

Stay tuned for more about each day and each port of our trip! Many more beautiful pictures to come!

And Vacation Continues.....

Tomorrow, Germain and I will be heading out for our belated Honeymoon. I know, I know.....we took a lot of little trips in between, but this is the one we planned for from the beginning.

We will be heading to Rome by plane early tomorrow morning to board a cruise from there. It is an 11 day cruise in the Mediterranean Sea on the Celebrity Equinox. We will be visiting cities in Italy, Greece and Turkey. The following is our itinerary:

Stay tuned for pictures and ramblings!