Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2: O Canada Edition Days 1 and 2 (9/8 and 9/9)

Where We Manage To Board The Ship Without Incident

And Spend A Splendid Day In Penobscot Bay

Day 1 was pretty easy.

The only confusion we had was when we arrived at the specified parking lot for the cruise port. There were no signs telling us where to go or what to do, only a machine that wanted to charge us money for something we had already paid.

Eventually a guy (who’s native language is so obviously not English) who sort of pointed us here and there to park. Fortunately, the ship’s shuttle showed up a few minutes later and we were on our way.

Possibly one of the smoothest cruise check-ins ever, with not one hitch and no more than a minute wait any step along the way. We had been warned by the cruise line NOT to show up before our allotted time or we would be turned away. I seriously doubt that would have happened. But our timing was perfect – we arrived exactly at 2:00 anyway.

After boarding, we dropped off our stuff in our room, then grabbed something to eat at the buffet.

Our bags showed up around 4:30 or 5:00. We started unpacking, which is when we noticed this room has almost no storage – 5 drawers to be shared by two people for 11 nights.

At dinner we met our table mates. When I made the reservation back in March, Celebrity gave me two options: 6:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., so I picked 6:00 p.m. I had no idea this meant we were assigned a table with the same people for the duration of the cruise. We haven’t seen this since our very first cruise in 1980. The deck 4 restaurant is assigned seating. Deck 5 is for “come whenever” seating. If I had been given that option, that’s what I would have picked.

Good news: the people at our table are very nice, and I’m sure it’ll be fine to eat with them. It’s just…odd.

For a first day, it was pretty good. Not nearly as crazy as the first day on the NCL ship in May; of course there a far fewer people and a much smaller ship.

Day 2 Rockland, Maine

Late yesterday afternoon, we visited the Customer Service desk, which was actually very helpful. We upgrade our wifi package so as to make it useful (this was not clear when I bought the package online a few months ago). And we also asked if we could request to sit at or near the front of the bus for all of our Celebrity booked excursions.

This morning we tested this process. And it worked! It was an entertaining challenge to toddle down the steps of the gangway to the tender boat (a/k/a life boat), but I was able to do it and also climb into the tender. This is the second time we’ve seen steps to a tender gangway – the last time being on the NCL ship last may.

When we arrived at the Rockland tender dock, we had a little bit of a wait for our bus to arrive. And when it did arrive, our stateroom number was on the front seat! Yay!

It was an absolutely perfect weather day – clear skies and temps in the low 70s. We had a scenic drive up to Mt Battie, where we had a panoramic view of Penobscot Bay:

Andy wandered around a bit to a nearby tower:

After 20 minutes of beautiful scenery, we got back on the bus and drove to Camden. We bought a couple of sandwiches for lunch before we made our way to the bay to board the schooner that would take us on a two-hour sail.

The Appledore is a schooner with two masts. We were 46 passengers in total – we had no problem finding a seat. We saw the captain and two crew members; apparently there are more crew members around, but we didn’t see them.

We sailed for 2 hours in the glorious sunshine!

Crew members managing the sails. Passengers were recruited to “help” raise them.

This is the lighthouse that is on the Red Lobster logo

Once we were out into the bay, you could ask to “drive” the boat. This was Andy’s turn. I wondered why the boat was doing weird things….

It was a fantastic afternoon! I just wish I had remembered to bring my sunglasses and visor. The sun was super strong!

Random side note: this morning we realized this was the first time either one of us has been in Maine.

We’re off to dinner soon, followed by the evening’s entertainment.

So far, so good!

Tomorrow: Halifax (and I think a time change to Atlantic Time)

Day 11 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1 – Cannes

Another “Day at sea in port” + Cannes + Nice and Eze

I opted for a second day on board ship. We had received a notice that there were steps involved to board the tender. Since I’ve been to Cannes a couple of times before, I was fine with staying on board. I found a good spot in the empty cafe, caught up on blogs, and the servers brought me an endless supply of club soda.

Meanwhile, Susie, Janet, and Stefania went ashore. They had a marvelous lunch. That’s their photobombing server.

Then they went on the little train that goes around Cannes. The film festival is alive and well, and generating traffic.

Andy spent the day on an excursion to Nice and Eze. First he had lunch. This I wish I had been there for.

Driving through Nice, the tour guide pointed out a glimpse of Elton John’s house perched on the mountain.

The arrow is pointing to Elton John’s house

Walking around, he saw some interesting statues.

Inside the Cathedral of Sainte Marie Sainte-Reparate

And, of course, the beach:

I loved Eze the last time we were here. It is crunched into the mountainside. Lots of steps. Lots.

And lots of art everywhere.

The obligatory church photo.

The view from Eze is marvelous.

A view of Eze on the way down the mountain. The square pinkish building is the church. Behind it is an old fort destroyed by Louis XIV in the 15th century.

On the way back from Eze, the tour stopped at a perfume factory. I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am I missed this. I’m allergic to most fragrances (to put it mildly). I would have had to stay outside.

The last tender was supposed to be at 3:00 p.m., but Andy’s tour was running late. This is the advantage of booking a tour through the ship – the ship had to wait and provide the tender.

Tomorrow: Palma de Majorca. I will be back on the trail. We’re supposed to have a private tour starting at 1:00 p.m., but as of dinnertime, Janet hadn’t heard a confirmation. We figure the worst case scenario, we take the shuttle into town to have lunch and go shopping.

Since WordPress tends to use the last photo in the blog as the cover photo, so I’m repeating this here, because I think it’s a better cover photo than the one just above.

Days 3 & 4 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Where We Reluctantly Leave Venice, And Venice Is So Sad To See Us Go, It Cries Buckets Of Tears

That Is: It Rained. A LOT.

AND

Port 1 – Split, Croatia

I’m combining Days 3 and 4 into one post in an attempt to catch up.

Day 3 – Transfer to the ship

Thursday, May 16 – Departure Day. I don’t think any of us really were ready to leave Venice, but alas, it was time to transfer to the ship and begin the actual cruise.

I had booked a driver through Day Trip – I really like this company. They sent me constant updates as to who our driver was, passed along the request for some mechanism to help us climb into the Mercedes mini-vans (they are ubiquitous here in Europe – if you’ve ever seen one, these vans have a very high step up into the car.

Our assigned driver, Boren, also did a great job of keeping me informed. He even sent me a photo of the step-apparatus that he concocted to help us climb into the van. Is this not amazing?

Apparently he was bringing passengers from our ship (docked in Trieste) *to* Venice, before he picks us up to take us *to* the ship. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, it was pouring out. Mix that in with the usual traffic around Venice, and Boren ended up being almost an hour late.

Another challenge was that he was not allowed to park in front of our hotel, so he spent extra time looking for a parking spot. When he finally found one, it was across the street in a different parking lot. Andy went out to find him and noticed the sea of black Mercedes mini-vans, making it a fun game to pick out exactly the right one.

Fortunately, a hotel staff member told Boren to bring the van up to the front of the hotel. And so he did. We Tetris-ed ourselves and our luggage into the van, and off we went!

The Italian Country Side As We Zipped By

Boren was fabulous – we made it to the ship in Trieste in about 90 minutes instead of 2 hours. I had requested assistance at the cruise port, so as we were saying goodbye to Boren, cruise ship people swarmed in and loaded our luggage onto carts. Thanks to the assistance, we were able to bypass the Very Long Line that snaked its way into the cruise terminal.

Look at the size of this ship! For sure the biggest one we’ve ever been on:

View of Trieste From The Path To The Ship

Even though Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) sent us FOUR separate emails to watch the 90 second safety video, we were required to go to our muster station and check in. It is not clear how we’re supposed to know where our muster station is from the code on our key cards.

THERE ARE *A LOT* OF PEOPLE ON THIS SHIP. AND THEY ARE VERY NOISY. DOESN’T HELP THAT THERE WAS A BAND PLAYING IN THE ATRIUM AS WE MADE OUR WAY TO OUR STATEROOM.

Oh, my apologies for shouting, but, yep there’s a whole lot of people on this ship. The elevators were jammed; it took a few tries to get into an elevator to go to our floor. After we plopped our stuff in our stateroom (which is very nice and roomy for a cruise ship), we made our way to the O’Sheean’s Bar (get it? Oh-shee-an? Ocean?) to meet with our group and finally have lunch at 3:00 p.m. The bar was even louder than the general hallways, but we were in a good spot – in a booth by the window, so there was no one near us. After lunch we dispersed to unpack.

I think all of us had oddball things wrong – in our room, the towel bar fell off on one end and I was missing one of my NCL excursion tickets. Susie’s room had (still has) a broken closet door. Stefania was missing ALL of her excursion tickets. All of us were missing the same ticket – the accessible excursion for Florence. Oddball things, really, but annoying.

We met up for dinner at the Manhattan room – one of the “complimentary” dining rooms, meaning – it’s included in your fare. Or most of it is – we noticed that the included options were limited (and a little boring), so if you wanted a filet mignon: $25 extra, please!

I ordered chicken piccata. Andy ordered the strip steak (included). Neither of us were impressed with the meal.

Good news! Our stateroom was very quiet all night, even with the huge storm outside.

Day 4 – Split, Croatia

The group was split for Split. {Pun intended}.

The women were on an “easy” bus tour to Trogir (a town about an hour from Split), and the men were on a tour of Split itself. Our excursion left at 7:30 a.m. – which meant we were up at Oh-Dark-Thirty. Considering the elevators are in a perpetual rush-hour state, there really wasn’t enough time to go up to deck 16, have breakfast, and make it back down in time.

Plus, yesterday, Andy went to the Excursions Desk to ask if they could reserve a front seat (or near the front) on the buses for our NCL excursions. Unfortunately, that did not work. There was no reserved seat.

The day was off to a rocky start.

Fortunately, the woman who was sitting in the front seat was by herself, and she invited me to sit with her.

Our tour guide for Trogir (pronounced troe-jir (I think)) was wonderful. He promised that the walks from the bus would be short and that he would walk very slowly. Typically when I hear this, I know it’s all from the POV of a tall young man. But he was indeed correct – it was less than 1/3 of a mile from the bus to the Trogir town square, and he did indeed walk very slowly, such that I had no problem keeping up with him.

Trogir is a scenic and ancient little town.

A part of the tour group opted to follow the tour guide to the other side of town. We opted to stay and have some breakfast. I had the most amazing chocolate croissant! It was relaxing to sit in the square in the beautiful weather and eat delicious food!

Eventually we made our way back to the bus. The next stop was a mill where we were going to have a snack of local traditional foods and wines. Apparently the constant winds are great for producing excellent prosciutto. The snack consisted of cheese, prosciutto, olives, bread, and two different wines. I had some cheese and bread, but the ham, olives, and wine I left to everyone else.

Soon we were on our way back to the port. It was only 12:30 – a long day already. There was much discussion about going back into Split, but it was a long walk to the taxi stand to take a taxi into town; then we’d have to reverse the process. Lunch and lounging sounded better.

Andy and I have a strong memory from when we were in Split in 2010? 2011? That the ship was docked right up close and personal to the town. Maybe it was a smaller ship?

Andy and Tom took a different excursion that included a walking tour of Split.

I will come back and add a caption when I find out what this is

I’m guessing this is a city/fortress/castle wall

Split is a beautiful city. The citizens are very proud of what they have accomplished – many olympic and professional athletes have come from Split. Probably an attributing feature: people from Split are ridiculously tall.

I’m going to finish this up for now before we go to dinner. I’m going to leave this here:

Tomorrow: Dubrovnik (a new-to-us city)