Travel Blog - European Cruise

For those who just started following along, I recently re-discovered my old travel blog from my first trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. I wanted to share these entries with you, because it is amazing to look back and reminisce on that trip. [Side note - this was all before I was vegan, so if there is any confusion about that food I was eating, that's why.] Here was my fourth blog post from that trip.

August 2, 2014;

"This morning we all woke up around 7:00am. We took our time getting ready, and then went downstairs to our complementary breakfast at 8:00am. The breakfast had cereal, eggs, bacon, yogurt, fruit, toast, ham & cheese, croissants, and a few other options. The food was very good, and we were all satisfied.

After breakfast, we had two hours to spare before check-out, so we decided to walk back to St. Mark’s Square. We walked around and browsed the little shops and stands that sell souvenirs. We also walked down to the Bridge of Sighs, which we hadn’t gotten to see yesterday. Then we walked back over to the middle of the square where the pigeons are. My mom had taken some bread from our breakfast so we could feed the birds again. This time, all 4 of us did it, and all 4 of us had birds land on our heads. Luckily, they decided they didn’t have to go to the bathroom while they were up there.

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to get real Italian gelato. I have to say, it tasted exactly like American gelato, but it was still very good. I got melon and strawberry, and Rachel got mixed berries and strawberry.

We went back to our hotel, packed up all of our stuff, and checked out of the hotel at 11:00am. After check-out, we had to walk to the Rialto Bridge water-taxi stop. This is only about a 3-minute walk, but with each of us having about 50 lbs worth of bags, it got tiring very fast. We got on the water taxi, and got off at the third stop, which took about 25 minutes. When we got off the water-taxi, it was about a 5 minute walk to the cruise ship terminal. Again, it wasn’t a very far walk, but having to walk up and over a bridge with all that luggage was extremely tiring.

The check-in process for the cruise was extremely quick. We were on the ship by 12:15, about 30 minutes after we got off the water-taxi. The first thing we did was eat lunch, so we went up to the buffet area. I wasn’t too hungry, so I just got an ice cream cone while everyone else ate. After lunch, we decided to explore the ship, deck by deck. We looked at the theater, casino, restaurants, lounges, bars, pool deck, etc. When we went up to the spa, we got a free guided tour. The spa is huge, and it looks amazing. We even got a demo of what a hot rock massage would be like. When our tour was done, we went to the internet cafe and bought our wifi package, which (for a limited time) included 20 free minutes of wifi. While we were on that deck, we decided to take a look at the shore excursions for tomorrow in Dubrovnik, Croatia. We booked a 4-hour tour which includes a tour of Old Town Dubrovnik, and a wine tasting.

After that, we went to our rooms until the lifeboat drill at 5:00 pm. Rachel and I were at a different muster station than our parents. The drill was very short and fast, but one thing that is funny is that they repeat everything in 5 different languages. So, after we hear everything in English, they’ll repeat it all in 5 different languages. This includes announcements over the loud speakers, too.

When the lifeboat drill was over, we met our parents on the pool deck for the Sail-away Poolside Party. There was music, dancing, food, and drinks. When our ship set sail, we went up to the top deck. It was the most beautiful view, which went right past St. Mark’s Square. We could see the entire island of Venice.

At 7:00pm we went to dinner in the main dining room. I ordered the Wild Mushroom Soup as my appetizer, and the Grilled Garlic Shrimp as my entree. We all had wine with our meals. The food was delicious, and I’m very excited for the food for the rest of this trip.

After dinner, we went to the theater for the Welcome Aboard show. We met our cruise director, learned some information about our ship, and got a preview of the upcoming shows this week. When the show was over, we all went to Karaoke in one of the lounges. We listened to a few people, and at 11:00pm, they had a “Party like a Norwegian” Party in the same lounge. My parents didn’t stay for that. At first, Rachel and I were disappointed because it was all older adults, and the live band wasn’t that good. We haven’t seen too many people who look our age on this ship, which is the complete opposite of Carnival Cruises that we’ve been on. We sat there for awhile, and we were just about to leave when a guy came up to us and asked if he could sit with us. We had seen him earlier that day at the poolside party. His name is Frank, he’s 21, and he lives in Spain. We hung out with him for about 2 hours, and it was kind of hard to communicate with him because English isn’t his first language. We loved talking to him, though, and his English is pretty good, although we have to talk very slow when we’re speaking to him.

We were afraid that we weren’t going to meet anyone, but we’re both very happy that we did. Now, it is 4:00am and I am extremely tired, but I’m very excited to go to Dubrovnik tomorrow, and for the rest of this European adventure!"