Ciao Palermo

Today we docked in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. I was up and watched us come into port. It was cool to see all the buildings and the city as we were at sea yesterday.

Today we were going to do a walking tour out of frommers with The Mcdonnell clan…but somebody overslept (not me). So Taylor and I headed out about 9am to explore Palermo. First (for all you future cruisers) be prepared for the bombarding that happens with the taxi drivers. If you do choose to take a taxi really bargain them down. I heard people say they paid between 100-150 for up to 5 people for a taxi ride all around town and down to monreale or mondello beach.
If you successfully make it through the taxi drivers, you will get bombarded next with the horse and carriage drivers. Again, bargain..if you just walk away they will keep lowering the price. My daughter was bugging me to do it and it was hot at 9am, so we hired a horse carriage for 30 euro to take us around.

The driver spoke Italian, and a little Spanish but no English..except the words, wait lady and I give you lower price. BUT he was entertaining. After we got in his carriage, he proceeded to give the other carriage drivers a hard time for not getting us and he was knew everyone. It was a little scary cause there are A LOT of cars, busses and scooters/motorcycles and they could give a rats butt who was in there way, they just needed to move. We rode around for about 1 ½ hours and then he dropped us off at the ship. Taylor immediately wanted to go back to kids club and I was fine with that. I dropped her off and then headed back out to the city to wander around.


About noon, as I was sweating like a pig, I headed back to the ship and picked up taylor and we spent the whole afternoon at the pool. It was nice being in port at the pool. Everyone was gone. Taylor played with some kids she met at kids club and I read and talked with my neighbors. Carolmb was by on her way to spa with her husband. I ran into him later and he said the couples spa was excellent. He looked refreshed.
They had a sail away party for Palermo. The kids had a good time at that.
I met my poolside neighbor, Sandy, and we discovered that we were doing the same “on our own” excursion tomorrow. So we’re trying it again with new people. We are meeting at topsiders for breakfast and then heading out to catch the train to Pompeii. Let’s hope we all wake up on time tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

1st sea day

Ok...need to get some stuff out of the way...

Danielle..Jack and Andrea say hi and they miss you and love you. They were suprised when I said "hi" from you...a very happy suprise!

Susie and Robert..Rachel totally remembers you and says congrats on the new baby. I am a dork and left the picture at home, but she said she might see you on the mexico trip and if she's there can't wait to see lily.

Ok, now onto the important stuff...

So today was the first of 3 sea days. I had to wake taylor up AGAIN..this kid is really sleeping! I had a group bruch today at Palo's and I wish I had brought my camera. It was incredible. They had so many amazing things to eat. Basically, I woke taylor up, took her to breakfast and then dropped her off at kids club and went to brunch. We ended brunch a little after noon and I stopped by to see if taylor wanted to leave and of course, she didn't. So off I went to the DVC member thank you party. We could only stay 1/2 hour as I had another event planned, but they gave us some cool hats and another magnet for the door.
After the DVC meeting, we went to "secret deck 7" for a gift exchange. Everyone thought of some really cool things to give to each other as a memento of all of our new friends.
After that....we had a meet and greet in the Roy Suite. The Roy Suite is one of two category 1 suites. It was beautiful. I toured all around and we had some wine and snacks and met some more people.
THEN..yes it didn't stop there....I picked up taylor and we went to a Frog game.

Taylor placed second...she wasn't happy with her ribbon, but it's all in good fun!
We went up to the pool and she had a swim in the mickey pool and then decided to go back to kids club until the Golden Mickey Show.


And what a show..it was very cute, but the best part, was watching Taylors reaction to everything!
We then went up to get ready for dinner in our "Formal Wear" and head down to the Captain's reception.



We met the captain..sorry can't remember his name.

We then headed over to Parrot Cay (the P in APL) We met up with our table mates, Marie and her son Jeff and had a lovely dinner. Much smoother tonight and the food! They had a pate that was soooo good and then Marie and I had respectively, Sea Bass and Stuffed Chicken and split a steak...now we didn't eat all of it but as most of you know, thats the best part of a cruise, you can try everything and if you can't finish it's totally OK!


This is our table with our lovely waitperson Louise. She has been great after I had a rough time yesterday with the lateness, tonights meal was smooth and we were done by 10pm...a huge difference from yesterday...oh and I had the golden mickey tonight..and susie and robert you were right it was fantastic!

Taylor, of course, went straight back to kids club and Marie and I met up with Jack, Andrea and Wendy for the ventriloquist..the "adult" show. He was funny, but it wasn't that raunchy..kinda went the brokeback way!

Now, it's bed time. Taylors all tucked in. We have to get up at 8am tomorrow to get ready for our palermo day. We are doing an on our own walking tour out of the Frommers Guide Book and jmcdonnell and family are joining us.

oops...

Ok, here's the picture. I didn't notice it didn't load last night.

I am wearing my "medhead" t-shirt so that our dismeet group could recognize each other.

BTW...thanks stacey, dan and david! It will put to good use!

It's sunday morning..Time to get moving on this sea day.

Post more later

Day 3...

Well, we started day 3 late. Taylor slept in until 10am. I had to wake her up and remind her we were boarding the ship today. The princess finally got her act together and we packed up and headed for Mickey. It looked much closer than it really was….we started walking to the port which was 3 blocks away but we reached a point where I knew we could not walk anymore. Hailed a cab and 10 euros later we were at the ship. It took all I had not to cry as we entered. It wasn’t very busy so were sailed through the check in. Then we had to wait to board. We weren’t waiting alone. Purtypat, Worktoplay, also and many other dissers were there too.
We saw Mickey and took the following picture…bad picture of mommy but whatever and then boarded the ship….


OH MY GOODNESS…it is beautiful. We immediately went to Palo’s to secure dinner reservations. 2 nights for mom and her new friends! Waitlisted for tea, but that’s ok. Then off to add some spa services and changed our seating to sit with Marie and her son Jeff. We have the APL rotation for those of you in the know…They didn’t have a show tonight, but said they would next time.
After we secured everything it was time for lunch with other disfriends. We met a lot of nice people at lunch and saw them throughout the day.
Taylor hooked up with Jasmine again and off they went to the kids club. So any chance of leaving the ship to explore the rest of Barcelona ended.
I spent my alone time delivering magnets and unpacking while taylor played in kids club. Then we took the girls swimming and went to the lifeboat drill. We missed the show as I had a spa reservation. To be honest, I didn’t know there was a show. I need to start reading my Navigators better.

After spa time, I picked up taylor and we went to dinner. For all of you reading for future cruises if you want to make the Sail Away party, tell your waiter/ess in advance. We didn’t get our actual meal until 9:50pm! Needless to say I rushed through and raced up to deck 9. It was a fun party and we ran into more dissers there.

After the party, taylor and Jasmine went back to kids club and Jasmines mom, wendy, carol and I went to rockin d bar or rockin bar d..whatever to the adult party. There were few of us there, so I participated AND WON 2 games!

Cool prizes and lot's of fun. Smilin jack and his wife andrea were there, they were a riot!

Then I picked up Taylor and she's asleep as I blog.

Tomorrow we have a full day scheduled. Here's the lowdown....
10:30 brunch for mom at palo's with dis friends
1:00 DVC Member welcome
1:30 Gift Meet
3:00 Meet and greet in the Roy Suite ..thanks leilani

I am sure there is more, I just have to read that navigator!

1st full day in Barcelona

Our first day..and boy did we get an early start! We both woke up at 3am (6pm cali time) and could not go back to sleep. At 430 we gave up and took showers. We decided to get the early train so we got the 6:30 train and arrived at 8am at Montserrat.





It was a beautiful and spiritual monestary. Since we were all alone, except for a few employees and some other (3) visitors, we were able to see it all w/o lines or crowds.
We headed down at 9am and went straight to the chocolate museum. It wasn't all we thought it would be but the following picture (of which is 100% chocolate) was cool!

We were then very tired so we headed back to our hotel for a quick swim and some down time. Thats all taylor needed was a little cold water pool. She was ready to go!
So we left and metro'd over to La Sagrada Familia. WHAT A SIGHT! I can only say it was overwhelming. Amazing and beautiful. I was suprised to hear my daughter ask if we could go inside. To which I promptly bought tickets and we walked around the construction. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it justice. BUT we thought this was funny.

Yes, that's a real pigeon.

We then headed to Las Ramblas and walked from plaza catalunya to the port and back. All the while looking for the Gaudi home, which of course was in a different part of town! Oh well...maybe we'll get there tomorrow.
We saw some amazing street performers. Taylor thought they were cool, but she was scared to go up to them and give them money. It was quite amusing to me!

We wasted time before dinner by looking in stores, of couse taylor made out like a bandit with a new shirt and shoes, but she didn't get the soccer ball she really wanted...now how am I supposed to get that home!

Then we met some of our dis friends for dinner. It was great to put faces with names and taylor promptly has a new "best friend" for the cruise, Jasmine. She and jasmine hit it right off...I have dubbed them the terrible twosome, and Jasmine and her mother wendy decided to join us for a short trip to plaza espana for the magic waterfalls....unfortunately there is a car show at the plaza so no waterfalls available for us.

We got back to our room around 11pm. Taylor has fallen fast asleep and I am waiting for my tylenol pm to kick in...
We can see the port from the balcony upstairs and I thought I saw the magic out in the med. What other company could have a red/black and yellow ship??? Although, they are not supposed to arrive until 5am so who knows.

Tomorrow we board the cruise. We are both very excited. I will try to keep up daily. Ask any questions you want.

PS...the metro and I have made friends. It is fantastic system for touring around...not so much when you have luggage. I feel like an old pro on it now!

cya

Exhausted, but here!

We made it to barcelona. Our flight from london was an hour delayed and navigating the metro system...don't these people believe in elevators or escalators...carrying luggage...what a pain.
So we go to hotel around 8pm about 2 hours later than i wanted to arrive. We found a KFC on the corner and are now finishing dinner and going to bed. I haven't slept yet!

Tomorrows agenda is a biggie..
Montserrat in the early AM, Las Ramblas and La Sagrada Familia in the early pm and maybe the beach before we head to dinner with our new friends.

The metro system is easy to ride WITHOUT luggage. Should be much better tomorrow.

We're in London

So we've arrived in London. All went well. A bit bumpy but overall uneventful flight. The tv's didn't work for the first 3 hours. So that got taylor a bit grumpy as she brought no other distraction. Now we are waiting at Heathrow for our barcelona flight. We don't know what gate as they don't post gates until 30 min. before. Thats crazy. They just want you to spend money in the airport.
We'll post upon arrival in Barcelona. My phone is not working in heathrow. Which it should be as I double checked before I left.
We hope you all have a great june. We can't believe that were almost to barcelona.

We'll see all our new friends for dinner tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.