Mediterranean - Day 6 At Sea

Tuesday was an At Sea day and Formal Night on board the Celebrity Century.  It looked like most of the passengers were at the pool.

As promised, we did spend our day at sea exploring the ship and we took lots of photos but due to WiFi rates I’ll have to save those for Flickr.

Formal Night was a hoot! We even forgot to take photos of me in my dress, so I will only have one picture to offer for show on the blog today. The ship, however, had photographers at about 6 different stations set up for pictures, which we could purchase (all the more $$$ to be made for them). They had the grand “photo reveal” last night but I really wasn’t that pleased with any of ours. There is a second formal night on Saturday. Now that I know what to expect, I’ll make another attempt at posing for a photo more to my liking.

I had a wonderfully scrumptious dinner. I ordered the duck l’orange (sp).  We had a table reserved with some of our new friends on the ship (2 couples form the UK and 1 newlywed couple from Boston). Hugo, our waiter  (he looks like Jim Carey to us)was in rare form. I laughed so much my cheeks hurt by the end of the evening. After dinner there was a captain’s toast and show in the Celebrity Theatre. Singing and dancing was done by some not so good singers and dancers. All I could think of was Simon Cowell on American Idol criticizing the contestants by telling them that they sounded like they should be singing on a cruise ship. Yes, it’s like that!! You get the picture.

taken in our room before dinner

I'm Just Sayin

Mediterranean - Day 5 Sicily, Italy

Today we arrived in Messina Italy (Sicily) at around 12:30 pm instead of the early morning arrivals we have had in days past. I assume it has to do with the rates for parking the ship.  Anyway, as we had no formal tours scheduled, it gave us some free time to lounge around the ship.

As we came into Sicily, which is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (150 miles wide and 200 miles long), we passed by Stromboli (an active volcano near Sicily).

We left the ship with the other passengers around 1:00 pm headed for the town center to check out some shopping. BTW- while I was in Rome yesterday, I was not able to purchase a single item. Good thing I bought shoes in Paris and I guess I can kiss that Italian handbag goodbye too! During the tour we only had one stop to shop for about 35 minutes of free time and it happened to be in Vatican City.  The multitude of souvenir shops which lined the street were full of rosaries and other religious items. As I was not interested in purchasing a handbag with depictions of any of the Saints or past Popes, I came away empty handed.

Today I figured that since Sicily is still part of Italy, I might be still be able to make up for lost shopping time . But alas, no such luck. After meandering thru the town we finally came upon the shops, only to find them closed for the very long European lunch time. The shops are open 9am -1:00pm and 4:00pm to 8:00pm (I guess maybe we should read the daily cruise guide the ship prints each day) You think?

We are 551 nautical miles from Greece so we will be at sea all day on Tuesday arriving in Mykonos on Wed. Formal night is also on Tuesday night. Tuesday's photo wrap will contain pictures of our day on the ship along with some of the formal attire photos. We have the coolest maitre d named Hugo, from Portugal and have met some very interesting people. If we can find them today I will include their photos.

I'm Just Sayin

Mediterranean - Day 4 Rome, Italy

Today we took a 10.5 hour excursion to Rome to see the Forum, Coliseum & Vatican City. The tour also included an excellent 3 course lunch complete with champagne and wine.

My camera took over 600 photos and we managed to exhaust 4 camera batteries.

I think over 17 buses left our ship for these tours. We loved it, even thought the Pope wasn't in and the Sistine Chapel was closed. We were all so tired from walking all day that on the way home I don't think anyone on the bus was awake!

Pictures below. No narrative on most

NJoy!

Trevi Fountain

It was close to 90 degrees and I had to find a new hairdo

On to the Forum

Coliseum

Told you it was hot1

Vatican City

Last photo with my camera (had to use the iphone for the rest of the pictures)

Tomorrow is Sicily, no tour planned.

REMINDERS

new our Welcome Aboard photo is now posted on Day 2 

don't forget to always click once or double click on each picture for maximum enlargement

Thanks for stopping by and comments are always welcome. That's the only way I know you've seen the posts. Posting from the ship is very tedious:)

I'm Just Sayin

Welcome to Barcelona

Barcelona from our Hotel Room window

Lobby

This is  BEAUTIFUL HOTEL

THE BARTENDER MADE US HIS SPECIAL APPLETINI USING NO MIX, JUST FRESH APPLES! YUM

OUR ROOM

BATHROOM

CHECK OUT OUR HARDWOOD FLOORS
No complaints here.
I'M JUST SAYIN