Mediterranean Cruise - Day 4 - Sea Day

This was a really nice and relaxing day. We had to turn our clocks forward an hour the night before because of the time change leaving Italy and heading for Greece. We slept in a little later that day and were worried that when we got to the buffet for breakfast that it would be crowded and difficult to find a seat. To our surprise, there was no problem at all!

The thing I love about the setup of the Equinox buffet as opposed to other cruises I have been on is the way the food is laid out. There are a series of small “islands” of food so that you could easily maneuver from island to island without having to wait on line for the person in front of you to get their food.

In the early afternoon, Ben headed off to the gym and I went in search of a chair to get some sun. The sun sure is strong in the Mediterranean this time of year! I couldn’t stay out longer than an hour because I started fearing experiencing the sun poisoning I had acquired while in Thailand a couple of years ago.

Afterwards, I spent the afternoon reading and organizing my photos and Ben stayed out on the balcony playing a baseball management computer game that I do not understand.

The only negative of our cabin was the fact that we could hear every time our next door neighbor flushed the toilet… this normally would not be an issue except for the fact that we realized our neighbor either has an overactive bladder or some case of bad food poisoning. Any time we were in our room, we would hear flush after flush after flush…

We really enjoyed the laid back sea day to “recharge” in preparation of five back to back port days coming up. 

first formal night that evening

This day gets a 9/10 because it was exactly what a relaxing sea day should be… Ben gives it an 8/10 

Mediterranean Cruise - Day 3 - Messina, Sicily

This was our first port day and we were looking forward to taking the ship shuttle to Taormina, a small hill town in Sicily. We usually do not like to take cruise line sponsored tours because those tend to turn into cattle herds but opted to this time because we had read that taking public transportation was costly and unpredictable. After speaking to some other cruise passengers who had gone to Taormina on their own, we realized we had made the right decision as they all had quite a bit of difficulty getting there.

Taormina was roughly an hour bus ride away from Messina. When we arrived, the first thing we were reminded of was San Gimignano, which we had visited last year while taking a day trip through Tuscany. It was a quaint little town with lots of narrow, twisty streets filled with shops and restaurants. 

We had three hours to spend here on our own and we spent the bulk of it walking around and looking through shops (taking advantage of the free ac!) and taking pictures (well, I was, Ben wasn’t… but no surprise there). I had my first granita, which to me tasted a little like slightly melted Rita’s Ice… I tried an almond flavored one and it was good but I still like Rita’s Ice more.

view from Taormina

church in the main square in Taormina

Ben and me in Taormina

picturesque buildings in Taormina

Ben was not as fond of Taormina since he found it to be somewhat of a tourist trap since everything was so expensive. It probably did not help that we had just visited San Gimignano, which we really enjoyed, not long ago. I enjoyed it a little more than Ben did but mostly because it gave me more photo opportunities. 

Ben was bored after wandering around for 2 hours and started playing video games

We headed back to the cruise ship by bus in the early afternoon and were pretty happy that getting back on the ship was painless and quick. One of my favorite moments of the day was the moment I stepped back on board and was blasted with the strong ship ac! We were both pretty wiped out from the heat and walking by the time we made it back onto the ship.

This port receives a 5/10 from me… Ben only gave it a 3/10. I think he is a harsher critic :P

Mediterranean Cruise - Day 2 - Rome and Civitavecchia

We woke up early that morning so that we could do some sightseeing before leaving for the cruise port around noon. After getting close to twelve hours of sleep, we were feeling MUCH better than the previous day. We brought a good map with us and made our way by foot from our hotel to some of the major tourist sites in Rome center – Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.

It was around 8am when we left the hotel so the heat was not too big of an issue yet. Getting to the sights early was a really great idea as there were barely any crowds anywhere we went. When we reached the Spanish Steps, I did not even realize we were already there since I was expecting to see masses of people gathered on the steps and when we arrived, the steps were actually empty! We had a similar experience at the Trevi Fountain… only some scattered people around and we were able to get right next to the fountain and walk all along it. 

empty Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

we're at the Trevi Fountain!

Trevi Fountain - larger and more beautiful in person than in photos

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Pantheon dome

obelisk in square outside of Pantheon

The sites are a little more difficult to find than we had expected (moreso than Florence and Venice from the year before), even with a good map. There are many twisty, windy roads and it is sometimes difficult to see street names as they are inscribed on the sides of light colored buildings at intersections. 

Of the three places we visited that day, we both liked the Trevi fountain the most. It is a very impressive and very large fountain! We also enjoyed seeing the Pantheon but probably would have gotten more out of it had we listened to an audio guide to know what we were seeing. The Spanish Steps are just that… a series of steps... good photo op I suppose. 

After spending a couple of hours sightseeing, we started to make our way back to the hotel. By that point, the sun was starting to get pretty strong and we were having a little difficulty with figuring out where we were on some of the smaller streets. We eventually figured it out and made it back to the hotel still on time to catch an 11am train to Civitavecchia, the cruise port.

Side note: We have officially discovered drivers more aggressive than NYC drivers – Rome drivers! Busy streets often have no lane markings and driving is one giant free-for-all. I have no idea how these cars, scooters, and bikes do not hit each other! Also, the concept “Yield to pedestrians” definitely does NOT apply in Rome… “Yield to driver” is definitely more accurate.

We were pretty fortunate that the train we took to the cruise port was not crowded at all. I was a little apprehensive since we both had luggage and bags… after our Italian train fiasco the year before, I have become wary of taking trains with luggage. We arrived in Civitavecchia roughly an hour later and I had a rough sense of how to walk to the cruise port but was not completely sure. I wanted to check a map but we soon realized there would be no need. As soon as we exited the train station, we witnessed a mass exodus of tourists with rolling luggage all heading in one direction – we decided just to follow figuring out that everyone was heading for the cruise port.

Celebrity embarkation was pretty simple and painless. Not too long after checking in at the port, we were able to board the ship. I had done a lot of research on the ship prior to the trip so I had a good idea what it looked like but it is still very exciting to get on the ship for the first time and see everything in person. One of the reasons I chose this particular sailing was because of the ship – the Equinox is by far the nicest of any of the cruise ships we have been on in the past. The décor is very modern and bright.

We were able to go directly to our room and were pleasantly surprised at the size of the room and bathroom. It was somewhere between the size of a standard US hotel room and a European hotel room which for cruise ship standards, is pretty large. The balcony, which Celebrity considers “obstructed” was also huge. My only concern is that I have now been spoiled and won’t be able to go back to a smaller room and non-balcony… uh oh :P

The rest of the day consisted of looking around the ship and eating… I had a smile on my face that couldn’t be wiped off. We both agreed it just felt so much easier to be on a cruise ship where we wouldn’t have to worry about searching for food, entertainment and worrying about packing and unpacking our bags. Some people think that takes the fun out of the trip but for us, this makes the trip that much better. I guess that’s why we like to cruise!

onboard Celebrity Equinox

first thing Ben does when we get to our cabin - no different than at home :)

Equinox Pool Deck

Most of the rooms on the Equinox are balconies - we stayed in an "obstructed" view balcony on the hump of the ship so even though we could see the lifeboats, we had a very large balcony which I think made up for the minor obstruction (10 cabins in from the left, bottom row)

Equinox martini bar

Equinox solarium

live tree in the center of the elevator bank

Equinox atrium

Equinox lawn - yes, it's real grass!

Equinox lawn after the sunset

 

Mediterranean Cruise - Day 1 - From New Jersey to Rome

I had always wanted to see Greece and Southern Italy and so a cruise was a great way to cover several of the Greek Islands and spots in Southern Italy that I wanted to visit, all in one trip. I spent over a year planning for the trip (almost as long as I spent planning our wedding!) and was super excited to see everything. Ben usually doesn't do much research or planning so he didn't know what to expect prior to the trip. I can preface this trip report by saying that we both agreed that this was our best trip out of all the trips we have taken so far!

On the morning of our flight to Rome, I woke up early at 6:30am hoping that by the time I boarded the plane at 5:30pm, I’d be tired enough to hopefully sleep at least 5 good hours on the plane. I have never been good at sleeping on planes but I was pretty convinced that this time I’d be able to do it…

Unfortunately, the plan did not work very well. Both Ben and I have arrived at the conclusion that we simply are not good at sleeping on planes. The combination of being woken up by flight attendants passing by with beverage and food service along with cramped upright seating made it pretty difficult to fall asleep and then stay asleep. We both did not get more than a few scattered hours of sleep on the seven hour flight.

Nevertheless, when we arrived, we were determined to stay awake because we were planning to tour the Vatican and Saint Peter’s Basilica. We also were not able to check into our hotel until the early afternoon.  This whole staying-awake thing turned out to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. We were literally dragging our bodies through the streets of Rome. It was slightly easier when we were walking around but very difficult to stay awake any time we sat down / stopped moving.

I was really looking forward to the Vatican Tour, especially after having recently read Angels and Demons and the guided tour definitely lived up to expectation. It was the first time we’ve been on a tour where we were given headphones so we could hear very clearly every word the guide was saying and we were even able to wander a bit on our own and still hear her.  My only disappointment was not being awake enough to fully appreciate everything we were seeing. I forgot to add that the heat in Rome that day was sweltering! I thought that it would be similar to typical NJ summer weather… I definitely was not expecting NJ summer heat wave weather plus humidity!

The Vatican Museum is a very interesting place and crammed full of people when we were there. St. Peter’s Basilica is much larger in person than it appears in pictures and is the most beautiful church I have been in. We had originally planned to climb the cupola but the thought of climbing 300+ steps on little sleep the night before was too much. 

Bridge outside of Castel Saint Angelo located close to Vatican Museum

Saint Peter's Basilica

Vatican Museum courtyard

sculpture in Vatican Museum

beautiful ceilings in Vatican Museum

original floor mosaic in Vatican Museum

sunlight streaming into Saint Peter's Basilica

Swiss Guards

  

By the time we finished with the tour, it was almost 5pm and we were pretty wiped out at that point. We had a quick dinner and made it back to the hotel roughly an hour later to check in and were pretty happy that we would finally be able to get some sleep!

Cozumel, Mexico: day at the beach!

Since it was our last port day in what was a pretty port--intensive cruise we decided to do something relaxing in Cozumel. We made reservations for Nachi Cocom, an all-inclusive beach club and the plan for the day was to eat, drink and tan!

We caught a cab outside of the port and after a quick 15 minute ride, arrived at Nachi Cocom. When I imagine going on vacation to lie out on the beach in the Caribbean, this is the type of place I am imagining... bright, sunny weather, crystal clear water, and soft, white sand. Drinks and food were included and we had more pina coladas and frozen drinks within the first few hours than we had on the entire cruise. We also rented a float mat for the day which turned out to be a great idea since the water was as calm as a swimming pool and very conducive for floating! 

at the start of the day in Cozumel

Nachi Cocom

picture-perfect day :)

Nachi Cocom pool and swim-up bar

more views of Nachi Cocom

we loved the float and spent a lot of time in the ocean... probably also the reason for the sunburn :P

We decided to call it a day in the early afternoon. The temperature just kept rising and after spending hours in the sun, we were all getting pretty wiped out just from being outside for so long. We caught a cab back to the port and decided to do some souvenir shopping before heading back to the ship.

two Carnival ships docked next to each other

view from the balcony

Royal Caribbean ship docked next to the Valor

watching sailaway from our balcony

Having just come back from our last port of call, we were all feeling like the trip was already over... it was a strange feeling to know that there was still a full sea day ahead followed by a full day in Miami after disembarkation.

Next up: a condensed summary of our last Sea Day and disembarkation day :(

Belize: Xunantunich Ruins

In Belize, two of the most popular shore excursions for cruisers are either cave tubing or visiting a Mayan ruin site. We chose the latter thinking that it would be a nice change of pace to do something more "historical" and out of the water. We also liked the fact that we would be able to climb the ruins in Belize, unlike our experience at Chichen Itza in Mexico where everything was roped off... we would soon realize that there is probably a good reason why tourists shouldn't be allowed to climb ruins, but more on that later...

There were a couple of Mayan ruin sites and I picked Xunantunich primarily based on the fact that the site looked more impressive than the other options. We decided to book this through Carnival even though I normally shy away from booking any excursions directly through the cruise line because it would be such a long day. The site was a two hour drive one way, almost reaching the border of Guatamala, and so we wanted to play it safe and take the ship tour, which would ensure that the ship would wait for us if we were running late.

We woke up pretty early that morning (woke up around 7am EDT, which was about 5am Belize time) to a very strange burning smell and some smoke outside on our balcony. Ben went sniffing around our cabin wondering whether we were somehow setting something on fire but we realized we had nothing that could possibly be burning. A couple minutes later, we find out from the cruise director that the smell was from a "controlled" fire in the forests of Belize, whatever that means... I think that was meant to be reassuring.

Because we booked a Carnival excursion, we were able to get priority tender tickets which means we were on one of the first tenders. The tender ride to Belize was a much longer ride than the one to Grand Cayman, which is probably why we needed tickets for this port.

Once in port, we were greeted by the Carnival photographers (surprise, surprise!!)... at this port, they used particularly aggressive tactics such as corralling passengers using a pole into designated locations (what are we, sheep??). We had come to expect this by now and the boys were no longer trying to hide from the photographers anymore - they were now actively seeking them out to take all sorts of improper photos, hoping that the photographers would post them in the Carnival photo gallery. Sadly, the photographers caught onto the Ben and Jeff shenanigans and we never did see these indecent photos available for purchase in the photo gallery.

After that brief diversion, we were guided to our tour bus and Kendra, our local Belize "expert". Upon leaving the port gates in the tour bus, we noticed that Belize City was probably not someplace you wanted to just casually wander around in. Much of the city was poverty stricken and we noticed that the port gates and traffic checkpoints were guarded by men with machine guns. Once the bus left the gates, Kendra picked up the microphone and started to give us some "fun facts" about Belize... this continued for the ENTIRE two hour bus ride, without even a minute of a break. I think I might know more about Belize now than I do about the United States... The man sitting in front of me kept rubbing his temples and plugging his fingers in his ears - poor guy. When I wasn't in the mood to listen to Kendra anymore, I would put on my noise-canceling headphones (which evidently are not powerful enough to cancel out the sound of Kendra's voice) and look out the window. It was particularly heartbreaking to see some of the poverty in the country. We passed numerous school houses along the way and I noticed that most of the kids looked extremely happy in spite of the conditions that they live in.

Here we are right after boarding the tour bus in the morning... all smiles without any knowledge of the rough day that would be lying ahead of us

Finally, as we neared the site, our Xunantunich guide, Jake took over. We got off the bus and loaded onto a hand-cranked ferry and from there were shuttled to the main site. Jake was an extremely knowledgeable guide but we did find him to be almost too detailed and he lost most of us after about 30 minutes.

Xunantunich Mayan Ruins

Hand-cranked ferry

first look at some of the ruins - it was much quieter and less crowded than Chichen Itza

our guide, Jake

Eastern view of El Castillo - this is what we would be climbing a little later

detailed carving in El Castillo

Ben ran up the steps at the first chance he got to break away from the rest of the group

el Castillo

the climb up to the top - climbing up wasn't bad at all; coming back down was another story though

We made it to the top! You probably can't tell by looking at the picture but it was extremely hot and humid with no shade up there.. not to mention a little unnerving to be that high up without so much as a guardrail

view of the rest of the site from the top of el Castillo

view of Guatamala in the distance from top of el Castillo

After climbing up to the top and enduring the heat, we were all looking forward to getting back down and into some shade. Coming down the ruins was probably the worst part of the day. We needed to be extremely cautious when coming back down because each step was narrow and tall and there was nothing that could prevent us from falling over if we slipped. I had a particularly traumatizing experience when the woman coming down behind me nearly slipped and slid down a step while I was on the step one below her... in that moment, I really thought she was about to take me down with her. I was so freaked out I asked her to stay up there until I made my way to the bottom of the steps. Now I know why they make you sign those liability waiver forms before the trip starts...

Once we made our way to the bottom, our guide continued his lecture at which point we had all already tuned out. We made our way back to the shuttle buses which took us back to the ferry that would bring us back to the bus. We were really looking forward to lunch at this point. Lunch was at a nice restaurant with shaded outdoor seating and was surprisingly good.

lunch after our tour of Xunantunich

group picture

We were running a little behind schedule and so the bus driver started to drive faster and faster. Unfortunately, the roads were not kind to us and there were numerous times we didn't think the bus was going to make it.. sure enough, we heard a loud popping sound, followed by the bus jerking around before it came to a stop at the side of the road. We had a flat! Thank goodness we were on a Carnival sponsored excursion. Somehow, there was an empty "backup" bus directly behind us and so we boarded the second bus and were on our way as if nothing had happened. I am not sure if it is normal protocol to have a backup bus follow the tour bus in Belize, but if it is, I am sure flats are a frequent occurrence.

our flat tire and the backup bus

We made it back to port without anymore incidents but were cutting it really close to the last tender time. However, once we saw the line, we knew that even if we had come back 30 minutes later, we would still be able to make it back to the ship in time given how long the line was. We waited for at least another 30-45 minutes before we were boarded one of the last tenders of the day.

calm seas in Belize

the only sunset we were able to catch the whole week

back of ship at sunset

a little blurry but this was seriously the best fish dish I have ever eaten

Ben's escargot - he ate one before I was able to snap a picture

"Delice" of the Sea - pretty tasty!

Next up: Cozumel, Mexico - our last port day :(