Pictures from the Italy/Greece Cruise

Italy, Greece Cruise Second Report

Italy, Greece Cruise Second Report Friday: We used the motel transport back to the airport to catch the NCL transport to the Ship to start our tour. We were not on the bus list to be taken to the ship based on the confusion described in the earlier report. We were allowed on it for 70 dollars a piece. The bus took two hours to get to the ship. The Italian country side is very green. At the ship area, many hundreds of people were being processed. The lines snaked around with many switch backs. We finally got on the ship. We were processed earlier then others towards the end of the line because our status as gold and silver members based on our past cruises with NCL. Linda is the gold member. On board we ordered strong intoxicants to ameliorate our trials and participated in the mandatory orientation. We finally made it to our room and awaited our luggage to arrive. We ate a meal in one of their formal dinning rooms. As usual the service was excellent and food very good. The meals in these dinning rooms are almost dietetic. Well prepared and not generous helpings. I made up for it later in the cafeteria which is designed for gluttony. The ship was substantially late leaving port because one of the planes was late with 50 passengers on board. It could have been us. Flying in a day earlier prevented this for us. The Captain promised us that he would make up for it regarding speed of cruising. We walked the gambling area of the ship. It is the most devices, tables we have ever seen on a cruise ship. Very large area. Linda found her favorite machine, the quarter one. Wifi was still not working so we went to a magic show. Both Linda and I are so dependent on WIFI that this will affect our enjoyment of the trip. The magic show was OK. I am not into watching magic. Tomorrow, Saturday, is a ocean day and no stops. May 27, Saturday, we traveled along the East Coast of Italy today cruising towards Greece. Pleasant view for a while of the coast of Italy. We are noticing a reduction in certain services because of the COVID recovery of the cruise line. We used to get our room made up in the evening with fancy towel figures. Also, little treats left in the room at that time. No towel figures or treats were in our room. Any room service activity was no charge. Now, it is a 6 dollars minimum charge. They are also charging us a 20 dollar a day charge just for being here. Terrific. The room TV also is substantially different regarding ship activities. We are charged for many movies we want to watch. Today, I went down where they have advertised bridge game playing along with other games. The games were on the tables and no one showed up to play. After waiting 25 minutes, I returned to the room. No bridge. This ship is large with a capacity at double occupancy of 3,,963 guests. The ship seems to have a substantial number of people on it and it is certainly not at capacity. There is a crew of 1,657 advertised on their brochure. Day 3, May28, Santorini, Greece. I used a tender to go to the shore. We were late in getting our tender ticket and this resulted in being on the 19 tender to go to shore. Linda decided not to go which turned out to be a wise decision. The tender was very full. The landing area at Santorini is at the base of this very steep large, mountain cliff. There was a tramway to take people up to the top of the cliff, mountain. This tramway had a large capacity with many cars. On arriving on shore, I was emerged in this mass of people waiting to get a ride on the cable car. I have been in large crowds of people in the past and this one surpassed them all. We just stood there and barely shuffled. Many people near me quite and turned around. I did the same. There is a walkway up to the top of the hill that is very long with switch backs. I decided to go up that a ways and did not think I would be able to reach the top at age 79. Too much. I did go up three switch backs. The bizarre activity regarding this was that the walkway, stairs was lined with maybe 40 donkeys or more. Who for a price would cary the tourists to the top. The walk way was covered in donkey poop. This could be slick to walk on and was slick for me to walk on. So, I walked down the stairs and around the small port area and took a tender back to the ship and feel I had a complete Santorini experience. It was fun to watch people going up the very steep hill on donkeys. Many appeared to be afraid. Last night was the highlight of the trip so far. We saw a musical called “burn the floor”. It involved terrific dancing, good singing and music. They were just outstanding and we all stood and applauded at the end. Wonderful. I am unable to post pictures because of the weak internet on the ship.

Italian, Greece Cruise, Norwegian May 24-June 6, 2023 First Report Took Lyft to the airport.  Driver did not help me put the bags in the car and did not say anything to us on the trip.  Got to the airport at least three hours in advance.  Security was heavy at the airport because of the immigrants, border crossers.  Two additional layers of security before we were allowed to enter the security area.  Ticketing was fast and bags were checked through to Rome.  Was able to get a courtesy ride to the gate.  Tickets include gates for each airport.  Very smooth so far.  Only error so far is that my cheap reading glasses were lost going through the x-ray machine.   I am overcoming the news my VA doctor gave me yesterday regarding my recent detailed radiation x-ray (used radioactive IV to do it).  They have found that my cancer has returned and is one inch long.  I had radiation treatment in 2012 where 93 radioactive seeds were implanted in my prostate gland.  It appears that it has returned.  My VA doctor repeatedly told me yesterday that when it reoccurs it is aggressive.  Wonderful.  I have an appointment with a radiation doctor on returning to El Paso.   This trip with Norwegian Cruise lines is different then other times we have taken this cruise line. As incentives to take the cruise they offered free air travel and also other add ons for free. This is after COVID to regain their cruisers. So we took the free travel. This did not turn out to be best because they scheduled us with the cheapest seats, many times in the back of the airplane. I did think the Lufthansa airlines provided good overall service. On the trip from Houston, Texas to Rome, we were in the very back of this very large plane. My seat belt would not fasten. There were three large (muscular) German speaking women stewardesses working hard on my seat belt with me seated. At this point, this has been the highlight of the trip for a 79 year old. Terrific. They ended up adding a section to the belt to make it work. We landed in Germany at the Frankfurt Airport. It is incredibly large and Linda and I had to hustle, walk very fast, take buses, use mortorised walk ways to arrive 15 minutes prior to fly to Rome, Italy. In the walk, I lost Linda once and was able to find her on a different floor of the airport preparing to board the bus to take us to another section of the airport. Many years ago we lost each other in the metro system in Paris, France. I ended up on that trip seeing the Actress’s Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry with out her. It was a nice display and the museum was very nice. She had returned to the room that day not thinking good thoughts of me. Hey, 6 years difference in years make me a slower walker. In Rome, Norwegian required us to arrive a day early because of the airline delays, would cause us to miss the cruise. Well this ended in a disaster. We had booked the wrong day for the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Italy and they would not rent us a new room. I think that they did not like the fee I had obtained from my favorite booking company, Agoda. They did call Best Western and we were told they had a room available. It is 50/50 as to the odds of us getting a refund from the agency we used to book the room. 30 euros cab fee later, we were at our new hotel who told us they were full and after much haggling and 400 Euros, agreed to rent us a room. So, another expensive lesson. In the future we plan to not go for the special deal and book our airflights separately and also double, triple check our hotel reservations.

A trip to New Mexico, The Inn of the Mountain Gods,

We spent the weekend at this resort 7,000 foot elevation on a New Mexico Casino Resort on an Apache Reservation.

Three new mesquite boxes

I just finished making three new mesquite boxes. They are a challenge to make because the wood is so hard.