Great pictures! Don't you love those sea days??? And the food??? And your cabin???? And cruise mates???

Ahhhhh, to be sitting on my balcony right now with slippers, priceless!

Amen, Karen. Sounds and looks like a great cruise. Thanks for asking the time.
---------------------
Helen

Love the pictures, love the relaxed and happy faces. This looks like a wonderful cruise. I'll be interested to hear about Malta, which will be new to us very shortly on Gondola. Enjoy, everyone!

Ok. So Tom, Marcie, Olivia , Alice and I had planned a dinner in signatures a few weeks before the cruise started. Wanting to get a photo of us early on--- before too much drinking had occurred, seemed like a good idea. However, I had problems getting a decent photo. In fact, we believe this one to be reminiscent of some of Karen's jib-jab productions wherein Alice's head has been cut and paste onto some other body.

We had a greet time though. Too much food and lots of laughs.

Awww, I think it's a great picture! How was dinner?

Dinner was Fantastic! All the food onboard so far has been A+, but tonight in Signatures, there were just some fine tuned details that transcended the bar. And all the laughs we had added much to the whole experience! You know, like good weather on a cruise? You need good laughs, too. When Kim showed us what was on her phone for this pic, Alice had no neck whatsoever, and Marcie said I looked like I was about to run out on the check, and she and I could not stop laughing about JibJab cartoons Karen is always posting!

So, we had Haibut, lamb, veal, lobster, forget what Alice had. And for apps, Kim and I had the first decent blue crab I have seen yet on this cruise. We had so much fun in addition to the food!

Great picture and look at Tom and his harem. Looks like lots of fun.

Another lovely day!

The Mariner Malta:



As seen from the Mein Schiff 2:





And here is a video of the Mariner pulling in this morning as seen from the Mein Schiff 2

Awesome job stalking Karen! It's warm and humid here, but no rain so we're fine. Alice and I did a scenic highlights tour this morning and made it back in time for lunch. Then went ashore by ourselves to see the grand masters palace. Made it back just in time for trivia. It was a tough one today though.

The Mariner in Trapani:

Great shot of the Mariner, Karen! Some great stalking!

Alice and I had a wonderful day in hot, hot, hot day in trapani yesterday. I went myself to olive farm and had delicious lunch. Chris and Linda kept me company Alice did the Segesta archaeological site and successfully completes her task to get us some more euros. Today we are in Taormina and will do the mount Etna ascent first by cable car, then 4x4 then walk to lava flow area. 10,922 ft. See in background. Have to tender today.

Got up top on Mt Etna . Saw some ash and steam spewing on the drive up. Took cable car up some more. Them 4x4 truck. Then hiked in very strong winds on the gravelly lava rocks in about 70 mph winds.

It's just after 11pm. We went past another volcano (Stromboli) and saw some red glows from a distance of lava shooting out of it.

We're enroute to Naples instead of Sorrento bcs of weather tomorrow.

Very nice dinner in CR with Olivia, Val, Mike, ken and Ngaire. Enjoying a we dram out on the balcony and trying to post.

Loving pixs and reports - what a great trip!!!!!

Great reporting, Kim! so glad you are having a wonderful time. Cheers, Anne

The volcano tour sounds like an adventure and so very fascinating!

Enjoying a we dram out on the balcony and trying to post.


Kim, I don't know how to post a quote here in a neat box instead of like above, but to you, Alice, Mike, Val, N, and Ken, what fun tonight!

Kim, I sure hope you enjoyed that "we dram" out on the balcony. Also hope you got a good view as we passed Stromboli! I just remembered I missed it over on your side of the ship

Olivia- since We were on the wrong side, we went up to deck 12 and we were lucky to see anything. I noticed on the TV position map that were we just passing Stromboli, and it was earlier than we thought. So we ran up to outside observation lounge. Some people were already there and pointed out where the mount was. We looked and looked and finally saw the moving red glow.

So, here we are in Naples instead of Sorrento for our la veranda breakfast!

Glad everyone is having so much fun. Love the photos.. How's the weather in Naples?We are suppost to be in sorrento Sunday afternoon.

Frank- the temps are comfortable. But some occasional showers. We just returned to the ship after walking around for two hours. Got caught in a downpour. Ducked into the porch of a big bank . Thought it would blow over like the one at breakfast. Ended up buying umbrella from a street vendor. Dumb us didn't take one from the ship. We thought no more rain. We found the galleria umberto with very cool glass ceiling.

Love the pictures and reports. Olivia, it's a "wee dram!" Remember that too many wee drams = a wee liter (and often a headache). Have fun-

My bad on the "we" vs "wee". I will have to have a do-over tonight so I can post with correct spelling.

Which excursion would you suggest in Trapani? I am torn between the olive farm, Segesta, and the cable car tour to the town.

Dinner with Olivia and John and Jennifer from BC was so very nice. An excellent ending to our cruise. Many others are staying on. Alice and I head to Florence and Venice for quick visits.

Rachel- I did the olive farm and Alice did the Segesta. I saw her photos and thought the temple looked great, but I don't think there was much else to it. The olive farm probably wasn't worth $199 . We spent time driving to see salt flats, which was unique. A stop for espresso or snack by some cool old windmills at salt flats. Had some free time in Marsala which I enjoyed but heard others didn't care for it. There was a church and a little bit of interesting history. The olive farm had just a quick explanation of the small equipment room with the machines that do the pressing to produce the oil . A demo in the courtyard of making pasta and pesto. A woman playing guitar and signing. Then lunch buffet style which was delicious and wine. Olive oil ice cream for dessert was good.

Thanks sea dog, we may just do the cable car town visit. I am not much for long bus rides.

In Trapani do the cable car to ERICHE or the bus to ERICHE (cannot remember the spelling) it was REALLY great a highlight for me.

The drive to the cable car is only 15 minutes then a 15 minute ride on the cable car and the town is lovely. A bit of up hill walking but a church that everyone was astonished with, will not say anymore on that subject you go see it.

The town has the most unique patterned stones, not your ordinary cobblestones. Super little stores and great views of Trapani. I believe everyone that went enjoyed this tour. Only 4 hours.

If you get on the first bus and do the cable car you get into the town before anyone else from the ship arrives and it was very empty so lovely to walk around. I highly recommend this trip.

I too loved the cable car excursion to Erice. Pronounced AIR-ree-chay (with a roll of the r). So glad we got there early in the morning, and yes, the church was beautiful, unexpectedly so from the appearance of the outside.

We are already missing our MARINER friends who disembarked today!

oops....double post!

YES, everyone loved going up the cable car to the charming town of Erice. Last night we had nice dinner with Capt. Felice and Anna and 2 other couples. As nice as it was, I just hate those huge tables in the middle of Compass Rose, there's no way you can have a table conversation. Last nights there were 8 of us at a table for 10 ugh.

Hard saying good bye's last night and this morning. All who left will sure be missed, it's been such a fun time together. Great being with old friends and loved making new lasting friendships. I'm just so happy we're doing the B2B and there's still enough of us on board so we won't be lonley.

This morning we decided to take the train to Tarquinia, small town Elda recommended. When we got to the train station we realized that the next train going there wouldn't be leaving for 2 more hours. Instead, there was a train leaving for Rome in 10 minutes so we quickly changed plans. We went to Rome and had a very nice day and a delicious lunch in Trastevere. The weather was perfect, sunny in the mid 70's. It's so easy taking the train into Rome from Civitavecchia when you don't have any luggage...about 55 minutes @ up to 90 MPH. It couldn't have been any nicer. We saw Linda & Chris at the train station, they were catching a train the other direction going to Florence for a post stay. We looked for Kim & Alice but they probably caught earlier train for their Rome post stay.

We just finished the muster drill. The ship is full once again. We changed cabins, easy for us since the crew did all the moving for us. Now we're in 743 next door to the Simpsons. Yesterday we won trivia again....2 days in a row, thanks to Dave who knew some of the really tough ?'s yesterday.

Tomorrow we're going to Pompeii. I've been there with Tony, Karen & Mark on 007 but it will be Tom's first time. Should be another glorious day, hopefully not hot. Time to get ready for dinner....
Ciao!!

Oh Marcie, the infamous Pompeii excursion! Maybe this time, you might learn something but I bet you won't laugh as much!

We miss you all too! We are exhausted. We got the 8:41am train to Rome and after some confused wandering around termini station found our train to Florence. We checked into hotel then did uffizi and academia. Tomorrow we do a walking tour then catch train to Venice. Michaelangelo's David was amazing. Good pasta dinner and not very expensive.

We had such a fantastic cruise. Everyone was so wonderful to get to know better or for the first time.

Thanks for the cable car rec, Ngaire. We will do that. It was really my first choice as I dislike long bus rides.

Another lovely day! The Mariner in Sorrento:

Friday Morning:
Made our long flight from Rome to Minneapolis and are now waiting to
catch the shuttle back to the airport for our last 2 hour flight
to Billings Montana at 11:30 am. after spending the night here.
Quick stop at Costco and then 2 hour drive home. Should be there about 5 pm!!
It was a wonderful cruise. So nice to see everyone we have
cruised with before, and really enjoyed meeting new friends.

We are home!! Pulled into the garage at 4:55 pm.

Hope the post-cruise trips are a lot of fun, and welcome back, Jim and Jan B! Costco run ... it's surely the easiest re-entry to real life

Cheers, Anne

I don't know about that.
Costco on a Friday afternoon was wild.
Thought I was in another security lane during check out.

Beautiful picture Karen!

Glad you're home safe Jim. Alice and I had a great time in Florence and Venice. Heading home tomorrow on 12;45 flight through Paris.