Day 12
When we woke up the following morning, we were out at sea. I had briefly been awake during the night to go to the bathroom and noticed that we were under way, but slept the rest of the night through. We had a 9:30 Cruise Critic meet that morning and I was not too impressed by this when I found out the day before, but we were actually awake just before the alarm went off. We got up and dressed and headed down to Chic, where the meet was due to take place. As we came in, they took the raffle tickets from us and gave out a gift. This was the same that we had received on the Splendour in December, so we politely declined. We went inside the restaurant and found a table. Servers came around with complimentary drinks. Graham had some champagne and I had a Mimosa. They also had set up a table towards the back with coffee, tea and refreshments. Graham had some coffee and a raisin swirl. I am not the biggest friend of the Royal Caribbean Roast so I went with a mint tea and a pecan pastry. While I was getting my food, I bumped into one of our table mates and he asked if he could join us. I pointed out were we were sitting and he headed in this direction. We were also joined by a couple from Australia.
The meet was hosted by the Activities Manager Belle. As far as I understand it, this is the same position on Royal Caribbean that the Assistant Cruise Director is on
Disney Cruise Line. She was from Australia and seemed very nice. She made a few introductory remarks and then drew the raffle. There were plenty prizes, but we did not win anything this time. Once the formal part of the meet was over, Belle invited various members of the group that had announcements to make to the front. There were a number of private excursions organised via our cruise meet thread and this was where most of them would collect payment. This was the main reason why we ended up going even though it was so early. I went to pay for our Petra excursion and was equipped with instructions on where and when to meet. With this taken care of, we headed out.
On one of mine out of Barcelona, they had cruise critic meet up after muster, and no one knew about it because the invitations had not been put out yet, it was very ill run, sounds like RCCL is up to it again, sorry it was not everything you wanted, but at least you took care of business while you were there.
I really like the private excursions.
I then headed over to the Schooner Bar. The activity that had caught my eye was a photo scavenger hunt. I was not quite sure what this involved, but figured that it may be a bit of fun. Unfortunately I never did get to find out what it did involve. Including me, only two people had turned up. The member of the Cruise Director’s Staff told us that we would need at least 3 teams of 2 to 4 people to play. We waited a while, but nobody else turned up. Still, it still turned out to be quite an enjoyable exercise. While we were waiting, we got talking and it turned out that all three of us were big Disney fan. The second guest was from West Palm Beach, Florida and the member of the Cruise Director’s Staff was from China. We were chatting about the parks we had visited and all three of us were hoping to get to Shanghai
Disneyland in the not too distant future. We spent a happy half an hour or so talking all things Disney.
I have never participated in this before, but I have seen it end with everyone running up with all their finds. It was fun to watch.
After lunch, we went our separate ways again. I had spotted a destination lecture about Rome and the Vatican in the Daily Compass, which would take place shortly at the Two70. So I decided to head in this direction. I have attended lectures on some of our longer cruises on
DCL and have always enjoyed them. Indeed, when I got there, the venue was packed. I managed to get a seat at a table towards the front of the Two70, but looking at the screen required a little of acrobatic skill. This turned out just as well or else the lecture may have sent me to sleep. The subject matter was interesting, but the presentation was rather dry. He went at it from an art history angle, which could have worked, but he seemed to lack passion and conviction. I did learn a few interesting facts though.
I tend to not go to these but I keep thinking that I might do it to learn something about the place we are going. I am glad you got to go and that you were interested enough to stay even if he was so dry.
I found Graham in the indoor family pool and sat down near the pool. He was nearly done and we headed back to the cabin together. When we arrived back at the cabin, my gowns had arrived. Graham got showered and changed while I pondered on what gown to wear. I decided to go with the green one. Green is not normally my colour and I wondered about the style, but I love this one. I got changed, put up my hair and put some make up on. Once we were both ready, we headed down to the Royal Esplanade for the festivities.
So glad your gown arrived!
Before we got on the ship, I had read that there is no ship wide formal night on the Quantum class ships. There is however one restaurant that is designated formal every night: the Grande. Knowing that we would eat there 4 times during the cruise, I had brought 4 gowns as well as a 5th one that was white for White Night. I was very surprised when we got the Daily Compass the previous night stating that this night was Royal Night with the dress code specified as “Dress Your Best”. So this was essentially formal night by another name. This was fine by me. I do love formal night and we were due to eat at Grande so I was going to wear a gown anyway. People had really risen to the occasion. Considering that there was not supposed to be a formal night, this was the most formal evening of all the cruises we have taken.
This idea of no more formal nights on the RCCL cruises really bothered me, and a lot of other people on CC, so I am really glad to see people dressing up anyway.
Love all your photos. Y'all look so happy and relaxed.
When we had taken care of all the photos, we headed for the dining room. Everybody on our table arrived around the same time and service was much better that day. We both had the French Onion soup, which was very nice. Graham went with the Escargots à la Bourguignonne followed by the Pie of the Day, which was steak pie and came with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. I had the truffle wild mushroom risotto and then went with the roasted beef tenderloin with duck pate, asparagus, puff pastry and a truffle Madeira sauce. This kind of sounded like Beef Wellington, but it was not. It was very tasty though. For dessert I had the Grand Marnier Soufflé. This is my favourite dessert on the Disney ships and I had high hopes for this. However, I ended up disappointed. This did not have any flavour at all and just tasted sweet.
the food to me has really gone down hill on the RCCL line the last couple of years, I feel they over salt everything, the dessert are just sweet, nothing more, and the coffee is awful. I am glad you enjoyed the main course, sorry about the souffle.
After dinner, we headed up towards the Via as Po and Tigress from Kung Fu Panda were about to be out. This time I had my camera with me. Unfortunately the photos did not come out very well. We then headed back to our cabin where we found a towel animal. We got ready for bed and I set the alarm for the next morning as we would have our first port day and then we retired for the night.
Whoop! Port Day. Yeah.
Day 13
Once we had finished our breakfast, we headed to the gangway. The lifts on the Ovation have a gangway button, which takes you to whatever deck the gangway is on that day.
Now that is a great addition.
The gangway that day was on deck 1 and they had both the forward and aft gangways open. I have to admit I was a little worried just how chaotic getting off the ship would be. The ship was not at capacity, but with about 3800 people on board, this was significantly more than we had previously experienced. There was no need to worry. Getting off the ship was a very smooth process. There are actually two separate tender lobbies in that area and there was crew around directing people to where it was the least busy. When we got to one of the terminals, there was nobody in from of us. The RFID Sea Pass cards help as well. We just touched our cards against a scanner and the security officer wished us a good day. The whole process took a matter of seconds.
Oh that is great to hear also, glad they have that figured out.
Once we were outside the ship, I looked out for a ship photographer. They had set up about halfway between the forward and aft gangway. This seemed to be a bit of a silly spot as more people came off at the aft gangway, which was right by the exit, too. Still, it was only a minor detour. They had a life preserver on a stand set up. Graham was in a mischievous mood and took the life preserver off its stand and around his neck. I did convince him to get one official photo, too.
WHat a fun photo. I love it!
With the photos done, we headed towards the exit. Just outside the gate, port shuttles were lined up waiting for people. We were directed to one and it did not take long for this to fill up. Once most seats were taken, we left. It did not take long to get to the shuttle park. We were a little amused. At various stages starting from the tender lobby there were various vendors trying to sell transport to Rome. The further away we got from the ship, the cheaper it got. By the time we got outside the port gates, the prices seemed pretty fair, but we were planning to go by train. At the shuttle park, there was also a shuttle to the railway station that cost a couple of Euros each. That was new. The layout of the port had also changed, but I did not fully understand this at the time. We left the port and headed through the town centre to the station. This was quite a pleasant walk. We ended up at the station ahead of schedule and got our tickets from one of the ticket machines. We did not have to wait long for our train. There are machines to validate the tickets, but we could not get them to work and there were no instructions. The train journey only took about 45 minutes and we got off at S. Pietro station.
Glad the train ride was easy, were you on the direct or commuter line?
It is surprising just how long that walk is considering that the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica are right next to each other. Once we got to the bottom of the hill leading up to the Vatican Museums, we saw a huge line. There were members of staff in that area asking people if they had purchased tickets online, which we had. Fortunately it turned out that this line was for people who had not pre-purchased their tickets. We were sent up another line. We got right up to the little square directly in front of the Vatican Museums before we had to stop. Even then our line moved pretty swiftly and about 10 minutes or so later we were through security. This led us to the lobby of the museum. Although what I was holding looked like a ticket including a bar code, there were instructions on there that I needed to go to the group ticket desk to get our tickets. The lobby area looked absolutely packed. Graham asked me to get in line while he used the bathroom and he would come and find me. Well, I am not sure what all those people were waiting for, as when I approached the ticket desks, there was only one person in front of me. So I had my tickets within a couple of minutes. Once Graham was back, we were then able to head straight into the museum.
Well that seemed very easy. Good to know it is a time saver to purchase online prior.
There are two ways to get up to the part where the starting point was. One was via a series of escalators and another one was via a ramp. The added bonus of that was that there were boat models from around the world all along the ramp. This was advertised at the point where the two routes divided. We decided to go for the ramp and this was really interesting. Once we got to the top, we entered a courtyard. This was very impressive. We got our first glimpse of the Sistine Chapel, which on the outside is very plain and nothing to write home about. The next courtyard had some views over some gardens and then we entered another building with yet another courtyard that featured sculptures and what looked like stone bath tubs. After this we pretty much stayed inside. We went through rooms and rooms of ancient sculptures and neither of us is interested in those. What we were however very interested in were the frescos in those rooms. They were the reason why I had wanted to visit the Vatican Museums and they did not disappoint.
Those frescos are amazing, what a beautiful view you had. Even the floor mosaics are beautiful. I really like the black and white one.
The first actual exhibit that took my attention was the tapestry gallery. This was a bit dark to preserve the ornate tapestries, but it was still stunning. Then we headed towards one of the elements that I had been the most excited about before the visit: the gallery of maps. At 120m long, this is the longest of all the galleries at the Vatican Museums. It has stunning frescos, but the real showstoppers are the large topographical maps of all the regions of Italy that were painted on the walls. They are based on drawings by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti and were commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII. It took Danti three years to complete the work, which considering the scale and detail of the maps and the fact that there is 40 of them, is actually quite stunning. This exceeded my wildest expectations. Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos of the map panels. For all its length, the map gallery is pretty narrow and as you can see on some of the photos, it was absolutely packed with people. It was easy enough to take photos of what was above, but impossible to take photos on what was across from you.
oh no... I am not a crowd person, but again the view were stunning, I will have to look up these maps online.
One of the areas that I had really looked forward to seeing was the Borgia Apartments. That turned out to be the only disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it was very beautiful. Part of the issue was that a large part of the apartments has been closed off. However, I think the bigger issue was that we had been really spoiled that morning. If you have been treated to extraordinarily stunning all morning, very beautiful somehow just does not cut it. I think if the Borgia apartments had been all I had seen that day, my reaction would have been entirely different.
I can understand that, that these apartments were beautiful, but the chapel is just so over the top there is no comparison.
Since my mid-teens, I have been a huge fan of Marc Chagall. I have travelled all over to see his works and have extensively studied what is not easily accessible. I actually thought that I had seen at least a photo or print of all he has ever created. I was proven wrong that day. They have four paintings by Marc Chagall on display at the Vatican Museums. Two of them, I was familiar with, but the other two I had never seen before.
I have seen a lot of Marc Chagall also, love his stained glass windows. Most beautiful set in Switzerland in Zurich.
I also am not familiar with these in the Vatican City.
As we entered the Sistine Chapel, we were asked to move to the middle. The centre was literally shoulder-to-shoulder people. However, as a lot of the most interesting stuff is on the ceiling anyway, it did not matter. There are all kinds of rules for the Sistine Chapel. Apart from the fact that we were only allowed to stand in the centre of the room, no photography or video is allowed and there should be silence. The silence part rubbed me up the wrong way. It was not that visitors were asked to be silent. This is only fitting for what is a very spiritual place. What got me is that at regular intervals, the security guards made announcements in booming voices about people not taking photos, about moving to the middle and best of all, about people needing to be silent. The low level whispers at times were nowhere near as disruptive as those announcements. I was glad that I had the chance to have seen the Sistine Chapel and I could have justified paying the admission just for this, but we both agreed that this was not the most beautiful thing we had seen that day.
Their announcements kind of "Break the Spell" of the chapel. To me it is one of those places that once you see it you don't have to go back. I was there in 1991, but David has never gone. I have always wanted him to go, but I he is not interested.
When we got near the entrance, the security guard seemed to be in mad rush to get us through the door. This seemed a bit weird, but considering how busy the Vatican Museums and especially the Sistine Chapel had been, I just figured that he was expecting the next wave people. So we complied and walked through the door. I suppose I should have cottoned on when I saw the number of security guards and stewards in that area, but it all happened rather quickly. It was only once we had walked through the door and looked back that I realized that the door looked rather familiar. I had seen this during the lecture the day before. The door we had all but been pushed through was the Porta Santa or Holy Door. I have to admit I temporarily felt a little weak in the knees. I am not a Catholic, but this was still a spiritual experience.
the lecture paid off, how wonderful that you got to go thru the door and see it and realize where you were to enjoy also.
Anyway, we were now inside St. Peter's Basilica. Up until fairly recently, this was the largest church in the word and it is definitely impressive. It does not have the soaring height of some of the churches we had seen in France, but it has a huge floor plan. It is also very beautiful. We had a walk around taking everything in. One of the things I wanted to see is the Bernini Baldachin above the central altar. You cannot get particularly close, but even from a fair distance it is very impressive. The same is true for the dome. There are more beautiful frescos all around the church as well as statues and paintings. What is sadly missing is somewhere to sit down to reflect and to be able to quietly enjoy this amazing building. So we did not spent as much time there as we otherwise may have done. Once we had circled the building slowly, we were essentially ready to leave. However, there were things I wanted to see that I had not found during our leisurely walk around: the Pieta and the Chapel of St. Sebastian. Graham found himself another ledge to sit on and was quite happy to stay where he was. I set off again. I saw somebody official looking shortly afterwards and asked him where I could find the Pieta. He pointed me to an area that was obscured by a heavy grey curtain right next to the Porta Santa. I thanked him and was on my way.
The Basilica to me is breathtaking, I also would like to see some pews so you can take it all in, but I am guessing they want people in and out to keep things moving along.
Considering it was only early afternoon, the train was incredibly busy. I had bought first class tickets, but we never found the first class coach. Graham ended up standing for the whole journey and I only managed to get a seat for the last couple of stops. Once we arrived back at Civitavecchia, we split up. Graham wanted to have a walk along the seawall and I had an errand to run. So we both headed off in different directions. I was a little nervous about what I needed to do. I was not sure how widely spoken English is in Civitavecchia. Graham had forgotten to bring Glucosamine, which he takes daily after a wrist injury and not having taken any since we left was starting to have an effect. So I thought I would do my good deed for the day and find a chemist to get some. The finding the chemist part was not an issue and in the process I found that the town centre of Civitavecchia is quite pretty. Doing the shopping was a little more of a challenge. As I had feared the pharmacist did not speak much English, but I ended up coming out with what I had wanted.
oh that is good to hear, at least you got what you needed.
As a child, the bumper cars were one of my favourite fairground attractions, although usually as a passenger. By my early teens, I had kind of grown out of this and gravitated towards more thrilling attractions, but now they looked very tempting. The bumper cars on the Ovation are battery operated and a bit sleeker than the ones I was used to as a child. Graham gave me some tips on how to operate them and then I got into the very short line. They were just loading for the next round, but I just missed the cut off. I was near the front of the line for the next round. This was so much fun. Graham took some photos of me having a great time. When I was done, I got straight back in line. At first I was able to ride every other time, but then people started to drift away and I got to ride every time. Graham soon joined me. In the end they did not even make us get out and get back into line, but told us we could just stay in the cars if we wanted. We were even joined by some members of the sports team. After we both had about 10 turns, we decided that we had enough. This is actually pretty good exercise. We rounded up our stuff and headed back to our cabin.
looks like you were having a grand time. I need to add this to my list of things to try.
Dinner that night was at Silk. Silk is their Asian restaurant and this was the one I was most excited about. We decided to take our bottle of wine that had a cork to dinner that night. Royal Caribbean does not have a corking fee. This was a rose Tempranillo, which worked great with the Asian food. First of all our server insisted on chilling it in an ice bucket for a while. Graham only had a main course that evening after his hot dog feast earlier in the day. He went with the sake- glazed salmon with stir-fried vegetables. He seemed to enjoy this. I started with Mulligatawny soup followed by Vietnamese Tacos. For my main course I had the Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and roti. For dessert, I went with the Mochi. The standout dish was the Vietnamese Tacos. They used steamed buns for the Taco shells and the filling consisted of shredded pork, vegetables and a very nice sauce. Everything was lovely though and the wine worked really well with this.
Much better experience this evening, and that the wine paired well.
