My parents arrived a few days before we left on our cruise. When they arrived in Munich my dad had a bad cold, which we were hoping we wouldn’t catch. When we first told Kevin that we were going on a cruise and we told him which countries we were visiting, he said “great you’re going to all the countries that are having problems”. We arrived in Rome on Oct 21 to begin our 13 day cruise. The trains were not running that day due to a strike, which we were already aware that that might be happening, so I arranged for our transfer to the boat through Princess. I think my parents were happy for that. We got my parents settled in their room and we had time for lunch and went to explore the ship. Jay found the ship's library and an English/German dictionary. I had to take a picture so he could show his German teacher he was studying, even on vacation. The Star Princess was the same ship we were on for our Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago. Our cabin on this cruise was upgraded to a room with a balcony. I told Jay that now I won’t go back to a room with just a window. It’s like camping and going from a tent to a camper, once you have a taste of a better way you don’t go back. As we left the port in Civitavecchia, Italy you could just see the sun starting to set.
We spent the next two days at sea on our way to Egypt. Our first day at sea we passed Stromboli Island where we could see the volcano smoldering. Later that day we passed through the Messina Strait, which separates the mainland of Italy from the island of Sicily.
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| Messina Strait |
We spent our sea time wisely, going to the casino, playing ping pong, joining trivia contests, relaxing and watching food demonstrations. It was amazing to see what they can make with different fruits and vegetables and how quickly they make them. Jay and I signed up for an egg drop contest. For the egg drop contest you were to build something out of things that you could find on the ship that would hold an egg which would be dropped three floors and hopefully your egg wouldn’t break. Results later on.
We also met some people from Cruise Critics, which we signed up for just before this cruise. (Travel Tip) Cruise Critics is where you can email people that are on the same cruise as you. I had made arrangements for us to take a private tour in Egypt, but after meeting some people from Cruise Critics on the ship we decided to go on the tour with them. We thought touring with 18 other people would be better than just four, not to mention it would be a little safer.
Jay also entered a slot tournament and made it to the finals with 5 other women. Unfortunately he didn’t finish on top, but he did receive a baseball cap. Jay and my dad entered a golf chipping contest. You had to chip across the pool into a shower located on the other side. Jay didn’t do too well, but my dad made one shot in the shower and received a gold medal, which he was very proud of.
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