Trip Report Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Finally, right? It seems like I’ve been waiting forever to start this, but really we’ve only been back three weeks! And in that time I’ve lived in a hotel for two weeks and driven across the country from Washington DC to our new home in...wait for it...Las Vegas! For some reason I have chosen now, surrounded by boxes that need to be unpacked, as the time to start my trip report. Stalling maybe? :D So here it goes!

What: A massive 19 day (13 days on the cruise with 6 more including travel time and extra days in Europe) trip extravaganza. A 12 night Mediterranean cruise with a day in London beforehand and a few days in London and Barcelona afterwards. So yes. This is going to be a long stinking trip report. Oh, and I took 5239 pictures. On my camera! That doesn’t even count the Instagram/iphone photos you’ll see scattered throughout the report.

Great day in the morning.

Why: Because cruises are awesome mostly. But also because I was able to do a last-minute 11 night Med cruise back in April of 2010 with my daughter and some other family and friends, so this was a makeup cruise for my son and husband. It worked nicely as a graduation trip/present. :)

When: June 13-July 1, 2013

I booked this cruise the day it came out, back in January of 2012.

As time got closer we realized it was going to get crazy. My daughter was going to have to miss the last day of school, my son was graduating from high school the Saturday before the trip, we had a house full of family that whole weekend and a big graduation party on Sunday, he then left and was coming home one day early from his senior trip to make it on time, and we were moving across the country to Las Vegas so our household goods were all moved the day before we left. Then the kids were traveling with their youth group to Scotland 3 days after the cruise ended, so it really didn’t make sense for us to come all the way back home and we needed to stay in Europe for three more days before we dropped them off in London Heathrow. Got all that? Yes. Like I said, a little crazy.

Totally worth it though. :)

Who: Us! Here we are a few days before we left! This picture is a celebration of the whole Whiting family – but mostly Chase. The high school graduate. Also appearing in this photo are myself-Tammy, hubby-Stephen, and daughter – Ally.



My parents! My parents were on our last Med cruise, and have been in several of my trip reports. They had quite the trip in store for them. Here they are in Monaco:



My in-laws! My in-laws were also on my last Med cruise, as well as a few other cruises with us, so they may look familiar if you've ever read one of my reports. Here they are in Palo:



My brother-in-law! Scott has appeared in a few trip cruise trip reports as well. He’s the oldest of three boys with my hubby falling in the middle. Here he is in Mykonos:

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I can understand. I'm much more relaxed running free on the Western ports now. LOL! I was just totally in awe when you were talking about this train as opposed to that train and it's this bus even tho your family questioned your direction. I was totally sitting here with my jaw dropped thinking, "I want to be able to do that!" I think you're making me a little brave. I'm totally trying to figure out buses, ferries, and/or island-hoppers to get from St. Thomas to Virgin Gorda to see The Baths in November. By boat everyone on Cruise Critic says it's too far in such a short time. My brain says there's gotta be a way. It's about 45 miles. That's not that far! I want to see those Baths. I don't give a flip about St. Thomas. LOL!

Yes! It's so much more relaxing when you've done it before! And we learned last time that even when we couldn't speak the language at all, total strangers helped us out. It was pretty obvious when we were clueless and needed help, lol.

Haha! Those baths are very cool, I don't blame you.

All caught up! Beautiful pictures as always! I so want to go to Monaco. I agree with Kelly. I would be so lost and overwhelmed trying to find my way without an excursion in these foreign ports. I think that is why I like the cruises so much. Even though you are going to these foreign places, you have the security of a tour group as well. I wouldn't know the first thing about trying find my way around. And then having to worry about getting lost and not getting back to ship on time! Stressed out just thinking about it!

Thank you, Kristy! :)
I agree. We were able to experience both kinds of touring this trip and both had benefits.
Being on a ship meant we didn't have to find hotels, we knew even the pickiest eaters had food waiting for them at night that they were comfortable with, one time unpacking, several different stops, and a feeling of security.
When we were in London for three days and Barcelona for one, it was good for other reasons, one of which being that we weren't always concerned about time in the back of our minds.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I’m back! :)

So what was behind those walls? This magnificence!!





Look at these cuties:



As a side note, I dropped Chase off at college this week and I may be overly emotional every time I edit a picture of him. Would it be wrong to put a halo around every picture of him?





There she is!



Tower of Pisa pictures are hard to edit! They always look, well you know, crooked. :D But that's how much it's leaning! Notice the ground is straight!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster


We wandered around for 30 minutes or so reading signs and taking pictures.









It’s hard to comprehend from pictures how much the tower truly leans. Here’s the base of it. The top of the wall around the sides is level with the ground. Look at the difference in height between one side of the wall and the other:





I’m not good at selfies with my own camera. It’s too heavy. That’s my excuse. :)

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tower of Pisa toeses!!



There’s a market right next to the square which was fun to walk around in.



We bought some pizza from a stand next to the square. 2 Euros for a personal pizza! Yay!



And my favorite!! Coke Zero! Yay! Only one Euro! Double yay!



Chase snuck off and got some candy from the market to supplement his pizza.



 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
See how many people are taking the picture? Pretty much everyone.



After we had our fill, we walked across the street to catch the bus back.



Ally was starting to stress about missing her appointment and she was stressing me out a little too.:p

It was Africa hot waiting for that bus, so that didn’t help.

Cute train:



Bus stop:



On the bus:



I wish we had enough time to walk back because there are so many (other) picture opportunities in Pisa!

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we got back to the station we saw the next train was in 5 minutes. Yay!





Here it is!



When you travel by trains and busses in Europe, the tickets you buy aren’t date specific. So you must take the ticket and validate it in a machine after you purchase it. You cannot forget!

If you happen to be on a train where the conductor comes by and checks tickets and yours isn’t validated, you pay a hefty fine. Well someone did come by on this trip, and a woman near us hadn’t validated. He wrote her out a ticket right then and there!

We had the car to ourselves most of the time.

Train toes!



The scenery was nice:





You could take this train all the way to Rome!

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ally’s tension was growing the entire train trip back. She was so worried she was going to miss her spa appointment. I decided she and I would jump in a cab and ride back to the tenders to save time.

We were ready to jump off the second we arrived!

The train stopped at a stop called La Spezia but it sure didn’t look like the same stop we’d boarded on. I couldn’t tell if maybe we were just further down the tracks then where we boarded and we all got off tentatively. We took about 5 steps and I knew this wasn’t our stop.

The funny thing was, there were about 40 other Amercians a few cars down doing the same thing. One of them must have asked a conductor because about the same time we realized we needed to get back on, they all turned and started running en masse back to the train.

Oops! Silly Americans. :)

The next stop was ours, and Ally and I jumped off, ran through the train station and to the first cab. He was fast and we were there in about 5 minutes.

Here’s the street to the tenders. The tender is ahead on the left.



The ships still there!



Shoot! We just missed a tender! So we sat. And sat. And sat. We didn’t leave for about 25 minutes. I was going to be hacked if the boys all made it on the same tender before we left. If they did - why exactly did we pay for a cab?

Of course they didn’t because they found free Wi-Fi on the way… :D

I’m pretty sure Ally stared at me like this the entire way:



So…That was fun.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster


I stood by the door and took pictures for the last 10 minutes. Partly to take pictures and partly to be positioned strategically next to the door so we would be the first off! :)













We ran up 10 flights of stairs and into the spa about 20 minutes late!

Okay, I lied. We ran to the elevator and rode up 10 decks and went into the spa about 20 minutes late! :D

The spa said it was no problem and they took Ally back. Woo hoo!

I breathed a huge sigh of relief and went to the room to get ready for dinner.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
From the window of my room, I saw the next tender come in and I figured the guys were on it. They were!! There’s my boy! My boy who no longer lives with me! My boy who I don't get too see every day anymore!

Oops, sorry. I digress…



I checked in on Mom. She still didn’t feel great and wasn’t coming to dinner. Sadness. She wasn’t sick to her stomach, just weak, chills and maybe a fever so she didn’t plan on going to see the doctor onboard. She was quarantine-ing herself and trying to avoid being under forced quarantine! :(

Dinner was in Parrot Cay that night. My in-laws were about 45 minutes late. Their excursion went super long. Plamen and Meisa didn’t mind.



There were a lot of late people!

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Chase branched out from pizza tonight with – Chicken fingers!



Dessert time!





Old favorite:



I checked in once more with Dad and told him what time we were leaving for Rome the next day. I was worried about doing that without him and I said I really hoped he could go if Mom couldn’t. I hated for him to miss so much too!

I probably shouldn’t have pushed because Mom wasn’t up to it the next day and Dad came without her. I think he felt bad and worried about her all day. I could tell he was anxious to get back.

Sorry Dad! :oops:

When we got in our room we realized our bathroom floor had flooded. It seemed to be coming up from the floor. Just water. :)

We called maintenance and they came pretty quick.

This was waiting for us:



Then we went to bed! Big day tomorrow! We're going to Rome!
 

momof1princess

Well-Known Member
Thanks for documenting my dream trip for me! My husband would never go for a cruise of this length, so your trip report is as close as I'll get. I'm loving all the pictures too!
 

TrolleyFollower91

Well-Known Member
A couple of comments:
1. Ally's face when you were waiting for the tender is priceless. I totally can understand her feelings, though- I wouldn't want to be late for my spa appointment either :D
2. I love how your servers even gave Chase his chicken nuggets on a kid's place. That's fantastic.
3. Sick Mom?! Oh no :arghh:
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks for documenting my dream trip for me! My husband would never go for a cruise of this length, so your trip report is as close as I'll get. I'm loving all the pictures too!

Hah! Well you are very welcome! Live vicariously through my pictures. :)

A couple of comments:
1. Ally's face when you were waiting for the tender is priceless. I totally can understand her feelings, though- I wouldn't want to be late for my spa appointment either :D
2. I love how your servers even gave Chase his chicken nuggets on a kid's place. That's fantastic.
3. Sick Mom?! Oh no :arghh:

I thought that was a funny face too. :)
They did! Two kids plates every night! It was so funny.
Sick! And getting sicker!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster


This looks like our dinner after returning from Berlin!! (It was even Parrot Cay!)



Ooooo, is that the crab dip?? I'm pretty sure it is!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

We had several nights like that, Chuck! Ain't nobody got time for early dinner on Europe cruises!

Stephen says you are correct! Crab dip!
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Poor Mom.

Ally cracked me up with "the look". How did she like her appointment? What service did she get????

The pics of Chase, start photoshopping him holding signs that say "Kayak Instructor". Then maybe you won't be quite as wistful. LOL! That's awful! I'm sorry. ;) I have been thinking of you, Tammy, hoping you're managing okay. I would so make you a cookie smash right now! Cookie smash makes all things better!
 

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