Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 7 – Boarding the Celebrity Solstice
November 30, 2009
Yesterday, we began our Transatlantic cruise from Rome (Citavecchia) to Ft Lauderdale back in the States. As much as we enjoyed our stay in Rome, we were still anxious for the cruise to begin as it was the most looked forward to part of the whole vacation.
The morning began with a bell pepper, onion and cheese omelet. Having the apartment and being able to cook breakfast each morning was helpful and a cost savings. Rome is quite expensive from a dining standpoint. Even buying groceries in Rome was significantly more expensive than we are used to. The weak dollar vs Euro just make its worse too.
After breakfast, we had to pack back up and do a quick straightening of the apartment. We had hired a driver to take us to the cruise ship terminal which is about 70 miles from where our apartment was. The fee to get to the terminal was 80 Euros. The driver showed up about 45 minutes early which was fine by us as we were ready. The drive to the cruise ship was uneventful and painless and we arrived about 11:30 am.
Boarding was supposed to start at 12:30, but as usual, they started early and we were onboard the ship in about 15 minutes. Since the room was not yet ready, we proceeded to grab some lunch. After lunch, we went and got the kids checked into the kids club. Looks like a total of 11 kids on this sailing, which is almost double the 6 from the transatlantic last year. Sean is in the teens this year and they have a pretty sweet, private set up. There is only 1 kid in Savannah’s age group, and he is Polish, might not speak English and 3 years younger than Savannah, so she is hopeful of getting moved up to the teens.
After getting the kids checked in, it was announced that the rooms were ready so we went down to ours. The luggage arrived about the same time. Our room is huge! Never thought I would say that about a cruise ship cabin, but it is. We have what is called a family ocean veranda (or something similar). Basically, it’s a ocean veranda room, but its in the very front of the bow of the ship facing forward. Its on the far right side, in the corner if you will, so the balcony is on the side. But, its almost like a suite, coming in at over 550 sq feet. We have two bedrooms, a small one for the kids and then a good sized one for us, and a big living area with three desks, a couch and two oversized seats. We pretty much have more space than we know what to do with. The best part is the price is the same as a standard ocean veranda room. It has two big picture windows, one the living area and one in our bedroom looking forward over the bow of the ship, plus the balcony which is actually on the side of the ship.
We were slightly worried about the size of the Celebrity Solstice. We have typically sailed the smaller class ships of Celebrity. The Solstice holds about 3000 passengers. The ship is significantly bigger than most that we sail on. Its also newer. And it is most definitely very nice. The ship is immaculate. The kids and I took a our private tour of the ship while Suzanne unpacked. We visited the bars and lounges, theater, stores, dining room – basically all the public areas. I was quite impressed. I found what is likely to be my hangout, the cellarmasters lounge.
After the tour, we went back to the room to see Suzanne’s progress (glad it was her unpacking!). When she was done, it was about time for the Muster Drill. In a first for us, the Muster Drill no longer requires you to put on (or even take) your life preserver. Instead, you proceeded to the muster station (the theater in our case) and were presented a talk and video – much nicer than wearing your life preserver and actually going to the muster station.
After the Muster Drill, we dressed for dinner (smart casual) and proceeded down to the Cellarmasters lounge to enjoy a flight of Italian wines before dinner. We once again have late seating (8:30 pm) on this cruise. As a family, we all prefer the late seating.
We have a nice table for four, situated near the Captain’s table and by the 3 store wine cellar prominently displayed in the dining room – its quite impressive. Both our waiter and his assistant are from Turkey and are very nice.
The dinner was quite nice and enjoyable as usual on Celebrity. Me and the kids enjoyed a Spaghetti Carbonara (nope, didn’t get my fill in Rome!). Suzanne had Coq au Vin. We started slowly on this first meal and passed on several of the courses to avoid over stuffing ourselves. We did splurge and have Crème Brule for dessert.
After dinner, the kids and I retired to the room to wind down and prepare for a relatively early turn in time as we need to be up for the thing in the morning for our port of call in Livorno, Italy as we were taking a bus and tour to Pisa. We are scheduled to dock in Livorno at 7:00 am. Suzanne swung up to the Michaels Club for about 45 minutes to check out the piano player and to hang out with a couple of her Cruise Critic Roll Call friends.
We have ordered room service for breakfast and are looking forward to our touring of Pisa, Italy.
Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 6 – Last Full Day In Rome
November 29, 2009
Yesterday was our last full day in Rome on this wonderful vacation. This morning we will be boarding the Celebrity Solstice for our Transatlantic cruise back to the US. We decided to scale back our ambitious site seeing yesterday and take in a few of the larger piazzas.
We got a slow start on the day by sleeping in. After a breakfast of bacon and sausage, we made our way down to Piazza Popolo. We strolled around there for a bit and check out the three churches that are on the piazza. Suzanne really had wanted to visit one of them (can’t recall the name) because of a couple of really old painting that the church has. The church dates back to the late 1400s.
We then proceeded to head over to Piazza Novona (my favorite piazza). Along the way, we stopped at a new monument/museum. I say recent because it was only recently discovered and put back together. It was a former monument/temple to peace. When it was rebuilt, it was housed inside of a building which seemed really odd. I guess it gave them an easier way to charge an admittance fee for viewing.
At Piazza Novona, we were able to enjoy a nice pasta lunch will taking in some people watching. This piazza is very large and usually has an array of artists and street performers there. At this time of year, most of those had been replaced by a Christmas Market. There were still a couple of street performers there too. Suzanne was able to find a couple of souvenirs at the street market.
This was also the first time we got a bit wet on the trip. As previously mentioned, it had been threatening rain the entire trip which made the weather actually quite enjoyable. There was a slight drizzle falling while we ate lunch and for a few minutes afterwards, but we still managed to stay pretty much dry.
After leaving Piazza Novona, Sean wanted to visit the Spanish Steps again since he still hadn’t actually climbed up the steps. So I guided us back there but took a path back over there that went past the Pantheon. The kids still had not seen the inside during daylight hours. After seeing it, the nighttime view was still preferred. It also gave us an opportunity to get our Gelato for the day! We also visited the Trevi Fountain another time on the way back to the Spanish Steps. Savannah wanted to throw another coin in the fountain since she said she had already left Rome and then returned. Now, personally, I think visiting the Vatican doesn’t really qualify as such, but what the heck.
Finally, we hit the Spanish Steps and the kids were able to climb to the top and view them from above. After a short stay, we headed back to the apartment. I picked up a bottle of my favorite Italian wine, Barolo, for us to enjoy in the evening/night in the apartment.
We enjoyed a final Roman meal and reminisced about the trip to Rome. The girls were a bit sad, but were cheered up by the fact that tomorrow we would be getting on a cruise ship!
This has been a great way to start the vacation. The fact that we gave ourselves four days in Rome was really good. It would have been hard to see all we did in less time. Luckily, having been here many times on business myself, also gave us a pretty good idea ahead of time what to see and how to get there since I still find navigating room on foot very easy. The food has been fantastic. The people have been wonderful. The apartment couldn’t have been better. The price was right and we were ideally located in old Rome with easy access to most things we wanted to visit. All of us have enjoyed the pre-cruise stay in Rome much better than last years pre-cruise stay in Barcelona, Spain.
Be sure to follow our travel exploits on this blog as I try to make a daily update of our Rome and transatlantic cruise. Today, as previously mentioned, we will be boarding the Celebrity Solstice to begin our transatlantic cruise. This should be an interesting cruise as the Solstice is a bigger ship than we normally cruise. It will be another fun day!
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