Thursday June 13, 2024 -At sea on route to Rome (Civitavecchia)
A welcome day at sea between the fun day in Barcelona / Montserrat and the port that serves Rome. We are excited about the tour in Rome as it is a private tour of the Pope’s Country Estate. However, today we enjoyed a leisurely morning. A bit concerned as the application on your phone that tells you what’s going on, what specialty restaurants you have booked etc was down. After enquiring whether this was just our phones or a system wide issue, we were told that it is a ship wide issue and that it could not be resolved on the ship by the technicians, so someone on shore is trying to work it out. The reason for our concern was that we couldn’t remember whether we had booked a specialty restaurant lunch today or not. All very important stuff!!!
We got in late to the first lecture on Tutankhamen, which we had heard Vivianne Rowan speak of it on a prior voyage, but were there for the “main event” – the live interview of the BBC news / Australian / CBS news lady – Angela Rippon by the entertainment director – Michael Harvey – an interesting life and some “behind the scenes” drama. She was on a dance program and just as she and her professional dance partner were about to go on, she realized that she had cut her leg in rehearsal and was standing in a pool of her own blood. The producers quickly changed the order of performers, while she was cleaned up, changed and went on without anyone knowing that there was an issue. Other such stories were interesting. The final talk was by Philip St. Lawrence was interesting as he spoke of the last days of Horatio Nelson, the love of his life Emma, as he strategized and executed the Battle of Trafalgar, where the British was victorious, but he lost his life.
The lunch at Sir Samuels, we had thought was on today, was not, although Anne went to the restaurant and spoke to the head waitress whom we have found to be hopeless, barely able to read and arrogant. After 20 minutes he said – no you don’t have any reservation, which we know we do have. He does not deserve to be in that organizing position as he casts a bad attitude and image of what is an outstanding cruise line. We did our usual afternoon activities – Anne in the gym and Roger in meetings or on the computer. After dinner we enjoyed the show, which we had seen before – Goronwy Thorn – a comedian juggler that has a lot of interaction with the audience and audience members go on stage. We then went up to the top deck as we had been advised that we were going to be going through a very difficult narrow passage between Corsica and Sardinia on our way to Rome.
Roger & Anne Travels 