Wanderung 27

Mediterranean Adventure

November - December 2012


 

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Tuesday November 20th, 2012: Embarkation in Civitavecchia, Italy

Bob:

As check-out time was not until 11 a.m., we wandered a bit around Civitavecchia after breakfast and confirmed that the nearby grocery store sold wine and Coca-Cola. So after retrieving our luggage, we kind of bent our path down to the cruise ship terminal over to that store and picked up some drinks along the way. Once at the sea shore, we fumbled around and finally asked at the Visitor Information center about "cruise ships", and they pointed the way into the port area.

Monika:

We had some time before check-out to walk around Civitavecchia and scouting out the best route to pull our wheelies to the port. We saw an open air market and walked around admiring the merchandise but not buying anything. However, we did stop at a grocery store to pick up some wine and coke for the trip.

Bob:

While we were pulling our luggage through the port entrance I could see one MSC cruise ship but neither hide nor hair of the Crown Princess, and I admit I was getting antsy that we had perhaps arrived after our ship had sailed (literally), something I personally dread. There were no signs anywhere, but fortunately a bus driver finally directed us to a shuttle bus with "Crown Princess" labeled on it and I began to relax as we were driven down the coast a good half a mile through a real maze of dockside streets to where the Crown Princess was docked. It had simply been too far off to see through the clutter of ships, cranes and containers scattered around the port.

Monika:

Walking to the port was no problem. Finding the entrance, however, was. But with some help from an information booth we got into the port. But now we needed to find the right bus to take us to our ship. There was no obvious sign, so I asked a bus driver, who pointed us finally to the correct bus stop right at the entrance to the port. But we finally did make it to the ship which was docked behind a fort.

Bob:

Once we debarked from the shuttle bus, the Princess folks were their normal efficient selves and we soon were registered, photographed, and comfortably ensconced in cabin C 433 on Deck 10. Our first move was to have lunch, however, because we had not had much for either our previous evening meal nor for breakfast, and we were also both thirsty as we had avoided drinking the tap water. We spent a good part of the afternoon taking turns unpacking but afterwards didn't have quite the energy to venture back out to Civitavecchia through the shuttle bus system.

The lifeboat drill was at 5:30, followed immediately by dinner where we met Corry and Will, a couple from New Orleans who were also seated at table 438 in the Da Vinci dining room. We had fun discussing where we lived, New Orleans being particularly hot and humid compared to the D.C. area, and what we planned to do on the cruise at different stops. But after that we just relaxed for the evening and turned in at 10 p.m. to try to keep on some kind of regular sleeping schedule.

Monika:

Once in the hands of Princess everything went smoothly. We found our stateroom, had lunch, sat on our balcany, and then unpacked our luggage before the obligatory life boat drill. At dinner we met our dinner companions, Corry and Will, who came from New Orleans. We had fun talking to them, so again, this will be a trip with nice dinner companions.



Copyright 2013 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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Prolog Map of Mediterranean Cruise Map of Transatlantic Cruise

November 2012
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4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
December 2012
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
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