Cruise

This morning we got up and went to the train station to catch a train to Civitavecchia, which is the Italian port. I was so excited to finally be on our way to 10 days of laying on the beach and being on the Ms Oosterdam. It was a slower train and definitely not as nice as the others we’ve been on, but it was a short ride. A few others on our train were going on our boat too.

Getting off the train was chaos. There were people trying to get cabs everywhere. We finally got one, who was quite amusing. He said he was Pavoratti Number Two. He sang opera for us in Spanish the whole way to the boat. Also, he said he could sing in German. He was quite good. We unloaded and went to stand in line to get our cards and pictures taken. I was trying to scope out people in line that were around my age. I couldn’t decide on the ones I did see, but most were seniors as usual on the Holland America Line.

Finally we were allowed on the boat! I really wanted to go swimming, but since our luggage hadn’t been brought to our rooms yet we couldn’t. We got some lunch at the Lido restaurant, and then booked some spa treatments for the next day. Steph and I booked Exotic Hand and Feet Rituals with mani-pedis and Dad booked a massage. Then we went to our rooms to wait for our luggage.

By the time it got there it was too close to dinner time to go swimming so we just unpacked and then went up to the Sail Away party. We drank mojitos and stood around for a bit, then headed to the dining room where we had a great dinner. Then we wandered around the ship and found a library. You could rent movies and books, so we rented Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and watched it in our room. Then we went to bed.