May 15/16

I think (hope) I've got this photo thing under control again, so here's a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa that I didn't get posted last time.

Yesterday afternoon was perfect weather to remain on board...a deep blue sky, gentle sun, slight breeze, temperature right around 70 F and plenty of chairs to choose from on Lido Deck. I love it when the rest of the world goes sightseeing and I don't have to! To celebrate, I had my hair done then topped off the afternoon with a luscious hot chocolate buried under whipped cream and a slice of vanilla marble pound cake. Yum again. The food on board is fine, but this pound cake and hot chocolate thing is totally decadent! And there's no charge for the pound cake!

May 15 and we are in Naples. I would have loved to tour to Pompeii and/or Herculaneum, but as with many things these days, I find myself going with a Plan B involving less walking. So I was booked to take a tour called "Leisurely Sorrento" instead. However, when I reread the description, it casually mentioned walking. So I asked one of the guides exactly how much walking. The reply was one half mile each way from the bus park to the city center. My reply to that was what you might expect. The Shore Excursion folks were very nice and refunded my full ticket.

So I spent another peaceful day on the ship. There were even fewer people left aboard today than yesterday. One of the many things I did today was go up top and take a lap around the jogging track...no, of course I was not jogging. Get real! But the view of Naples' harbor was interesting. I'm fairly sure that I saw Vesuvius, and from descriptions by friends who did go on tour today, this is it.  

May 16 is a sea day, and is rather choppy, with force 4 winds and 3 meter seas. It's the first of only 2 sea days on this cruise, and the other is the next to last day. Personally I like sea days even though all the other passengers are on board also. This ship has very few quiet places to sit and relax...Muzak everywhere and too loud. I thought I'd found a nice spot and 10 minutes later I was in the middle of a "1970s Name That Tune in X Notes Team Trivia" event. I hadn't heard that much disco music since the 70s ended! At least I met some nice folks from Lynchburg, and the husband got 17 out of 20 correct for "our team" which included me by simple propinquity. 

I tried to post this, but with 2,000 passengers, and probably 60% of them using their various types of electronics, things are slower than usual. Access is always slower by satellite on the ships, but now that the whole ship is wi-fied instead of just a few public areas, more people can get online at once. So, I'll wait a while and try again.