14-night Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise (May 14-28, 2011) Lots of pics! COMPLETED 9/8

[Laundress]

Loving your report and especially your photos. Thank you for taking the time.

[annichan]

We were on the cruise immediately following yours (the first 11-night Med), and I am tremendously enjoying your report. Incidentally, the day you have just written about - May 24th - was the day I was sitting at home close to tears because our local airport was to be closed due to the volcanic ash cloud and I was so afraid we wouldn't be able to fly out on the Friday, so the cloud was not quite gone yet - so glad everything worked out in the end!

[binkytell]

Cadiz looks beautiful, kinda sad the wbta is not stopping there!!
Yeah your going to be finished before we travel, you sure have helped pass the time : )))

[chanti]

I love reading tripreports and yours is one of my favourites!! I can't wait to read about the last few days!! Thanks for the effort!!!

[breced]

Love it! Great TR!

[KevieKev05]

Originally Posted by iloverags2

What great pictures! Excellent you were able to get around Cadiz without a map. And what luck your mom and dad saw you so you could forewarn them about the walking!

Sweet of Marianne to get you in for early seating. She sounds absolutely wonderful!

All those yummy snacks being set out throughout the day are making me hungry...

Marianne truly made the cruise for us! We are so thankful that she was our server...we became like family over the course of the two weeks! And yes, those snacks definitely got us in trouble...we would often spoil our dinner, HAHA! Only joking...we still somehow found room to add all the yummy food from dinner as well!

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

Wonderful addition! What were those hooligans thinking, messing up my iron street lamps with shoes

I KNOW! I just had to take a picture!

Originally Posted by Laundress

Loving your report and especially your photos. Thank you for taking the time.

Thank you! And thank YOU for taking the time to read it!

Originally Posted by annichan

We were on the cruise immediately following yours (the first 11-night Med), and I am tremendously enjoying your report. Incidentally, the day you have just written about - May 24th - was the day I was sitting at home close to tears because our local airport was to be closed due to the volcanic ash cloud and I was so afraid we wouldn't be able to fly out on the Friday, so the cloud was not quite gone yet - so glad everything worked out in the end!

Oh no! We really had no idea how serious or not serious it was...we just had little blurbs in the "newsletter" they provided daily. And yes, how fortunate that it all worked out!

Originally Posted by binkytell

Cadiz looks beautiful, kinda sad the wbta is not stopping there!!
Yeah your going to be finished before we travel, you sure have helped pass the time : )))

Cadiz definitely surprised me. Between our excursion and Cadiz itself, I was in awe at all the beauty!

Originally Posted by chanti

I love reading tripreports and yours is one of my favourites!! I can't wait to read about the last few days!! Thanks for the effort!!!

Wow! That is quite a compliment...thank you!

Originally Posted by breced

Love it! Great TR!

Thanks!


Well folks, I hope to have another installment posted within the next 24 hours! You won't want to miss it!

[christannj]

Keep it coming Kevin. Like the others we love your pictures and commentary. I have never thought to take photos at meals and the menus but I am going to do this on the WBTA since it is a great way to remember all of the moments.

[KevieKev05]

DAY 12 - May 25th, 2011 - Gibraltar, U.K. (Part 1)

As we’re peacefully sleeping, the phone rings at 7:50! It’s room service, and three minutes later, our breakfast arrives. Now, we had asked for an 8:30-9:00 delivery time, so this was SUPER early today. The server said he was “busy” (which we assumed).



At 8:00, Cruise Director Peter came on the loudspeaker and said the ship was cleared and that the weather will be nicer than initially predicted! YAHOO!



We proceeded to get ready and at about 9:35, the four of us made our way downstairs to get off the ship for our 10:00 tour.













(Dad loved this yacht and wanted me to take a picture...he dreams big!)


Getting off the ship was easy enough...however, finding our driver was not (granted we were early)! We walked around for about 10 minutes or so before finding him right outside the terminal! Ooops! I guess it doesn’t pay all the time to be early! Hahaha.

Anyway, our driver was Christian and he was absolutely WONDERFUL! Thankfully, our “taxi” in this port was much more spacious than our taxi in Madeira (if you recall). By 10:00, we were already on our way to explore this wonderful destination!



Our first stop? “The Pillars of Hercules”:



Through the fog, you can see AFRICA!


And now, EUROPE!




Africa on the left, Europe on the right.


Zoomed in on Africa.


Zoomed in on Europe.




A cemetery:


Military training grounds:








More of the pillars:

[KevieKev05]

DAY 12 - May 25th, 2011 - Gibraltar, U.K. (Part 2)

After spending about ten minutes at the Pillars of Hercules, we proceeded to our next destination: St. Michaels Cave. Our tour price included admission to all the areas requiring that, so Christian took care of it, gave us our tickets, and we were on our way inside! But first, we saw a glimpse of what was to come later on on our tour...



Now, inside the caves!















This was especially interesting to me:
















They hold concerts in here since the acoustics are so great!






After we made our way through the caves, we met Christian outside the exit and he the drove us to our next destination: the top of the Rock! Getting there was interesting...roads are narrow and kind of zigzag up the side of the “mountain.” Once we made it, it was quite impressive!







APES!

[KevieKev05]

DAY 12 - May 25th, 2011 - Gibraltar, U.K. (Part 3)













The area was tight up here, so we had to move along quickly so that all the taxis could come through. It was one of those things where if you were the front taxi, you had to then move along, so that the flow could keep going. So, by the time we were the front taxi, we had seen what we needed to see and hopped in! I guess I should also mention, while we were up at the top, one of the apes came through the driver side window of the taxi and sat there! We were like, “Ummm...Christian...there’s an ape in your seat!” Apparently, he had some food to give the apes that one of them smelled and wanted to get for himself! Christian got him out easily, but it was still a kind in weird, yet humorous moment for us!

We then drove to our next destination: “The Great Siege Tunnels”. Our ticket from the Caves was also good for the Tunnels, so we proceeded in while Christian waited with our taxi.















Yes, that is the airport runway, and yes it crosses the road! They have to shut down the road when planes are landing. Land comes at a premium in Gibraltar!

[KevieKev05]

DAY 12 - May 25th, 2011 - Gibraltar, U.K. (Part 4)













Close up of the runway/road. Also, I believe the point where you see the taller, colorful buildings is the Gibraltar/Spain border:








So, after we took all these wonderful pictures, the tour had ended and it was time to head back to the ship. But, naturally, I snapped a couple more pictures on the way!





At about 11:45, we were already back at the ship. It felt like we were on our tour for longer than that! By noon, we were on our way upstairs for lunch at Topsider. Today’s (fitting) theme? BRITISH BUFFET! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. There was quite a lengthy line, however!

We start walking through the buffet, and I was hooked. It was probably my favorite lunch buffet the whole cruise!





By 12:45, we had completed lunch. We spent the next hour or so exploring the open decks and taking pictures.





Africa!

[KevieKev05]

DAY 12 - May 25th, 2011 - Gibraltar, U.K. (Part 5)









Close-up of Africa!














After snapping all these wonderful pictures, James and I decide to lay out by the pool. So, we grab our swimsuits and head back upstairs. The Quiet Cove pool area was too crowded, so we found a couple chairs at the Goofy Pool and laid out. What luck, too! One of my favorite Disney movies was playing on the big screen: Sleeping Beauty!

At about 4:00, we grabbed some ice cream and went up on deck 10 to look at the “Rock” some more. Gibraltar is definitely impressive...that Rock is so intriguing, and it was interesting looking at it from the ship after “conquering” it on our tour!

Anyway, after enjoying our ice cream, we changed out of our swimsuits and went downstairs, where I took even more pictures (mainly of my favorite art pieces).







The navigational chart that was to be auctioned off:


We played a round of shuffleboard on deck 4 and then came back inside to find characters in the lobby!





At this point, Shutters was about to open, so we made our way over there. We were wanting to buy the “folio” where you can have two 8x10 pictures in it and then the cover had a special “transatlantic” insert. So, we narrowed our options down to two photos, and bought them along with the folio! By 5:15 we were back in our room to relax a little bit before all the evening’s festivities!

STAY TUNED for: sailing away from Gibraltar, dinner, and the *NEW* deck party - “Party Paradiso”!

[Pinkocto]

Fabulous addition Kevin! What a nice tour to be able to see all those awesome places, and you even got the boat almost all to yourselves for a few hours! Those apes are just so cute, I'd have a real hard time not sitting and observing them for a while.

I hope James wasn't too annoyed at the early awakening, I know I would have been. Those last minutes of sleep in the morning are precious, and you said he isn't a morning person, which I can relate to

[KevieKev05]

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

Fabulous addition Kevin! What a nice tour to be able to see all those awesome places, and you even got the boat almost all to yourselves for a few hours! Those apes are just so cute, I'd have a real hard time not sitting and observing them for a while.

I hope James wasn't too annoyed at the early awakening, I know I would have been. Those last minutes of sleep in the morning are precious, and you said he isn't a morning person, which I can relate to

Thank you! Gibraltar was definitely awesome. And James...well, he managed to survived our early mornings. Thankfully there weren't too many of them. He knew that was all part of going on this awesome cruise and that he had to get over it, HAHA! He was fine though...I would get up, eat breakfast, and shower, and during that time, he would SLOWLY start to wake up and crawl out of bed. I think he agrees that it was all worth it in the end!!! (Or at least he BETTER!)

I hope to have the second half of the Gibraltar day up by tomorrow evening!

[Pinkocto]

I am laughing so hard!!!! If he agrees to another two weeker you'll know he didn't mind too much! Still laughing It just sounds so similar to my vacations!

Can't wait for another update