Something Old, Something New, Nothing Borrowed, Something Blue

[dolphingirl47]

Day 12

When we woke up the following morning, we were out at sea. I had briefly been awake during the night to go to the bathroom and noticed that we were under way, but slept the rest of the night through. We had a 9:30 Cruise Critic meet that morning and I was not too impressed by this when I found out the day before, but we were actually awake just before the alarm went off. We got up and dressed and headed down to Chic, where the meet was due to take place. As we came in, they took the raffle tickets from us and gave out a gift. This was the same that we had received on the Splendour in December, so we politely declined. We went inside the restaurant and found a table. Servers came around with complimentary drinks. Graham had some champagne and I had a Mimosa. They also had set up a table towards the back with coffee, tea and refreshments. Graham had some coffee and a raisin swirl. I am not the biggest friend of the Royal Caribbean Roast so I went with a mint tea and a pecan pastry. While I was getting my food, I bumped into one of our table mates and he asked if he could join us. I pointed out were we were sitting and he headed in this direction. We were also joined by a couple from Australia.

The meet was hosted by the Activities Manager Belle. As far as I understand it, this is the same position on Royal Caribbean that the Assistant Cruise Director is on Disney Cruise Line. She was from Australia and seemed very nice. She made a few introductory remarks and then drew the raffle. There were plenty prizes, but we did not win anything this time. Once the formal part of the meet was over, Belle invited various members of the group that had announcements to make to the front. There were a number of private excursions organised via our cruise meet thread and this was where most of them would collect payment. This was the main reason why we ended up going even though it was so early. I went to pay for our Petra excursion and was equipped with instructions on where and when to meet. With this taken care of, we headed out.

I had spotted something on the Daily Compass that I wanted to do and arranged to meet up with Graham afterwards near the Solarium Bistro. I still had a little bit of time so decided to check out our embarkation photos as the photo gallery was right next to where I needed to be anyway. Unfortunately I was out of luck. Even though they had scanned Graham’s Set Sail Pass, the photos had not been linked to our stateroom. A member of staff there tried a few things to locate the photos, but then gave up and told me to have some photos taken that day and this should fix the issue. I was decidedly less than impressed.

I then headed over to the Schooner Bar. The activity that had caught my eye was a photo scavenger hunt. I was not quite sure what this involved, but figured that it may be a bit of fun. Unfortunately I never did get to find out what it did involve. Including me, only two people had turned up. The member of the Cruise Director’s Staff told us that we would need at least 3 teams of 2 to 4 people to play. We waited a while, but nobody else turned up. Still, it still turned out to be quite an enjoyable exercise. While we were waiting, we got talking and it turned out that all three of us were big Disney fan. The second guest was from West Palm Beach, Florida and the member of the Cruise Director’s Staff was from China. We were chatting about the parks we had visited and all three of us were hoping to get to Shanghai Disneyland in the not too distant future. We spent a happy half an hour or so talking all things Disney.

I headed up to the Solarium and found Graham. He had settled in near the front of the solarium. The loungers in this area were all taken. I told him that I would find myself a lounger near the Solarium Bistro. I did not have any issues to find one. I settled down and worked on my trip report. Graham came to join me just before the Solarium Bistro was due to open. We went over to the entrance and they were just opening the door. The Solarium Bistro is a buffet for breakfast and lunch. At dinner time, it offers a salad and dessert bar plus some a la carte choices. This is a much smaller venue than the Windjammer, but it still has a nice choice of dishes. The layout is a little strange. As you come in, the hot dishes are on your right and the desserts are slightly ahead and to your left. If you follow the dessert buffet around, you then find the salads, breads, soups, cheeses and cold cuts. So I ended up having my lunch the wrong way round. Graham had some fish of some description, some lasagne and some vegetables. He then had some salad and some olives once we found that area. I went with some Caesar salad, which was with the hot food, lasagne, roast pork loin and taco meat with sour cream. Once I found the soups, I also had a bowl of black bean soup. The soup and the main courses were very nice. I had a dessert of some descriptions, but I am not sure what this was actually supposed to be. I had some lemonade and Graham had some ice tea, which he called horrible.





After lunch, we went our separate ways again. I had spotted a destination lecture about Rome and the Vatican in the Daily Compass, which would take place shortly at the Two70. So I decided to head in this direction. I have attended lectures on some of our longer cruises on DCL and have always enjoyed them. Indeed, when I got there, the venue was packed. I managed to get a seat at a table towards the front of the Two70, but looking at the screen required a little of acrobatic skill. This turned out just as well or else the lecture may have sent me to sleep. The subject matter was interesting, but the presentation was rather dry. He went at it from an art history angle, which could have worked, but he seemed to lack passion and conviction. I did learn a few interesting facts though.

Once the lecture was over, I headed back to the cabin to drop off my camera and iPhone and to get changed into my swimsuit. I then headed back up to the solarium. I found Graham at virtually the same spot that he was in at lunch time and this time there were loungers available. I joined him for a while, but I got a bit hot right by the glass looking forward and decided to check out the hot tubs, which were set further back. I ended up spending most of the afternoon in the hot tub. Once I had the feeling that I was about to grow fins, I came out and dried off as much as I could. I then headed to the cabin for a shower.

By the time I got back to the cabin, it was coming up to 17:00. I was a little concerned that there was no sign of my gowns yet. I had a plan B ready. I had brought a really nice maxi dress which at a push would do as formal wear. I was thirsty at that point and decided to check out the SeaPlex has I had read before the cruise that they have Coca Cola Freestyle machines up there. I checked out where the escape room was located and then got myself some cherry Ginger Ale, which worked really well. I then sat down for a bit. They had a roller-skating session and I watched this. Soon it was 17:30 and that was the time when the penguins from Madagascar were scheduled to be out on the pool deck. So I headed downstairs. Again I had no gadget capable of taking photos with me, but I just went to say “hi”.

I found Graham in the indoor family pool and sat down near the pool. He was nearly done and we headed back to the cabin together. When we arrived back at the cabin, my gowns had arrived. Graham got showered and changed while I pondered on what gown to wear. I decided to go with the green one. Green is not normally my colour and I wondered about the style, but I love this one. I got changed, put up my hair and put some make up on. Once we were both ready, we headed down to the Royal Esplanade for the festivities.

Before we got on the ship, I had read that there is no ship wide formal night on the Quantum class ships. There is however one restaurant that is designated formal every night: the Grande. Knowing that we would eat there 4 times during the cruise, I had brought 4 gowns as well as a 5th one that was white for White Night. I was very surprised when we got the Daily Compass the previous night stating that this night was Royal Night with the dress code specified as “Dress Your Best”. So this was essentially formal night by another name. This was fine by me. I do love formal night and we were due to eat at Grande so I was going to wear a gown anyway. People had really risen to the occasion. Considering that there was not supposed to be a formal night, this was the most formal evening of all the cruises we have taken.

I had noticed in the Daily Compass that there would be photos with the Captain that evening. I always try to get a photo with the Captain so we got downstairs in time for this. As soon as we entered the Royal Esplanade, we saw a white backdrop and nobody in line. So we decided to stop there for some photos. Then we got in line for the photo with the Captain. This looked pretty impressive, but moved very quickly. I think we waited not much more than 5 minutes until it was our turn. Graham made his usual joke that he would like to see some waves and that went down like a lead balloon. I think the fact that one of the sister ships of the Ovation, the Anthem of the Seas, had got into a nasty storm and taken some damage may have had something to do with this. Graham was not aware of this until he told him about this afterwards. Other than that, Captain Henrik seemed very nice and is definitely one of the more personable Captains we had over the years.





We continued our round of the photo opportunities. I was really spoiled that evening. They always had the white backdrop up near the entrance to the Royal Esplanade on deck 4. They then had a backdrop that changed every day near the restaurants on decks 2 and 3 plus a backdrop on either the Royal Esplanade or the Via on deck 5. Typically there was also a photo opportunity using one of the features of the ship like a staircase, the railing overlooking the Royal Esplanade, the chair outside Wonderland or the sculpture on the Via. As we got to know the photographers, we also ended up with some photos with various pieces of artwork in the background. That evening they at backdrops at all the usual locations and they took photos with the Wonderland chair and the sculpture on the Via. The backdrops that evening were a night scene with the moon, the ship at night and the central staircase from Titanic. While we were making our rounds of the photo opportunities, we were repeatedly offered a glass of sparkling wine. I drew the line after three, the last of which came into the dining room with me.





















When we had taken care of all the photos, we headed for the dining room. Everybody on our table arrived around the same time and service was much better that day. We both had the French Onion soup, which was very nice. Graham went with the Escargots à la Bourguignonne followed by the Pie of the Day, which was steak pie and came with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. I had the truffle wild mushroom risotto and then went with the roasted beef tenderloin with duck pate, asparagus, puff pastry and a truffle Madeira sauce. This kind of sounded like Beef Wellington, but it was not. It was very tasty though. For dessert I had the Grand Marnier Soufflé. This is my favourite dessert on the Disney ships and I had high hopes for this. However, I ended up disappointed. This did not have any flavour at all and just tasted sweet.















After dinner, we headed up towards the Via as Po and Tigress from Kung Fu Panda were about to be out. This time I had my camera with me. Unfortunately the photos did not come out very well. We then headed back to our cabin where we found a towel animal. We got ready for bed and I set the alarm for the next morning as we would have our first port day and then we retired for the night.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Your dress is lovely and you look very nice in it! The pictures came out fabulous; quite the selection! Even though the character pics are not as sharp, it's cute how Graham is getting into the spirit!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

We sailed on the NCL Jade twice after Pride of America. Completely different experience. I don't know if it was because POA was a Hawaiian cruise and had mostly American staff and guests but the Europe NCL we did not care for. It was a booze cruise. Poor staff, bad hygiene. Never again!

Glad to hear better muster drill times next time. I am curious how they do the time differences/changes on the TA cruises. Change by an hour every day maybe or wait till the end?

What a shame about the embarkation photos. How frustrating at the start of ones cruise.

The Solarium bistro sounds a nice idea. What I would like cruises to do more of is on day one have more staff member showing guests around the ship and how it works. Like in the buffets. Show us the logic of the different stations, where the drinks areas are etc. On the decks where are the loungers, rest rooms. So we don't miss it.

The scavenger hunt sounded fun what a shame there were lack of numbers. Nice to chat to Disney fans though.

Oh my I am glad to read that your gowns turned up although you say you don't typically opt for green I say why not. It looks delightful on you. How great to get a photo with the Captain we love to do that also. Lol re Graham making a joke.

What a cute towel animal.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Finally more photos downloaded on my ipad for me to see! I love the Titanic background one. I left a note in my will for Jo that says 'meet me by the clock'.

Lol re the characters and Graham. I love kung fu panda! Plus you mentioned You liked Puss in Boots. That chatacter kills me also. Steals the show. I love those shrek movies. The shrek 4D attraction at Universal is a blast.

 

[Flossbolna]

I love seeing all the pictures of the ship, she really is beautiful!! Unfortunately Michael had a nasty experience with a cruise on Celebrity and since refuses to go back to any of that company's ships, so RCCL is out for us as well. I guess like you have no interest going back on NCL.

The green dress is really pretty! I love the style and the colour is so vibrant! And I have thought this many times when I saw your pictures: Sometimes when you smile you look so much like my mother did when she was younger! You really could be related to her! In other pictures you look really different, but a certain angle brings out the similarity.

Finally more photos downloaded on my ipad for me to see!

I am having Ipad picture problems, too. Especially on trip reports that have a lot of pictures per page. Often it does only load the first 20 or so and the rest of the page does not load. I think it might be too much for the internal memory... I wonder if clearing some of the memory will help. I will need to do some experiments and will report back to you if I find a solution!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I love seeing all the pictures of the ship, she really is beautiful!! Unfortunately Michael had a nasty experience with a cruise on Celebrity and since refuses to go back to any of that company's ships, so RCCL is out for us as well. I guess like you have no interest going back on NCL.

The green dress is really pretty! I love the style and the colour is so vibrant! And I have thought this many times when I saw your pictures: Sometimes when you smile you look so much like my mother did when she was younger! You really could be related to her! In other pictures you look really different, but a certain angle brings out the similarity.



I am having Ipad picture problems, too. Especially on trip reports that have a lot of pictures per page. Often it does only load the first 20 or so and the rest of the page does not load. I think it might be too much for the internal memory... I wonder if clearing some of the memory will help. I will need to do some experiments and will report back to you if I find a solution!

Thank you. I have an ipad mini. I wondered if the mini was the issue lol. Same deal for me with the pages with lots of photos. It selects which ones to displays! Seems random but probably due to size.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Your dress is lovely and you look very nice in it!

Thanks.

The pictures came out fabulous; quite the selection!

I was very pleased with this haul.

Even though the character pics are not as sharp, it's cute how Graham is getting into the spirit!

Graham really surprised me this cruise. I loved that he got in the spirit of things that evening and he even decided to go and get a professional photo with Shrek. I could not believe it when he told me, but there is photographic evidence.

We sailed on the NCL Jade twice after Pride of America. Completely different experience. I don't know if it was because POA was a Hawaiian cruise and had mostly American staff and guests but the Europe NCL we did not care for. It was a booze cruise. Poor staff, bad hygiene. Never again!

That is a shame. Apart from the shambles with dinner our back to back on the Jade was OK, but I still have no wish to go back.

I am curious how they do the time differences/changes on the TA cruises. Change by an hour every day maybe or wait till the end?

When we did the Transatlantic on the Magic in 2010, we gained an hour on five different days. I assume that it will be the same on RCL as we did one hour time changes on this cruise, too. The weird thing is that rather than doing it at night when people are asleep, we did it at 11:00 in the morning.

What a shame about the embarkation photos. How frustrating at the start of ones cruise.

It all worked out in the end.

What I would like cruises to do more of is on day one have more staff member showing guests around the ship and how it works. Like in the buffets. Show us the logic of the different stations, where the drinks areas are etc. On the decks where are the loungers, rest rooms. So we don't miss it.

Actually, on the Ovation they did just this. The had crew members in yellow shirts all over the ship that first day to answer people's questions and pointing them in the right direction. We did not make use of this, but I thought it was a great idea.

The scavenger hunt sounded fun what a shame there were lack of numbers.

Maybe I will get the chance on one of the cruise I have booked. They both have plenty of sea days.

It looks delightful on you.

Thanks.

I love kung fu panda!

I had never seen Kung Fu Panda before, but after meeting Po and Tigress, I watched the first two when we got home. Now I am looking forward to number 3 which should be out on DVD at the end of the month.

Plus you mentioned You liked Puss in Boots.

Puss is my hero. I think I love him as much as I love Stitch. I am actually seriously tempted to switch out my profile photo on Facebook to one of Puss and me.

I love seeing all the pictures of the ship, she really is beautiful!!

The Ovation is a stunning ship.

Unfortunately Michael had a nasty experience with a cruise on Celebrity and since refuses to go back to any of that company's ships, so RCCL is out for us as well.

What a shame. Our first two experiences on Royal Caribbean were amazing and the two ships could not have been more different if they tried.

I guess like you have no interest going back on NCL.

There is a chance that we will do a Hawaii cruise on NCL America at some stage, but other than that I have no reason to stray from Royal Caribbean and Disney.

The green dress is really pretty! I love the style and the colour is so vibrant!

Thanks.

And I have thought this many times when I saw your pictures: Sometimes when you smile you look so much like my mother did when she was younger! You really could be related to her!

Now there is a thought. Maybe we are distantly related.

I am having Ipad picture problems, too. Especially on trip reports that have a lot of pictures per page. Often it does only load the first 20 or so and the rest of the page does not load.

How very strange. I often use my iPad Mini or iPhone to catch up on trip reports including some that are very photo heavy and I have never had an issue. Now our computers at work are a different issue.

I have an ipad mini. I wondered if the mini was the issue lol.

I have the iPad Mini, too.

Corinna

 

[kittymamma]

Corinna, I hope none of your colleagues were on that Dubai landing . Scary !

 

[dolphingirl47]

Corinna, I hope none of your colleagues were on that Dubai landing . Scary !

As far as I am aware nobody I know was involved. I am still in shock.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

It sounds like you had a nice relaxing day at sea!

I was not quite sure what this involved, but figured that it may be a bit of fun. Unfortunately I never did get to find out what it did involve. Including me, only two people had turned up.

This is too bad that it didn't work out.

This turned out just as well or else the lecture may have sent me to sleep. The subject matter was interesting, but the presentation was rather dry. He went at it from an art history angle, which could have worked, but he seemed to lack passion and conviction. I did learn a few interesting facts though.

I'm glad you were able to stay awake. I found the same problem with the talks on our ship as well.

I found Graham in the indoor family pool and sat down near the pool. He was nearly done and we headed back to the cabin together. When we arrived back at the cabin, my gowns had arrived.

I'm glad your gowns showed up.

Green is not normally my colour and I wondered about the style, but I love this one. I got changed, put up my hair and put some make up on. Once we were both ready, we headed down to the Royal Esplanade for the festivities.

The green looks fabulous on you, and both of you look great in all the photos that you took!

I'm glad Graham really got into it in the Kung Foo Panda shots.

 

[dolphingirl47]

It sounds like you had a nice relaxing day at sea!

It was and there were many more of those to come.

This is too bad that it didn't work out.

Hopefully I get the chance to try this on a future cruise.

I'm glad you were able to stay awake. I found the same problem with the talks on our ship as well.

That was a real surprise and not a nice one as the lectures I have attended on the Magic and the Wonder were always top notch. Still, that gave me more time for the rest of the cruise to do other stuff or just relax.

I'm glad your gowns showed up.

So was I.

The green looks fabulous on you, and both of you look great in all the photos that you took!

Thanks.

I'm glad Graham really got into it in the Kung Foo Panda shots.

I was too and really surprised. I am starting to believe that the aliens have been a swapped out my husband, but more about this on the pre-trip report thread a bit later.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 13

We had a relatively early morning that day and got up at 7:30. We were already in port at that stage. We got ourselves organized and then headed down to the Cafe Two70 for some breakfast. The Cafe Two70 had similar offerings that the Park Cafe on the Splendour had. I went with the Breakfast Burrito, some honeydew melon fingers and a lemon and poppy seed muffin. I had wanted to get some orange juice, but all that came out of the dispenser was water. I had not figured out their fancy dispensers at that stage. It turned out that they dispensed water first and then when the glass was about half full added the juice concentrate. Graham had an orange, a banana and a fruit pastry. At some stage I went to get some coffee for Graham and some water for me.


Once we had finished our breakfast, we headed to the gangway. The lifts on the Ovation have a gangway button, which takes you to whatever deck the gangway is on that day. The gangway that day was on deck 1 and they had both the forward and aft gangways open. I have to admit I was a little worried just how chaotic getting off the ship would be. The ship was not at capacity, but with about 3800 people on board, this was significantly more than we had previously experienced. There was no need to worry. Getting off the ship was a very smooth process. There are actually two separate tender lobbies in that area and there was crew around directing people to where it was the least busy. When we got to one of the terminals, there was nobody in from of us. The RFID Sea Pass cards help as well. We just touched our cards against a scanner and the security officer wished us a good day. The whole process took a matter of seconds.

Once we were outside the ship, I looked out for a ship photographer. They had set up about halfway between the forward and aft gangway. This seemed to be a bit of a silly spot as more people came off at the aft gangway, which was right by the exit, too. Still, it was only a minor detour. They had a life preserver on a stand set up. Graham was in a mischievous mood and took the life preserver off its stand and around his neck. I did convince him to get one official photo, too.






With the photos done, we headed towards the exit. Just outside the gate, port shuttles were lined up waiting for people. We were directed to one and it did not take long for this to fill up. Once most seats were taken, we left. It did not take long to get to the shuttle park. We were a little amused. At various stages starting from the tender lobby there were various vendors trying to sell transport to Rome. The further away we got from the ship, the cheaper it got. By the time we got outside the port gates, the prices seemed pretty fair, but we were planning to go by train. At the shuttle park, there was also a shuttle to the railway station that cost a couple of Euros each. That was new. The layout of the port had also changed, but I did not fully understand this at the time. We left the port and headed through the town centre to the station. This was quite a pleasant walk. We ended up at the station ahead of schedule and got our tickets from one of the ticket machines. We did not have to wait long for our train. There are machines to validate the tickets, but we could not get them to work and there were no instructions. The train journey only took about 45 minutes and we got off at S. Pietro station.











I don't think we found the most direct route to the Vatican Museums. I had printed out directions, but as soon as we left the station, we saw signs for the Holy Door and followed those. I don't think this route took too much longer and we were treated to views of a completely empty St. Peter's Square. There were barriers all around St. Peter's Square and you had to go through security before you could enter the square. I am not sure if this is now a permanent set up or if this is just for the jubilee year. In 2010, I was able to freely wander around an open St. Peter's Square and security was much closer to St. Peter's Basilica. I thought this was much nicer as the barriers around St. Peter's Square take away from its wow factor.




















Anyway, for now we bypassed St. Peter's Square, just stopping for some photos. We walked most of the way around it when we say a road with a signpost for the Vatican Museums. We headed in that direction. It is surprising just how long that walk is considering that the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica are right next to each other. Once we got to the bottom of the hill leading up to the Vatican Museums, we saw a huge line. There were members of staff in that area asking people if they had purchased tickets online, which we had. Fortunately it turned out that this line was for people who had not pre-purchased their tickets. We were sent up another line. We got right up to the little square directly in front of the Vatican Museums before we had to stop. Even then our line moved pretty swiftly and about 10 minutes or so later we were through security. This led us to the lobby of the museum. Although what I was holding looked like a ticket including a bar code, there were instructions on there that I needed to go to the group ticket desk to get our tickets. The lobby area looked absolutely packed. Graham asked me to get in line while he used the bathroom and he would come and find me. Well, I am not sure what all those people were waiting for, as when I approached the ticket desks, there was only one person in front of me. So I had my tickets within a couple of minutes. Once Graham was back, we were then able to head straight into the museum.

 

[dolphingirl47]

There are two ways to get up to the part where the starting point was. One was via a series of escalators and another one was via a ramp. The added bonus of that was that there were boat models from around the world all along the ramp. This was advertised at the point where the two routes divided. We decided to go for the ramp and this was really interesting. Once we got to the top, we entered a courtyard. This was very impressive. We got our first glimpse of the Sistine Chapel, which on the outside is very plain and nothing to write home about. The next courtyard had some views over some gardens and then we entered another building with yet another courtyard that featured sculptures and what looked like stone bath tubs. After this we pretty much stayed inside. We went through rooms and rooms of ancient sculptures and neither of us is interested in those. What we were however very interested in were the frescos in those rooms. They were the reason why I had wanted to visit the Vatican Museums and they did not disappoint.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The first actual exhibit that took my attention was the tapestry gallery. This was a bit dark to preserve the ornate tapestries, but it was still stunning. Then we headed towards one of the elements that I had been the most excited about before the visit: the gallery of maps. At 120m long, this is the longest of all the galleries at the Vatican Museums. It has stunning frescos, but the real showstoppers are the large topographical maps of all the regions of Italy that were painted on the walls. They are based on drawings by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti and were commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII. It took Danti three years to complete the work, which considering the scale and detail of the maps and the fact that there is 40 of them, is actually quite stunning. This exceeded my wildest expectations. Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos of the map panels. For all its length, the map gallery is pretty narrow and as you can see on some of the photos, it was absolutely packed with people. It was easy enough to take photos of what was above, but impossible to take photos on what was across from you.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After this, the highlights were coming thick and fast starting with the Room of the Immaculate Conception with its stunning frescos. We then had to go briefly outside to bypass the direct route as part of this was blocked off by restoration work. Next up were the 4 Raffael Rooms and despite the fact that there was some scaffolding in one of the rooms, they were still breathtakingly beautiful. I needed a quick bathroom break at that stage and let Graham at one of the Raffael Rooms. We finished off looking around and then we moved on.

 

[dolphingirl47]

One of the areas that I had really looked forward to seeing was the Borgia Apartments. That turned out to be the only disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it was very beautiful. Part of the issue was that a large part of the apartments has been closed off. However, I think the bigger issue was that we had been really spoiled that morning. If you have been treated to extraordinarily stunning all morning, very beautiful somehow just does not cut it. I think if the Borgia apartments had been all I had seen that day, my reaction would have been entirely different.



Visiting the Vatican Museums is like time travel. We had started with Ancient Greece and Rome, travelled through medieval times and the Renaissance to end up in modern times. I was kind of surprised that the Vatican Museums have a huge collection of modern art and what is on display is only the tip of the iceberg. Modern art is not really my thing, but there is one exception. Since my mid-teens, I have been a huge fan of Marc Chagall. I have travelled all over to see his works and have extensively studied what is not easily accessible. I actually thought that I had seen at least a photo or print of all he has ever created. I was proven wrong that day. They have four paintings by Marc Chagall on display at the Vatican Museums. Two of them, I was familiar with, but the other two I had never seen before.









They say all roads lead to Rome, but at the Vatican Museums, all routes lead to the Sistine Chapel. This is the last area of the Vatican Museums. Somehow I had imagined it to be different. I had seen plenty of photos, but they were detail shots. I also knew that there is a barrier inside the Sistine Chapel essentially splitting the space in two. However, I could not quite picture this. I was left with the feeling that this would be even more stunning if it was just one open space. One fact that I had taken away from the lecture the previous day is that we would enter the Sistine Chapel from the opposite end than the Cardinals do during conclave. Whereas we accessed the Sistine Chapel from the Vatican Museums, the Cardinals come from St. Peter's Basilica and they look straight at the fresco of The Last Judgment. Our lecturer commented that this probably focuses the Cardinals’ minds and I kind of agree with this assessment.

As we entered the Sistine Chapel, we were asked to move to the middle. The centre was literally shoulder-to-shoulder people. However, as a lot of the most interesting stuff is on the ceiling anyway, it did not matter. There are all kinds of rules for the Sistine Chapel. Apart from the fact that we were only allowed to stand in the centre of the room, no photography or video is allowed and there should be silence. The silence part rubbed me up the wrong way. It was not that visitors were asked to be silent. This is only fitting for what is a very spiritual place. What got me is that at regular intervals, the security guards made announcements in booming voices about people not taking photos, about moving to the middle and best of all, about people needing to be silent. The low level whispers at times were nowhere near as disruptive as those announcements. I was glad that I had the chance to have seen the Sistine Chapel and I could have justified paying the admission just for this, but we both agreed that this was not the most beautiful thing we had seen that day.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After a while, we had seen everything we wanted to see and headed through the barrier and towards the exit. I had done my research ahead of time and had found out that there is an exit marked groups that leads directly to St. Peter's Basilica. As we had already cleared security before entering the Vatican Museums, taking this route would avoid having to queue up for security again. Some of the websites I looked at suggested that St. Peter's Basilica was just the other side of this door. In terms of property boundaries, that is probably right. However, it was not quite as close as it sounded. I had read various reviews stating that also the door is marked as groups, nobody stopped them. Well, there was a good reason for this. We were on the same side of the Sistine Chapel as that door is and we were just kind of swept along with the groups that were heading towards it. As this was where we wanted to go, this was fine by us.

Once we were through the door, we headed down a staircase that led to another staircase, but this one was outside. This in turn led to courtyard. The choices there were the papal tombs, the dome or the basilica. I asked Graham if he was interested in the papal tombs and he was not bothered. Neither was I. We had already decided earlier that we did not fancy climbing up the dome, so we followed the signs for the basilica. This led us to another staircase, which in turn opened onto a box office where you could get audio guides and pay for areas that require admission like the treasury or the dome. I thought that we had to go through there to get to the basilica, but that turned out to be a dead end. So we backtracked a little and found the exit. This actually led to the front of the basilica.

When we got near the entrance, the security guard seemed to be in mad rush to get us through the door. This seemed a bit weird, but considering how busy the Vatican Museums and especially the Sistine Chapel had been, I just figured that he was expecting the next wave people. So we complied and walked through the door. I suppose I should have cottoned on when I saw the number of security guards and stewards in that area, but it all happened rather quickly. It was only once we had walked through the door and looked back that I realized that the door looked rather familiar. I had seen this during the lecture the day before. The door we had all but been pushed through was the Porta Santa or Holy Door. I have to admit I temporarily felt a little weak in the knees. I am not a Catholic, but this was still a spiritual experience.

I had learned a bit about this very special door during the lecture the day before. The Porta Santa is normally locked and the access to it is bricked up on the inside of the basilica. It is only during a Jubilee Year that the Porta Santa is open. Normally a Jubilee Year takes place every 25 years, but Pope Francis called an extraordinary Jubilee Year for this year. The last one was in 2000. There is precedent for this as Pope John Paul II had called an extraordinary Jubilee Year in 1983 and there had been some other occasions of this happening prior to this, too. At the beginning of the Jubilee Year, the pope opens the Porta Santa. Traditionally the pope strikes the wall that closes off the Porta Santa on the inside of St. Peter's Basilica three times with a silver hammer. I not sure if this happened this time as Pope John Paul II had broken with that tradition when the Porta Santa was opened during his reign after a previous pope had been struck by debris when doing this. Masons then remove the rest of the wall and the pope then opens the door with a key that is kept in a chest together with some commemorative medals and documents attesting when the door was closed and by whom and that proper protocol had been followed. The pope is then the first one to go through the Porta Santa. This year is unusual as the second person to pass through the Porta Santa was the Pope Emiritus Benedict XVI. The Jubilee Year will last until 20th November. At that stage Pop Francis will lock the door from the inside and the key will be placed in a chest together with some commemorative medals and the pertinent documents just inside the doorway. The doorway will then be bricked up again until presumably 2025.

This year is an extraordinary Jubilee Year for another reason as well. Traditionally, a Porta Santa was opened only at the papal basilicas in Rome meaning that pilgrims had to come to Rome to benefit from the provisions of a an Jubilee Year. This year each diocese was able to nominate one of more churches for a Holy Door. Indeed, we walked through the Holy Door at the cathedrals in Perpignan and Barcelona and also at Montserrat without understanding the significance.

Anyway, we were now inside St. Peter's Basilica. Up until fairly recently, this was the largest church in the word and it is definitely impressive. It does not have the soaring height of some of the churches we had seen in France, but it has a huge floor plan. It is also very beautiful. We had a walk around taking everything in. One of the things I wanted to see is the Bernini Baldachin above the central altar. You cannot get particularly close, but even from a fair distance it is very impressive. The same is true for the dome. There are more beautiful frescos all around the church as well as statues and paintings. What is sadly missing is somewhere to sit down to reflect and to be able to quietly enjoy this amazing building. So we did not spent as much time there as we otherwise may have done. Once we had circled the building slowly, we were essentially ready to leave. However, there were things I wanted to see that I had not found during our leisurely walk around: the Pieta and the Chapel of St. Sebastian. Graham found himself another ledge to sit on and was quite happy to stay where he was. I set off again. I saw somebody official looking shortly afterwards and asked him where I could find the Pieta. He pointed me to an area that was obscured by a heavy grey curtain right next to the Porta Santa. I thanked him and was on my way.




























I am not normally interested in sculptures, but this is rather special and I am glad that I was able to see this. Unfortunately the Pieta is behind thick plate glass nowadays as in 1972 somebody caused a lot of damage to the Pieta by taking a hammer to it. I can absolutely understand why this had to be done and it does not detract from its beauty when you are standing in front of it. However, it makes photos a little bit of a challenge.









It turned out that the Chapel of St. Sebastian was the next chapel along. The Chapel of St. Sebastian has a very unusual altarpiece. The mosaic above the altar was made by Pietro Paolo Christofari, a Baroque artist who was Director of the Vatican Mosaic Studio from 1743-1755. This was a copy of Domenichino's original work, which was painted between 1625 and 1631, in oil on a stucco ground. The original artist was never happy with the painting as he considered it to be too busy and supposedly even said that he hoped that the altar would fall into disrepair. I thought that this was very beautiful. The Chapel of St. Sebastian is also the final resting place of Pope John Paul II and was pretty busy so I did not linger long.














I returned to where Graham was sitting and he asked if I had seen enough, which I had. We then headed out. As we came out of the basilica, I saw some Swiss Guards off to the side of the staircase. I took some photos and then we made our way back to the station. There was some issue with the ticket machine and by the time the other one was free, which worked fine, it was cutting things a bit fine for the train. So I got tickets for the following train, which was 30 minutes later. There were seats near the ticket machines and there was also free Wi-Fi so waiting the extra half an hour was no hardship. Once the train was listed, we headed to the correct platform. This time round we managed to get the ticket validation machine to work. This turned out to be a fairly precise science. If the ticket is not lined up in a certain way, it won’t work. I would be nice if there had been some indication on how the ticket needs to be lined up.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Considering it was only early afternoon, the train was incredibly busy. I had bought first class tickets, but we never found the first class coach. Graham ended up standing for the whole journey and I only managed to get a seat for the last couple of stops. Once we arrived back at Civitavecchia, we split up. Graham wanted to have a walk along the seawall and I had an errand to run. So we both headed off in different directions. I was a little nervous about what I needed to do. I was not sure how widely spoken English is in Civitavecchia. Graham had forgotten to bring Glucosamine, which he takes daily after a wrist injury and not having taken any since we left was starting to have an effect. So I thought I would do my good deed for the day and find a chemist to get some. The finding the chemist part was not an issue and in the process I found that the town centre of Civitavecchia is quite pretty. Doing the shopping was a little more of a challenge. As I had feared the pharmacist did not speak much English, but I ended up coming out with what I had wanted.

With hindsight, at this stage I should have walked back to the station and taken the shuttle back to the port. As I had assumed that we would take the shuttle back, I did not take too much notice of the route in the morning. Soon there were signs for a walkway to the port and I followed those. I was a little surprised that I entered the port by a route that I remembered from 2010 as the layout had changed and supposedly you are not allowed to walk on port property anymore. Soon after entering the port, I saw a port shuttle. I asked the driver if she was heading for the Ovation of the Seas and she told me that this was the wrong bus. I asked her where to get the right bus from and she just waved her hand at some undetermined point in the distance. I realized that I would not get any help from that source so I walked off in roughly the direction that she pointed. The first landmark I came across was the marina, which is part of the port. At that stage I bumped into a Chinese passenger who was in the same predicament. He had recognized the Sea Pass card in my lanyard and approached me. He was in a bit of a panic. I was fairly relaxed about this. We still had plenty of time until all aboard and once I had reached the marina, I could see the Ovation. So I figured as long as we kept heading in that general direction, we would be fine. I also hoped that considering that we were not allowed to walk inside the port, at some stage somebody would come to our rescue. That did not happen. A number of police and port security cars drove straight past us and not one stopped. Eventually we ended up in front of the gate for the dock where the Ovation was. We got a bit of a funny look from the security guard there. I have to say the glass of orange infused water and the cold towel I was passed by a member of crew felt heavenly, as it was pretty hot that day and the route we ended up taking was quite exposed.

Once I had finished my water, I headed back to the cabin. I had expected that Graham would have beaten me to it, but there was no sign that he had arrived back. I left my shopping and my camera in the cabin and grabbed my refillable cup. I had heard that there was a Coca Cola Freestyle machine inside Sorrento’s, which is on deck 4 on the Royal Esplanade. I had not explored that part of the ship before. I did find the Coca Cola Freestyle machine and got some Cherry Sprite, which was very nice. I also treated myself to a slice of pepperoni pizza, which was also very tasty. I went up the stairs to the photo gallery to check if my photos had now been linked to my Sea Pass card, which they had. I had a quick look, but decided to come back later to have a proper look. I then decided to head up to the SeaPlex to see what was going on there.

This is where I found Graham. Apparently he had eaten his way through the hot dog menu of the SeaPlex Dog House. This sounds more impressive than it is as they only offer 4 different hot dogs. I joined him and had a raspberry Coke and a Smokehouse hot dog. The sausage was very nice, but I was a little disappointed in the bread. The bread at the equivalent venue on the Splendour was much nicer. Still, it filled a hole. While we were sitting there, they started to set up for a session of bumper cars. I was very tempted, but I had seen on the Royal IQ app that there would be a professional photo opportunity with some DreamWorks characters soon. The only thing was that the venue did not make any sense. It stated “The Shop”. I could not find any venue by this name. I decided to go and see if I could figure out where I needed to be. I hold Graham that if I could not figure it out, I would go to the cabin to change my shoes and come back. The rules for the SeaPlex stated that closed-toed shoes have to be worn at all times.







I went to the photo gallery first figuring they would know. They had no idea. So I went down to Guest Services. The person I spoke to had no idea either, but called somebody and then advised that this was a mistake on the app, but that there would be professional photos with some of the characters on the next sea day. So I headed back to the cabin and changed my shoes and then went back up to the SeaPlex. I found Graham where I had left him, but he was just taking a breather after a few turns on the bumper cars. He pronounced this to be great fun.

As a child, the bumper cars were one of my favourite fairground attractions, although usually as a passenger. By my early teens, I had kind of grown out of this and gravitated towards more thrilling attractions, but now they looked very tempting. The bumper cars on the Ovation are battery operated and a bit sleeker than the ones I was used to as a child. Graham gave me some tips on how to operate them and then I got into the very short line. They were just loading for the next round, but I just missed the cut off. I was near the front of the line for the next round. This was so much fun. Graham took some photos of me having a great time. When I was done, I got straight back in line. At first I was able to ride every other time, but then people started to drift away and I got to ride every time. Graham soon joined me. In the end they did not even make us get out and get back into line, but told us we could just stay in the cars if we wanted. We were even joined by some members of the sports team. After we both had about 10 turns, we decided that we had enough. This is actually pretty good exercise. We rounded up our stuff and headed back to our cabin.









This ended up being one of the few occasions when we actually ended up using our balcony. When we came downstairs, we went outside and just chilled for a bit. That is when we noticed we had acquired a stowaway. When we looked straight down from our balcony, we looked at the lifeboats and there was a juvenile seagull hitching a ride on the one straight below us. At some stage we took turns to get showered and changed before watching the sunset on our balcony. Then it was time for dinner.











Dinner that night was at Silk. Silk is their Asian restaurant and this was the one I was most excited about. We decided to take our bottle of wine that had a cork to dinner that night. Royal Caribbean does not have a corking fee. This was a rose Tempranillo, which worked great with the Asian food. First of all our server insisted on chilling it in an ice bucket for a while. Graham only had a main course that evening after his hot dog feast earlier in the day. He went with the sake- glazed salmon with stir-fried vegetables. He seemed to enjoy this. I started with Mulligatawny soup followed by Vietnamese Tacos. For my main course I had the Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and roti. For dessert, I went with the Mochi. The standout dish was the Vietnamese Tacos. They used steamed buns for the Taco shells and the filling consisted of shredded pork, vegetables and a very nice sauce. Everything was lovely though and the wine worked really well with this.















Unfortunately we missed the photo opportunities that evening. As we had watched the sunset, we did not have time to do photos before dinner and they had already packed up when we finished. So we headed straight to the cabin. We organized the things we needed for the next day and then we got ready for bed.

 

[Pinkocto]

I want to come back and enjoy your latest update properly, but just caught up on your sea day. Too bad the meet was that early. Did you do an excursion to Petra that was not through RCL? why did you need to pay at that event?

Nice relaxing day at the hot tub.

Too bad that presenter was a bit dry. You'd think they would have a more enthusiastic person doing the lectures...

The green dress is gorgeous.

Love the photos with Po and Tigress, too cute!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Great update! The cafe two70 looks like it has some nice options.

Too bad about the drinks machine I like fresh juice that concentrate and water mix no thanks!

I think that gangway button is such a great idea and nice that they have two.

Sounded like a smooth process but how odd to have the photographer in the middle make you work for that photo!

Nice photo. On DCL one time at Castaway Cay it was the hottest day in hell. They made all the folks with disabilities board on the aft ramp. We were like what! I had a manual chair and Jo was pushing me. We did not want the extra walk thanks Jo was already passing out. But the security guard would not let us on the first ramp. All the other crew said oh let them on!

Later we complained about this guy. The crew director was very sorry and said it would be dealt with. The next day we did not see that guy and asked where he was. He has been dismissed! We felt beyond guilty..

How neat they had those port shuttles. I know lol those private transfers start at such high prices trying to catch the innocent traveller.

How cool just 45 mins to Rome!

The Tapestry how wonderful.

I would have adored the map section as well.