A Voyage for the Ages – VY 7/8/2024 – 7/15/2024

8 minutes ago, ScottD said:

One thing this blog has reminded me- get family pics! I just scrolled through our two previous cruise pics and we don't have ONE pic with all three of us in it!! 

We're not big on pictures (maybe no kids plays a role) but I noticed this too. My wife constantly volunteers to take pics of others (she's a lot nicer than I am) but we often wind up with almost nothing but the 2 Diamond freebies we get.

21 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

You know my feelings on smaller ships and I agree 100%. My only comparison is Alaska and I only have a handful of memories of what Radiance actually looks like b/c I didn't care... I was there to see Alaska (and also exhausted from 10 days on land before the cruise, lol).

I know exactly what you mean. I have not ventured into certain areas of Voyager yet. I could not tell you what the pool deck or solarium look like, or Boleros for that matter.

17 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

My brother said that coffee pot de creme was the worst thing he has ever tasted, and I don't he has ever not finished a dessert......until it came to that one. I hope the lemon tart was delicious at least, it was really good on Freedom in May. 

Omg! D17 ordered that coffee pot thing and she took one bite and said forget it! D15 loves the lemon tart. That was her second one this sailing. 

16 hours ago, GregD said:

@TheBoss518 and I love using some of the new slang (poorly) with our kids and watching them cringe in horror, especially the daughter. It's so much fun

Yup. Freeloaders cringe too lol

16 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Ooo I’ll be super interested in this tour!  Can’t wait….

It was fantastic! Will sum it up after dinner. 

15 hours ago, twangster said:

I haven’t seen the live blog started yet.  Slipping? 

Haha! The tour was on the move so much I did not have any time to update or check. And I crashed before 10pm last night. 

14 hours ago, Sweety said:

When I use it in class, the students stop and stare. My next line, now that I have your attention.

That is exactly what I do! 

1 hour ago, CravingaCruise said:

I saw your next ship today!  She parked across from us!

This is how tired I am. When I first saw this post, I was like, “Did @CravingaCruise post to the wrong blog? She is not in Europe.” then I looked more carefully and see that it’s my next sailing

44 minutes ago, ScottD said:

One thing this blog has reminded me- get family pics! I just scrolled through our two previous cruise pics and we don't have ONE pic with all three of us in it!! 

Hubby is so big on the family pics. We grumble at him during them, but when we look through all the moments he has captured over the years with pics and video, we are truly appreciative. 

Just got back from a super busy day in Florence and Pisa. Will update the tour after dinner. Now in the SL having a quick bite before dinner. 

Our room service was not late this morning. It was one hour early!

17 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This is how tired I am. When I first saw this post, I was like, “Did @CravingaCruise post to the wrong blog? She is not in Europe.” then I looked more carefully and see that it’s my next sailing

Haha!  It’s a good thing you have more vacation to take a break from your vacation!  

16 minutes ago, CravingaCruise said:

Haha!  It’s a good thing you have more vacation to take a break from your vacation!  

Oh boy! I need it more and more as each day passes on this one. We still have 4 more full, packed days to go and running out of steam

Going backwards…this was dinner tonight. This dining team continues to “read the room” very well. Most of our meals have taken about 1 hour 15 mins. I think they could tell we were beat today and we were out of there in less than an hour! Hubby even had time to hit the wave for a bit after dinner. That is also why the blog is delayed. Had to wait for him to send pics. 
 

Yaaaaay baked Alaska

That red bell pepper looks pretty decent.  Who ordered it and was it something to definitely order?   

12 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Yaaaaay baked Alaska

Yes!! Probably my favourite dessert in the MDR. 

9 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

That red bell pepper looks pretty decent.  Who ordered it and was it something to definitely order?   

Hubby ordered it. He said it was good. He said it was just, “Something to eat if you want to feel good about yourself but no one wakes up in the morning wishing to eat that thing.” his words 

Finally to our tour of Florence and Pisa. We booked this one as a private tour through LivTours. I felt good going private for this one because we were in port until 8pm and I felt that was safe enough time for us to get back. 
 

The morning started off bright and early as we met our driver at 7:45am. He became our private chauffeur for the entire day. It was a comfortable ride

From the port of Livorno, it was almost a 2 hour drive to Florence. We stopped at a lookout point just outside of Florence to take some pics. Those who are on IG might have seen a video clip of this on my story this morning. Stunning! I love Florence. 

From the lookout point, we drove into Florence to meet our LivTours guide. From here, our driver left us and our guide told him to pick us up later that afternoon at an agreed meeting point. 

Our guide Monica took us walking through a lot of Florence. I loved this private tour because we saw a lot with her that we would not have been able to see if we took the tour through Royal. 

We met her in a square and walked through streets with a ton of designer stores. 
 

After that, we crossed to the other side of Florence and got a good look of the Ponte Vecchio bridge.
 

After we got to the other side, Monica took us to visit several prominent landmarks, such as La Mona Lisa’s birthplace, Palace of Medici (a very prominent family in Florence for over 300 years), and the house that one of the heirs had built for his mistress and her husband. Hubby told the guide that sounds like a Netflix series

After the palace, we crossed back using the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Lots of gold vendors here. 
 

Looks like amazing weather.  One would assume there was time for shopping at designer stores... 

What was name of this tour thru Liv Tours?  Being private is it flat fee or per person?

How was crowds and traffic from Port?

From here we walked to town hall, which is still actively being used as town hall. 
 

From town hall we walked to the famous  Santa Maria del Fiore. I fell in love with the facade of this cathedral 19 years ago. Something about it is just so stunning and different from all the other cathedrals out there. It made me so happy to be able to bring the girls back here. And the Gates of Paradise, just beautiful depictions of the Old Testament. 

Monica asked us what we wanted to eat for lunch and we said pizza, so she took us to a local pizza shop that she said was good. She lives right in the heart of Florence so we trusted her. 
 

After lunch we headed to the Accademia Gallery to see David and other works of art. We have a ton of photos here but I will not post since it’s a family blog Hubby said to leave you all with one.

We also told Monica we wanted gelato, so she took us to another local authentic gelato place. And from here we walked to meet our driver again to head to Pisa. 
 

Monica did not go with us to Pisa. It was over an hour drive and our driver took us there and gave us about an hour of free time. It was super hot by this point. Hubby and I have been here before, it’s a total tourist trap, but the kids have not so it was great for them to be able to see. And of course we had to do some classic tourist photos here. 

From here our driver took us back to the port. About 8 hours total. It was a great day! The pace was good, it was relaxing, we felt like we saw a lot in a short time, and it was so nice to not have to travel around with a large group. I really like LivTours so far. This is our 3rd tour with them in the last week. They have delivered exactly as promised. 

Sail away from Livorno.

23 minutes ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

Looks like amazing weather.  One would assume there was time for shopping at designer stores... 

What was name of this tour thru Liv Tours?  Being private is it flat fee or per person?

How was crowds and traffic from Port?

It was hot! But a lot of the walking was in the shade so it was bearable. No time for shopping. If we shopped we would have had to sacrifice sightseeing and we were not willing to do that. 

The name of the tour was Private Livorno Shore Excursion to Florence & Pisa through LivTours. It is not per person, it is flat starting fee but goes up as you add more people. 

Crowds and traffic from the port was smooth and not busy today but it was explained to us that was because it’s a Saturday. 

So I love both yours a D17s dresses where are you guys shopping??

Off to bed! 6:50am meeting time in the theatre tomorrow for Cinque Terre. 

Just now, Kelseylovestocruise said:

So I love both yours a D17s dresses where are you guys shopping??

Mine is from Athleta. Hers is from Hollister or Abercrombie, I think. I will ask her tomorrow. She is already asleep.

Thank you for bringing back my memories. I saw the red velvet cake.

Thanks for all the photos and info.  Brings back memories to me from my 2006 trip to Italy with my best friend!  We spent 3 days in the Florence area and now I want my husband to get the best experience possible in just one day!

I plan to book the same tour…as a matter of fact I am reserving it now!  There will be 6 of us on our cruise and I am the only one who has been to Italy!  This tour is perfect as our ship docks in LaSpezia.  

Get your rest.

But those photos were beautiful and it makes me want to go back to Italy.

Funny story we got a magnet of David, it's the most NSFW thing in our house and it sits on the fridge

7 hours ago, Sweety said:

Thank you for bringing back my memories. I saw the red velvet cake.

I thought of you when I ordered it! 

4 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Thanks for all the photos and info.  Brings back memories to me from my 2006 trip to Italy with my best friend!  We spent 3 days in the Florence area and now I want my husband to get the best experience possible in just one day!

I plan to book the same tour…as a matter of fact I am reserving it now!  There will be 6 of us on our cruise and I am the only one who has been to Italy!  This tour is perfect as our ship docks in LaSpezia.  

LivTours has a semi private (for 6) of the same tour. Make sure you check both prices to see which one is cheaper.

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Get your rest.

But those photos were beautiful and it makes me want to go back to Italy.

Funny story we got a magnet of David, it's the most NSFW thing in our house and it sits on the fridge

I said no way to the magnet

Room service came on time at 6am this morning. We are now waiting for our tender in the Royal Theatre. It’s 7am while I was getting ready this morning, I thought of @SweetPea and Batman and wondered if they would even bother going to sleep on this sort of itinerary

Our tour got off to a very interesting start. The tender was actually the RC lifeboats. It was cozy. Upon leaving the platform of the ship, we heard the crew driving the lifeboat say something about his engine not working. Not a great sign. After some floating in the water, he managed to get it going towards the dock of Portofino. As we approached, the lifeboat stalls again and we hear him call for help because he can’t dock or he will hit the fancy yachts. Someone on the ship end tells him to return to the ship platform. Everyone shouts out, “No!” Then he tells the ship that he can try to dock if they send him a rescue boat. After some aimless floating in the water, a rescue boat comes along and he tries to dock. I am not @twangster so I don’t know all the terms, but basically he did not have as much maneuverability to dock. As we get close to the dock, the lifeboat had to push us into it to get the lifeboat tied up. 
 

6 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

it's the most NSFW thing

Translation please?  I’m feeling old reading this blog. First mid and now this. 

2 minutes ago, CravingaCruise said:

Translation please?  I’m feeling old reading this blog. First mid and now this. 

I think it means not safe for work lol

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

As we get close to the dock, the lifeboat had to push us into it to get the lifeboat tied up. 

Did you get to your tour in time?

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I think it means not safe for work lol

Thank you!  I suppose I could have googled it.

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The tender was actually the RC lifeboats.

My initial thought was that’s kinda cool… except for the not working part.

Hope everything went smoothly after that.

1 hour ago, CravingaCruise said:

Did you get to your tour in time?

Yes, most of the people who were in our group was also on that lifeboat. 

48 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

My initial thought was that’s kinda cool… except for the not working part.

Hope everything went smoothly after that.

It did not. But more on that later. This is likely the worst RC tour that I have ever been on. I also told Hubby from here on out, we go with my gut feeling and go private when my gut tells me that is the right thing to do.

The very fact that the life boat was FUBAR is alarming in itself (not to minimize the frustration that this caused for you).  I thought they kept those things in good working order.  Good thing you weren't trying to flee a burning cruise ship in a hurry (or something similarly urgent, IRL).