Tag Archives: cruise

Back by popular demand

26 Aug

Apologies as I have been seriously slacking. I, like many young professionals, get caught up in daily work life and sometimes forget to stop and do more of the things of love…like share my passion for travel. I follow many other blogs that post daily, and I make time to read. But for some reason I have not devoted as much time to my personal life as I should.

On that note…I am currently sitting in one of my favorite places in the airport (the delta lounge), getting ready to go on my favorite airline (delta, duh) and during one my favorite times of the year (vacation!). James is (finally) starting to see the light and joining me on a spontaneous European cruise vacation. I still can’t believe he fully trusted me to book this whole trip so I’m a little nervous that it won’t live up to our girls trip in April.

Tomorrow we leave from Rome and head to the Costa Serena where our journey will begin. Before you say anything I want to preface with “yes I know what I’m getting myself into”. I will not deny that what happened earlier this year on Costa was a tragedy. But I’m not one to let the past deter me from doing what I want to do. Besides… It was cheap as hell! We’re really excited. Considering that we’re seasoned travelers, we’re positive that our Costa Cruise experience will not be as horrible as some people make it out to be on cruise critic. 🙂

All Aboard Costa SerenaSafety DrillFirst Drink Onboard

Barcelona and first day at Sea

23 Apr

Our flight to barcelona was fortunately uneventful. There was minimal turbulence and luckily @delta is pretty much the only US airline that still serves free wine and beer with dinner. After getting carded by the stewardess we were pumped for dinner and a movie with a side of Ambien. We were all (understandably) a bit groggy when we first landed, but customs was breeze, apparently Spaniards don’t ask questions, and baggage claim was the usual waiting game. Once we walked through the gates the bright and cheery NCL crew greeted us for our transfers to the ship. Somehow my parents received a free tour of Barcelona on their way to the ship, however we were merely shuttled to the port for an early check-in. Even though the weather was fantastic, the thought of venturing into Barcelona half asleep with carry-on luggage was enough to make us opt for lunch and poolside naps. Our luggage arrived at our room shortly thereafter so unpacking and showers quickly commenced. We had to be ready for the welcome party and meeting up with my coworker Kim. Although the cruise director tried tireless to come make us dance, we resisted but watched in awe as he flung his hips around and miraculously remained dry in a grey button down.

Dinner in the grande pacific ballroom was quite elegant and our waiter, Dolce, was on jade to serve us. He was even kind enough to indulge us by bringing out roughly 6 deserts that we definitely did not need but thoroughly enjoyed nonetheless. Somehow we had a second wind and decided to go tithe “dance party” where we proceeded to dance to some shoddy black eyed peas cover songs and some mildly better lady gaga. But the band left and we realized we were some of the last people to leave, so we decided we should probably go to bed.

We woke up pretty late to hazy skies and “coffee with Gio” our fearless cruise director followed by breakfast buffet and laying out poolside. Veronica and I are the former co-captains of the 2008 Daniel hand volleyball team. This partaking in the crew vs. passengers volleyball game was an obvious activity choice. As if the day could not get any better, Veronica and Monika assisted in judging the international mens sexy leg competition poolside. In case you haven’t met us we’re quite the outgoing crowd. 🙂 this also includes shutting down the disco on a nightly basis and dancing with people of all ages. My parents were gracious enough to tell a couple of the crew members that we would be coming onboard so we now seem to be quite the popular group.

We are very anxious for our first port of call…Messina Sicily.

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