We had a really early start, down at street level at 6:30am to catch our ride to the train station that Bill had arranged. Everyone was up and out the door on time and we arrived promptly at the train station with lots of time to order coffee, tea and snacks for the journey to Pisa.

The journey was uneventful and we had plenty of time in Pisa to take a restroom break, order more snacks and catch the next train to Civitavecchia, the port of Rome to catch our cruise ship.

From there we bought tickets for the city bus to the port, again bought some snacks and used the time to take advantage of the toilets.

After departing the city bus at the port, we hopped on a shuttle bus to the terminal and checked our bags, registered and boarded the ship. Since we arrived around noon, the wait times were not very long and the process very frictionless.

Once on-board we checked out our rooms and most of our baggage was delivered right away. We were all hungry, so quickly freshened up and headed to the 15th floor Garden Buffet at the front of the ship for lunch.

Everyone seemed satisfied with our meals (and those of us that grabbed the first drinks - Aperol spritz, beer and painkiller.

After lunch Norm & Marlene headed back to their room, Lou & Barry headed to the Atrium for trivia and Bill & I did a complete tour of the entire ship.

An hour or two later after exploring the restaurants, bars, spa, fitness facilities, pools and entertainment venues, we found Lou & Barry tallying their trivia scores. Barry was not pleased with the “cheating winners” at the front of the room

After the mandatory emergency debriefing that I slept through I climbed 9 flights of stairs to find out that the stretch class was cancelled. So, I headed back to the bar and found Bill so we could buy our wine package (incremental to our booze package) and set a time for our tender to shore in Cannes.

After a short nap in the room we gathered at Le Bistro for a fantastic meal that Bill has planned for us. I really enjoyed my smoked duck, French onion soup, veal and chocolate fruit fondue. Bill’s crab, lamb and apple tartlet was great too.

We had a short stroll around the deck, due to the clouds and then called it a night

I'm on a Boat