Tuesday, May 31st

Tuesday, May 31^st

We set our alarms for 6:00 AM so that we could get up and exercise in the fitness center prior to breakfast.  We were both surprised to see how busy it was and I would note there was at least double the participants as on most cruises.  Around 7:15 we made our way back to clean up and head to breakfast.  We had breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill, which is a perk we found we really enjoyed last year.  Same menu as the dining room but noticeably better service.  One sad change was that the manager didn’t look up our names.  Last year after the first day all of the staff in the Pinnacle knew our names and welcomed us using our names.  (more will be shared later.)  It is clear that the manager and culture that he or she creates impacts the total experience.  While we enjoyed breakfast the ship docked in Toulon, France and we were cleared to go ashore.

After breakfast we returned to our stateroom and then headed out to see the city.  Toulon is rather quaint and small and we loved it.  There is a walking tour of the city with metal arrows embedded in the walks and streets.  We took the “train” tour of the city, walked the beaches and then walked through town.  Toulon has a very large Navy base and security was tight.

We visited the outdoor market and as most port guides suggested, we had Toulon Cade which looks like a thick pita made out of chick pea flour.  The “Cade Man” had a wood fired oven on the back of his small truck and cooked and reheated the pieces in it.

We then made our way back to the ship for a bathroom break and lunch.  We had lunch in the dive-in hamburger joint in the Lido pool area.  We always try to have them one time each cruise.  We then returned to the city to see the Market quickly closing. We decided that each stop should include a local wine experience so we had some wine on a city square, outside and called it a wrap.  We headed back to rest.

It seemed somewhat unusual, but this was the first Gala night.  When we unpacked our clothes they not in any way presentable.  We knew we would have laundry, dry cleaning and pressing as part of our perks so on Monday evening we asked our cabin steward about getting them ready for Tuesday’s dinner.  Our clothes were dry cleaned and back to our cabin within 3 hours!  We don’t get that kind of service at home.

We had a 6 PM dining time and headed to the main dining room.  Vincent had made a reservation for us for a table for 2 and although the reservation was for the lower level, we were asked if is minded eating on the second level which is typically reserved for fixed seating.  Seeing the many waiting for tables who had not bothered with reservations, we quickly agreed.  One change that we noted from a year ago was the noticeably reduced dress of guests.  I saw no tuxes and was one of few men wearing a suit.  I appreciated that a guest without a dress shirt was turned away.  (They do have the option of eating in the Lido or ordering room service.)  We had Shrimp Cocktail, Janice had a carrot artichoke soup (I opted for a second appetizer instead) and then Janice had the sole and I had rack of lamb.  (really 2 lamb chops, but they were quite nice.)  We had a small dessert which we didn’t finish.

After dinner we stopped by to make reservations for later in the cruise and headed to a presentation by our Port Guide for Monaco.  The Monte Carlo Grand Prix was last weekend and we were warned that we would see lots of evidence we visited.  We stopped by the main stage to see the show which was not described in the daily program but discovered it was show tunes.  On Monday many of the “older” crowd left when they saw it was BB King which we loved.  Tonight we headed out while they smiled, tapped and sang along.  We made an early evening of it and took advantage of the new tvs and interactive movie options in our cabin.  It was a great first full day.

 

Monday, May 30th

Sorry for the delay in posting but the internet on the ship was not possible and we had great trouble with finding wifi in port that was accessible.

Monday, May 30^th.

We both slept in a bit at our Hotel before enjoying the buffet breakfast. While our room was quite small compared to US standards, about half the size of our stateroom aboard, the room was clean, the food plentiful and staff very helpful.  Around 10:15 we packed and made our way to the street where there were 4 taxis waiting at the intersection.  One thing about Barcelona is that “corners” of each block are cut off and this allows space for taxis and for truck deliveries with blocking lanes of traffic.  A 20 minute ride and we were at the port.  The driver didn’t speak any English and my Spanish or more specifically Catalanya is not great.  We were able to advise which terminal upon seeing our ship.  A porter met us at the cab and took our bags to check them in.  We had already placed our cruise luggage tags on each of the bags so that we were only carrying a small item each.

Check in went very quickly.  We went through security screening and no one commented on the two bottles of wine that we bought in Montserrat and were bringing aboard.  Holland allows 1 bottle per passenger to be enjoyed in one’s stateroom.  Normally you are directed to a table where they record this, but in this case no one even mentioned it.  We filled out our health forms and were given boarding group 7.  We made our way to the formal check in and began to enjoy the benefits of our upgraded cabin.  We landed in a Aft Wrap Netptune Suite on Deck 7.  This afforded us a “head of the line” check in and a private area to wait for embarkation.  At about 11:30 we were invited to board but advised that our staterooms were not ready and we could head to the Lido for lunch.  We had no plans to eat in the Lido!  We are way past the crush of passengers all trying to eat their fill.  At 11:55 we headed to the dining room for what used to be called the Mariners lunch and were seated with a couple from Canada at Noon.  We prefer the service and peace of the wait staff and find that we tend to eat better there than at the Lido.  While we enjoyed our salads, the cruise director announced that staterooms were ready.

After lunch we went to deposit items in our stateroom and within the next 30 minutes our luggage was delivered and Janice “nested” by unpacking.  Janice grabbed a book and I headed out to reacquaint myself with the MS Eurodam.  Our mandatory muster drill was at 3:15 and by 3:40 we were done and headed to the Crow’s Nest to meet others we had connected with online and would be touring with in 4 different ports.  There were about 20 of us.

We then headed to the Neptune Lounge to make dinner reservations and to discover that Vincent, who was our concierge on the last cruise, was again on this cruise and even though it had been a year he recognized us.  We got dressed for dinner in the Tamarind and then headed to a reception with the Captain and officers.  Another suite guest doesn’t quite get the dress code on the MS Eurodam and showed up for the reception in a bathing suit, t-shirt and flip flops.  After the reception we enjoyed the BB King opening show and headed to bed.  It was a great day and we are thankful to be on board.