A Silhouette Snapshot ~ Kotor, Montenegro

This Celebrity cruise has – as I mentioned earlier – been a near mind-boggling routing filled with ports of call so interesting that we return to the ship with our senses  numbed from the experiences on ashore.

Our day in Kotor, Montenegro was one of those days that will end up in the  ‘near perfect’ file even though it was one of the most demanding (that’s a teaser for a future report about climbing a mountain. . .).

As we were sailing back toward the Adriatic Sea and putting the memories of the day away, we were sipping some well-earned wine and watching the day fade into evening. . .



 
I should note here, that with the exception of two days – our stop in Napoli and Corfu when the skies dumped rain for a portion of each day– we have had sunny days and temperatures in the high 70’s. . .not bad for nearly the end of October!

Where has this month gone?  We left home the first of October and now are beginning the preparations for the end of the cruise and phase three of our adventure, ‘living’ in Venice to begin.  We have plenty of cruise tales and tips for you, so stay tuned. . .

TP Thursday: A cruise kaleidoscope

Here we are in Bari, Italy nearly midway through the Celebrity cruise that is taking us from Rome to Venice and into autumn in Europe. We’ve had a  kaleidoscope of experiences since setting sail; so many that I couldn’t think of a single topic on which to focus this Travel Photo Thursday. Sometimes travel is like that - it jumbles the mind.

So think of this post as a kaleidoscope of our last week:

Napoli:  Birth place of Sophia Loren and pizza!

Catania, Sicily: The Duomo was just one of the many historic sites we visited on this day when we logged 11 miles on the pedometer. Actually, 10 or 11 miles a day is becoming the norm for this trip.

Valletta, Malta:  Watching the sun rise over this ancient city was magic, simply, pure magic. So much so, that we've vowed to return and spend much more than a single day here.

Whew!  A day at sea to rest our senses before heading to Corfu, Greece and up the Adriatic for the last half of the cruise.










 I saved one of our favorite photos to end today’s post:

After all, we know that Italy is at the center of the fashion world, right? This fellow was in a Napoli store window – I couldn’t resist closing this post with him.




Ciao for now!  It’s Travel Photo Thursday so head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more travel photos. 

And a note of thanks to those of you who responded so positively to the last post:  Thank you so much for reposting on your FB pages, your tweets , Google + and all the other nice accolades.  They were most appreciated. And it is great to have so many new blogosphere friends.

Celebrity Silhouette: Oh the Places You Will Go!

If Celebrity Cruise lines ever needed a new slogan, they could turn to the Cat in the Hat’s, “Oh the Places You Will Go!” and pretty much nail it.

We have started phase two of our Italian Adventure aboard the Silhouette, a ship still in its inaugural season. It capacity is 2,886 guests, its cruising speed 24 knots, for those of you into statistics.


We boarded the ship in Rome’s cruise port,Civitavecchia, on Thursday – a beautiful, sunny  morning as evidenced by the photo above.  We sat on this deck enjoying a leisurely lunch and sipping a glass of welcome champagne while awaiting the announcement that our rooms were ready to occupy.


And at 1 p.m. we were settling into our floating home for the next 12 days.  Thanks to a recommendation from the agency we use for booking our cruises we ended up with a balcony large enough for eight people and a room of almost the same size! 


Everything is large and spacious on this ship – even the lawn art.  Being part of the Solstice Class ships, we do have a 15th floor lawn – that many have remarked is much greener than what they left back home.

Our route will loop us around Italy’s boot:  yesterday we were in Napoli, today Sicily and tomorrow Malta (which was one of the reasons this routing called out to us). Then we have a day to rest our senses before visiting Greece, Montenegro, Croatia and four more ports in Italy before ending up in Venice.

Now that the computer is up and running again (we took a break from computers for a few days) I will tell you more about the wonderful ports we’re visiting aboard this luxurious supersized yacht on which we are sailing.

Monday Meanderings: Looping Italy’s Boot

The lure and love of  Spain and Greece has become so strong, it was difficult this year directing ourselves towards one of our old favorites, Italy.

Make that ‘difficult’ until a cruise itinerary of the Celebrity Silhouette from Rome to Venice called out, “La Dolce Vita!”



We’ll be living that Italian ‘sweet life’ as well as having some interesting stops as we loop the boot-shaped country, in Malta, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia.


The Silhouette, with an occupancy of 2,886, is a new-comer to Celebrity’s Solstice Class ships, having been launched in July, 2011.

(For those of you cruise enthusiasts out there, Solstice Class ships were  named the “Best Cruise Ships” 2011 by Frommer’s travel guides.)

We first sailed a Solstice Class ship in the Spring of 2011 and have been smitten with these vessels sprouting a live lawn on their top level since then.

The Silhouette is sporting some new features like an Arts Center, which replaces the hot glass art demonstration studios still operating on earlier Solstice ships.  This Arts Center offers classes as a cooperative project with the Art Center/South Florida.   Don’t think we’ll have time to take a class though as all but one of our 12-days on board will  be at some interesting port of call.

We were pleased to see that Murano, the fine dining restaurant, has been retained on this new ship. But I doubt that we’ll be trying Qsine, the restaurant where you order food and wine from an iPad, that is provided.  (The thought makes these techno-dinos shudder!)

Our stops in each port of call will be full-day visits, arriving at 8 a.m. and not leaving until 5 or 6 p.m.  That kind of schedule also gives us plenty of time to explore the towns and sample some of their food specialties – think Naples, think pizza!

Culture, cuisine, cruising – sounds like La Dolce Vita to me!

Cruising tips:

Cruising is an easy way to see a lot of places in a short period of time.  Admittedly, you get but a taste of each  place, but you can also return for a larger slice of life in the future.

When booking a cruise, be sure to ask about:

* The cost of on-board gratuities and whether they are included in your rate or to be paid separately.
* Whether port charges and possible fuel charges are included in the rate or if they will be added.
* What on-board spending credits or perks (like priority boarding or special on-board events) are included.

Now that you know where we will be off to this fall, do you have any tips for us in any of the ports of call?  Be sure to check out Joel’s “Deal Finder” page to see how he shops to find our cruise deals. Follow us on Facebook or subscribe to have our free posts arrive in your inbox. See you soon!