Jewel of the Seas Greek Isles Fall 2019 Travel Day
Wow. Incredible. Beautiful. These are the words we used when describing last year's visit to the Greek Isles. Would this year live up to the same standard and un-measurable experiences?
This was my 7th cruise....7th?! That's not nearly enough. I started cruising in fall 2014 when I made the leap to move from my home in Seattle to where my long distance at the time boyfriend lived in Colorado. He had been cruising for years solo or with ex girlfriends that we will not mention. I had just returned from a DIY land based in Ireland and then pretty much went straight into my first cruise: the Southern Caribbean on Carnival Breeze.
If you read my last trip blog you'll know Nate and I got engaged in Sept 2018 in Rome on top of the Altar of the Fatherland in Piazza Venezia. When we got back from that cruise we almost immediately booked for Oct 2019. The price was too good to pass up and we wanted to see everything again.
Shortly after we booked this cruise we started thinking about wedding dates. Nate's business' busy season ramps down in September...getting married during the summer is just not an option. I found our venue http://cathedralpineslodge.com and fell in love with the idea of a fall wedding there...I spoke to the manager and the "off season" prices began in October. Well we can't get married in October because we have the cruise booked...This is how our wedding date of November 9, 2019, was born. So this cruise is a non-traditional pre-wedding moon. We have a cruise booked in January 2020 so I guess you could call that the official honeymoon.
We booked this 9 night cruise through a big box store and paid: $2350 for an interior cabin on deck 9 fwd. This also included a $140 gift card upon return which I plan to use to buy pies for the wedding reception (pumpkin pie over wedding cake any day!). I really wanted a balcony again but couldn't justify the price which never dropped below $2000 each. We booked our round trip flights through Air2Sea for $700 each! i couldn't believe it! This would be my first time flying British Airways. With all the strikes going on this summer I grew a little anxious but figured it would all work out in the end no matter what happened.
I emailed Maurizio with Cabs 4 Rome to let him know we were coming back again and would use his service. I began researching different excursions in Naples. in 2018 we went to Pompeii and I wanted to go to Amalfi this time. I had seen a review of Carmine's Amalfi Coast (also recommended by Rick Steves) and emailed him for a quote and quickly paid the 50euro deposit. More on all this later! This is just part of my planning experience.
We were more than ready for this trip since our last vacation was a 5 day trip to Florida in February. We visited my grandma, dad, and extended family...I got a quick fix of my love for the sea and sunsets
but it left me longing for both again. In Oct 2018 we were t-boned by someone running a red light. It totaled Nate's car, broke his back, gave me a breathing issue that took weeks to go away and anxiety I still deal with. In May we bought a puppy, a mini schnauzer, from a breeder. 2 days later we took him to the pet hospital with parvo. 14 days close to $14k later we got to bring him home. That 2 weeks was stressful, heartbreaking, and a roller coaster. He's now a happy healthy, playful little nugget. I've also been planning our wedding, our next cruise in January, AND because of all the stress gave up my 2nd job - my at home business (I'm still a full time exec assistant).
We needed this trip.
One of the things I regretted not doing on last year's cruise was seeing the Colosseum lit up at night. Would we be able to fit that in this time? Stay tuned.
I also learned last year that there are 2 different internet packages: Voom & Voom Surf & Stream. Last year I had just gotten us Voom and we both had a terrible time uploading anything to social media. This time I got a deal on black friday for Surf & Stream on 2 devices. Would it be any better? I also purchased the soda package for myself again.
This was my 7th cruise....7th?! That's not nearly enough. I started cruising in fall 2014 when I made the leap to move from my home in Seattle to where my long distance at the time boyfriend lived in Colorado. He had been cruising for years solo or with ex girlfriends that we will not mention. I had just returned from a DIY land based in Ireland and then pretty much went straight into my first cruise: the Southern Caribbean on Carnival Breeze.
If you read my last trip blog you'll know Nate and I got engaged in Sept 2018 in Rome on top of the Altar of the Fatherland in Piazza Venezia. When we got back from that cruise we almost immediately booked for Oct 2019. The price was too good to pass up and we wanted to see everything again.
Shortly after we booked this cruise we started thinking about wedding dates. Nate's business' busy season ramps down in September...getting married during the summer is just not an option. I found our venue http://cathedralpineslodge.com and fell in love with the idea of a fall wedding there...I spoke to the manager and the "off season" prices began in October. Well we can't get married in October because we have the cruise booked...This is how our wedding date of November 9, 2019, was born. So this cruise is a non-traditional pre-wedding moon. We have a cruise booked in January 2020 so I guess you could call that the official honeymoon.
We booked this 9 night cruise through a big box store and paid: $2350 for an interior cabin on deck 9 fwd. This also included a $140 gift card upon return which I plan to use to buy pies for the wedding reception (pumpkin pie over wedding cake any day!). I really wanted a balcony again but couldn't justify the price which never dropped below $2000 each. We booked our round trip flights through Air2Sea for $700 each! i couldn't believe it! This would be my first time flying British Airways. With all the strikes going on this summer I grew a little anxious but figured it would all work out in the end no matter what happened.
I emailed Maurizio with Cabs 4 Rome to let him know we were coming back again and would use his service. I began researching different excursions in Naples. in 2018 we went to Pompeii and I wanted to go to Amalfi this time. I had seen a review of Carmine's Amalfi Coast (also recommended by Rick Steves) and emailed him for a quote and quickly paid the 50euro deposit. More on all this later! This is just part of my planning experience.
We were more than ready for this trip since our last vacation was a 5 day trip to Florida in February. We visited my grandma, dad, and extended family...I got a quick fix of my love for the sea and sunsets
but it left me longing for both again. In Oct 2018 we were t-boned by someone running a red light. It totaled Nate's car, broke his back, gave me a breathing issue that took weeks to go away and anxiety I still deal with. In May we bought a puppy, a mini schnauzer, from a breeder. 2 days later we took him to the pet hospital with parvo. 14 days close to $14k later we got to bring him home. That 2 weeks was stressful, heartbreaking, and a roller coaster. He's now a happy healthy, playful little nugget. I've also been planning our wedding, our next cruise in January, AND because of all the stress gave up my 2nd job - my at home business (I'm still a full time exec assistant).
We needed this trip.
One of the things I regretted not doing on last year's cruise was seeing the Colosseum lit up at night. Would we be able to fit that in this time? Stay tuned.
I also learned last year that there are 2 different internet packages: Voom & Voom Surf & Stream. Last year I had just gotten us Voom and we both had a terrible time uploading anything to social media. This time I got a deal on black friday for Surf & Stream on 2 devices. Would it be any better? I also purchased the soda package for myself again.
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