I picked up Dyllan and Deagan from swimming lessons on
Thursday evening and headed downtown to pick up Dane from his soccer game (they
lost, but mainly because the 6th graders all got to play this time, as it was a
friendly match. The coach is really good at giving all the kids a chance
to play when he can). Next, we headed down to the airport to pick up
Dan. Dan had been in Madrid all week for meetings. We all piled in
the car at the airport and were on the road by 7:15pm. Dan drove until a
little after midnight. We didn't reserve a hotel, as we didn't know how
long we'd be able to stay awake. We decided to just sleep in the
car. After a couple of hours, Dan and I were both pretty
uncomfortable. And we were awake again. So we got back on the road.
We drove for a couple more hours before pulling over again. We slept a
good hour, and then were ready to head on. Dan thought it had probably
helped that his body was still operating on Spanish time (dinner starts at 9:00
and goes to midnight). Although we did most of the drive in the dark, we
did get to see a lot of the coastal regions of northern Italy in the morning
light. We made it to our dock in Savona, Italy with plenty of time to
spare. We boarded the Costa Fortuna and we set sail!
Our first two days, we spent exploring the ship. We found several differences between this European cruise line and the American ones we had been on. For instance, we went to dinner and were handed our menus. A couple of minutes later, our waiter (never introduced himself), came over and looked at me with a pencil and paper in hand. He never said a word. I looked back at him with a quizzical look on my face. He responded with a, "So." I gave him my order and he went around the table getting everyone else's, all without saying a word. Later that meal, Dan was eating his salad, and crunched on something hard. He pulled it out of his mouth and found it to be a piece of glass, broken off from another dish. He told the waiter about the glass in his salad. The waiter picked up the glass, looked at it, put it back on the plate, and left. There was no apology. There was no mention of getting a new salad. He didn't say anything! The next night, I found a piece of Saran Wrap in my salad. I pushed it aside and didn't even mention it, as it wouldn't have done any good. I have to say, that the food tasted very good. All the kids meals were brought first so that they didn't have to wait. That was very nice. We found the food availability to be lacking. There is no buffet open at dinner time, and eating at 6:30, by 9:00, you are ready for a little dessert or snack. This is not possible on this ship. No food is available after dinner, except for a pizza place that you have to pay per person to eat there. That was disappointing. At the end of the week, we also wanted to switch the credit card that we were using for ship board credit. This was just not possible to do. What? They hadn't charged the card yet, but could not change it because it was pre authorized. Tell me why they couldn't pre authorize a different one because they sure couldn't explain it.
Our first stop was Malaga, Spain. We booked an excursion through the boat because we really wanted to see a Flamenco show while we were in Southern Spain, the home of Flamenco! We started out the tour with a barf on the bus, courtesy of Danyon. We hid it pretty well, and were able to still continue. We got to a bull fighting ring. They had opened the ring and small museum inside just for our group. We got to see how they make the ring to look like the sun. It was cool to see the different outfits on display, the different bulls mounted on the wall, and the various pictures of injuries and other mishaps. It was a good way to see different aspects of this tradition without having to see the whole gruesome thing. Dyllan and I missed some of the museum because of more barfing from Danyon. Since he didn't have a fever, we assumed he was just motion sick as he had been on our last cruise.
From the ring, we headed up to the castle. We walked around the castle grounds a bit (this time, Dan got puked on again). After the castle, we headed downtown. We got to do some souvenir shopping for 10 minutes, then headed to the tiny basement theater, opened especially for our group, again. We watched the private Flamenco show. There was one guitarist, one singer/clapper, and two dancers/clappers. It was a pretty intense show based on technical ability and true technique of the dance. The kids thought it was okay, until they tried to do some of the moves. It took 20 seconds before they were winded, and our show lasted 45 minutes. They were a lit more impressed after that. By the way, no more barf until the bus ride back to the ship.
After getting back on the ship, Danyon seemed to be doing much better. But on our way to dinner, he got his fingers stuck in the elevator door when the doors opened all the way. I couldn't get them out. Dan had to wedge the elevator door to the side in order to free his fingers. We did get them out before his fingers were crushed and broken, but it still hurt. He made Dan hold his hand the entire time we were at dinner. If Dan tried to let go, even for a second, Danyon would whimper and grab Dans hand and fold his fingers back over his wound. After dinner, we were awarded another barf from Danyon.
The next day, we were hoping Danyon would be feeling better. We only booked two excursions and they were on consecutive days. Our port was Casablanca, Morocco. Dan didn't feel like we could wander around at will in this port. With our family of six, we wanted to make sure everyone was safe. However, our tour didn't leave until 2:00. We had all morning in port with nothing to do. We didn't want to waste our time in port, so we headed out on our own to find a taxi. We got off the ship to find policemen everywhere, blowing their whistles at people trying to get into the dock area. Other people on our ship, told us that they saw that mess and turned around and waited for their tour. We, however, found the group of legitimate taxi drivers and hired one for the morning. Our taxi was a Mercedes (1970s model) with fold down seats, rusted off arm rests, and door handles that could only be opened from the outside. The seat belts were long gone. Having traveled in places like Turkey, we weren't too shocked, but were still a little leery. The traffic in Casablanca was incredible. It was a huge mess, with everyone out for themselves. Cars are everywhere, people are everywhere. Cars will pile all around each other waiting to turn, we turned left from a right lane. It was all crazy chaos. Dan wouldn't even think of driving there. First, our driver took us to a rug store.
We found a handmade Berber rug that we liked because it was
different than anything we had seen in Turkey. Then our taxi driver
took us to a pharmacy where we could buy Moroccan Argon oil products.
Then we were off to the third largest mall in Africa. It wasn't a huge
mall, and it had a ton of high end stores that we couldn't afford. We
couldn't believe that we found a Laduree shop with macaroons. We bought
some and enjoyed our taste of Paris in Casablanca. After that, we headed
back to the ship to go on our tour.
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| Inside the Mosque |
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| All the walls were carved in stone like this one, with tile mosaic on the bottom third. |
Our tour started off with going to some royal residence. The building took ten years to complete and was incredible. We weren't allowed to see everything in the building as the King was in town and different places were closed. It was interesting to see young people lining the streets to welcome him in town. He is liked by the public, partly because he has decided to only have one wife and has passed some laws encouraging others to do the same. Then, we headed to tour the largest mosque in the world besides Mecca. It was interesting to see. Twenty thousand people can pray within the walls of the mosque all at one time. They even had tape on the carpets so that people would kneel in a straight line. Outside there was room for another sixty thousand to pray in the courtyard. Apparently, all spots are filled on Friday, during Ramadan. It cost 600 million euros to build and was built solely on donations from the public. The building is in a beautiful location, right on the coast, and in fact, is built out over the ocean.
We drove out to a resort area of Morroco to see different vacation
villas. Prices are really high (millions of Euro for a very small
villa). We drove out to a Catholic Church to see some stained glass
designed by a French artist. It is the only Christian church in all of
Casablanca. That is amazing, since it is a city of six and a half million
people. Danyon was not as impressed, as he got sick again on the bus
after the church. Dan brought towels with him, and was able to catch most
of it. We stopped at the local market to do some souvenir shopping
afterwards, but the prices were higher than what we had seen earlier that
morning. We were anxious to get Danyon back to the boat. That
night, I wasn't feeling well either, so I stayed with Danyon while everyone
else went to dinner.
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| The main market had over 60 fish mongers and the same amount of butchers all in this enclosed space. The neat part was that it didn't stink in the market at all! |
The next day, we were in Cadiz, Spain. We wandered around the downtown and enjoyed window shopping. We hit the beach and spent a relaxing day playing in the sand and in the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean is far colder than the Mediterranean Sea. Dan found a bakery and bought a cake for me for my birthday. The kids and Dan sang and then we all ate cake and other pastries on the beach. As I was fed up with Dan's long hair, he stopped at a Spanish speaking only hair salon. He got what might be his shortest haircut yet. But, it looks great!
We tried to find our way back to
some shops to pick up some souvenirs, but most of the shops were closed for
siesta. Back at the boat, Danyon barfed again. Dan was getting
angry about being puked on (for those counting, five direct hits), I was
getting tired of scrubbing barf all out of clothing and blankets from a tiny
sink in our room, and we were all getting a little worried about Danyon who was
losing tons of weight and getting very dehydrated. So Dan stayed in the
room, while the kids and I went to dinner. I still wasn't feeling one
hundred percent, so it was a quiet night. And at one point all the kids
left the dinner table at the same time to go use the bathroom. I was left
alone at the table for several minutes. Happy Birthday to me!
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| Where were we again? San Francisco? Nope, Lisbon!! |
The next day, Danyon barfed in the morning. We decided to take him to the doctor on board, as he was starting to get listless and not himself. The doctor told us that Danyon had food poisoning and until his stomach got rid of all the offending parts, he would continue to throw up. She gave us some medicine for him. Within a few minutes of taking the medicine, Danyon was feeling remarkably better. We decided to take him off the ship and into our port for the day: Lisbon, Portugal. We wandered around the streets and picked up some souvenirs. Dan bought me a new watch for my birthday. We found some handmade knitted ponchos for Dyllan and I. Since we were in the land of the rooster, we even got a painted rooster to display in the house. The rooster is a symbol of faith and good luck. We took it easy as Deagan was also not feeling well. He also barfed, but not entirely on Dan. He hit the sidewalk and Dan's foot, well protected by his flip flop. We wandered around the town. Dan gave up on his seafood lunch, the number one thing he was looking forward to on the cruise. Deagan puked again, in the street, so we headed back to the boat. After resting the whole afternoon, everyone felt better and we all went to dinner together. Deagan, Danyon, and I all had to leave early. I don't know what food it was that made us sick, but it was something we all ate on the boat--as we all got sick after spending 1 1/2 days on board. That part of the trip was miserable. We did decide that we would like to spend more time in Portugal. Anyone up for a trip during Spring Break??
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| We found this in a store. It made Dan furious. |
We had another day at sea. Danyon threw up one more time--just to make things fun and to give us more laundry to do. The activities on board were not very plentiful. The kids club stunk (Dyllan's words). They only spoke Italian to the kids and although they did speak German to Deagan, Dyllan was not so lucky. I tried taking the kids to an arts and crafts class, but was informed that the kids could not do the project because they didn't have enough supplies (we are talking about crepe paper and straws). Also, the craft required scissors and staples. Those items were far too dangerous for Dane to handle. I was disgusted with the fact that kids couldn't do the project and went to complain at customer service. It was like talking to a brick wall. They said it was for the children's safety that they couldn't do the craft. However, it was not written on the planer for the day that it was for adults only. Conclusion: we loved our cruise and feel blessed that we were able to see all the places we did, but with the food poisoning, lack of customer service, mediocre entertainment, and general disregard of any manners or tact from anyone on board, Costa: Never Again!!!! You couldn't even get water at dinner without paying for it. Luckily, our travel agency gave us a water package as one of our perks, but getting the staff to fill our water glasses was like pulling teeth.
The next day, we spent half a day in Valencia, Spain. We had to take the city bus into town. We wandered around the streets looking at all the fun buildings and shops. We found horchata there. Instead of making it with rice as the Mexicans do, they make it from chuffa root. It tastes a bit like almond milk horchata. We enjoyed it. Dan again passed on all the really good looking Tapas, for the benefit of the rest of us. We really didn't have much time in port and a lot was closed again, for siesta. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat. We did get to stop at a store and pick up a Flemenco skirt for me. Not that I will start to learn the dance, but the skirt will be fun to wear anytime for any kind of dance.
Our last stop was Barcelona, Spain. Again, we only got half a day in this port. I'm really glad that we had done this city before because there wasn't time to do much of anything. We promised the kids another beach day, so we spent all our time in port at the beach. It was only a couple of hours and it was early morning, at that. We found the people at the beach to be wearing much more clothing than our first visit. I got a foot massage from a lady on the beach, and Dan got a back massage. On our walk to the beach, Deagan noticed some green birds on the sidewalk. I don't know what kind of birds they were, the only green birds I know of are parakeets, but it was cool to see a flock of green birds. It made us feel like we really were in the tropics. We were sure glad that we had done our souvenir shopping before Barcelona as the prices were double what we paid in Valencia. We were back on the boat in time for lunch and one more jaunt across the Mediterranean before docking back at Savona.
We didn't get into port until late morning, about 9:00. We were one of the first people off the boat. We had a long drive ahead of us. We wanted to get most of it done in the day light so that we could see all the scenery we missed on the way down in the dark. It is still very surreal to me to say that we spent our day driving through northern Italy. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous. It was a fun way to vacation and we wouldn't mind driving to our destinations more often. Italy doesn't use the vignette (autobahn pass). They still charge tolls depending on how far you drive on their freeways. To cross most of Italy as we did, it cost us about 49 euros each direction. Although we don't have a Ferrari, Dan still picked up some good driving skills and got us home in good time. The kids and Dan are not really excited to be getting back into routine tomorrow, but the good news is, everyone seems to be feeling back to normal!
