Well we are back from our big vacation. As you may already be aware we took a 7 night Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean on the Voyager of the Seas. The cruise ported out of Barcelona, Spain and visited five total ports (Nice, Florence/Pisa, Rome, Naples, and Palermo in Sicily).
We flew out of SLC to Barcelona on the 14th and arrived early morning on the 15th. We had the 15th and 16th there and then boarded the ship on the 17th. Barcelona was really neat. Of course we were working to overcome what I call "ass" otherwise known as Jet Lag, but we had a great time. Probably one of the best things is the Market of la Boqueria. I have been to markets before that have fresh fish and meat, but I have never been to one like this. The place is HUGE and has a lot of, shall I say interesting things. The Cathedral de la Santa Creu was beautiful inside. It was built in 1298 and has obviously been well taken care of. Also the El Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família was very interesting. It is a church that started construction in 1882 (yes 18 not 19) and is still not done yet. The exterior is very intricate and extravagant. Some pictures of the Sagrada Família can be found HERE.
On the 17th we boarded the cruise ship for what would be a very different cruising experience. For those of you that have been on a cruise before, you are familiar with the safety drill. This is where they get everybody on the deck of the ship with their life vests and explain how the process will work if we have to get off of the ship in an emergency. This drill started at 16:00 (4pm) on Saturday and would last about 30 minutes. During that drill I suddenly felt very hot and started sweating profusely. I started to feel like I was going to pass out, so I took my life jacket off and squatted down until the drill was over. From there I returned to our room for the rest of the day. I didn't even go to dinner.
The next morning we were ported in Nice, France. I still wasn't feeling well but thought I would give it a go anyway thinking it was just my motion sickness. Unfortunately, I didn't even make it through breakfast and had to go see the ships doctor. In meeting with him, he quickly identified my symptoms as being consistent with the Norovirus. He did a blood test and gave me two options. The first I could conform to isolation in our state room for 48 hours or I could disembark the ship. So starting Sunday the 18th, I was isolated to my room and could not leave. On top of this, Ashley was also isolated for 24 hours to help reduce the risk of infecting the other passengers.
On Monday the 19th I was feeling much better, but still could not leave my room. Ashley was feeling fine and was able to go into port. That day we were in Florence/Pisa and she headed out with the tour that we had planned. I stayed in the room and did a bit of reading and a bunch of sleeping. It was actually quite relaxing. About mid day I was feeling fine so I headed up to the food area to get some lunch. I was out of my room for maybe 15 minutes and they paged me over the intercom system to come to guest services. I headed down there and they proceeded to advise me that I was not to leave my room and if I was caught out of my room again they would require me to disembark the ship and turn me over to the local health authorities. They then escorted me to my room to make sure I understood where I was to be and that I was not to leave.
On Tuesday the 20th I was all set to be free and clear and head into Rome. Unfortunately at about 2am, Ashley woke up and was exhibiting the same symptoms that I had on Saturday. We took her to the doctor that morning and he quickly advised us that she had the same thing. This meant that she was to be isolated for 48 hours and me for another 24. They gave Ash a shot and we returned to our room. She slept most of the day and I watched TV. Wednesday the 21st, I was feeling great and ready to get out of the room. Ash was still isolated, so I headed into the port. That day we were in Naples and had a long tour planned. One of the stops on the tour was to go to the island of Capri.
Just before heading to the island we had a very large Italian lunch at a local restaurant. The entire tour was stuffed as we headed to the docks to board a small Hydrofoil for the 30 minute ride over to the island. What would have been a normally enjoyable ride was probably the worst 45 minutes of my life. The water was very rough due to high winds and the Hydrofoil was bouncing all over the place. In traditional European ways, there was little to no air conditioning and it had to be 100 degrees inside. The heat and rough seas combined with everybody full stomach lead to disaster. It wasn't long into the ride before people left and right started turning very green and loosing their lunch. With my severe motion sickness issues I was also having problems. It was probably the worst episode I have ever experienced. The part that had me really concerned was that the ride over to the island was only to be 30 minutes and took closer to 45, but the return was to be an hour.
Once we got to the island of Capri, I quickly found a park bench and laid down. After about an hour I was feeling a bit better and prepping myself for the return trip. Fortunately the return trip was on a much larger and more capable Hydrofoil and the winds weren't quite as bad so it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. That night I got to eat my first dinner in the dining room with the family, minus Ashley.
Finally on Thursday the 22nd, both Ash and I were feeling fine and were able to get off the ship together and tour Palermo, Sicily. It was a pretty easy going day and it was just the two of us. The others were so tired; they opted to just stay on the ship. That night at dinner, the entire group was together for the first time. Friday the 23rd, we were at sea the entire day and just took advantage of some of the on-board amenities of the ship. Saturday, we departed the ship at 7:45 am and started our long trek back home.
All in all it was a good vacation. I wish we would have been able to go into port a bit more then we did, but we still had a good time. Royal Caribbean did say they would be giving us a credit for a future cruise for the time missed due to isolation. So it looks like we will be heading off some other place within the year…
The limited pictures I have from the trip have been uploaded to Flickr and you can CLICK HERE to see them...
Its good to be home!
