Our Cruise - Day 1

We left our hotel at 10 AM for the port in Civitavecchea. Terry got the honor of lugging the luggage from the rooms down the flights of staircase (shown in this posting) to the lobby. (A hotel clerk tried to help, and Terry thanked her, but declined. He wanted all the glory as Julie and Carol’s mule. For the first time on the trip, he broke out in a sweat.

Civitavecchia, about 90 minutes away, is a vast port, and once there it took us nearly half an hour to get to our ship, the Celebrity Equinox. We boarded and sought out Wande and Sheila, who arrived in Rome earlier in the morning. It turned out that Wande’s flight was delayed at Dulles Airport for two hours, so she was unable to meet up with Sheila at the Celebrity transport area at the Rome airport. Sheila waited for her, but finally realized she was not there. She heard someone from Celebrity ask if anyone was there for the “grand tour of Rome” before the transport to the ship.

Sheila’s antennae raised; TOUR? To say that Sheila loves tours is an understatement. Let’s just say that if she left medicine she would operate her own tour company (organizing AND giving them!). Sheila later told us all about it. She went to many places over the span of a few hours. She was able to go to St. Peter’s Square and get into St. Peter’s Basilica. She got to see, but not tour, the Forum, which she was ecstatic about: “It was amazing!”

Carol, Julie and Terry went right into cruise mode and ate lunch. After a while they united with Wande and Sheila. Terry’s harem was now complete (soon to be a new show on HBO, “Big Harem”.) Surrounded by four beautiful women fawning over him (he made that last part up), Terry was no doubt going to be the envy of the ship (well, by men, at least). In reality, people were probably looking at him and whispering, “rich.”

Carol and Sheila shared a cabin next to Julie and Terry’s. They had adjoining balconies and the cabin attendant pulled back the partition separating them. There we congregated, giddy with excitement. Soon we went to the main deck as the ship was pulling out of port. We grabbed some comfortable deck chairs. The warm sun smiled upon us, music played, the ocean air – scented with sweet sea salt – fanned us and drinks flowed. Mirth was the order of the afternoon. After a few hours of lounging, laughing and visiting, we went to our cabins and rested before dinner.

At dinner, a couple whom we'll call the "Tones," who are from the U.S., were our companions at our assigned table. We were seated right next to a window, so we enjoyed good food, conversation and views. Jet lag and all the excitement came crashing down upon Sheila and Wande, so we all went back to our cabins. A day at sea awaited us, as we were en route to the island of Santorini, Greece.

We all left our balcony doors open, and the gentle waves and whisper of the wind lulled us to sleep.