Sept 25th 2019
Today we are in Civitaccheia looking at the cuise ships out of my window.
I was sooooooo excited that I could not eat my breakfast. We are in a really nice airbnb tonight and we have great rooms. We had a lovely dinner with my parents and my grandparents. We went for a walk to see are cruise a bit closer. There is a big fort that is still used by the military called the fortress of Michaengleo. It was really neat to walk around. It was built in 1580.
My dad and my papa went to go see what we had to get on to get to the cruise because we could not walk to the port. We took two buses, one to the bus port and the other one to the cruise boat. Our cruise boat is called the MSC Seaview. We had to go through security, which was very fast.
We did a quick tour of the boat - and we made sure we found the water slide park!
We first had some lunch at the buffet and then we went to are rooms. I was in a room with my Grandma in room 11104, I loved sharing a room with her. It was great! We had two single beds, the room was small, but we had everything we needed.
The boys shared a room with my mom and dad. They had a room with a queen bed below and two bunk beds that pulled out of the ceiling. They loved their beds! They had been arguing about who would get the top bunk – But the both ended up with a top bunk!
We after had an amazing time at the water park on the ship. We spent 3 hours. Papa did the brown waterslide and when he came down, he made the greatest face ever!! We all had so much fun!
There were two waterslides that were blue and see-through that were beside each other and you could race. And there was another one on the other side of the boat where you used a plastic sled to sit on and race down the water slide. There was also a rope course that over the waterpark and we could climb through it. It was super cool.
My mom took a walk with Auntie Carrie and Uncle Sandy and they walked around the boat - it was pretty cool at night.
After dinner we went to see a show in the theatre. It was called a magic show, but instead there was all sorts of singing and dancing and acrobatics. There was gymnastics performers, who hung from hoops and who could flip around and do incredible acrobatics. They also had huge puppets that the people directed and moved around. We all loved it.
Sept 26th 2019
Today we woke up and went down to the buffet for breakfast. We had a great breakfast. The buffet was large and it was in the center of the room and we could get whatever we wanted. My usual breakfast was hashbrowns, sausages and waffles with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and berries. We stopped that morning in the French town of Cannes.
In order to get off the boat we had to take a shuttle that would take us off the Cruise ship and it dropped us at the docks. We walked around the town we saw where the famous film festival was and we saw hand prints from many famous actors.
We found a cute little ice cream shop and stopped and enjoyed the lovely ice cream. My favourite flavour is dark chocolate. After that we found a beach and we all stopped and went swimming. The beach was very busy, but there weren’t may people swimming, we brought our new masks and we could see lots of fish underwater. The beach was nice soft sand and we all made sand castles and played on the beach.
That night after dinner we went to another show. Each show was a little different. Each one had some singing and dancing as well as some gymnastics. I loved the shows so much. After the show we were all very tired and went strait to bed.
What an amazing day!!
Sept 27th 2019
Today we woke up and we were in Mallorca an Island in Spain. We are not going to get in to port until 12:30pm. In the morning, we went to the Lego kids park. It was not that fun for me but my brother and cousins LOVED it! My cousins and brothers built a very tall tower; it was as tall as I am. When we got to the island of Mallorca, it was really neat. We sailed right down the whole northern side of the island. It was a beautiful morning and we were able to see so much of it.
This time, the ship pulled right up to the dock and we were able to get off onto the dock. My Grandma thought that today was a great day to have a rest so she stayed on the ship and we walked into town. As we pulled into port, my uncle Joe saw a castle up on the hill and so we did some research and found out that we could walk up to it. So my cousins, my uncles and aunts and my parents went up the hill to the castle. It was called Bellver castle. It is a round castle and it beautiful inside. It was built between 1300 and 1311 by King James of Mallorca as his home and fortress. Later the Fortress was used as a hill top lookout, and finally into the town Prison for political figures sent into isolation.
On our way up to the castle, we met my Nanny and Poppa coming up the hill. They changed there mind and came to see the castle as well. It was really neat to see, there were famous carvings and statures inside the castle as well as lots of stairs. The only place we could not go was into the final central tower. They were working to restore it, and it was closed. In this picture you can see my mom with her "little" brothers!
Sept 28th 2019
This morning the cruise boat stopped early at the port of Barcelona. We decided to walk from the cruise boat, over the bridge and into town. It was a busy city and there were already 4 other cruise ships docked beside ours.
We headed up into the city and stopped first at the Christopher Columbus statue. My mom explained some of the history of this famous explorer. He was both an amazing explorer, and also unfortunately brought a lot of suffering to the first nations people of the Americas.
We are always responsible for our actions, even if they have unintended consequences.
We walked up into the main street called La Rambla. It is a fantastic street with restaurants, and shops and it is lined with trees. It was really beautiful to walk along.
Then we walked over to the Gothic Quarter, an area filled with tiny streets and old Roman walls and we made our way to the Cathedral of Barcelona. We we didn’t make it over to see the Sagra Familila, But we are coming back through Barcelona in a few months and will head back to see it then. My mom really wants to see that church!
We stopped for lunch in a famous market called the La Boqueria. It was a huge market, filled with everything you could imagine. As you can probably guess by now – we had ice cream!!! I also stopped at a chocolate shop and got some handmade chocolates, they were so yummy!
We headed back to the ship, had a delicious lunch, went swimming again (and this time my mom beat me in a waterslide race!) and then after dinner we went to another evening show. We have had some beautiful meals together. They sit us at a big table and it is great to all eat together! Tonight I had King prawns!!
Each one has been different and also really great. Tonight because we were in Spain, they did a Flamenco show for us. Flamenco dancing is very beautiful. There is usually singing, dancing, and also some acrobats and I just love watching it! This guy was my mom's favourite! He was pretty awesome on the bars and hoops.
Sept 29th 2019
Today we woke up back in France! We were supposed to go to the island of Corsica, but something happened to the port and we were not allowed to stop there. So our boat made a detour to the port of Toulon. Toulon, is a huge harbour town and is home to the French Navy. We saw many ships in dock and it was really cool that we saw one of the Canadian navy ships there as well. My Aunt Charlotte is in the Navy and she told me that our ships sail all over the world on different missions. Once we got into town we got off the ferry boat and wandered through the town to a beautiful beach. It was a huge sandy beach and we all were so excited to get in and start swimming.
We brought our masks and snorkels and we all took turns swimming out to see the fish. I was really lucky, as at first I wasn’t sure, but I though I saw an octopus sticking out from between some rocks. Sure enough, my dad dove right down and looked again and – YUP! It was my first octopus!! Alive and in the ocean. My cousin Donny is a great swimmer and he came out with me and we snorkelled around. My brothers are just getting used to the mask and snorkel and they both went out a little ways with my mom. My dad and Uncle Joe went out and found the most beautiful star fish. It was soooo bright red. It was beautiful.
My brothers and cousins spent at least an hour catching and then racing hermit crabs. Brendan’s hermit crab was the winner.
Again we got back on the ship and headed for a swim, dinner and a show.
On our way we all went out on the windy deck to try and get a picture. It was so windy we all were laughing so hard!
Tonight the show had lots of French music. I didn’t know too many of the songs, but I love the show anyway. The costumes were amazing.
Sept 30th 2019
This morning we docked in the Italian city of Genoa. Today we are all going to go to the aquarium! It is the biggest aquarium in Europe. We ate another great breakfast of waffles and hash browns. We got of the ship at 9:15am. We were all together except my Uncle Sandy and Cousin Patrick. We had a bit of a hard time finding him, we thought he maybe got of the ship before us. Therefore, we started to walk and we walked past a big pirate ship.
After we pasted it we saw the aquarium!!! We had to send my dad back to meet up with my uncle, but once we were all together, in we went. It was a fantastic aquarium. There were so many different types of animals: fish, seals, penguins, sharks, dolphins, as well as turtles, snakes and lots of other things.
The animals looked really well taken care of and pretty happy. My absolute favourite was the dolphins. Last year one of their dolphins gave birth and so we spent a lot of time watching the momma and baby.
They actually have a separate tank for the pregnant dolphins and there was one in there right now – she is due in the next few weeks! The have a huge tank that you can stand in front of and watch the dolphins. I could have stayed there all day.
The other really cool thing was that we saw what are called “Mermaid’s purses”. They are the egg sacs for some types of sharks – these ones were for little lemon sharks. You could actually see the little sharks inside wriggling around. It was super neat.
All of my cousins loved it. In this picture, you can see my cousin Patrick with my Uncle Sandy trying to touch the stingrays. He was so excited!
That night we were all pretty tired, but we always made time for a fun ride on the water slides, dinner and the show. Tonight the show was really beautiful, it was all in Italian. But my mom knew a lot of the songs – she told me that I have to start listening to Andrea Bocelli now! The singers were incredible.
Oct 1th 2019
Today is our last full cruise day. We stopped at the port of La Spezia. This is where some of the Italian Navy is situated and we could see many of the ships in port. My Nanny and Papa and my Grandma went on a ship excursion and took a boat o see some of the famous villages – the cinqe terre that this place is famous for. They had a great day, they took a bus, a boat, a train and walked all over!
We decided to stay in the town and walked up to the hilltop fort of St. George. It was built as a lookout and to protect the town. It was a great little hike up to the fort and we all really enjoyed the little streets and cafes that we saw. It was even better when we stopped for ice cream!!
When we got back Grandma had a bit of a birthday for the boys, because she wont be there for their birthday. She knows how much they love LEGO and she got them each the MSC LEGO cruise boat. They loved it!!
Our final night was a bit more quiet. We had a beautiful meal again and then I went out to the show, but my mom kept the boys home, she packed up our bags and got us ready for departure the next morning. I can’t believe how much I loved this cruise.
It was so much fun to watch the ship sailing out on the ocean. I didn’t see any, but my Auntie Carrie saw dolphins the morning we were near to the island of Mallorca. There was so many fun things to do and to explore while on the ship. I have loved every second of it. The neat thing I found was that every one could do different things and still have fun – some people like to sun bathe, others like to get off the ship and explore, others like to shop, and we LOVED the water slides!!
Thank you to our incredible family, who came to join our crazy adventure. What a wonderful time we had with everyone. Much love to all of you.
What a great adventure!!
Love Tia and Mari
Now on to ROMA!
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