20 May 2009, Civitavecchia, Italy.

Today we ended our 20 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Civitavecchia. The cruise was called “off to Rome” and to Rome we made it, at least to the port of Rome. We were blessed with yet another good day full of sun shine and little wind and as we were saying goodbye to about half of our guests, I approached the port early. Luggage had to be taken off and then there was the ride to the airport near Rome. Traffic in the Rome area can be horrendous and thus a timely departure from the ship is of the essence and then it helps if I dock the ship on the early side to give the Hotel department a good head start.

We were not the only ship in port. Apart from the regular ferry traffic was an Apartment of the Seas (Voyager with 3100 guests on board) and the Grand Celebration with 900 guests. (This is the old Carnival Celebration which now sails for the Carnival subsidiary Ibero Cruceros of Spain. With a base capacity of 1500 beds, the ship was not very full). What also was not full was the container terminal and the new car receiving area next to our dock. It was distinctly empty, a sign that the recession is still in full swing. The port has recently extended the terminal area by filling up part of the North side of the harbour but it looks like that they will have to wait for an upswing in the economy before more cargo ships are coming in. However the container dock is shared with cruise ships and thus the investment is at least partly paying off.

The other half of our guests are staying with us for the next 15 days or even beyond that. Some will stay until we reach Amsterdam on June 19th. That is the beauty of these Prinsendam cruises; if you have the time you can just string one cruise after the other, as each cruise is different. With only turn over ports being double in the schedule. This cruise will return to Civitavecchia on June 5th. and so each guest will see it twice. Even if you do a port twice, it gives the option to visit Rome one call and the local town during the 2nd call. Then there is so much to see, that most guests who use Rome as the end of cruise destination, are wise enough to spend a few days in the eternal city before flying home. If you have made the journey all the way here to see the place, for 50 to 100 euro’s a night for a hotel it is worthwhile to take that flight back a few days later. Hal is offering pre and post cruise packages, so if you prefer a complete package instead of making own arrangements it is all easily available.

This cruise, called Greece and Black Sea Adventure Cruise, will take us deep into the Black Sea as far as Sebastopol in the North and Trabzon in the far South East. To get there we have to pass Istanbul, and we will stay overnight there and then proceed through the Bosporus to get to the Black Sea. The northbound passage will be during the night as we are staying late in Istanbul but Southbound will be during day with time for some scenic cruising.

Departure from Civitavecchia was not that scenic as there is only industry around the docking area. We left slightly delayed as the Rome tour was back later than planned. I have never seen those buses return on time due to the traffic, so I was not surprised that I had to wait. As soon as they were back we came sideways off the dock and raced away.

Tomorrow will be a sea day, with going through the Strait of Messina around 10 am. With a lot better weather than last week. Then we spend a quiet day at sea while we cross the Ionian Sea on an easterly course towards Katakolon in Greece. The weather forecast looks good with sunshine and following wind or no winds after Messina, so a good day to start our adventure cruise to the Black Sea.