Monday June 21 - Leaving Florida enroute for Rome We had a car service take us to Ft Myers airport for our 12:15 flight to Atlanta. We were using Delta Airlines which was a good thing as I heard Alitalia was striking around this time. Smooth sailing on leg #1. We boarded our second flight to Rome at 3:00pm. The kids were THRILLED to find they had Movies on Demand at their headrest. It was a 9 1/2 hour journey across the Atlantic. Not too bad but unable to really sleep. We arrived in Rome at 7:00am. Since we visited Rome for a week back in 2006 we did not spend any time here again. We headed straight for the ship.

Tuesday June 22nd - Rome

I hired a private driver to pick us up. He was the least expensive I could find. He was 120 euros and drove us in a Mercedes minivan. Email address is info@mudicartransfer.it. Our driver, Mudi, met us after baggage claim at 8:00am and we (and our five suitcases) were literally wisked away in a minivan to the port of Civitavecchia. We arrived at the ship's port at 9:30am. We were actually the first people to arrive! The kids used this opportunity to lay down in the waiting area and sleep. We just waited. Finally at 11:30 we were called up for check in and not long after we were on board the Ruby Princess from the Princess Cruise lines. We first went to check out our cabins. We were on deck 14 - Riveria Deck. Cabins 725 (inside) and 723 (balcony). The kids were in the inside cabin sleeping two twin beds and an upper bunk. Husband and I had the balcony cabin. A little smaller than I expected but fine nonetheless. Read more