October 13, 2009 Egypt and Aegean aboard the Princess Grand.

The basics: This is our 4th cruise and second aboard the Grand. We booked a Mini on Dolphin deck 9 forward. Room steward Raymond. The verandah is totally uncovered on this deck and has four chairs. There is a laundry up one deck on 10. A Princess cruise and there was 2 formal nights. The first sea day was day two, formal. The Next to the last sea day was formal also. No lobster till the last sea day, they also had lamb chops. This was a "celebrity cruise" which means they had 5 artists onboard that did painting demos. I went to see most of them and learned a few things which I found interesting. TIP: bring quarters for laundry, changers were out of order. Bring those Purex three in ones, run some water first then the Purex then add clothes. We did laundry twice. The ship offered digital photo prints for 15 cents on one day so think about it. 62 pics for $10.

We left on Sunday to meet relatives in Rome and a quick visit to the Vatican. Flew AA business class, which was wonderful. We used some miles and some dollars. The food was great on board and they had to wake us up when we started to arrive. We were a party of three and I had arranged a private car from romancc dot com. Rates are posted on the website. We stayed at the Hotel Canada (200 euro) which was well rated on Tripadvisor. It's a few blocks from the train terminal and was a nice place. I would say it's not wheelchair friendly. Elevator is very small. There is no dinner served in hotel but they have a breakfast buffet that was included. Lots of stuff to eat. They also have a bar that's open about 4 pm. (You want ICE??) Free internet in the lobby. Had dinner at a local place. We arrived at hotel about noon, then went to the termini and caught the #40 bus to the Vatican 1 Euro each way, but your tickets at the news stand in the terminal. Read more