21 July- We catch the 11.12 train from Rome to civitavechia (€4.60 each). We arrive an hour later and pay another 2€ to get the bus right to the ship, rather than push the bags along 2km of cobblestones. We board the Norwegian jade within 10 minutes and are soon having lunch on board with a glass of Chardonnay. We do the lifeboat drill at 4 and are sailing away by 5pm. We see the opening show which is not inspiring, and do some trivia.
22 July- Sea day today, so I go to dance aerobics , ping pong and we play 3 different trivia, winning 2 and making many new friends. There are 2 different bands by the pool- a Latino one with great kudos but bad singer, and a Phillipino duet with an good singer! But they are all sooooooo loud!! The progressive trivia tonight is about American sports stars and we think we are pretty disadvantaged when the Americans start complaining that they are all obscure, in fact one is a picture of an American female soccer player that played 10 min in a reserve game. They get so angry its like a mutiny and the poor Chinese host doesn't know what to do, but promise better questions tomorrow! After dinner we do the battle of the sexes game which I play in, then see the production show called blazing boots, which is a mess of unknown country and driving songs with hard choreography done well. Trouble is they tried to link songs that just don't work, and the singing is only ok.
23 July- Santorini. We play a quick trivia at 9 before getting the first tender to the old port ( the advantage of being a gold member) where we pay 15€ to get on a large boat and go around the coast to Oia, then back to Fira by bus. When we arrive it's a little crowded and we see the amazing vistas by walking around the small town. Many Europeans and Asians have worn their best clothing (big flowing cotton dresses) and spend hours posing for pics at beautiful locations. We see the famous windmill houses and the blue roofed buildings and then the crowds of 4 cruise ships hit and it turns unpleasant in the tiny overcrowded cobble streets. We try to catch the 1pm bus to Fira, but it's stuck in traffic and can't get through, so we don't arrive there until 2pm. We walk around the village here ,all built along the cliff top, see the cable car that carries people up the hill, but decide to walk down the stairs , pass many people coming up on the biggest donkeys ever- some must be crossed with draught horses! We go by the pool for a late swim, some more trivia, dinner, the true or false game and a Scottish singer concert.