Italian Cruise Ships

Italian Cruise Ships

In January of 2009 Jack and I sailed on an Italian cruise ship to the western carribean to visit the following places: Key West, Cozumel, Jamaica, The Bahamas and Grand Bahamas. Since it was winter the majority of passengers of this ship were Europeans escaping the cold temps in Europe for a week. The name of our ship was The Costa Fortuna which was the sister ship to The Costa Concordia that was shipwrecked of the coast of Italy. We enjoyed our cruise but now I don 't think we would take another Costa Cruise. Especially since the recent news that The Costa Allegra ran a ground off the coast of east Africa where there are pirates attacking ships from the coast of Somalia.

What I remember and like so well about this cruise was that a Catholic priest was assigned to the ship and every morning there was the announcement that the priest would be saying mass in the very small but very pretty Catholic chapel aboard the ship.

To learn more about our cruise and the Catholic chapel go to the right and click on the topic 2009

Carribean Cruise. You will see photos of the ship and the chapel.

The Sacred and Profane Part II

Yesterday I showed you the profane on board Costa Fortuna. Today I will show you the sacred on board Costa Fortuna. I think because this ship was from Italy where most citizens practice the Roman Catholic faith we had a Catholic Church on the ship. It was small but done in an elaborate Italian style. The walls and ceiling were all in gold. It reminded me of the Sistine Chapel at St. Peters in Rome. And like Rome it came with a true Italian priest. In the second picture you see him in green up at the alter blessing the bread and wine for us. Oh, I must add that like the rest of the ship the lights on the sidewalls and on the ceiling were made of Venetian Italian glass. Very, very pretty chapel. The murals of the saints in the archways on the sidewalls were very Greek Orthodox in appearance which would make sense since the Romans conquered the Greeks who had been in Rome as well as Athens. In the above photo the couple sitting in the last row were the couple from Belgium that we had lunch with one day on the ship.

You can barely see Anna and John Smith sitting up in the front row on the left. John is Deacon John and he acted in that capacity for the priest on this cruise. And I think I mentioned that Anna and John Smith's son lives with his family right here in Haymarket in our golf course community of Piedmont.

The Sacred and The Profane Part I

I'll save the sacred for Sunday. But here's the profane for Saturday. Every day when I returned to our cabin aboard the Costa Fortuna I would discover that the cabin boy would have folded up my pajama tops and bottoms into some sort of creature. In this photo my pajamas have become a Caribbean sea turtle. Now don't you think it is a little strange and profane to have someone playing animals with your personal pajamas? On our cruise to Alaska in 2007 they used the bath towels to create these creatures.

Oh, Ain't She Sweet!

Oh, Ain't She Sweet!

Oh, ain't she sweet,

See her walking down the street.

Yes I ask you very confidentialy:

Ain't she sweet?

Oh, ain't she nice,

Look her over once or twice.

Yes I ask you very confidentialy:

Ain't she nice?

We ran into this little cutie pie by the ship's elevator in the arms of her mother after the formal dinner. Cutie pie baby who was just nine months old was wearing a long formal dress that was color coordinated to her mother's gown. She was so cute that I was seriously tempted to kidnap her and bring her home to our grandson Jack Aidan.

When I spoke to the father about how cute his daughter was and how she would be a great date for my grandson he asked how old Jack Aidan was. When I said he was 18 months the father exclaimed that his daughter couldn't date such an older man who was my gracious 18 months old!

Videos of Cruise Dinner Dances

Dinner on board a cruise ship means that you may have to get up and dance with your waiter or waitress or else watch them dance on the balcony of the restaurant.

When We Left Grand Cayman Island

When we left Grand Cayman Island we had to again board the tender boats to take us back out in the harbor where we then reboarded the Costa Fortuna.

Here is one tender boat heading back to get more folks to take to the cruise ship. This photo has a good picture of that submarine and yacht as well as some country's naval ship in the background. How can you tell a naval ship? They are always battleship grey in color. Maybe to blend in with the sea instead of standing out like a bright white ship.

We returned to our cabin where Jack went to get us some tropical drink of the day from the ship's bar to enjoy while sitting and watching TV on our leather built-in sofa with minute coffee table. These cabins are arranged much like a house trailer with everything built-in and they are just as wide as a standard house trailer.

Friday night we had our Captain's Gala Dinner. Here the men at our table are deciding what they want to eat for each course from appetizer to dessert. Deacon John are you going to have tofu?

Jim and Jack said that they were not hungry but they kept eyeing the menu and thinking about food.

Our very last night on the Costa Fortuna we found our sheets waiting for us on our bed for us to don in some fashion to wear to dinner. This was also the night that we had to place our luggage in the hall to be picked up for transport to the ship's terminal back at Port Everglades when we landed at Fort Lauderdale. The cruise ship director reminded everyone to keep some regular clothes out for Sunday travel. He said that tonight those sheets are called togas but if you try to hail a cab tomorrow morning in that attire people are going to say you are going around Fort Lauderdale in a sheet. So look below at the various creative ways folks wore their togas to dinner on Saturday night.

Jack

Joann and Joe

Jim and Joyce

Jack and Yours Truly

People at Neighboring Dinner Table

Ingrid With Friends At Neighboring Table These Two Wanted Their Stuffed Animal in the Photo

Video: The Waves From Cabin Window

What does the sea look like from our cabin window? Click here to see for yourself.

Video: Joann Talks To The Parrots

Parrot Talk Video. Click to listen to Joann talking to the parrots.

Video: Fishes Swimming in the Sea

Click on the video to see the fishes swimming in the Caribbean Sea.

SkyWatch Friday Scenes of Grand Cayman

Skywatch Friday

February 6, 2009

Scenes From Last Friday on Grand Cayman Island

Happy TGIF! The Local Microbeer is Called Caybrew

Look at this. You can go on a wooden pirate ship and pretend that is is 1500 in the Caribbean. We watched this pirate ship leave the dock and circle our cruise ship. Right after I snapped this still photo Jack and I heard a very loud cannon boom! Apparently they try to make this pirate cruise as authentic as possible.


This is a photo of the pirate ship from the seaside restaurant that Jack and I were visiting.
This is the Jamaican man working on Grand Cayman who gave us the commentary on our underwater sea tour that we took on a semi submersible submarine. Look below and you will see what we saw when we looked out the submarine's windows. What do you see? Lots of coral and fishes.

We really enjoyed this tour. We also got to see two shipwrecked ships lying in the waters off the coast of Grand Cayman.
And here is our deep sea diver who dived off the top of the submarine to feed the fish which allowed us to see lots and lots of fish all at once.
Jack and I saw stingrays on the ocean floor on the submarine tour but these stingrays are part of water fountain in the shopping port.
Grand Cayman is the island of bankers. Over 600 banks on this small island because they have top secret accounts. This is where Bernie Madoff was trying to ship some of his money after he finally got caught with his ponzi scheme. So what do the rich folks do here? Apparently many of them invest in jewels like diamonds, tanzanite, etc. There surely was an abundance of jewelry stores. Notice above the man rolling Cuban tobacco into cigars. You can not declare Cuban cigars legally on your customs form when you head back to U.S. soil but I bet a few folks had some Cuban cigars stashed in their luggage or else they were smoking them fast and furiously while on the island paradise. Beside our cruise ship in the Grand Cayman port was a fancy yacht. Someone on our tour suggested that maybe it was Tiger Wood's yacht since he and his wife own a home on Grand Cayman. Who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe it is Maddoff's yacht!

These are the Grand Cayman parrots.

Below you can see the little restaurant on the dock where we had a nice lunch of seafood and conch fritters. Boy, of boy those conch fritters were good!
And from our seats at this outdoor restaurant you can see our ship. If you click on the photo below you can also just make out two folks snorkeling in the water with our submarine in the distant background.

Here we are sharing a piece of Grand Cayman rum cake. Very good. We bought several to bring home for relatives and neighbors.

Grand Cayman island is a lot like Key West, Florida in that there lots of roosters crowing around the island. And where there are roosters there has got to be some little hens like this one who wanted some of our lunch.

This is a local church on the island that we toured before we reboarded the ship.

Plaques on the wall are for folks lost at sea and the mahogany ceiling beams are from ships lost at see.

Hey, it is Skywatch Friday. Please go now and visit some other great Skywatch bloggers by clicking here: http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Each Day We Went Thru Elevator Doors

Each day on Costa Fortuna we went thru the elevator doors to get to where we wanted to be aboard the ship. I became fascinated with 1940's style art murals that were on the doors. Take a look. You can see the middle lines where the doors meet. Now look at the people in the murals. I just loved their cool dressy clothes. We surely don't dress as well as folks did in the 1940's.

A lady in a white mink stole. You don't see that too often today. Today we are more animal rights conscious. Have you recently heard that Ashley Judd the actress is calling out Sarah Palin for shooting wolves while flying inside a plane? I once had a white mink collar on my good Sunday going to church coat. Today I wouldn't dare do that.

This lady in the slacks makes me think of Katherine Hepburn.

Here is a black tie affair. I can almost picture in my mind the scene in real life long ago which would have included a dry martini in one hand and a cigarette in the other. By the way, on the cruise ship I noticed that the Europeans are still into smoking big time like it is a glamorous thing to do.

Blog Correction

I want to list once again all the members of our Italian group that arranged to go to sea together on Costa Fortuna. I left a few folks off the first posting of the list. Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa!

To the best of my knowledge here is a list of all our traveling companions who were a real delight to get to know and to spend time in great conversation:

Joyce and Jim Blakeslee

Josie and Frank (Ray) Cilea

Rosemarie and Jessie Flanders

Anita and Alex Hambleton and daughter Alexa

Cindy and Ray Judway

Dr. Dennis Kondash and wife RoseMary

Cathy and Michael Leyden

Vita and Joe Mule'

Joe Mule's cousin Peter Vivonetto and his friend Eileen Renzi

Ingrid and Joe Torres

Anna and John Smith

Mary Ann and David Waelde

Special apologies to the folks I left all the original list and special thanks to Ingrid and Joe Torres who helped me correct this error of omission. And a great round of applause must be given to our travel agent Frank Cilea who made all the travel arrangements, showered us with additional appetizers for our dinners aboard ship and who acted as our mediator for any problems with Costa Fortuna Cruise Lines. Take a bow, Frank. Job well done and way above the call of duty to clients.

Come back tonight for my meme post for Skywatch Friday to see what we did on Grand Cayman Island last Friday.

Videoes of Jamaican Dance Rumble

Here are two videos of the Jamaican Dance Rumble at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Bar. The Jamaican dancers are the man in the red shirt with hat and the man in the green shirt with red hat. The Costa Fortuna dancers are the man in the green shirt and black figured shorts, the man in the white shirt with black and white hat, the man in the white shirt with green shorts, and the man in the green shirt and white pants. In the foreground is a French family from Costa Fortuna who are in enjoying the dance competition. Quite a mix of people and cultures. But I missed the best shot I could have taken on this Jamaican outing. There was a very modest Mennonite lady in Mennonite long dress with white organdy bonnet shopping right next door to Jimmy's bar. But I couldn't get her in the photo because she was by the bar but she didn't come in the bar. Now wouldn't that have been an interesting photo. A very modest and proper Mennonite lady in a photo with all these Jamaican and Costa Fortuna dancers.

I suggest that you click off my Playlist music by clicking on the little white megaphone so that you can hear the music that the dancers are dancing to with such enthusiam before you click on these videos.

Video of Dunn River Falls Climb

Click here to see how people climb Dunn River Falls. Watch the mother and father near the tree on the right stumble and then get rescued by the Dunn River Falls security man. Now tell me after you have watched whether you would do this climb?

We Really Liked Jamaica

We really liked our day in Jamaica. We had signed up for a bus tour of several attractions and began our ride up the mountainside thru an area known as Fern Gully. Alas, for various reasons the amount of ferns growing on the hillsides are decreasing but we did see some. As we climbed the hills overlooking Ocho Rios where we debarked our Jamaican guide told us that Mick Jagger has a vacation home on the top of the hill and that the locals say that they know when he is in residence because the place is smoking. Apparently smoking pot is not against the law in Jamaica. That must be why Mick chose this Caribbean island. By the way Ocho Rios means eight rivers in Spanish.Take a look below at this Jamaican that greeted our bus with a fan fare at one bus stop.
Now isn't he beautiful and proud.
Look at me.

Look at me he seemed to be crowing.
So we did.

We toured Coyaba Gardens and found that many of the houseplants in Virginia grow wild and lush in Jamaica. For instance, philodrendons and begonias. You can click on the this photo to learn more.
I love the seed pods on this palm but I don't know what kind of palm it is. I think colors used in home decor reflect their country's vegetation. For instance, Sweden with long winters and lots of snow has lots of white and cool blues in its decor. So Jamaica with its lush green vegetation and colorful red flowers reflects that in its decor and its flag colors.

Green palms and a moss covered mill stone in this photo.

If you click on this photo which I took at a little historical museum in the Coyuba gardens, you will learn more about the Maroons, the first freed black men in the western hemisphere.

This is a cassava grinder. I also saw an iron contraption that was labeled a man trap. I don't know what exactly that meant except I'm thinking man trap is that like a mouse trap? Oh, good grief!

Do you like reggae music? Can't discuss Jamaica without mentioning the King of Reggae, the late Bob Marley. No Man! No Man! (That means no problem in Jamaican English slang.) No Man, I have a photo here of Bob Marley.
Here is Dunn River Falls where the strangest thing occurs here every day with the tourists. What do they do? They don bathing suits and rubber swim shoes and then hold hands while climbing up the whole length of the falls while getting sprayed with water coming down the falls. Did Jack and I participate in this activity? You bet your swim shoes we did not. We watched though and I made a video of people climbing and falling and getting rescued by the falls security team. I'll post that later today in another blog post.

I think the secret of a successful climb was continuing to hold hands. The person above you helps pull you along and up.
How did we end our day in Jamaica? By going to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Bar for drinks and dance. This place was humming with a dance rumble between the local Jamaicans and our Costa Fortuna dance group. Both dance groups were putting down a challenge to the other group to show your best dance moves. I made a video of this wild and crazy dance rumble that I will post later today. What is in my shot glass? I don't know but it was strong and I sipped it very slowly although my waiter exclaimed that the tradition is to throw it back in one long gulp. I wasn't up to that but I did admire the "secret" ingredients that made the Jamaican flag in my shot glass: red, green and gold.
Have I mentioned that for the last forty some years I have been collecting menus from my travels and adventures and have been having them framed to hang in my house? After such an exciting afternoon at Jimmy Buffet's I asked to purchase a menu but they gave me one for free along with my shot glass. No Man! No Problem!

Then back at the pier to catch the ship we got serenaded one more time with some Jamaican reggae music. The man sitting on the wooden box is playing the finger pipes that are nailed to the box.