Today, Saturday, we are in Civitavechia for turnover day from the Christening Cruise to the Founder's Cruise. Yesterday was a terrific ending to a terrific cruise experience. There I go with the superlatives again!
We started the day with breakfast with Leslie Jon. It was nice catching up. After breakfast, we took a short walk into Ajaccio. It was one of those places that we fell in love with instantly. We started at the market near the port where we were able to find golden kiwis again.
We then continued walking until it was time to go back and get ready for our big lunch.
And now for lunch. Neli Arias arranged a lunch for the Oceania Club members at a resort on the waterfront. Many courses, much to drink and a beautiful setting.
Here we are with Neli.
And here we are with the Oceania Club Ambassadors Kristina and Jennifer.
And finally, here we are with Jennifer and Carlos Ortega, the VP of Guest Services. Those of you who have cruised on Oceania have probably received countless emails from Carlos reminding you to watch the safety video. Believe me, he's a really nice guy and the emails are not his fault!
After lunch we had time to walk around Ajaccio some more. It is definitely a place we hope to return to. In the evening, we had dinner in Toscana with Neli and her partner Sue and a couple of other Oceania Club members. It was all a fitting end to an amazing week.
And now for a few comments regarding that week. It was such an honor to be included and great to meet so many of the Oceania home office folks (and to see some of them again like our dear friend Jessica Domm-Penberthy). That includes the Frank Del Rio's - senior and junior. We had the opportunity to have a lovely chat with Frank Jr. one evening. He graciously offered to help get our son David's soon to be released book into the hands of the CEO of AMC theaters.
The staff and crew on board were up to their usual standard of excellence. All dining reservations for the 1200 guests were handled by the event planning team and somehow they managed to get everyone into each of the specialty restaurants. Even with that, the staff was accommodating and made adjustments to our dining times as needed. (We were scheduled for a 9:00 pm dinner one night! That needed changing.)
Perhaps the one negative we can say about the cruise is our disappointment with the godmother, Giada de Laurentiis. When we were on the inaugural Sirena cruise the godmother was Claudine Pepin. She was so gracious and friendly. She did cooking demos and we were given cookbooks. On this cruise, Giada kept to herself. There were no cooking demos and all we were given was a flyer with a QR code where we could buy one of her cookbooks. It's not gonna happen!
Now it's on to the so-called Founder's Cruise. We have moved up to an Oceania Suite. As with the rest of the ship, it's fantastic.
IIt comes with 2 bathrooms. For comparison, here's Linda's bathroom:
And here's my bathroom:
I know that you feel sorry for me, but don't worry, somehow I'll get by!
Tonight we sail to Sorrento. It's a port a day until we arrive in Trieste next Saturday. This will be a totally different cruise from last week, more normal we think.
Peace and blessings,
Linda and Larry
That cabin is suite!
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