At around 8 am, we headed out to see Joe "the Shoe" to pick up my formerly destroyed shoes. He did a wonderful job fixing them, and they were fantastic! So I paid my six Euro, and headed back to the hotel.
We all gathered downstairs to get on the bus(es) to Savona Port. We were briefed by the Costa guide that there were four ships in port, so there might be some difficulty. That was ok by us, we were on a new adventure. We wound around the Italian countryside for about an hour, arrived at the port, and saw that the other 3 ships were also Costa! And each was in its own slip, so how hard could it be to manage?
Turned out, pretty hard.
Two ships operate out of the same gangway simultaneously. It looked to be more pleasant than NCL, though. We got a group number assigned, moved into the waiting area, and were surprised with an internet station, a bar, snack area, duty free, children's playroom, and sofas upstairs and downstairs.
We were due to board beginning at one, and Costa started calling groups at about 1:20. People with the wrong numbers began crowding the entryway, and the crew of two was overwhelmed turning them away. Those who were there at the right time either hadn't torn the paperwork as required, or hadn't filled it out! It just took forever. I thought to myself that we needed to have Germans running the entry point! About 3 hours later, we surrendered our passports and headed up to our suite.
Initial impression of the cabin is that it was wonderful! Very efficiently laid out, nice size bathroom, and a whirlpool tub. Two closets! Really, just nicer than any hotel you can get in a big city. The suite comes with a personal butler! How the heck did that happen???
Anyway, we had a welcome package, and after we unpacked we opened the wine and had a few glasses while waiting for our mandatory emergency drill. And waited. And waited. Finally, the ship started moving (in the midst of a thunderstorm that we appreciated, and rolling seas that made walking difficult). About 15 minutes into the ride, the ship's captain and crew got on, welcomed us all, went over the drill, and in every language except English, asked that no one bring any cameras or video equipment to the drill. We were scheduled for area B, on the 3rd deck, port side near the shuttleboats.
About 3 seconds into the drill, the captain came on the loudspeaker and changed all our locations to inside the casinos and lounges because of inclement weather. What good did that do? Oh well. Drill accomplished. Time to get ready for the Geek reception.
"Smart casual" was listed as the dress code for the dinner seating, so we dressed east coast smart casual. First thing I noticed going in to the welcome was that we were WAY overdressed. Jeans and t-shirts appeared to be the dress of the day. We sat in a corner and listened to the welcome speeches. Not a great sale for Geek Cruises (The ship staff is terrible, nothing is on time, the food is ok most of the time, blah, blah, blah). Tell you what, I was underwhelmed.
Then we went to dinner, and our assigned seats. Tables were not laid out sequentially, but the dining room is gorgeous. It's two stories tall, with two levels of seating. The windows and lighting are ornate, extravagant even, and the service was very nice. And, the food was about twelve times better than advertised by the Geek Brief crew. We sat with a very nice couple from Atlanta, Ivan and Sue, who run designer eyeglass shops all through Georgia and Florida. Recent switchers to Mac, very intelligent and business savvy, really enjoyed dining with them.
Back to the room, Wayne and I settled down to our first full night of sleep in over a week. The CPAP machine setup in the room is hysterical, an extension cord is winding its way out of the bathroom to my side of the bed, the dining table is over at my side, and the machine pumping away from there. Anyone looking at this who didn't understand would be highly amused. I'll put in photos at a later time.
Breakfast in the room, followed by 3 miles walking the deck, and heading down for the MacMania conferences commenced after we slept in until 7 am! A nice side benefit of upgrading the room was getting that for free. =]
And now I'm sitting in a lecture about basic digital photography tips and software editing tips, a lot of which are really basic, but I never actually knew the rule existed. The section on the actual editing software is pretty decent, but the newest program from Adobe seems complicated.
Anyway, we are headed towards Naples, and our first excursion to Pompeii. Will blog more tomorrow! And if you're on flickr, keep your eyes open for a few photos.
Ciao!
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