Civitavecchia, Italy

Embarkation day = work day and no time to explore. Well, really explore. Our cast worked out a schedule to where 4 of us work the whole embarkation, and 2 have the whole day off. Kris and Paul got the day off today and went to Rome. I wish I could have :( Embarkation is not hard at all, it is just incredibly incredibly boring. We really aren't needed for 2 of our slots – Greeting – because there are several smiling, English speaking faces already there. The other 2 hand out passports to embarking passengers. That is fun – when it is busy – but boring boring boring when it is not. At least we can sit in the terminal. I just hate sitting around doing nothing and I think 5 people saying “Welcome Aboard!” when you first get on the ship is too much! Ok – that's my rant about that. Kash and I got off the ship early so we could have a couple of hours to see Civitavecchia. It was cold and very windy outside, and we had to wait for a shuttle bus in this weather (they wouldn't let anyone walk out of the port into town). The town was pretty much like a normal port town – lots of shops, restaurants. A lot of places were closed, but we did find a cute little place for coffee and fresh squeezed OJ (and a little internet). We walked around some more and found a fabulous farmers market! I so wish I could have bought and taken some fruit and veggies back to the ship. The artichokes looked amazing! I did end up buying some flowers for our beloved Cruise Director, Judie Abbott, who returns from vacation today – hooray!! She is the BEST and it is such a pleasure working with her. We walked around a little more, but then it was time to head back and get ready for the boringness :p