Mdina, Malta:

Valletta, Malta:

Barcelona, Spain:

French Riviera:

Palma de Mallorca, Spain:

Back in Barcelona we had dinner one night at a tiny Syrian patio restaurant. For 13.50 Euros, this Rioja was the best bottle of wine we had on our trip. You can see the wine stones on the cork:

Here are some stitched photos of various places that we visited. Actually the first picture isn’t a stitched photo, but is a good “panoramic” shot of what room service brought us one night at 3 am. We finished most of the two hamburgers, two plates of chicken drumettes, chilli, and Caesar salad before taking the picture. Oh there were also 2 chamomile teas.

Valletta, Malta:
Barcelona:
Palma de Mallorca, Spain:
View of Malta from the walls of Mdina:
Naples:

Next: Randoms shots.

The art of towel folding was actually a group lesson that you could take on the ship. We didn’t because we were too busy participating in ballroom dance groups. Here are the creatures that awaited us in our room each night.

Next: Panoramas.

Here is the first batch of pictures. We took tons of photos but I’ll save you from having to see all of them.

We flew into Barcelona and took the ship from there: Voyager of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. Overall we had a great time, but the trip was actually a bit of an experiment for us to see what we like better: resorts or cruises.

In the end we both decided that we prefer resorts. Although the quality of food and entertainment on the ship was far better than at any resort we’ve been to, with both of us enjoying nature as much as we do, we sort of missed the lizards, insects, and plants that are part of a resort experience.

As well, at a resort there’s always the opportunity to walk on the beach whenever you want, or to even leave the resort and be away from people. Not so on the ship.

The best part about resorts for us, is that we try to choose all-inclusive ones so that we don’t have to pay for alcohol.

The boat took a couple of years to build in Finland at a cost of about 720 Million US. The voyager class is currently the second largest in Royal Caribbean’s fleet with the Freedom class ships being first. They are currently building Genesis of the Seas which is going to be over 200,000 tons.

This is The Girl during the mandatory emergency drill.

And this is the theater on the ship.

The adults-only pool where we spent most of our pool-time while on board.

The main promenade on the ship.

Looking up at the elevators.

I had every good intention of completing the last part of the Cheatin’ Heart story while on the ship, but something better always came along.

Next: Towel creatures of the ship.

We’re back from our Mediterranean cruise. Surprisingly jet lag doesn’t seem too bad yet. We had lots of fun, dancing, and food. There’s nothing like room service at 3 am.

I’ll post some pictures once we get ourselves reoriented and reorganised over here.