The Crossing

To celebrate graduation we went on a 2 week trans-atlantic cruise to Europe and then spent an extra week in Italy. I took a bazillion pictures so I thought it would be best to break the posts up.

We decided on a transatlantic cruise because we both wanted to go to Europe but were worried it wouldn't be very relaxing. We found a Princess cruise that sailed from Ft. Lauderdale to Europe, taking 8 days to cross the Atlantic and stopping in Gibraltar, Spain, France, and Italy. Perfect! Scott served his mission in northern Italy, so we decided to stay an extra week and visit some non-coastal cities that the cruise wouldn't hit.

It was my first cruise so I was a little worried I would get seasick but neither of us had any issues with that. We were by far the youngest couple on the cruise. We were okay being 30-50 years younger than most of the passengers as we would have an excellent chance of survival in the event of an emergency and, perhaps more importantly, very little swimsuit competition.

Our room had a balcony so we made sure to be there when we embarked. I was slightly disappointed when there wasn't a throng of cheering, waving people to see us off. There was only a handful of Princess staff and they don't count; I'm pretty sure they get paid to do that.

We passed our days at the pool, watching movies, attending on-board lectures, going to the gym, seeing the nightly entertaining, napping and eating! We really enjoyed the maritime lecturer, John Maxtone-Graham. He had a British accent and said cool things like "a paradise of mahogony" and other Britishy stuff. 

We selected a set time for dining and had a great time with our dinner mates - John & Eileen, a Canadian couple celebrating their wedding anniversary and Phil & Amy, a daddy-daughter duo. We always had so much to talk about, (Downton Abbey, healthcare, Steve Martin's banjo playing & book writing, and many other things) and were one of the last tables to leave the dining room. Eileen loved to mention Dr. Oz, which Scott loved. I'm pretty sure by the end of the week Scott was pretty close to stabbing his thigh with his fork every time Dr. Oz was mentioned. Scott and I were adventurous in our food choices. I had duck, coq au vin, and escargot for the first time and Scott tried frog legs and escargot. 

Goodbye USA

relaxing

awesome theater on the top deck

enjoying fish & chips at the British pub

Ashley, Scott, Phil, Amy, Eduardo, Eileen, John