April 15, 2018
First of all, I trust that your taxes are paid. I guess since today is Sunday you have tomorrow as a grace period to get them into the Infernal Revenue Service.
Palma is the capital of Mallorca. It is a Spanish island (we saw the castle where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they are here). And this is our first time to make this stop (the next cruise we will have several newbies – looking forward to those).
I had purchased tickets on the Hop On Hop Off bus before we left home, thinking I had gotten a good price, which included admission to a great Castle. I think it was $28 each for $56 total. We met up with our dinner friends, Dee and Dean, who also did the HOHO, and they told us they paid $9 each. And when we got to the Castle, we learned that admission is free on Sunday. Viator.com is going to hear from yours truly. You know how I love to tilt at windmills. At the very least I am going to leave a scathing review!
Anyway, we had a good time exploring the Castle and then getting back on the HOHO and going to a beautiful Cathedral. Its full name is the Cathedral of La Seu and it towers over the old town. It has a capacity for 18,000 visitors – there were maybe 300 in there when we visited. There are four large towers, exquisite stained glass windows, beautiful altarpieces, chapels, and a bell tower with 9 bells. I got some great pictures which I will post when we get home (if there is time between washing and repacking and shopping for things we forgot to take this time or ran out of). If I find another free wifi spot, I will email one or two.
The HOHOs were very crowded by the time we were finished at the Cathedral. We saw one pull up and only 6 people were allowed on – all the other seats were filled, no standing allowed. So I hired a taxi to take us back to the ship. Also the HOHO would have taken us around the route again – the Cathedral is stop # 1, the Castle is stop #9 (where we got off first) and the port is stop #14. I didn’t want to do the whole route again – an hour and 20 minutes – so for 10 euros (including the tip) we were at the ship in less than 15 minutes.
And now I will turn the keyboard over to my beloved who is under instructions tonight not to reproduce War and Peace. Yours truly is tired and is looking for some extra shut-eye tonight.
TTFN
Well, my morning started at 4 am. I couldn’t sleep so I played on my phone till about 5:30 and then went back to sleep till 7. We washed and dressed and went to breakfast. HoHum!! Again. Warm chocolate water. And Amy just so you know, the Princess ship has stopped putting out the packs of hot chocolate to make your own. If you want hot chocolate you have to purchase it or have a coffee card ( which you have to purchase) and you can have it for free. Dad has a coffee card purchased several cruises before and they are good on any Princess ship till it is all punched. So I get my hot chocolate but it is just been warm brown water the last 2 days.
We were told the Hop on Bus would be at the port. We thought at our ship, but oh no, it was at the end of the terminal and that was a mile a way. So we walked there and got on the bus. The first 2 seats we got in the headphone hook ups didn’t work so we quickly changed seats and found ones that did. Now this is Sunday and 90% of all the stores, shops, malls, etc are closed. Typical on a Sunday. The castle and the church (the church closed after 1 pm) were open. So they were pretty much the only two stops that people got off and on at. Hence, our deciding to ride a cab back. Also there were 3 ships in the port. A German, “Mein Schiff” (about 3-4 thousand passengers), the brand new Royal Carribean “Symphony of the Seas” (6,000 passengers) and our ship containing 3,000 passengers and that doesn’t include all the crews. So the few things that were open were crowded. We were back on board by 2:30. We didn’t set sail till around 9:30.
Supper was so so. I had a shrimp cocktail, salad and some chicken meal that only had chicken and spices (or so it said in the menu) and no vegetables. Pretty bad. I had a sugar free chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Not much.
Went to the show and it was very loud. My ears really hurt and it was very difficult for me to understand any of the words in the songs. Tomorrow on our overnight stay in Barcelona, they are bringing on a local Flaminco dance show. We have to pack and have our luggage out before 10 pm. Our shuttle to the airport is to leave at 9:30 am or so. We have to be out of the room by 8am. So we will up early on Tuesday morning and to breakfast and then head to Club Fusion on deck 7 to wait for our turn to leave the ship. It has been a great cruise and we have enjoyed it. Quick trip (plane flight of 9 hours) to Fort Lauderdale, pick up our car, stay overnight in Ft Lauderdale and then drive all the way home on Wed. Do laundry, pick up prescriptions , repack and head out on Saturday in a rented car for Ft Lauderdale and on Sunday board a Holland America ship whose first port is Bermuda and then across the ocean again. Whew.
Well, he is tired and I was told to keep it short. Only 10,300 steps and 4 miles today.
Love, Mom, Granny and Bonnie
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