We just returned from a
glorious vacation in Europe. The vacation
started with an eleven day Adriatic cruise.
My wife was excited because she finally got to take a cruise that was
not work related and wasn’t stopping in Key West. We started the cruise in Piraeus, or in
cruise marketing ship lingo, Athens. We
joined the cruise on the second leg of a 33 day itinerary that had started in Istanbul,
Turkey. Of course, we still prefer to
call it Constantinople. It sounds more
mysterious. The last port of call before
the ship arrived in Athens was Alexandria, Egypt. And that's where the Cruise Cooties joined
the cruise. From everything we heard, we
are going to wait a while to visit the land of the Nile.
Cruise Cooties are also called
the Norovirus. Norovirus has been
getting a lot of press lately on cruise ships because when you have 5000 people
living in rather close quarters, germs are bound to be shared. Except in the
casino where you touch the chips once and they disappear. Since it is Sunday morning, I will spare you
the symptoms of the Norovirus. Trust me.
Not pretty. When the ship has an
outbreak of Norovirus, it is called Code Red.
I remember watching the Love Boat on Saturday nights and watching folks
being greeted by Gopher, Julie and Capt. Stubing. Not once did I ever see an episode where the
passengers were greeted with Code Red, Purell
and barf bags.
So what was cruising with
Cruise Cooties like? Each morning our
stoic Dutch sounding captain would come on the loudspeaker and give us a body
count of new Cruise Cootie victims and how they were trying to contain this
“pesky little bug.” And how we all had to participate in efforts to eradicate
it. Truth be told, our hands have never
been cleaner and am surprised there is still skin on them. I wish
I had bought stock in Energizer Holdings, the company that owns Wet Ones,
because my wife brought two cases of them with her on the trip. We could not touch any food or drinks, which
caused a huge bottleneck in the tea and coffee line at the buffet, but other
than that we hardly noticed (except, of course, in the casino as I already
mentioned). There were signs all over the gift shop not to touch the
merchandise, which did not see to effect sales one bit. The hot tubs and the thermo spa were shut
down which was fine since I had left my Speedo at home anyway.
Even with Cruise Cooties, we
still managed to have a splendid time.
It was a very educational experience for us since our business works as a
vendor with the cruise industry. With
the exception of Split, Croatia our ship was never docked with less than a 20
minute taxi, ferry, walk away from the center of town we were visiting. Ever
heard of Katakolon, Greece? Me neither. In
cruise ship marketing lingo it’s Olympia, Greece, the home of the original
Olympic Games. It’s also a $100 cab ride
and takes 45 minutes to get there. In Venice, a city we have spent quite a bit
of time in, the ship was parked in Padua.
Not really, but sure seemed like it and to get to St. Marks took us
nearly an hour. My point is that I never
realized how fortunate guests to Key West are by either being dropped off in a 50
yard location to the city or being provided transportation, at no charge to
them, from the outer mole to downtown, a luxury that we did not have in
Santorini, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Venice or Katakolon.
Would we do it again? You bet.
We only had to unpack once and saw some marvelous places. Not unlike Key West, we would have liked to have
had more time to explore. Six or seven
hours was just not enough. But that is one of the great things about
cruising. It’s like one big hors
d’oeuvres tray. You get to try out a lot
of different places. Some places, like
Split, were nice but I don’t think I need to go back. Others, like the countryside in the Peloponnese of Greece we saw on our 45 minute cab ride to
Olympia, were spectacular and exceeded my expectations. The one place I will definitely be returning
to is Corfu, Greece, an island in the Ionian Sea that is filled with history,
tavernas and castles where I promise you I will bring my Speedo.
More updates coming on the food,
people and places. It is a new day in
the old world!
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