The result of that late departure was that, even having moved at pretty much full speed all night, we were close to two hours late getting into Genoa on Sunday morning. We had to set an alarm to be up and out of our old rooms no later than 8:30--and we were still not docked as we headed out and down to breakfast with Marika (Rio opted for Windjammer buffet). And we were JUST pulling in, and not yet tied up as we all met up in Schooner's Bar for morning trivia.
The bar was packed, because RCI had all of the people with flights out of Milan waiting there to be allowed to be the very first off the ship once it was cleared. I really have to hand it to the passengers. Several people waiting there stood a very real chance of missing the only flight back to their home city that day and yet no one was taking any travel worry or frustration out on the crew. This is, of course, how it should be--but sadly rarely how it IS.
Anyway, after trivia, we went own to the gangway on deck one, where our new cards were literally taped to the security monitor. They gave them to us and took our old cards--the whole thing took about 60 seconds.
Then, we went up to see if we could get into either of our new rooms (6516 for the adults and 6518 for the kids) to lock the passports back up in the safe. The kids' room was ready and the poor frazzled stateroom hostess (Irene, who was also wonderful) was very apologetic that our room was not. The previous occupants were only JUST leaving--with security there to move them along. Apparently they kept her locked out all morning and ignored the "vacate your room by" requests. We assured Irene that it was NOT a problem; we were just happy to drop off the passports in the kids' safe and would not need the room until late afternoon so she could take her time getting in there. (a note, I think they struggle to get passengers to leave on time with these multiple embarkation ports.
The day before, in Civitavecchia, there had been a "final call to disembark" at 9:30. This was followed by a less friendly reminder at 10:00 and an even less friendly one at 10:45. At 11:00 they started reading off names of those who had to leave NOW. There were 17 names! Shortly there after we saw many crew members out hunting for some guests, in order to get them off. That really must be quite a nightmare for the crew.
But, enough rambling about those who just could not STOP the vacation in Civi--let's talk about Genoa. Once gain we went for a "soak in the atmosphere with no real plans" kind of day. Here Marika and Dave are right in front of the terminal:
From there we turned right and walked along the shoreline into town (a 5-10 minute walk, very easy an no chance of getting lost). We took David's (from the cruise staff) advice and stayed on the water until we were at the aquarium and then turned into town directly across from that area--to have the prettiest walk and find the best cafes. His advice was spot on.
Here are a couple buildings we passed:
Cutting back towards the water after a couple of blocks, we stopped at yet another great little sidewalk cafe. Dave tried a typical Italian Campari while Marika and I had sodas. He hate the campari--those of you who are Disney fans will know what I mean when I say ti tasted like alcoholic Beverly.
The drinks came with free slices of absolutely yummy pizza, and a bowl of potato chips. The yummy snacks and Dave's need to get the taste of the campari out of his mouth, and the pleasant atmosphere (with a street musician playing accordion nearby as well) led us to order another round of drinks (Aperol Spritz for Dave and Marika and more Coke for me).
This time sandwiches and freshly baked flat bread came out with the drinks. Mmmm. I love this tradition.
After whiling away a pleasant hour at "our" cafe, we headed back towards the waterfront and continued to walk away from the ship--intending to check out the yachts in the harbor. We were SO glad that we did that. We rounded a bend to find that Genoa was hosting a local "sports festival." Tents and booths were set up throughout a 2 block area. There was live and recorded music. There were adorable little kids running everywhere and trying out basketballs, roller blades, and all sorts of other gear. Unfortunately, I had been distracted by packing up the night before and forgot to charge the camera--so there are no photos of the fest. It was a heck of a lot of fun though--we really got lucky there.
Back on the ship, we stopped on the way to the rooms to get extra keys (technically one adult and one teens is booked in each room. We always stop at guest service and get an extra key for each room so we can sleep as adults in one room and kids in the other. We always tell them we are doing this and it is NEVER an issue (just in case anyone thinks we are skirting the rules--they generally tell us that rule is there to make sure an adult is on the same lifeboat with a kid and that IF the kids misbehaved they know they could put an adult with each one, but that assuming there are no issues they don't min who sleeps where).
It was surprising how different a room only 6 doors down from where we had been could be! First off, neither extra key worked. We were not overly concerned and just figure there was a mistake an we would stop back by later. We went inside to find that even thought the A/C was turned to full blast (it was not that HOT, but it was finally warm out, and a bit stuffy in the room), it was warm in the room and the a/c was blowing warmish air. We also notice that the room was just overall "shabbier"--some peeling wallpaper, more worn carpeting, a couple of cracked tiles, etc. None of it, other than the a/c was a big deal--but it was surprising how much better condition the "same" room 6 doors down was.
We stopped by guests services for new cards (again) and to tell them about the a/c issue (they said someone should be up to check on it within an hour) and then headed up to Windjammer for "afternoon snacks (ahving missed lunch, but having had some snacks with our rinks). There was a lovely "nacho bar" nearly every afternoon--thrilling for my salsa deprived self. Mmmmm.
Afterwards, we headed to the required muster drill for all guests embarking in Genoa (held in the theatre once again). Happily, after checking in, and having it confirmed by a supervisor that it was okay, we were allowed to leave early, since we had the same muster station as the week before.
We headed back up to the room to find that, the second set of keys did not work either! Back down to guest services we went--this time to be told that some of the doors have not worked with extra keys since the refit and they were not sure they could make them work--but since we had side by side cabins they could at least open the divider between the balconies so that we could access the other rooms in that way (Marika and I could not simply switch keys, since your official key is also linked to your photo and needed to make purchases and also exit and enter the ship). Guest services was really nice and trying hard--I cannot fault them at all for the key issue.
We putzed around for a bit, I think there as more trivia, etc, and then got ready for dinner. This is when we also found out that our shower in our new room had a cracked head, which resulted in very little water pressure. And, for reasons unkown, it took fully 5 minutes for any hot water to start coming out of it. It really was amazing the difference such a short move made. We were beginning to realize how people on the very same ship really can have very different experiences! We were in fully relaxed vacation mode and chose to see it all as rather humorous more than as something to be angry or upset about. We never even mentioned the shower issues (or the fact that our voice mail did not work--which really was a hassle since normally the kids call the room to leave me a message when they change locations with their friends at night--this is what keeps me from going into full on panicky mom mode) to guest services. We felt like the a/c and keys were bigger issues (I also like the extra key so I can check on the kids at night and make sure all is well before I go to bed) and we did not want to hit them with a huge litany of complaints.
Before dinner Our new table at dinner was a table for 8. There was an older German couple (nice) there and no one else ever came to fill the empty seats. We had dinner, and then rushed out to get a seat in the centrum for Kirk Marsh's variety show. We find it odd that his only two shows of the week are two days in a row, but either way we enjoy seeing him, so it was all good. Before his show there was a "mixology" demonstration in which one of the R Bar bartenders (Jason) showed how to make a chocolate chili martini. Dave won the drink by correctly guessing the price (and NO, we did not see this the week prior). Dave shared with me, mmmmmmm. So, we had a nice drink to sip while we enjoyed Kirk's comedy.
We stuck around in the Centrum to see the game show "60 Seconds or Less" and then stayed on for the 70s night party with the cruise staff staff dressed as the Macho Men. It was past midnight when we returned to our room, which still had no functioning A/C. Dave called guest services to ask if they had tried to fix it yet, or not, and they said someone would be up right them if we could let them in. We waited about 45 minutes before calling back and asking them to send someone in the morning so we could sleep. The nice thing about having a balcony room was that we could leave the door to the balcony open for the night to regulate the temperature.
--Next up, another nice day in Marseilles (an this time we know where the bus is taking us!).
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