Cruise 2012 - All Roads lead to Rome

A giant panda......in tartan.....at Edinburgh Airport.....like it's the most natural thing in the world

Team Emma

Team Michael

Our morning in Civitavecchia - torrential rain

Waiting for the bus to the boat

Emma getting some exercise whilst uncle Jamie tries to look like a Secret Service agent

Sarah was able to demonstrate her (excellent) organisational skills and got us all ready for flying out to Rome well before time. She even managed to convince me that wearing a NY Bomb Squad wouldn't be a good idea for flying. She's good like that.

We had very little trouble with our flights out to Rome. We were really worried about a 45 minute transfer at Amsterdam airport, but thanks to some very helpful flight attendants, and a buggy driving Brian and I around, we made it in plenty of time.

Emma and Michael were fantastic. Sarah had been really worried about entertaining them whilst at the airport and flying, so much so we'd bought Jamie's iPad off him so to allow the kids to watch films, but it all went really well.

Once we got to Rome we met up with Alan and Alyson, then were subjected to some traditional Italian taxi driving. After two or three near-death experiences, we found the lovely Bed and Breakfast in Civitavecchia where Jamie and Roz had been good enough to buy us some delicious pizza.

We all slept soundly that night, and had a lovely breakfast the next morning. The woman who was running the Bed and Breakfast was from the Dominican Republic, and brought along her 2 month old son called Martin! He was lovely. Her italian husband transferred us safely to the front of the port, where a bus took us to the boat. We got on quite quickly, sped up by the fact that Brian and I were getting wheeled around and prioritized for check-in. 

Straight away we hit the buffet!