Nice & Florence

On the first day of our cruise, the Crew Welfare office organized a crew tour to Nice and Eze from Villefranche, and a big group from our cast decided to go. Overall, the tour was kind of a bust.. it was very rushed and uninformative.. But the places were beautiful! Nice was on the water, and then Eze up on the mountaintop.. they were both beautiful! Here's a photo of the French Riviera from the drive up to Eze.

Yesterday, however, I finally got to go into Florence for the first time!! It was BEAUTIFUL!! The highlight of the day was definitely just walking around.. It's such an awesome city. My favorite itinerary item, though, was the statue of David by Michelangelo. I can honestly say I was really shocked by how amazing it was! I'd always seen pictures of it and heard it was so amazing, but I didn't really get what the fascination was.. But in person, it really is awe-inspiring. First of all, it's huge!! I thought it was going to be life-size, but it's like 30 feet tall.. ha! I was so oblivious.. Overall, florence was beautiful! I did some really great wine tastings, saw the final resting tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, and was dumbfounded by the Duomo.. It's just crazy to think that that's really where the whole Renaissance movement happened! They lived it there. It was so awesome to experience it.. I can't wait to go back and just get lost wandering the streets again.. Here's a few shots of my day. The first is an aerial shot from a lookout piazza over florence.. The second is in front of the Ponte Vecchio!

Today, we're in Civitavecchia outside Rome.. I've had enough of Rome for the time being, so I'm sitting in an internet cafe.. Tomorrow's a sea day and our Touch of Broadway show.. Then: Dubrovnik, Croatia and and overnight in Venice!

Hope everyone back home is doing well!

Miss you.

Saying Goodbyes

The back half of my cruise was more or less uninteresting.. After leaving Mykonos, I went on another tour from Kusadasi, Turkey. Because I had a very detailed tour of the Ephesus Archaeological Site when my parents were here, I opted to do a tour that didn't include the landmark. Instead, we visited two small country villages, did some wine tasting, and saw some local craft markets.. The tour was fine.. A good chance to relax mostly. there were only about 20 of us on the tour. Here's one of the farmers from the second village Kirazli:

Mostly, though, I've had some people that I know leave this cruise.. For one, the end of a contract, the other quit.. but it's weird. Not to quote anyone specific, but "People do come and go so quickly around here..." It's crazy! We're all on this ship for different lengths of time.. all the contracts are done on a rolling basis.. people come and go. So that kind of stunk for this cruise.. you just get used to a routine, familiar faces, etc. And then that gets taken away from you.. It's hard to make yourself a home when the surroundings are constantly changing.

Otherwise, we've officially hit the halfway mark!! I'm home in 3 months and 1 week. I'm having an amazing time exploring these amazing places, but I'm definitely ready to get back to the City and my friends..

Sorry for the lame update! who knows what will happen this next cruise..

Hope everyone is staying cool in the heatwave of the East coast these days! Missing you all..

Escorting Tours!

So this cruise, three different cast members have family cruising.. So, since all my friends are busy, I decided to sign up to escort a bunch of the passenger tours for free.. See what happens!! (When we "escort" we simply go along the tour.. it's the ship's way of providing staff with the opportunity to accompany these tours when there's an empty seat on the bus! ha. In return, we just fill out a short survey evaluating the tour so they can improve them for future guests).

I've been incredibly lucky and had a great time! Here's what I've done so far:

In Livorno, Italy I escorted a tour to the beautiful region of Cinque Terre. So we boarded the bus and drove for about an hour and a half to the small coastal town of Manarola. From there, we walked along La Via dell'Amore (a cliffside path along the Italian Riviera) to the next town Riomaggiore. After a few minutes to walk around, we boarded a small boat ferry to head to the next town.. Now.. these towns are literally cut off from the rest of the world.. the train system that goes there is only about 20 years old.. before that it was only the ferries.. but the cliffs are so steep, there aren't even docks!! the boat just pulls up against a rock and you hop on and off. HA! So we hop on the ferry and travel to Vernazza. Here we had about a half hour to wander around before boarding the ferry again and traveling to the last (and largest) of the 5 villages: Monterosso al Mare. Here we had two hours of free time where I found an amazing family-owned restaurant for lunch. An extremely generous couple on the tour even paid for my lunch! It was such a cool day. Now, there was really nothing to "do" in any of these towns, per se.. but the scenery was beautiful. I'd love the opportunity to go back and stay there for a few days and really see all the towns. it was beautiful. here's a few pictures:

The next day I went along for a tour into Rome. Now, by this time I have seen PLENTY of Rome.. ha! This tour, however, went inside the Colosseum - something I hadn't done yet - and spent more time in St. Peter's Basilica - where I really wanted to spend more time.. It's just so beautiful! So that was a fun day. It also included a delicious lunch!!

Yesterday, I was able to take a really cool tour to Mount Etna in Sicily - one of Europe's largest active volcanos! It was my first volcano - it was so weird. ha! They pretty much just took us to the volcano and gave us free time to wander around the craters. It was so cool! Overall, a nice day that would've been hard to get to without being on a tour.

Today I'm in Mykonos, Greece. A group of us got off this morning and rented some ATV's (4-wheelers) to get to the other side of the island for Paradise Beach! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Such a great day.. I just sat in a lounge chair.. had some good Greek beer and Gyros.. also - Megan (in my cast).. her dad brought some goggles so I was able to do my first semi-snorkeling! I say semi because we didn't have a breathing thing.. so i just had to dive up and down all the time.. There was a huge rock under the water that had tons of plant life on it and, therefore, tons of fish! It was so beautiful!! The rock dove down about 15 feet on the far side of it, so you could see right down to the bottom of the water there too. It was beautiful!! I had such a great time chasing the fish under water.. And - to be honest - they did some chasing of me too. ha! it was really fun..

Now i'm in an internet cafe with some good fast internet that I'm using to call family and upload some pictures.. Not to mention to update all of you!!

Hope things are good back in the States!! I can't wait to come home in just over 3 months. Woo-hoo!!

The cruise after the family

WELL! As amazing as it was to have my family on board, it was definitely exhausting!! Getting up early everyday and running around these amazing cities.. then having to come back and do shows and stuff at night.. I had a blast and wouldn't change a second of it! But, after they left, I was ready to sleep in and take it easy for a few days!! So I did that (mostly) for this past cruise. Here are some highlights though from the past 12 days:

Our overnight in Venice.. First off, it was INCREDIBLY hot and humid.. I felt like I was back in Georgia or New York all over again.. the first day, though, I actually went to the top of the famous bell tower in St. Mark's Square!! The view was beautiful from up there.. The only reason we did it then was because there was no line.. It was so cool though. That night, they threw a Wine & Cheese Night party for the crew out on our crew pool deck.. I had a really nice night that night, overall. It was really great.

My other highlight was our last port day.. The Crew Welfare office often organizes "Crew Tours" at discounted rates for us to have something to do at the ports.. For Salerno, this cruise, they offered a trip by boat to a private beach.. They provided sandwiches, fruit, sodas, and beer for all of us.. Our entire cast (almost) ended up going.. So did a lot of the officers - including the Captain of the ship!!! We had a BLAST at the beach!! We all had our own beach chair.. The water was beautiful.. we rented a paddle boat for just 1 euro each and went around the rocks to an even more private beach that you can only get to by boat.. It was such an amazing relaxing and beautiful day!! I loved it.

Now, another cruise starts today.. with 1800 new passengers. It's crazy to think I have just under 4 months left of this contract.. and yet, our cruises are so long, that I only have 9 cruises left! It seems way shorter to think about it that way..

I miss everyone back home SOOO much. I can't wait to see you all again..

Thanks for all your love and support to those who read!! I miss you..

The Smiths Take Europe! (part 2)

So I know this is WAY delayed! But we were just too busy with the whole family here to update.. and then the cruise after them ended up being pretty busy too. So here we go!

Before we get started, let me say this: this is a really long post.. And to upload it with all the pictures I usually do would just take WAY too long! So I've only uploaded a very minimal number of photos.. Really, we took a TON of pictures.. and most (if not all) are amazing.. SO I've uploaded them all onto a gallery that everyone can visit. Here's the link: gallery.me.com/cameron_smith

The second sea day we spent in a pretty lazy way.. Nothing too eventful happened. My family spent a lot of the time by the pool.. I spent it reading on their balcony mostly. That evening we did our 60's Theme Night: Groove.. We sing a couple 60's songs.. it's pretty fun. Mom & Dad really enjoyed it. We had fun.

Day #4 was probably one of our best days of the whole cruise! We were in Mykonos, Greece!! We got off in the morning and just wandered around the small town.. We took in the sites, walked to the windmills, visited "Little Venice", saw a ton of shops and galleries, and played in the water and on the rocks.. The day was beautiful!! After a lot of wandering around, we returned to a restaurant favorite from the last time I was there.. Elizabeth got the Greek Humus she was craving so badly.. we all got traditional greek food.. and boy was it amazing!! The waiter was an absolute character.. It was a really great meal. After that, we decided to be real adventurous and rent mopeds!! Now - this got dangerous. I'm no expert.. I definitely ended up running up against a wall at one point (at a very slow speed!! no worries) which was really just more scary than anything. Mopeds are hard!! But we had such a great time driving through all the amazing streets full of beautiful hotels and houses and even more gorgeous views. The four of us had a GREAT day. The picture I just to post was one of a restaurant that we saw on our way back to the ship.. They were advertising "Sun Dried Octopus!" and sure enough, they were drying those octopi right outside... So hysterical.

Day #5 we did our first of two escorted private tours in Kusadasi, Turkey. We had such a great day - all with a private guide and driver for the four of us.. First off, we visited the site where the Virgin Mary was supposed to have spent her final years.. It was so peaceful and beautiful at the top of this mountain.. So gorgeous. Next, we ventured downhill to the historic city of Ephesus filled with some of the world's best-preserved Roman ruins. It was so surreal to walk the streets where the apostles once wandered.. It was a really amazing experience. And our guide (Fatih) knew everything and provided some really interesting perspective on it all. After Ephesus, we went to the tiny village of Sirince - famous for its homemade wines. Here we sat outside at this beautiful hilltop restaurant and had a wine tasting! We tried homemade wines of Peach, Blackberry, Cherry, Strawberry, Traditional Red, and White. They were so interesting!! The peach was everyone's favorite (except dad) so they gave us a bottle of it. Homemade Turkish Peach Wine!! It was definitely interesting.. They also provided an appetizer taster of homemade local cheese that were all incredible with fresh tomato and cucumber. The view was gorgeous. We had a great time there. We also walked through the village. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at Hotel Kusadasi - one of the oldest 5-star hotels in the city. The view from the hilltop was stunning.. It overlooked Kusadasi on one side of the point, and out to the ocean on the other. Lunch was so pretty up there. Turkey was such a great day - definitely all made possible by our guide.

That night we had our show Liverpool Knights. Fortunately - by this time I was feeling MUCH better. Both shows went great.

The next morning (Day #6) we awoke in Piraeus, Greece - just a 20 minute train ride into Athens. So we got up very early, prepared for the heat, and set out! Unfortunately, we had some train trouble due to construction.. So it took us a bit longer to get into Athens than we expected, but we made it. Once there, we had a great (very hot) time! We climbed to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and all that jazz. On our way down the mountain we wandered the the Ancient City of Agora.. Then we went to this amazing lunch place I knew about. Lunch was great! With me, we got a discount on the whole meal.. They also gave us these free shots of some traditional greek drink (not ouzo).. It was pretty bad - tasted like Pine Sol.  But it was free.. and definitely worth the memory. ha! After lots of window-shopping around the La Plaka district, we took the adventure back to the ship to relax in some much-needed air conditioning.

Day #7 was our final sea day. Again, the family spent it poolside (where I'm not allowed), so I hung out in their room reading on their amazing balcony. That night we had our final show: Dance Around The World. I don't do much in it.. just a couple arias.. Both performances went well, but we were down one dancer due to injury. So that was interesting.. But we made it through without a problem.

Day #8 was the not-so-lovely port of Salerno, Italy. We opted to get up early to take the ferry over to the beautiful island of Capri! The ferry ride took just about 2 hours to get all the way there, but the ride was beautiful. We just rode up along the Amalfi Coast.. the views of the cliffs are just beautiful. Once there we took the (really awesome) funicular up the mountainside to the actual town of Capri.. It was beautiful!! We just wandered around.. walked into all these amazing couture shops.. every restaurant had pictures of so many different celebrities eating their in the windows.. it was just so beautiful. i'd never been here before.. We ended up finding a quiet restaurant off the beaten path.. The Caprese pizza I got was probably one of the best pizzas I've ever had.. the view down the mountainside was beautiful out the window.. it was such a great day!!! I definitely fell asleep on the ferry ride back to the ship.. oops!

Day #9 was our second AMAZING private guided tour of Rome. THIS DAY WAS INSANE!!!!!!! We got up at dawn to meet our guide right off the ship at 8AM. He drove us just about an hour from the port of Civitavecchia into Rome. First things first, he took us to his own neighborhood for "the best cappuccino in Italy". It was pretty darn good! It was Mom's first cappuccino!! ha. Now that she's experienced perfection, she really can't ever have another one. it will just pale in comparison. After that, he took us to a few sites first that are well off the beaten path.. First we went to a lookout point where you could see ALL of Rome and Vatican City. The view was breath-taking. From there, we wound our way through several amazing neighborhoods to this Piazza of the Knights of Malta.. Here there's a gated Priory.. When you look through the ornate keyhole of the gate, it views a garden. through there - when it was built - you could see three sovereign states: The Priory of the Knights of Malta, Rome, and the giant dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It was a beautiful view - and nothing any of us had ever heard of before.. Next we dove into the ruins.. We hit up the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the old Chariot Racing Arena, and lots of other random Roman sites. My favorite stop: I really can't describe it!! The Cappuchin Crypt. It's a crypt for the order of the Cappuchini Monks. Now, long story short: they had no idea what to do with all the bodies of the monks.. they'd run out of ground to bury them in. So they dug up the old bodies and decorated the entire crypt. Seriously - google it. It's SOOO unreal looking.. Skeletons all over the place.. A whole room called "The hip room" because it's all made decorated with pelvis bones.. it's so surreal. No photographs are allowed inside, however, so I don't have anything to load here. It was SOOOOO creepy and jaw-dropping!!! We also visited the Spanish Steps, we threw coins into the Trevi Fountain, wandered with our jaws open through the Pantheon.. And all before lunch!! For lunch, or guide took us back to his neighborhood to one of his family friends' restaurants. It was AMAZING!!! We had a million different appetizers, two different pasta entree dishes, tiramisu for dessert, and - of course - limoncello. Everything was so fresh and homemade. SOOO good. After lunch, our guide's sister gave us a private tour of the Vatican Museum - including the Sistine Chapel! I actually found a lot of the artwork in the museum more interesting than the actual chapel.. She knew everything there is to know. It was such an interesting trip through the museum. After the museum, our day was done! We drove back to the ship - exhausted and still in shock at how much we actually saw!

Day #10, we awake in another not-so-lovely port in Livorno, Italy. From here, you're supposed to go to either Pisa or Florence typically. We set off on an Italian train system adventure!! Our day started with a train to Pisa to see the leaning tower.. it was way more interesting and beautiful than i was expecting! It was a lot of fun.. From Pisa, we took another train to the small walled medieval city of Lucca. It was beautiful! We had lunch there and a great time walking around! Then we took the train back to Livorno to board the ship. We had a great adventure and couldn't believe we figured out all the transportation without a single hiccup!! Here was our day: shuttle bus from the port to the town, bus from town center to train station, train from Livorno to Pisa, bus from train to leaning tower, bus back to train station, train from Pisa to Lucca, train back from Lucca to Pisa, change trains to continue to Livorno, bus from train to town center, shuttle bus from town center to ship. By the end of the day, we had a million validated tickets in our pockets! HA! It was a miracle we didn't ever mess up.. We had such an amazing day though.

Day #11 (Toulon, France) was our last day on the ship.. We also sailed really early.. So we got off at a reasonable hour, had breakfast at an outdoor cafe, then wandered around this AMAZING outdoor fresh market.. Oh my goodness, I haven't missed a kitchen so much since we left.. The produce all looked amazing.. We wandered around the old town, did some shopping, had lunch, then headed back to the ship early for a few last hours to catch some sun. It was a pretty easy relaxing last day..

Day #12 was, sadly, debarkation day.. I got up early with my family to help them take their bags to their hotel. From there, we wandered around Barcelona until I had to return to the ship.. We saw Gaudi's Cathedral and some other famous buildings of his.. Then they mostly shopped. They spent the night in Barcelona before flying home to Atlanta the next morning.

Overall, we had an AMAZING trip. I feel so incredibly lucky to have had this experience with my family.. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime trip opportunity to see SO much of Europe with my family. I'm so thankful and feel incredibly blessed that everything worked out.

Thanks for reading this (very long) post. We had such a great time.

Again, you can view ALL our pictures at: gallery.me.com/cameron_smith

Happy viewing!!

I hope everyone's staying relatively cool in the heatwave back home.. We're getting our fair share of it here too.

The Smiths Take Europe!

Well the Smith family has arrived and taken the Celebrity Century by force.

Our family vacation did however get off to a rough start.. I unfortunately came down with  a pretty bad case of swollen tonsils. After a few trips to medical (including a shot of penicillin, a Z-pack a few days later, and LOTS of tea with honey and lemon), I am feeling much better! We did have our show “Touch of Broadway” last night though when I was feeling my worst. My costumes got a bit more sweaty than usual because my body was resisting all the running around, but I made it. And both shows went off fairly untainted. Phew!

After my last post, I immediately met up with the fam at their hotel. We set out in Barcelona for breakfast. On Sundays nothing much opens in Spain until the late afternoon, but we managed to find a nice outdoor cafe for breakfast. Then we just wandered around Las Ramblas and meandered back to the hotel for check-out. We took some pictures at the rooftop of the hotel before packing up their bags.

Then we headed to the ship!! I waited with them for most of the security and check-in process, but I left partway through to go change and get ready to meet them on the gangway on board! At our embarkation port, crew has a separate ship entrance from the passengers. Once on board, I took my parents on a tour of the ship. I think they like it. ha. After passenger boat drill, we met up on the pool deck where the party band was playing to hang out before sail away. The sail out from Barcelona was gorgeous! And the weather was perfect (knock on wood it stays this way!)

Afterwards we had to part ways.. I went to get ready for the Welcome Aboard shows that evening and they headed to get ready for their first dinner in the Grand Restaurant. We don’t do much at all for the Welcome Aboard show, so I told my parents they really only needed to come to the second show. I was able to meet them for a few between shows before they headed to the theatre. The show was fine. We went up to the Crystal Lounge for a drink after the show and to listen to the Party Band. Unfortunately, I started feeling worse and had to peace out early.

Our first day on board was a sea day! I was still feeling worse, so I stayed in bed most of the day. I ended up meeting up with the family for breakfast and lunch, but otherwise they hung out by the pool, and I stayed inside. We had a show that evening so I wanted to conserve my energy as much as possible. The show last night “Touch of Broadway” ended up going very well despite all my stresses. It was definitely very draining though. I was not feeling well and my energy definitely died out about halfway through the second show. My whole family loved the shows though! They were the first to shoot up to their feet (of course) in the audience. I think they enjoyed them anyway.. And Dad got a good recording of the Jersey Boys/Mamma Mia number. After the shows, I showered and headed up to my parents’ room for some free room service before I crashed in bed.

This morning we woke up in Messina, Italy on the island of Sicily. I decided to take the day to continue to recuperate, so my family got off without me. They had a great day wandering around into churches and random buildings. The pictures came out great from their day out. 

By the time they got back, I was feeling much better and spent the afternoon with them outside taking in the sites from the ship and watching sail away through the rest of the Strait of Messina. Next we got to have our first family dinner in the Grand Restaurant! I wasn’t able to dine with them due to shows the past two evenings.. Tonight, though, we finally ate together! I love the Grand.. Especially with family. We had a great table by the window and amazing food. Afterwards, we wandered around the ship. We sat in on the train wreck that was Karaoke for a while (but did not perform) and then headed upstairs to hear the Party Band play. We had a great evening.

Tomorrow’s another sea day on board.. Who knows how we’ll spend it? Most likely lazily by the pool. 

We’re having a great time, and the fun’s JUST getting started!

Cruise of excursions

What a cruise!! And a busy one at that..

We started off again in Villefranche, France. The day was fairly overcast and we were celebrating a few birthdays, so we skipped the beach and headed for some food and wine. We happened to stumble upon a pub with some beer on tap and a pool table and decided to hang out there for a while. We had a nice time!

The next day we headed to Livorno, Italy - port of Pisa and Florence. We had a show that evening and my throat was feeling a little bit scratchy, so I opted to take the day easy. I got off for a short while to just grab lunch (and some free internet) in Livorno. I also found a post office and was able to send some postcards home to my grandparents. The show went fine vocally. They both went well, actually! The European audiences love the British 60’s “Liverpool Knights” show. They definitely hoot and holler a lot more for this show when it’s our first.

In Civitavecchia, Italy (the port for Rome), a bunch of us signed up for a crew tour they offered to head into Rome! The tour was great! We all boarded a bus with a tour guide and a driver to head to Rome! We first drove by the Coliseum and headed to the church of St. Peter in Chains. The church was stunning. Inside they had Michelangelo’s monument that included his sculpture of Moses. Now - I’ve visited several churches before. But to visit one that had an actual relic on display (Peter’s chains) and a sculpture by Michelangelo was awe-inspiring. The history here is real. I can’t get over it. Next we visited the Coliseum. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to go inside, but we learned a lot about the actual building. It’s crazy how huge it is! Our guide also discussed several of the historic sites around the Coliseum before we boarded the bus again and headed to Vatican City! Vatican City was AMAZING!! Once in St. Peter’s Square we waited in a security line to get inside the Basilica. The whole time our guide was telling us all about the history of the site and the artwork/architecture visible from the square. Inside the Basilica is unreal. I really can’t describe it. It looks fake it’s so crazy. The sheer amount of art in that one giant room of the cathedral was awe-inspiring. Add in the infamous artists and works of art that I only thought I’d see in textbooks (like the famous Pieta), and you’ve got one heck of an experience. I really can’t even describe it. St. Peter’s Basilica is definitely a site not to be missed. Afterwards we boarded the bus to head back to the ship.

Next was a sea day and thus a show day.. We did Broadway second for this cruise (because our adage couple was still on leave and it’s the easiest show to do without them). It went really well! Mostly I was excited because every port after this one was going to be brand new!

In our next port, I volunteered to be a Tour Escort for one of the shore excursions in Dubrovnik, Croatia. They let us sign up for these to go for free. All I have to do is fill out a survey when it’s over and walk in the back of the group. Not too hard a task for a free guided tour, right? ha! I had so much fun. The group boarded a bus and first headed to the small seaside resort town of Cavtat (pronounced tsahv-tot, not kav-tot like I naively thought) - a 30 minute drive from port. This tiny little town was stunning! The guide spoke about the history of the Old Dubrovnik Republic the whole way there, and upon arriving in Cavtat we were given free time to wander around for an hour. Then we all reunited on board the bus and headed to the heart of Old Dubrovnik. On the way our guide told us all about the war that ravaged Croatia in 1992. It was weird to think about just how recent that was.. Old Dubrovnik was beautiful - completely surrounded by the world’s best preserved protective wall, beautiful marble streets, gorgeous architecture on small windy streets, etc. We followed our guide for a brief walking tour of the town and the Rector’s palace before an hour of free time. (Since it was father’s day I managed to find an internet cafe to call my Dad.)

After Dubrovnik we set sail for Venice, Italy for our first overnight!! First off, sail-in was beautiful. We passed right by St. Mark’s Square on our ship right before the Grand Canal. Here’s a picture of me on the front deck of the ship as we sailed in.

Once we docked, we just got off and wandered through Venice. The line for water shuttles directly to St. Mark’s Square was very long with guests, so we opted to walk into town. The walk was gorgeous and we found some great restaurants and shops along the way that were off the tourist path (and way less expensive). Venice was awesome! The canals were beautiful. I really couldn’t get over how the ship actually flooded during high tide! Granted, the locals said it was a higher tide than normal, but St. Mark’s Square actually flooded with water - several inches deep in some parts!! I mean - buildings were underwater, shops closed, people were walking around barefoot through the water in the streets. It was insane. Since we were there overnight, we found a place for a late-night dinner (something we haven’t had off the ship yet) and then took the last water shuttle back to the ship for the night. They threw the crew a Wine & Cheese Night, so that was fun. The next day I got off the ship again and wandered around. This time I went into town with Merrick and Marc who hadn’t gone into town the day before, so it was fun to experience the city with them since it was their first time. We had to board the ship again by 4 in order to sail out. Venice was beautiful.

The next day we were in Split, Croatia. The weather was cool and kind of overcast, so I wandered around town for a bit before settling in a cafe with free internet. Here’s a few pictures. The coolest part was under the old town there were all these old tunnels and they filled them with a market! The stalls were mostly touristy, but it was cool underground.

The next day (at sea) we had our show Dance Around the World. I also was a huge nerd during the middle of the day and attended the guest lecturer’s talk on Walt Disney’s first feature films. It was really interesting! I’m a nerd - but I liked it.

In Salerno, Italy next, I had the chance to do another excursion as an escort! This one was AMAZING! First we boarded a small boat and headed up the Amalfi coast to the small fishing town of Amalfi. Ha. The 30 minute ride was beautiful. Everywhere just sharp cliffs into the water, and where there was a nicer slope they were covered in lemon groves. Apparently 60% of Italy’s lemons come from the Amalfi coastline! Amalfi was pretty. Our guide took us to its cathedral and then we had free time. I wandered around and looked at the beautiful ceramic artwork. The tiles and plates and stuff were beautiful. I really wish I had a nice apartment to decorate with them. Ha! Next we took the boat back to the dock where our ship was to get onto a bus and head to Pompeii! Once there we had a delicious 4 course meal (with lots and lots of wine) all on Celebrity! Then we had a guided tour of the Pompeii excavation site. I couldn’t believe how HUGE the ruins site is! And everything is SO well preserved. It was a really interesting tour! After about an hour and a half we headed back to the ship.

We had the final sea day completely off. So I helped out with the backstage tour and then we had cast craft day! We all made name tags for our dressing room stations out of supplies from the kids Fun Factory.

And now, MY FAMILY IS HERE!!!!!! The whole fam (parents and sister) are here for a 12-night cruise! We’re going to have a blast. I can’t wait. I just got off extra early this morning to post an update before I meet them for breakfast. Stay tuned for Smith-family updates! Let the good times roll.