Cruise Day 2: Villefranche, France

We started the morning off with room service ordered the night before. All you do is hang a little tag on the door with what you want and tell them what time you want it all delivered. When it came, it was presented very well and put on the table right next to the bed. The food what exactly what we ordered, but the coffee left something to be desired. It is instant coffee and it got the job done, but doesn't taste very good. Good coffee is available on board, but you have to pay individually for it. The prices are a little cheaper than Starbucks, but it is very good and worth it. We were happy to try out the room service, but there is not much to choose from. Since we do not want to eat pastries and donuts every morning, we will probably not order it again. Perhaps we'll have time to try out some of the lunch and dinner options.

After breakfast, we took a short run. On decks 4 and 10 you can complete a full uninterrupted lap around the ship, so these are reserved for those wanting to run or walk outdoors for exercise. We decided to run on deck 4 since it is covered and it was already quite hot. If you complete 3 laps, you travel one mile. The deck is real teak wood and has a pleasant aroma. After a couple humid, sweaty miles we went back to the room for a shower and headed down to prepare for our very first ship excursion, which Disney calls Port Adventures. The ship anchored out in the harbor and we took the tender boats to the port. By being out in a huge harbor, we had a tremendous view of Villefranche. The small fishing village along the water is full of colorful buildings and is very picturesque.

We arrived a little early for the tour, so we explored Villefranche for about an hour before the group met. There was an interesting beach full of people, so we walked over to do some people watching.

This is the first time we could see the ship in the distance. What a sight.

The harbor is lush and full of dramatic slopes covered with beautiful buildings.

The tour set off at 12:15 taking us to Monaco. We saw the royal sections of the principality with stunning architecture and attention to detail. The tour guide gave us wireless headsets, so hearing her was not a problem. Oops, a giant cruiser trying to photobomb Katherine.

One of the many Ferraris was saw. The license plate looked cool to me. Everywhere in there European Union has similar plates, but it looks like Monaco gets to do their own thing.

During a break in the trip, we stopped for some sparkling water and sorbet. It was quite refreshing. The company wasn't that bad either.

Too bad my dad is shaded, but it's difficult to get a picture of my parents when they move so fast.

Outside the bus, we could see the Monaco Grand Prix racetrack. I have seen this a few times on TV in May and could not believe we were on the actual track.

If you were not impressed with the cars in Monaco, there are the boats to check out. This is what happens when rich people can make their own country. There are only 7,000 Monacans and you can't be one unless you have 3 generations of documentation.

Not a good picture, but it's a bronze sculpture of a formula one car. Nice!

The tour bus strategically parked underground in a secret parking garage.

We took a walk up to the famous Monte Carlo casino. The red and white stripes show the turns in the racetrack.

The Monte Carlo Casino. Very popular and very nice cars sleep here.

Yummy. A vintage Aston Martin. Yes please!

Who knew Mr. Hector Berlioz the famous composer was hanging out behind the casino?

A custom carbon fiber Dodge Viper! No way!

With the high heat and humidity, it was an exhausting day to say the least. We got back from the tender and jumped in the shower. Dinner was at Lumieres, the French restaurant on the ship. Katherine and I started by sharing the escargot gratinee and the onion soup gratinee. We enjoyed both selections. I ordered the roasted rack of lamb, which was awesome, and Katherine ordered roasted duck breast in red wine jus which was equally awesome. Neither of us had any room for dessert.

After dinner we took the obligatory walk on deck nine. If you plan on sleeping after a dinner like that, you had better go for a walk. Deck 9 is way up there and is a great way to end the evening.

Tomorrow, we head to Italy. My mom and dad are going to Florence on a full day trip while Katherine and I will attempt to trail run the Cinque Terre trail system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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