Cruisin’ Across the Atlantic Ocean – Again

December 10, 2014

Kathie and I are on our third trans-Atlantic cruise and at this writing we are located about 500 miles east of Morocco, bound for Hamilton, Bermuda.  We started in Rome and stopped in Florence and Pisa, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma (Mallorca Island, Spain), Gibraltar, and Funchal (Medeira Island, Spain).  We are cruising the 2,080 miles from our present location to Hamilton, where we will arrive 6 days from now.  After a day in Hamilton we sail two more days and end our cruise in Ft. Lauderdale on December 19.

Some images from our cruise:

Sailing into Gibraltar as the sun rises behind "the Rock."

The Gothic Cathedral in Palma, Mallorca Island, Spain

Sailing away from Gibraltar

Finishing up a ride on one of the so-called "snowless toboggans" after a downhill ride on the island of Madeira.  Toboggans like these have been transporting tourists for more than 125 years.

This is our first time cruising on what is regarded as a small ship, the Ocean Princess, which at 30,000 tons is only about one-fifth the size of Royal Princess, which weighs in at about 150,000 tons, and on which we crossed the Atlantic last year. 

Above is a photo of our ship, the Ocean Princess.  The graphic immediately above shows the relative size of our ship against a larger, more typical cruise ship.

We have met many of the 600 of our fellow passengers on this cruise; we met only a few of our 3,000 co-cruisers on Royal Princess last year.  We are still mulling over the pros and cons of sailing on a small ship.  We will share our conclusions at the end of our cruise.  One pro is that we can get to places on the ship quickly.  A con is that there are few places to go. 

Here is a view of our our cabin looking through sliding glass doors and our balcony. This is our home for 18 days.

Check out the view from our Bridge Cam at http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=op .

First Stop:  Florence

Our first port of call was Livorno, which is the port serving Florence and Pisa.  Florence is known for both art and architecture.  One of the highlights of our time in Florence was our visit to the Academy of Fine Arts – the Accademia – where we saw Michelangelo’s David.

Those who are squeamish about nudity in art can get this “Dress Up David” kit for making images of the sculpture more proper by dressing David in either business or casual attire. Note the cool shades.

Later in Florence we saw the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Flore, with its famous dome, or duomo.

One of the most popular sights to photograph, and visit, is the Ponte Vecchio bridge