Day 12: I Love Capri

Today, we were back in Italy where we started our cruise. It was nice to know the language again (even though a lot of people did more or less speak English along the way). We woke up early as usual to take our own excursion into Capri. This Italy excursion actually was a lot more stressful than we thought it would have been. Initially the girls were going on a Chabba-led excursion to the island of Capri, which is off the coast of Naples, while all of the guys went on an Oppa-led excursion to Pompeii. At some point, we decided we were going to do our respective excursions and then meet in Sorrento for pizza. Then, Gianni got sick, James got sick, and Andrew was in some weird mood, so the Pompeii trip essentially got canned. We also left Chabba behind and canned Sorrento. A lot of changes.

Anyway, we woke up early and had our breakfast for our trip into Capri. We disembarked (on the fourth floor this time, not the first) after hearing a semi-stressed Chabba tell us that Andrew had disembarked on his own to use the Internet. We had the clear message that we were now in the southern region of Italy because several cars hit us on the four minute walk over to the hydrofoil station. We stood in line for tickets (which were actually very expensive for this hour long boat road into Capri), got our tickets, and boarded the little boat that would take us to Capri. We got stuck on the top of the boat, so we were under the sun which was not fun. Also, people would run around the ship trying to get us to buy silly Capri caps. On the way over, though, some very excited man came up and told us that the Blue Grotto was open today and that they were doing tours out there. This made us slightly sad because this was the one thing that James actually wanted to do in Capri and we told him it wouldn't be open.

Anyway, we get to Capri and see a ticket line to do the Blue Grotto trip. Even at that point, we didn't think that we were going to do that trip because it would be expensive and we still kind of wanted to see Sorrento. We also weren't sure if we would have time to do it. In the end, though, we kind of had this "how often are we in Capri" moment and decided to do it anyway. First, however, we followed the suggestion that they gave us on the ship and bought our return hydrofoil ticket to Naples early in the day. We got the 3:25 ticket because we were not sure how long everything would take.

We went back to the main docks and got our ticket to go out to see the Blue Grotto. So, the way that they do this is that you have to take a big boat out to the Blue Grotto and then you have to pay another 10 euro to take a rowboat into the actual grotto. The bigger boat that we took was actually a good investment because it actually circled around the island after visiting the grotto. Anyway, we bought tickets for the 10 o clock tour and loaded the boat, this time sticking around in the shaded areas of the boat. It took about twenty minutes to get out to the grotto and another 15 minutes to get into the rowboats.

So, the Blue Grotto is this little grotto that I guess has ruins in it or something. It's only opened depending on the conditions of the water as well as the level of the tides. The entrance is only small enough for one row boat to enter at a time, and you have to duck into the row boat to actually enter. Once inside, a combination of the sand or rock (i'm not sure which) below you, the sunlight, and the water creates this incredibly gorgeous shade of blue that illuminates the enter grotto. The acoustics of the grotto also have perfect acoustics for singing. So that's the Blue Grotto for you.

We got onto our rowboat. Umma got to sit in the front while Halmony Mia and I were cramped into the back. Because you have to duck so low to get into the grotto, you have to sit on the bottom of the row boat. It took us a while to actually get into the grotto. Because the opening is so small, only one person can go in or out at time and we managed to get to the entrance while all of the boats were exiting. Once it was our turn, we all ducked down into the boat as we went into the grotto. Mia describes this moment as being similar to that moment on the Pirates of the Caribbean where you go down that drop. You go through all of this splashing water and enter into this cool cave on the other side where everyone is singing. It was pretty cool. Also, none of the pictures that I took inside the grotto do any justice to the actual shade of blue that the water becomes. It was really pretty.

We stayed in the grotto for about 3-5 minutes, listening to a lot of singing before we exited. The trip out of the grotto was a lot more painful than the trip in because Mia suffocated me with her hair as she was ducking down. The rowboat took us back to the boat and we waited around for another five or ten minutes for the last few groups of people to complete their grotto trip. Once everyone was back on board, we started our trip around the island.

The island tour was very cool. Capri is a very pretty island. On the way, we saw both the Green and White Grottos (Capri seems to be big on their grottos), a very picturesque lighthouse, and the houses of Giorgio Armani, Sofia Loren, and the Gerber family (I think that house belonged to Mussolini at some point as well). Anyway, it was a pretty cool tour.

After we got back to dry land, we decided to get tickets to go up the funicular to see the main part of town. Funicular is a funny word, by the way. Anyway, we get up to the main part of town and are greeted by a giant bell tower. We head deeper into town and pretty much are bombarded with a ritzy shopping area. Seriously, if I was interested in legit designer products, I would have been in heaven. Instead, I felt like I was in a Santana Row for those who mean serious business. It was very pretty though.

Our first stop was to find the Chantecler (sp) store because Umma wanted one of the bells that the people were talking about on the boat. Apparently that's THE brand to get these lucky bells from, otherwise they are not really lucky. There were no people in the store, though, so we got a little intimidated and found a cheesy tourist store that was more our style. I actually just sat outside and wrote a postcard while Umma and Halmony became friends with the storeowner. After they bought souvenirs, we explored the town a little longer. We eventually found a place where we got some cheap silver (and fake) not lucky Capri bells. I've been wearing mine on my wrist ever since. I'm not sure if I've been luckier because of it, but I've definitely been a lot louder.

We took the funicular down around 2-ish to get back down to the port area and then went in search of a cheap place to get pizza and other Italian foods. We found a place and sat down. It took forever for them to take our order. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 3:25 and we didn't get our order taken until 2:55. This was extremely stressful, but by some stroke of luck it took them an absurdly short amount of time to make our food. We ate, ordered gelato, got lost finding the boat, and then barely made it onto the boat before it took off for Napoli.

We had to split up a little this time around because most of the seats were taken, but we more or less got to sit together. I passed out about halfway through the trip because I was tired from the long day and we eventually made it back to Naples. We stopped at one or two touristy stores on the way to the ship and ended up boarding about 30 minutes before the last call.

First thing Mia and I did was go to the top deck so that I could exchange the last of my Vitality points for prizes. I only really had enough for two key chains. I offered to give Oppa one of them to make up for the fact that I embarassed him the day before in that line dance class, but he didn't want it. Now i have two vitality key chains. Actually, I think Mia wants one.

Anyway, afterwards, we went downstairs to get as much stress packing done before dinner. As those of you who have cruised before know, the last night before you disembark is always stressful because you have to pack all your clothes and leave it out for the crew to take downstairs. Well, it's extremely stressful for us. I don't know if it's actually stressful for normal families. We packed until a little before dinner, then got ready for dinner and went upstairs in time for a big raffle.

The raffle was to win a giant goodie bag full of jewelry and RC-logo items. Every time you spent $150 on products in the cruise stores, you got to put in a raffle ticket. We obviously didn't win, but we were happy because the first person they called wasn't there to claim their prize. We're sick like that.

We went to dinner after that. Uncle Alex, Chicca, and Nicole were not there again, so we squished into one table once again. As is usually the case, the last dinner on the cruise was kind of sad. I think I got some good veggie paella or something like that for dinner. We said goodbye to our waiter and assistant waiter. The dining staff sang to us. It was all good.

After dinner, we went downstairs to do the last of the packing. We managed to finish this just in time for the crew to come pick up our stuff. Great timing, actually. Mia, Umma, and I went upstairs to the Schooner Lounge to watch Ian perform one more time before the cruise was over. He sang American Pie, among other songs, which was happy. We made our way to the casino to find Halmony and so I could play that obnoxious party slot game that I was obsessed with last cruise. I didn't know it was on this cruise ship until the day before, so I was excited and had to play on it a little bit. Lost money, of course, and then went downstairs to sleep one more time on the Legend of the Seas.