For someone who loves traveling as much as I do, I bet that one of the places in their bucket list (I’m not saying all but most) is the center of the “greenest pasture” or what we call the domain of the first world countries which is none other than EUROPE! Yes it has to be all capital letters since I cannot give enough emphasis to this destination. And for me part of that bucket list was ticked off this year. To be exact it was from May 28 to June 7, 2015. I say “part of” because I haven’t been to all counties in Europe, just three. But one of the three big ones – France, Italy and Spain.
I believe that hard work does pay off. And the harder you worked for it, the more satisfying it is to enjoy the reward. This trip is care of my company, Philam Life. It’s actually an incentive trip to those who have reached their targets and qualified in the prestigious top one percent of life insurers’ organization called the Million Dollar Round Table. And I truly thank God that through Him I was able to accomplish this feat and qualify myself for the trip and to be called an “MDRT”. I also have to thank the support of my family, friends, mentors and my loyal clients.

At first I did not want to get so excited until I was already really really sure that this trip is happening. (This is the “segurista” in me) There can be several reasons why this might not push through and thankfully once I passed the hurdle of getting a “Schengen” visa           (The visa that you have to get for Europe for the Mediterranean cruise – We applied through the Spain embassy since that was our main entry point and exit), I knew that this is really it! I was bound for one of my dream travels.

The first European country stop is Barcelona, Spain. That is our port of entry for the Mediterranean Cruise. We usually travel in groups, together with the people who also qualified. But it was like I was traveling on my own going to our first stop because I was separated from my original group since I had to take a later flight to still attend a wedding of my good friend. I couldn’t miss it since I was part of the entourage! Talk about a very hectic schedule. After the wedding, I quickly changed to casual clothes and headed straight to the airport to catch my flight. Thank God for the light traffic. But when I got inside the airport, there was heavy traffic of people. There was a long queue for the Emirates Airlines. So I lined up at the very end, good thing I was early. After 30 minutes of lining up, someone told me that if you already did your web/online check-in then you can go straight ahead to the counter and skip the long line. Good thing I did the web check-in and was able to save more time despite already wasting 30 minutes. Lesson learned, next time always check the queue for the regular check-in and the web check-in. Chances are the Web Check-In will be much faster.

This is not really my first long solo flight and I have spotted familiar faces from the company taking the same flight. I was seated between two big guys during our flight to Dubai (this is our stop over country/connecting flight to Barcelona). It was approximately 7 hours of plane ride, and then another 6 hours from Dubai to Barcelona. Just my luck, but the good thing was that Emirates served some good food.

The cruise line is called “Royal Carribean” and the ship we were on is one of their biggest (can accommodate up to 7,000 passengers) called the “Allure of the Seas” which had a Mediterranean itinerary. But during our cruise, we were not in maximum / full occupancy, i think we were less than four thousand on board. Our first stop was Palma De Mallorca in Spain. Second stop was in Marseilles, France. Third day we went to Florence, Italy. Fourth was also in Italy but in Rome. Last stop before we head back was my favorite in Naples, Italy. I will post separately for each day of the trip.

Let me tour you in this luxurious cruise ship.

The Allure of the Seas Cruise Ship (By Royal Caribbean)

Top Deck View:

The Middle of the Deck / Ship View:

The Floor/ Deck Guide

The Grande – where the Fine Dining Dinner is served

The food there was another story! Fine Dining eat all you can in Le Grande! I actually gained weight because you can literally try everything there! I would almost order one of everything in the menu! hahaha There is a “seating time” at Le Grande, ours was 6-8:30PM, and if we don’t want the fine dining then there are four other options for us: The Buffet area, The Salad and Sandwiches place and The Grill place and the Pizza and Cafe place near the entrance of the ship.

Some of the Fine Dining dishes that I have ordered:

 

The Comedy Live Bar

The Amber Theater (where we watched a play and a show ala “Cirque de Soleil”)

They also have an outside theater that hosts a Cirque Du Soleil inspired show called “Oceanaria” which has water stunts/tricks.  It was such an entertaining show with lots of diving and flips from high points and into the man-made pool they have built in the stage.

It’s convenient to book the shows/events that you want to attend via their home channel in the TV located in the cabin rooms. So I booked our shows there.

Some artworks that you can see on the deck hallways / staircases:

There are also lots of activities that you can do including Zipline and Flow Rider! I tried or the first time the flow rider, it was a challenge but super fun!

This was probably one of the best trips that I have experienced! The convenience of a cruise ship is that you have a “mobile hotel”. You don’t have to pack and unpack your bags and ride another transportation to go to another destination.  And they offer you a lot of activities on board the cruise ship, so there is no down time unless you choose to.  There is a strict schedule to be followed and you have to abide by the ship’s call time to get on board after you tour/go down the different ports. If you are late and get left behind then it will really cost you a lot to catch up with the ship and ride back. So better early/safe than sorry.

I will rate the Allure of the Seas / Royal Caribbean 5 stars!  Here is their website if you want to check it out: http://royalcaribbean.cruiselines.com/

Til my next adventure!

Ttyl,

Isis

Your Traveler and Financial Advisor