Helsinki, Finland

The first stop on our cruise was the port city and capital of Finland... Helsinki!  Finland officially became my 40th country!

We had a day at sea the previous day so we were very much looking forward to getting on dry land.  We took the MSC bus to the Market Square area and met up with some friendly turtles in the parking lot.  These guys are just a pretty way of saying "don't drive your car in here!"

Market Square sits right between the water and the Office of the President of the Republic of Finland.  The building's origins, however, begin in 1837 when it became the residence of the Governor-General of Finland back when it was autonomously part of the Russian Empire. Then Tsar Nicholas I decided he wanted it to be his Finnish residence.  Since Finland was essentially under his rule, he also held the title of Grand Duke of Finland and therefore, he could take the palace for himself.  But in 1917, Finland gained independence from Russia, and that was the end of that.  It's been the residence of the President since 1919.

Market Square is definitely a cool place to hang out.  You can get fresh fruits and vegetables, salmon soup, breads, souvenirs, local art, and even some reindeer burgers!

Todd and the kids checked out the fresh produce under the tents (gotta have 'em.  Too many seagulls!)

The high on this day was 62 degrees F.  And people were swimming in the pools!  The Alles pools are set at 28 degrees C (or 82 F) and are open ALL YEAR ROUND!

The Sky Wheel, only open since 2014 gives you beautiful blue views of all of Helsinki.  You can see two special cabins on the wheel.  One is the "VIP Suite" where you get a bottle of  Veuve Clicquot (and an hour on the wheel.)  The cabin also has a clear floor (nope, no thanks!)  There's also a cabin that serves as a sauna.  Yes, you heard me.  A sauna.  And that package includes time in a hot tub down on the deck, too!  

Of course, we have kids with us so we opted for the far less expensive blue cabin (ha!) on the Sky Wheel and hilariously, it made EVERY one of our pictures blue!  Didn't they think that through?  The views are very pretty though - especially of the Helsinki Cathedral.

Hello Alles pools, docks, and Market Square, all decked out in blue.

So the funniest thing happened... Grant noticed on more than one occasion that there was a hair tie on the ground. It was the weirdest thing. He just kept finding them!  We found this one after we exited the Sky Wheel!

The Uspenski Cathedral is one of two prominent churches in the Helsinki skyline.  Finished in 1868, it's the largest Orthodox church in western Europe.  Superlative, check!  Or... maybe.  This is their claim, although I'm not sure what their definition of western Europe is, because Greece is technically in western Europe (at least according to the United Nations) and and there is an Orthodox church in Athens that is larger.  Alexander II was the Grand Duchy of Finland during it's construction, as he did lots of good things for Finland, such as expanding their autonomy.

Inside of the Uspenski Cathedral, there are many relics - some of which have been stolen in recent years.  Among them, a painting of St. Nicholas (you know, the guy we saw in Bari, Italy), who coincidentally is the patron saint of repentant thieves.  It has not been recovered.

I'll say one thing about the Orthodox church in general... it's certainly the most colorful!  I never tire of them!

Soon it was time for lunch.  The kids wanted pizza.  We did not.  But we did want to sample the local beer.  So we did just that!

The kids tore up the pizza at Pizzeria Via Tribunali while we waited patiently.  

We absolutely had to go and see the Helsinki Cathedral as it's probably the most famous landmark in the entire city, but it's not featured on the manhole covers of Helsinki!  I like them anyway.

Here's the fam, in Senate Square in front of both the Helsinki Cathedral and the statue of Tsar Alexander II, or as the Finn's know him, "The Good Tsar."  

The Helsinki Cathedral was originally named St. Nicholas Church from it's construction completion in 1852 for the Grand Duke of Finland at the time, Tsar Nicholas I (Alexander II's father), and it remained so right up to when Finland gained independence in 1917.

The inside of the cathedral is somewhat underwhelming.  It's a Lutheran church, so it's understated interior can't really compete with those of the Orthodox faith.  But that's just what you're going to get with Lutheran churches as they do not believe in being flashy.

The organ is pretty impressive, though!  And someone was actually playing it when we were in there!

It always makes me laugh when pews are really high.  Grant barely could see over this one.  But don't worry, that statue of Martin Luther on the left could see the altar!

We went back out into Senate Square and there were about a billion tour buses out there.

Grant is a fan of funny hats, so he bought this silly Viking hat.  Isn't he the cutest?

Back in Market Square, Grant wanted some strawberries.  So Daddy did a little shopping.

My little Viking was forced to share them, but he ate almost the entire basket!  Meanwhile, Daddy and I had to eat more authentic Finnish foods.  Todd had a crepe of sorts, while I opted for the reindeer burger!  Yum!  (Also, it was on my scratch off food map!)

After a food break, we had to catch the ferry out to the Suomenlinna Fortress.

Baileys on a boat, headed to a fortress.

Goodbye Helsinki!  We'll be back in a bit!

There are lots of very old rocky bedrock islands between the city and the fortress.

The seagulls wanted to follow us out to Suomenlinna.

Reminder that I'm on a boat.

When we got to the island, naturally someone had to go to the bathroom.  While I waited, I noticed these cool little lock boxes where you can charge your cell phone!  Europe really thinks of everything.

We didn't have a ton of time to explore the island, but once you go through the tunnel that's under the brewery and the restaurant, you are greeted by the Russian trading block.  As the sign says, "The ornamented wooden houses along the road used to belong to Russian garrison traders.  These supplied goods for military and civilian needs, also acting as pharmacists, butchers, innkeepers, bakers and building contractors for the whole garrison area."  The first of these types of buildings/homes were built in the late 1700s and six of the original buildings are still standing. They currently serve as shops, cafes and other privately owned businesses.

The Suomenlinna church was built as a Russian Orthodox church in 1854, as a church for the garrison.  It was eventually converted to a Lutheran church.  A lighthouse still functions in the steeple.  Interestingly, this lighthouse gives four little flashes - in Morse code, that means "H" which stands for Helsinki.

This series of two connected islands is pretty vast and would definitely take an entire day to see most of it.  It's a World Heritage Site and construction was started in 1748 - back when Finland was still a part of Sweden.  They built it, ironically, to protect "Sweden" from the Russians.  Of course, in 1809, Finland because a part of Russia.  The name Suomenlinna means, "the Castle of Finland."  One cool fact - about 800 people live here year round!

Also on the island is the submarine Vesikko. We didn't go in (because it was for an extra fee and we knew we didn't have a ton of time left) but it is an old World War II submarine that used to house about 20 members of the military as they made their rounds in the nearby waters.  However, after World War II, in 1947, Finland was forbidden to have submarines anymore (what?) so this is where this one now resides.  Above the water!

Barnacle geese are a staple on Suomenlinna.  Here we found a little family of them!

It really is a beautiful island. I would have loved more time to explore.

Time to head back across the bridge toward the church and the boat.

All aboard with Daddy!

Eeeek, it's my dream to live in a tiny house on an island like this!  Preferably somewhere warmer, but still.  The name of this island is Katajanokanluoto (nope, no idea how to pronounce that) and this was originally the harbor pilot's guardhouse. It was built in 1876 (originally) but this building is from the early 2000s.  There's no running water and no electricity here.  It was most recently owned by a fishing magnet who bought it for 1.4 million but OH there was some drama.  Apparently in 2002, he set the place on fire and was totally busted for it and convicted in 2007.

As you pull back into the city, you get some nice views from the water of the Uspenski Cathedral and the Sky Wheel. 

I feel like I didn't have enough time to explore Helsinki, so it would definitely be worth coming back for a visit.  But ONLY in the summer! 

Until next time, Helsinki!

MSC Meraviglia - Baltic Cruise

As you already know... we ventured off on our second cruise ever, also with MSC!  How did they compare?  I have to admit... they were quite different.

We got to the port in Copenhagen, via cab, a little before our boarding time, but it wasn't a problem.  The boarding process in Copenhagen was MUCH faster than it was in Venice last summer, so that was a plus!  That was mostly due to our boarding on the second stop of the trip, rather than the first.  Germans love to cruise, and the first stop was technically Kiel where all of the Germans boarded.  We boarded and disembarked in Copenhagen, so it was significantly faster.

Last year we were in a huge line to drop off bags.  This year, we walked right up and put them on the conveyor belt!

Then we went through security, went to the bathroom and grabbed ourselves some refreshing lemon or orange water.  Natalie actually got a pineapple juice.

I think we waited about 5 minutes for them to call our boarding number.

When our boarding number was called, we got in line, maybe waited 2 minutes, showed them our boarding passes and passports and bam!  We were done.  But not before getting a cute family pic in front of a picture of our ship!

I'm so sad this picture came out blurry, because it was so cute!  The kids boarded the ship first, and as I took their picture, one of the workers jumped in with them!  It was so funny!

Once you board the boat, you all get your picture taken (it's so that when they scan your cruise card, they know that it's really you!) and when we got to our room, they had our pictures on the television!  (Who is this "Anita" person!?!)

Our home for the next 7 days.  No free window upgrade like we got last year!  No worries.  We don't spend much time in there anyway!

Hey you guys, let's take a picture in the elevator mirror!

Grant just wanted to go as quickly as possible to the buffet to see if they had his favorite pizza from last year.  Good news.  They did.

We continued to check out the awesome amenities on board the Meraviglia.  Natalie was impressed that our boat featured the Atmosphere Pool which is the "longest pool at sea!"  (Superlative, check!)  It doesn't really seem that much bigger than the one on the Poesia, but I'll take it!

Let's talk drink package real quick, because you KNOW this was a thing for us last year.  Well this year, MSC changed up their drink package BIG TIME. For the same price as last year's package, they no longer included Jameson.  They only included Jack Daniels. NO WAY.  If it was Jim Beam, maybe.  But not Jack.  So for 10 Euro more per day/per person, we just went ahead and upgraded to the package that included ANY drink up to 10 Euro.  This included Maker's Mark!  So in this sense, although I had to pay a little more, I was MUCH happier with this cruise.  The kids got virgin fruity drinks that they enjoyed throughout the cruise.

Happy parents.

Next, we went into the Bamboo pool area which became my favorite part of the ship. It was a VERY warm pool (and hot tubs) with a bar and a retractable roof!  Before we even left, we had a really big cargo ship pass by our boat.  Maersk is a Danish company and if you live anywhere near a port city, you've likely seen their container ships.

Back on the deck, you can see the Oresund Bridge through all of the windmills.

Next stop was the Kids Club, where Natalie found some Lego friends!

Next to the Kids Club was a FULL size basketball/soccer/volleyball court.  I never saw adults on it, but it was almost always packed with kids.

This boat was so big, we had to take a picture of what things were on what floor so we could know where we were going!

We spent some of the afternoon at the warm, indoor Bamboo pool.  Grant gives this one finger in his ear!

After we did a little swimming but before dinner, we had to go through the mandatory safety briefing.  This was completely different from last year as we did not have any actual life vests like we did on the Poesia.  Our meeting place was the Cirque du Soleil performance room in the back of the ship.

Now we needed to explore some more of the ship!  One of the coolest parts of the Meraviglia is the Promenade.  It's got a Swarovski crystal studded staircase, and the largest LED dome at sea.  Plus, lots of shopping and food along the way.

The Promenade on the Meraviglia is super pretty!

I think I took pictures of the Swarovski studded staircase EVERY time I went by it.  It was just so sparkly!  And you know how I like sparkly things!

Close up of the Swarovski crystal staircase.

I thought it was funny that Natalie took a bunch of selfies in the full length mirror in the room with my good camera!

And this?  This is the longest LED dome at sea!  (Superlative, check!)  It changed throughout the day - it was currently set to the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Along the Promenade, they had an amazing chocolate shop (one that Grant couldn't purchase from because everything had a peanut warning.)  But these amazing things are actually all made of chocolate!

Natalie freaked out when she saw a chocolate Groot (her favorite Marvel character!)

Our next stop as we explored the ship was the Virtual Games Arcade.

The kids played a few rounds of MotoGP... and they both were much better at this than me!

Last stop before we depart... the bar! Time for fruit smoothies!  (Eeek, look at that dimple!)

Finally, it was departure time!  Farvel, Copenhagen!

This looks super weird of me, and I'm slightly concerned Todd did a panorama with the way this photo looks all askew.  Or I'm just snarling at something, which is possible. Leave it to Mommy to ruin a cute photo! Goodbye, Copenhagen!

When one ship leaves, they all leave.

Ugh.  Not my least favorite artist (I actually like his stained glass work), but definitely the most out of place piece of art of all time.  At least Natalie knew the artist of this ceiling.  (One of so many benefits of living in Europe!)  This evening's ceiling was Marc Chagall's Paris Opera ceiling.

EEEEK!  Our next stop is my 40th country!  Finland!

We like hanging out at the back of the boat.

One of the coolest things about the MSC Meraviglia is the fact that they have a Polar Aquapark with water slides that go out over the edge of the boat!

They also have this cool Himalayan Bridge ropes course.  We never did get to this, unfortunately!

Interestingly, when you leave Copenhagen on the MSC Meraviglia, you have to travel north, and then circle around Zealand island of Denmark.  Natalie told me it's because the Meraviglia doesn't fit underneath the Oresund Bridge.  The height of the Oresund Bridge is at 187 feet at the peak.  The Meraviglia is 213 feet high!  But look what we got to see!  Kronborg!  This 16th century castle was the model for Elsinore in Shakespeare's Hamlet!  The reason Shakespeare named it Elsinore because it's located in Helsingør.  Elsinore is the way the Brits say that city name.  They've been performing Hamlet at this castle since the early 1800s.

My cuties looking out at Kronborg - the reason they can see it here is because the sound is only 2.5 miles wide between Sweden and Denmark.

"We want to try out these great comfy seats!"  Don't get too comfy, we've got more exploring to do!

This was by far my biggest disappointment about this entire cruise.  Last year, on the Poesia, they played ALL of the men's World Cup games at the pool.  This year is the women's World Cup, and they didn't play a single game on the big screen at the pool.  It was so very disappointing.  I don't understand how playing a still shot of a palm tree on a beach (which we aren't even close to being in that kind of climate) is somehow a bigger draw (??? the pool is empty) than airing women's World Cup soccer.  I mean, I know that it's windy and cold at times here.  But provide some chairs and blankets and let's watch some women's World Cup!  (Spoiler alert:  The US women's national team won!)

The largest pool at sea was really pretty, especially when it was empty!

One of our favorite things to do on a cruise ship is to put the kids to bed and then go out on a date night.  You know we don't get many of those for lack of babysitters in Germany, so this is always a fun time.  We went to the casino with our 10 Euro each to play the slots!

We also got to enjoy our first of many beautiful sunsets.

But wait, one more of that sunset.

Honestly, I must have 30 pictures of this staircase!  I was mesmerized!

We went to the bar over by the sparkly staircase and met a nice couple from South Africa.  This was their first time in this part of the world and they were traveling with their two kids, who were (like our kids) sleeping back in their room.  Thankfully, I don't do shots of tequila.  This night ended infinitely better for me than it did for them.

I'm pretty sure I surprised him with this one when our friendly bartender put a smiley face (not shown because it's on the backside) on my stirrer.  LOOK AT MY STIRRER!  Also, I can't stop laughing at this picture!

On the way back to the room after an eventful evening, Todd took this picture of the names of all of the floors on the ship and titled it, "Bucket List."  I've been to five of these!  Also - we found it very funny that there is no floor 17 on Italian cruise ships.  For them 17 is the unlucky number, like our number 13!  (Although I love the number 13...)

Our first full day of the cruise was a day at sea, and we started off by hitting up the Polar AquaPark and doing the slides.

I don't have any pictures of us actually doing this because... water parks... but Grant and I went on two out of three of the slides.  Todd and Natalie went on all three!  Grant doesn't like water slides with bowls after a bad experience at Therme Erding in Munich.  So we skipped that one.  The slide that went off the edge of the boat wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  You can't really see out of it to know that you are off the edge of the ship.  Admittedly, it was cold and windy (as you would expect on the Baltic Sea) so we didn't stay for long.

After we got cleaned up from our Polar AquaPark adventures, we went over to the British pub for some trivia.

It's a little known secret that Todd and I are *pretty good* at trivia.  Add to it a couple of mini-me's and we have a darn good crew, ready to take on any trivia team on the Meraviglia!

We met a SUPER nice family from Ireland who sat next to us for this game.  In fact, they sat near us for the final game too, AND they were on the same TJ Travel tour that we took in St. Petersburg!  We loved them!  They were also super cool in that they gave us credit for #2 because Natalie properly identified them on the microphone when the host asked us!  (It was my fault for writing them down wrong when everyone was shouting them at me!)  Also, let's please take the time to point out that I spelled the capital of Canada wrong!  (Face palm!)  Additionally, the question and answer to number one was, "What country has the longest railway system in the world?"  It turns out it was the USA! (Me to the host: "But nobody uses it!")

How we won the first round of ship trivia, part 1.  Question number four was "how many countries border Spain?"  We wrote - 4, but 5 if you count Melilla in Morocco.  They tried to tell us that the answer was THREE (France, Portugal and Andorra), but we certainly knew better as they left out Gibraltar and Morocco.  You couldn't have your cell phones available during trivia (obviously) so we googled it after the game and we were RIGHT!  Of course we were.  We didn't get credit initially, but we saw the host a few days later and she said they looked it up and we were RIGHT, so they gave us credit!

And THIS is how we literally won trivia.  The bonus question for 20 points was "who is the captain of the ship" - and because we had seen this on one of the screens, we knew the answer!

After we crushed trivia and beat everyone on the boat in the first round (round two was coming up on the last day at sea), Natalie and I took these handsome guys out to dinner at the Panorama restaurant.

We all look a little demonic here in this elevator mirror selfie we took on our way to dinner.

We never had a bad meal at the Panorama restaurant!

Twelve going on 25.  I mean, seriously??

After dinner, we hit up one of the shows on the boat called "Way." It showcased a bunch of music from around the world (including songs from Dirty Dancing, which my mom would have loved!)  Look! He did the lift!

The MSC Meraviglia showcases TWO different Cirque du Soleil shows that should not be missed.  However, do yourself a favor if you're ever on a cruise ship and go watch the other shows performed by the staff.  They're always awesome!

Just some can-can style dancing here.  I'm like... Grant, close your eyes!

When we initially got on the boat, they took a few pictures of us (as they did last year.)  This year, we came back to our room on this particular night to find a bunch of pictures of us sitting on our bed!  They said, "If you don't want them, please return them to your room steward" but our room steward was mysteriously always missing.  Finally we just left them on his cart beside someone else's room... but not before snapping a few cell phone pics of them!

Here was another one that was cute of us!  (But no, I'm not paying a million dollars for these!)

Once again, it was time for date night and we went up to our favorite bar for some cocktails.  Todd said he took this picture because he thought I looked really pretty and I think he is crazy.  Who is that old lady!?!  Plus, he needs to warn me when he's taking pictures of me.

Weirdly, this one, taken moments later, is MUCH better of me.

Something much lovelier than a middle aged woman is the sunset over the Baltic.

I can't remember ever doing this in the past.  Todd and I got the munchies (and if I told you this was late at night you would never believe me, but the sun never sets up here.)  So we went to the buffet and I ate like, 3 pieces of pizza and 2 desserts.  All of this AFTER dinner.  I feel so proud of myself!  Here is my hubby eating black pizza.  I still am not really sure what it's made of....

Our first port was Helsinki, so we spent the entire day in the city.  But not before Todd snapped a picture of his delightful breakfast!

Coming back from our day out in Helsinki, we walked right by where they were gassing us up!

As we left Helsinki, we tailed (and then passed) a friendly little assistant boat.  Kayyyy byyyyeeee!

The event of the evening was DEFINITELY Cirque du Soleil!  We were so excited!

They told us not to take pictures during the show, so this was only one of two that I took of the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Todd is all like... I didn't hear them say that we can't take pictures! I only heard that we can't use flash!  Check her out... totally hanging there by her neck!

What in tarnation? (As my grandpa used to say!)  People are running along the wall and this girl is in some position that should be totally against the laws of physics and gravity!

All of the sudden, this fella appeared next to Todd.  There was quite the presence of the cast in the crowd this evening!

After we got back from an incredible day in St. Petersburg - it was a long day and we were happy to see our beds ready for us! Unfortunately, our room steward didn't set up all of our animals on the bed like the guy did last year. Kind of disappointing. 

But first, we had to eat dinner.  Natalie wanted sushi.  BAD.  And there's only one parent in this family who completely digs sushi.  So he took her on a little daddy-daughter date to the sushi bar on the ship.  Grant likes sushi, but not enough to have a whole meal of it.

Instead, he and I went to the buffet for his favorite pizza and then of course... got some ice cream!  All while saying goodbye to my new favorite European city... St. Petersburg, Russia!

The next day was a day full of fun in Tallinn, Estonia.  (See future blog post about this great city!)  After we got back, we had a nice dinner at the Panorama restaurant!

And after that nice dinner, we enjoyed a great show called Paz - a very Latino-centric dance show.

These folks work HARD.  I was so impressed by their stamina!  It's like a 45 minute CrossFit workout.  But it's one of those burpee and running WODs.  All endurance.

This particular night had some fairly rough seas.  It was a beautiful sunset, but the waves were really rolling.  You could hardly tell, of course, because we were on the 6th largest ship at sea.

But those waves are kind of crazy!

And that sunset is kind of crazy along with those waves.

So many cruise ships on the rough Baltic seas.

Todd snapped this last cool picture after the sun set.  Look!  There's a ship in the distance right where the sun is setting!

After the pretty sunset, we went down to the casino for another 10 Euro night at the slots.  Todd was playing one (of I don't know HOW MANY) of the poker games.  There was definitely more than one.  He wasn't doing too bad on it, but then suddenly, this woman appeared.  And she stood behind him, totally lurking.  And then tapping incessantly on his chair.  Finally he looks at me like... I'm NOT moving!  This whole moment was so spectacular. Especially when she left.

I wish I could say that this was his poker winnings, but I have to claim these as my own. Who's the big winner here?  I'm the big winner here. (Come on.  Say it just like Vince Vaughn!)

After our brief stint at the casino (and I do mean brief) - we went back to our favorite bar for the post sunset sun-set.  Here Todd ponders why he didn't tell that lady to back off!  Tap... tap... tap...

Meanwhile, I'm all relaxing in my heels.

We had one more full day at sea before we got back to Germany.  We took advantage of the indoor bowling alley for a 30 minute game.



We had some technical difficulties to start, so we didn't get a full game in, unfortunately.  Totally not our fault, but we crushed it once we started going! And slightly annoying that they didn't reimburse us or allow us to play another game at another point.  Because we literally missed like, 5-7 minutes of a 30 minute game.

This is the last known sighting of Grant's hat that he bought in Russia.  Some kid stole it in the arcade a few minutes after we finished this game.  Can you believe people steal stuff like that?  And we brought it to the ships attention and asked if we could see the surveillance video they were allegedly taping in the room that it was stolen in, and they said, "Oh we don't have that."  Let's make this the final reason why this MSC cruise will probably be my last MSC cruise.  I know it was a 10 Euro hat.  It wasn't that important.  But the fact that some idiot kid stole his hat and got away with it is exactly the reason you need to use that video to bust people who do illegal stuff.

Yeah, yeah... I know that I stink at bowling and I'm unabashedly unashamed of this.  I never LET my kids win.  They're actually just better than me.

Both kids really wanted to do the F1 racing simulator.  But Grant wasn't tall enough, so Natalie did it alone.  She said her forearms hurt for days!  It was really quite physical. New respect for race car drivers.

So Grant and I went to the arcade and played the motorcycle games, which is when his hat got stolen.  Punk kid, I hope you know what you've done.  I also know that Grant is MUCH better than me at motorcycle games.

After we tried super hard to get the police to care that there was a terrible thief on our boat (but they didn't care), we got ourselves all pretty looking and then went to claim our trivia title.  It was time for round two of Meraviglia trivia, which we... naturally... CRUSHED!   We won the WHOLE THING.  It was a two game series where we came in first place because of the cumulative points from both games and won all kinds of swag! (This is why paying attention counts, people:  It was knowing who the captain of the ship was and for showing visual evidence that Spain is, in fact surrounded by five countries.)  It was a delightful redemption from our first night of trivia where the hostess said, "They're pretty smart... for Americans!"  

At dinner after trivia, we were still feeling pretty smart for Americans.

But oh no... our amazing day didn't stop there.  Next up was Cirque du Soleil - Viaggio, the second show!  Yeah.  This kind of happened before the show.  Not feeling super smart at this point, but certainly having a good time!

And Cirque du Soleil did NOT disappoint!  But does it ever!?  There are people running on the wall and fairies floating above the audience!

If you've never experienced Cirque du Soleil, it's hard to explain how incredibly awesome it is. The acrobatics are better than anything you've ever seen.

There's lots of color, there's a great story and you leave the show thinking, "What the heck just happened??"

Grant's favorite part of the show was the guy who ran up and down a free standing ladder.  Just go ahead and think about that.  A free standing ladder.

It's a most delightfully colorful show that's worth every penny.  I wasn't that impressed with the Meraviglia... but the Cirque du Soleil was really one of the very best parts.

And do you know what?  This guy was super awesome too!  We saw him at the end of our LAST day on the boat... the day we were in Kiel, Germany.  His name is Antonio Versini and this show was probably the kids favorite.  Totally Italian of course, complete with smoking on stage!  I think we liked this show because it was very simple.  It began with a little bit of magic and ended with some shadow puppets.  We also like to do hand shadow animals at home, so we thought what he did was cool!

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos.  It was dark in there and we only had our iPhones.  President Trump, is that you lurking in the shadows????

A woman's profile, with his hands!  He really got me when he played What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.  I danced with my Dad at my (first) wedding to that song.  Don't miss the husband, but certainly do miss my Dad.

After the show, we went back by the pool to get to the buffet.  It was empty.

Grant is such a messy clown.  He came back with two chocolate ice cream cones and claimed, "They just gave me two!"  Uh huh. Sure, buddy!

When we awoke the next day, it was time to disembark the Meraviglia back in Copenhagen.  They told us to wait in the casino (all of the games were disabled, don't worry) until our group was called, but the kids thought it would be more fun to wait in the Cirque du Soleil room.  Natalie was born to be on stage!

Grant preferred to look out the back of the ship as they tied the boat up.  Look at those little chicken arms!  And I know what you're thinking... that's his hat!  Did you ever find it?  The answer is NO.  To find out how he's wearing this, you'll need to read my future post about Kiel, Germany!

 I'd like to say, until next time MSC, but we probably don't have another summer here.  Plus, I just was far less pleased with this ship compared to last year.  Just a bunch of things left a sour taste in my mouth.  Maybe it's just the difference between going out of Italy (on an Italian cruise line) and going out of Denmark.  Honestly, it was really just the little things that made the difference, not to mention someone stealing Grant's hat.  Although our room steward was friendly, he wasn't very good.  One night he forgot to do turn down service.  He almost never took the empty glasses out of the room.  One day, he forgot to give us bus tickets for the following day (it wound up not being a problem, but still...)  One evening, I saw two bus tickets nearby on someone else's door!  For that day!  As if he totally forgot and just put them there as an afterthought.  Normally they leave them on your bed with the next day's schedule. He didn't arrange our stuffed animals the way the steward did last year.   It was just kind of sloppy.

Anyway, don't get me wrong -- we did have a good time!  We spent time as a family almost entirely off of electronic devices, the food was good, I was happy to have Makers Mark, and the destinations were excellent!  In the end, those things are what counts.

Until next time, northern Europe!