SPAIN (part 2) -- Cruise Begins! Palma de Mallorca, Spain and Marseille, France

SUNDAY was the day we got on the ship. But first--we went to church. Steven had found a ward we could attend that morning. 

I must confess I was not thrilled with the prospect of getting all sweaty going to and from church, sitting in an un-air-conditioned sacrament meeting and then getting on the cruise ship drenched in sweat.

But, I went along with the group and we experienced a Sabbath Day miracle!! 

When we stepped out of the hotel to hail a cab, we were not overcome with heat and humidity, and because of that, we did not sweat.

The cabs we took to and from the church were air conditioned. 

The chapel was air conditioned. It had actually been a pleasant experience--more so for Steven and Glen who always love going to a Spanish-speaking meeting.

Once back at the hotel, we changed our clothes, finished our packing and saw Patricia and Steven waiting for us in the lobby. We were off to hail a cab to take us to the cruise terminal.

We knew we had truly experienced a morning miracle, because the second we stepped out of the hotel, it was once again hot and humid and we were definitely sweaty as we went through all the paperwork in the cruise terminal and made the long walk to get on the cruise ship.

We were sailing on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas. We love the big ships!! Notice those purple slides at the back of the ship. More about that a little later.

FUNNY STORY!!

Before getting on the ship, we had to fill out a health questionnaire electronically. Glen made a mistake on his form and answered in the affirmative to the question of whether he is more than 23 weeks pregnant. 

He tried to correct the mistake, but he got kicked out and was told he was unable to go on the cruise because of his pregnancy. HAHAHA!! 

We breezed through the Covid test and now this fake pregnancy is going to prevent one of us from going on the cruise??!!???

Fortunately, the man checking us in could tell that Glen, a man, was definitely not pregnant. He let us get on the ship, but told Glen he had to go to Guest Services to get that information corrected on his information. 

Once Glen's status was changed to unpregnant, we proceeded to our room on the 12th floor. This is the view of the harbor from our balcony.

It felt like our room was a little bigger than on other cruises. There was a lot of storage space to put our clothes.

The bathroom was small as usual, although the shower felt a tiny bit larger to me than others we have been in.

Since we hadn't eaten breakfast, we were hungry for lunch and went looking for the Central Park Cafe.

This is the view looking down on Central Park.

This is the view from Central Park looking up at the winding wet water slides towards the front of the ship.

The upper deck was where all the water activities were.

Remember the purple slides? They are dry slides. A rider gets a carpet before entering the monster's mouth and then slides 7 decks down the dark tube before coming out at the bottom. 

Steven and Glen tried it out and then talked us girls into going down. Glen was poised at the bottom to capture my gleeful expression as I shot out of the tube.

Finding the ice cream station was tops on the list of important things on the ship for Patricia and Glen. 

Patricia was disappointed in how little ice cream they gave her and gave hers to Glen. His perfect ice cream cone has only enough ice cream in it to barely fill the cone.

I loved looking at this cute, colorful candy shop whenever we were on the Boardwalk. 

Having dinner in the formal dining room is one of my most favorite things to do on a cruise. We were shocked at how few people ate dinner in the dining room. On past cruises, the dining room has been quite full. 

Perhaps it was because we were in a different port every day except the last day, and the all aboard time was 7:30 p.m. most days. 

Glen and Patricia kept in the tradition of ordering the same thing most nights. Steven and I were not as in sync with our meals as we have been in the past.

The evening entertainment we saw was at the aqua theater. The floor in the water would raise and lower allowing the performers to walk on the water when it was raised and dive from the high platform when it was lowered.

We went to a late show in the Royal Theater where we met our cruise director and watched a dance production called Tap Factory.

We walked a little less than our previous days, but look at the number of flights climbed. Stairs are definitely a big part of cruising.

MONDAY we ate breakfast and got ready to leave the ship.

That day we spent in Palma De Mallorca, Spain. 

We tried to go inside the Catedral-Basilica de Santa Maria de Mallorca, but were told only those who were there to worship were allowed to go inside.

We just randomly happened to see a couple, Jerry and Janis, from our stake who was there on another cruise. 

He was so proud of himself as he had figured out how to beat the heat by rigging up a little cooler. He showed us inside his bag that was filled with ice and two cans of soda. Great idea!!

We walked around Mallorca for a while and could see our cruise ship off in the distance.

This is an interesting apartment building. It looks a little Gaudi-inspired in its architecture.

I really enjoyed the wide tree-lined sidewalks whenever we saw them.

More walking, more sun, more sweating.

Once back on the ship, Patricia and Glen practically RAN to get ice cream to cool off.

It was formal night on the ship. Patricia was determined to get our photos taken before we went in to dinner, but it was taking the photographers a while to get set up. 

She always wants to get a photo taken of the four of us so she can display it on her picture wall. Now she insists we stand in the same order as all the other photos she has. I told her I don't devote that much wall space to cruise photos. I display the current cruise photo only on our wall.

It wouldn't be a cruise without a towel animal appearing on the bed.

That evening we watched vocal performers. I especially enjoyed it when singers appeared on the screen to sing with the people on stage. 

That night my "vacation rash," as Glen and I call it, had appeared on my legs. Glen's leg rash had already been going strong. We both had prescription creams that we started rubbing on our red, itchy legs in hopes it wouldn't turn into a raging rash.

Bedtime was a nice way to relax our legs.

TUESDAY we spent in Marseille, France. Upon our walk into the city, we saw the impressive Cathedrale de la Major. 

The architecture of this building, which is rounded at the end, was interesting. 

Apparently, it is a busy intersection near that building because we just laughed at the traffic jam where people were driving every which way, leaving the poor bicyclers to fend for themselves.

We walked around Old Town Marseille where we saw a smaller cathedral, horse-drawn carriages, a merry-go-round, beautiful architecture, and the typical narrow roads with buildings looming on either side.

We took a ferry ride from Marseille to the Chateau d'If, which was a fortress built in the 16th century. The fortress was converted into a prison which is depicted in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

After the tour, we walked back down to the water to catch our ferry back to Marseille.

It had been another hot and humid day on land. It was wonderful to get back on the air-conditioned ship. 

We knew we were on the 12th floor, where our cabin was located, when we would see this whimsical Wonderland restaurant.

Good night. Sleep tight.