Naples, Pompeii and Capri

Our arrival in to the port of Naples was a little different than the others because all excursions had to exit the ship on Deck 5 instead of Deck 2, but we figured it out pretty quickly. We also received a notice on our cabin door that due to a strike at Pompeii, the shore excursion would be delayed by 1 hour. So, we had breakfast and got ready for a hot day on shore. Everything with the tour seemed to be going according to plan early on. The tour guide was an older gentleman who was excited to tell us about Naples and Pompeii and gave us interesting details on the countryside as we headed toward Pompeii. We arrived in Pompeii a short while later and went through the gates toward the ruins. Michele, our guide, told us just about everything he could about the remains of Pompeii while we snapped photos of the ruins and the views of Mount Vesuvius in the background. But, the weather was hot and after the strike, many many people entered the grounds at the same time, so it was extremely crowded and difficult for the 42 people in our tour group to stick together. Finally, after Michele took one corner too fast and we almost lost a few people including my Dad, Michele became upset with us for not taking the responsibility of following him as good little tourists should. The guy lost his cool big time and started yelling at my Dad and accusing us of being self-centered Americans only interested in ourselves and in taking pictures instead of listening to him talk. Well, he was wrong on several points. We did listen with interest to his discussion of the ruins, the frescoes, who lived in which houses and the deities of the temple remains. Second, there were more than just Americans on the tour. And lastly, we're tourists! Of course we are going to take pictures. Anyway, the bus ride back to the ship was pretty quiet and several people filled out complaint forms with Royal Caribbean after getting back on board the ship. I don't think Royal Caribbean is going to do anything though, because the shore excursions are all pre-paid anyway. It was still an interesting tour of Pompeii even though we experienced a classic tour guide melt-down.

When we got back to the ship, Samantha and I along with my Dad decided to take the hydrofoil ship to the Isle of Capri. We were uncertain what time we should head back because the trip took 40 minutes and we had to be back on the Brilliance by 6:30pm. Fortunately, there was a hydrofoil leaving at 2:40pm and a return at 4:30pm. We could have taken the return at 5:05pm, but we decided that was pushing it a little. Good thing we took the earlier return, because the hydrofoil trip actually took about 50 minutes. That meant we only had about 45 minutes on Capri, but it was definitely worth it. We stopped for some photos, and at a little pizzeria for some Margherita pizza which was absolutely delicious! We shopped for a little bit and then headed toward Bay 3 for our return hydrofoil back to Napoli. We got back to the Brilliance at about 5:30pm which was just enough time to relax before dinner. It turned out to be another great day in the Mediterranean! Unfortunately, we have to pack up our luggage today and place it outside our cabin door tonight because tomorrow morning we port in Barcelona and then head home on Sunday. So the goal today is to enjoy our last day on the ship and get ready for going back to work in a few days...yikes! See y'all back in the States, I'm going to get a Pina Colada!