Fitzmaurice Family Cruises

Cruise summer 2011

2011-08-01T20:11:00.001-04:00

Cruise summer 2011, a set on Flickr.

Pictures from our Summer Cruise 2011

Another happy SJS travel customer

2011-03-27T14:20:00.001-04:00

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The beach

2011-03-27T13:49:00.001-04:00

The woods may be lovely dark and deep but it's much nicer here on the beach.

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Segway tour of old San Juan

2010-07-28T12:54:00.001-04:00

Ok so it is a Segway tour. Not segue. Lots of fun and easy to ride. The fort was impressive

See and download the full gallery on posterous

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Puerto Rico Today

2010-07-28T09:14:00.001-04:00

We arrived in Puerto Rico this morning. This is the last port before we head back to New Jersey. It is bright and sunny Here today, very warm and humid. We are doing a segue tour of old San Juan this morning.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Fear in a St Thomas cab

2010-07-27T16:07:00.001-04:00

Here are Dianne and Rachel riding back to town in a cab

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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St Thomas

2010-07-27T16:05:00.001-04:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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A friend at secret harbor St Thomas

2010-07-27T11:48:00.001-04:00

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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St Thomas

2010-07-27T10:06:00.001-04:00

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Arrived in St Thomas

2010-07-27T09:31:00.001-04:00

We just arrived in St Thomas. Now need the kids up to head out. All were up late for the midnight Buffett last night. Important safety tip: avoid the Tacos at midnight.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Explorer of the seas

2010-07-27T09:16:00.001-04:00

The ship as seen from Bermuda. Sorry for the delay in posting updates. Just got to st Thomas where we have service and can make updates. Cruise is going great. Yesterday we were at Orient Beach which is my favorite beach. Today going to mehgans bay

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Another clean plate

2010-07-27T09:14:00.001-04:00

George Fitzmaurice
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Rachel studies the compass before heading out

2010-07-27T09:13:00.001-04:00

George Fitzmaurice
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Rachel finished her dinner!

2010-07-27T09:12:00.001-04:00

Rachel is enjoying the trip.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Lily meets a martian

2010-07-21T20:13:00.001-04:00

Lily meets a martian
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Lily on Mars. NYC

2010-07-21T20:10:00.001-04:00

Lily on Mars. NYC
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Cruise

2010-07-21T18:24:00.001-04:00

We are on the way. Stopped in NYC to visit with sjstravel.com before heading to the ship in the morning. George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

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Summer cruise 2010

2010-07-02T18:46:00.005-04:00

We are heading out on a 9 night cruise this summer. Visiting Bermuda, St Maarten, St Thomas, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. We travel on the Explorer of the Seas. Stay Tuned for updates from the high Seas

Back home

2009-07-12T18:33:00.001-04:00

Well we are back home. Long flight but uneventful. Mowed the lawn today. I have tomorrow off too and we will go see Jack at Camp. Back to work on Tuesday.

Leaving Hawaii

2009-07-11T16:31:00.001-04:00

We left the ship this am. We had a great time on the cruise. Hawaii
was wonderful. Kauai is a beatiful island perhaps our favorite. Last
night we cruised by the Napoli coast which was beautiful. We are at
the airport waiting on our flight to LA. We should be back in Boston
early Sunday.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

We are sailing by the Napali coast

2009-07-10T21:34:00.002-04:00

We are sailing by the Napali coast
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

We are going to sail by the Napali coast later today. This is a
picture of the lazy man on Kauai. We drove by this mountain yesterday
on the way to north Kauai and it's lighthouse.

I updated this post with pictures of the Napoli coast uploaded to flickr - Click here to see them.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Kauai day 2

2009-07-10T18:57:00.002-04:00

Hello all - It is 1pm in Kauai now. We just got back from a Kayak and hike trip. It was great - We saw 2 wonderful waterfalls and had a great workout to get rid of some of the buffet weight. We leave Kauai in an hour then head back to Oahu where we disembark and head back to Boston. We should be home early Sunday morning. Kauai is a beautiful island - Lots of activities from kayak to beach to hiking etc etc. So we have one more night on the ship. Dinner tonight is at the Japanese restaurant. See you all soon.

Wimea canyon

2009-07-09T22:04:00.002-04:00

Wimea canyon
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Dianne look out over Wimea canyon on Kauai

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Poipo beach in Kauai

2009-07-09T19:39:00.002-04:00

Poipo beach in Kuaui
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Today and tomorrow we are on Kauai. We rented a car today and have
visited a Couple of scenic spots, pictures in our photo stream on
flickr. Just click on this picture to get to flickr. We are at Poipo
beach now. It is one of the top beaches on Kauai. It has big surf
along with surfers as well a two tidal areas for kids and family's. It
took about 25 min to get here from the airport and port area. This is
a great beach next time you are in Kauai.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Lava and Snorkeling oh my

2009-07-08T21:14:00.003-04:00

Hello all, Last night we sailed from Hilo to Kona - Both on the big island of Hawaii. At 9:45 last night (that is 3:45 AM EST) we saw the lava flow from Kilauea. I posted some pictures up on flickr but they do not do it justice. You could see glowing orange lava in several spots from the top of the mountain down into the sea. As the lava flowed into the sea there were huge plumes of steam that role from the ocean as the lava was cooled into rock. It was amazing to see exactly how the Hawaiian islands have been formed over millions of years. There are only two ways to see this lava flow - One is by Helicopter and that can be done during the day when I am told the effect is not as stunning. The second is via cruise ship!! It was simply amazing if you ever get the chance this cruise is worth it to see the lava flow.

Today we are in Kona - Home of Kona coffee. We took a wonderful half day snorkeling trip aboard the Kamanu. The boat holds 24 so you get to go out snorkeling with a very small group and that is much better then going with 100+ on some of the other boats. We started out from the harbor and saw scores of dolphins swimming and jumping about. It was really neat to see all the dolphins - Sorry no pictures as we left the cameras back in our stateroom while going on the all water event. Next we motor'd over to a cove to snorkel. The cove was very good and the staff was wonderful with folks who were first timers - I highly recommend the Kamanu folks if you are in Kona. The fish size and variety was nowhere near as wonderful as Molokini on Maui but was worth the trip while in Kona. Next the crew motor'd out to the open sea then raised sails and we sailed around for 45 min or so. The trip included lunch and drinks!! All in all a wonderful trip.

We then walked around the shops in the cove area and ate lunch at Bubba Gumps in Kona. Lunch was excellent - We both had some variation of shrimp! We then returned to the ship were I sit writing this post. Tonight we head for Kaui where we spend 2 days.

Kilauea volcano

2009-07-08T00:06:00.002-04:00

Today we visited Volcanoes National Park on The Big Island of Hawaii. Tonight we sail by the area where kilauea is spewing lava into the sea. We added in several pictures from the crater and from the town of Hilo today. You can see them here on flickr. We were at 4000 feet and it was quite a bit cooler then the area near the ship. You could see steam comming out of the ground in various places. The tour driver kept saying they are expecting another eruption in the near future. All of the trails sourrounding kilauea were closed due to toxic gases.

Dianne at the top of the kilauea volcano

2009-07-07T17:14:00.002-04:00

Dianne at the top of the Kilewea volcano
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Hilo

2009-07-07T13:28:00.002-04:00

It is 7:30am and I am sitting on the balcony writing this post as we pull into Hilo to dock. Hilo is one of two ports we visit on the big island of Hawaii. Today we go to visit Volcano national park. Tonight we will travel between Hilo and Kona and will see the lava flow. I am hoping to get some pictures of that. It is misty out now and we hope that the skys clear up for our trip later this morning.

Let's talk about the cruise so far. We are on board the "Pride of America." This is an NCL America ship. The theme of the ship is americana. The seal of the United States adourns the floor in the main lobby - They call it the capitol lobby. You have the South beach pool area and the Jefferson Bistro - To give you an idea of how americana makes it into the ship room names.

The ship is smaller then most of the RCCL ships we have traveled on yet very very nice. The staff is all american. For those of you that have cruised before you will recall that it is rare to have an american crew memeber. Since this cruise never leaves US waters (Is always in Hawaiian waters) the cruise line must abide by all us laws including labor laws (FLSA, Over time, etc. etc.). This is why the crew are all americans - You would need a labor visa or green card to work here otherwise. This is very nice as you are able to easily communicate with crew members. Since US labor laws apply you do not get to see as much of the staff (like your room stewards) as they can only work 40 hours before being paid overtime. I think this is a good thing. The conventional wisdom on board is that other cruise lines avoid Hawaii due to the restrictions. Also of note - There is no gambling in Hawaii and therefore no Bingo and no Casino on board.

The Food - So far we have eaten at 2 of the specialty reastaurants (They require a small fee to eat there - $10 to $25). The first one we ate at is a French Bistro called Jefferson's Bistro. This is a french reastaurant and the food was excellent. The service was excellent even if our waiter was a Yankees fan... The Maitre'd was a red sox fan from Rhode Island so he had us sit at the Yankee fans table since I was wearing my redsox hat and 2004 world series championship t-shirt. We have eaten at the "little Italy: restaurant twice so far - The cover charge is $10 there. The service is great - The food is good but not great. We had Veal Scalopini one night and Chiken Parmeasean the other. We have also eaten at the Aloha Cafe - the ships buffett - The food at the buffett has been very good, as good as we have had on any other ship. Yesterday in the AM we decided to eat at the main dining room for breakfast - Can you say slow motion... It took us more that 45 min to get food. We were seated immediately and it looked like man to man coverage (Crew to guest ratio in the restaurant). It took at least 20 min to get coffee and longer to get our order in We will try it again for dinner but will stick to the buffett for breakfast.

ok - Time to go we have to eat and head out to Hilo!!!

Molokini today

2009-07-06T23:44:00.002-04:00

Today we took a tour. We went snorkling at molokini. It was a great
sunny day and we saw a lot of beautiful fish. We also saw some Hawaiian
green turtles.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Lunch in Lahaina

2009-07-05T17:49:00.001-04:00

Lunch in Lahaina
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

We rented a car and drove over to the hotel we stayed in on our
honeymoon 20 years ago. Now eating lunch at The Cheeseburger in
Paradise restaurant in Lahaina. 83 degrees and sunny. Sound of the sea
crashing behind us. Beer in front of us and pretty woman playing on
the speaker.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Arriving in maui

2009-07-05T12:28:00.001-04:00

Arriving in maui
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

This morning we are arriving in Maui. We dock in about 1 hour. We are
renting a car today to drive arround the island and see some of the
areas we visited 20 years ago.
Last night we had dinner at the Jefferson Bistro - one of the
specialty restaurants on board. The food was excellent. More pics
from Maui later on. Aloha.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Pictures on board

2009-07-05T00:06:00.003-04:00

Pictures on board
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Whew... They have Corona

2009-07-04T18:42:00.001-04:00

Whew... They have Corona
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

We are on board the pride of america. All is well they have Dianne's
beer. The ship is all decorated for the 4th. Fireworks tonight.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Giants game

2009-07-03T21:51:00.000-04:00

We are sitting in section 205 waiting for the game to start. This is
the most beautiful ballpark I have seen. It is as always very chilly
here in SF

Back at the hotel

2009-07-03T18:34:00.002-04:00

We arrived back at the hotel Marriott Fisherman's Wharf - A fine hotel. We have really enjoyed the hotel staff. They have an excellent set of concierges and staff. We have been treated very well - We highly recommend the hotel. The Hotel is only a couple of blocks from the wharf.

Tonight we go the the SF Giants baseball game - Looking forward to that. I will post a few photo's from ATT field where the Giants play. The game is at 7:15 Pacific. The Giants are playing the Houston Astros.

Tommorow we head to the airport for our flight to Honalulu then on to the cruise!!

Lunch at Viansa

2009-07-03T16:28:00.002-04:00

Lunch at Viansa
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

We are at Viansa now eating lunch. Next back to San Fran for the
Giants game tonight

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Dianne at Opus One

2009-07-03T13:18:00.003-04:00

Dianne at Opus One
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Just arrived at Opus awaiting our tour

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Grillwoods in Napa

2009-07-03T11:56:00.002-04:00

Just ate breakfast at Grillwoods in the center of Napa.
Food was excellent. Be sure to get the bacon. Here is a map to Grillworks.

View Larger Map

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Wine country today

2009-07-03T11:39:00.001-04:00

We are in Napa for breakfast. Next on to Opus One. For lunch we go to
Sonoma and visit Viansa our favorite overall wirery.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Pictures from today's Tour

2009-07-02T21:54:00.003-04:00

Hi all - Here is a link to the pictures we took on today's tour. We took a 3 hour Gray Line city tour. It was very nice although most of the morning was foggy as shown... Tomorow we go to wine country and a SF Giants baseball game at night!! Click Here to see today's pictures.

Wine tasting

2009-07-02T20:13:00.001-04:00

Wine tasting
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

We are at pier 39 at a nice wine bar. It is a lovely day in San Fran.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

The Buena Vista

2009-07-02T19:03:00.001-04:00

We just had Irish coffee at the Buena Vista and it was excellent.
Highly recommended. We had one for you dad.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Dianne at the golden gate bridge

2009-07-02T15:29:00.001-04:00

Dianne at the golden gate bridge
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Here we are on the Marin side lookling back at San fran

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

St Francis of Asis mission

2009-07-02T13:48:00.003-04:00

St Francis of Asis mission
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Here we are at the first stop visiting the mission on Delores st

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Tour today

2009-07-02T11:30:00.001-04:00

Tour today
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Yesterday we walked along fishermans wharf. We saw the sea lions
pictured her although hard to see. We had our 20th anniversary dinner
on the shore at Mccormacks it was very nice. We do a city tour today.
More pictures to come. Tommorow is wine country

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Fishermans wharf

2009-07-01T17:10:00.001-04:00

Dianne and I are in San Francisco eating lunch at the wharf looking
out over the golden gate bridge. It is our 20th anniversary today.

George Fitzmaurice
fitzmaug@me.com

Cruising soon

2009-06-28T19:51:00.003-04:00

Today we brought Jack to the great Camp Frank A Day - A great place to grow. Rachel, Dianne and I head to the airport on Tuesday. Rachel is off to the Dominican Republic to learn Spanish and Dianne and I head to San Fran for a few days and then on to cruising Hawaii for our 20th anniversary. Our trips were arranged by the great folks at SJSTravel as usual. Be sure to follow our exploits right here on the blog!!

T minus 4 days to our next cruise

2009-06-26T19:46:00.002-04:00

Soon we head to San fran then to Hawaii for our cruise.

Rachel wins scholarship

2009-06-15T20:56:00.001-04:00

Rachel wins scholarship
Originally uploaded by fitzmaug

Booked Excursions today

2009-05-25T20:39:00.002-04:00

Dianne and I are getting ready to cruise July 4-11. We head out to San Fran on July 1st then on to Oahu on July 4th to get on board the Pride of America. We will be attending an SF giants game on July 3rd and visiting wine country earlier on the 3rd.

Home

2008-08-04T09:46:00.003-04:00

Hello all - We made it home last night around 11pm. The trip was great. I uploaded the rest of the pictures of Venice and Dubrovnik to our Gallery. You can see them all Here!

Be sure to check out Dianne goes on Stage!! - Dianne was selected to tell jokes in the "Starring You" competition on the next to last night of the cruise. She told her famous Bell Ringer joke. She was on the Celebrity Summit stage with the Celebrity Orchestra!!

Frankfort airport

2008-08-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

We are waiting for our flight back to Boston. Here Rachel is resting

Lunch in Venice

2008-08-02T07:59:00.000-04:00

We are at Jack's favorite pizza in Venice right next to tv Rialto
bridge.

Venzia

2008-08-02T05:58:00.001-04:00

Hi. We have arrived in Venice. We went to Dubrovnik yesterday.
Dubrovnik was very nice. We arrived in Venice about 1 hour ago and it
was cool to arrive on board the cruise ship. We leave for home late
tomorrow.

A view from the top

2008-07-30T07:30:00.004-04:00

Today we are in Athens. We visited the city and the Acropolis. What a hike. Getting to the top was a workout. Jeanne and John decided to stay toward the bottom - A good move on their part as the walk was high, long and very slippery. The Parthenon and the other structures on top of the Acropolis are amazing. Did you know that most of the damage to them was from warfare and not just time. The Greeks are restoring the temples as you can see from the pictures. It was also very very windy up top - we had to hold on to our hats. We are back on board ship now going to the pool after I upload a few photo's from today. Tomorrow is a day at sea then we go on to Dubrovnik then on to Venice so I am not sure when I will get a chance to add another detailed post. I will send a couple of pictures via the camera phone like I did this morning. See you all soon.

Athens

2008-07-30T02:10:00.000-04:00

Today we are in Athens. We are at Olympic stadium now you can see the
Acropolis in the background. Next we visit The Acropolis.

Today we are in Santorini Greece

2008-07-29T03:57:00.002-04:00

The baklava is great...

We arrived in Santorini this morning It is an amazing site to see. The town is up on top of the hill and you have 3 ways to get to town. 1 is by Donkey. 1 is by cable car or you could walk over 600 steps. Since we are not sure of the cardiac care available in Greece we choose the Donkey (Rachel and Dianne went up by Donkey) and the rest of us went up on the cable car. I closed my eyes (I am not fond of heights and neither is Rachel) and was up on top in 2 minutes. The Donkey takes about 10 minutes to get to the top and they smell awful! The town is wonderful full of shops and restaurants. We walked around and tried the Baklava which is very good in Greece - Image that!! We also tasted the local wine and Ouzo. We ordered some wine and Ouzo and had it sent home!

We had drinks and a plate of cheese at a restaurant that looked out over the bay the ship was in. The scene was wonderful. I have posted some pictures of the bike ride Dianne and the kids took in Rome as well as pictures from Santorini today.

The last two days - Rome and Amalfi Coast

2008-07-28T06:12:00.002-04:00

Saturday July 26th
Saturday was Rome day. Dianne and the kids took a four tour that included a 2 hour bike ride in Tarquinia - Dianne is still a bit sore and they had a great time viewing the countryside. Jeanne and John stayed on the ship to recover from the long walking day in Florence on Friday. Mom Fitz and I took a Rome tour to visit the Sistine Chapel. Being Saturday the traffic in Rome as very light so we made good time getting around. We visited the Vatican Museum which is a huge museum with many statues, Tapestries, Paintings, Fresco's and of course the Sistine Chapel. We took a few pictures of the Museum and no one is allowed to take photo's of the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel is wonderful. It is a huge room with very high ceilings. The fresco's by Michelangelo are amazing. If you ever have the chance to visit it is highly recommended. We then visited St Peters which is a wonderful church, very beautiful inside and out. We then had a great lunch at a local Rome Hotel and moved on to the Colosseum which we had seen last year. It is enourmous and amazing. We took a couple of pictures included the one of Mom meeting a couple of nice Italian men.

Sunday July 27th
On Sunday - Yesterday we all took the same tour of the Amafii Coast and Pompeii. The drive along the Amalfi coast was scary. The road is about 15 feet wide with cars and scooters parked along the sides of the road and large buses like ours going in both directions trying to pass each other. To top it off that 15 foot wide road is twisting and turning with constant switchbacks to climb and descend the mountain pass. The Road is about 75 miles long and took us several hours to completely navigate. We made a stop in Amalfi so we could each lunch and do some shopping. We also drove by the famous town of Positano (Picture above in this post), which is breathtaking. This is the town that Dianne's Aunt and Uncle (Rita and Bud Guzzi) paint. I have uploaded pictures of the whole Amalfi drive.

After completing the Amalfi drive we headed to Pompeii. Pompeii is an ancient city that was destroyed when the nearby Mt Vesuvius erupted burying the city. The locals discovered the ancient city and have been excavating it for years. As we walked in I was expecting a few small rooms and a short walk would be it and then we would return to the ship. Boy was I wrong. The excavation is huge and as you will see from the pictures it is impressive. There are pictures of many areas of Pompeii to the right. This is another must see for anyone that is traveling to the area of Naples. You will see a few pictures of dead bodies that were pulled from the site. They used a process that injected Plaster around the bones found in the ground in order to remove the remains intact. There is also a picture of a recovered dog.

We then returned to the ship had dinner and stayed up watching the Piano player and other shows, They were all wonderful. We slept in this morning and moved our clocks ahead as we move further west toward our next stops in Greece. Today we are at sea so we have some time to rest.

Amalfi

2008-07-27T05:39:00.000-04:00

We are in Amalfi today

When in Rome

2008-07-26T10:13:00.001-04:00

Mom met some Italians at the colleseum.

Rome

2008-07-26T01:47:00.001-04:00

Hi Mom Fitz and I are on our way to Rome this morning. We are
visiting the Vatican.

Pisa and Florence

2008-07-25T14:33:00.002-04:00

It is Thursday evening at 11pm and I am heading to bed shortly. We had a great day in Villefranche and Monte Carlo.... and as the ship left port the propellers were unscathed. Tonight Dianne, Jeanne, John, Meredith and I ate at the specialty restaurant on board called Normandie. It is named after an old ship and decorated to match the the grand dining room on that ship. We had a great meal and a wonderful time. The kids chose to eat at the buffet as a 2 hour meal was a bit much for them. We get up early at 7am (That is 1am to all you folks in EST, we are becoming adjusted) to head in to Florence. Jeanne, John, Meredith, Rachel and I are going to Florence and then on to Pisa. Jack and Dianne are going to Pisa to climb the leaning tower. I will post this and an update from Florence/Pisa sometime late tomorrow (internet connection willing).

Today....

Pisa - Rachel, Jeanne, John and I went to Pisa followed by Florence today. It is amazing how much the tower tilts. Pictures do not do the leaning justice. I have no idea how it stays up. Dianne and Jack Climed the tower and some of the pictures are taken from the top. Pictures are in the new slide show added as well as the Pisa and Florence link to the right.

Florence - After visiting the tower we rode to Florence. Florence is a beautiful city with many wonderful buildings and sculptures. We have shown many of the pictures in the slide show and link on the right. It was a long 9.5 hour day of touring and I need to get to the bar once all the uploads are complete. Next Stop ROME!

Rachel at leaning tower

2008-07-25T03:30:00.000-04:00

Livorno

2008-07-25T01:10:00.000-04:00

We are in the port of Livorno the buses are lined up to take folks to
Pisa and Florence. It is 7:10am time to get breakfast and head out.

Villefranche and Monte Carlo

2008-07-24T08:49:00.003-04:00

It is a bright sunny morning here in Villefranche. Villefranche is a small town in the south of France and our first port of call. From Villefranche one can go right and visit Monaco or go left and visit Nice and Cannes. The bay here in Villefranche is the place where the Millennium had problems and backed into the rocks last year. So far we are in good shape and parked far far from the rocks. It is 8:30 am now. The kids are still sleeping. I am sitting on the balcony writing this blog entry which I will post later on today. I look out and see the wonderful brick and stucco buildings that line the hills of the shore and see the winding roads that lead from the shore up to the those villas. The current plan is to wake folks up soon and head into Monaco by train which is a 30-40 min ride. More to come on that assuming our plans remain the same.

Last night was formal night. I have added pictures of each of us in our formal night attire to the slide show and Europe 2008 pictures (Links on the right of this page). In one of the pictures Rachel is wearing the mitten that she knitted on the flights down here. She has one done and is working on a second mitten Her grandmothers are helping her with the knitting. A mitten is a large step forward from her prior scarfs.

Dinner was excellent. The number of silverware items at each place setting is astounding. At one point last night the asst. waiter pointed out that I had incorrectly used one large fork earlier in the meal then I should have... so he had to go and get me another. Of course I still had 3 other unused forks. I asked if this social error meant that I would have to leave the Celebrity line in order to go back to the basics with say Carnival but the waiter said that I could stay.

Both Dianne and John had good luck at the Casino yesterday. They earned enough to pay for the rest of their cruise's gambling needs (I hope).

It is now 3pm as I write this update and we just returned from Monte Carlo. I added pictures to both links on the right. We had a nice lunch on the pier in Monte Carlo. Talk to you all soon. The picture up above is of all of us after getting off the tender in Villefranche

Villefranche

2008-07-24T03:40:00.002-04:00

We are in Villefranche. Heading out shortly to visit the sites. This
picture is from the balcony.

On board Celebrity Summit

2008-07-23T07:51:00.004-04:00

Hi from The Summit Today is Wednesday and it is 2pm in the afternoon from somewhere in the Mediterranean. We arrived in Barcelona early on Tuesday and made it to the ship around noontime Tuesday. The ship is wonderful and so far we have not hit anything. We were all very tired yesterday after our flights from the US. We did manage to make it to dinner which was very nice. Our bags all arrived to our staterooms by about 4pm which is very quick - Nice job Celebrity.
Rachel and Jack went to the kids program last night and got back to the room around 11pm pretty tired. Jack slept in until about noon today - That is 6 am to his body clock.

Today is a sea day before the rapid fire set of ports over the next 4 days which include Ville France, Florence, Rome and Naples. I will update you as often as I can but may skip a few days while visiting those cities. Tonight is the first formal night so will have a few pictures in future posts. I added in 3 photo's of our room and some wonderful flowers from our Best in the world travel agents - SJS Travel You can see the photo's in the link on the top left.

In Madrid

2008-07-22T01:53:00.000-04:00

Next stop Barcelona

All our bags are packed....

2008-07-20T19:25:00.005-04:00

...well you know how the rest goes. We are finishing up the packing today. We leave for the airport tomorrow afternoon and then fly to Madrid then on to Barcelona. The Ship leaves Barcelona at 6pm local time. I will update the blog as often as I can. Internet service is a bit sketchy on board.

Ready

2008-07-13T19:19:00.003-04:00

Ok - I have been setting things up this weekend. I now have a link on the right hand side (Europe 2008 Pics) that will bring you to all our pictures as we upload them to the mobileme gallery site. You can click that link and see the cruise brochure for now as well as Rachel getting ready. More will come as we start the cruise. The slide show on the right will also shows key photo's as we cruise. The current slide show is from our last cruise to the Carribean.

Rachel is packing for the trip

2008-07-11T23:09:00.004-04:00

We are starting to pack!

2008-07-11T23:05:00.001-04:00

Excursions Time

2008-06-14T12:27:00.004-04:00

This weekend the cruise crew is getting together to determine which excursions we will take in each city we visit. Mom and Dad Burley as well as Mom Fitz are joining us in southern NH to look through the options and then go ahead and book the excursions.

This is the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Next Cruise a little over a month away

2008-06-10T20:06:00.003-04:00

We are getting excited about our retake of the Mediterranean 12 night cruise - See the itinerary on the right. This time Myself (George) Dianne, Rachel, Jack, My Mom, Dianne's Mom and Dad are coming along for all the fun!!

At sea

2008-03-01T14:03:00.001-05:00

Hi - Yesterday and Today have been spent at sea on the way back to Miami. It has been sunny each day. We are having a great time. I will up load some pictures later on today of rock climbing and the flowrider...

You can see all our pictures here.

Orient Beach

2008-02-28T15:39:00.002-05:00

Hi All - Today we are in St Maarteen. We went to Orient beach which is the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. It has great waves and warm waters. The kids had a great time. I have posted some pictures of today's events on our picture gallery. I also posted pictures of us visting the Yoda Guy in St Maarteen - This guys helped to create Yoda from Star Wars. I have also posted pictures of our room and the Royal Suite where Rachel played the Piano. See you all soon

George Fitz.

Photo's from St John and St Thomas

2008-02-27T15:54:00.001-05:00

St Thomas and St John's photo's are uploaded. We had a great time today at the beach in St John's

The picture gallery.

Hello from St Thomas

2008-02-27T08:37:00.002-05:00

Good morning - We are in St Thomas this morning. We are heading to St John's to go snorkeling. Pictures to come later on.... We had an excellent meal last night at the Italian specialty restaurant called Portofino's. It is sunny and warm in the 70's to low 80's. We are having a great time. Talk to you all soon.

In San Juan

2008-02-26T17:22:00.002-05:00

Hi All we arrived in San Juan this afternoon. I have uploaded some pictures of us arriving. I have also uploaded a picture of Rachel with her arm sling. She still is sore but feeling better then last night. We walked around San Juan - It is a pretty old town. The Millenium is here. That is the ship that we had all the propeller problems on in the summer. You can read all about that below in the Blog.

link t0 pictures

Tuesday on the way to San Juan

2008-02-26T10:22:00.003-05:00

Good morning from The Freedom of the Seas. Last night was an eventful evening. Rachel fell down ice skating and sprained her right wrist. The staff did a great job taking care of her and we all got a tour of the medical facilities which are quite impressive. Rachel is doing great - arm in a sling for a couple of days. She is getting a lot of attention from the teenage boys - Not sure if the sling is part of that or not. Oh well time to go off on the ship and find things to do. Talk to you all soon.

Pictures of leaving Miami

2008-02-25T12:04:00.003-05:00

Here is a link to the pictures of the ship leaving Miami yesterday:

http://gallery.mac.com/fitzmauricefamily

Check out the first album to see the cruise pictures.

We Made it

2008-02-25T09:44:00.002-05:00

Good morning all from on board the Freedom of the Seas. We made it on board yesterday in Miami. Today we are at sea. It is a beautiful sunny day in the 70's. We are staying out by the pool. Tonight is formal night so look for some pictures in the next day or so. Tomorrow we get to San Juan.

Our 1st Cruise of 2008

2008-02-17T17:14:00.002-05:00

Hi - We are cruising on the Freedom of the Seas next week for a one week Eastern Caribbean Cruise. We are packing up this weekend and leave for the cruise next weekend.

We sailed on the Freedom last year on a western itinerary. The Ship is huge with an amazing assortment of things to do including, ice skating, swimming, sports, surfing - Yes surfing and of course rock climbing.

I will make updates as we make it through the cruise next week - Off to pack now.

Venzia to Paris

2007-07-12T10:55:00.000-04:00

Hello all - We are back on our original schedule now. We left Venice this morning and we are now at the Hotel Bedford in Paris. We are here until Sunday morning when we leave for home. Venice was wonderful. We saw L' Arc de Triumph on the way in to our hotel. We have just settled in and will go for a walk around the hotel area, perhaps for a stop at a cafe. Talk to you soon.

Hello from Venice

2007-07-11T03:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in updating you. We left the ship on Monday morning. Late Sunday they told us the ship must go to dry dock to be repaired. Sorry to all of you missing the next few cruises on the broken ship.

We took the train to Venice on Monday morning and arrived here in Venice late Monday. We are in a beautiful hotel in Venice accross from St Mark's. We toured Venice yesterday and today we are deciding if we should take a train to Florence. Tomorrow we leave for Paris!!

Venice is beutiful - The whole water transportation thing is cool - Although a bit slow. We went to Murano and showed them the picture of "The Grape Lamp." The man that showed us around remembered them making those grape lamps in the 20's and 30's. They no longer make grape lamps.

ok Erin - I give Venice the edge over Paris in beauty - Based mainly on the water thing. There are also a whole lot of shops here mostly from Glasswork and Masks - We are not sure what the mask thing is all about yet - Carnival perhaps.

Talk to you all soon!!

Hello from Rome again

2007-07-08T04:48:00.000-04:00

Hi all from the millenium - We are still at the port near Rome. All the nuts and bolts are removed and 1 port side propeller blade remains stuck in it's housing. This has been the case for over a day now. Teams of divers continue to work round the clock trying to fix the last blade. The captain and crew have been pushing back our departure time every day. The latest guess is that we leave later today (5PM). But since the old blade is not off yet... It will clearly be much later.

They have cancelled the port call in Corfu. We are getting dangerously close to missing Venice. All you folks planning to cruise on the 12th - beware. Now would be a good time to reconsider.

The crew continues to plan free excursions for us. We went to the countryside yesterday and tasted Olive Oil and Wine - It was very nice.

We are looking in to getting a flight to Venice and spending Mon-Thu in Venice. I am not sure if/when the ship will leave Rome. There are a lot of folks from the home office of Miami on board and we have not heard from the captain in a while (He is having is cruise director tell us the bad news). Perhaps the home office is grilling the captain on what happened. He really should be fired!

See ya.

Here's Lauren

2007-07-06T16:46:00.000-04:00

The one great thing that happened on July 4th was Lauren. Congratulations Mark, Erin and Ethan. She is beautiful!!!

100% refund

2007-07-06T16:39:00.000-04:00

ok - So with the latest delays the folks at Celebrity have seen the light (and the long line at customer service). We have all been given a 100% refund. The new plan is to leave Rome Saturday evening and head for Corfu Greece. Then on to Croatia and Venice as originally planned.

Above are pictures of two of the blades. The one coverd by orange paper was carefully covered so we could not see it - The Darn wind.... The other was pulled from the ocean while we were watching then covered up....

Just one Stubborn Nut?

2007-07-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

July 6th update from Citivichia (Rome).

Hi all – We are still on the dock near Rome where repairs continue. More on that below.

Mom talked to Erin yesterday on the birth of Lauren Minichiello – Congratulations Erin, Mark and Ethan – We cannot wait to see our new Granddaughter and Niece.

Thanks to all for the comments including the person whose daughter is on board – I agree with you that there are worse places to be stuck then 1.5 hours from Rome on a wonderful ship (Is it still really a ship without working propellers)? Oh well we are having a great time on the ship – The ships staff that we deal with for food and fun have been great. The customer service folks need some training!

Celebrity has improved things a bit here – Communication is much more open and regular about the issues with the propellers and the repairs. The captain is now speaking to us every 2 hours from 10AM to 10PM about progress. He also sends copies of his words to each of our staterooms right after his talk. This started yesterday morning. In addition he sends 2 updates via printed documents to our staterooms at night.

The Captain gave an excuse about a power issue causing the ship to run into the rocks in Villefranche – Perhaps he is hearing that folks want him removed and is talking!! Good news is…. finally they are trying to tell us what happened. Of course the investigation continues and some technicians from the power system are on board. I believe they walk the plank tonight J I must note that we have had 2-3 power outages since we boarded so the power issue could be the real problem. (You should be reading this thinking – Do I ever want to sail with Celebrity?) BTW – The Captains name is Michael Karatzas (Watch out for this guy)

The plan as of yesterday morning was:

To replace the 3 damaged blades of the Starboard propeller (each propeller has 4 blades it appears) In addition 1 damaged blade from the Port Propeller also needs to be replaced.

Through the day yesterday we heard that progress was slow on the first of the blade on the starboard propeller due to one “Stubborn” nut. This nut was finally loosened last night and the first of three blades taken off. One of the new blades was then installed on the propeller.

Last night due to the delays in getting the blade off the Captain and headquarters decided to run the Starboard propeller with just 1 new blade and that they would “Balance” the propeller (It would have 2 good blades – 1 new, 1 old and 2 damaged blades). I assume this balancing would be done by cutting away from the damaged blades on the starboard side. They also plan to replace the 1 bad blade on the port propeller. This would allow us to run at 18 knots. 18 knots would allow us to meet the revised schedule.

All day yesterday and this AM we were told that we remained on schedule to depart Rome tonight at 9PM. This was due to the new revised propeller repair plan. We were also told that only the 1 blade on the starboard prop had a stubborn nut – All other blades should come off!!

Oh well – Today at 2PM (more like 2:30) when the news is bad it is a bit late L We were told that the blade on the port side also has a stubborn nut and that we would be delayed again. The captain was honest with us and he said he does not know how long the delay will be. More to come (Reporting from near Rome- George Fitz)

We visited Civitechia(sp?) Today

2007-07-05T09:15:00.000-04:00

Hi - The Propeller parts arrived last night. Progress is slow as the parts are still on the pier since this morning. Let's see if they get this fixed anytime soon. We will go back to Rome in the morning. We visited the port city today - It was quaint. We had a great lunch at a cafe. Back to the pool. Congrats to Erin and Mark on the birth of Lauren!!! We cannot wait to see her (if we ever get back).

The Ship with no Propeller

2007-07-04T15:29:00.000-04:00

ok - So we get back to the ship... and at dinner we find out that the propeller parts did not arrive and will come in tonight... A likley story. Bottom line - We are staying 2 more days here in Rome while they fix the propeller then we go on to Naples then a day at sea then some island I have never heard of then back on Schedule in Croatia and Venice. So WE SKIP SANTORINI AND ATHENS - CELEBRITY CRUISE LINES SUCK!!!!

They are offering 50% off of our fare. I do not think so - We have a mutiny here on the ship - You sould see the line at customer service.... I spent an hour on the phone with Headquarters asking them to fire the captain and issue me a full refund. More to come on that - The VP of something owes me a call back - I spoke to about 4 folks from Celebrity - All nice folks that expected the folks on the ship could handle this - I told them all - The folks on the ship asked me to call you folks in Miami. This cruise line is awful - Never use them.

July 4th - Rome

2007-07-04T15:24:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th all you folks back in the USA... Today we made it to ROME!!! Rome was Great - We went to the Trevi fountain and our wish to come back came true - See next blog... The fountain was beautiful. We then walked through Ancient Rome - Which was really cool to see - I took a ton of pictures. It is amazing to see the city built all around this ancient world. Then we went to the Colleseum and climbed up. It was huge. And to think it was built by hands... This was all so hard to comprehend with the tools and machines we have today. The Colleseum took only 8 years to build. We loved it.

We had a great lunch somewhere in Rome - An italian reastaurant. Then on to the Vatican... St Peters was awesome, breathtaking. Mom loved it. The Square and the church were incredible. We even took some pictures of a pope - Long dead.

Then we headed back to the ship to see how the Propeller repairs were going...

July 3rd

2007-07-03T14:41:00.000-04:00

Hi again - Today was uneventful - A good thing. We did not hit anything and managed to get around the large island of Corsica on the way to Rome. Plan is to arrive in Rome by 3AM and the SWAT team from the US will be on hand to check out the Captains handywork. We will spend tommorow visiting Italy - Finally. When we get back hopefully we will know if the show goes on or not. Talk to you all soon.

Happy 4th!!

Celebrity Millenium HITS ROCK

2007-07-03T01:22:00.000-04:00

Well - We had some excitement... I guess you could call it that. The Ship hit a rock yesterday when leaving Villefranche. One or more propellers are damaged causing us to only move at 1/2 speed. We are skipping the port call at Livorno - This is where Pisa and Florence are. The Leaning tower of Pisa was one of the 2 places Jack wanted to see. This really sucks. Avoid Celebrity - The Captains need drivers ed training.

We are limping along now to Rome where they claim the ship will be repaired. We will see how the rest of this goes assuming they can repair the ship.

If you have a cruise booked on Celebrity - Cancel it now and go to another cruise line.

BTW - The offer of $'s off our shipboard account is not acceptable. Celebrity needs to refund a lot more money for the mess they have caused.

Talk to you again soon

Day 2 and 3

2007-07-02T08:49:00.000-04:00

Day 2 was at sea and we had a great time. Slept in till about noon (6am for you east coast USA folks). Much fun by the pool then it was time for the formal dinner. Dianne and I ate at the Olympic Restaurant - Themed after a very old cruise ship (It was our anniversary). Meredith took the kids to the regular dining room and we all had great meals. The on to the Casino, The Show and a few bars...

Jack discovered that his Ipod and PSP (Game) were stolen somewhere between the airport and the ship. We expected the bags were in goods hands with Celebrity but clearly they were not. We will see what they do about it - Forms to fill out etc. We will let you know...

Today we got up earlier - Mom and I at 7:30 (1:30am for you folks). The kids were forced up at 9:30. We ate a great breakfast then went to visit the French Riviera. Bonjour... We took a trolley tour on Villefranche and learned all about the sleeply little town. We had Glazia(sp?) - aka Ice Cream - Then back to the ship for Pool and Sun.

Villefranche was very beautiful set in the hills of southern france. Lots of narrow twisting cobblestone roads to voyage around. Many artist shops and lots of cafe's. Well next update will be after our next port - Pisa.. We are going to see the leaning tower.

We are on board the Millenium

2007-06-30T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's Rachel. It's 9:00p.m. here in Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona this morning, around 2:00 their time, which translates to 8:00a.m. back home in New Hampshire. All of us are overtired, as it was hard to sleep on the 7 hr plane ride from Boston to Munich, and the 2 hr flight from Munich to Barcelona.
Once we arrived, we took a shuttle to the ship, where everything went well...just a few little problems with Grandma's boarding card, but everything was settled. We toured the ship and ate dinner at 6:15 in the dinning room. Our table had two other families: a couple with a daughter my age (16) and another couple from Brazil who spoke no English, and only a little Spanish. I attempted my communication skills with them and had a pretty good conversation with them. Now we are off to explore the many things to do. Jack and I are going to head to the meet&greet at the kids program around 10...if we don't pass out by then. Just kidding.
Tomorrow is a day at sea, and we'll let you know how that goes!
ADIOS!
-Rachel

We leave in 2 hours!!

2007-06-29T10:43:00.000-04:00

The day has come. We are finishing the packing and heading to the airport in 2 hours. We will blog from the ship as often as we can. Look for our first entry sometime later on in the day on Saturday from Barcelona!!

Packing

2007-06-24T21:07:00.000-04:00

Hello again - The packing has begun. We leave this Friday!!!

Vacation coming soon

2007-05-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

Dianne's First Blog ever - Our trip is coming soon. I can't wait. Rome, Athens, Venice, Paris...here we come!!!

The Itinerary

2007-05-28T12:30:00.001-04:00

Hi - Here is a picture of the Millenium. This the ship we will be sailing on. The map shows our itinerary. The details of the itinerary are on the right on the main page. We leave June 30th from Barcelona.