You've got a friend in Me(d) - Day 7 - Salerno/ Pompeii

[Scruffette]

Day 7 – Salerno/ Pompeii

Our first port day.

We’d planned for a slightly earlier start, but set the alarms back a bit after another late night.

I was in a pretty good mood this morning as I put on my new sparkly ring. We applied copious amounts of suncream as we knew we’d be outside in the sun for a while today.

Originally the ship was scheduled to dock in Naples. We’d already planned our day, including getting the train to the Herculaneum and a nice sounding lunch place serving deep fried pizza pockets.

The change in the itinerary came around May time. I was quite disappointed at first. I found Salerno very difficult to research as it’s not a common cruise port. We knew we didn’t want to book Disney Port Adventures, as these aren’t budget friendly options, so wanted to research our options.

It wasn’t even clear to me where the ship would dock and I kept finding conflicting advice online. Someone in our cruise facebook group gave me some wrong information about where the ship would dock. I emailed Disney who gave me the correct docking location, but said Disney never put on buses for people who don’t book their port adventures. This turned out to be completely incorrect, in 3 of our ports Disney put on buses to take you from the port to a central spot just outside the port area. I presume this is because it’s not safe to walk in this area.

Eventually, we settled on visiting Pompeii and I found online a report of someone who’d gone via train.

Anyway, we started with breakfast in Cabanas. They varied the food options every morning and there was always plenty to choose from.



We both had chocolate milk and enjoyed the view. Salerno certainly seemed prettier than the pictures of Naples.



We disembarked the ship and took the Disney bus to the bus stop to a fairly central stop in Salerno. From here, it was a 15 minute walk to the train station. We pre printed maps of each area before we left. They did provide a map of Salerno with our navigator the night before.



Instead of braving the automated ticket machines at the train station, we queued and bought tickets from an actual person. The tickets were 2,20euros each, each way. Bargain.





We validated the tickets on the train station platform.



It was a bit of a rickety train! Pretty views form the windows.

We caught the 9.24 train and the journey was just under 50 minutes.
The trains from Salerno stopped at the one of the Pompeii stations. I think there are two train stations in Pompeii and this wasn’t the main one, but it was a direct line from Salerno.





This station is closest to the back entrance of Pompeii. I thought this was a really clever idea to use the back entrance as the queue was really short. I’d prebooked our tickets, so we showed these and were let in. These were prebooked for the day, rather than for a specific time.

The only problem – I’d booked audioguides and you can only pick these up from the main entrance. This was a long exposed walk!







I was also concerned as we had to exit the area, to pick up the guides. Fortunately we scanned our pre printed tickets to get back in without any issues.

We made it and picked up our guides. The line to buy tickets was super long – so I was glad we prebooked! To pick up your audioguide, you have to leave some form of ID.

We toured the site following one of the recommendations that picked out the ‘highlights’. I’m glad we had the audioguides, as it wouldn’t have been as interesting without them.

I’ll leave you with some pictures, rather than trying to give you a history lesson!























We were touring for about 2 and a half hours. I know some people spend the whole day there, but that was enough for us as the site is so exposed and it was a scorcher of a day. I was glad for my factor 50!

We dropped off our audioguides and decided to exit through the front entrance this time.

After much deliberation, we picked our Pompeii magnet from one of the many stalls selling merchandise. I also picked up a magnet for the fridge at work. (It’s tradition to bring back a magnet from holiday, and this was one of the few places that no-one else had been!)





We passed a Carrefour, so stopped in to stock up on Prosecco now we were in Italy! 4 bottles for €18,96.

I also bought these biscuits for work – 2,99€. They went down a treat and looked quite fancy for the price!



We also picked up two coke lifes (0,93€) , as they were much cheaper than the other coke ‘types’.

We took a walk balk to the station, but couldn’t resist stopping for ice cream.

We chose 4 flavours in a tub to share. I can’t remember what they were, but I really enjoyed it! They didn’t have my beloved Biscotto flavour that I normally have in Italy though.



The woman asked us if we wanted whipped cream. Obviously my answer was yes.

We caught the 14.29 train back to Salerno, which was around 35 minutes.





We used this journey to make various phone calls to family to let them know about the engagement. I left a voicemail for my brother to tell him – not ideal but we’d be back at sea soon.

(On a slight side note, my mum and brother had a hilarious conversation that evening. Neither one knew if I’d managed to get hold of the other one, so thought they were the only person who knew about the engagement and didn’t want to spoil it for the other)

I see my ship!



The train got in just after 3pm and we took a nice leisurely stroll back to the bus stop.



Salerno really was very pretty.







Ollie took a nice photo of us, which we used to put on some postcards to send to people to announce the engagement. We used this photo to put on postcards via Funky Pigeon – they arrived two days later.

He also took a video (not just a photo) of the ring to show my mum. (She was horrified when Ollie said he had chosen it himself, but very much approved of his choice!)

[Scruffette]

Once back on board we were in serious need of a late lunch!
Ollie picked up a schwarma, which he loved and had a couple more during the trip.



I had some of DCLs amazing chicken tenders and fries, and we got a burger to share from Pete’s Broiler Bites. The ‘special’ of the day was pulled pork, but I asked if I could have some on top of the cheeseburger.



Lunch was really tasty and definitely filled a gap!

We spent some time out on deck enjoying the sunshine.

I left Ollie to it and headed back to our stateroom to shower and get ready for the evening. Being a man, it only takes Ollie a matter of minutes to get ready.

Ollie soon joined me and we opened up tonight’s bottle of choice – a rosé cava – and had another choccie. I was being very restrained and made them last. I think Sleeping Beauty was on the tv in background while we were getting ready.



We headed to the theatre for tonight’s show Walt Disney – The Dream Goes On.

This was a cute history of Walt show with classic Disney songs (think Mary Poppins etc) interspersed.

After the show I made a quick pop into the gift shop. I wanted to get these post-its as a present for my Mum and noticed they were running low so thought I’d pick them up now. They were $11.95, so $14.46 including tax.



We decided to check out the trivia session in O’Gills before dinner. Tonight’s trivia was Disney Villains quote trivia. Bit of a specific topic. We scored one or two more this time than on general movie quotes. I thought I would do a lot better but it was surprisingly difficult! Our score was 22/50 (one point awarded for film and one for the character).

It was dinner next and time to head to Lumiere’s for the standard rotational menu. The menu was almost identical to Royal Palace on the Dream last year. In fact, I ordered exactly the same as last year!

Our table mates were waiting for us at dinner. We had a catch up about our days and we told them about the engagement. They were very happy for us and ordered a bottle of Asti for the table to share. It was very sweet of them and we had a toast before the meal.

To start we both had the breaded and deep fried brie – with an orange and cranberry chutney



Who doesn’t like deep fried cheese?

Next up for both of us was French onion soup – with Gruyere cheese crouton



I always go for a French onion soup when it’s on the menu and enjoyed this but didn’t finish it.

I started to feel a bit rough during dinner. I think I may have been a bit dehydrated from the being in the sun a lot. I felt like I could feel the boat moving a lot, but that was me feeling rough rather than actual travel sickness.

You can tell I wasn’t feeling right as I didn’t finish my plate!
For mains we both had the Crispy Roasted duck breast – with cabbage, shallots, honey parsnip mash and a duck red wine jus.



For dessert I had the Grand Marnier Soufflé – served with Grand Marnier Crème Anglaise



Ollie went for the Sweet Temptations – mango cheesecake, crème brulee and raspberry slice.



I’ve seen the trios have now gone from the menus on the ships. Ollie will miss these as they were a nice way of trying different things with small portions.

After dinner, I decided to head to bed. I was sad as we’d originally planned to go and look at our engagement photos in Shutters.

This was tonight’s towel animal. One of my favourites.



I popped on my travel bands just in case and got into bed and was asleep straight away. Ollie wasn’t too tired so went for a wander of the ship while I snoozed.

He ended up making a few friends in the gift shop and got serious points from the girls working there as he was telling them all about the proposal.

He must have been missing me, as he bought me a couple of presents which I later got at Christmas.

I got this lovely DCL cushion (similar to the shape of the cushions from the parks – I have the Be our Guest one as well).





I also got this magnet for our fridge.



Day 8 - Civitavecchia/Rome

[dixonsontour]

Lovely day.

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Lovely day.

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Thanks for reading

[Gill H]

Great day. That was odd about the change of port! We are definitely going to Naples.

Useful to know about the Disney buses.

Sorry you weren't feeling so good. Must remember to take lots of water with us!

[Scruffette]

Originally Posted by Gill H

Great day. That was odd about the change of port! We are definitely going to Naples.

Useful to know about the Disney buses.

Sorry you weren't feeling so good. Must remember to take lots of water with us!

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We were the only cruise last year the was affected. I was annoyed at first, but Salerno turned out to be really pretty and the trains were quite easy.

I drink a lot of water normally, but forget I need to double this in very warm weather.

[Ellen-Marie]

Fantastic pictures of Pompeii! I'm one for the factor 50 too

[stecee]

Solerno looks a lot nicer than Naples. Pompeii is a very interesting place to visit, some great photos.