The Promise of Palma

TRAVEL THERE: PLANNING THE FINAL ACTIVITY

Palma de Mallorca – a soupcon of Spain before heading home.  The main thing I knew about Mallorca was that it had pearls.  Would I love some?  Of course!  Was I actually going to buy any?  Probably not!  So what do you do on Mallorca?

What I Wanted

Since I didn’t have any idea of what Mallorca was really all about, I was eager to find out what Celebrity Cruise Lines offered.  Then I read about a flamenco performance.  I adore flamenco.  The guitar, the castanets, the mournful voices, the gorgeous frilled dresses.  I’ve read all the books that tell me there is no way I will truly understand flamenco or bullfighting, but that’s OK, because even with my very limited knowledge of this art of dance, I find it fascinating.

There were a couple of other options that sounded interesting – a Tapas Walking Tasting Tour, a botanical garden tour and a castle tour.  The castle tour sounded amazing.  They would have costumed actors living out the castle’s days of glory.  There would be some sort of equestrian demonstration and a shopping opportunity for native crafts.  The excursion would be topped off with a feast.  Now that’s a shore excursion.

What I Considered

Though the castle tour sounded great, it was also pricey.  The Naples and Florence tours had already taken a chunk out of my budget – not to mention the vow renewal ceremony.  Another top tier shore excursion might get me in hot water.  Besides, it was a castle thing, which reeked of a historical, museum-type experience.  My friends might not be as excited about that as I would be and their pocketbooks might also be straining.

A garden was always a good thing in my book.  They rank very high in my interests.  With both Deb and Bill I’ve visited a whole bunch of them.  A little research told me that while it was a garden, I’d seen many, many gardens which were superior. In fact, we’d be visiting the Boboli on this trip and it would for sure put this garden to shame.  No, the garden wasn’t the right choice.

The Tapas Tour sounded pretty good, but this was a cruise and we’d have more food staring us down than we’d be able to consume. And walking?  Would everyone be totally walked out by this juncture in the trip.

What I Booked

When I reasoned out the Flamenco show was the very best thing, I realized just how happy that had made me.  There had really been no competition.  While I always want to do a little of everything, flamenco was much to be preferred over everything else – and besides, dance was one of Deb’s very favorite things and she would love to see it.

So we booked the Flamenco Show, but it didn’t stay booked.  Someone somewhere in Celebrity Cruise world decided to cancel this shore excursion.  I tried to find out why, thinking perhaps it might be worth booking our own excursion, but a little research told me the flamenco show had gone the way of all tourist traps and Celebrity was probably saving me from myself.

None of my reservations about the garden or the castle had changed, so that left the Tapas Tour.  Food, wine, walking…what could go wrong?  We booked the walking tour.

While booking, I went ahead and signed up for a tour/transfer in our Debarkation city, Barcelona – another city like Rome that I was dying to see – Las Ramblas, the Cathedral, so many wonderful memories to make.  However, like a tour of Rome it was a pipe dream.  We cancelled Rome because the schedule was just too tight and in the end we had to cancel the Barcelona tour also and for the same reason.  With an international flight leaving at two, we’d have to be to the airport before twelve and that was too soon to be on the tour.

Seven ports of call, seven shore excursions.  Two cancelled, two changed.  Now I was running out of things to plan.  come back next week and we’ll talk about the vow renewal ceremony.