Getting to the Isle of Capri

TRAVEL THERE: THE HURRY UP AND WAIT CONTINUES

While cruises provide many wonderful memories, there is also a lot of mundane rigamarole in between those memorable moments.  This is especially true on big ships like the Celebrity Edge.  You can’t just leave your room, grab a quick bite and start your tour.  That’s one of the reasons I prefer river cruising.  In an hour you can get up, have breakfast and be on your way.  On this particular morning we’d been going since 6 AM and hours later we were just now leaving our elegant boat.  It just takes time to process all these people.

Heading Ashore for Another Boat Ride

Our shore excursion group trotted off the boat and across a parking lot to a ferry pier.  Our guide was a jolly sort, but at this point we had no way to know we’d happened upon the best guide for the trip Paolo of Aloschi Brothers .  In fact, he was the best guide I ever had.  I’d like to hire him for the rest of my travels for the rest of my life – but we didn’t know that then.

As we entered the area for boarding the ferry, Bill revealed he didn’t have his Dramamine.  He said he didn’t realize we were going on a boat ride.  Hadn’t we sat there in Montreal’s airport bar and discussed just that thing.  Hadn’t he been the one who listed off all the forms of transportation we’d be taking for the tour?  Not much we could do at this juncture.

Bill is highly susceptible to seasickness and it has ruined many a shore excursion for him.  If I were him, I would have the Dramamine with me every second I was on a cruise, but Bill believes on traveling light and only carrying what you are absolutely going to need.  That he didn’t have Dramamine was somehow became my fault, though he didn’t say that outright.  I was sorry for him, but a little ticked at the same time.

I had another responsibility, too.  As soon as we hit shore, my 4G network international phone plan kicked in and all the Instagram post notifications for the day were dinging at me.  A part of me was grateful for the technology allowing me to do my job on the other side of the world, but the other part wished Instagram was a little more cooperative.  Having to post from my phone at the given time, rather than automatically as the other social channels allow, bugs me when I am at home in my office.  To interrupt my vacation for it really chafed.

All Aboard the Jet Foil

Boarding the jet foil which would ferry us to Capri, our companions went up to the top deck, but Bill felt he’d do better at fighting seasickness downstairs.  He sat down, closed his eyes and focused on not being sick. I’m not sure what I expected of the watercraft.  It had sounded quite exciting in the brochures, but was really just a ferry.  It was fast, but stuck under the deck, I couldn’t tell much about the journey.

Bill was successful in his battle against seasickness, but few others were.  About halfway through the 90 minute ride, the vomiting began all around us.  I noticed the greatest number of passengers with us below were Asians and they all seemed to be sick, to a man, so much so that the crew ran out of the ability to keep up with it.  I’ve never been so glad to get off a boat.I was near to becoming sick myself and it had nothing to do with seasickness.

Finally, we were on the Island of Capri.  Certainly things were about to get better, weren’t they?  Come back next week and find out.