First, here’s a drawing I did of Pascal, the chameleon from Tangled:

This is the second Mickey that I’ve drawn at the academy, and I’ve also drawn Minnie. Point being, I’m getting pretty good at this one, I think.

After 8 months of training, I completed my first official half-marathon on 1/8/2012 at WDW, as planned. This was the first marathon relay during marathon weekend that Disney had done, and I’d say that for an inaugural event, they managed it quite well. (I’ll summarize some areas for improvement for RunDisney and tips for future relayers a bit later on.) For now, I’m going to talk about my own experience.

I was incredibly nervous for the event. Even though I had done a half-marathon (unofficially) in December as part of my training, I had managed to catch a nasty cold in the last week of December and basically spent several days in bed resting and recovering. Even a week and a half later, I was still sniffly and not 100%. I’d managed to do my 3 mile final run, but I’d been skipping weekly runs in favor of resting. Plus, because my unofficial half had happened earlier than the training plan suggests, I’d modified the plan, and I wasn’t entirely sure how well it would work. My nervousness was compounded by all of the usual pre-event jitters about getting to the right place at the right time, being hydrated enough, wearing the right gear, etc. etc. And, then add to that that we were going to be touring the parks (admittedly, just DHS, which is a low-walking park) the day before, meaning I’d be putting in a few miles of walking instead of resting my legs and feet. To be safe, we cut off our DHS touring early, and admittedly, DH babied me a bit by picking me up at the expo entrance and such to help minimize my walking the day before.

The expo was a bit disappointing compared to previous years. Some of that may have been because we were there on Saturday (when 2/3 of the events were already done). I was also very disappointed in the lack of relay-themed merch. I loved the “We Did It!” shirt, but on Saturday, they were out of every size except XL and XXL, which meant there wasn’t one for DH. (There was one for me, thankfully!) There were no tech shirts with the Chip and Dale theme (there’s 2-3 variants for the Mickey, Donald, and Goofy races), nor were there pins, mugs, or other gear. Basically, as a relayer, your merch options were the “We Did It!” shirt or the generic Marathon Weekend gear that mostly features Mickey. I had come prepared to spend gobs of money, and they just didn’t let me. I hate it when companies don’t let me spend my money!

I love the shirt that came with the race entry, though. You’ll see it several times in the pictures from this WDW trip. It’s a really nice long sleeved tech shirt that was perfect for the weather during our trip, and it has Chip and Dale prominently featured. The other item that came with our race entry was an insulated pad. This was a great idea for a giveaway for the relayers, as it gave us something to sit on while waiting for the relay partner at the switch point. I know lots of relayers tweeted that they didn’t know what it was, but our person told us what it was for, and I, for one, was happy to have it while sitting on the cold concrete!

One of the things that contributed to my pre-race jitters was getting to the relay point. It is notoriously difficult to get around Disney during the mornings of marathon weekend, because several roads shut down entirely for the events. Disney bus transportation has alternate routes, but the traffic can be a nightmare. Getting around in a car is often easier if you know the alternate routes, but it can be stressful because of the traffic and closures. RunDisney’s instructions were for Relayer #2 (me) to go to the start of the marathon with Relayer #1 (DH) and then catch a bus from there to the relay point. But, that meant waking up at 3am-ish even though I wouldn’t be running until 7:20 at the earliest, and it would mean sitting out in the weather (whatever it would be) for 3-4 hours while waiting. DH and I decided we could find a better way than the recommendation, a way where I could “sleep in” until 5am or so and be in shelter.

Editor’s Note: You can view the Marathon Relay course map by clicking this link: 2012-WDWMarathonRelayMap. From here on out, I talk about the course and layout of WDW with the assumption that you are either familiar or are looking at this course map, so definitely reference it as needed.

Because DH and I had been at WDW for marathon weekend before, we knew which resorts would have transportation access despite the road closures. DH and I also consulted the course map before booking. We decided we should be at the Poly, Contemporary, or Wilderness Lodge to have easy access to the relay point. The Poly’s prices made us cringe, and Contemporary was booked up, so we grabbed the Wilderness Lodge. I had been wanting to stay there anyways, as I love the National Park theming and woodsy interiors. It ended up being even more perfect than we thought. We knew it was one of the few resorts that has unimpeded road access to the Magic Kingdom parking lots on marathon day. What we didn’t know is that RunDisney would have a bus shuttle going from there directly to the relay point! We didn’t know because no one seemed to know. We had asked about options at the expo and had only come up with the recommended plan. But, sure enough, when I walked out of the resort at 6am (I had allowed lots of time in case it took awhile to hail a taxi), a vested person (RunDisney or Disney, I don’t know) told me that the bus waiting right there would take me to the relay point. If I had known that the night before, I would have been far less worried! It ended up being easy peasy. I boarded the bus and sat in warm (and complimentary) comfort for around 15 minutes. A few more folks (spectators) boarded, and then, we were off! At the relay point, the bus was guided in, and I was dropped off literally at the entrance to the runner area. I stopped by Chip and Dale to take a picture first thing:

Then, I settled in for an hour’s wait. After about a half hour, I used the port-a-potty and stripped down to race gear, checking the rest under DH’s bib number at bag check. The first few relayer #1′s were coming in. The very first one was a guy dressed as a Chippendale! He had on black running shorts and a bow tie with collar. His relay partner was dressed identically. I also met up with a guy while waiting that was dressed as Stitch; his partner was dressed as Lilo.

Shortly thereafter, I made my way to the relay chute and started watching for DH in earnest. I spotted his signature floppy head (he tends to rock his head back and forth when he runs, especially when he’s tired at the end of a race) coming down the track and scooted my way up to the front of the chute to greet him. He had set a new personal record! Yay DH! He quickly told me he had seen Mike Scopa and wished me luck as I headed out.

And I was off! It was around 3/4 of a mile of swap area before I officially was on the course. (The time in the swap area counted toward our total time, but not toward our individual times.) This means that relayer #2 actually does a bit more distance than relayer #1, especially if #1 is in an early corral. Just sayin’. The first part of my course was relatively boring. One nice thing is that, since relayer #2 is doing the second half of the marathon course, the water/powerade stops are frequent. As always, RunDisney did a great job keeping the water stations stocked and staffed, too. The sun was just coming out as I started, and it was around 55 degrees. (By the time I finished, it was 78 degrees and full sunlight.) I had decided to maintain a brisk walk until I got through Animal Kingdom (notoriously hard on knees) and then see how I was feeling and whether I was up to doing run intervals. (On my practice half, I started doing run intervals at mile 3 and kept it up through mile 7-8.) I wanted to play things safe given the heat and given that I was still a little rundown from my cold. RunDisney, of course, had fun character-themed stops along the course. I saw the Disney villains early on and lots of others along the way.

I encountered what must be the stinkiest section of WDW, near the intersection of Western Way with our course. It must be the sewage treatment plant and compost for the whole park. It smelled like poo and death for about a half mile. Ugh. But, not long after that, I was going through the castmember entrance into Animal Kingdom! And, right past that entrance, they had brought out some animals to greet us! There were owls and hawks as well as some adorable pigs on leashes, particularly this guy:

A llama was also out on a leash. All the animals seemed super-excited, which made me happy and joy-filled as I continued on the path and into the park. Animal Kingdom wasn’t open for business yet, so we had it to ourselves with the castmembers. Unfortunately, shortly after coming into Animal Kingdom, I slipped on a discarded granola bar (still in wrapper) while on a downhill section. I didn’t fall; I caught myself with my left knee. But, it twisted my knee nastily. Fortunately, the body handles this sort of thing marvelously well. I didn’t even realize the severity of the sprain until after the race. I knew something was not good, especially when on the many banked roads that came after that point, but it was a bearable ache that didn’t seem to warrant special attention. I did some running, but the knee just wasn’t up for it, and given that I still had 9 miles to go, I didn’t want to push it.

I ended up maintaining a brisk walk throughout the race. Most of it isn’t that notable. I mean, it was awesome…but it’s nothing I need to write a ton about. The race organization was excellent. The runners were polite. I got LOTS of pats on the back and thumbs up from other runners (almost all of whom were much faster than me, since I entered the course in groups at DH’s pace) as well as shout-outs from spectators. When I left DHS, I was getting a bit overheated. I started dumping water on myself at water stops to cool off. At that point, the sun was out full force. It wasn’t terribly warm to most people, but to a Northern-trained person exerting themselves as I was, it felt pervasively hot. I started drinking a bit more water at each stop, too, which helped. Still, most of the time from the mile 24 marker through around 25 and a quarter was a blur. I know I got through it, but I don’t remember it very well. I remember forcing myself to slow down in pace, and I remember seeing Lou Mongello but accidentally calling him Scopa. (D’oh!) Then, I got to a point in EPCOT where I knew that Duffy would be soon, and I pulled out my phone to prep it for a picture with my favorite Disney greeting character.

After meeting up with Duffy, I knew I was home free! And, sure enough, the Reflections of Earth theme from Illuminations was playing in my earbuds. The swelling climax came in the music as I was going by Test Track, and I started bawling. Now, keep in mind that my entire body was salty from sweat. Seriously, deer could have lived off of my skin. They would have loved me. So, when I started crying, I had no good way to wipe my eyes without making them sting! Fortunately, I had tucked some tissues in a baggie in my sportsbra, figuring I might bawl at the finish line, so I retrieved those (which slowed me down further…I can actually spot where this happened on my Garmin tracking because I slow down considerably while fishing them out). I’m sure the folks loved seeing me digging in my sportsbra as I trotted by. Anyways, I got myself cleaned up just as I came to the gospel choir at the 26 mile mark (.2 miles to go!). Yay! I started walking briskly again, and the tough part was that I knew DH and his parents would be at the finish line, but I didn’t know where…and lots of people’s names sound like my name when shouted, so I kept thinking I was hearing them when I wasn’t. I eventually gave up on spotting them in the crowds and focused on finishing strong. At .1 to go, I broke into a sprint and made it past the near-last timing bumper while sprinting (about 15 feet from the actual finish line). I raised my arms triumphantly at the finish line, but I smacked some other guy accidentally while doing so, and so my finish line photo is actually kind of crappy. Fortunately, DH and his parents were in the stands and got lots of good photos of me finishing. Here’s one of my favorites, showing my ZOOMY determination:

After that, I cried a bit more (not much, as I was out of tears from the first bawling session!) and grabbed water and powerade and started chugging it as I walked down the chute to the photo stop. My knee was screaming at this point, so after the photo, I tried to spot the post-race care tent, but I somehow managed to miss it and ended up in the bag check/exit instead. DH had checked a bag for me with sandals in it (I always like to change out of my shoes first thing after a race), and I was so hot and tired that all I wanted to do was get somewhere that I could sit down and rest for a bit. So, just outside of the exit, I plopped down in some shade and powered up my phone to call DH. He and his parents were nearby so he brought them over to me. DH’s Dad fetched me some ice for my knee while DH’s Mom took pictures of me and us.

After I’d had some time to collect myself and change into my sandals, I started texting and tweeting and calling and whatnot. I also ate an orange, which was the most delicious orange I’d ever eaten. (It was so delicious that I’ve been craving oranges ever since and now have a few pounds of clementines here at the house that I’m eating!) My in-laws were super-supportive and awesomely patient as I gathered myself. As soon as I tried standing on my knee, I realized I had hurt it worse than I realized, as I could barely put weight on it. I eventually managed to hobble along with my icebag and stuff. They had parked very close to where I was, which was awesome, and as we were in my in-laws’ car, they just dropped us off at the door of Wilderness Lodge.

After heading to the room, DH and I promptly switched into swimsuits and headed for the pool. I showered off at the pool shower before going in, as I was still gritty with sweat-salt. Then, we went in the lovely cool pool and paddled around while sharing our adventures of the day. We finished with a good long soak in the hot tub, where we chatted with other marathon folks that had the same idea!

That evening, we headed to a family dinner in the suburbs, me hobbling along on my bum knee. On the way back to the hotel, we got an ace bandage for me to wrap it with, and we made plans to rent an ECV to tour EPCOT the next day. So yeah, I was that person wearing a marathon medal toodling around in an ECV! That’s fine, though…that had been part of the “plan B” for the weekend. I deserved spoiling! Oh, and the ECV was quite nice. I mean, I could have walked on my knee, but I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have been able to walk as well in the days after if I had, especially since EPCOT is one of the larger parks for walking. (A lap around world showcase is just over a mile, for reference.) DH’s Dad joined us in EPCOT, too, but he ended up not feeling well and leaving early.

So…that was my experience. I’ll do a separate post with photos and other notes about the trip in general, but that’s the part about the race. Yay! My next goal is to improve my 5K time considerably. I’m doing the Expedition Everest 5K at Disney in May, and I’m using that as my target for improvement.

Edited to add: Here’s a scan of my completed training chart. Awww…

Ways RunDisney could improve the Chip and Dale Marathon Relay in 2013+:

• Have more merch for the relayers! I’m willing to place orders onsite and have it shipped to me, if you’re worried about over-printing. I’m also willing to buy in advance, but I want the merch!
• Provide options to relayer #2 beyond going to the start point with relayer #1. It turned out that you (RunDisney) had a bus/shuttle going to the relay point from Wilderness Lodge, but you didn’t tell anyone about it! I’m sure other relayers would have used it had they known. I was lucky to stumble on it.
• Have a big screen that uses the runner tracking to show a list of runner numbers that are about to come into the relay point. Queueing up to meet the relayer was a bit of a mess, as you had to find somewhere you could see them come in, watch for them, and then squeeze your way through people in the chutes. Also, the number ranges on the chutes seemed pointless. Just let people pick the emptiest chute to go into. It ended up okay this year, but if you have more people, the current system will not be workable.
• This might not be feasible, but it’d be really cool if we had some official thingie to hand-off to each other (like a giant plastic acorn or nut!) for a photo op at the relay point. It could be optional so that the competitive folks could skip it, but the non-competitive folks could do a quick photo of handing off something between the partners. Just a thought.
• Have some snacks/breakfasts on sale at the relay point. I was shocked that I couldn’t buy or get water or a banana while waiting.
• Have a planned way for the relayers to meet up at the finish line and do a picture together with a relay background. We really wanted a picture of both of us with our medals that looked official, and there didn’t seem to be a prescribed way to do that (though we figured out later that we could have managed it).

Tips for Runners Doing the Relay in 2013+*:

• Stay at the Polynesian or at Wilderness Lodge. If you can’t do either of those, stay at one of the monorail resorts. From the Poly, relayer #2 can easily walk to the relay point. From Wilderness Lodge, there’s a bus to the relay point (or it’s around 1mi to walk). From any monorail resort, you can ride to the TTC and walk from there to the relay point (but keep in mind that monorails are less reliable on race day because of the spectator traffic, so allow extra time). Basically, from any other resort, you’re going to have to go to the start point with relayer #1, which means waking up at the same time they do, and then catch a bus from there to the relay point, which means sitting outside for however many hours it takes for relayer #1 to get there. We had good weather this year, but it can be sub-freezing at that time in the morning. Believe me, you’d rather be in one of the hotels until you absolutely need to get to the relay point…and that means Wilderness Lodge or Poly.
• Plan for your runner #1 to come into the finish line area and meet up with you there post-race, if possible. Then, you can do a picture together with your medals. Runner #1 can get into the blocked off area by going back in through bag check, but they don’t make it really clear that they can.
• Bring snacks, water, and entertainment for waiting at the relay point. Bring a blanket to wrap up in. There’s a bag check there where you can check it all in either runner’s name (ideally put it under runner #2 and have him/her return it to you later). You can also just hand off items to runner #1, but keep in mind that they’ll be sweaty and tired and potentially in no mood to grab your stuff from you.

* These tips assume that RunDisney doesn’t change much from how it was set up in 2012.

We were upset that the Eiffel Tower lights show had no music, so we made up our own. Make sure you have your speakers on and the volume turned up, as the silliness is our voice-over.

Our flight from Venice to Frankfurt was rather awesome, as we flew over the Alps.  That is definitely an impressive mountain range.  It was great to see it from above in addition to the train ride.  Also, Lufthansa’s flight attendants for that flight were hot German guys.   And they handed out this stuff called Tender Milch Leche that ended up being like a small Little Debbie Swiss Roll with better chocolate and stuff.  Hey!  I wonder if that’s why it’s called a Swiss Roll!  I bet it came from there.   Anyways, it was yummy, so DH asked a flight attendant if we could have more of it, and he brought us a pile of four of them.  Score!

In Frankfurt, we ended up having dinner at a cafe, and we decided to have German food, namely sausages!  We each got a different sausage and then split them between us.  I liked the beef sausage the best, as it was firm and mildly spicy. (I like my sausage like I like my men, bada bing!)  Then, we headed to the gate.  There was a brief delay for our flight because, “there were many children on the previous flight, and we need to do extra cleaning.”  They cleaned well, though…no signs of child-mess.   We weren’t worried about the delay, because we were arriving in London at around 10pm local time, and our next flight out was at 7:30am the following morning.  When we booked, we had no idea how this would work.  We didn’t know if we’d even be allowed to leave the terminal if we wanted to (turns out we could have…we even could have had our luggage), but given the short time we had, we didn’t want to have to go in and out of customs.  We were going to be adventurous and camp out in the airport, TAR-style. 

It really wasn’t all that bad.  To re-adjust to US time, we needed to be mostly awake then anyways.   What was odd is that, about an hour after we got there, a man came by and started barking at all of the (fifty or so) people camped out like we were to wake up and move.  We figured maybe they needed to clean the area we were in.  Then, the guy started walking us all away.  I was like, whoa…shouldn’t someone tell us where we’re going?  It felt a bit like a death march or something.  Also, I hadn’t put my shoes on (because I thought we were just moving temporarily), and I wanted to know if I should stop to put them on or not.  We later passed another worker (the barking person was too scary to ask) who kindly explained that they just re-locate all the overnight international people to one gate and essentially do a lock-in to prevent theft and also allow them to monitor all of us (in case someone has a medical issue or something) with minimum staff (vs. us all being spread out all over the airport).  Thus reassured, we re-joined the march and shortly thereafter, we were at a brightly lit gate for a few hours.  We camped out, and both of us managed to get a little sleep during the late US evening there as well as catching up on e-mail and whatnot.  (I hate the new Facebook news feed, btw, and I really wish I could convince all the people there to shift to Google+ or Twitter so I wouldn’t have to go to FB anymore.  Facebook took the one damn thing that I thought they did very well and broke it with this whole “recent top posts” thing.  In fairness, Google+ doesn’t do that well either, yet.  I may go back to using Brizzly or some other client to read FB.  TweetDeck’s FB support has dropped considerably since Twitter bought it, unfortunately. I can post from there, but I can’t read posts from it very well.  It hasn’t been reliable, but that may well be FB’s fault and not TweetDeck’s.)

Unfortunately, a few hours later, they shifted us back out into the airport at large.  So, that was a bit annoying, but the process makes sense logistically.  We napped in the main terminal some more (both of us either sleeping on our bags or, in my case, crafting an elaborate way that would wake me up if anyone tried to move my bag).  About ten minutes before the United lounge (which we *would* have access to) was scheduled to open, I woke up and roused DH to guard my stuff while I went to the bathroom.  (frank girl talk follows, skip to the next paragraph if you want to skip it)  Now, my period had started two days ago, and fortunately, I had remembered to bring my divacup with me (it was the last thing I packed, literally).  Unfortunately, somehow all of the shifting around or something had dislodged it, and it turned out that while I was sleeping, I was leaking.  I had giant stains on my pants.  And, I had no spare pants with me.  I had a spare shirt, but no spare pants.  D’oh!  I initially tried washing it out in the sink, figuring I’d use the XCelerator hand dryers to dry them, but my pants were heavy denim.  The stains came out, mostly, but the pants were soaked and not wearable for the long term.  My undies, though, washed and dried super-fast.  (I love those fancy travel undies I bought for this trip.  You really can just wash them in a sink, wring them out, pat them with a towel and have dry and clean undies.)  So, I started brainstorming about what I could do.  The shirt I was wearing was a wide necked tunic style, so I hit upon an idea.  I went back out into the terminal in my wet pants just long enough to retrieve my other shirt.  Then, back in the bathroom, I shimmied my current shirt down to my waist and tucked the sleeves into the neck, and bam…I had a skirt that was clean and dry.  I am brilliant.   I put on my other shirt, and I was good to go.

We headed into the United lounge after that, where we were able to get English-style breakfast (lots of meat and toast, and sauteed mushrooms), juice, and soda.  DH also took a shower.  I didn’t think about taking a shower until too late, or I would have taken one, too.  Then, we just hung out until our flight was called…and right now, we’re flying home.  I slept for about half of the flight, and I may still nap some more.  I’m looking forward to being home, though I’m not looking forward to the pile of work waiting on me!  I miss Pancake!  I hope he still remembers us!

Our flight out of Venice wasn’t until 6:30pm, and the ship kicks you off by 10:30am at the latest, usually, so we figured we’d spend some of the last day wandering around Venice.  We planned to get off the ship at first opportunity (8:10am), but our alarm didn’t go off and so we ended up not leaving until closer to 9:30am.  I don’t know for sure, but I think we would have avoided crowds at left luggage and the vaporetto stop if we’d gotten out earlier.  We had some craziness in the port, because we found out we could do left luggage there for pick-up at the train station, which seemed perfect for us.  But, a) we found out the better way to get to the airport was the bus, not the train and b) we didn’t have enough Euros on hand to pay for left luggage.   So, we headed to Piazza Roma where we could pick up the buses and leave our luggage there, as well as get Euros.  The line for left luggage wrapped around the building, so I stood in line while DH got currency and got the lowdown on our bus options.  By the time DH was done, I was near the front of the line, and we dropped off our big bags without further incident.

Since we hadn’t made it inside the Basilica last time, we decided to head there first thing.  The line was a good bit shorter than before.  We didn’t cheat the line (though we’d heard how to do it…if you have a bag to drop off around the corner, they give you a line pass on the assumption that you stood in line already and then found out that you can’t take bags into the Basilica), though DH did have a bag to drop off.  It was not a long wait as the line moved very quickly.  We also got to watch the big and famous clock change over, the one that supposedly was so important and popular in Venice that they killed the people that made it so that it would never be duplicated elsewhere. IIRC, it’s the first clock to have a digital-esque time display.  It shows the time as XI:35 (11:35) and then goes up in five minute increments, in addition to having an analog-style clock.  DH noticed in Venice and in Croatia that they have/had 24-hour analog clocks, with hours from 1-24 instead of 1-12.  It made us both wonder when and how the world shifted to the 12-hour clock face instead.

While the inside is very pretty and Rick Steves’ commentary on it was interesting, I was underwhelmed.  I’d wrongly gotten the impression that the ceiling used the Murano cracked glass to be sparkly, but it’s just gold-leaf everywhere.  It does have interesting illumination, and I never fail to be impressed at what people managed to do before the industrial era, but I went in with higher expectations.  Unlike many other tourists, I did not cheat and take pictures despite the numerous signs saying no photography.  After the Basilica, we sought out a cafe that was recommended by our Lonely Planet guide, Cavatappi, and it was everything that was promised.  The pasta of the day was delicious.  Mine was Penne Amatracino, which was penne pasta in a spicy tomato sauce with bacon chunks in it.  DH had lasagna.  The prices were very reasonable, and the service was very friendly.

Our plan at this point was to just meander through the Venice streets back to the Piazza Roma (DH pointed out, btw, that I’m getting the name of that slightly wrong, but I don’t feel like editing it all over the place right now, nor do I have the correct spelling handy).  It was around 1.5 miles back (I tracked it with my Garmin watch, so I’ll have a map later once I sync), through twisty-turny alleys and over little canals just wide enough for one boat.  We stopped by a bridge known as the Tits Bridge, because prostitutes used to stand on it and advertise their wares.  Then, we crossed the Rialto bridge (you get a better view of the Grand Canal from the vaporetto, so if you don’t like crowds, skip the Rialto.) We also ended up going by a church with huge Corinthian-style columns.  And, of course, we got more gelato.

In Izmir, DH and I decided to skip Ephesus because it was very far away (farther than Athens from Piraeus), and we were kind of on sightseeing-overload at that point.  Instead, our cruise ship’s “about the port” board suggested as an option the area called the Kultur-park, which was reported to include an amusement park, a zoo, and cultural artifacts.  It was a very reasonable walk from the ship, and so we decided to head there.

Walking through the streets of Izmir was interesting.  There were lots of random gardens and plants along the street.  The curbs were very steep, so coming up and down them was significant.  We saw lots of stray cats wandering about…one was just outside a pet store, amusingly.  Generally, we felt safe walking around, so there were no problems there.  The cabbies were really pushy near port though, trying to get us in a cab.  One cabbie was very insistent that the Kultur-park was closed and that he could tell us much better things to do.  That made us a bit nervous, but we decided to proceed on our walk because we weren’t sure if we could trust him, given all the pushiness we’d seen.

Later on the ship, we talked to one guy from London (who owns a taxi shop, ironically) who talked to one of those pushy cab drivers and asked for him and his wife to be taken to somewhere with brand name shopping.  They got into the cab and went down a bunch of twisty and narrow streets until they were in this tight and dead end alley, with no idea where they were.  There was a door with two burly looking guys in front of it.  The cabbie said, “you go here,” and got out of the cab.  Well, the guy figured he and his wife were about to get mugged, so he told her to get ready to run.  They got out of the cab and hightailed it out of the alley and down streets until they found a Hilton hotel and got help in there.  The police weren’t interested in doing anything about it (or the hotel didn’t think it was worth calling them…not sure about that), but the hotel did help get them a cab to the area that they wanted to go.  I can’t imagine how scary that must have been, though.  And, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but wonder about what if that was actually like, the best cabbie ever, and he had taken them to some secret brandname sweatshop or closing house or whatever, where all the high end goods are.  The cabbie must be so sad!   Seriously, though, I’m really glad we just decided to walk around.  That was one guy’s experience in thousands of cruise ship passengers, but it was still something that could have easily happened to us.

Our walk was incident-free, though.  As we’d been warned, the Kultur-park was largely closed, but it was kind of like City Park in NOLA. The area was shady with trees, and there were lots of locals walking around with kids or pets, enjoying the weather.  We saw one of those feral cats stalking some birds, all determined and cat-like.  But, a pet dog that was off-leash chased all the birds away.  You could tell the cat was pissed.   We also came to a sculpture garden area that probably contains fountains during the normal season.  We saw people setting up for some kind of fair, and the fair included WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE FLAILING ARM TUBE MEN!  Wheee!  As we had no local currency, we didn’t torture ourselves by looking at the booths, but the smells coming out of the food booths was heavenly.

We were hoping to find the zoo, figuring that a zoo was less likely to close for a season than an amusement park, but the area where it was on the map seemed to be empty.  DH talked up a gardener in the park that was working and found out that the zoo had been moved a few years ago to another park of the city. (We couldn’t suss out exactly where.)  We did see some animal action, though.  One pack of wild dogs starting fighting another pack of wild dogs.  That was scary.  They seemed to be focused on each other, but for awhile, they were coming toward us, and we didn’t want to get caught in the middle.  Some of the wild cats got caught in it and ran free to watch from the sidelines.  It was crazy, though.

Having finished our park adventure, we were getting hungry and were a bit tired, so we decided to walk back to the ship.  I kind of wanted to go visit this area called Havra Street that had all the synagogues on it, just out of curiosity, and also visit the downtown area nearby, but DH wisely pointed out that, since it was the day before Rosh Hashanah, the synagogues were probably really busy.  Also, downtown was the opposite direction from the ship, and, since we aren’t generally inclined to shop and don’t enjoy the whole high-pressure market concept, we skipped the Bazaar area and downtown.  (Later, on the ship, everyone said that the bazaar had tons of great deals…things like 4 shirts for around $7, designer knock-off purses for cheap, etc.  So, if you are a shopper, definitely check that out.)  Instead, we took a slightly different route back to the ship and ended up on a large shopping thoroughfare, with lots of tourist-friendly shops.  I couldn’t find anywhere selling postcards that didn’t seem to have ten years of dust and dirt on them, though.  Postcards must just not be a Turkish thing?  DH found a cafe that advertised free wi-fi, so we stopped for a milkshake for him and a Coke Zero for me.  He could never get onto the wi-fi, though.  It was still a cool little sidewalk cafe that was co-located with a music store.  They had a gorgeous red violin in the window that I was admiring, but I have no need for one and wouldn’t do it justice anyways.

We also walked along the waterfront, which was very nice, but from nearby construction, it looks like it’s about to become a highway.  We briefly considered taking a city tour, but I nixed it as I was hungry (all those smells we passed had done the trick) and sweaty….and there was a line.  So, we headed back onboard and had a delicious lunch of wings at Blue Lagoon, one of our perennial NCL favorites!

We had two stops in Croatia on our cruise, one in Dubrovnik (our first port) and one in Split (our last port).  We had not been particularly looking forward to either one of them, and I had even contemplated just staying on the ship.  But, honestly, those two ended up being my favorite ports.  We heard from a few people that Croatia is trying really hard to become the new Mediterranean Riviera-ish destination by playing up their beaches and historic sites.  It was definitely nice, and both ports were very tourist-friendly, but they were also both tender ports (the others were walk-off), so that was a bit annoying.

Dubrovnik’s old town area is surrounded by city walls that are very tall and interesting.  You can climb up and walk along them for views, but we opted instead to take a cable car up above the city (on Mt. Dubrovnik? I couldn’t get an answer as to what hill/mountain we were on.).  We saw lots of friendly cats, and we don’t know if they were feral or not.  Getting to the cable car involved a fair number of stairs, and I was not alone in taking a break about 3/4 of the way up.  The views from the top were pretty spectacular, though.  There was also a museum at the top about the 1993 war aggression against Croatia that DH visited while I took pictures.  DH said the museum is worth doing, and it’s free.  It covers a lot about the specific military offensives at Dubrovnik (those city walls actually came in handy) as well as the damage caused during the war.  The museum is inside a small fort, and you can go to the top of the fort when you’re done for more views of the city.  There’s also a giant cross up on the mountain.  I will say that all these places we went have definitely figured out that there’s this Christian market that they can sucker into things, so I think they build “monuments” like that in places probably out of some genuine respect or interest but also because it’s a guaranteed segment of tourists that will visit.  Dubrovnik’s old town area is paved and built with white marble, so it’s very pretty.  It’s probably also very slippery when it rains, but fortunately, we had sunny weather throughout our stay.  We also saw a bookstore with the Pillars games prominently displayed.  Yay Eurogames!

Split is the location of Diocletian’s Palace, which I didn’t know or realize until we got there.  The palace is either very well restored or still mostly intact (or some combination thereof), and it forms the functional center of the city.  There was also a time when Split had been conquered by Venice, so there’s a bunch of Venetian architecture there, too.  The tourism office gives out maps for a free walking tour, and we did the tour with our ship-friends from Winnipeg, Chris and Lori.  There’s also a big clock tower that you can go up for views which I opted to skip.  It turns out the stairs were very scary, being frequently narrow and then eventually wide open iron stairs with seemingly not enough holding them to the walls of the tower.  Lori ended up bailing halfway up because it was scary, but DH and Chris soldiered on to the top and got me some pictures.   One of the other major monuments is a statue of someone (I forgot who, unfortunately) where it’s considered good luck to rub his toe.

The shopping in Split was also nice.  There were lots of vendors set up for all the cruise ship passengers, as well as physical shops.  Most took Euros as well as Krona (but change was often given in Krona).  We got more gelato, splitting a lemon scoop between DH and I.  I picked up an owl necklace that I’m pretty sure I saw in Dubrovnik, too, and had admired.  DH got internet at a cafe to update his podcasts, too.  Back on the ship, we saw all these tiny sailboats.  We think they may have been doing a sailing class or something, but it was really cool to see what felt like a hundred tiny sailboats below us.

Things which are okay at the Acropolis:  Yanni playing a concert, people in all forms of dress, funny faces, wild dogs pissing and pooping everywhere as well as fighting each other, tour guides giving incorrect names of gods/goddesses, children crying and screaming, tons of people taking pictures in various states of dress and undress, grafitti

Things which are not okay at the Acropolis:  taking a picture of yourself with a stuffed bear

It’s true.  Duffy and I nearly caused an international incident.  As we were entering the monument area, a woman gestured that we’d have to leave “that” behind at the check area.  We had seen lots of monuments saying that you can’t bring in bags, so we started pulling out things from our backpack and preparing to leave it.  Then she clarified that it wasn’t the bag…it was Duffy.  No toys at the Acropolis.  I was like, “But I wanted to take a picture with him.  I’ve been doing it at all the major sites across Europe.”  She said it wasn’t allowed.  Then, confusingly, she said no flags are allowed.  I tried to explain that his outfit could be removed if the checkered flag on it is a problem.  Nope…no bears.  And her companion at the gate seemed really unsure about this and looked almost like she wanted to let us through but the other woman was not having it.  The companion said, “it’s not logical” as I was questioning the rule.  Then, I looked around.  The rule wasn’t posted anywhere.  Tons of tourists were walking in with large bags filled with who knows what,and no one was searching the bags.  I tried one more time by saying that I’d be happy to put Duffy away in our bag and not take a picture with him if that’s the concern, but that I didn’t feel comfortable leaving him behind.  Nope, no luck.  So, I asked if I could see the rule printed somewhere, as I didn’t understand how I was supposed to follow a rule that no one mentioned in any guidebook, that wasn’t posted anywhere, and that no one else seems to be following.   I said I felt like I was being targeted for being honest where so many people could be doing things that they aren’t honest about. 

The woman took me to the monument office, and once again, I explained the supervisor there that I was happy to put my bear away, but that I wasn’t comfortable leaving it, and that I didn’t understand the concern.  I also said that I wasn’t sure that we were understanding each other correctly, since there’s no rule posted anywhere about this, and could I please see a copy of the rules of what can and cannot be brought in.  Well, this didn’t sit well at all…and the exchange got heated once they accused me of lying, when I’d been honest the whole time and I felt like they were lying by having secret rules that they only enforced with me.  Then, this guy, who was like napping or something when we came in, started yelling in Greek and basically turned into the Acropolis Nazi, all like “no acropolis for you” and escorted me back out to the gate.  A Greek person who was there was trying to argue on our behalf to no avail, and finally, DH and I went to the police who first confirmed that it is in fact a rule (which even they said is silly) and that we could go in if we checked our bag, with bear, in the cloakroom down the way.  Now, a cloakroom with a ticket check-in was a bit more palatable than the one woman who wanted me to leave my things on an unguarded and dusty shelf…and at this point, I was like, whatever, because I didn’t even want to go anymore, but I wanted to make sure DH could go, so I relented.  The cloakroom guy, amusingly, was like, you don’t need to leave this here…you can take it with you, and we were like, no, we can’t, don’t ask.

So, that is how we got a police escort into the Acropolis.  Now…putting all of this aside…the Acropolis is promised but not really delivered.  The Acropolis is under renovation, so you can only see it halfway because of the scaffolding.  The columns that you do get to see are massive and impressive, but they’re columns.  Honestly, the best parts of the Acropolis area (fair or unfair) are at the British Museum.  So, you climb up a ton of stairs for very little in the end.  And the rest of Athens was not enjoyable.  The economic concerns are really showing.  Everything is covered in grafitti (amusingly, one of the two big gangs there seem to be the frogs) and the whole place feels very unkempt.  The train service is unreliable and the trains are smelly.  Taxis were nice enough and we ran into no problems there, except that one guy seemed to want to tell us that we owed nothing and then didn’t want to give us change for 20 euro when we wanted to at least give him 5 euro.    There are armed guards all over the place, but it still doesn’t feel very safe.  It was just not pleasant really, even before we got to the acropolis.  So…sad as it may make you to do so, I would say to skip Athens.  See the best parts of the monuments over in London, and go to the Greek isles (which are reputed to be gorgeous) instead.  And bring your bears without shame.

The Jade is not unlike the Pearl (our Alaskan cruise ship), with a few exceptions.  It was originally decorated and built to be a ship for Hawaii cruises.  NCL decided to change its purpose when the Hawaii cruises turned out to be unprofitable.  There’s lots of Hawaiian and South Pacific theming on the ship, which feels really odd in the Mediterranean.  The other oddity is that this ship was not planned to include a casino, because casinos aren’t permitted in Hawaii.  So, they converted what was probably the ultralounge area into a casino.  As a result, the casino on this ship is larger and more airy than most cruise ships.  If you happen to be a person that spends most of their time in the casino, the Jade is probably a great ship for you.

I had one disappointment with NCL on this cruise.  Apparently, they confiscate everyone’s passports as a matter of procedure because they’re going in and out of the EU, and they have to clear the passports at the ports.  Instead of having all the passengers go through customs individually (which would take forever), they take them and handle it with the port authority directly for the passengers en masse.  The problem I had with this is that they failed to communicate it before the cruise, so we got shocked by it as we checked in.  Initially at check-in, they gave us no explanation at all, but I was bothered because I knew we would be doing our own thing in the port (not taking NCL excursions), and if by some chance, we got stuck in port, we’d need our passport to leave.  I asked what we were supposed to do for identification, and they said a photo ID is fine, and I’m like, “No, we’re supposed to have passports.  We’re supposed to have them anytime we’re not in the US.”  But…the people there didn’t seem to have answers, and DH rightly said we’d be better off asking about it on the ship, so we left.  For your benefit, here is what we have learned since then:

* In Dubrovnik and Split, you can check your passport out from the front desk if you want to bring it with you in the port.  You can’t do this in Greece or Turkey, as the port authority holds them while the cruise passengers are on shore.
* For children or people without an alternate photo ID, they recommend carrying a photocopy of your passport.  They can make a photocopy on the ship so long as you ask before you end up at any ports that hold it.
* In the event that you get left behind, the ship reconciles the “aboard” roster with the port authority before leaving, and if you aren’t on board and they leave, they leave your passports with the port authority.  When you do make it back to the port, you can pick up your passport there in order to have it for making arrangements for alternative travel.

What disappointed me is that NCL didn’t have all of this in a ready-made FAQ at check-in.  They are normally very good at informing you about policies and procedures, often in a fun and humorous way.  They do that sort of thing better than any of the other lines I’ve been on.  This passport confiscation is something that is so unusual to the EU cruises that it feels like they ought to hand you an info sheet with an explanation along with your passport receipt.  They could also say on the info sheet who to contact onboard if you have any questions or concerns not covered.  (I’m writing an e-mail to NCL with this same comment.)

Otherwise, there’s not much unique to add about the Jade.  It’s  exactly what I expect from NCL in every other respect.  This particular cruise is definitely an older crowd.  We’ve met lots of young couples simply because we’re all desperate to find people our age.   More on that in other posts.

(Side note:  The last picture is of the vaporetto stop that was closest to our apartment.  You can kind of see the very pretty park that we got to walk through to and from the apartment, with the fall colored trees.  There were also TONS of pigeons.  Apparently, swans live in Switzerland and pigeons live in Italy.)