The Flagg Agency

Celebrity Century

We have been in four countries in twenty-four hours. We sailed away from Barcelona to a glorious sunset. The weather rocked a bit after dinner but for me it made for a very good sleep. I seem to sleep my best when I am at sea.

Upon our wake-up call this morning, I showered and headed to a yummy breakfast. The Celebrity Cruises difference showed itself as I was fawned over and totally pampered just while enjoying some bacon and eggs in the main dining room.

From breakfast, it was off to the first of many sessions on-board. I may have not mentioned this, but I am attending my franchise’s convention during this cruise. Instead of being in a ballroom overlooking a courtyard, I get a chance to step out of my hotel onto a different city each day. My meals, entertainment and a place to lay my head are all included in the cost of my cruise. Honestly it is one of the best values to be had for those who are looking to plan their 2010 or 2011 meetings. I have said it before, and I will say it again. You can increase employment involvement by turning your next convention into a cruise-vention.

Anyway, we finished our meeting and then had lunch onboard. We left the ship via tender (smaller boats to take us to shore) as Cannes is a port where the bigger ships do not dock. We went on a tour with two other couples. We left Cannes and headed to the town of La Turbie where we visited a perfume factory. I learned the differences between Parfum, Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette. Besides being more expensive, parfum has a higher percentage of essential oils in the formula. Lower percentages is replaced by a higher concentration of water. Parfum will last forever in an alumnium bottle while Eau de Toilette will change after a year.

The other interesting stop on this visit was they have a “Nose” in their employee who is responsible for mixing all of the oils to make a new perfume. There are only 300 such people in the world who have such a highly developed sense of smell and the one who works here went through ten years of training. He only can work for three hours a day before his senses are overwhelmed. Also, when testing different smells…we were told to smell our skin as a way to cleanse the nasal palate.

From this stop we headed to the mountain village of Eze. I will have to Google more about this as we did not have the most informative guide on this trip. Just know that the views from this medieval outpost are phenomenal. After being driven as close as possible, we walked to the top. There is a small chapel near the top. I am not quite sure of the ritual involving lighting a candle in prayer, but I did notice that if you paid more your prayer candle lasted longer.

From Eze we drove to the second smallest country in the world…Monaco. Anyone know the smallest? I will give you a hint; we will be visiting it on Wednesday. The drive from Eze afforded us beautiful vistas. We stopped to get a view of the principality from high above. We then drove down hairpin turns and also managed to drive past the place where Grace Kelly lost her life in a car accident. I also learned that when she married Prince Rainier, she took on the royal name of Patricia.

We visited one casino, but we did not make it into the main casino as our time on this tour was limited. L We did manage to drink $9 cokes at the Café de Paris. At least it had real sugar instead of HFCS.

We also saw the cathedral where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier are buried. We saw the Royal Palace where Prince Albert was in residence as indicated by the flag flying over the palace. We did not make it to the changing of the guard which occurs every day at 11:55 a.m., but I did watch the guard making his march back and forth in front of the main gate. He took 15 steps before turning around. Not sure of the significance of 15.

From there it was back to the ship first stopping at a beach in Cannes where a fellow franchise owner collected some sand off the beach. She has a rather large jar with sand all over the world. It was then back onto the ship where I raced to change for dinner and made it just as another general session was getting started.

On a very sad note, I was able to witness first hand the importance of having travel insurance. I am unable to discuss details, but look for an entry about this in the coming weeks.

Before I bring this entry to a close and get to the pictures, you probably are wondering what is that fourth country I have stepped onto in the past twenty-four hours, right? Well we left Spain, we visited France and Monaco…but the moment we stepped onto this ship we were under the flag of the island nation of Malta. All of that has happened in just one day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

We are in Portofino tomorrow, but honestly we have been going since we left Atlanta last Monday. Our plan is to have no plan. I think a massage is the order of the day for both of us though I expect we will do some minor exploring before returning to our home until next Saturday when they will force us to get off the ship!

Thanks again for virtually cruising with us!

Chuck and Laura own The Flagg Agency in Canton, GA. They are currently touring Spain, France and Italy on a Royal Caribbean/Celebrity CruiseTour and Celebrity Century. We return on October 18th and will host our next post travel conference call on Thursday October 22nd 7pm EDT. If you want to ask questions or listen in on the call please email us (flaggmedcruise /at/ cruiseholidays.com) and we’ll send you info on how you can join the call.

Related posts:

1. Less than 24 Hours until we start exploring Oasis
2. Twenty Undeniable Facts about The Flagg Agency
3. Twenty-five organizations that should consider a group cruise
4. Twenty-seven things I wish I knew before my first cruise
5. From Madrid to Barcelona