Friday 24^th April

Second day at sea and we are still being blessed with excellent weather ranging from 16° - 23°, calm sea and light breeze.

After another excellent breakfast of fresh fruit and omelette, we attended the third of Peter Donovan’s presentations on the ANZACs, “Stalemate”.

Lunch in the buffet followed by the 4^th instalment of Peter Donovan’s presentation “The August Offensive and Evacuation”.

After sitting for the best part of the day we got some much needed exercise walking round the promenade deck 4 times.

We decided to have diner in the “Bistro on Five” tonight, excellent soup followed by main of braised beef short rib for me and Mediterranean savoury crepe for Lynne, topped off with Spanish crepe with caramel sauce and banana.

Next stop was the theatre for this evenings show, Steve Larkins performing Freddie Mercuri from Queen.

Thursday 23^rd April

First day at sea, weather continues to be kind, with a low of 16° and an expected maximum of 23° with a light breeze blowing.

After a lovely buffet breakfast, we went to the theatre for the first of a 4-part presentation by Australian historian Peter Donovan on the history of ANZACs at Gallipolli. The first part was “Forging the ANZACs” complete with archive photos from the Australian War Memorial. Very interesting.

We walked out on deck just in time to watch as the ship sailed through the Messina Strait, separating Italy from Sicily, and had a very good view of Mt Etna, in Sicily.

After lunch we were back in the theatre for the 2^nd instalment of Peter Donovan’s ANZAC talks – “The Landing & its Aftermath”, followed by a dash up to The Reflections Lounge for a Cruise Express Cocktail Party (and free drink). Back to our cabin for a quick change into our formal gear for the 1^st formal night of the cruise, followed by another trip to the theatre for the Captain’s Welcome Toast (another free drink) and a musical production “iHollywood”.

Mt Etna from the balcony of our State Room

Wednesday 22^nd April

 Another early rise this morning as we needed to have breakfast and put our luggage outside our room for collection by 9:00am.

Weather in Rome continued to be kind with a low of 12° and a maximum of 23°.

We were to board the bus at 10:30am for the 1½ hour trip to Civitavechia, however, in typical Italian organization we did not leave until 11:30am. Delay was due to not being able to get the bus down the narrow street in front of the hotel and compounded by the lady organizing the bus arguing with all and sundry about where the bus was to stop and how the luggage was to be loaded. Eventually we boarded the bus and arrived at Civitavechia at 1:00pm.

After checking passports and paperwork we boarded the Celebrity Constellation, (inaugural voyage was May 2012, she is 965ft long weighs 91,000 tons and carries 2034 passengers) about 1:30pm and located our State Room on deck 6. Lynne took the mandatory photos and then we went to lunch while waiting for our luggage to be delivered.

The ship departed port at 5:30pm. Dinner was at 6:30pm after which we went to a show.

Views of our Stateroom