Vanchella Vagabonds

  I made a decision to book a last-minute cruise in June after I realized that we won't have the opportunity to travel together again as a family (Team Sierra!) for quite some time. There is a good reason and a bad reason for this. On the good side, Emily, having completed her very long training program, is beginning her career with Costa Cruises. On the bad side, John is facing some big medical procedures soon. More on both later.  Since I was booking about two weeks out, and I did not want to deal with flights and hotels, I had just a few choices. There were two MSC cruises, one from Messina and one from Palermo. I do need to cruise with MSC again soon, because I have (finally!) reached Diamond level, and the status goes away after a certain period if one doesn't cruise again. There was also a Costa cruise out of Palermo. After considering the prices, room options, and itineraries, we decided to go with the Costa Smeralda cruise out of Palermo. This was our itinerary.  ...