She says: By the end of the Australian cruise, we were ready for adventure. After a week of travelling and carting our bags through Europe's summer heat, we were thrilled to unpack and get to sleep un the same bed for more than one night in a row.

MS Noordam is a beautiful ship. It feels a little smaller than the other cruise ships we've been on, but that's not a bad thing. The BEST thing is that we have a ridiculous cabin. My back has been needing a rest desperately and we have a HUGE bathroom with a - get ready - jacuzzi tub! In what can only be described as rich people problems, the jets didn't work for the first few days and it took a few phone calls and visits to the front desk before they sent a technician to replace the inner workings. You'll be relieved to hear, we are now able to have high pressure jacuzzi jetted baths while at sea.

Matt is super skeptical of it, but I made "internet friends" before this cruise too, on Cruise Critic. On our sea day, we had a Meet and Greet. Matt was not interested in joining me after the awkward Meet and Greet on the last ship. He should have, as this one had free champagne, hors d'oeurves and great company. I met the hotel manager of the ship, a couple from Australia named Ozzie and Lakshmi who have been reading the blog (hi!) and Lulu and Deirdre who just finished Law School at UCLA and ate celebrating finishing writing the Bar. They've since become out cruise buddies. Even Matt has agreed that the Internet friends thing is kinda working out.

Even better, by being Cruise Critics, we got invited to a VIP reception the next night that included an awesome sunset, the captain (see Charlie's Angels tribute photo above), an ice sculpture and free booze, a rarity on a cruise ship, repeated for the second night in a row. I could get used to the VIP thing.

On the first morning I got up for some breakfast, Matt was still sawing logs, and I saw a pod of adorable dolphins spinning, jumping and flipping in the ship's wake. That night, at our first dinner, we ate with an odd German couple and a Norwegian couple. The husband from the Germans insisted that I hadn't seen dolphins, but "dog fish". I cannot figure out what he meant.

The first morning, we also passed Stromboli, an active volcano that was smoking and spewing.

We ate dinner one night next to a lively Belgian couple. She's a music teacher, he's a travel agent, they met when she was an opera singer and he was booking her travel and accommodations. We got her website - you can check her out at www.nelepeeters.be

For those of you who followed our adventures last summer, you'll know that instead of back problems and an Aussie flu, last year I was dealing with a monkey bite and a terrible ear infection. The past several days, my ear has been feeling terrible and we decided to once again visit the doctor on board. There was a happy male nurse who checked us in and then the doctor, who I'm pretty certain was Jim Carrey playing a nerdy doctor saw me. He took a quick look in my ears, claimed to find nothing, I begged him to search more. Finally he found a small blemish and said it wasn't a big deal. The next day, we got our bill in the cabin mailbox with the handwritten diagnosis: ear pimple written on. I'm not sure insurance will reimburse me for that. Also, it keeps getting worse and I'm pretty sure I'll have to go back. Egads.

At least we are able to go to the gym and do weights, we are back on Marta's weight program. My back and neck are feeling pretty good (touch wood). My flu is mostly gone and I don't use the puffer anymore. So long as the diagnosis: ear pimple is correct and resolves itself things are on track.