Planning for a great Mediterranean Cruise
Cruise:
We booked this cruise very early (Nov 9, 2023) based on a very exciting cruise itinerary and a 20% off future credit that NCL gave us due to missed ports on a July 2023 Iceland/Greenland cruise. All of these ports were new to us. We planned two days before seeing Florence and Rome before (I had been to these before, new to Travis). With people on our Cruise Critic role call, we booked the Castle and Cave tour in Koper, Slovenia and Pompeii, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast tour in Naples. Later, the FB group was much more active.
We had been on the ship before, 15 years ago, taking our oldest at age 4, on his first cruise. I like the NCL Jewel class ships. We booked an Inside on deck 9 -- 3 decks (for stair climbing) to the buffet, 2 decks to the promenade, and 3 decks to the MDRs.
Flight:
I found a cheap flight with 6 and 4 hour layovers in London (eek! -- well, the 6 hour they made longer after we had it booked). We flew roundtrip Rome, which is why we chose Florence pre-cruise. The cruise line sold tours from Livorno to Florence with about a 2 hour drive each way. This would allow us to see it with more time and get a roundtrip ticket to the same place, which is normally cheaper.
Trains:
We figured out and pre-booked the regional trains (recommended pre-booking for regional, longer, and not required for more local trains) on Italo from the Rome Termini (bus from airport to Rome Termini) to Florence (Santa Maria Novella) and from Florence to Trieste for embarkation. We did not pay to pick seats but were assigned seats when completing the transaction. We did not pre-book local trains for post-cruise: Civitavecchia to Rome and Rome to airport area. These were also very affordable for these short trips.
Hotel and Review:
We also pre-booked all hotels, 4 nights in Italy.
1. Hotel Nuova Italia, Florence - close to the train station, also not far from David. I got a cold shower, though it was hot for Travis, while the sink right next to it got blazing hot, so that was rough. The bathroom was small. The rest of the room was good and a comfortable stay. They had 2 pillows for each of us. The included breakfast was very nice. Nice front desk employees; they helpfully stored our luggage while we explored Florence.
2. Urbanauts Studios Minelli, Trieste - fun, funky design, big space and big bathroom, included a bottle of wine and nice bottle of water. The bed did have bump hazards with a slanted ceiling over it, and I had to climb over Travis to get out of bed with walls on three sides. Shower was a little difficult with no 4th shower wall. Had a kitchenette and good view. The room was warm and only seemed to have the heater available. We opened the windows for a bit, and it was good. No front desk, so no place to store luggage, so we explored, checked out, took our luggage to the cruise port, and then explored again. Very close to the cruise port -- though NCL would not commit to which port until 3 weeks before during check-in. Though from other posts, this looked like the most likely port.
3. Roman Terrace, Rome - close to Rome Termini, though we went from a different train station when we headed back to the airport. Friendly front desk gentleman who stored our luggage after checkout and offered the restroom after our day exploring Rome. We arrived between 10am and 11am, hoping to store luggage, but he said that our room was ready and let us check in early -- this far exceeded our expectations. Had four pillows. Nice room. The bathroom was long and narrow; the only change that I would make is a shelf to set stuff in the shower. Had a kettle and tea for Travis, and a fancy coffee machine and filtered water and kitchenette outside the room. Also, a nice terrace.
4. B&B Hotel Roma Fiumicino Aeroporto Fiera 1, Rome Airport - right across from the train station. Friendly check in gentleman. We went back to buy the airport shuttle for early in the morning, and he answered all our questions. Shuttle was 6 EUR/person. This was next to a mall where we went to Ikea for dinner and finally got our Italian dense hot chocolate. The room was nice. The shower only had a partial door which was challenging, and the toilet seat slid to the side to surprise me.
Land Attractions:
We also pre-booked David and the Colosseum. The Colosseum had a timed entry; I picked 8:30 am. It said to arrive 15 mins early. We got there pretty early and were at the front of the line; it definitely snaked around the Colosseum for a ways for just the 8:30 ams before they started letting people in. The Colosseum included the Forum and Palatine Hill, without a specific entry time, but on the same day.
Communication:
We pre-bought a Three European SIM card. We bought one in September too; you cannot just buy another month from the Three app that I got to watch usage last time. You have to buy a new SIM card each time. We scheduled the activation the day before we were leaving on the trip. The data worked in every country except Montenegro. Travis's new phone now supports eSIM, so we are all set for this option later. We also each had 150 minutes of wifi on the ship with the Free at Sea (now More at Sea).
Next up...
Florence
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