dmrrn73

Oh wow, I hadn't heard about that, so sad. Thanks for the info.

It's been 15 years since I've been to Bermuda so I don't know if they still have it but I always enjoyed the Helmet Dives. If you don't know about them it is a great way to see underwater and the coral reefs and not have to get your face wet or be able to swim. Hartley's was the name of the company I have used most times. I had always done ship shore excursions with them but pretty sure you can book on your own. There was one time it was with another company but I don't remember the name of that one. Hartley's gets great reviews on Trip Advisor if that matters to you. I don't see it on the list for our upcoming cruise on the NCL Joy in May.

I did both for our cruise in October and they worked out well.

We went in 2018 and booked an excursion to ride the train both ways but there was some sort of issue that day and they changed it so half of us did bus up and train back and the other half did the opposite. It worked out well. It turned out that there were only like 8 of us on a huge bus so that was really nice. It was a great tour overall, HIGHLY recommend.

I have been on a few cruises in rough seas (all but one to or from Bermuda and one was on the way back to NYC from the Caribbean but going up the coast so pretty much same water) and they would have the sea sick bags in the hall, announcements being made to avoid outside decks, etc but there was one where the captain even made an announcement recommending passengers to avoid wearing high heeled shoes... In those rough seas it was kind of fun to walk around, sometimes it would feel like the floor was coming up to meet our feet as we walked, LOL Couple times in the dining room we periodically would hear crashes from the kitchen.

When we went on our RCL cruise in October we just gave everything to the guys at the bag check, carry ons and all. We had forgotten to print luggage tags so they gave us blank ones to fill out and they asked if we wanted to check the other things. I would imagine NCL would do that too.

Now THERE'S an idea! 👍

LOL

Thanks for the reply. That's what I was thinking we would have to do. I was just hoping they had a place like the Promenade Cafe on RCL where it would be included in the drink package. I know we could upgrade but I don't think it would be worth the extra cost. We might just pay out of pocket a couple times. It's really for my husband. I am ok with or without it.

I agree, that dome is ugly. Although I would probably love to be inside it looking out those windows. I'm sure it's a great view. I was never a fan of the look of the Epic either.

We are going to be on the Joy in May. I know there are Starbucks on board. But is there somewhere to get Specialty (iced) coffee on board other than Starbucks?

It is used often for post operative nausea. The side effect of dry mouth makes sense when you realize it is also frequently used in Hospice patients for excessive oral secretions, also in the throat (AKA "death rattle") About the Bermuda/Atlantic ocean cruise mentioned above, I have been on many Bermuda cruises and every one had at least one way that was horrible rough seas, either there or back, almost never both. The only good thing about those if someone does get sick you are in Bermuda for 3 days or so, so at least you are still and can enjoy that part of the vacation. Although if the rough sea was on the way there, you might not want to get back on the ship to go back home, LOL. There is of course no guarantee that you will always have calm sea on any body of water but I will say that we just went on a Med Cruise in October and it was the calmest water I have ever seen since I started cruising 30+ years ago. I never felt any movement. Even looking out at the horizon comparing it to the railings, completely even/flat.

143! Norwegian Joy to Bermuda

Do you have to purchase the pass for the whole cruise? Or can you do a daily or multi day pass?

This was pretty much my Vatican experience too. It was so crowded and it was hot that day too.

I completely forgot to print the tags before we left home. They had blank ones at the port that they put on our bags before we checked in.

Thanks for reading. It is a beautiful ship. I wish we could have had more time to enjoy all the amenities.

A few more pics from our balcony and around the ship: We were out on deck for a little while, we watched a few people trying out the FlowRider, that was fun. It was pretty warm outside but the pool area wasn't all that crowded. We headed back to the room for a rest before getting ready for dinner. A few weeks before the cruise I had gone on the site and filled out the form on the Special needs page that my husband and I both had C-Paps. I got an email from them a few days later that said that they would have an extension cord and a jug of distilled water in the room. Well, it wasn't but a few minutes after we got in the room the Cabin Steward (Eddy) knocked on the door and introduced himself and asked if there was anything we needed and I mentioned it to him. When we got back after dinner that night it was there. At about 7:40 or so we headed to the dining room for dinner. We had a table for 2 on the end of a row of 2 tables for 4 and another 2 top at the other end. Another couple was sitting at the 4 top next to us. Our Waiter was Igor and the Assistant was Brian. They were both from Brazil and very nice. Spoiler Alert: we did have them every night and we were very happy with them. The ship left port while we were at dinner. I had Shrimp Cocktail, the turkey and the dessert called Crema Catalana Everything was good, the dessert was basically a Creme Brulee. Tim got the Caesar Salad and the Spaghetti and the Brownie. Brian brought the apple cobbler for us to try and that was really good too. They did this most nights either with an app or a dessert. Some nights both. After dinner we were really tired, we had a very long day and we had an early meeting time for our tour tomorrow so we just went back to the room and to bed early. We ended up using the outlet on Tim's side of the bed for My C-Pap. The cord for it is pretty long and we just ran it behind our pillows. The 2nd outlet he used for his phone. Then we used the extension cord plugged in to the outlet at the desk for his c-pap. There were 2 US outlets and I think 2 USB's at the desk so we used one of the USB's for the camera and the other US outlet for my phone. We slept pretty good but the bed was a little more firm than I like. After a few nights I asked Eddy if we could get some kind of mattress pad to help that and he did put something on that helped a little. I just lived with it at that point. I will wrap up day 4 here and tomorrow will be our first port day in Naples.

Thurs Oct 5th, cont'd We got back to the hotel and got the key to the luggage room where we had stored our luggage for the day. We were in the room gathering up our bags and the front desk guy called my cell to say that our car was there. I had booked a car service to take us from the Hotel to the Port and then from the port to the airport. It was through Rome Cabs and cost 160 Euros for each ride. I thought it was worth it to have a private car (they were both Vans). Our problem was that we weren't able to get any Euros yet at this point. I was at first afraid about our card not working but it did work to pay at the hotel but we didn't have time that day to go back to the ATM before the car guy came. We didn't say anything to him at first, I was afraid he would refuse to take us if we didn't have Euros. We did have the right amount in cash in US dollars though so I hoped he would just take that. Turns out this guy had a little credit card scanner so it ended up working out. Check in was really easy and fast. Just remember to do all the check in stuff online or on the App beforehand. There was almost nobody there. We got there about 3 I think. Our time wasn't until 4:30 but they let us check in when we got there. We completely forgot to print the luggage tags before we left home and I thought I would ask at the hotel if we could print them there but in the car on the way there I realized we had forgotten. I thought we might just have to carry all our bags with us but they had blank ones at a table at the entrance so they put them on there. We ended up just having them put them on everything, carry ons as well so it was nice we didn't have to carry them around with us. We had gotten the "Refreshment Package" so we got our cups right as we got on the ship. Then we just went over to Sorrento's and had pizza and used our cups at the freestyle machines. We then went to the area where they were making dining reservations and asked about switching our My Time dining to the Set time Dining but we were unable. What they did do was make a reservation for us for every night right then. So we had an 8pm reservation for our dinner in the 4th floor dining room. After that was settled we went to see our room. I had booked us in a Balcony room on the 9th deck at the front of the first hump and it was a really great room. #9192

Day 4 Oct 5th We had a tour booked at the Vatican that I booked through Viator. The company was called City Wonders. We had an early breakfast then tried to get an Uber to get us to the area in front of the Vatican. For some reason the rides kept getting canceled and then it kept saying finding another driver. Many times, then it would say the ride was 15, 20, 30 minutes away. We were going to try to book a regular cab but by then we were going to miss our tour meeting time anyway. We still went there thinking that maybe we could still see some of it on our own. The Basilica at least. When we got there we saw some guys with clipboards on the steps with the name of the Tour company I had some hope that maybe our tour hadn't left yet. I approached one of them and asked about our tour and he said it did leave already but to wait off to the side and he would see if they could get us into another tour group. Luckily after about 15-20 minutes he came back and said that he was able to get us into another tour. Unfortunately, it didn't include the Basilica and was not a "Small Group" like I booked but at least we were able to get on a tour. It was very crowded there today. I guess it's not that unusual. It was also pretty hot, they had various types of fans stationed every so often all down the halls. The Vatican museums were beautiful. We saw lots of things, The guide took us through multiple rooms that were sleeping quarters of many past Popes. I did get a lot of pics, I have no clue what most of it is because our guide was usually too far ahead and was talking about things we hadn't gotten to yet. His English was decent but it was so crowded and the earpieces got somewhat staticky at times. I'll just post the pics I have. I got a lot more with my camera and I do still have hope that I will be able to post those at some point. I was surprised that there were so many steps to go up and down there. after a few hours of it, I was Done. It seemed every where we went, it was up the steps, down the steps, up, down, ad nauseum... I loved all the ceilings there... Hall of Maps The view out of one of the windows These next few are from some of a couple former Pope's private rooms: After the tour we were led down towards where the Sistine Chapel was, well, it was up and down more steps and more hallways, following arrows. Finally we got there and I have to be honest, It was underwhelming. It was a big open room, the ceiling was really high and you couldn't take pictures so it's not like you could zoom in to get a good look. There wasn't really anything else in the room, not much on the walls. There were some benches but there weren't any free ones so to see you had to lean way back to look up. We didn't spend much time in there and started looking for the exit. By this time I was done. But it took forever to get out, back in and out of more rooms, up and down more steps. I was getting nervous by this point because it was after Noon at this point and we had a car picking us up at our hotel at 1:30 to take us to Civitavecchia to get on the ship and I didn't know how long it would take an Uber to get to us. FINALLY we got outside and luckily the Uber didn't take long. We just barely made it back to the hotel in time though. I'll stop here for now and next post we will be getting on the ship.

Day 3, Golf Cart tour continued. The area around the Trevi Fountain was so crowded. It took some doing to get to it and then to squeeze our way through the crowd back to where the guide dropped us off and was waiting for us to come back. Before the trip my husband had heard from multiple people about the pickpockets that are supposed to be pretty common there. We were pretty careful and didn't have any issues but hubby ordered a fanny pack that he wore mostly for our days in Rome and at the airport. A few times throughout the trip we were approached by men who would complement my husband's shoes (it was always the shoes, happened 3 or 4 times) and then try to give us a homemade bracelet "as a gift" "for free" then they would ask for money to send to their family back home, etc. Well at one point this first day the guy kept at us after we told him no and gave the bracelet back (the only time we accepted one) our driver/guide came over and made him go away. We got back in the golf care and continued on our tour. A few more pics: This was an area above the top of the Spanish Steps, they were down past that railing. Another view over the city: We drove around the Colosseum, wish we could have gone inside, oh well, next time. They were doing some construction. More city views: After the tour was over he took us back to the room. We took a little nap then went out to look for something for dinner. There was a bakery/cafe next to our building (across from the main building) and had some pizza. It was more of a flatbread but it was pretty good. We also bought a bag of little cookies and a couple sodas. We took it back to the room and ate it there. Then later we went out to get some Gelato at a place on the corner. It was really good, we each a small cup. I had 2 different flavors- Tiramisu and a caramel flavor. I think he got one that was chocolate banana but not sure if he got another flavor or not. We went to bed pretty early, we had an early tour the next day. I had booked a Vatican tour for before we went to the ship.

Thank You!

Thank you! It was really nice weather. Warm not too hot. Not chilly at all. No Rain.

Day 3 Oct 4th We were originally had a plan for The Papal Audience experience for this morning. Hubby's Aunt had arranged for it a few months ago for his Birthday. But on Sunday she got notified that it was canceled that wasn't due to a special mass that day that wasn't open to the public. On the last post I said we had an early tour but I was wrong. Our tour that day was later in the day. We did get up early and had breakfast at the main building at the hotel. It was a nice breakfast buffet. Lots of choices. Breads bagels, pastries. Coffee, tea, OJ, Apple Juice and then they had a Peach juice that was really good. Then there were eggs, potatoes, etc. After breakfast we went walking around the area near the hotel just to look around. There was a park down the road a little ways and we went in there and walked around and took a couple pics. We saw lots of People walking dogs and just hanging out. At this point we went looking for an ATM to get some Euros (We had to pay for our booked ride to the Ship and the ride to the Airport from the ship to the drivers in Cash in Euros). We tried to get some before we left home but it turns out we had to order them in advance. The guy at the desk at the hotel told us where to go. Well, we got there and our card didn't work. I had told the bank we would be out of the country and I think the guy put some kind of hold on it instead. I called our bank and the lady I spoke to said that she couldn't see any reason that it shouldn't work. I was really upset but luckily we had another card we could use for some things. All our tours, etc were already paid for so it was only things like our meals these first couple days. Our tour for the day was a Golf Cart tour of Rome. It was a private tour that I booked through Viator and I highly recommend it. It was about 4 hours and We really enjoyed it. The guy picked us up in his golf cart at our Hotel and off we went! I have to say that all of the pics for this report/review are cell phone pics (I have a Samsung Galaxy S21+) I have a better camera that I did take a lot of pics with but I haven't been able to upload them to a photo sharing site. I have tried but the uploads keep failing. If I figure it out I will add them later. My phone takes decent pics, though and I did manage to use both for most places we went so there are still plenty of pics for the report. I will say I don't remember most of what he told us about what we were seeing. I should have taken notes although it would have been difficult in the golf cart, he zipped around pretty quickly and the roads were pretty bumpy in most areas, cobblestone, brick, etc. One of the first places we went was to the Castel Sant'Angelo. It was just a drive by, well, he stopped a few minutes to take pics from across the river and then he crossed the bridge on route to another stop. There is a statue of Michael the Archangel there and then on the bridge there are other statues. One of the next stops was the Basilica S. Andrea Della Valle. I took a pic of the sign. Ohh wow this was gorgeous inside... We went in a couple more churches, then to the Piazza Navono, and the Trevi Fountain (that was much smaller than I was expecting, and VERY crowded, I was lucky to get right up to the barrier though. We also drove by the Pantheon, and the Colosseum. Church of Saint Nicholas des Lorrains. This was small and there was a gate across the entrance but we could see inside. It was a very pretty church. I think this next one is Santa Maria Dell' anima The Pantheon The Trevi Fountain Next post: Golf Cart tour continued

We did this in October when we were in Rome for a couple days before our cruise. It was really fun! Turned out to be my husband's favorite tour we did the whole week. It was probably my #2 but #1 because it was a private tour, which was really nice.