Mediterranean Romance 23rd July - 4th August

[Jellifer]

Hello !

 

I have been an avid reader of this forum so I thought it was only right that I write a review now that I am home from my amazing holiday.

 

I am from the UK and travelled with my Mum. I did an Alaskan cruise with Celebrity last year but this was Mum's first cruise. We booked a VF verandah cabin on the Nieuw Amsterdam, booked flights with British Airways through HAL. A couple of weeks before we sailed, I received an upsell offer but it was still expensive so I passed on the offer. A second email came through a few days later and on the 3rd round of offers I accepted and we moved to SS6085.

 

We flew from London Gatwick to Venice on the 23rd. The ship wasn't sailing until 11pm so we had plenty of time to get there, which was good because the flight was delayed a couple of hours. My case always seems to be the last on the baggage carousel so we were pretty late getting to arrivals. We were met by a team of HAL staff who were wearing bright red polo shirts and easily identifiable. They walked us straight out to the waiting bus and our transfer took around 20mins to get us to the ship. It was now around 7pm so the terminal was very quiet. We gave our luggage to the porters and went straight to check-in, got our sea passes and got onto the ship.

 

We went straight to our cabin and were very impressed. Now I'm new to this so let's see if I can get a photo to appear here <fingers crossed>

 

[Jellifer]

Yay - it worked !

 

We went straight to dinner - it was open seating in the MDR. The food was really great and we couldn't get over how lovely and friendly all of the staff were, plus the food was amazeballs !

 

Had a quick look around the ship and then watched from our balcony as the cleared away the gangplank and got ready to depart. We raced up to deck 9 to the pool area at the back of the ship and watched Venice pass by, it was a beautiful sight.

 

First day was a sea day so time to get to know the ship and relax by the pool before we started the port-intensive part of the trip

 

More later....

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great start!!

[puppycanducruise]

So far, so good.

Looking forward to more :).

[Arubababe52]

Sailing on the Mediteranean Romance on Sept 9th. Now I'll know what to look forward to. Thanks for the great review so far.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[MrsMuir]

Please continue your well-written review. We'll be aboard Nieuw Amsterdam -- for the first time -- very soon.

 

Mrs M

[Jellifer]

Dubrovnik was our first port of call. We were up early and out on the balcony eager to watch as we passed by the beautiful scenery

 

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

We docked and got the HAL shuttle from the port into the old town. Shuttle was $14 each return and took about 10 minutes. There were lots of taxis available and they were charging €10 each way.

 

The bus dropped us off right outside the gate

 

[Vict0riann]

I'm enjoying your report. Great photographs.!:) We went to Split from Venice, but still wish it had been Dubrovnik!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Jellifer]

It was really hot and we wanted to climb the walls so thought we had better do that first before it got even hotter. There is a gate to climb the walls on your left as we entered but I had read that it gets busy here so it's better to walk straight through the town and find the gate at the other side of the town.

 

This is what we saw as we ambled towards the gate:

 

[/img]

 

At the gate it was 100 kuna to climb the walls - well worth it for the gorgeous views.

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

After we walked the walls we sat for a while by the marina people-watching and looking at all of the boats. We had a coffee and a well-deserved ice-cream and then looked some more around the town. There was a nice little market in the centre.

 

Tired and happy we made our way back out of the walled town and got the shuttle bus back to the ship

[Jellifer]

When we got back to the ship we were impressed by the welcome from HAL - staff were there to welcome us back with cold towels and lemonade and water.

 

It was the first real chance we had to admire the ship

 

[/img]

 

Loved the way HAL helpfully reminded us what day it was in the lifts every day !

 

 

Had a good chat with our cabin stewards Anees and Eka when we got back on board. They were perfect, always there with a smile and a wave.

 

Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine, thinking how great life is.

 

We had Open Dining so could go to the 2nd floor of the Manhattan Dining Room any time between 5.30 and 9.15pm. We tended to go around 6.30 so we would be finished in time for the show at 8pm. We never booked a table and never had to wait. A lot of the time we ended up in the first section on the right as you go in and had the pleasure of being served by Sandy, he was a real character. Food was brilliant, we couldn't manage 4 courses so tended to stick to just a main course and a dessert (and of course some of the excellent bread).

[Jellifer]

Next stop was Kotor, Montenegro. Once again, beautiful scenes as we made our way to the port. It almost felt like we could have been in the fjords or even in Alaska.

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

We had breakfast and then went to the Queen's lounge on deck 2 to get a tender ticket. We expected a bit of a wait but were sent straight to board the tender.

 

The Nieuw Amsterdam looked magnificent from the shore

 

[Jellifer]

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

We didn't take an excursion here, it was enough just to walk around the town. It was so tranquil. Outside the town walls there were lots of bars and restaurants to sit at and watch the world go by.

 

As a side note for those that are that way inclined, cigarettes were really cheap to buy here (cheaper than duty free elsewhere)

 

We got the tender back to the boat early afternoon and went to the Lido for lunch. I had a burger from the Dive In but found it really salty. The fries were great though. Ice cream from the Lido was always great, I took it as a personal challenge to try as many flavours as possible. Raspberry Cheesecake and Rocky Road get my top vote !

[Jellifer]

Another day, another Country ! This time Corfu in Greece. We docked next to the only other ship in port that day, Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. It was great to look at another ship so close up and compare and contrast. The 2 ships looked to be pretty similar in size and design (but Cunard didn't seem to have drinks and towels waiting for their guest as they made their way back on board)

 

[/img]

 

The port provided a free bus to the terminal building but it was only a 5min walk away. HAL provided a shuttle from the terminal to the old fort for $14 each return, chargeable to your onboard account.

 

Another day when we explored by ourselves. There were lots of shops, bars and restaurants. Some really good deals on 'genuine fake' handbags (!)

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

 

After a hot morning we got the shuttle back to the terminal building. There is free fast wifi at the terminal so a lot of folks were there checking up on what was happening in the real world.

[Laurino]

We were on the same great cruise, nice to read your review! We were on the 24-night Collector's voyage July 11 - August 4. Check out my photo review, if you haven't seen it.

[aliaschief]

Enjoying reading about your cruise. Thanks for sharing. Great photos; anxious for more.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your wonderful review and awesome photo's. Looking forward to more of your report, thanks.

[ighten]

Lovely photos Jellifer.. Can't wait for the next installment and some more cruise and food details ;)

[Typhoon1]

Great start with awesome pics. Looking forward to hearing more.

[madera1]

I am enjoying reading about your voyage. Thanks for including so many photos. Can't wait to hear more.

[crazycruiserdc]

We docked and got the HAL shuttle from the port into the old town. Shuttle was $14 each return and took about 10 minutes. There were lots of taxis available and they were charging €10 each way.

 

The bus dropped us off right outside the gate

 

 

I have heard another reviewer mention a city bus into town. Do you know if this is something different from what you took?

[scm1848]

Do you recall what types were available and at what price range? Thanks. Please, no flames - I just information.

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review.

Thanks for sharing your great photos.

[Jellifer]

We left Corfu at about 8pm and then had another nice sea day for some R&R. It was really hot so spent some time by the pool reading and people watching and when it got too hot I went for a stroll on the promenade deck. They have lots of old fashioned steamer chairs here and we could often be found chilling out here.

 

The Port Guide Tom announced that we would be cruising through the Straits of Messina at around 4pm and that he would give commentary as we went through. They opened up the bow of the ship (accessible from deck 5) so we went on out there to watch. The commentary was really useful and it was a great vantage point to see us cross the narrow divide between Sicily and mainland Italy.

 

We had our second Formal night (first one was on the sea day between Venice and Dubrovnik) and the food was excellent as usual. I had Beef Wellington which I hadn't tried before and it was lovely.

 

The next day we docked in Naples bright and early. We had booked a HAL excursion to visit the isle of Capri. HAL handle excursions really well. You are told to meet in the theatre at a specific time and then the excursions are called and leave the ship group by group. We were called first and skipped off the ship to be met by a lovely local guide called Fabio. He put us on a bus for the 10min journey to the boat that would take us to Capri

 

This is what we saw at the dock

[/img]

 

The boat was really busy but we were on first so managed to nab seats on the upper outside deck. The journey took about 50mins.

 

Our first view of Capri

[/img]

 

We could either go on the chair lift (ticket was included) or go with Fabio to some kind of museum, or of course you could have free time. I didn't give Mum a choice - we were going on the chair lift !

[Jellifer]

 

[/img]

 

We admired the views for a while and then had a quick look around the small cafe and shop that are up there and then went to get the chair back down. As we were waiting a chair arrived at the top with a big box on it rather than a person and it turned out to be a food parcel for the guy manning the lift at the top ! The ride was just as fun on the way down. We saw a few shoes and other personal belongings that looked as though they had been dropped so I would definitely suggest not wearing flip flops and taking care with your possessions.

[/img]

 

Hope this chair was meant to be empty and hadn't lost its cargo en route !