Happycrafter123

Day 2 was our only sea day, and it was a busy one! Early breakfast, watched the view as we traversed “the boot”, then lounged in the hot tub this morning, went to Wasabi for lunch, napped a bit then more hot tub time, dinner at Tepanyaki, and then Burn the floor. We were late to Burn the floor and they would not let us in to the seating area but we did wind up standing to watch from behind the rope. I’m not normally interested in shows without a solid storyline but the quality of the performers and musicians, in particular the tenor, was worth the foot pain of standing to watch it. lunch at Wasabi is good but choices there are limited for gluten free—hubby definitely won on this one. I would go back just for the Tuna bowl and warm sake. The raw tuna was very fresh tasting and great flavor combos. Also a much quieter and peaceful option than eating at buffet. The prices are not bad either. hubby especially loved the wonton bowl that he got (and the meat sticks lol!). the wonton bowl and tuna poke bowl would have been sufficient for a light lunch, and were $13 and $14 each. pool area was busy, but to be expected with this weather. dinner at Tepanyaki surprised me, it was much better than I recalled from our last trip, I guess each chef is different. They cooked my food first (with gluten free soy sauce) then everyone else’s, so I felt kind of awkward and bad about it, but everyone seemed to be good sports and the chef did a good job of keeping things moving and minimizing the wait and making it fun. I really appreciated the accommodation and food was excellent, as were serving sizes. All in all a good day, and tomorrow is Santorini!

Wifi is amazing on the Breakaway, night and day compared to the reception we had last year on Getaway. I understand it is the pilot for new Starlink system. We got the basic unlimited but unstreaming internet and it is excellent.

Getting my little Canadian hockey playing ducks ready to go!

Buffet opens around 7, lots of choices!

Who needs sleep? beverage #1 and 2 for today…. will upload dailies and menus later….

Woke up early. View off balcony.

Yes, I’ve always been very sensitive to the second hand smoke. After just one day on Board I can say we will not book the Getaway Or Breakaway again. When we cruised Getaway last year there was no smoking allowed at that time and we could enjoy the entire ship. Now even walking past the pretty open area in front of the Bistro restaurant (when the casino is closed even!) it is suffocating, and at dinner at Ocean Blue we could smell it pungently. I am going to have to figure out which NCL ships have the smoking areas more enclosed so that the second hand smoke is not spreading everywhere. Otherwise I think it may be a future for me for Disney cruises as I think they have very limited smoking/no smoking. for now will spend as much time as I can on vibe which seems nice and fresh and with our balcony door open in room.

Enjoyed the vibe area today and then dinner at Ocean Blue. suffering from some naseau and feeling the vibration of the ship so put on a patch hoping tomorrow will be better. The air in Rome and all the second hand cigarette smoke made me very unwell so hoping the fresh sea air will clear things up. That put a damper on my day but still had a good day. service has been very good, especially at dinner. I am gluten free and they gave me excellent options and also helped me plan for tomorrow. Very impressed. Some photos below (including hubbys amazing dessert which I did not try, the chocolate mousse, I had the sorbet). the ahi was very fresh as were avocados, this was the highlight of my meal, and this is certainly the best food I’ve had since leaving home. hubby loved his scallops and pork belly which he said was not fatty at all and perfectly cooked. sadly they had removed the kale taboulé salad from the menu as a side dish but asparagus was perfectly cooked with my main.

I am not sure about thé tap water, everyone seems to have different ideas on that. I usually get a beverage package with bottled water.

Drink #5 from Starbucks, the pineapple passion fruit lemonade. So far 3x Starbucks, 2 x bar. note - bar tells me the glass bottle aqua pana water we got on last cruise is no longer available and all they have is the white cardboard flow water.

Half the line eventually tore away and went the other way. There are some white tents and pasted to them are some white signs that say ENTRANCE in blue with an arrow. Watch for those.

Drink #3 - perfect margarita with Patron (drink 1 and 2 were from Starbucks and I drank too quickly to photograph)

Lineup to get on the ship - no signage and mass confusion, wound up in wrong line eventually moved to the correct one. Clean bathrooms and water available in waiting room. left Piazza Navona at 8:30 got to port it 915 sitting in waiting room after the security and check in 10:30

@roxette thank you for photos!! How are you finding internet on the ship? also tell me more about the drinking rules. Beer and wine only—Is this only while docked at the port? Even if you have the plus drinking package?

Yes we are planning to check with excursion desk for other options than cinque terre— hubby has a knee issue that has gotten worst since we booked this, but I think every thing is sold out now. we will let you know. The one we have booked is the one with guide.

In cruise news, it looks like our sailing will be a full one. We did not get a bid on this but we did unexpectedly get a bid upgrade acceptance email for our next Alaska cruise which is two months away. We saw the email and thought it was for this one and then realized it was not. So early for the other one and curious why so far out, though it had been a high bid as I really wanted the club balcony on that one. anyway, we will be heading to port tomorrow with a 9:30 check in so will keep you guys in the loop on how that goes.

Our day trip to Tivoli yesterday has been the highlight of our trip. If I only had one day in Rome that would be my pick. The group tour cost was not bad but if I were to do it again I would splurge or a private or semi private experience. what made this so great was to see two UNESCO sites, so much history and beauty, marvels of engineering, and yet so uncrowded compared to the main sites right in Rome, so you are able to experience them so much better. we booked this one with get your guide and the tour operator was Enjoy Rome. It was 7 hours and felt rushed but our guide was extremely good. It was only about a 45 minute bus ride each way, which was much better than our prior Tuscany visit.

For the edocs they did not send me an email and we’re ready about 10 m after check in, you access them in the app when you scroll down under my plans to the section called guests. Your names should have green check marks next to them and there is a button called edocs.

@jlandz09 do you have the app set up and have done your e-check-in ? It is available at 21 days out. Then you can print your edocs which includes a summary page like below. @gatorchinsky we booked all NCL excursions— we had the discount off each from the PLUS which made prices comparable or sometimes better than booking with third party.

I’ve heard from the transatlantic before us that to get off at Cannes if you are not on an NCL excursion can take up to 2 hrs. for Cannes we have booked the NCL tour of Grasse and St. Paul de Vance as we like medieval walled cities.

Day trip to Tuscany yesterday with tour group “Walks”. 3 hours drive each way, stopped at 4 different sites/villages. Very scenic and a nice break from Rome.

We just got our bid accepted at 58 days out for the Sun going to Alaska. It was a high bid, for inside to club.

Hi @southern reader I’ve only used bob’s limo for the one ride so far from airport to hotel so can’t speak to your question. maybe another reader here can comment? I bet others are hoping you will report back on the experience of the excursion!

For those of you debating on what to do the night before the cruise, we went on another food tour last night, with a different company than the night before, for comparison. I really liked the first one, but this one was definitely superior. This one was with LivTours, and called Food Tour of Rome Italy | Semi-Private Experience. It was a smaller group, only 4 of us, and we stopped and sampled more foods and wines, and learned a lot more history. In particular our guide focused on the food history of the Jewish quarter, which transitioned over time to what is now considered Roman food. We toured the area know as the Jewish Ghetto and then moved into an area outside of that which had been similar to a military garrison where Julius Caesar was assassinated. In total we stopped for street food (artichokes, cod and zuchinni flower) with Prosecco, then another spot for charcuterie and wine, then another stop for pizza and beer, then another spot for pasta and wine, finally ending the evening with Gelato.

We used Bob’s limo. I would use them again. Good service handled professionally. Taxis are also available, see taxi rates below warning that I took a taxi cab today and he made a big fuss about not wanting to take credit card and also told me he could not give receipt. The taxi was not a great experience.