Our Amazing European Adventure! Navigator of the Seas & Norwegian Epic Review w/pics

[ShellDil]

Wow - the sky in this one is amazing

 

 

 

 

Thanks! That caught my eye too! I love how dramatic the clouds look! I may play around with it a bit and see how it looks in black and white too! Sometimes that has even more effect. If I like it, I'll post it!

[ShellDil]

And I'm back again! I'm telling you - this whole regular life stuff is really getting in the way of my trip report life! ;) Again, thank you all for your patience!!

 

We left off with the troops disembarking the Epic in Palma and meeting our guides for our latest adventures! We had just up with Kym and her husband George....here we go!

 

 

Off we went! Kym was originally from California and had been living in Palma for years now. Her husband from Canada. They met in Palma and while George does the tours as a side business, I believe Kym focuses on them full time.

 

 

We drove out of the city and for about 30 minutes to an estate which was a beautiful winery. Yup, we’re doing another winery tour today!

 

And here we are - in our hats and with our fans! Aren't we the crew!

 

 

The daughter of the current owner, Isabella, gave us a fantastic tour of the property and of the winery itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

The house there is part of the property, and Kym said her sister or maybe it was her cousin...lives there now. They all work at the winery.

 

 

 

 

At the time that this estate, or villa, was built it was common to have their own chapel on the property for the employees of the owner. So Isabella's family now has their own little chapel!

 

This is the courtyard inside the entrance of the villa.

 

The sundial on the wall inside the courtyard.

 

 

[ShellDil]

We moved through the property towards the vineyards and the wine production area. I'm not sure what this building was - but it looked pretty cool!

 

 

 

Megan gets into her Spanish mode for some Spanish wine and tapas!

 

We began to tour the fermentation areas

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was so interesting to compare to the winery in Chianti. This one was a small, family run winery as compared to the one in Chianti. This one produces about 46,000 bottles a year and only has their immediate family working there and the one in Chianti produces over 250,000 bottles a year. However this one here was far more modern in its appearance. It was a newer production facility and I assume they will grow in their volume quickly! Wine is a big product in Palma and it’s very inexpensive.

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

After the tour we went to their beautiful gardens and had Mallorcan tapas and wine on the patio.

 

 

 

Here Isabella is explaining the different foods we'll be getting as well as the wines.

 

 

 

 

 

This setting was so peaceful! Kym and George sat with us and we talked about the island and they told us stories about their lives. It was like dining with old friends!

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t write down what we had to eat, but again there were cheeses, meats, and several other tapas items. If I remember correctly there were probably seven or eight different items to try. This time everything was brought out together. We tried four different wines I believe.

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

We left there feeling quiet satisfied! But our next stop was what Kym had planned for Keith. She and George are members of a food club and they often go to one of the more exclusive hotels on the island. She had arranged for the chef there to meet with Keith to show him the kitchen and just chat with him about “chef” things in general! I thought this was such a kind gesture. Keith always likes chef talk and it was such a nice break from the daily sightseeing! So we went to the Gran Hotel Son Net.

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the lobby and common areas and then my parents and I sat on their lovely terrace overlooking the hills and towns while the kids swam in their beautiful pool.

 

 

 

 

Keith and their chef spent some time talking and just relaxing.

 

 

He showed Keith their fresh herb garden, talked about where they get their wines, went over their menu… It almost looked to me like a job interview without the pressure!

[ShellDil]

When we left here we had a very short time to go into Palma for some brief souvenir shopping. The quest for the magnet, postcards and oh – the 3rd pair of Alex’s sunglasses was now cracked. The lens had popped out! Pair one, broke at home before even leaving. Pair two was left on the van we used to transfer from Rome to the Navigator, pair 3 – well, that has lasted us what – 2 weeks now! But now we’re looking for sunglasses in Palma. Found a pair for about 15 Euro. Ok – let’s let them last the rest of the trip please!

 

 

A square in what I guess would be downtown Palma. There were several vendors set up selling goods along the other side of the square.

 

 

 

 

This is a really old olive tree -it's believed to be over 800 years old!

 

 

 

I really loved the buildings here!

 

 

We all really enjoyed our day and I think Kym did a great job planning a unique day for us in Palma de Mallorca! It was much appreciated!

[ShellDil]

We got back to the ship at around 7:00

 

 

 

 

and this perfect trip suddenly seemed to go awry. I only share this because one can’t possibly think that a family of six can possibly go away for 3 weeks with no stress right? Kids can’t get along for that amount of time can they? Parents, grandparents and kids together? Even a family of four sharing a tiny cabin on a cruise? Sure we've had our ups and downs even up until this part, but somehow we've all gotten along better on the trip than at home. Did I mention before that my parents live with us at home?? So there's a lot of together time. But I was really concerned before we left how my two kids, only 2 years apart - brother and sister - would handle these close quarters for so long. They have impressed me on this trip in an amazing way! They pulled out the sibling tolerance for eachother like they never do at home! Anyway...

 

Well – this is where it all went crazy… for just a bit! We got back on board and I didn’t want to spend the money on a specialty restaurant. Especially with the late lunch we had with the tapas. I didn’t really think about the fact that neither kid probably really ate that much at the winery. They are both fairly picky eaters. And they certainly didn’t drink the wine! I suggested we try Taste, which is one of the Main Dining Room - no cost restaurants. Megan wanted to go to Cagneys, which is the Steakhouse and is an upcharge restaurant. and I didn’t even know if we could have gotten a reservation. By now it was already close to 8:00 and I didn’t want to pay $30/person seeing I wasn’t even hungry. Well that’s when she had her meltdown. She may look like a pretty calm child, and she had been fantastic on this trip! But she is after all only 11 and this was a long trip with a lot of together time. At least Alex was going to the teen club and getting some space.

 

Well she hit that proverbial wall, it all came crashing down. I honestly was surprised that it took this long into the trip. But suddenly she started sobbing – she missed home, her bed, her house, her pets, she’s tired, she’s tired of Europe, she’s just tired of being on tours. She wanted to go HOME NOW! And there we had it!

 

So, being in this tiny cabin with Keith and Alex waiting on us and Megan crying, I sent Keith and Alex to Taste to check out the menu and told him we’d meet them in 20 minutes. I tried to calm down Megan. Meanwhile Alex comes back and says Keith doesn’t like the menu there, he’s going to the buffet. Ok…The last thing I wanted to do was go fight crowds for a table and have to find food I wanted in the buffet.

 

Finally, after what felt like forever the sobbing stopped and Megan agreed to try Taste. Alex, her and I went to the entrance, as soon as we got there, she started crying again and went back to the room. Oh boy. She just needed her time to get it all out I suppose.

 

Alex and I went to O’Sheehans. This is the "pub" type restaurant on the Epic. It's included in the cost of the cruise. It was fine. I got the Wedge salad, but without the salmon and it was really small. I ordered the chicken fingers, cut them up and put them in the salad. That made it more of a meal. After we ate, Alex went to the teen club – I think they may have been doing bowling tonight. I went back to the room where Megan had calmed down, Keith was watching tv and we convinced her to just get room service.

 

Not the end of the day it should have been, but this is a long trip and it’s bound to have some bumps along the road.

 

Everyone calmed down and by the time Megan went to bed, she was feeling much better. Now that the crying was out of her system I think she was good to go!

 

 

We could move on to our next adventure! But before we do - some night pictures of the pool deck on the Epic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruzinlady1947]

Incredible pictures. I love reading these reviews. Most of them are so awesome. Places I would never get to visit are right there at my fingertips to read about and view such awesome photos. Best part is, that is doesn't cost me a penny. :p

 

Your pictures are beautiful. You sure have a good eye for composition.

 

I feel sorry for your daughter. I am sure it was hard for her or any child to be gone from home for so long. But, I think she handled it well. Probably better that I could.

 

I so appreciate all the time you are taking to share your memorable moments with us. Thanks again.

 

Gwen :)

[Tokyo Mom]

Still faithfully reading and enjoying every entry. Thank you for sharing. Our family of 6 (myself, husband and four kids 17, 19, 21, 23) were on the Navigator - I believe the week before you boarded. After the cruise we spent 3 nights in Rome and we made it until the final night without a meltdown - so I understand completely. :) Michelle

[Jax129]

We left there feeling quiet satisfied! But our next stop was what Kym had planned for Keith. She and George are members of a food club and they often go to one of the more exclusive hotels on the island. She had arranged for the chef there to meet with Keith to show him the kitchen and just chat with him about “chef” things in general! I thought this was such a kind gesture. Keith always likes chef talk and it was such a nice break from the daily sightseeing! So we went to the Gran Hotel Son Net.

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the lobby and common areas and then my parents and I sat on their lovely terrace overlooking the hills and towns while the kids swam in their beautiful pool.

 

 

 

 

Keith and their chef spent some time talking and just relaxing.

 

 

He showed Keith their fresh herb garden, talked about where they get their wines, went over their menu… It almost looked to me like a job interview without the pressure!

 

WOW!!! I want to go here A.S.A.P.!!! Thanks so much for your amazing review & awesome pictures!!

[ShellDil]

Sunday, June 23rd

 

Today we are spending the day in Barcelona! I can’t even believe the places we’ve been. Many of the passengers on the Epic are disembarking here for the end of their cruise. They began in Barcelona a week ago. But lucky us, we still have a few days left since we began in Rome.

 

Which I suppose makes it a good time to mention this feeling of being the displaced passenger in a way. It seemed that the majority of passengers board in Barcelona not Rome. Actually some passengers even boarded in Marseilles – I wonder how they felt?

 

But what I mean by this was that on the Epic Barcelona was Day 1. Everything that was handed out was based on that schedule as if our boarding was an afterthought. For example, when I took Megan to sign her up at the kids club for her age group when we boarded on Wednesday, they person we spoke to was very friendly of course. I had no issues there at all She explained how the sign in worked, how I could set her up to either have to be signed in and out or since she was 11 she could be allowed to leave on her own but she had to stay at least two hours before leaving. But when we asked for the schedule for the week, it only went until Saturday. I asked if they had one from Sunday through Tuesday – since we arrived on Wednesday and would be there all week, she really brushed it off saying – “oh it really doesn’t matter – it’s pretty much the same every week – just use this one”. While I do understand that – it would be nice to have things printed up for passengers boarding in Rome as their day 1.

 

Same thing with the laundry special. When I asked our room steward when we would have the $25 bag special, even though she obviously knew we were just boarding in Rome – she seemed really confused as to when we would get the special since we didn’t board in Barcelona.

 

And then she told us how busy she is on Barcelona day because they have so many cabins to turn over for new passengers – so even though that was our laundry special day – she wasn’t sure how early she could pick up our bag. She was very nice, did her job well, but again – I felt like we were an afterthought to the other passengers at times.

 

It wasn’t a huge thing, but it was very different from other cruises I have been on and nothing that would prevent me from boarding in Rome again. But something that I think could be easily prevented. I think every passenger should be treated equally and should be made to feel equally important regardless of the port they board.

 

Ok….back to the journey!

 

Today we were sharing our tour with a mom and her daughter who we met on cruise critic. We used Barcelona Day Tours for their Barcelona and Montserrat full day private tour. The ship docked at 5 am since it was a disembarking port for passengers leaving the ship as their port of call, but our tour wasn’t until 9 am.

 

We met our group and left the ship, finding our guide Marta very easily among the incredibly busy and super crowded port! Marta whisked us away and onto a large van, actually more like a small bus and off we went.

 

Our first stop would be Montserrat. We drove for about an hour. Marta talked the whole time – mostly to my dad who must have asked her a million questions!

 

As we got closer to Montserrat the views became just amazing. We started to climb the mountain and the higher we went the more beautiful. It seems that each day we go to somewhere even more breathtaking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We traveled up the winding road – up and up and up! There were people hiking it, riding bicycles up, and even some cable cars…we were happy to be on our little bus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally made our way to the monastery at Montesrrat.

 

 

[ShellDil]

Marta took us all around. She showed us all of the different buildings and told us the historical significance of each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

We stopped in the Basilica and it was just beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

Mass was just starting – we peeked in and it was packed – wall to wall! I managed to snap some pictures above everyone's heads though!

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to not stay to listed to the famous Children’s Choir sing, it would have been about a 45 minute wait until they started and we didn’t know how far back we’d be since it was so crowded.

[ShellDil]

So we decided to split up. Alex was itching to climb. He saw trails and paths and mountains to climb! He and Keith went off to find something with some adventure!

 

The other family with us and I wanted to take the funicular up higher on the mountain and walk the trails up there.

 

 

My parents and Megan – they weren’t sure. They went off with Marta, but whatever they planned, it didn’t work out and they ended up on the funicular with us!

 

 

We went up even higher and the view was even better! My new traveling companions and I took a path around the huge rock face and looked out below. When we were actually down there looking up we had commented about how amazing it must be to be up there – and now here we were!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

As we were standing there, a couple of guys came by in there rock climbing gear – they were going to scale this big rock!

 

 

Ok – there’s adventure. We’re just walking on the path!

 

This is that big rock from the Monastery level - if you zoom in or look closely you can see people climbing up that rock and about a quarter of the way up the rock there is a small ledge, that's where we were walking!

 

 

 

 

 

We think Marta intended us to go further – she mentioned some other big boulder, but we knew if we were going to make the next funicular down we had to turn back.

 

We met up with my parents, Megan and Marta who were at a picture viewing spot and enjoying their views up there. We went back down and found Keith and Alex who had gone on a hike up to a chapel way up on the mountain side. Marta was pretty surprised that they had made it there and back in the amount of time that they did! She said it was a pretty intense hike! She doesn’t know Alex and Keith!

 

We had a quick lunch at Montesrrat before leaving and we headed towards Barcelona. So far it’s been a pretty amazing day!

[cruzinlady1947]

OMG......what a beautiful world we live in. Fantastic pictures. Thanks for posting. How fortunate you are to see all this in person. :cool:

 

Gwen :)

[SharkCruiser24]

What an amazing review so far! This was definitely the trip of a lifetime! Your pictures are fabulous! Looking forward to more!

[ShellDil]

On our way to Barcelona Marta told us all about Gaudi. We’d be seeing some of his major works. Or first stop was Park Guel.

 

 

 

 

 

This was fascinating! I might even say it was a bit crazy! We enjoyed walking around here for about thirty minutes or so.

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

It was quite crowded and the time we spent here was enough time to get an appreciation for the vision that Gaudi had when he designed it, and also to see the Park that it has become today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

Next we went to La Sagrada Familia. Now we had all prepurchased tickets for our designated entry time and we were there right on time.

 

 

 

 

I’m going to fill you in on a super great money saver that I found here on the Spain Port of Call board for anyone who hasn’t already found it…if you are a family – you can go to the Sagrada Familia website and become a Friend of the Sagrada Familia member for approximately 36 Euro for a family of 4. This gives you entry to the Sagrada at ANY time and gives you TWO guest passes!

 

Currently you also have free access to climb the towers as well. You will get preprinted membership cards with your names on them and your membership is good for an entire year! So the six of us were able to enter for only 36 Euro! We didn’t need a specific time reservation and had we had more time or had there been a time slot available when we were there, we could have climbed the tower. There is also a discount in the gift shop!

 

Marta couldn’t get over the fact that I had the Friend’s membership. She was amazed that I pulled out my 4 red cards and had the guest passes for my parents! She told me I needed to be a travel agent – and couldn’t believe anyone from the US could be so prepared for a trip! I told her – cruise critic – that’s how we do it! :D The whole time we were at Sagrada she kept laughing at me and calling me a Friend of the Familia!

 

Anyway – back to the Sagrada – some people may find it a bit odd, or tacky – or maybe gaudy ;) But I found it just “WOW” – it was just amazing! Even Alex who had yet to be impressed by a church found this one pretty impressive! He loved the way this one was designed.

 

 

[ShellDil]

Marta gave us some time to take it all in, as if that’s even possible!

 

 

 

 

 

And then she took us around the inside first and explained all that we were seeing. Showed us how things that looked three dimensional were actually not!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also took us outside and explained the facades to us. It was great to have here there explaining everything to us.

 

These are the doors that will be the main entrance when the Sagrada is finally finished. The picture doesn't really do them justice - they're quite large!

 

 

One of the facades

 

Another facade

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

After the Sagrada we drove past two more Gaudi buildings

 

These pictures really aren't the greatest since they were all taken out of a moving van window - but I tried my best!

 

 

 

and then drove up to the Olympic Park. Just a drive by here.

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Shelli, I read on the Spain boards in the last couple of days that Sagrada has stopped selling the Friends passes outside of Europe. Guess the caught in to how many folks were doing this.

 

I had planned to do the same thing next year but it looks like I will miss out. Count yourself lucky that you were able to take advantage if a great offer before the pulled it.

 

I'm loving your review & am getting lots of great ideas for our trip.