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12 Day Spirit Mediterranean Cruise Review (September 2014)

tmackel

By tmackel,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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shukapaw

shukapaw

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@tmackel,

 

A couple questions if you don't mind......

 

Where are you running on the ship? On Treadmill or on running track? If on track, how large is it? (How many laps to the mile?)

 

In regards to your Italy travels, is the Mercedes van plenty large enough for your group of 8? Does everybody have the ability to see where you are going, etc? Does it feel crowded at all?

 

Did you have a guide in the Vatican?

 

Color me curious,

 

Brian

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tmackel

tmackel

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@tmackel,

 

A couple questions if you don't mind......

 

Where are you running on the ship? On Treadmill or on running track? If on track, how large is it? (How many laps to the mile?)

 

In regards to your Italy travels, is the Mercedes van plenty large enough for your group of 8? Does everybody have the ability to see where you are going, etc? Does it feel crowded at all?

 

Did you have a guide in the Vatican?

 

Color me curious,

 

Brian

 

Question #1: We ran on the track on Deck 12, five laps = 1 mile.

 

Question #2: All the Mercedes vans with Rome and Limo were very nice. The vans were large enough for eight people and it didn't seem crowded.

 

Question #3: We did not have a guide in the Vatican. If we would have had more time I would have gotten one. You could spend a whole day there.

 

If you have anymore question please feel free to ask away.

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tmackel

tmackel

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Cruise Day 5

 

 

Friday, Sept 19 Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Positano, Pompeii

Up again for a run, met group and like every day, everyone is punctual and ready for the next adventure. Our guide today with Rome &Limo is Enrique ---but a different one from yesterday. Ha.

We first took a drive thru Sorrento a beautiful town, again full of cafe's and local markets but much smaller. We spent about an hour here on our own and did some shopping--- I bought 2 linen tops. Had to find a toilette as I may not have mentioned earlier they are very few public toilettes -not restrooms- it's toilettes or water closets in Europe. Unless you stop for beer/wine and food you cannot use the toilettes in the shops or restaurants. Found one right before the next big tour bus arrived, one minute later and you’ll be in line long for a long time. OK, enough about that.

Back on van to drive the Amalfi Coast and to Positano. Curvy, winding drive up the mountain with gorgeous views. Alas-Positano-The most amazing site we have seen thus far. More beautiful and amazing than what we expected. We spent about 1 1/2 hr here on our own. Cafes and local shops galore, we walked down a pedestrian only street on our way to the beach. Beach is black sand/rock; the views of Positano are beautiful from the beach. Stopped for lunch at local restaurant on the beach. Ordered beer, Marguerites Pizza, and Brochette. After lunch we head back up thru the winding streets for more window shopping. Found Erika /AJ olive oil bottle and dishcloth. Cute! Found our group and on our way back to Naples to see Pompeii.

Endriqe said he was not able to find us a tour guide for Pompeii--he said not to use the guides there so we went in as a group as Endriqe said to stay together so we end up together (note: book tour guide through Rome and Limo prior to tour). Pompeii here we come. First problem, they were out of maps in English. We spent 2 hours in the city trying to find the dead people. We saw as much as we could - the city is bigger than we imagined but could not find the corpse. After asking a few people--none of whom could speak English, we finally found a few of the bodies. We know there were more somewhere but without map and time clicking away, we had to say goodbye to Pompeii (next time we’ll have a tour guide). Endriqe was right where he said he’d be. We all climb into the van and headed back to the ship. It was a very humid/sultry day around 85 degrees. Another great day with beautiful sites. Best memory Positano!

Back on the ship by 6:00, time to shower and get ready for dinner. Tonight were eating at Windows- formal dining night -had Prime Rib and tomato soup—very good. Terry is enjoying the Spring Rolls nightly for his started. Cheesecake for me and lemon cake for Terry for dessert. Dinner was much better tonight. After dinner we went to the big show Duo Yalba, 2 men playing many different instruments and played music from around the world. For US they played some twangy hillbilly song--really? I liked it, Terry was a little board-and hot. They do keep it much warmer on this ship--- I’m never cold and I didn't need my jacket/sweater. We think it's because of all the "old' people-----we are not old on this cruise.J Went back to our nightly routine to Champagne Charlies. We tried a new beer Chelsea recommended, Franzishaner It is an import from Munich. The bottle is larger than the normal so we shared the bottle. We like it very much / our waiter at the bar is from Serbia and said this is his favorite beer, especially on draft but that is not available on the ship. He also commented it should be served a little warmer ---ick! Music was nice /mixture of pop and Latino. Bed at 11:30---great day-AGAIN!

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Our Van for the day

 

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Sorrento

 

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Sorrento

 

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Amalfi Coast

 

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Amalfi Coast

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tmackel

tmackel

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Thank you very much for the lovely photos and descriptions ! We're looking forward to our Dec.'15 Epic trip to Rome, Naples, etc. It'll be our first time to Europe. Steve

 

 

If your looking for a great travel website with info and maps, go to Tom's Port Guides. Scroll down until you see Port Guides by country. Select your country and click on the pvdf file.

 

http://www.tomsportguides.com/portguides.html

 

Hope this help you, enjoy your trip!

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tmackel

tmackel

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Cruise Day 6

 

Saturday Sept 20 SEA DAY

 

At last, a day to rest--but wait, we lose an hour and have to move our clocks ahead. Dang! Ran again this morning and then had our CC Meet/Greet at 10:00 -the Captain was not present but we did get to meet the Officers of the ship. Coffee, tea, water and breakfast snacks were served as we visited with each other. Terry was able to confirm the tours he booked with folks from CC for Ephesus and Athens tours. Then it was off to find a chair in the shade but we were too late---not a lounge chair to be found anywhere by 11 a.m. So we sat and ate lunch on the Raffles Deck -our favorite hangout during the day -all the while keeping our eyes out searching for someone to get tired of lounging so we could lounge. At last, finally-2 lounge chairs are available, but there in the sun, who cares we need to lounge. The pool was close so if we got to hot we could jump in from time to time, eventually there would be shade. Met a nice couple from L.A. Cindy (her sister's name is Lisa but I can't remember her husband's name--My book Tina Fey caught Cindy's eye). Little did we know we would become lounge buddies for the rest of the cruise. 

 

We went back to the room around 5:00 to get ready for dinner. After dinner we thought maybe we could catch a football game at the Pub, they should have ESPN or something right? WRONG—Soccer, Soccer, Soccer, We are truly missing our Football!! Europeans need to learn to appreciate good American Football. I guess dinner and Champagne Charlies will have to do. Chow

 

 

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Our favorite lounging spot

 

 

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Favorite dinning spot. (Windows)

 

 

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Back of the ship.

 

 

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Our favorite spot, the seats right in the middle.

 

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Enjoying the view at dinner.

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tmackel

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Sunday, Sept 21 Mykonos Greece

 

Up early again to run, can’t wait to see another new country -Greece. No tour today we decided to just walk this little city --lots of winding curving roads but cannot get lost. Or so they say....we took many different paths but always ended up at the village port area. Saw the Windmills. The buildings are just like in all the photos you see---all the buildings are white, and even saw men painting the grout between stones on the road white. Had breakfast at a cafe in the village. I had bread/jam/tea and Terry had omelet. The Cafe had free Wi Fi so we were able to send and check emails with the girls and Terry also posted some photos on Facebook. Checked stats from Husker game-Huskers played Miami and won! --Erika is keeping us updated with texts on Vikings and Huskers. I bought a scarf- it has the Greek symbol of long lasting life on it. Tried to bargain but the lady just kind of laughed and said "no no miss, you don't understand....." I got one for 11 euro originally was 14. Good Deal? Who knows? After all this shopping it's time for lunch. We picked a local place on the shore ---had Calamari, bread, olive oil, beer. Yum! They were drying octopus on the sails of a little boat where we were dining. Never seen anything like that before. The people Mykonos are very quiet-no pushy sales. It was Sunday so many churches were in service. We got to the village early so it was nice and peaceful for us. On way back to ship we tipped a cute boy playing the accordion. Probably earning $ for his family. Nice relaxing day in Mykonos

 

Once we got back on the ship we headed to our favorite spot in the shade at the back of boat--quiet and relaxing. Talked to Cindy and Hubby again-their favorite place too. Played a Beatles Trivia tonight-got 15 out of 20/not bad. You don't want to win this game because you have to sing a Beatles song,ugh.

 

We made plans earlier in the week to have dinner with Iowa couple Michael and Gerry Moore. They remembered and called us to verify time. Had nice dinner then off to the show---it was magic show tonight and it was awful. My head was nodding and Terry was hot (remember old people get cold) so off we head back to Champagne bar then bed. Goodnight.

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tmackel

tmackel

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Monday , Sept 22 Istanbul, Turkey

Ran again this morning and off ship by 9.....on our own again today as Terry's research said all the sites are within walking distance. We decided to take a taxi -8 euro-to our first site Blue Mosque so we could arrive there before the big tours and we didn’t have any lira for the tram. The taxi guy kept asking us if we wanted full day with him, he could show us ALL the sites----blah blah -We said no twice and then all of a sudden we were in parts of Istanbul that we didn't like-----no people around and then taxi guy dialed his phone and called someone......with this going on we had a map so we knew we were not headed to the Blue Mosque. Finally he stopped and local folks surrounded us --not in a bad way but just hounding us to buy this buy that--very pushy. Terry gave him 20 Euro and we ran the hell away. We were at least 3 blocks away from Blue mosque---we are not sure what that was all about but it made Terry nervous and that made me nervous. Thank goodness Terry has his map and we find all the sites we intended to walk to---Blue Mosque, Tokapi, (Sophia Haja closed today- bummed) Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. The Mosques are beautiful with blue mosaic tiles. I had to borrow a scarf to wear on my head as they require women to cover their heads/legs. Terry wore long pants just for this site. Made sure we wore socks because you have to take off your shoes too.

Stopped for much needed rest and WC--Water Closet /restroom at local restaurant. Busy but they found table for us. Had beef on Bread sandwich, beer, sprite. Fast service---they took Terry's plate away from him as he was still eating his sandwich. J

The grand bazaar is CRAZY. It is all enclosed with 60 different streets and over 400 shops. Mainly jewelry, rugs, leather, Turkey Delights (candy) you have to bargain at the bazaar. Terry helped me bargain for earrings and necklace. Seller was talking Lira and we were trying to figure out for Euro----to make a long story short we were trying to bargain for more than what the seller was asking!!!! Ha Ha Ha! Thank goodness our seller was honest or so we think. J Anyway I guess we are just not the best bargainers. Now to find the spice market. After leaving the bazaar we have no idea what direction we are going. The security officer told us spice market was that way so we go that way and there is no spice market. So we finally decide to buy a magnet and hoped the store owner would guide us to the spice market. This was not the place to buy magnet for directions as #1 it took the long time to convert lira to euro, #2 no one spoke English. ugh. We showed them our trusty map and one of the guys took Terry outside and pointed this way and that way and something about 400 meters.......ugh. We are tired and walk and walk and somehow we stumble upon the spice market....lots of spices, fish. Very interesting.

It was getting time to head back to ship and on way back we saw the site Terry had researched and wanted to get the Fish Sandwich there. They are basically restaurants on boats--just floating and serving people from the boats. Got in line and Terry smelled onions and he quickly exited (he hates onions). Continued to walk across the Galata bridge to ship and it is full of nice little restaurants so we stopped to rest our tired feet and use WC and have fish sandwich there- no onion! With a cold beer Yum! Great view on the water overlooking the city, Ah----we were savoring the moment -life is good.

Back to ship----NCL was last ship in port so we had to walk at least 1/2 mile from security entrance to ship. NCL has cold damp wash clothes handed out before you get on ship--nice. Back to our lounge chairs in our favorite quiet shady spot as we still had about 1 1/2 hr till we leave port at 7pm. Chatted again with LA couple and then cleaned up for dinner. After dinner we decided to go to a lounge for Cabaret night-something different but the show was cancelled because a cast member got injured. Probably took the same taxi we took this morning Ha. So off to bed we go and write my journal. Goodnight.

Note: smoothest ship I have ever been on/can't feel any rocking or movement. The waters outside of Greece were smooth as glass-truly unbelievable in such a large body of water.

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Arriving in Istanbul

 

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View from our balcony

 

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Blue Mosque (I think, we saw a lot of Mosque :D)

 

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Inside the Blue Mosque.

 

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Last on of the Blue Mosque

 

 

 

 

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