NCL Jewel - Med Cruise - Best excursions for young children?

[Rosie Cruzin]

Hello,

 

We will be travelling on the Jewel on the 23rd of July on the Med Cruise with our 6 year old daughter. Will anyone else be on this cruise with a young daughter / son? Does anyone have any suggestions to which would be the most suitable excursions and ports of call for taking a 6 year old, particularly considering distance to the site seeing destinations and ease of travel.

 

Thanks very much.

[I&MsMom]

While I know nothing about the Jewel's itinerary, I thought I'd jump in here, as I may be able to help a bit. We've traveled to Italy with children before, and I'm doing a lot of research for our Med. cruise (eastern) that we've booked for next April, when our kids will be 8 and 4.

 

Let me know what ports you'll be visiting, and I might be able to help!

[Rosie Cruzin]

While I know nothing about the Jewel's itinerary, I thought I'd jump in here, as I may be able to help a bit. We've traveled to Italy with children before, and I'm doing a lot of research for our Med. cruise (eastern) that we've booked for next April, when our kids will be 8 and 4.

 

Let me know what ports you'll be visiting, and I might be able to help!

 

The ports we will be visiting are:

Messina (Sicily)

Naples

Civitavecchia (Rome)

Livorno (Florence / Pisa)

Villefranche (Nice)

 

Thanks

[kitty9]

I've been to the Med 5 times and I can tell you from experience, the Med can be a very difficult place to find tours appropriate for anyone with young children. Remember, not only are many of these tours in the 9 to 11 hour range, but in July/August, it will be VERY hot and humid everywhere, which for many young children, isn't the best combination. But, maybe I can give you a few hints.

 

Messina: The Sites of Messina tour would be just fine at 4 hours long.

 

Naples: Avoid anything with ancient ruins. Tours of Pompeii is a very rough tour with diffiult walking and extremely hot. I would recommend the Views of Naples tour, which is quite nice, or if you think she can handle an 8 hour tour, with an Italian lunch at a restaurant, then go for the Amafli Coast tour.

 

Nice: The Nice Highlights and Eze, or the Nice/Monte Carlo tour. They are both shorter tours without much walking

 

Rome and Florence are going to be your most difficult choices. Those tours are 10 to 11 hours long and with the crowds and heat, I'm not sure about a young child. Also, there's lots and lots of walking with most of those city tours. In Florence, you will be dropped off at one point and then the rest of the tour is mostly walking. You might want to consider the tour of Pisa, and then finding a cab and go to one of the lovely beaches near Livorno. For Rome, that's the most difficult. Again, Rome will be very hot and very crowded with very long tours. The buses cannot get near to many of the sites and you will do a lot of walking just to get to places like the Vatican, Trevi Fountain and other sightseening places. This is one place I cannot help you. I've been to Rome 4 times and I find it a difficult place to tour in summer. Would you consider hiring a private car for Rome? That way, you pick what you want to see, spend as much, or as little time at those places, and private cars can get right within steps of the most important places.

 

Hope this helps.

[I&MsMom]

I'd like to lead off with: everyone has their own comfort level with traveling in foreign countries, and everyone has their own sense of what they'd like to do/see while in a particular place.

 

That said, we're inclined to see/do less and to do things on our own. The hope is, we'll save major things for next time, and hopefully, we'll get back. I'm not keen on ship-sponsored excursions, because there is so little flexibility.

 

I would also add that, aside from traveling with every kids med known to man, I also highly recommend traveling with a powder form of Pedialyte. On our most recent cruise, I bought it over the counter from Gerber, but in the past I've ordered it from our non-chain drug store as Kaolectrolyte. Amazing peace of mind!

 

Taking your ports as you listed them, these are my thoughts (for what they're worth! :p )

 

Messina: I would suggest Taormina. If the ship has a reasonably priced drop-and-do-your-own-thing type of excursion, I would consider it. Otherwise, rent a car, but get there ASAP as it can get very crowded. We stayed overnight, but as I recall, those without hotel "passes" were not permitted to park in town, and had to park at the base of the town. Taormina is a hill town, and the streets are very narrow. We found it charming. There is a Greek amphitheatre which is still utilized for music and drama productions. There are amazing views from it. There is also a small cove-like beach area, where we collected some amazing beach glass! There is a funicular which connects the town proper (on the hill) to the lower beach which a 6 year old would probably really enjoy.

 

Naples: I think in anyone's book you have a couple of choices here: Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento and/or the Amalfi Drive. Let me tell you up front, the Amalfi Drive is not going to happen for us. Over the years, I have developed a phobia of roads on the edge of cliffs. I'm done! However, you guys might enjoy it. Just beware the traffic can bog down, and I would plan lots of gelato stops if this is what you decide to do with your day. (And I would go with a private driver.)

 

As to Pompeii: we stopped there when DS was 5 and DD 18 months, as a way to break up a long road trip. I knew the kids would have a large expanse of traffic free space to explore. I didn't know that it would have an incredible impact on DS. He became very interested in "ruins" and old things...I don't think you have to rule it out, but in July, I would suggest you head there first thing. You don't have to spend hours to get a feel for the place. Just an hour walking around, absorbing the beauty in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius is worthwhile IMHO. I would just be vigilant about the "casts" - there are white plaster casts of those who passed away in really poignant postures, which I feel are a bit much for young children. The two times we were there, they were as we were leaving the ruins, under lean-tos, with a lot of urns interspersed among them. We just distracted the kids and walked fast...

 

Our plan for our day in Naples is three-fold. If it's a gorgeous day, we're heading to Capri first thing. Explore as much as we like. If we love it, we'll stay. We'll take the funicular from the marina to Capri. Poke around. Depending on my comfort level, we may take a cab to Anacapri (apparently, the cabs are all convertibles, and its a short ride.) Anacapri is apparently less touristy.

 

When/if we tire of Capri, or if the day is only so-so, we'll take the hydrofoil to Sorrento. There is an elevator to take you from the marina up to the main part of the town. There is a unique lemon grove open to the public. The Foreigners Club, with spectacular views of the coast. Places for lunch. Apparently prices are much more reasonable here than in Capri. There are even some restaurants with lounge chairs near the marina.

 

Worst case scenario, and the forecast is for pouring rain, we'll look into the Archaelogical Museum in Naples (where they put all of the things they took away from Pompeii and Herculeum) and then go on a quest for the perfect pizza!

 

Rome: If you're OK with not trying to do/see it all, I would suggest the following kid-friendly things: the Trevi Fountain (free), the Pantheon (free), Piazza Navona (free), and the Roman Forum (free). If those have gone over well, you might consider going into the Colisseum (close to the Roman Forum). If the Vatican is important to you, I would definitely consider going - the climb to the cupola would be very memorable to a child - but other things will have to be cut out. (I'm not sure how to put this in a PC manner, but beware "relics" - children can find them disturbing; not just in St. Peter's, but overall).

 

If you don't want to take on Rome, there are other options. Ostia has two attractions: Ostia Antica, a smaller Pompeii, which some consider more representative of Roman society on the whole (Pompeii being largely upper class) and Lido di Ostia, which is basically the beach for Romans. Think the Jersey shore, Itailan style! Playgrounds in the sand, etc.

 

Another option would be to rent a car and explore nearby hill towns. Orvieto is a possibily, as is Civita di Bagneregio.

 

As to Livorno, we're opting out of Florence. You may disagree, but I feel so much of what makes this city so special is directly related to it's art and architecture, and I just feel our kids are too young to do it justice. So, for us, it's Pisa and Lucca. We'll check out the leaning tower in Pisa, bike the walls in Lucca and hopefully have a nice lunch. We've been to Sienna and San Gimingnano before. I could find cool things to do in both places for kid, we're just deciding we want to see someplace we haven't before...

 

Can't help much with Nice, except to suggest that, if you are inclined to introduce your child to topless sun-bathing (and by the way of that the differences among cultures) this is a great chance. They also make great pizza here - beware (although I love) the oil spiced with hot peppers. Awesome!

 

I feel as if I've gone on ad nauseuam....If you want more info on any of this, I have a ton of notes. I can get you train schedules for Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento, etc. etc. Just let me know.

 

Thanks for bearing with me!

[kosoffj]

i&m's - mom you rock! my son will be too young to appreciate all you detailed (7 mos) but i printed it out anyway to start off our planning for our trip on the jewel 7/30!