first cruise ever! (RCI Navigator)

Hi,

I'm going on my first cruise next month with my husband and 2 kids (RCI Navigator Eastern Med) and we have booked balcony cabin 9358 on Deck 09....Really excited and just want to make sure we've made the right choice, if you have any recomendations or tips please let me know! Thanks : )

We were on that same cruise in July. LOVED IT!!!

We also had a balcony on Deck 9 but it was at the very aft.

The ship and food are great. Several shows are not to be missed, such as the Ice Show. I hear the Beatles and Motown Show was also good, but I missed that.

You will get a better experience and save money if you either do private tours or do it yourself. Pick out must-sees in each port and then decide how you want to do it. All are very doable on your own but we used private excursions in all but Chania.

Be sure to consult the Port of Call boards for really good info on what to see and options to do.

There are several reviews in the RCCL section. The one by Twiggers from May is really, really good.

I hope you're getting to spend some time in Rome pre or post cruise.

Be glad to answer any specifics. We had a ball!

Hi, thanks for your response and advice! Glad you had a good time, im really excited about it! We are planning on doing our own thing for most of the ports, so have seen some good tips in the forum, will try to find that post you mentioned! Were you also in Messina? Would love to go to Taormina but that is the one place I am not sure if we could get there on our own/ by public transport? Let me know if you have any tips for that port.

Also, did you have to reserve seats for the iceshow?

We will be in Rome for 1 day before and 1 after, abit tight i know but i have been there before and we currently live in Europe so thankfully its not too far to go back another time :)

All the best!

We did 5 nts pre-cruise in Rome and it was not nearly enough.

For Sicily, we did an excursion with Mario Astone and saw Messina, Taormina and Castelmola. We were very pleased. It's really easy to do Messina on your own, the dock is right in town a five min. walk to the Duomo. You can actually see the top of the ship from square. If you want to go to Taormina on your own, there are lots of threads talking about it.

We did not have to pre reserve for the ice show. We went to the matinee one on the sea day. We just lined up outside of the entrance (I think it was in Studio B, just consult the Compass) about 20 min. ahead. I had heard it fills up but there were a few scattered vacant seats.

The ice show really is good. A couple in my group went to another showing to see it again.

thanks for the great tips... i really enjoyed reading twiggers review and we are looking forward to the ice show!