Happycrafter123

Happy news - our laundry came back! We were a bit worried, we sent virtually all our clothes to the laundry two days ago. It should have been back yesterday by 6pm. It came back tonight at 9 pm. We called last night and then this afternoon, apparently we were one of about 1500 (!!!) rooms who were excited to send clothes on the $29 deal, all in the same day, and they are struggling to get the laundry done

Photos from Sorrentto.

Some photos from Pompéi

I’ll give a full excursion review later, both Sorrentto and Pompéi are interesting stops but it was really too rushed and the guide’s accent, pooor quality sound headsets (lots of crackling) and size of group got in the way of it being a thumbs up day. I would focus on just one if I were to get a redo. Lunch was mediocre and I’d have rather of gone on my own somewhere in Sorrentto or Naples. So two thumbs down on this one despite super interesting itinerary. The execution was the problem, not the ingredients…. the ship comes in to the port so you could very easily do Naples on your own without a tour, or with a local walking or hop on hop off option.

Today’s excursion:

Giant line at Starbucks about 20 in line and 10 waiting for their drinks. Decided to drink buffet coffee today. Everyone is excited for early morning tours

Something I like about cruising is that there is always an interesting view. Woke up intermittently last night and had to jump out of bed for these photos.

Nice looking port at Naples!

Yesterday’s daily

We enjoy watching the buses come in and runners at the end of the day…. We take our entertainment where we can lol! no big lines today and while we had to go through a customs gate before the NCL security they waved us through and the X-ray machines were all shut off all aboard was 4:30. About 6 NCL tour buses came in after that with the last at 4:45. Several folks walking up and onboard till around 5. I was surprised that folks showing up that late weren’t even running! by 530 we were heading off. a gorgeous day in Sicily!

@cruiseny4life yes it was actually a nice easygoing jaunt about, Messina is my favorite stop yet as a lovely and interesting seaside place. the tour guide had good English and gave lots of info, but I am learning the hard way maybe I should pick future tours that don’t involve a meal. tomorrow and next day also come with “delicious” Italian lunches, and it’s too late to change them. So we’ll see how those go.

Messina, Sicily, where the ship stops, is steps from the city. You can get off the ship and walk around easily and there are many hop on hop off busses and those little train type vehicles too you can buy a ticket on the fly after disembarking. There were many taxis available. There were some lovely botanical gardens we drove by that might be nice to visit, as well as a museum. At the clock tower you can buy a ticket to go to the top lookout point, and next door at duomo church you can get an audio guide. The clock tower is very cool maybe google it in advance for the details and try to be there at the key times. This stop can totally be done on your own and is very close to the ship. Note some details below.

tour review, Messina Sicily , NCL Ganzirri Lake's & Messina $149 pp less $50 credit so $100 net. 4.5 hours I would skip this if I had the chance to take it again, though we had a good tour guide. we were one bus with a group of 37 people. We drove around Messina with a couple stops to take photos and go in a church, and learned of the history of the region. We then drove along the seaside and learned about the the fish industry in the area. We stopped for lunch and walked around an urban area with a small lake. Be clear, this is like a small town at home with a city park in the middle with a little lake and a few boats on it. lunch was not great and if you have any food allergies skip it. Also while they advertised a meal of clams they then said they were not in season and served tomato pasta with some eggplant and tiny bit of fish in it. the tour part was good but the lunch took up a full hour and a half and was neither entertaining, picturesque nor delicious.

A beautiful day as we approach Sicily wound up spending yesterday afternoon and evening in bed with motion sickness, and used 2 more gravol to make it through dinner. Almost out of gravol but still 3 days to go, feeling anxiety. The anti naseau pills you can get at front desk and in the duty free are a different drug than gravol and I am worried about trying some new as I have a lot of drug allergies. Let’s all cross our fingers for smooth seas!!! we had planned to go to Taormina and Castelmola today and had been very excited for that, but given hubby’s knee issues and my lack of grip on my running shoes we cancelled that and booked an alternate (I thought this was yesterday but it is today). Hopefully it is good!

I don’t recall the time of our room, it was mid afternoon—we got on, went for lunch at the pub, then went up to the vibe and it was a couple hours after that. we did not have any checked luggage only our carryon which we had with us, but when we went to our room I noticed lots of suitcases in the hallways at that time.

The wine and champagne options seem to be thinning each day, the last two nights at dinner they had to find substitutes for both champagne and wine we’d had at the beginning of the trip. They seem to work hard to find reasonable substitutes. I am curious to see what will happen by the last night. This also happened on our last cruise, I guess inventory only stretches so far.

They updated daily activities due to the unexpected sea day

Virtual queues is currently empty. folks started booking Cannes tenders yesterday . I took a look just now 11am day 6 and it’s already at group 17 so you really want to be on top of this and book as soon as it pops up.

Very sad day today - strong winds have prevented us from docking at Malta, so we have a sea day. had a “go local” excursion planned to visit a lake and learn about the cultivating of moluscs, very disappointed but luckily it is sunny and a good day to lounge and work on my tan.

Running out of toothpaste and lost my face cream somewhere (possibly left in hotel room in Rome?). Unfortunately the store to buy stuff like that also has limited hours.

Onboard credit desk always has a long line, I’m not sure why? we cancelled a couple tours and booked new ones to replace them, trying to get shorter and easier ones, and they took back the $50 dollar credits on those we had originally booked but did not reapply the credits on the new ones, so we are out $200 USD, so we will be in the OBC line too soon to get that fixed. hours are as below

Went by taste and savor once again but as usual missed their breakfast serving. They are only open from 8-930 and we got there at 940. Very inconvenient which is why we wind up at buffet for most meals if not at specialty dinning. our tour meets at 11:45 so it is a problematic time to eat breakfast or lunch before we go, will hit up the buffet. another time change today, back an hour.

I normally do about an hour of stretching and yoga each day, which I have not done on this trip. Feeling stiff and achy so starting the day in the hot tub with a coffee. Note there have been no line ups at the starboard cos and we haven’t had trouble getting a drink anywhere. I brought many ducks to hide but am having trouble finding spots to leave them.

Laundry special was left on our bed yesterday afternoon Day 5. we fit quite a lot in the bag

We’ve been starting our days with room service breakfast (when we remember to put out the slips the night before). They have been accommodating if you hand write a note to the items on the menu, for example to add bacon. the fruit salad for room service is better than fruit selection in buffet