My VERY late review of our Eastern Mediterranean cruise onboard the Navigator!

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Happy cruising, Melinda!! I hope it is wonderful!!!

 

Joanna

[Preciusme]

Great review, thanks so much for posting. I'm going on my first cruise on this same itin. on July 21st. Truly looking forward to a great vacation. We have 2.5 days before and 3.5 days post cruise in Rome so hope to see a few sites as well. I'll be watching for your next review:D

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Great review, thanks so much for posting. I'm going on my first cruise on this same itin. on July 21st. Truly looking forward to a great vacation. We have 2.5 days before and 3.5 days post cruise in Rome so hope to see a few sites as well. I'll be watching for your next review:D

 

 

You are very welcome!! I enjoyed reliving it. I am having my doubts that I am ever going to be able to top it!

 

What an incredible first cruise!! I have no doubt that you are going to be hooked after it!! You will get to see a lot of Rome before and after. You really should consider taking the train down to Amalfi Coast for a day. It will be a very long day, but it can be done!! It is amazing!

[Lucinarei]

Thank you so much for your great review!! I've always wanted to do a Med. cruise- and I decided last year that DH and I would do one for our 10th anniversary, which is July '15. Your itin. was exactly what we want to do, so I will definitely be back as we get closer to booking! Thanks again! :D

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Thank you so much for your great review!! I've always wanted to do a Med. cruise- and I decided last year that DH and I would do one for our 10th anniversary, which is July '15. Your itin. was exactly what we want to do, so I will definitely be back as we get closer to booking! Thanks again! :D

 

You are so welcome!! What a great trip to look forward to and what a wonderful anniversary gift to yourselves!! It will be here before you know it! I hope my review gives you at least a little help in your planning. Planning for me is part of the fun! If only I could make a living doing it, then I would be set!

[wahoowa12]

Great review...memories of last year's trip to Europe and anticipation twinges for this year's Med cruise. I have 2 quick questions: what camera did you use (loved your pix and my camera was stolen so I need to replace it) and also, where would you stay on the Amalfi coast: Positano or Amalfi or another town?

 

Thanks for any assistance! :)

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Great review...memories of last year's trip to Europe and anticipation twinges for this year's Med cruise. I have 2 quick questions: what camera did you use (loved your pix and my camera was stolen so I need to replace it) and also, where would you stay on the Amalfi coast: Positano or Amalfi or another town?

 

Thanks for any assistance! :)

 

I have to say that I am quite jealous that you went to Europe last year and are now going on a Med cruise!!

The pictures were actually a conglomeration of mine, Katie's and Corrie's pictures. I took my iPad and downloaded all of their pictures to it, any time we had wifi. We used two types of cameras. I mainly used a Canon PowerShot SX20IS. It is a camera somewhat between a regular point and shoot small camera and one that uses lenses. This one does not require a lens. Katie and Corrie both used a Canon PowerShot ELPH 510 HS. This is a very small, compact camera, but I think takes good pictures.

As for where to stay on the Amalfi Coast, I would again stay in Sorrento. It is a good starting off point. It is a compact but offers a lot. Plus, you can take the ferry to Capri from here if you want. I didn't make it to Capri last year, but I will one day!! If you haven't, check out my review of Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. We LOVED our hotel there.

[ucfalli]

Wonderful review!!! Made me super jealous!!!

[wahoowa12]

Thanks again for the great info...is your Amalfi Coast review separate from your large review posted here? I did read your entire review here but if there is a separate Amalfi coast one, I'd love to read that, too!

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Wonderful review!!! Made me super jealous!!!

 

 

I am glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Thanks again for the great info...is your Amalfi Coast review separate from your large review posted here? I did read your entire review here but if there is a separate Amalfi coast one, I'd love to read that, too!

 

 

No, it isn't separate. It is stuck in the middle of this review some place!! I am sure you read it. Have you ever visited the Amalfi Coast?

[wahoowa12]

We were in Naples last year with side trips to Capri, Pompeii and Vesuvius, then headed north to Florence. We couldn't fit in the Amalfi coast proper so we wanted to do so this year. I definitely read your section of the Amalfi coast and was wondering if you had a favorite town in which to stay. Looks like you preferred Sorrento as a good base point. You had really good details in your review! Thanks for sharing.

[Melozone]

Happy cruising, Melinda!! I hope it is wonderful!!!

 

Joanna

Thanks Joanna! We got home at 3:00 am this morning. It was wonderful! We walked our feet and legs off. I'm not sure I will ever do another cruise with so many ports, too hard at our age. It was even hard for the girls. We love all the places we visited but our favorite was Rome. I would love to go back and visit everything again.

 

We went to the rug and ceramic factories in Turkey and loved them. No high preassure but we bought at both places. The ceramics were so beautiful. We got five different bowls and then we got a carpet at the factory. It is a small one for $150. Oh, and no turkish baths for us :)

 

 

 

Hopefully I can post some port pics later on. Now on to unpacking!

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Thanks Joanna! We got home at 3:00 am this morning. It was wonderful! We walked our feet and legs off. I'm not sure I will ever do another cruise with so many ports, too hard at our age. It was even hard for the girls. We love all the places we visited but our favorite was Rome. I would love to go back and visit everything again.

 

We went to the rug and ceramic factories in Turkey and loved them. No high preassure but we bought at both places. The ceramics were so beautiful. We got five different bowls and then we got a carpet at the factory. It is a small one for $150. Oh, and no turkish baths for us :)

 

 

 

Hopefully I can post some port pics later on. Now on to unpacking!

 

 

I am so glad you had a great time!! It can be tiring. Those couple of sea days are desperately needed!!

Apparently, you went to another weaving school! You got a great deal. This size would have been like $500 where we went! I really do like it! I do wish we could have gone to see some ceramics, but after our day with "John", we just wanted to get away from him and back on the ship!! :D

I loved Rome too! How did your husband do with the walking those two days?

I am debating going out of Rome or Barcelona next year. I really want more than a day in Barcelona, as I have never been, but I would love to go back to Florence for more than a day and Rome for more than a day as well! We were looking at the Baltic cruise, but it is just so expensive. We are leaning toward doing a Greek Isle or a slightly different itinerary than the one we did last year.

Keep in touch and let me know if you do any cruises out of Florida. I might just show up!

Do post more pictures!!

Joanna

[BlondeNSgirl]

Joanna! I just noticed this review. Well, I have not been on since we got off this cruise you reviewed. I haven't had a chance to read it all, but we had an amazing time and met some life long friends on this cruise. The trip was an experience of a lifetime. The trip and tours we did were amazing. Except Turkey, but, as bad as it was, it left us with some hilarious memories. Worth it. Lol. Athens was by far my favorite. Sicily's tour guide was the best to look at. yes, I realize I was on my honeymoon...I can look but not tought right! jk. Amazing time. Joanna, we are booking a cruise in 2015. I'll be sending details to you in case there is any chance you can join us. My in-laws will be with us, but they are AWESOME! yes, I LOVE my in-laws. We need to do this before Payton turns 2. I'll be booking it by tomorrow. (Long story, but wedding in Cuba has been called off and it has been a fight with my deposit, but I got it and have to book a cruise by tomorrow). I'll fb you details and Steve and Steve too.

 

Toni

Edited January 28, 2014 by BlondeNSgirl

[BlondeNSgirl]

After resting for a while, we got ready for dinner. We had any time dining, but had made reservations with a couple from our Cruise Critic group, Cheryl and Mike from Mississippi. We then walked around the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Regretably, I don't have very many pictures of the ship itself. The pictures I have posted so far have been selections from the pictures taken from all 3 of us. I don't think Corrie or Katie took one picture the entire time we were on the ship! I do have others, but I will post them as I go along with the days.

 

After dinner and exploring, we didn't even think about going to the Welcome Aboard show. We went to bed. Toni and Chris that did the walking tour in Rome with us did go, and they said it was very good.

 

Prior to the cruise, we made arrangements to do our excursions in 3 out of the 4 ports with Toni and Chris and Steve and Steve from Orlando. Before we left, Toni and I joked that we hoped we liked each other because we would be spending a lot of time together! How do you think it turned out??

 

 

Well, consider we have flown down to visit you already, and met up with you on a tour in Halifax, the fact that we send gifts back and forth and hopefully meet up with Steve and Steve in Orlando in March....I would say...Pretty good!

[BlondeNSgirl]

The morning of our Athens stop was pretty interesting. I forgot to set our alarm to coincide with the time zone. We wondered why they brought our breakfast an hour early! Chris called our room when we didn't show up at our meeting time for our tour. Corrie literally got out of bed to answer the phone. When we realized we were late, we scrambled to get ready. We had never dressed so quickly! The day before, I had actually taken some of those Nutellas stuffed crouisants from the Windjammer and put them in a Ziploc. We were all glad I did! As that ended up being our breakfast, as we didn't get to enjoy our "early" breakfast that was delivered to our room!

 

We booked with Greek Taxi to do an all day tour of Athens. For this tour, we added another couple from our roll call, Rae and her husband, Keith. Since we were late, we quickly made our way off the ship. Thankfully, Paul from Greek Taxi was there waiting for us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I specifically remember Corrie saying, "chris, I am going to punch you in the face". ha ha ha ha Actually laughing as I completely forgot about this.

[Ireallyneedavacation]

I specifically remember Corrie saying, "chris, I am going to punch you in the face". ha ha ha ha Actually laughing as I completely forgot about this.

 

I am glad you are reading! This cruise was really, really fun! I wish we were having a reunion cruise this coming May! I am thinking that cruising the Med isn't going to be quite as entertaining without Corrie, you, Chris, Steve and Steve!

 

Yep, that's Corrie, all threats, no follow through! We were so wondering why Chris was trying to irritate us!