Our Amazing European Adventure! Navigator of the Seas & Norwegian Epic Review w/pics

[ShellDil]

Today is Father’s Day! We got up and gave out the cards to Grandpop and Keith at breakfast. I told Keith that our plan for a Father’s Day gift was to get him the week Spa Pass on the Epic so he would have a place to go to relax every day. He seemed to like that idea, but then again also felt like in a week with only one sea day, he wouldn’t be able to make full use of it. We’d think about it. Maybe just a massage instead.

 

We went to the Windjammer one last time and then carried our own luggage off, as we had a driver coming at 8:30 to take up to Termini train station for our train to Venice. We decided not to take the train from Civitavecchia to Termini since my parents would have to walk their luggage from the Port to the Civitavecchia station, and the once at Termini possibly have to take their luggage up steps to transfer trains. Convenience of the driver won out here and it was well worth it.

 

We walked off the ship very quickly and found our driver from Walks Of Italy, who we would be using for several tours while we would be in Rome later. When you book multiple tours you receive a discount, so our transfers were with them as well.

 

We arrived at Termini with plenty of time to spare. We had prepurchased our tickets to Venice on the Trenitalia website and rather than cutting it close on the earlier train, we had booked the 10:50 train. Better have time to wait, than rush we figured! Of course we now had more than an hour at the train station. However, we were very pleasantly surprised at how clean the train station was! We found a café with a table for 6 and room for our luggage next to the table. We sat down, had some brioches, croissants and cappuccinos and relaxed for that time. We really couldn’t get over the quality of the food in a train station! It was all so fresh!

At the train station - is it really that difficult to get a picture of the three of us all looking at the camera? Apparently the answer would be yes!!

 

We each also got a Panini for the ride, well, except Megan who couldn’t resist getting McDonalds! Our track was posted and we had no problem finding our train. Now, when I booked the train, I couldn’t seem to get 6 seats in one transaction, so my parents ended up in one car and the 4 of us in the next car. Not a problem. I was able to pick seats right at the end of each car near where the luggage was so we could keep an eye on our bags.

 

However when walking to our train I said out loud to Megan and my mom, “now you’re car 6 and we’re in car 5” and that’s when apparently we got “gypsied!” as the kids say! A woman totally latched on to us and even though she never really helped us, she kept telling us which car to go to. We firmly told her we knew and didn’t need help. Keith and Alex were ahead of us and knew where to go. She waited at the entrance to the train and pointed to where to put the luggage – we told her firmly “we know” and Alex told her to go away – we know. She then rearranged the luggage “for us” and followed us to our seats holding our her hand. I told her that she didn’t help us. She just stood there. So I gave her four 1 Euro coins and she said she wanted FIVE Euros from EACH of us! I told her NO WAY! That she didn’t help us at all! Finally she left and moved on to help others. I was pretty annoyed that she tried to take advantage of us, but at least I was able to get away with only giving her 4 Euros, I suppose!

 

Anyway, we felt pretty proud of ourselves that we managed to successfully navigate our first Italian train trip. We got through the station, luggage and all and onto the correct train and into our seats! We settled in for our approx. 3 ½ hour ride to Venice. We played some Uno, tried to nap and just enjoyed the scenery. It was a great way to travel. Although I will say, facing one another the leg room was a bit cramped!

 

 

 

 

Next up, our arrival in Venice! What would we think...people seem to either love it or hate it....we heard it all before we left - would it smell? Would it be too hot? Or would it be everything we thought it would be? Hmmm.....

 

[ShellDil]

We arrived at the Venezia St Lucia train station, got our luggage and met my parents off the train. We were anxious to see what Venice would be like! We had prebooked a water taxi to take us to our hotel. The Al Ponte Mocenigo. We are staying here for two nights, which gives us this afternoon and one full day to take in this city. Not a lot of time, but we’ve gotten used to making the most of what time we do have. This is the first we’re really on our own though in a city we haven’t been to. How would we handle it?

 

We walked outside the train station and even though I’d seen pictures for me, nothing could really prepare me for “Venice” until I set foot on the island. For me, immediately I had that magical feeling! In case you didn’t notice, traveling is in my blood! The water, the sounds of the water taxis and the gondoliers. The tourists. It was all just what it was supposed to be. And we were only there for 5 minutes!

 

 

So, now we had to find “our” water taxi. This was a little confusing, and maybe we had instructions, but I had no idea where to go. I asked at the first taxi stand and they pointed me in the right direction. After a few docks, we found someone who knew where to go. They made a call and before we knew it, our water taxi arrived.

 

As soon as we saw the crowded Vaparettos we knew we made the right decision. At this time of day, I can’t imagine we could have fit the six of us with our luggage on a vaparetto – and if we could have, it would not have been quite the introduction to Venice that we had.

 

The water taxi ride was short, but it was comfortable and we didn’t have to manage our own luggage. We pulled right up to our hotel, which had a water entrance.

 

 

Our luggage was put right into the lobby for us and we confirmed our early morning pick up for two days later.

 

We were taken to our rooms, which were up a pretty large flight of steps, but we knew that would be the case. Our group had a quad room that was very RED! Very traditional and large enough for the four of us. Two sleeper chairs I’d call them for the kids, but they were fine. They pulled out to twin like beds and both slept like logs. Anything would be fine as long as they didn’t have to share a bed! We had a queen bed I believe. And a very nice, modern bathroom. My parents had a classic double room.

 

 

 

[gambee]

I am bit late to the review, just started reading it, but I had to stop by and comment on your fantastic pictures! Thank you for doing this, I know how much time and energy this reviews take.

[Katinga]

I am so loving your review - thanks so much for taking the time to put it all together.

 

My 15 year old daughter's girl scout troop is going to Italy next June - and I have her on an exercise program so that she'll be prepared for all the walking that they are going to do. How did your parents hold up? Did you all do anything to prepare?

[ShellDil]

I am bit late to the review, just started reading it, but I had to stop by and comment on your fantastic pictures! Thank you for doing this, I know how much time and energy this reviews take.

 

Thanks Gambee! I've read your reviews and really enjoyed them, as well as your pictures too!

 

Glad you've stopped by! :D

[ShellDil]

I am so loving your review - thanks so much for taking the time to put it all together.

 

My 15 year old daughter's girl scout troop is going to Italy next June - and I have her on an exercise program so that she'll be prepared for all the walking that they are going to do. How did your parents hold up? Did you all do anything to prepare?

 

Thank you! How lucky for your daughter! That's quite a girl scout troop!

 

My parents did great - they both walk regularly, either outside or on a treadmill. The one thing about the walking we did on the trip was that it may have been a lot each day, but for the most part it was stop and go walking. There wasn't too much distance at one time. There was a lot of days with climbing steps - but that was mainly in places like Greece. The climbing in Italy will be more voluntary - for example, the tower at Pisa, or the Domes - like St Peters, the Duomo in Florence, The Tower at St Mark's. Her group may want to climb them, but she may or may not want to. Or they may not climb them at all. Venice had a lot of walking and steps over the bridges, but we didn't walk at a fast pace. Our hotel being a bit of a distance from St Marks, we did a lot of walking those days. I think my fit bit (which I wore the entire trip) showed over 8 miles on our Venice full day!

 

Some days the standing was harder than the walking. Just standing and listening, for me, was harder on the feet and back, than the actual walking was. I would find myself just looking anywhere for a place to sit! But then i was the one carrying the camera bag and water bottles and whatever anyone else didn't want to seem to carry!

 

I think if she gets used to walking and standing she'll be fine. And getting up early!

[ShellDil]

We got our stuff settled in and went out to explore Venice. We had a gondola ride set up for 6:30 and had plenty of time to get to our meeting point. We asked at the front desk for some recommendations for dinner on our way back for later and off we went, map in hand.

 

This is the front entrance of Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo. They have a really nice open air courtyard beyond that shorter wall where breakfast is served each morning.

 

 

 

It's really difficult to choose which pictures to post! I feel like I have so many that I love - but I don't want to bore you with canal after canal shots! So - I'm trying to just pick a small sampling. But it was truly an experience for someone who loves to take photographs! I could have spent hours upon hours just shooting around every turn. But alas...I had the family with me and they were anxious to move along!

 

We had a very leisurely walk to San Marco square, which is near where our Gondola ride would be. We stopped for a snack of pizza for Alex and my dad.

 

We stopped and looked at many of the masks that are handcrafted there in Venice.

 

 

Now this was a different take on the masks!

 

[ShellDil]

We just took it all in. This was truly a unique place! Our hotel was a bit of a distance from the main tourist area of San Marco square which was nice. This meant every time we went out we had a nice walk!

 

 

 

 

At the Rialto Bridge

 

 

Walking over the bridge - it was a bit crowded!

[ShellDil]

After our very touristy stroll, we found our gondola meeting point.

 

 

 

We did feel that with six of us it really felt off balance most of the time. And we were mainly in the back canals and in the Grand Canal.

 

 

We weren’t in the open water. Maybe it was how our weight was distributed. I can’t say it was a very relaxing ride or even comfortable, it sort of felt like being in a tipsy canoe! But I enjoyed the sights and it was a nice introduction to Venice, especially at this time of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

I think Mimi enjoyed it the least, yet she probably wanted to do it the most. She was too afraid we’d tip over, yet you don’t often see gondolas tipping left and right. She’s quite a worrier and this came out on this ride.

[ShellDil]

After our ride, we started our walk back to the hotel, through St Mark's Square - which I promised myself to come back to at night tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to take a vaparetto back towards or hotel and find one of the restaurants recommended by our hotel. Again, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for figuring out the transportation system! We got on the right vaparetto, going the correct direction and even got off on the right stop! It was a successful day!

 

 

 

The restaurant was a bit off the main walk back and it was mainly pizza and pasta, which we’d asked for. The service was painfully slow and haphazzard. Slower than the typical Italian service we’d later come to be used to. However the food was very good. I had my first Prosecco here and that was quite good! Some of the group had pizza, I had gnocci, some had Carbonara….everything was delicious.

 

 

After our meal, we went back to the hotel and crashed. Tomorrow we’d be seeing Venice! We had a full day highlights tour scheduled!

[Katinga]

Thank you! How lucky for your daughter! That's quite a girl scout troop!

 

My parents did great - they both walk regularly, either outside or on a treadmill. The one thing about the walking we did on the trip was that it may have been a lot each day, but for the most part it was stop and go walking. There wasn't too much distance at one time. There was a lot of days with climbing steps - but that was mainly in places like Greece. The climbing in Italy will be more voluntary - for example, the tower at Pisa, or the Domes - like St Peters, the Duomo in Florence, The Tower at St Mark's. Her group may want to climb them, but she may or may not want to. Or they may not climb them at all. Venice had a lot of walking and steps over the bridges, but we didn't walk at a fast pace. Our hotel being a bit of a distance from St Marks, we did a lot of walking those days. I think my fit bit (which I wore the entire trip) showed over 8 miles on our Venice full day!

 

Some days the standing was harder than the walking. Just standing and listening, for me, was harder on the feet and back, than the actual walking was. I would find myself just looking anywhere for a place to sit! But then i was the one carrying the camera bag and water bottles and whatever anyone else didn't want to seem to carry!

 

I think if she gets used to walking and standing she'll be fine. And getting up early!

 

They do have quite a troop - I am just hoping and praying that they save enough money to make it all real! They have had some fundraising hurdles.

 

We go to Disney a lot - and that is a lot of walking and standing :) - but after about the second day - her feet are killing her. She is not much for exercise - I just don't want her to be the one that holds up the troop - or the one waiting at the bottom of the stairs because she's too out of shape to make it up to the top!

[1northstar]

Loving your review! :)

[HighlandGirlEB]

After the show Megan and I went to the Circus Parade. It was definitely a silly type thing that you couldn’t help but smile while watching. It was a fun atmosphere. Somehow in the crowd we met up with Alex and walked back to the cabins together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was our last night and tomorrow we’d be the beginning of a whole different adventure…our land journey. We’re taking a train to Venice!

 

Amazing review :) Woot another pic of A for my album hehe bet you didnt know youd taken that :D

[ShellDil]

Amazing review :) Woot another pic of A for my album hehe bet you didnt know youd taken that :D

 

Well look at that, there she is! You know, Megan and I did see her there at the parade, but I totally forgot about her in the picture! Do you want me to email it to you, or are you grabbing it from the review?

 

Glad you're still following along! :D

[ShellDil]

They do have quite a troop - I am just hoping and praying that they save enough money to make it all real! They have had some fundraising hurdles.

 

We go to Disney a lot - and that is a lot of walking and standing :) - but after about the second day - her feet are killing her. She is not much for exercise - I just don't want her to be the one that holds up the troop - or the one waiting at the bottom of the stairs because she's too out of shape to make it up to the top!

 

I think good shoes are also the key. As we talked about early in this review, my mom, Megan and I all wore Sketchers Go Walks A LOT! Megan and I even wore them with a lot of the sun dresses we wore, even when sandals would have looked much more stylish. Comfort had to come first! You're going to have to stress that to your daughter! Megan is also not one for exercise and fitness and she did have a hard time some days wanting to keep up with us, but she pushed herself - the heat is challenging. She'd want to take a break and sit down, but sometimes when you're with a group, that's not an option. Gelato can be a great motivator! It really is very similar to the feel of a week at Disney, as far as the walking and standing part. We were in Disney in February and I remember thinking I was never going to make it in Italy if my feet felt that way in Disney! But we did it! Your daughter will be fine. Just remember good shoes - break them in before she goes and be prepared for a lot of standing and walking! :D

[HighlandGirlEB]

Well look at that, there she is! You know, Megan and I did see her there at the parade, but I totally forgot about her in the picture! Do you want me to email it to you, or are you grabbing it from the review?

 

Glad you're still following along! :D

 

Yeah she was hard to miss in that dress :)

 

Thanks ive already "stolen" it off the review x

Edited July 14, 2013 by HighlandGirlEB

[Ireallyneedavacation]

Loving your review! It is bringing back such wonderful memories of our trip from last year. We will be returning next year but not to Venice....your review is making me regret that decision!!

[Jackie55108]

First, thank you so much for posting this review. My husband and I are taking this cruise in a couple weeks and we have gotten some great ideas from your trip! :) My question might seem like a silly one, but I saw that you said you did the self disembarkation. Can you tell me how that works and how early you were able to get off the boat that way? We are trying to schedule a taxi to take us to the airport and I don't know what time we will be able to be off the boat. I know we are going to want to be off as quickly as possible as we have an early flight (10:50am). Any input you have from your experience would greatly be appreciated!

Jackie

[ShellDil]

First, thank you so much for posting this review. My husband and I are taking this cruise in a couple weeks and we have gotten some great ideas from your trip! :) My question might seem like a silly one, but I saw that you said you did the self disembarkation. Can you tell me how that works and how early you were able to get off the boat that way? We are trying to schedule a taxi to take us to the airport and I don't know what time we will be able to be off the boat. I know we are going to want to be off as quickly as possible as we have an early flight (10:50am). Any input you have from your experience would greatly be appreciated!

Jackie

 

Hi! It's definitely not a silly question at all! Before we went on this trip it was really all new to me. I learned so much from reading other peoples trip reports, so I really hope I can hep other people with mine!

 

For the self disembarkation, you will get instructions the day before you leave the ship. You either pack up your luggage and put it outside your room the night before you leave and they take it for you - this is NOT self disembark - OR you keep all of your luggage yourself and then you choose when to leave the ship at the time that suits you. I can't remember exactly what time people started leaving the ship. We had a driver coming at 8:00 I believe so we weren't in a huge rush, but I know people were leaving far earlier than we were. As soon as the ship docks and they clear customs or whatever they have to do, you can start walking off the ship. You just carry your own bags down, like when you go off for a port day, ding your Sea Pass card one final time and your off the ship. No searching for your luggage in the piles of pre-carried off luggage or whatever else goes on down there in the terminal! It took us maybe 5 minutes to get off the ship and find our driver.

 

I'd ask the driver what time they would want to leave to get you to the airport for a flight that early and go from there.

[mrsfecura]

I'd love to know how much luggage you all brought - I'm freaking out (well not really freaking - but concerned) about how much we're going to have to bring being gone for 2 weeks and you guys were gone for much longer! Did you all have a carry on and a large suitcase? Were you able to fit souveniers? Did you do laundry on land or on a ship at all?

[ShellDil]

I'd love to know how much luggage you all brought - I'm freaking out (well not really freaking - but concerned) about how much we're going to have to bring being gone for 2 weeks and you guys were gone for much longer! Did you all have a carry on and a large suitcase? Were you able to fit souveniers? Did you do laundry on land or on a ship at all?

 

Ahhh - this is a really good question!

 

My parents tackled this different from our group of 4, and I'll tell you how we both handled it.

 

We all limited ourselves to one suitcase and a carry on each. Megan and I each also had our "personal item". Mine was my camera bag she had a smaller backpack. There was no way we could do a carry on only. Our carry on's were mainly for things for on the plane, medicines, cameras, my trip planning binder, confirmations, guide books etc. They had no clothing in them and were back pack size.

 

We had to make sure each of us could handle our own suitcases since we'd be doing self disembark and train travel. So not too heavy! I packed everyone's suitcases, although Megan helped with her own and is a really good packer. In the end, I distributed the weight pretty evenly among the 4 of us, throwing shoes and toiletries and any heavier items in whichever suitcase had the space.

 

I'm a huge fan of packing cubes. I use them in the beginning of the trip to separate each of our clothing by person, and type of clothes. It also saves on unpacking. I don't unpack things like underwear totally, the whole cube just comes out of the suitcase and into a drawer...then throughout the trip, I put dirty clothes in one cube etc. But this trip I also made use of the spacesaver bags that you roll to remove the air. It was the first time I used those and they worked really well! I used them for our dirty clothes. All dirty clothes went into one or two of those bags and got smashed as flat as could be.

 

Laundry...I knew we couldn't pack for 3 weeks! On the Navigator we took advantage of the laundry special, $25 for the fill the bag. I don't remember which day this was, but it was far enough into the trip that the timing was perfect. I thought we'd need 2 bags, but I was pretty selective and mainly did underwear and shorts - Keith and Alex's. A few shirts for them. Megan and I had enough clothes packed to get us through to the Epic's laundry day. For the most part Keith and Alex would wear their shorts more than once. I packed mainly summer dresses for Megan and I which didn't take up much room and could be worn to dinner at night. I only brought 2 pairs of shorts for myself, I should have brought maybe 1 more pair, I wore the same pair just one or two too many times!

 

Then when we got on the Epic, I was hoping the laundry special would be right when we got onboard - but later found out it was almost the last day. That didn't fit the plan. But luckily for me I had brought the Tide packets that you can use in the sink. I washed almost all our underwear and a lot of Keith's and Alex's shirts. They were thin cotton material and dried almost overnight. This was simple, although the sink was small. Took only about 20 minutes one night - I'd fill up the sink, put a couple items in, swish around, rinse and then roll out on a towel. We had a room with a large shower and a long line to dry the clothes and I had clothes hanging everywhere for about 24 hours! But I washed A LOT! My mom thought I was nuts - but their alternative was $$$!

 

Then we DID do the laundry day on the Epic too - this was also fill the bag for $25. Their bag was bigger than the Navigator. We washed most of the shorts, some dresses, shirts, anything else we could fit. It was a great deal!

 

Lastly, we stayed in an apartment our last 3 days in Rome, and while we didn't have to do laundry at this point - there was a washer there and before we went home I washed ALL of our dirty clothes! I went home with no dirty clothes except what we were wearing. I'd put a load in before bed, hang them on the drying racks and they'd be dry in the morning. Fold them, and pack them nice and clean. it was perfect to come home with clean, folded clothes!

 

As far as souvenirs, we did have enough room, but we didn't buy anything big. Megan brought an extra collapsible bag so she had that to fill up on the way home. Alex's suitcase had plenty of room going, so that was pretty full coming home. Somehow we came home with hats, cheeses, Limoncello....it all fit!

 

Now my parents - my mom had the most difficult time fitting her things into a suitcase she could carry herself. She ended up packing and then repacking into a smaller suitcase, which was still pretty big! She had no interest in doing laundry herself on the ship and they ended up paying for individual pieces of laundry on the Epic, which had they washed all they wanted to be washed would have cost them over $150! They ended up scaling down to around $75 - this was in addition to the two $25 bag specials which they had done, and they stuffed their bags too (remember, there are just two of them, compared to the 4 of us!). Their bags were just as heavy as ours were, so I'm not sure what the difference was.

 

We brought one of those digital portable luggage scales with us so we'd be sure to not go over on weight on the way home too.

 

Not sure if that's all helpful or not, but I tried to not go with the largest of suitcases and I actually brought more shoes than I thought I'd be able to fit! Next time I'd probably actually pack less, but I did wear everything I brougth!

[mrsfecura]

You are the best - that is all super helpful information!!! I'm going to check out the packing cubes for sure. We're on the 12 night Med so will definately do the $25 laundry special and I think it would be worth it for us to wash out stuff in the sink with those Tide packs...

I often do laundry on vacation - we rent houses or apartments alot for our vacations rather than hotels and I LOVE it if I can do my laundry before I go home! Crazy to some, but to me - the worst part of vacation is coming home to 6+ loads of laundry! I love that you did all of yours in Rome!

 

Thanks again!

[ShellDil]

You are the best - that is all super helpful information!!! I'm going to check out the packing cubes for sure. We're on the 12 night Med so will definately do the $25 laundry special and I think it would be worth it for us to wash out stuff in the sink with those Tide packs...

I often do laundry on vacation - we rent houses or apartments alot for our vacations rather than hotels and I LOVE it if I can do my laundry before I go home! Crazy to some, but to me - the worst part of vacation is coming home to 6+ loads of laundry! I love that you did all of yours in Rome!

 

Thanks again!

 

Thanks!! Honestly, anything I can do to help out! :D Here's a picture of the packing cubes we use. And yes, I'm a planner, but each of us have our own colors, so it keeps it easy to find who's clothes are who's!!

 

 

I actually really liked doing my laundry in Rome - made me feel like I was living there, even for just a short time! Sigh...

[MsTee]

Thank you SO much for this wonderful review along with your tips! I'm looking forward to the EPIC portion as I am sailing her next MAY on the Western Mediterranean cruise.

 

Oh... packing cubes are my best travel gear investment thus far. I LOVE those things and you can fit a lot in them!

[Uri1961]

thank you for all the info!!! I am going to try to do 2 european cruises in 2015 and this is certainly helping me.