Live Report - Norwegian Viva Lisbon to Rome. April/May 2024

[KeithJenner]

A quick catch up on yesterday.

 

Despite having been to Livorno a few times we have somehow never managed to get to Florence before. We aren’t big art lovers, and you are unlikely to find us in an art gallery anywhere, but we do appreciate architecture and history and we loved Florence in the end.

 

We took the NCL Florence on your own tour, which was basically a ride to the city and back (with the obligatory messing around that loading 40 people onto a bus always involves. We had about 5 hours there which was adequate for an introduction.

 

We booked tickets to Giotto’s Campanile (the bell tower next to the Duomo) and it was worth the 414 steps to the top for the views. Some of the stairs are narrow and you use the same ones to go up and down which was a challenge at times.

 

After that we grabbed a great lunch and then spent a few hours just wandering the streets. Next time we will probably try to go inside the Duomo and also climb up to the viewing area up the hill across the river. Our coach stopped there briefly on the way back to the ship (so we could grab a picture from the coach) and the views looked spectacular.

 

Once back onboard we had a final couple of hours in Vibe which was very nice and then dinner in Indulge and a few drinks in the Local,

 

Currently waiting for our flight at the airport, and sulking a bit. 🙂

 

Here’s some pictures from the Campanile:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nwn08ohw6/?igsh=NTE1cHgxNXIwdHll
 

And two sets of pictures from Florence. Instagram only allows 10 per post and I couldn’t narrow them down that much:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxCtdooO6/?igsh=MTdueXB5NHAxZGVudg==
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6nxK_nIL28/?igsh=MWQyMGx5MjE1dm5ncg==

[Sammy512]

Hi- I’m looking for anyone who has taken a shore excursion on the Cadiz port day to Tangier. I have my shore excursion set and my round trip ferry tickets from Tarifa to Tangier, but am struggling with transport from Cadiz cruise port to the ferry dock in Tarifa. My excursion company sent me some links, but they are not a huge help. 

[Travelling2Some]

11 minutes ago, Sammy512 said:

Hi- I’m looking for anyone who has taken a shore excursion on the Cadiz port day to Tangier. I have my shore excursion set and my round trip ferry tickets from Tarifa to Tangier, but am struggling with transport from Cadiz cruise port to the ferry dock in Tarifa. My excursion company sent me some links, but they are not a huge help. 

The bus to Tarifa will take 2 hours (on a good day - (Spain public transport not known for efficiency) and then about an hour on the ferry (not counting loading/unloading/waiting for it to arrive).  Realistically, you are probably looking at at least 8 hours in transit round trip. Does not sound like fun to me.  

[KeithJenner]

Yeah, that’s got to be a good couple of hours to Tarifa, especially on any sort of bus. We went as far down as Trafalgae on our tour and it was slow work getting back, even taking into account the detour to Conil.

 

Personally (and we have travelled quite a way from port on occasion), I don’t like the sound of that at all. I would go that sort of distance if I was driving the whole way myself in a hired car, but not relying on transfers and ferries.

[www3traveler]

Have a safe journey home.

When is your next grand adventure?

[KeithJenner]

2 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Have a safe journey home.

When is your next grand adventure?

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today. Back to earth with a bump.

 

Next cruise is New York to Quebec in September. Looking forward to it already.

Edited May 7 by KeithJenner

[bluesea777]

14 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today. Back to earth with a bump.

 

Next cruise is New York to Quebec in September. Looking forward to it already.

Which ship? We’re eying at the Sky one! 
 

Great review again. Glad you enjoyed the Viva. 
 

 

[KeithJenner]

12 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

Which ship? We’re eying at the Sky one! 
 

Great review again. Glad you enjoyed the Viva. 
 

 

Joy for us.

 

We were looking at the Sky, especially as it is a longer cruise, but went for the Joy as we wanted more dining options and the shorter cruise gives us some extra time for Quebec and Montreal at the end.

 

From memory the Sky was the better itinerary though. It was a tough choice.

[schmoopie17]

18 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

We flew home yesterday and were back at work today.

How was your experience at the airport in Rome? We have a tight turnaround time from ship disembark to flight and hoping it won't be a fiasco.

[KeithJenner]

On 5/8/2024 at 4:45 PM, schmoopie17 said:

How was your experience at the airport in Rome? We have a tight turnaround time from ship disembark to flight and hoping it won't be a fiasco.

I've flown into and out of Rome a few times, and never had any problem at all.

 

The biggest issue we had on disembarkation day was that they were only using one small door to exit the cruise terminal, so there was quite a queue for everyone to get through the exit with their bags. It took us about 15 minutes from getting to the gangway to leaving the terminal. I don't recall ever having that issue before.

 

We booked a flight at 12.55. There was an earlier one (at about 11am) that we could have caught, but I wanted a relaxed morning. We had a transfer booked for 12 and got off the ship when they started to get a bit insistent about people leaving at around 8.30. Our driver was waiting for us and we were checked in for our flight and through security before 10am (luckily the BA desk opened a bit earlier than usual).

 

The airport itself seemed relatively quiet. We have lounge access so didn't spend much time in the main terminal, but when walking to the gate it all looked fairly quiet. We could have easily made the 11am flight if we left the ship a bit earlier.

 

As usual at Rome, all very quick and easy,

[NicoJ113]

We are sailing this exact itinerary in August and looking forward to it! Thanks for sharing!

[littlelulu01]

Any final thoughts on the vibe?  I was thinking about Vibe cabanas on viva med September in lieu of balcony staterooms.  We had a great balcony on the spirit right outside of spice h20.  We found we didn’t use balcony much and used spice h20 all the time. 

[KeithJenner]

9 hours ago, littlelulu01 said:

Any final thoughts on the vibe?  I was thinking about Vibe cabanas on viva med September in lieu of balcony staterooms.  We had a great balcony on the spirit right outside of spice h20.  We found we didn’t use balcony much and used spice h20 all the time. 

I am planning on writing up some conclusions, but haven’t had chance yet, but will quickly cover Vibe now for you.

 

This was our first time with Vibe passes and I have very mixed feelings about it.

 

We aren’t really sunbathers, and only spent about 20 minutes on one occasion sitting anywhere in Vibe other than the bar or a table whilst eating, so we have very little interest in what is the main attraction for many people. We also never spend time on a pool deck, so the lack of public pool deck space (and it did look tiny) isn’t an issue for us. If you want to be guaranteed somewhere to sit in the sun then it will have value.

 

Similarly, hot tubs aren’t much of an attraction. We had planned to maybe use one but could never be bothered.

 

On the other hand, there was always outdoor space on deck 8. I suspect that isn’t always the case on warmer cruises. The weather was generally good for us, but there was a fairly cold wind for much of the cruise which did drive people inside at times.

 

We did enjoy sitting at the bar, and there were a group of about 8 of us who could often be found there, especially between the time that people start to get back onboard and dinner time. Our routine when getting back onboard became to go to Vibe, maybe grab some food if required to eat at the tables in Vibe and then sit at the bar and see what others had been up to. I really enjoyed that aspect,

 

We do similar on other cruises where we have met people who tend to use the same bar as whatever is our favourite, but we became quite a tight group over the course of the cruise.

 

The closeness to the buffet is often quoted as a real benefit, and it was. The buffet area is small, and we tend not to use it for anything other than snacks, but it was good to be able to grab some breakfast and take it out to Vibe to eat.

 

But it wasn’t always warm enough to sit outside, especially in the morning. On those occasions we just went across to Food Repblic which always had plenty of room (we could always get a window seat), so it isn’t that you can’t find a nice place to sit without Vibe. They also have a sign for outside seating at Palomar, but I didn’t check that area out.

 

I was expecting the bar staff to be excellent, and they were generally good, but I have often met better. We much preferred the guys at the Local, who really looked after us. The Vibe staff learn your names quickly, but we did often find ourselves without drinks (and we had to call them to get refills, whereas we are used to the good bar staff noticing and offering). We also found that the drink selection was more limited than elsewhere. I don’t know whether that was due to rules or the staff. For example, my wife enjoys the champagne if it is available, and we hoped that it would be, but she spent the entire cruise drinking Prosecco in Vibe whilst the staff in the Local always made sure that there was Pommery there and were chilling a glass for her next drink (something that can’t be done in Vive due to the plastic glasses).

 

We had the same with Pelegrino water. In Vibe we always used to have to ask for it whereas in the Local they always asked if we wanted some when we sat down.

 

Overall we found the bar service to be a step down from what we usually find at our main bar on any cruise.

So, we enjoyed Vibe and im glad we did it, but it most certainly wasn’t worth the money we paid (which was kind of what I was expecting). We decided very quickly that we wouldn’t even consider it for our next cruise (New England and Canada on the Joy in September) as we have huge balcony and the weather will be cooler.

 

If the weather had been warmer then it would have been less easy to find outdoor space outside Vibe (even bar space), and more kids around the ship would also have an impact, but we tend not to cruise at those times anyway.

 

One thing I did consider is what you have mentioned, which is booking a lower category room and Vibe. We do usually sit on our balcony for a while, but barely used it this time. I would certainly consider an Oceanview plus Vibe as an option rather than booking a balcony, and that is very likely to be cheaper.

 

Edited May 11 by KeithJenner

[smilegirl07]

On 5/9/2024 at 2:00 PM, NicoJ113 said:

We are sailing this exact itinerary in August and looking forward to it! Thanks for sharing!

when is august are you sailing?  we are sailing on 8/2!

[NicoJ113]

5 hours ago, smilegirl07 said:

when is august are you sailing?  we are sailing on 8/2!

We’ll see you there! We are spending 2 nights in Lisbon beforehand and 1 night in Rome afterwards. Never been to any of the ports before!