Royal Caribbean Mediterranean Cruise

This is the last post about for my trip review!  I have two posts about Rome, Part 1 and Part 2. So now I'm going to talk about our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Sea.  It was supposed to be  3 days at sea and 4 stops in Greece, Katakalon, Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini.

The first day was a sea day.  It was super quick getting on the ship.  We had a shared shuttle from Rome, were picked up around 10am and were at the port a little after 11.  I think we were on the ship by 11:30.  It really was well organized and very quick.  The first thing we did was go to the Windjammer buffet for lunch.  It was easy to find a table when we got there but got pretty crowded by 12. We had work our swim suits under our clothes so we went to the Solarium adult pool after lunch.  This was the quietest I ever saw the pool so the first day is definitely a good option for some pool time.

First day of pool time

They made the announcement that rooms were ready a little after 1 pm.  Once we were done with the pool, we headed down to our rooms to put away our carry on bags.  Our suitcases arrived not too much later so we unpacked and put everything away.  We were in an outside room and while it was small, it was well laid out and had plenty of room for all our stuff to be put away.

 Sail away drinks

Then we had to go to the muster drill and wait around while that happened.  It was hot and crowded and a little unpleasant, but I know that it's good to do for our safety just in case there was an emergency.  The ship staff were all very efficient but other passengers showing up late kind of made the whole process longer.  After that, we went to the pool bar, got drinks, and enjoyed the sail away party.  After that, I'm sure we just explored the ship, checked out a couple bars, and went to dinner in the main dining room.  I think we ended up skipping the show that night because we were tired.

The next morning we sailed through the Strait of Messina, which was pretty cool.  We could see Sicily on one side and mainland Italy on the other. Sadly this was while I was trying to use the track and it was pretty crowded from everyone taking in the view.  This was the first full sea day so we spent time relaxing, hanging out by the pool, doing trivia, etc.  We also had dinner in the sushi restaurant instead of the main dining room and it was pretty good.

 

Sicily in the background

Veggie sushi

The next day was Santorini.  Santorini is a small island and there were 5 cruise ships the day we were there.  That made things really crowded and it felt like the number of people kind of overwhelmed the island.  We had booked a cruise ship excursion that showed us around various villages on the island and included a stop at a distillery for an ouzo tasting.  It left us off in Fira, which is a town at the top of the cliff where the cruise ships dock.  We had an amazing dinner overlooking the sea with a view of the sunset from our table.  But then we had to wait an hour in line to take the cable car down to the port area.  There was a way to walk down but I had heard it can get slippery due to the donkey poo so we just waited in the line.  We thankfully got back to the ship in plenty of time.  And that night was the white party so we enjoyed some pool side dancing.

The next day was supposed to be Mykonos.  We had booked a day pass at a local hotel on our own and had planned to make this a beach day.  Sadly, the wind had really picked up and the tender boats weren't able to make it.  So the Captain decided it wasn't safe and we had to skip the island.  That meant this was another sea day.  Thankfully the hotel we had booked us with had let us know in advance that they wouldn't charge us if the ship wasn't able to anchor.  The staff hustled to get some activities set up for the day.  As soon as we heard that this would be a sea day, we booked it up to the pool and got some chairs so we could spend the morning pool side.  This worked out because it got super crowded by an hour later.  I also took advantage of the unexpected ship time with some working out in the gym.

 

Pool side sunrise and drinks

Sunset as we pulled into Piraeus (near Athens) - since we skipped Mykonos we were able to overnight in Athens and some people did get off to check out the night life

The next day was Athens.  We had booked a semi-private excursion with a local company (PK Travel) and this was much better than the giant cruise ship excursion.  There were only 10 people and we were in a comfortable van.  We really enjoyed this tour, the tour guide was great and it was so much more fun than it would have been in a giant group.  It was easier to navigate and see things.  We also had a chance to grab lunch at a small restaurant in Athens before heading back to the ship.

 The next day was Katakalon.  This port is mostly known for the proximity to the site where the ancient Olympics were held.  We had booked an excursion with the cruise ship and it was a giant group on a bus.  I kind of regretted this and wished we had gone with a local tour instead.  The group just moved at a really slow pace and it was kind of frustrating.  It was also pretty hot that day and I'm sure that played a part in my bad mood.  But it was cool to see the Olympics site and the museum that held alot of the artifacts that had been excavated from the area. I think that evening we watched a movie poolside after dinner.

The next day was the last sea day and our last day on the ship.  We got up early to grab some seats by the pool.  We were early enough that it was fairly empty and I was even able to swim some laps before it got crowded.  We had lunch booked at the steakhouse (the fancy restaurants are cheaper at lunch time) and they made my a yummy pasta dish.  They actually made me TWO pasta dishes because they weren't sure which one I would like the best?  It was obviously too much food but it was delicious.  We skipped dinner in the main dining room since we were still not too hungry at that point and just went to the buffet to grab some small snacks.  There was an interesting Beatles cover band that evening too.

And then the next morning we were back in Italy!  We got off the ship bright and early.  That was an easy process too.  We took our bags off ourselves since we didn't have too much luggage.  We waited outside for our shuttle and he showed up right on time at 8am.

So that's it for the cruise!  Overall review of the ship is that it was good but definitely on the smaller side.  The food was good but not great, except at the restaurants that had an extra charge.  That food was worth the money but we only did it twice during the 7 days.  The smaller ship definitely meant that the entertainment was a little lacking.  We went to a couple shows but they all seemed mediocre.  Adding in an extra sea day contributed to that feeling that there wasn't really enough to do on the ship.  It's great for an itinerary with a lot of time in port but I would definitely want more to do if there were a lot of sea days.  The service was great, the ship was really clean and well maintained, there was plenty of food.  We didn't have the drink package and didn't feel like we needed it.  We were allowed to take two bottles of wine on board and I used that for most of my alcohol needs.  Mike just bought cocktails or beer whenever he wanted and this still ended up being much cheaper than the drink package would have been.  The free coffee was pretty undrinkable and we did end up buying some of the Starbucks coffee, but even with that, it was still more cost effective for us to not have the package.

I'm so classy with my Yeti tumbler of wine

So that's my trip review of our time in Europe.  We had a great time overall and I'm happy to answer any questions :)

Rome Part 2

Instead of talking about my vacation in chronological order, I thought it made more sense to finish up my recap of everything we did in Rome before moving on to talking about the cruise.  Part 1 of my Rome trip is up here.

So after our 7 day Greece cruise, we were back in Italy.  We got off at Civitavacchia and getting off the ship was super easy and very quick.  So quick that we were off and waiting for our car about an hour before the agreed upon time.  So we just hung out and our car was there right when he said he would be.  We had a shared shuttle to save money, but that meant that it took a bit of extra time.  Everyone else in our shuttle was going to the airport so we stopped there first.  But we were at our hotel by 10am.

We were staying at a different hotel, the Le Meridien in the Prati neighborhood.  This was on the other side of the river from a lot of the main tourist attractions (though it was not far from the Vatican).  It seemed a little bit more residential and it was cool to see this side of Rome as well.

Neighborhood we were staying in

Our room was ready so we got settled in and then headed right back out to explore.  We walked to the cab stand by our hotel to get a taxi to the Monti neighborhood.  "Rione Monti, Rome’s first ward (rione). The neighborhood for the cool and young, the old and vintage. For those who want a serving of cobblestone, antiques and artisans, with a side order of beauty, great food and the best bars in Rome. Centrally located between Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum, this is The place to while away the afternoon peeking into vintage stores, paging through old books, grabbing coffee in Rome’s chicest cafes, chatting over aperitivo, and people watching at the fountain in Piazza della Madonna dei Monti. A tiny quartiere, it’s a haven between the tourist traps of Via Nazionale and Via Cavour, and much more Roman than the more popular districts like Campo de’ Fiori and Piazza Navona. This is working-class Rome, where older couples maintain tradition, even as young entrepreneurs open trendy galleries."

It was a fun neighborhood to explore.  And we checked out a cool market with local artisans.  They had a lot of interesting stuff, clothes, jewelry, beautiful wood working, but it was all a tad bit too expensive for us.  We were hungry so looked around for places to grab lunch and ended up at a random place that had Pizza Al Taglio.  This is pizza baked in large rectangular trays and displayed in a glass case.  You just let them know which one you want and approximately how big a piece and they cut it off for you with scissors.  It's priced by weight. It made for a quick and tasty lunch and then we continued on our way.

We wanted to go to the Torre Argentina Cat Santuary next so we took our time walking there and saw some cool things along the way.

We reached the cat sanctuary right around the time they were opening and were the 3rd or 4th people in the door.  This was such a cool experience.  They are located in some ancient Roman ruins that were excavated in the 20s.     There are cats hanging out in the ruins as well as in the office/kennel area.  I don't think people can actually walk in the ruins section.  Once we walked into the office, one of the volunteers told us all about the sanctuary and their work.  She also introduced us to the many cats we encountered.  One of them, Isabeau, was just so sweet and came up to us asking for pets.  She also started purring right away.  The sanctuary has a program where you can "adopt" cats from afar for 15 euros per month.  So we adopted Isabeau for 3 months. She is a breast cancer survivor and FIV+ but still such a sweet cat.  And now they send us an email and photo of her every month :)

 

This kitten was very friendly

 

Me and Isabeau

You can see the cat napping below the sign

After the sanctuary, we continued on our walk and headed back to the hotel.  The walk across the river was beautiful and we did find a place for good gelato place right by the hotel to stop at as well.

We took a bit of an afternoon nap and headed out again in the evening.  There was a local shopping neighborhood so we went in that direction to just explore and browse.  It was fun to check out local department stores and little boutiques.  There were also a lot of stands on the sidewalk selling clothes for VERY cheap.  We then found a fun little bar where we stopped for drinks and a snack.  They had interesting little knick knacks everywhere making for cool decor and they were playing great music.

Once we had finished with our drinks, we wandered around a bit more and found a random place to stop for dinner.  Most of the places I had looked up and had been interested in trying ended up closed because it was Sunday.  So I don't remember the name of the place we finally ate at but it was only ok.  Mike had carbonara and I had caico e pepe again but this was probably our least favorite versions of those dishes.  However, they had a zucchini carpaccio appetizer that was amazing!

The next morning was our last day in Rome.  But our flight didn't leave until the evening so we still had the morning available to sight see.  We went to Castel Sant'Angelo and were there right when it opened at 9am.  This was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel and it wasn't crowded at all that time in the morning.  It was really cool to see because it covered so much history.  The Emperor Hadrian had it constructed to be his tomb but then it continued to be used as a fortress and as a residence for popes.  There was a tunnel constructed connecting it to the Vatican so that the pope could escape if needed. It was quite a climb to the top but you're rewarded with amazing views once you get up there.

Weirdly, the castle also had an exhibit going on to celebrate Bulgari jewelry and fashion.  That was interesting to see as well.

Once we were done at the castle, we went back to the hotel and had lunch there.  The lunch was ok but again, our appetizer was amazing.  We just split a caprese salad but it was the best mozzarella we'd ever had. We checked out and our car was right on time to pick us up and take us to the airport.

As you can tell, we had an amazing time in Rome!  The two hotels we stayed at were amazing and pretty good location.  They were close enough to walk to tourist attractions but not right in the middle of things so they weren't too loud. We were able to get all our hotel nights on points so I'm not sure how much the rooms actually cost though. The first part of our trip was at the Marriott Grand Flora and the second part was at the Le Meridien Visconti.  Fair disclosure, I work for Marriott. The other company I wanted to recommend is Civitavecchia Shuttle Express.  We used them to get from the airport to our hotel, then from the hotel to the cruise port, back from the cruise port to Rome, and then to the airport on our last day.  All four drivers were professional, the cars were all immaculate, and they were always on time.

So that's it for our time in Rome!  I'd love to hear if you've experienced Rome or if you're planning a trip and have any questions :)

Rome Part 1

We had a phenomenal trip to Rome and Greece last month.  But given how long the trip was, I'm going to break up the trip review into three parts.  It will be Rome, then our Royal Caribbean cruise to Greece, and then the last couple days in Rome plus reviews for the hotels, airline, cruise company, etc.  So let's get going!

The trip didn't start out super smooth.  We saved a lot of money by using Norwegian Airlines and flying out of Newark instead of a DC airport.  It was also a direct flight to Rome.  The drive to Newark was easy and smooth.  No problems parking.  But our flight ended up delayed for 3 hours!  We didn't leave Newark until 2:30am.  The plus side of that was that we were exhausted and could sleep a bit on the plane.

Pre-flight drinks helped as well

Day 1

We got to Rome 3 hours later than planned.  I was worried that meant the car service we had booked would have a hard time finding us.  But no problems at all.  He was right where he had said he would be, holding up a sign with our name on it.  And it was a cinch getting through immigration and customs in Rome.  It helped that they had kiosks that people with machine readable passports could use, and the line moved very quickly for the kiosks.  Once we got in the car, it was about a 45 minute drive to our hotel.

Due to the delay, the sun was setting by the time we left the hotel

We stayed at a hotel right outside the Villa Borghese, which is a big park in Rome.  It was about a 10 minute walk from the Spanish Steps.  So it was in a kind of touristy area but it wasn't as overwhelmingly crowded as staying right in the popular tourist neighborhoods.  Once we checked in and put our bags down, we headed right back out.  We walked to see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  We had downloaded some Rick Steves audio tours so we listened to the relevant portions when we got to those areas.  I really loved the audio guides and they worked pretty well.  He has a bit of a hokey sense of humor but was pretty informative.

 

Trevi Fountain crowds

 

Spanish Steps

We had an 8:30 dinner booked at a place that was supposed to be a popular vegetarian restaurant in Rome.  It was called Il Margutta and it was wonderful.  It had delicious food, good service, cool art on the walls, and it was on Via Margutta which some call the prettiest street in Rome.  It also happened to be the street that the main character lived on in Roman Holiday.  I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for vegetarian/vegan food in Rome.  It also seemed like almost everyone else there was Italian but we had no problems communicating in English.

Day 2

The next day we had tickets to see the Borghese Gallery.  This is a museum that showcases the Borghese family collection of art and it's right in the park that was by our hotel.  So it was an easy 10 minute walk. You'll see a lot about this family all over Rome, there were a couple of them that ended up being pope, and they commissioned a lot art work during the Renaissance.  The museum was beautiful and we had a great stroll around the park afterward as well.  Tip - buy tickets for this one in advance.  We were told that they often don't have same day tickets for sale.  They had guided tours and self-guided audio tours but we just went around on our own.  The signage was pretty good and we didn't feel like we needed a tour.

Afterward, we were hungry and it was time for lunch.  I had a place I wanted to go to but it turned out that they were closed for the last 2 weeks of August.  Oops.  It turns out that a lot of people in Rome head out of town during this time due to the heat so there were several places that we were interested in which were closed.  We just wandered around the street until we found an open place that seemed ok and had lunch there.  We lucked out.  We were clearly in an area where a lot of the restaurants were catering toward tourists but the place we were at turned out to be the place where local construction workers went to eat.  We took that as a good sign.  Mike got the carbonara and I got the cacio e pepe, and both were delicious!  Sadly I don't remember the name of the place.

We went back to the room to rest during the heat of the afternoon and then we headed out around 4 to go to the Vatican.  We hopped on the metro which was easy to navigate.  Once we got out at the station by the Vatican, it was easy enough to follow the direction of the crowd to know the right way to go.  We did stop on the way to pick up some gelato and Old Bridge Gelateria. It was amazing and I would highly recommend this place if you're looking for gelato near the Vatican.

We went to St. Peter's first and again used a Rick Steves audio guide.  There was a line to go through security that looked pretty long but it moved quickly.  I think it only took around 10 minutes to get through the line.

We then had tickets to the Vatican Museums.  This is another ticket I would recommend buying in advance.  It's crowded in there and the desirable times can sell out.  We actually decided on after hours tickets that included a happy hour in the Vatican courtyard. The line was long when we got to the entrance at 6:45 but it was because they weren't letting people in until 7.  Once they opened the doors the line moved quickly.  We decided to do happy hour first.  Happy hour included a little buffet of substantial appetizers and sweets and a drink ticket for a glass of wine or juice.  There was also live music.

After we had finished our drinks and snacks, we got our Rick Steves audio guide up and used that for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  I would highly recommend the after hours ticket.  It wasn't empty by any means.  There were still a lot of people.  But I never felt overwhelmed by the crowds, we were never shoulder to shoulder, we never felt incapable of moving, and I have heard it can be like that during the day.  I think they only do the after hours tickets on Fridays in the Summer.

 

Tapestry Room

 

You can see the crowds aren't bad at all

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Once we were done, it was past 10pm.  But we still needed dinner.  Thankfully the Romans eat late so places were still open and we ended up at La Zanzara.  The cocktails were really good here but we had a mixed experience on the food.  Mike had carbonara again and said it was amazing.  I had a couple small veggie sandwiches where the fillings were really good but the bread seemed a bit stale.  But the menu had a lot of variety and veggie and gluten free options were clearly marked.

Day 3

We had tickets to the Colosseum as soon as they opened in the morning.  These are another set of tickets I would recommend getting in advance.  The line to buy tickets there was super long.  And early morning seemed much less crowded than later in the day.  We got there about 15 minutes before our entrance time and got in line.  It was long but it moved quickly once they opened the doors.  We used a Rick Steves audio tour again and it worked really well.

 

Inside the Colosseum

In front of Hadrian's Arch

The same ticket lets you go to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill so we did that next.  There was another Rick Steves guide for the Forum.  However, we didn't have anything for the Palatine Hill and the signage was a little vague up there.  We could see a lot of old ruins but it was kind of hard to tell what some of them were.

 

The Forum

View from Palatine Hill

We then had lunch nearby at Taverna Dei Quaranta.  It was really close to the Colosseum and opened early.  We were hungry by 11 so that worked out well.  We both got pastas again and they were delicious.  This place was simple but had good food and a great location.  After lunch, it was back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

In the evening, we got ourselves together and went out to see the Pantheon.  We stopped on the way and got some gelato at Il Gelato Di San Crispino.  They had a honey flavor that was amazing and I think this was the best gelato of our trip.  There was a really long line, which I was surprised at because it was an hour before closing.  But I guess everyone had the same though to come later in the day.  I think it took us around 20 minutes in line and then we were inside and listening to another Rick Steves audio guide.  No tickets needed as it's free to enter.  I made sure that my knees and shoulders were covered since it was a place of worship but they didn't really seem to be enforcing that here.

Afterward, our plan had been to go see a summer street fair they were having by the Tiber River.  It was the last day of the street fair however, and it seemed like a lot of stuff had already closed up.  So instead, we decided to wander around the neighborhood of Trastevere which is supposed to have good bars and restaurants.  I had seen something about a good pizza place there called Pizzeria Ai Marmi.   I had read that there can be long lines but when we got there, no lines and plenty of tables.  Well, we had good timing because within 20 minutes, the place was full and there was a line out the door.  It also seemed like it was mostly Italians here.  We ended up having amazing pizzas, maybe the best pizza we've ever had.  The food was phenomenal here.  The service was a little slow but you could tell the server was a bit overwhelmed with all the people.  I would definitely recommend this place.

We stumbled upon a lot of cool street art during the course of the evening

We then went to a local bar called Freni i Frizoni.  We were definitely not cool enough to be there!  It was a full bar that had a really nice patio and fun drinks and seemed full of Italian college students.  We may have been the oldest people there :)  It had a bit of NYC Punk sort of feeling. It was fun but we felt a bit out of place.

Day 4

Ok, this was the day we left for the cruise.  I did wake up early to go for a run.  I went by the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps again because I wanted the opportunity to see them at a less crowded time.  7:30am they were definitely less crowded but still not empty.  The Trevi Fountain especially had more people than I expected at that time of day.  I finished up my run in the part at Villa Borghese.  I would highly recommend the park as a place to run.  There were a lot of paths to explore and enough other people running that I never felt alone but at the same time, it wasn't crowded.

After that, we packed up our stuff and headed to the port.  So that part of the adventure will be in the next post, as this has already gotten super long!