Fall Break - Norwegian Cruise Line

It's been a busy fall with homework and activities (honestly, mostly mine during the day) so I've been very slack on blog posts.  The last week of October is Fall break in Sweden (and many other places in Europe).  Gordon was out of town and faced with the prospect of staying in Stockholm for a week I booked a cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line with another friend (Lori Marcellus) and her kids (Hallie and Cody) whose husband was also out of town.

Saturday, October 25 as we boarded our flight to Venice, Italy, Sofia said good-bye to cold, wet, grey Stockholm.  Upon arrival in Venice we were bussed to the port, completed our Ebola questionnaires and checked in.  First stop, check out our cozy cabin, second stop the lunch buffet.

Ebola questionnaire

big boat, big bumpers

Gabby, Cody, Lori, Audra

our cozy cabin - 3 beds across, Audra in the bunk

 

Unfortunately all we saw of Venice was the beautiful sunset view from the ship as we set sail at 6pm on our one week Adriatic cruise.

Gabby took this photo of me and Lori with our cameras... we've been taking a photography course through SIS PTA so we were trying out what we have learned!

first evening on the cruise

Venice from the ship

Venice at dusk

Venice at dusk

Venetian sunset

Our itinerary:  five stops and one day at sea - Koper, Slovenia/Split and Dubrovnik, Croatia/Messina, Sicily/Naples, Italy and disembark in Rome, Italy.  I'll write separate blog posts for each stop. 

I don't think the girls would have been interested in playing bingo if it weren't for another SIS family (the Carters) also on board whose daughter had won $200 playing bingo on another cruise.  Unfortunately the girls did not win... even though we had worked out a deal that the winner gets half of the winnings while the rest of us split the other half. 

Bingo!

dud!

Gabby loved the 'free' food with a variety of choices.  The buffet and a few restaurants were included with our booking.  Teppanyaki, the steak house and the Brazilian restaurant were an additional fee ($15-30/head... but honestly after Stockholm prices it's a good deal!).  Several times the kids from all three SIS families would go to dinner together on their own.  Many nights they'd hit the buffet for Nutella crepes for dessert.  

Hallie, Gabby, Audra and Sofia at breakfast

Teppanyaki - the menu had origami instructions

 

 

Teppanyaki flower art

playing with my photography skills!

Audra loved the kids' club and would go every night after dinner with Cody and Isabelle, coming back to the cabin when it closed at 10:30pm.  

Sofia loved the nightly shows of singing, dancing, magic, acrobatics, etc.  Lori and I loved the Tenors of Rock! We also saw the Tenors of Rock at McDonald's in the Rome airport as we were heading home. 

Gabby with the Tenors of Rock

ready for a night out on the ship

Half way through our week we had a hot, sunny day at sea.  The girls swam and lunched while Lori and I lounged.  Unfortunately the gentle rocking of the boat was too much for Gabby and, ultimately, Audra and Sofia... even with Benadryl and Seabands (wrist bands). Extremely unfortunate is the following day we had booked a two hour bus ride up a windy mountain road to explore Mt. Etna.  Arriving back at the boat that night I loaded up on Drammamine at the Duty Free.

 

To counteract any cruise-born illnesses hand sanitizers were stationed all over the ship.  There were also crew members stationed outside the buffet (and upon returning to the ship) who would spray our hands with hand sanitizer saying "washy, washy, happy, happy"... they were kind of like the cruise ship rock stars!

Gabby with the washy, washy guy

Sofia relaxing in the lounge

poolside at night

I thought it would be a while before the girls would be interested in taking another cruise but when we returned home and showed Gordon photos and related stories the girls said they'd go again.  Gabby liked stopping at different ports everyday and I liked the freedom the girls could have on board, the variety of activities available and having a variety of restaurants to choose from.