Suitcase Stories of the Shea's: Cruising the Mediterranean: Part 1

On Friday September 19th, Brian and I flew to Barcelona, Spain to meet his Dad and Laura before starting our Mediterranean cruise that Sunday. We arrived late at night which was just the normal dinner time in Spain (They eat real late, 10:00-11:00pm is normal). Here were are after meeting up with them and enjoying our first beers together. Dan just had retired before coming on the trip and what better way to celebrate then with a 7 day cruise right? We all couldn't wait!!!

The next day we had the entire day to wander and explore Barcelona. We did a lot of walking and looking around. One of the places we saw was the Sagrada Familia which is huge church in the center of the city, much to large to get in the picture.

For lunch we had seafood paella...

After lunch we strolled along the beach front and eventually found some afternoon drinks.

Day 1: Port of Barcelona, Time to get on the ship!

The next morning it was time to pack up and get ready to board the ship around noon. I was so excited I could hardly stand it! Neither Brian or I had been on a cruise so we couldn't wait to get on and check it out. The picture below (taken from our shuttle) was our first glimpse of the ship. So exciting to see the Norwegian Epic which was HUGE! It actually ended up always being the largest ship in port at each of our stops (1081 feet long). It's the one on the left in the picture.

After boarding and checking into our room our excitement level only continued to climb, the ship was so nice!

Our room was right next door to Dan and Laura's and here is a shot from their balcony looking onto ours.

Once we checked out our room we were eager to explore the Epic which can hold almost 6000 people including crew (4100 guests at max capacity). The ship had over 20 places to eat, 20 bars/lounges, a large casino, 2 bowling alleys, rock climbing walls, theaters, 3 water slides, fitness center & spa and lots more. If anyone got bored on the ship it would be their own fault! Shortly after some exploring we found ourselves having our first drinks at the bar by the pool. There eventually was a live band and DJ playing which added to the celebration of kicking off the start to the cruise.

The waiters were really pushing the buckets of beer and the fact that you got one free so we didn't pass it up!

The view of Barcelona before leaving port...

Later that night when it was just about time to depart we made our way to one of the upper decks located in the front of the ship to watch as we sailed out of port...

We were parked directly behind a Royal Caribbean ship and you can see in the picture below as the men came and unhooked our ropes (the brown ones).

And below is the nose of our ship as we were headed out of the port and starting our 7 day Mediterranean journey!

Day 2: Day at Sea

The next day was a "Day at Sea" since we were traveling a long distance to our first stop which was Naples, Italy. We were happy to be able to just relax on the ship. The sun wasn't out for part of the day but we found a spot on one of the upper decks to hangout and enjoy the view of lots of open water.

Eventually we passed between the islands of Corsica, France and Sardinia, Italy. You can see Corsica behind us below...

That afternoon over the loudspeaker we heard, "Code Alpha, Fitness Center, Deck 14" this was repeated a couple times and we knew it couldn't be good...Luckily Dan had just gotten back from working out only 10 minutes earlier otherwise we would have worried and went looking for him!

After some time had passed we noticed the ship had turned and we ended up circling in place for a bit and we learned we were waiting for a helicopter to come. Scary stuff to have that going on so far out into the ocean! When the helicopter arrived it was completely something out of an action movie. Since there wasn't a landing pad on the ship it hovered near the edge and lowered down 2 or 3 people who came on board. Then eventually they brought up the patient all wrapped up on a backboard up over the water into the helicopter. An extra person who we are assuming was a spouse was also taken off. We never found out what happened or if the person was ok...it was a pretty weird feeling.

Later that night we got dressed up for dinner and started the night with drinks at one of the champagne lounges on board. The dress I wore was the bridesmaid dress that I wore in Kayla and David's wedding which Brian's Mom shortened for me. It was fun having a reason to wear it again! For dinner we ate in the Manhattan Dining Room which was the more formal eating area. We really enjoyed all the food on the ship and took full advantage of ordering 3 courses from the menu. The desserts were delicious especially the chocolate strawberry volcano which I had about 3 times during the week. Calories don't count at sea right? ;)

Day 3: Port of Naples, Italy

One of our favorite things about the cruise was going to sleep in the middle of the ocean then waking up and pulling the curtains back not knowing what it was going to look like in the morning. Most of the days we arrived in port at 7:00 AM. There were a few mornings when we happened to wake up around 6:30 AM and it was fun to sit out on the balcony as we were backing into port. Here is our view of Naples, Italy which was our first port.

The sun rising over Mount Vesuvius was so pretty. This was actually the volcano that erupted and destroyed Pompeii.

After having breakfast at the buffet Brian and I choose to venture off on our own instead of going on one of the excursions offered through the ship. They were quite expensive and we had heard from others that it is just as easy and cheaper to do the same things on your own if you are fine navigating public transportation. Dan and Laura decided they were going to explore the city of Naples and Brian and I took a train to Pompeii. Here we are exiting the port...

After about an hour train ride we arrived at Pompeii. We began exploring the area that was destroyed and covered in volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 killing approximately 16,000 people.

When archaeologists later uncovered the ruins of Pompeii they found various artifacts used in the city such as the large jugs/vases above. The ash hardened around the people who were killed and after time the encased bodies had decomposed. Archaeologists discovered they could fill the empty space with plaster and then chip away the surrounding hardened ash; what was left was a plaster replica of what the body had looked like at the time of death. Pretty crazy to see... So weird to see how they looked as they died so long ago. We even saw one that was crouched down looking like it was trying to take cover from the ash.

We had no idea that there was so much ground to cover and that the ruins of the city were so large at Pompeii.

Unfortunately it was quite windy and since the area is so dry there was a lot of dirt and dust flying around getting all over the camera and in our eyes and mouths. We had to make a decision whether we were going to keep fighting it to see more but decided that we saw the highlights and it was time to move on.

We still were very glad we made it to see this historic site.

Since it was still early enough in the day we got back on the train and rode another 30 minutes along the coast to Sorrento. This was a beautiful little town along the water.

After having some Neapolitan style pizza for lunch and wandering around the narrow streets for a bit we decided we should start thinking about making our journey back to Naples. We knew there was a ferry that we could take and thought it would be fun to try that route back. We found a ticket window, bought tickets and rushed to the pier where we thought there was a boat leaving shortly. Turned out that one was going to Capri and the next ferry to Naples wasn't until 4:30 PM. It was about 2:30PM at the time and we knew we couldn't take the 4:30 ferry because that was cutting things too close with having to be back on the ship by 6:30PM (we wanted to leave plenty of time just in case.) So we went back to the ticket counter and had to fight the lady who wasn't clear on the departure times to give us our money back even though we bought the tickets 5 mins earlier. She eventually gave us 20 of our 25Euros back.

From there we had to rush back up a steep hill and to the train station to go back the way we came. The trains only left once an hour and the trip was going to be a just over an hour back. Once we got on and had been riding for awhile all of a sudden there was a loud clunk and a bunch of commotion going on a few cars back. We couldn't tell what was happening since everyone was speaking Italian. Eventually the conductor went back with some tools to fix what we think ended up being a door issue. We were stopped in place maybe 10-15 minutes. We still had plenty of time to make it back but around then is when we decided maybe signing up to go on the excursions through the cruise isn't all bad since then you don't have the stress of getting back on your own...Brian felt like most of the day he couldn't relax because he was always worrying about the time.

Eventually we made it back with plenty of time to spare. Once back on the ship we were able to relax again and have some drinks at what became our nightly hangout, Spice H2O the bar at the back of the boat.

It started to cool off a bit so we put on some warmer clothes and came back up for some snacks and to watch as we pulled out of port...

Goodbye Naples...

Day 4:Port of Civitavecchia (Rome)

The next day we were in port just outside of Rome (about 40 minutes by train). Since Brian and I had been in Rome in May we decided not to go into the city. We still got off the ship for the morning and had a shuttle take us from the port to wander around the central area of Civitavecchia for awhile. There wasn't very much to see but we did find a market to wander through which was interesting.

In the afternoon the sun came back out so we relaxed by the pool back on board. Dan and Laura hadn't been to Rome before so they took train and had a great time exploring the city. The picture below is from the port looking at the ship.

We had a beautiful sunset that night...

And even a rainbow!

At night our beds would get turned down and a new towel animal would appear along with a pamphlet that listed the next day's port info and activities happening on board.