Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
The Cruise!
Since some of you mentioned wanting to hear more about it in my previous post, I thought I'd do a separate post about the cruise.
The basics: Cruise was through Norwegian Cruise Line, the ship was the Epic. We began/ended in Barcelona, Spain, and hit up these ports: Florence, Italy; Orvieto, Italy (a lot of people went to Rome, but we'd already been there, so decided to go somewhere else instead); Naples, Italy (we actually went to Pompeii); and Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Reviews:
Barcelona - OMG. I'm in love with this city! The food was amazing, and we tried to hit up all the major Gaudi spots in the city. La Sagrada Familia was my favorite, by far, and I thought it totally put all other European Cathedrals to shame. While we were there, a choir was practicing downstairs, so soft music was floating throughout the cathedral...bliss. The stained glass windows are also stunning! We also went to the Parc Guell as well, but since we only had one day, we only managed to hit up the Parc and Sagrada Familia. Also stopped at a local place for some Tapas...delicious! And the white sangria was to die for.
Florence - I feel bad saying this, but Florence was sort of "blah" for me. It probably didn't help that the whole city was on strike that day, so the museums were all closed. We wanted to stop in the Uffizi, but it was closed as well. DH saw his first political protest, however, so I guess not all was lost. It was probably my least favorite port of call, however.
Orvieto - We ported out of Civitavecchia, and many of the people headed to Rome for the day. DH and I had gone to Rome for a long weekend a year or so ago, so we decided to go somewhere else. We headed to Orvieto, deep in Umbria...small town, very cute and quaint. Has a great Basillica with some beautiful frescos...similar painting style to the Sistine Chapel. The town wasn't crowded, which was wonderful, and we had a great time just strolling around and people watching.
Naples - We ported in Naples, but I had zero desire to see the city. Instead, we took the train to Pompeii for some hiking/sightseeing. Honestly, the place is ENORMOUS! And, frankly, after a few hours, I got bored, because it all starts to look alike (stone walls, some places with awesome stone paintings, etc...but it all starts to blend in). In addition, the place where they kept the casts of those preserved from the volcano was under construction, so we couldn't see any of it. It was hot, and a lot of walking, but I would still recommend it if you've not seen it before, because it was pretty interesting.
Palma de Mallorca, Spain - Probably my favorite port of call while on the cruise. We didn't book anything with the cruise ship. We, instead, booked a SCUBA diving excursion on our own. We met up with the guy from Big Blue Diving at a nearby McDonald's and he took us to the shop. From there, we geared up and headed out! DH is scuba certified, but I'm not, so we had to do a "discover" scuba course instead, so there was some initial stuff in the beginning to deal with. Overall, the dive was fantastic! A ton of different fishes going by in big schools, and we even saw and octopus! I've definitely decided to get scuba certified, so I'm sure we'll go back to Palma to do more courses through Big Blue. They were great to work with and were super professional and knowledgeable. Highly recommend them.
The ship - OMG...the ship was fantastic! The Epic is the biggest that NCL has, and the newest. Not as gaudy as the earlier ships, and nicely decorated. Tons of places to eat, two large formal dining rooms, a few buffets, and a lot of other choices. We saw Blue Man Group one evening, and they also did a Cirque dinner show, which was amazing! We got passes to the thermal spa, which allows up in the spa every day of the cruise, which was a great place to relax, since it's kids free. The gym was great, but I found it pretty stuffy, even at 6:30am, when we worked out. Had some great, state-of-the-art equipment though, so can't complain too much.
Overall - the cruise was fantastic. I'm glad we went a few days early to see some of Barcelona, and I'm definitely sad it's over! We really loved cruising with NCL, and would recommend them to others!
Any questions?
Re: The Cruise!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR that sounds SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than our stupid Alaska cruise.
Thanks for the giving us the update, between you and Tot Ziens, I just keep making my list of things to do
I LOVE Barcelona too! I told DH I want to move there next.
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks