Well the packing is just about all done and our house sitter is all settled in. Just a few minor things to wrap up and we will be already to head out on our next adventure.
Tomorrow morning Veronica and I will be heading into Norfolk Airport to catch a flight to JFK and from there the long international flight to Marco Polo Airport in Venice.
I will be writing a journal about our daily events along with my usual taking of numerous photographs.
I personally can't wait to sink my choppers into a slice of authentic stone oven baked pizza in Venice. There is one place that I was checking out that I really want to try.... Antico Forno I am sure that we will find many more plus we want to find a great pasta restaurant too. Here is the hotel that we will be spending 2 nights at before boarding our ship, the NCL Jade, for 14 day Med cruise...
Hotel Papadopoli
Be back before you know it...hopefully with lots of exciting stories and tons of great photos to share.
Showing posts with label 2013 NCL Back To Back cruise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013 NCL Back To Back cruise. Show all posts
Finally Feeling Better
After almost 2 weeks of dealing with some type of flu bug, I am finally feeling better.
Yesterday I started to get back into my workouts.
We were gone for most of last week. We went to Herndon for Veronica's work. While up there, we stopped by the Ikea store and bought some new furniture for Veronica's new and improved studio. We spent one full day putting the furniture together. Veronica spent 2 days straightening out her studio with the new furniture pieces in place.
Next time we go up to the Herndon area, we will stop by Ikea and pick up several more pieces of furniture.
I figure that it will take 2-3 more Ikea visits until she has everything that she needs for new studio furniture.
A couple of days ago we went ahead and purchased our plane tickets for our upcoming October flight into Venice and returning home from Rome. These flights are in conjunction with our 2 week NCL cruise.
I have been tracking the prices for these flights and took a chance of getting the tickets now rather than waiting to see if the prices went down. Since purchasing the tickets, the prices have actually gone up a bit.
We will be flying on Delta Airlines for this trip. Delta had good departure and arrival times both in Venice and upon our return home via Norfolk Airport.
We used our Delta Skymiles credit card because Delta doubles the rewards miles for each ticket purchased with our American Express Gold Delta Skymiles card.
We actually used a portion of our previously saved up rewards miles for our upcoming flights into Minneapolis, for our fishing trip to Eagle Lake in Ontario Canada.
By using some of our rewards miles, we only had to pay $15 for both of our plane tickets. Right now we still have enough rewards points accrued for another inexpensive domestic flight.
With the purchase of our plane tickets, I was able to provide NCL with our return home flight information so that I could get our transfer vouchers from where the NCL Jade will be docking in Rome to the airport where Veronica and I will be returning home from.
We also decided to splurge a little bit for seat upgrades on both of the long international portions of our flights.
With those upgrades come larger seats with more leg room and seats that actually recline a lot more than the regular seats.
This seat upgrade should allow us to relax more and be more comfortable while sitting and sleeping on our international flights.
We should land being more relaxed and well rested due to this seat upgrade.
I also ordered our individual soda passes for the entirety of our cruise.
I still need to contact our pre-cruise hotel in Venice and arrange a private gondola ride with a singing gondolier. I figured that we will splurge for this experience and keep it private rather than sharing the gondola with other couples or families. We will only be doing this once in our lifetimes and decided to splurge a bit.
The only thing left for this cruise is for Veronica and I to browse through the many excursions that are being offered in each port of call to see if there are any we want to take.
Everything for this vacation is coming together and it won't be long until all plans have been made and completed.
Then it will be only a matter of time waiting for our departure date to arrive. Only 222 days until we finally hear those exciting words....BON VOYAGE!
Yesterday I started to get back into my workouts.
We were gone for most of last week. We went to Herndon for Veronica's work. While up there, we stopped by the Ikea store and bought some new furniture for Veronica's new and improved studio. We spent one full day putting the furniture together. Veronica spent 2 days straightening out her studio with the new furniture pieces in place.
Next time we go up to the Herndon area, we will stop by Ikea and pick up several more pieces of furniture.
I figure that it will take 2-3 more Ikea visits until she has everything that she needs for new studio furniture.
A couple of days ago we went ahead and purchased our plane tickets for our upcoming October flight into Venice and returning home from Rome. These flights are in conjunction with our 2 week NCL cruise.
I have been tracking the prices for these flights and took a chance of getting the tickets now rather than waiting to see if the prices went down. Since purchasing the tickets, the prices have actually gone up a bit.
We will be flying on Delta Airlines for this trip. Delta had good departure and arrival times both in Venice and upon our return home via Norfolk Airport.
We used our Delta Skymiles credit card because Delta doubles the rewards miles for each ticket purchased with our American Express Gold Delta Skymiles card.
We actually used a portion of our previously saved up rewards miles for our upcoming flights into Minneapolis, for our fishing trip to Eagle Lake in Ontario Canada.
By using some of our rewards miles, we only had to pay $15 for both of our plane tickets. Right now we still have enough rewards points accrued for another inexpensive domestic flight.
With the purchase of our plane tickets, I was able to provide NCL with our return home flight information so that I could get our transfer vouchers from where the NCL Jade will be docking in Rome to the airport where Veronica and I will be returning home from.
We also decided to splurge a little bit for seat upgrades on both of the long international portions of our flights.
With those upgrades come larger seats with more leg room and seats that actually recline a lot more than the regular seats.
This seat upgrade should allow us to relax more and be more comfortable while sitting and sleeping on our international flights.
We should land being more relaxed and well rested due to this seat upgrade.
I also ordered our individual soda passes for the entirety of our cruise.
I still need to contact our pre-cruise hotel in Venice and arrange a private gondola ride with a singing gondolier. I figured that we will splurge for this experience and keep it private rather than sharing the gondola with other couples or families. We will only be doing this once in our lifetimes and decided to splurge a bit.
The only thing left for this cruise is for Veronica and I to browse through the many excursions that are being offered in each port of call to see if there are any we want to take.
Everything for this vacation is coming together and it won't be long until all plans have been made and completed.
Then it will be only a matter of time waiting for our departure date to arrive. Only 222 days until we finally hear those exciting words....BON VOYAGE!
A Cruise Vacation Update
Our 2013 NCL cruise vacation is only about 281 days away. We have managed to just about pay the actual cruise off but still need to get our soda passes for the cruise and our transfers from the disembarkation port in Rome to the airport in Rome, which from what I have read and heard is approximately 1-1 1/2 hours away from where the ship will be docked.
The transfers are $75 per person but it is well worth the money to ride a large comfortable bus and have our luggage stored under the bus. I find this arrangement to be much better than trying to get a taxi for the long ride to the airport.
We will just have to make sure that we can get an early transfer shuttle so that we can arrive at the airport with plenty of time to get checked in and go through customs in Rome. I have a feeling that it will be hectic and busy at this airport.
We won't be able to arrange for these transfers until we have purchased our airline tickets.
We checked out various flights and we have kind of decided to stick with Delta for all of the flight segments on this trip.
We found several options for our "open jaw" flights for our arrival into Venice Italy and returning home from Rome, Italy.
We have our eye on one particular set of flights but we are waiting a bit to see if the prices go down some. The tickets have already dropped $50 a piece in the last 2 days, which was when we initially started our airline ticket search.
Another reason for flying Delta is that if we fly Delta and use our American Express Delta credit card, we get double rewards points.
We recently found out how nice it is to have these reward points. We recently purchased our upcoming August plane tickets for our flights to Minneapolis...on our way up to Canada for a week long relaxing fishing adventure. By using our Delta rewards points, we only had to pay $7.50 a piece for each of our plane tickets and this was for round trip tickets. That alone kind of endeared us to being loyal customers and reward points enthusiast.
Besides purchasing the flight tickets, we need to decide whether or not to do any shore excursions for the ports of call that we will be visiting.
We usually like to go off on our own without paying the price for these excursions but there have been times when it was better to be on a paid excursion through the cruise line. We will have to look carefully at each port and see what is available and what the cost is compared to having the freedom to go where we want and spend as much time at any give location as we choose and not having to pay a cent to do it.
There still is a lot of logistical research that I need to do especially for our time in Venice. Options of getting from the airport to a location near our hotel in Venice are plentiful but each has its own price and benefit, getting from our hotel in Venice to the pier where our ship is docked, arranging a gondola ride with serenade (a must for any visit to Venice), arranging travel from our hotel to the islands of Murano and Burano...these are just a few things that must be researched still and fully arranged.
One major thing I got accomplished was to make our reservations at the Hotel Papadopoli in Venice for 2 nights prior to our cruise actually starting.
I will most likely go through the hotels concierge service as far as the arrangements for the gondola ride and the visits to Murano and Burano. Hopefully a long distance telephone call and a few emails will take care of those arrangements.
And of course there will be the final task and probably one of the most important, gather up enough Euros so that we can totally enjoy ourselves during this next cruise adventure.
The transfers are $75 per person but it is well worth the money to ride a large comfortable bus and have our luggage stored under the bus. I find this arrangement to be much better than trying to get a taxi for the long ride to the airport.
We will just have to make sure that we can get an early transfer shuttle so that we can arrive at the airport with plenty of time to get checked in and go through customs in Rome. I have a feeling that it will be hectic and busy at this airport.
We won't be able to arrange for these transfers until we have purchased our airline tickets.
We checked out various flights and we have kind of decided to stick with Delta for all of the flight segments on this trip.
We found several options for our "open jaw" flights for our arrival into Venice Italy and returning home from Rome, Italy.
We have our eye on one particular set of flights but we are waiting a bit to see if the prices go down some. The tickets have already dropped $50 a piece in the last 2 days, which was when we initially started our airline ticket search.
Another reason for flying Delta is that if we fly Delta and use our American Express Delta credit card, we get double rewards points.
We recently found out how nice it is to have these reward points. We recently purchased our upcoming August plane tickets for our flights to Minneapolis...on our way up to Canada for a week long relaxing fishing adventure. By using our Delta rewards points, we only had to pay $7.50 a piece for each of our plane tickets and this was for round trip tickets. That alone kind of endeared us to being loyal customers and reward points enthusiast.
Besides purchasing the flight tickets, we need to decide whether or not to do any shore excursions for the ports of call that we will be visiting.
We usually like to go off on our own without paying the price for these excursions but there have been times when it was better to be on a paid excursion through the cruise line. We will have to look carefully at each port and see what is available and what the cost is compared to having the freedom to go where we want and spend as much time at any give location as we choose and not having to pay a cent to do it.
There still is a lot of logistical research that I need to do especially for our time in Venice. Options of getting from the airport to a location near our hotel in Venice are plentiful but each has its own price and benefit, getting from our hotel in Venice to the pier where our ship is docked, arranging a gondola ride with serenade (a must for any visit to Venice), arranging travel from our hotel to the islands of Murano and Burano...these are just a few things that must be researched still and fully arranged.
One major thing I got accomplished was to make our reservations at the Hotel Papadopoli in Venice for 2 nights prior to our cruise actually starting.
I will most likely go through the hotels concierge service as far as the arrangements for the gondola ride and the visits to Murano and Burano. Hopefully a long distance telephone call and a few emails will take care of those arrangements.
And of course there will be the final task and probably one of the most important, gather up enough Euros so that we can totally enjoy ourselves during this next cruise adventure.
Extending Our Stay In Venice
In October of this upcoming year, Veronica and I will be flying into Venice Italy where we will be boarding the NCL Jade for a 14 day cruise that will take in ports in Italy, Sicily, the Greek Isles, Slovenia and Croatia.
We decided that since we will already be paying a steep price for the airline tickets into Venice and then out of Rome for our return flight home, that we would like to extend our vacation for a couple of days. This way we would have a little more time to be spent in Venice itself.
I booked us a room at the Hotel Papadopli Venezia for 2 nights prior to our cruise starting.
I got us a Luxury King room that overlooks the Tolentini Canal.
We will hopefully be arriving into Venice early and drop our luggage off at the hotel and then go out and about in the city of Venice.
I am planning on making some type of arrangements for our 2nd day in Venice, to go visit the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.
Of course I will also need to set up a gondola ride for Veronica and I, which will include a serenade from the gondolier.
We will also have 1 other day in Venice, when our ship returns to Venice to drop of those passengers that did not book the back to back cruises that make up the 14 day itinerary. This return will be at the end of the first week of our 2 week cruise.
We should be able to get off of the ship early and head directly into Venice from the cruise ship terminal.
I still have a lot of prep work to get done for this next upcoming adventure but by getting the hotel reservations done, it feels like it is really going to happen for us.
I am also doing some preliminary work for our next adventure that will be happening in 2014.
That adventure will be one where we will be going and doing things more independently compared to a cruise.
We are looking at flying into Edinburgh...where Veronica and I had way too little time to really take in a lot of what that city has to offer during our last cruise and then from Edinburgh we would be going into London for a few days and then taking a train into Paris, where we would spend several days and then return home from there.
This itinerary will be a big and really exciting one for us.
We decided that since we will already be paying a steep price for the airline tickets into Venice and then out of Rome for our return flight home, that we would like to extend our vacation for a couple of days. This way we would have a little more time to be spent in Venice itself.
I booked us a room at the Hotel Papadopli Venezia for 2 nights prior to our cruise starting.
I got us a Luxury King room that overlooks the Tolentini Canal.
We will hopefully be arriving into Venice early and drop our luggage off at the hotel and then go out and about in the city of Venice.
I am planning on making some type of arrangements for our 2nd day in Venice, to go visit the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.
Of course I will also need to set up a gondola ride for Veronica and I, which will include a serenade from the gondolier.
We will also have 1 other day in Venice, when our ship returns to Venice to drop of those passengers that did not book the back to back cruises that make up the 14 day itinerary. This return will be at the end of the first week of our 2 week cruise.
We should be able to get off of the ship early and head directly into Venice from the cruise ship terminal.
I still have a lot of prep work to get done for this next upcoming adventure but by getting the hotel reservations done, it feels like it is really going to happen for us.
I am also doing some preliminary work for our next adventure that will be happening in 2014.
That adventure will be one where we will be going and doing things more independently compared to a cruise.
We are looking at flying into Edinburgh...where Veronica and I had way too little time to really take in a lot of what that city has to offer during our last cruise and then from Edinburgh we would be going into London for a few days and then taking a train into Paris, where we would spend several days and then return home from there.
This itinerary will be a big and really exciting one for us.
So Many Places And So Little Time
Veronica and I were discussing places that we might want to go to and see in 2013. As usual, our thoughts and conversation turned to the possiblity of another cruise.
I started doing a little research to see where various cruise lines would be going to that year...their itineraries and port of calls.
I ended up spending most of my time on the NCL, Norwegian Cruise Lines' web site.
As of this date all of the cruises that we have been on have been through NCL.
Eventually we will need to try other cruise lines in order to see other places in this world. But for right now, NCL has the trips that meet our wish list needs/wants.
Previously we had booked a 14 day Norway, Scotland, Ireland and Iceland cruise. This cruise departs in 260 days from now...on 9/16/2012. Here is the intinerary for that cruise:
After much research and discussion, Veronica and I decided on doing "back to back" 1 week cruises on the NCL Jade. We chose to do an inside cabin to help keep the costs down.
By doing this we can go on more cruises and/or spend some of the money saved on things to do and goodies to bring home.
We found that the prices for these cruises were very reasonably priced, which also made our decision rather easy.
We will be departing in this 14 day cruise on Saturday10/12/13.
This cruise will leave out of Venice
and go to several of the Greek islands.
Here is the itinerary for the first 7 days of the journey:
I started doing a little research to see where various cruise lines would be going to that year...their itineraries and port of calls.
I ended up spending most of my time on the NCL, Norwegian Cruise Lines' web site.
As of this date all of the cruises that we have been on have been through NCL.
Eventually we will need to try other cruise lines in order to see other places in this world. But for right now, NCL has the trips that meet our wish list needs/wants.
Previously we had booked a 14 day Norway, Scotland, Ireland and Iceland cruise. This cruise departs in 260 days from now...on 9/16/2012. Here is the intinerary for that cruise:
| Day 7 | At Sea |
| Day 8 | Reykjavik, Iceland |
| Day 9 | At Sea |
| Day 10 | At Sea |
| Day 11 | Glasgow(Greenock), Scotland |
| Day 12 Dublin, Ireland |
| Day 13 | At Sea |
| Day 14 | At Sea |
| Day 15 Copenhagen, Denmark |
After much research and discussion, Veronica and I decided on doing "back to back" 1 week cruises on the NCL Jade. We chose to do an inside cabin to help keep the costs down.
By doing this we can go on more cruises and/or spend some of the money saved on things to do and goodies to bring home.
We found that the prices for these cruises were very reasonably priced, which also made our decision rather easy.
We will be departing in this 14 day cruise on Saturday10/12/13.
This cruise will leave out of Venice
and go to several of the Greek islands.
Here is the itinerary for the first 7 days of the journey:
7-Day Eastern Mediterranean, Greek Isles from Venice
Dates Port
Day 1 Venice, Italy
Day 2 At Sea Day 3 Corfu, Greece
Day 4 Santorini, Greece
Day 5 Mykonos, Greece
Day 6 Olympia (Katakolon), Greece
Day 7 At Sea Day 8 Venice, Italy
7-Day Eastern Mediterranean, Greek Isles from Venice
| Dates | Port | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Venice, Italy | ||||
| Day 2 | At Sea | ||||
| Day 3 | Corfu, Greece | ||||
| Day 4 | Santorini, Greece | ||||
| Day 5 | Mykonos, Greece | ||||
| Day 6 | Olympia (Katakolon), Greece | ||||
| Day 7 | At Sea | ||||
| Day 8 | Venice, Italy |
At the end of this week, the Jade will then return to Venice.
Because we are doing "back to back" cruises, Veronica and I will be staying in the same cabin for both legs of the journey. We can leave our clothes and luggage in our cabin at the end of the 1st leg but we must get off of the ship once it docks in Venice. This is the "turnover" port where the passengers from the first cruise will get off of the ship with their baggage, the ship is cleaned and prepared for the next voyage.
The ship pulls into Venice at 8AM.
We should be able to get off of the ship by 9AM.
Veronica and I will get off of the ship as soon as possible and utilize this day to visit Venice and see as many sites as we can.
We will have to return and be back on the Jade by approximately 4 PM before it leaves port.
The Jade will then leave Venice at approximately 6PM and will cruise to several different countries and ports of call.
Here is the intinerary for the 2nd 7 days of our cruise:
7-Day Classic Mediterranean, Venice to Rome (Civitavecchia)
| Day | Port | ||
| Sat | Venice, Italy | ||
| Sun | Koper, Slovenia | ||
| Mon | Split, Croatia | ||
| Tue | Dubrovnik, Croatia | ||
| Wed | At Sea | ||
| Thu | Messina, Italy | ||
| Fri | Naples, Italy | ||
| Sat | Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy |
| The NCL Jade is a pretty nice ship. It is very similar to the NCL Pearl, which we have been on twice....both times being cruises to Alaska. For more information on the NCL Jade, please click here... NCL Jade |
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