Cruise Ship

We've now already written about all of the stops on our cruise, but haven't included many pictures or stories of what we did on the cruise ship itself.  Nate and I had talked about going on a cruise many times over the years.  He had wanted to go on a Greek Isles cruise, and Greece had been on his bucket list for years making this one a good fit.  To recap, our 9 day cruise on the Norwegian Getaway had stops in

-Rijeka, Croatia

-Zadar, Croatia

-Dubrovnik, Croatia

-Corfu, Greece

-Santorini, Greece

-Kusadasi, Turkey (cancelled by NCL, grr)

-Istanbul, Turkey

-Mykonos, Greece

My parents thought it sounded fun too and decided to join us.  We were happy to have them with us.  The NCL Getaway is a large ship with 4000 passengers.  The advantage of the large ship was the variety in entertainment, big waterslides, a ropes course, etc. The disadvantage was that at all the ports, especially the tenders, there were just soo many people and long lines.  It was also a challenge at times to keep track of everybody since they could in theory be on any of the 13 decks open to guests.

View of ship from Mykonos (Karina) and Santorini (Lydia) tenders:

At the various ports we were docked in, I liked to compare our ship to the others, and ours seemed to always have the best amenities for kids, judging by the tops of the ship, as well as being quite large :-)

In Zadar, Croatia (next 2 photos):

In Istanbul, we forgot to go inside a building and underground through immigration to get back on the ship at the end of the day.  Somehow we all imagined we would board above ground like at other ports.  Since Turkey is not a member of the EU, it was more complicated since we had to go through passport control when we got off the ship. The ship did look pretty at the newly built Galata cruise terminal in Istanbul:

Lydia became the ropes course master, doing it nearly every day and particularly loving the zip line portion where she would sail across the width of the ship.  Nate successfully completed it several times as well and managed to deal with his fear of heights that came most intensely on the balance beam portions of the course.  Karina and I tried it once and didn't go back:-)  Derek was unfortunately too tall to do the baby ropes course and the regular one was too intimidating for him.

The kids enjoyed the view from our window and liked sitting in the little nook on the opposite side of the curtains. 

Derek liked the pool best.  It was only 4 feet deep, so it helped his confidence in swimming immensely.  He could swim around and then if needed, stand up at a moment's notice. All the kids liked the water slides and much of our free time on board the ship was spent on the pool deck.  

The Mediterranean Sea was calm and pleasant the whole time.  We didn't have to worry about waves or seasickness which can happen over oceans.  These pictures were from the open air deck looking back at our wake.

At a couple of the ports (Santorini and Mykonos), my parents went back to the ship with Derek before Nate, Lydia, Karina, and I did.  Derek was happy to read the newest Northern Lights books that my parents brought from Norway.  He has been reading these graphic novels nightly for over a year. 

The entertainment on the ship was amazing.  Burn the Floor, the dance show, was impressive and I liked "Howl at the Moon: Dueling Pianos".  We also saw a Broadway reimagined show where the performers took  Broadway show tunes and sung them in different styles.  My favorite was Million Dollar Quartet, a Broadway production featuring Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.  The actor for Jerry Lee Lewis really stole the show with his piano shenanigans. 

We loved always having food available.  You just go to the buffet (or one of the restaurants) any time you are hungry.  I also liked sleeping in one spot and waking up in a new place.  It made the logistics of seeing many places easy.  What I didn't like was the horrible crowds at tenders, and the short timelines that had to be accommodated at each port.  I think I prefer being on my own schedule in each city, and not having to be back at a certain time.  I would go on a cruise again, but would likely try a different cruise line next time.