Fantasy 9-night June 2025 - Mediterranean and Greek Isles

[anricat]

Travel and Rome - June 17 and 18, 2025​

This summer’s adventure brings us back to the Mediterranean with a visits to Italy and Greece. We actually had this trip booked for summer 2020 (we all know how that turned out). Then we booked it again 2021 (nope) and then again in 2022 (could have happened, but we opted to stay on this side of the pond for a Southern Caribbean cruise). In 2023 we went to Iceland/Norway/France instead and in 2024 we went to California and Hawaii (which is what we had originally planned on for 2021, actually). So when it came time to plan summer 2025 travel, we decided to give it another go. And this time we made it!

The cast of characters:
Summer - that's me! I'm a super-planner. I also helped admin our cruise meet group and ran all the FEs
Roger - my DH
Emmaline - my DD, 16 (turning 17 less than a week after the trip)
Dru - my bestie, an ex-pat living in Geneva (didn't cruise, but came for the Rome portion of the trip)

Our flights were completely uneventful (other than the fact that none of us slept particularly well, but that’s not super unusual). We left our house at 10:15 AM on Tuesday, arrived at the Austin airport at 10:45 AM, departed on time for Dallas at 12:30 PM and successfully made our connection from Dallas at 2:40 PM to Rome. Our flight arrived in Rome at around 8 AM on Wednesday. Passport control was super easy and our luggage was already on the carousel when we exited. We grabbed our bags, had no wait at customs and made our way to the train platform for the express train to Termini. A train was just leaving when we arrived so we took the next one, arriving at Termini around 9:45 AM. We decided to walk (about 15 minute walk from Termini) to a little cafe I had found nearby that was around the corner from our AirBnB.

We had coffee and snacks at the cafe to fortify us for the days’ adventures. I tried to order a mocha, which doesn’t seem to exist in Italy so I had the first of several marocchinos (a shot of espresso with a tiny dollop of milk and cocoa powder) instead, which was very good. At 11AM, we were able to gain access to our AirBnB. It wasn’t completely ready, but she said we could drop our bags off, which was nice. From there we hopped across the street (literally like frogger in Rome, even when there is a crosswalk) to a little park with some points of interest. In the park we discussed our options for the afternoon. This was Roger’s fourth time in Rome, my third, and Emmaline’s second so we had already hit many of the big touristy things. With this in mind, all our activity options for Rome were mostly off the beaten path, hidden gems and unique experiences. We didn’t come in with a solid plan for that afternoon, but instead had a list of possible options depending on how we were feeling. We decided that the National Museum of Musical Instruments sounded cool so we hopped on a tram. (Side note: I love living in the time of tap to pay. No longer do we have to try to figure out ticket machines in another language or buy transit cards that we will never use up. We each tapped our phone on the way onboard and paid the fare.)



We were, quite literally, the only people visiting the museum and it’s a shame because it is a hidden gem and we all loved it. Nobody spoke English, but they were clearly extremely excited to have us. Probably all they ever get are school group tours during the school year. One of the docents half led/half followed us around showing us interesting things here and there. He was adorable and so kind and we had a lovely visit. I highly recommend this museum if you’re looking for something totally unique in Rome.





When we were done, we were hungry but all the lunch places I had researched weren’t in the neighborhood we were currently in and we didn’t want to wait until we traveled back to our neighborhood. We started walking back in the general direction of our AirBnB and found a panini shop on the way back. The very enthusiastic Italian man behind the counter sold us some delicious panini and we were all very happy. I’m pretty sure we were also the only tourists in there, which was so great. I love finding those little authentic local gems.

During our afternoon, we were receiving updates from Dru as to the status of her flight. (Dru is my music sister living her best life in Geneva, Switzerland. Each time we come to Europe we make a plan to be tourists together.) During lunch she said that she was getting on the train at the airport. We walked back to our neighborhood and found Emmaline a SIM card (hers was the only one that we couldn’t make work from our previous trip) and went to a local market for some fresh fruit for a later snack. The timing was perfect and we all ended up at the AirBnB at exactly 3 PM. The cleaning lady was just leaving and so we went in and unpacked a bit and settled in. Our AirBnB was great: perfect size, most everything we needed (a few minor things, but easily one of the better AirBnBs we’ve stayed in) and a great location. We were close to Termini and another metro line, right across from a nice park and it didn’t ever feel like a super touristy and congested area.

We left the AirBnB around 4:30 and took the metro to Piazza Barberini where our evening tour would be starting. We booked an after hours catacombs tour with Capuchin crypts. We arrived early so we found a lemon shop (literally everything in the shop had lemons) and had some lemon treats before we met our tour.

We began in the Capuchin Crypts. Upstairs there is a little museum and then after that you go down into the crypts. I had no idea what to expect, but it was really cool. After the crypts we got on a bus and went to one of the many catacombs underneath Rome. The catacombs of Rome were underground burial grounds that date from the second to fifth century. There are over 40 different ones (some think there may be as many as 50-60) but only a few are open to the public. The catacomb we visited was the Priscilla Catacomb. No photography was allowed down there so I have no pictures, but it was a really amazing experience.





When we were in the bus on the way back to the original meeting point, we got stopped in some traffic to allow a parade of historic cars to go by. Occurring once a year, the “1000 Miglia” is a gathering of vintage cars and they drive around Italy. It was fun to see all the old cars!



We were back to Piazza Barberini around 8 PM and when we got off the tour bus, here come the vintage cars again! We stopped and watched them all go by. Then we went down a cute little back alley to a little restaurant I had made note of called Taverna Boccaccio and had dinner. The food was amazing, but the service was perhaps slower than we wanted. I don’t think they were falling down on the job but I think it was more of a cultural thing and the fact that we were all exhausted and jet lagged. We had a lot of leftovers which we decided to take back with us and possibly make a dinner of on another night. We weren’t too tired for gelato, however, so we stopped for some on the way back to our place. It was very late when we returned and we were all exhausted and went to bed right away. Thankfully we had two bathrooms for the four of us (two bedroom apartment - Emmaline and Dru shared a room) so we could get ready for bed pretty quickly.

 

[anricat]

Orvieto - June 19, 2025​

I previously mentioned we’d all been to Rome before and we were going to do some different things. I learned about Orvieto from the main moderator of our cruise meet group and when I looked into it, it looked incredible. And it was. This actually might have been one of my favorite days of the trip. Roger’s main ask was to go to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s villa. We did not know when we made these selections that there would be a national worker strike. The strike was set to begin at 9 PM on the 19th and run through to 9 PM on the 20th. When I had originally looked into the trains to Orvieto where were lots of options but closer to the trip, there were fewer. I don’t know if this was because of the impending strike or some other reason (rail maintenance, etc.) but we had not many intercity options and since we wanted to have enough time to really explore the city and get back before the strike, we booked tickets on regional trains. This meant it took us longer than it might have, but we had some time to relax and socialize.

We were a few minutes later leaving the apartment than we wanted but we still made it to Termini on time. The train was at platform 1est, which we took to mean, platform 1, heading east. No, this is in fact, not what it means. There are two platforms east of platform 1. 1est and 2est. We were not the only ones confused and suddenly everyone waiting at platform 1 with us started running away from the platform towards...somewhere. But I knew that those people were going where we were because I had sort of asked around when we arrived and so did several other people who came up after us. But the platform didn’t have its sign lit up. And Dru said in Geneva that was normal and the train would just pull in and the sign would then update. But we followed the mass of running people to find the other set of platforms hidden away. When we figured out what was going on we were so stressed but we made it to the train in the nick of time.

The train ride was about two hours (an intercity train would have been around 90 minutes) and we arrived around 10:30 AM. Normally when visiting Orvieto you take a funicular up the hill for a few Euros, but the funicular was undergoing maintenance and they had a bus in place instead. So we bought the tickets (no tap to pay here) and hopped on the bus. The bus ride up to the walled city perched on the top of a hill was like a crazy, real life amusement park ride. The driver was insane. It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying but we survived. Once we got there Dru and Emmaline had some smoothies at a little cafe and we all hit the restrooms before starting down all the steps at Pozzo di San Patrizio (the well of St. Patrick). This deep 16th century circular well shaft was really beautiful. We spent about 30 minutes there climbing all the way down and all the way back up again.







Back at the top I knew we needed to take the Orvieto city bus and I had already researched which line we needed, but my Italian is terrible and the bus waiting there wasn't the right one and the driver's English wasn’t any better than my Italian and I finally got the notion that line we needed wasn’t running, but the driver gestured for us to hop on his bus when I showed him where I was trying to go on the top and he seemed to indicate that he would get us close to where we needed to go. I prepped for another wild ride. Later we did find out why that line wasn’t running and it was because we ran into, once more, the 1000 Miglia with the vintage cars.



The bus came to a stop and the driver shooed us out. We were actually at a pretty cool lookout so it was a happy accident. Orvieto isn't huge so it wasn't really a big deal for us to walk once we got near the city center. I mapped us over to our next destination: Pozzo della Cava (once again, I love living in the future as I’m not sure how we would have figured everything out otherwise) and made our way through those caves. The whole of the city is full of underground caves, which were dug for a variety of reasons from wells to storage to pigeon farms, to Etruscan tombs. Many were repurposed in later times for wine storage, olive oil press and storage, kilns, and other purposes.








We left there and I had previously researched a good looking lunch spot nearby called Le grotto del Funaro. It was a super cute little underground place and we had a great meal. The star of the show for me was the farro salad. It was amazing. We all shared a few dishes so we could try some different things. After lunch, we walked over to Torre del Moro, the clock tower in the middle of the town. 240 stairs later and we were rewarded with an amazing view of the city and surrounding countryside. We went back down and got some gelato and did a little shopping. At 2:45 we walked over the piazza where the Duomo is. The church is absolutely beautiful. We didn’t go inside, but the outside is stunning and I’m sure the inside is also incredible. But with only one day, we had to make some decisions. And we had purchased a “Carta Unica” attraction card that got us into all the underground things so we focused on that. If you're spending more than one day, they have a card that pretty much covers ALL things one could do in Orvieto. I had booked ahead a tour of the Orvieto Underground for 3 PM with a 2:45 arrival. We arrived and for those just walking up, they were booking for the 3:30 tour so we were able to go right on the tour, but we probably could have booked it same day if we were willing to wait or come back. But the timing was perfect for us.







The tour was about an hour and guided so it was nice to get a little more detail and background on the city. We learned about the reasons for all the undergrounds and how they were used over the centuries in different ways by the Etruscans and Romans and later in medieval and Renaissance times. I will say, though, that we were a little done being underground by this time! It was time for us to head back so we tried to figure out how to pay to take the city bus back to the square where the funicular station was because, as I mentioned, these buses didn’t have tap to pay. Ultimately the driver just waved us on. Once back, I bought tickets for the bus down the hillside to get back to the train station.



We had some time before we needed to take that bus back so we had some coffee and snacks at the cafe and I had possibly the best marocchino of the entire trip. Each time I ordered it after that initial time, all the baristas seemed surprised that I asked for it, which was funny. A little after 5 PM we took the bus back down the side of the hilltop which was just as wild a ride, if not crazier, than the ride up. I have an idea for a new theme park ride I’d like to pitch.



Then we took the couple hour train ride back to Rome. Once at Termini we split up. Roger went to go buy some wine while Dru, Emmaline and I went over to the Budget rental counter to see what we needed to do for our car rental the next day (yes, car rental - remember the impending strike?) because they had called me and said I needed to check in with them to prep our paperwork to make the rental the next morning quicker, but the desk was closed. Then we picked up a “Too Good to Go” (food waste app that I was surprised to see operates in Europe as well). For €4 we got a grab bag with a croissant, a sandwich and several doughnuts at closing time from a bakery there. Then we all met up at a grocery store close to our AirBnB to get some things for dinner that night to pair with our leftovers from the previous night for dinner and a few things for breakfast for the next couple of days.

We made a little feast of all our leftovers and some things we picked up at the store. After that, we prepped some things for the morning, took showers and went to bed.

 

[anricat]

Tivoli - June 20, 2025​

I had heard of the scheduled worker strikes that sometimes happen in Europe, but I had never been visiting in the midst of one. When I learned of it from our Facebook cruise meet group (and also later from our travel agent - a good reason to have a travel agent) we knew we needed to pivot. Roger had asked to go to Tivoli from day one so I really wanted to make that happen and as the time got closer for the trip, it looked like renting a car would be our best option. Apparently, I’m just collecting countries I’ve driven in (Mexico, Iceland, and Denmark up to this point). Prior to arriving in Europe, I went to the local AAA office to get an International Driving Permit (IDP) for $20. One need not be a member of AAA and it took all of 15 minutes.

Dru and I left the apartment around 8 AM and walked over to Termini to the Budget rental counter. I didn’t price out any other rental companies. I just chose Budget because I’m already a member and all my info was on file. We had tried to do the pre-registration ahead of time but couldn’t get connected with them on the phone. Turns out, we didn’t need it because I’m a Budget member so they sent us straight up to the counter where the cars are. Once there, we got the keys and headed out. It was quick and easy and we were on the road.

I drove over and picked up Emmaline and Roger from the AirBnB and we drove to Hadrian’s Villa. The traffic in Rome was pretty bad and it took us a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. Driving in Rome is about as crazy as you're imagining and for the most part, I was able to get the hang of everything. There were a couple of wonky intersections that I'm not sure I traversed correctly, but whatever, we made it through. We got to Hadrian's Villa around 10 AM. We spent about two hours there exploring all the different parts of the estate. The place is massive, but we covered nearly all of it. It is really a stunning site and pretty well preserved. It was so hot though. We were all sweating buckets and really feeling fatigued by the end. We left there and drove a little further into Tivoli and parked the car in a lot that Roger had found and walked right around the corner to eat lunch at a restaurant that I had found. We had a really nice lunch and finished it off with coffee and cookies as well.









We then walked over to Villa d’Este. Villa d’Este was the 16th century home of a cardinal. First we started inside the villa and then after all the rooms started looking sort of the same, we moved out to the extremely elaborate gardens and fountains. Again, it was just a massive area that was so impressive and beautiful. And again, we were there for almost two hours. After that, we were so hot and tired and we spotted some gelato on the way back and had some of my favorite of the trip.








Back to the car, we drove over to Villa Gregoriana which is another papal villa. This one from the 19th century. We didn’t go in or see it, but there was a beautiful waterfall on the hillside that is somehow related to the villa in some way? Or part of the villa grounds? I don’t know. It was pretty. Then we drove back to Rome, which was totally uneventful except for the traffic was heavy and then Dru and I couldn’t figure out how to operate the gas pump. The payment was at a central box where you then press a button for your pump number and then go pump the gas. The Italian gas station attendant clearly thought we were morons.



We dropped Emmaline and Roger off at the apartment and set about returning the car to Termini. But we couldn’t figure out how to do it. We tried three different locations Google maps fed us until we finally got the right one. Between all the driving in circles and traffic and stopping to try to figure out where to go, it took us an hour to return the car. I was starting to get worried we would need to get gas again! When we finally did return it, apparently we didn't do it correctly and there was a gate we couldn't get through which caused more drama and a very angry Italian garage attendant yelling at me in Italian. Good times.

Finally, we made it back to the room and everyone cleaned up and took showers. Roger and I went downstairs to a little pizza shop two doors down and got Roman-style pizza which is sold by weight and then re-heated up in a little oven NY pizza style. It was good. We even tried the one with potatoes on it. We had some salad stuff left over from the night before so we had that too.



We spent the rest of the evening packing and getting ready to leave the next morning for the next part of our vacation.

 

[anricat]

Tarquinia and Embarkation - June 21, 2025​

We got up, ate breakfast and finished packing in preparation for our 9 AM pickup. I had hired a driver (Andrea Amore, recommended) to pick us all up, take us to Tarquinia to see the Etruscan Necropoli there and then drop us off at the port and Dru off at the airport. We arrived at the site of the tombs around 10:30 AM and spent a little over an hour. There is also a museum in town that houses all the things taken out of the tombs and a few of the tomb walls themselves that they removed to preserve. Each little hill housed a different tomb and could be accessed by a flight of stairs and then there was glass and a light switch to illuminate the tomb to see the decorations. It was, again, very hot and there was no shade at all but the tombs were actually really cool and some of the artwork was absolutely stunning. We saw most of the tombs (but not all) and when we were done we called the driver back and asked if he could take us to a cafe in town.





We all had coffee and snacks for about thirty minutes before we had our driver take us to the port which was only about twenty minutes away. We said goodbye to Dru, which was sad. I wish we could have kept adventuring together. Luggage drop, security, and check in was pretty smooth and straightforward and they were already on open boarding when we got there. When we got onboard it was 1:30 PM and rooms were already ready so we were able to drop our carry on bags into the room before going up to Cabanas for lunch.

After lunch we returned to the room and organized some of what we could out of our carry on bags, we relaxed a little bit and Emmaline went to Vibe to get checked in for the activities there. Soon it was time for the muster drill so we went to that at 4 PM and then Emmaline went to the sail away party and Roger and I went back to the room to see if we had bags. We did so we unpacked before going up to Deck 11 to snack on some fruit (as I write this, it looks like we literally just had lunch in the previous sentence but I assure you that this is hours later, but also, it’s vacation and it seems like you’re being awfully judgey here about this snack thing.)



We finished up a little more unpacking and then it was time to get ready for dinner (don’t say it, it seems like we literally just ate multiple times in the previous paragraph). First we stopped off at Palo to see if we could request our server from January. We could and she was there and saw us and recognized us. How do they do that? Crazy. At dinner we were happy to have Jay as our server for the fifth time! We first met Jay nearly 10 years ago on the Magic when we sailed with my parents and we’ve requested him every time we’re on a ship that he’s on. We’ve sailed now 15 times with DCL and had Jay for a third of those sailings.

After dinner we caught the Victrophonics performance in the atrium. They are a fun musical group that uses performers from the Walt Disney Theatre as singers and a tapper. We decided that one of them looked like he was going to be playing Aladdin (spoiler alert: we were right). Then we made a stop at Guest Services to activate our DisneyBands. They were showing live action Lilo and Stitch in the Walt Disney Theatre that evening and we didn’t really have any interest so we returned to the room where I jotted down some notes, wrote up a bit of trip report and relaxed. Emmaline went to karaoke after that and we went to the 10:30 adult-only magic show in The Tube. It was fine. I feel like we’ve seen a lot of the same tricks before with other magicians.



Then it was time for bed because it was a long day!

 

[anricat]

At Sea - June 22, 2025​

One of the things I like about cruising is that we can have a pretty chill day to rest and recharge from all the crazy sightseeing but still have some activities to do. With a land vacation, if you want to have a chill day, you’re probably just stuck sort of hanging about your hotel. Which is fine, but we like a little more than just a hotel pool. Though I say this and we are eyeing a land-only Europe vacation next year. Sometimes there are things you just can’t access from a ship. All this to say that we had a great day at sea.

I got up at 7 AM, found an open washing machine, tossed in a load of laundry, went up to the gym and did a workout, went and moved our laundry to the dryer and then went to breakfast. After breakfast we folded and put away the laundry and I had a shower. Around 10:15 AM, I went to join Roger on the top deck for our passage through the Strait of Messina. It was fun to see some of our progress through the strait and after about 45 minutes there, Roger returned to the room to shower and Emmaline and I went and delivered some of our gift exchange gifts to the other staterooms in our group. We returned to the room to relax a bit. I typed up some trip report and made some notes and then we all went to lunch at noon.



After lunch, Emmaline went off to find some crafts and other activities while Roger and I returned to the room to relax. I worked some more on my trip report before it was time for the ice cream social I had organized for our cruise meet group. We had so many toppings and it was a good time. I cleaned up from the ice cream social, slipping some of the leftover candy to some nearby housekeeping crew members.



At 3 PM it was time for the first of three talks by Cesar Gallega, a senior archivist for the Walt Disney Archives. He gave a really cool presentation about the Walt Disney Archives, what they do and the kinds of work he does. It’s funny because I actually recently saw the Disney 100 Exhibition, which was curated by the Walt Disney Archives and I was wearing the shirt I got from the exhibition just by coincidence! It was a great talk and I was excited for the next two in his series onboard. We also got to watch this cute video that gives a little more insight into the work of the archives.



After that we went back to the room to relax and regroup before attending the DVC Member celebration at 5 PM. We didn’t buy any more points, but we did get a cool pin. At 6 PM it was time for dinner and we were in Animator’s. The Crush show was extra loud and annoying but we muddled through. We didn’t really do much after dinner. It was formal night so we took a few photos. Emmaline didn't really get great photos of her prom dress this year so she brought it along for formal night so we could take some. People were already lining up for Aladdin at 7:45, which seemed crazy to me because doors didn’t even open until 8:15, but we got in line.



Aladdin was fantastic (as per usual) and it was pretty packed. Somehow it seemed like there were a lot of first time cruisers on this cruise, which is wild to me. I don’t think I could have done a 9-night for my first cruise. After that we went down to The Tube to play Majority Minds at 10 PM. Emmaline went to Vibe. This particular game of Majority Minds wasn’t as good as the last time we played it, but we still enjoyed it and then we all met back up in the room and went to bed.

 

[anricat]

Chania, Crete - Monday, June 23, 2025​

Our first official stop of the cruise was Chania on the island of Crete. The “c” is silent, so it’s han-ee-uh, with the han part pronounced like Han Solo so it sounds more like the word “on” (unless it’s being said by Lando in which case he says Han like “hand.” I digress.) We had a late arrival into this port but nevertheless we set the alarm for 8 AM because we needed to make it to the special Gold/Platinum/Pearl level celebration in the Walt Disney Theatre at 9:15 AM. This special presentation is only on cruises longer than 7 nights. This was the third time we’ve attended this behind the scenes look a show in the Walt Disney Theatre. This one was a scene we hadn’t seen before so it was cool to see something slightly different. (Previously we saw a different scene from Aladdin and on the Dream it was a scene from Beauty and the Beast.)

Afterward, we spent some time chatting with some of the theatre cast members technical crew. Emmaline had already started getting to know some of the cast (they often assist with character meets) and asking them questions about how they came to be performers on the ship, where they went to school, etc. She is just beginning the process for her auditions to colleges for musical theatre (she’s a rising senior) and her goal is to one day perform for DCL in the Walt Disney Theatre. The actor playing Genie in Aladdin recommended chatting with the stage manager and see if we could set up a meet and greet with some of the actors so we chatted with her to maybe set something up.

After that Emmaline and I went and did the dark saber photo op, which was kind of fun. Then we did some laundry, had a snack, and got ready to disembark for our tour. The ship either cleared late, or they just didn’t announce it for awhile that we were cleared but finally we were able to disembark and meet up with the other family we were splitting a private “Cretan Countryside” tour with. Our wonderful guide Sofia met us at the dock to take us all around the island.

First we took a little drive through the old town and saw the lighthouse before making our way inland up through a beautiful gorge where there were many goats roaming around. (A highlight was the goat running down the road with his horns full of oleander, which grows wild there.) We stopped for a late lunch at a place called Ntounias where they make everything from scratch using no electricity. The interior of Crete is really beautiful and Sofia told us a lot about the island. We also bought some local honey at a little stand. It was such a lovely and chill day away from other tourists.







After the tour, Sofia brought us back to the port and we walked across the street to a grocery store where Roger bought some local wine and chocolate and Emmaline and I tried to find some fun Greek cookies to sample. We got back onboard and sorted ourselves out for dinner that night, which was in Enchanted Garden. After dinner, we listened to Ellis Lucero play the piano. Emmaline was a pretty big fan of his piano playing and we enjoyed a number of his sets throughout the cruise. The sunsets were beautiful over the ocean in Greece and this evening was no exception.



There was no show opposite dinner on port days on this cruise, which we had never seen done before. Instead, on port days, they had a show in between dinner seatings. It was weird and made it hard to get to the show right after dinner, especially on a couple of nights when we were later to dinner (which our sever was cool with because we typically knew what we wanted and we don't usually go in on all courses). On this evening it was one of the magicians we had seen at the adult show previously and we weren’t super excited about that so we skipped it. Instead we did some shopping and ran into Genie again so we chatted with him for a few minutes before heading back to the room and going to bed.

 

[bbn1122]

Great trip report...interested to see the rest!

Thanks for sharing...

 

[anricat]

Piraeus (Athens) - Tuesday June 24, 2025​

We knew this was going to be a long, hot, exhausting day full of people. It was, but it was also really great. I’ve always wanted to go to Athens and I’ve always wanted to visit the Acropolis so it was a really great day for me. It started early with a 5:40 AM alarm clock. We got up, had breakfast and disembarked the ship at 7:15 to meet up for our 7:30 AM tour. We booked a small group full day tour with PK Tours. The traffic was crazy getting from the port in Piraeus (Athens’ port since ancient times). After about an hour of driving we arrived at the Panathenaic stadium, the stadium built for the first modern Olympic games in 1896. It is now open for visitors and for unique small concerts. It was just a quick stop and we didn't go inside (it appeared that they were setting up for a concert). We left there and drove through even more traffic, arriving at the Acropolis around 10 AM.



Our guide went with us to the top, giving us information and history and then gave us some free time to spend there and meet back down at the bottom. It was pretty congested with people on the way up and down, but the top wasn’t too bad and we walked around and looked at the whole site. It’s really amazing.

















We regrouped at the bottom at 11:30 AM and walked over to Plaka (touristy shopping/dining area at the base of the Acropolis) where she set us free to have lunch and go shopping. We were tired, thirsty and hungry so we pretty much picked the first place promising air conditioning. I probably should have done a bit of research to find the best lunch option. (I just wasn't really paying attention to the itinerary on their website.) Lunch was fine, but not amazing. After lunch we shopped, tried to find cats and then had some coffees and treats before rejoining the group at 2 PM to go to the Acropolis Museum. I will say that 2 hours was longer than we really wanted/needed at Plaka. It was in the itinerary, but I felt really overwhelmed by choosing a tour in Athens and the PK tour was recommended, not overly expensive and mostly what we wanted. We met a family later (that we shared a tour with in Naples) that did a slightly different version of the tour visiting a different monument (something about Poseidon) instead of all that time at Plaka and it sounded better. So my advice to you is pay attention to your itinerary to make sure it's really what you want. (You'll get another repeat of this when you find us in Naples so stay tuned for another round of "I didn't really pay attention to the itinerary.")

We spent a little over an hour at the museum. It was a really cool museum with a lot of really incredible things from the Acropolis. Unfortunately, a lot of things from the Acropolis were stolen in the 1800s by the British Lord Elgin and are now housed in the British Museum who apparently doesn’t want to give them back. They let Greece have some nice copies though. Wasn’t that nice of them? Acropolis Museum got in a little passive aggressive dig at the British Museum by putting an empty slot where a statue should be to complete the set of Caryatids. (The Caryatids up at the Acropolis are now copies.)







We drove back to the port where we reboarded the ship around 4:15 PM. We were totally sweaty and gross so we took turns cycling through the shower. Emmaline and I went to karaoke which was pretty quiet so she was able to sing twice. I sang once (“Spoonful of Sugar”) before going back to the room to get ready to go to Palo for dinner. Emmaline went to dinner on her own at Royal Court.

Roger and I went to Palo and had an amazing dinner while the sun started to set. While we were at dinner, Emmaline went to a performance by Ian Knauer who is a Broadway musical theatre performer onboard. Often on these longer itineraries they have Broadway performers onboard to give small performances and have little talks. She said it was really good. I was sorry we missed it. Roger and I went back to the room and crashed out, but Emmaline went to pirate night and the pirate dance party afterwards before returning to the room. It was fine because we had a sea day the next day.

 

[anricat]

At Sea - June 25, 2025​

On our cruise meet group I had planned a pajama breakfast for everyone in Royal Court at 8 AM. In the last cruise group I helped run we did this and it was a roaring success. Regrettably, this time there was a late night movie the night before and they were serving Mickey churro waffles in Cabana’s that morning so attendance was about half of those that had initially signed up. Those that came had fun anyway and some went up for second breakfast at Cabana’s to have the waffles (I think they are greasy and overly sweet, but people are nuts about them so I dunno).

After that we returned to the room and got ready and I went to drawing class to learn to draw Daisy. Well, it was more of a refresher because I’ve drawn Daisy (and Donald who is basically the same but without eyelashes and a bow) many times. Between the last cruise and this one, I spent some time trying to practice my character drawing by watching videos on YouTube. After that we picked up an Anna’s Chocolate Chase scavenger hunt sheet and began that. I was actually bummed that we didn’t have the special daily scavenger hunt like we’ve had on previous long cruises, but that’s okay. I was excited to do this one again because we did it on the Wonder in Alaska and got a chocolate bar at the end! (Hence the name.)

We returned to the room and I worked on some trip report and we all just relaxed a bit. At 11 AM we went for Cesar Gallego’s second talk in the Buena Vista Theatre. You may recall that he is an archivist for the Walt Disney Archives and gave a talk on the first sea day. This talk was entitled “Walt’s Great Adventures” and it was about how Walt’s travels inspired the projects created by the company. He was having a lot of technical problems but it was still a really good talk.

We raced out of there and up to Cabana’s for lunch. We wanted to have a quick lunch so we could get a good spot at Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash. It didn’t work. We were sort of late and didn’t have the best view. It’s kinda okay because it wasn’t the best diaper dash. There were only a couple of qualifying heats and some of the babies just weren’t feeling it that day.



After that we raced over to The Tube because four members of the Walt Disney Theatre cast were having a Q&A. Emmaline was particularly excited about this because she is just starting the process of applying to college for a BFA in Musical Theatre and eventually she wants to perform for Disney Cruise Line. Actually she had already met and talked to several of the cast just seeing them around the ship and we had met some on our meet and greet on the other sea day. Throughout the cruise they were all super nice and were excited to share their journey and give advice.



After that we went to Vista and got some coffee and snacks before returning to the room to relax a bit. I worked on my trip report while Roger and Emmaline completed the chocolate chase and turned it in to receive…nothing. They got absolutely nothing. So much for chocolate. Roger relaxed and I continued work on my trip report while Emmaline went to the crew pin trading, returning with a couple of really cool pins.





At 3:45 we all went to see Ian Knauer in The Tube. You may recall that Emmaline saw him perform on the first sea day. This was more of a talk about his journey to Broadway and the work he’s done. It was a great talk and he seems like a really great guy, in addition to being really talented. After that we regrouped in the room before going over to O’Gills at 5. Emmaline wanted to do the 18+ Broadway trivia there. Now the last time Roger and I went on our own to an 18+ thing during the day in O’Gills, we saw a kid there. I asked the CM about it and she said, “oh, he’s watching the sports. They can come in here under 18 if they are going to watch sports.” So at 5 PM Roger and I went to Broadway trivia and Emmaline went to watch sports. Funny enough, it was F1 and she actually knows quite a bit about F1 and did watch some of it. I don’t understand that policy, but whatever. We did okay but didn’t win. “That’s the story of my life. Oh ya!” (*Quiz! Name that Broadway show!)





After that it was time for dinner and we were back in Animator’s. After dinner Roger and I went to the room and Emmaline went to go listen to one of the musicians play Beatles songs. The show for the evening was Frozen and we went early again to try to secure some good seats. We were excited to see some of the cast members we had met at the talk earlier in the day! The show was fantastic. I don’t know if it was because we had talked with them outside of the shows or if this cast was just really really good but all the shows just seemed really great with really strong performers. Aladdin, Frozen and Believe were just so good on this sailing.

After that it was late and we decided to get to bed to be ready for our next port day on the island of Rhodes the next day.

*It's from Shrek: The Musical sung by Pinocchio.

 

[anricat]

Rhodes - June 26, 2025​

A lot of our all ashore times on this trip were early. Consequently, we were performing mooring operations early in the morning and as a result of that, I was awakened early to the vibrations of the ship’s thrusters. So I woke up at 5:45 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. I was planning on going to the gym anyway so it worked out, I just got a slightly earlier start than I otherwise would have.

I finished my workout and went back to the room and showered while everyone else was getting up, then we all went to breakfast together at 7:45 AM. We ate at Cabanas and then finished getting ready and got off the ship to meet our driver Agi with Rhodes Taxi Tours for our private tour (it was a steal for 250 Euros). It’s worth noting that Rhodes was not on our original itinerary when we first booked the cruise. It was Kusadasi, Turkey. However, given how many times Disney has cancelled Turkish ports in the past, we didn’t figure we were going there so really it was just a waiting game to see what it would be instead. We sort of thought Mykonos, but then about four months prior to sailing we got the notification that it was Rhodes and we were excited because it looked like a great port. It, in fact, was great and Emmaline says that this was her favorite.

Our driver was really nice and seemed to be genuinely happy to share his island with us. He said he was excited when he heard which tour we selected (West Coast Tour) because he really loves that particular route because it isn't overly touristy. First we made a stop in the old town for a quick photo op. Nothing was really open yet, but we were able to take a look at the square and the walls of the medieval city.




After that we took a short walk to the Mandraki port and some beautiful columns built when the island was occupied by Italy. At this harbor entrance once stood the Colossus of Rhodes (rumored, but no evidence ever found; there’s also rumors of the statue existing at other sites of the island): a huge bronze statue and one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. While in the area, we also stopped into the Church of the Annunciation, which was lovely from the outside, but absolutely breathtaking on the inside.








After this, we wound our way to a hilltop, making a stop along the way to see one of their many beaches. We got to the hilltop overlooking the city and sea down below and the view was really beautiful. The ocean there is stunningly blue and across the sea, we could see Turkey in the distance!





From there we got back into the car and drove to Filerimos Hill. One thing that was really cool about Rhodes was that you could see the different eras of habitation from Greece, to Rome, to medieval and onward. At Filerimos we started by walking down a stations of the cross pathway with a very large cross at the end. On the other side of Filerimos are some Greek ruins (a temple to Athena) as well as an early Christian basilica and the remains of a Byzantine monastery. Through the site, peacocks and peahens scream and prance about. (Why are there peacocks there? I don’t know.)


















After about an hour spent there, we got back in the car and drove to “Butterfly Valley” where thousands of butterflies migrate each year from June–September. We were visiting at the very beginning of their season and they are primarily nocturnal and it was also very hot so they weren’t super active, but we could spot them all over the trees and some were flitting around a bit. They are technically moths: Panaxia Quadripunctaria (Jersey tiger moth). We climbed all the way up to the top of the valley, about ⅔ of a mile. It was really hot, but thankfully shaded. Still, we needed to refill our water and get some food and refreshments at the top, which they were happy to sell us. Normally the driver picks up at the top, but because of a recent earthquake causing damage to the road, the road is closed so we hiked back down, which was faster than the way up. In the photos, the little triangular speckles all over are the moths.










We left the valley and Roger wanted to grab a bottle of wine so our driver took us to a tiny little local bodega. Emmaline and I looked at all the crazy produce and bought some nectarines to eat while they tried to sell Roger unlabelled bottles of homemade wine. Eventually he got it sorted out. Our driver delivered us back to our ship and we boarded at around 3 PM. He was pretty excited to take pictures of Dumbo on the stern of the ship to show his daughter. It was the Fantasy’s first time in Rhodes and DCL hadn’t been there in a number of years (I believe the Magic was there in 2014, if I recall what someone told me).

We went up to Deck 11 and had some snacks because we didn’t really have lunch except for some snacks at the butterfly valley and we were starving. After snacks, we all showered because we were super hot and sweaty from the day. After that Emmaline went and delivered some more of our gift exchange gifts, I worked on my trip report and Roger began yet another load of laundry.

Dinner that evening was in Enchanted Garden and after that we raced over to the theatre to arrive for the 7:45 Flyboys show. Again, I was pretty baffled by the way they were handling the variety acts, but we made it on time and found some acceptable seats. The FlyBoys were actually pretty good. They reimagined songs with sort of a jazzy swing vibe and had some fun dance chorey to go with it. Then we regrouped in the room before I left to go to drawing class at 9:45 PM (Goofy - and I’m pretty happy with how he turned out) and then went to bed.

 

[anricat]

Santorini - Friday, June 27, 2025​

At the beginning of our trip I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw that a longtime friend of ours who lives in Chicago and we hadn’t seen in person in a long time had posted a picture from the Acropolis in Athens. So we sent him a message and asked if he was in Greece. He was! Their family was taking a DIY Greek island hopping vacation (mostly using ferries). We compared itineraries and realized we were going to be in Santorini on the same day so we arranged to meet up.

We got up around 7:30, got ourselves ready, ate breakfast, and made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre a little after 9 AM to get set for the process to go ashore, which is a little complicated in Santorini. First we waited in the theatre for about 30 minutes for our turn for a tender. Once we arrived at the island and disembarked from the tender we went straight for the gondola to take us to the top of the island to the town of Fira. There are actually three methods for getting to the top: the gondola (cable car system), donkey train, or walking 600 steps. We were warned off the latter two. I had read stories of people waiting for hours for the gondola so we were prepared with sunscreen, an umbrella, a fan, a bottle of water and patience. As it happened, there was no wait. We bought our tickets for 10 Euros each and made it to Fira at around 10 AM.




We took a short walk over to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera. This small museum holds artifacts from the archaeological site of Akroteri that is on the island and is basically the Pompeii of Greece. There was a volcanic eruption 3,700 years ago and the whole town was buried. Most of the items unearthed are in the museum but you can also visit the site and see it, which is apparently pretty cool (we didn’t have time to go there).












We spent about 45 minutes at the museum and it was actually a really great little museum. They had removed a lot of the frescos from the walls at the archaeological site to preserve them and have them in the museum and they are absolutely stunning. It’s well worth a visit. We were ahead of my projected timetable and it was a little early for lunch but we decided to get some anyway. We went to a really cute little cafe I had previously found that looked good called Pelican Kipos Cafe and had a nice lunch and would definitely recommend it, especially the little doughnuts for dessert. We finished up around noon and walked over to the coordinates I had mapped out for the city bus. I wasn’t sure how this was going to shake down, but I trusted the research I did (big thanks to Scott over at the Disney Cruise Line Blog). We found the bus stop with no problem and hopped on the bus marked Oia giving the driver 2 Euros each (cash only).




After about a 30 minute drive we found ourselves in the town of Oia (pronounced EE-yah) which is the town you’re probably picturing in your mind when you’re thinking of Santorini with it's white walls and blue domes. Our friend John and his wife Sue found us at the bus stop and we all set off together to find some good picture spots. They were staying in an AirBnB on the hill and said the sunrise and sunsets are particularly amazing. We found a little cafe with a good view and we all enjoyed some coffee and treats while we caught up a bit. After that, we walked on a bit more before parting ways so they could get back to their family vacation and we could do a little more exploring, shopping, and, of course, finding cats to pet (rare creatures we don't have at home). We didn’t spend too much longer because it was insanely sunny and hot (once again) and most of the shops have pretty much the same type of thing (except for the one with all the crazy jewelry and marionettes).











We made our way back to the little plaza where the bus dropped us off and waited for the return bus to Fira. We took the 3:20 bus and arrived back in Fira at 3:50 and this is where things got a bit crazy. Folks on the cruise group chat were saying that the line for the cable car back down the mountain was about 2 hours long. That was a problem since the last tender would be at 5:30 PM for a 6 PM all-aboard. The other ship in port that day (Norwegian Epic) had a 4 PM all aboard so we thought that those folks would all be sorted out by then and it would just be our ship. And maybe it was (though I heard there were still people in the gondola line for the Epic at 4 PM). The problem here is that the gondola is not a continuously moving cable car. It has six that go up on one side as six go down on the other side. And the car only holds six people and it’s about a five minute trip, plus time to load and unload. Assuming each car goes up and down completely full (maybe not because some parties don't want to split up), you’re only moving approximately 36 people every 10 minutes or so. So if you’ve got a ship of about 4,000 people trying to all get back on at once and you’re only moving a little over 200 people an hour. That math doesn’t work.

Many of the DCL sponsored excursions actually tendered to and from a different dock (Athinios, which is also a ferry dock) so that helps with a large number of the people, but traditionally, they only tendered to that dock and then were delivered back to Fira to get down the standard way. But DCL was gathering people and taking them back on the excursion buses to Athinios and we heard that they were going to have some shuttles also to take folks that had not been on ship-sponsored excursions. We went to the place where people were supposed to be meeting up for that but it was total chaos and none of the crew members there knew what was happening and then I heard some people say it was actually back down the hill we had just climbed up. (Did I mention it was brutally hot and sunny?) So I trekked down the hill and found a new line for a shuttle bus down there and texted back to Roger and Emmaline to meet me.

By this point it’s around 4:15 PM and they tell us that they’ll have a shuttle for us at 5 PM. Oof. So they started sticking a few people at a time on any empty seats they had on the DCL excursion buses and finally they got a couple more shuttle buses at around 4:30. So we all pile in and they take us down the side of the cliff on a totally harrowing crazy switchback road to the Athinios tender dock. And we all get off and pile onto a bunch of tenders. It’s 5 PM by this point and there are also tenders coming from the gondola/donkey/stair insanity (I heard a lot of people walked down to avoid the gondola line). There are two places for tender boats to pull up to the side of the ship and the tenders held either 70 or 115 people so you can see where this is going. We waited on the rocking and roiling and sunny tender for about 45 minutes before ours was able to pull up alongside and we could get back on. As you can see in the photo below there are two tenders at the ship and three already waiting, then we rolled up and while we waited at least three more showed up. All told, it took us 2 hours to get back to the ship from the time we arrived back in Fira from the city bus.




We were hot, tired, sweaty, hungry, and a little sea sick. We got back to the room and quickly showered, arriving 15 minutes late to dinner at Royal Court. But Jay said it was all good. He’s a pro. After dinner we all watched Ellis Lucero play the piano in the atrium before going up to deck four to catch the sunset. We missed it but the sky was still pretty anyway. The show for the evening was a ventriloquist we had previously seen but weren’t keen to see again plus it was opposite Ellis Lucero and Emmaline was becoming a big fan of his sets. I mentioned before that we had never seen this schedule on a DCL cruise before with the variety acts between dinner seatings. It made things awkward when we weren’t at dinner and made it hard to get good seats to the things we did want to see in the theatre after dinner because we were usually finishing up right when they were starting.

At 8:45 I went to drawing and learned to draw Pluto. I had never learned Pluto before so that was fun. While I was waiting for the drawing to begin I was practicing my Donald and the crew member who was going to lead the drawing, Bianca, saw it and said it was much better than her Donald and could I teach her how I did it to help her get better. I promised her that I would on the final sea day. While I saw drawing, Emmaline went to catch Ellis Lucero’s second set. After that we were tired so we all went to bed early that night.

 

[anricat]

At Sea - June 28, 2025​

Thank goodness for this sea day. I think we all just needed a day to chill and reset after the heat and crowds of the previous couple of days. We also gained an hour as we switched back to the Italy time zone from the one Greece was on. Consequently, I woke up early so I went up to the gym and was able to hop on the Peloton bike they have. Actually, they have two but one was out of order and the other had been in use each time I was there. It was really easy to log into my account and connect my Bluetooth headphones, selecting a ride I had previously bookmarked in my account. By the time I was leaving the gym at 7:15 AM the place was a madhouse. If you want a chill gym experience on the ship, get there before 6:15 because after that is when people really start to trickle in steadily.


I found a lounger in Quiet Cove and relaxed until everyone else was up and then we went to Cabanas together for breakfast. After that, we returned to the room where we all got ready for the day, which was starting at 9:30 with napkin folding in the D-Lounge. We were told we had to be there by our server who was helping out. We returned to the room and I worked a little more on my trip report and we organized some things to start packing up to disembark on Monday. We weren't going to have much time the following day because of our all-day excursion.




After that, we went to the previously mentioned meetup in the theatre with a few of the cast and technical crew members. There were a couple of other families there that had made similar arrangements because their kids were also interested in pursuing a career in theatre. Big shoutout to DCL and the stage manager for helping make it happen. We had previously met most of the cast members there but they were joined by the woman who played Elsa (possibly the best Elsa we’ve ever seen) and she actually went to Ithaca College, which is on Emmaline’s list (and we visited there last fall) so that was cool.

We returned to the room and did a bit more packing and organizing before we went to lunch in Cabanas. Following lunch Roger and I went to the Buena Vista Theatre for the third of Cesar Gallegos’ talks. This one was about the 20th Century Studios archive that came in with the acquisition of that studio by Disney. In fact, that’s how Cesar Gallegos came to be at Disney - he was over at 20th Century Fox previously. This was also a really cool talk (with technology that worked). Emmaline split off after lunch and did some other activities on her own including Marvel Superfan Faceoff and then karaoke.

At the end of Cesar’s talk, I got a message from Emmaline that Bianca was working in D Lounge for karaoke and that "her life depended on me coming over there and showing her my Donald drawing technique," so I did. She was very appreciative and I hope it helps her with her future Donald drawing classes on the ship. Roger had returned to the room to relax and I went off to drawing class in O’Gills, which was Baby Yoda: a new one for me. While I waited for it to start, I practiced another Donald, showing a guy at my table how as well.

After that, we regrouped at Vista for coffee (I swore off Cove for this trip after the coffee they gave me on day 1 was terrible and I ended up chucking it into the trash) and Emmaline went to Vibe for another WD Theatre cast meet and greet (her third one). She said hardly anyone was there so she got to ask lots of questions. Roger and I went to guest services (fun times) to adjust the tips (we always give a little extra - they work so hard) and then we went and met Mickey so we could get his signature on a little print that we got from the DVC desk previously.

We returned to the room and I typed some more trip report and Roger took a shower. Emmaline did some character meets then we all went up to play mini golf and had a weird run-in with a guy who kept playing the same hole over and over despite a growing line up of people behind him waiting to play that hole. After he yelled at us to skip that hole and go play the other holes instead I finally just put my ball down and started playing. He got mad and stormed off. It was probably one of the weirder exchanges I've ever had with another passenger on a DCL cruise.





We finished mini golfing with no further incidents and then it was time for dinner in Animator’s where we had the Animation Magic show. After dinner we went up on deck to see the sunset in the Messina Strait and take some photos.




The show for the evening was Believe and as I mentioned before, this cast was fantastic and it was fun seeing Ian Knauer in the lead role. After the show we went back to the room to get to bed so we could be ready for our full day excursion the next day in Naples.

 

[anricat]

Naples - Sunday, June 29, 2025​

This was our second time coming to Naples so we were looking for something completely different for this port than what we did previously (Pompeii and Herculaneum). Another family posted on our cruise meet group that they were looking for another family to split a private Amalfi coast tour with them so we jumped on board. I actually didn’t really pay that much attention to the itinerary because we had already talked about finding an Amalfi coast tour and this one looked like it hit all the highlights.

The Amalfi coast is beautiful and our driver was great, however, I think we didn’t need as much time at each location (and perhaps one fewer locations) than we were allotted. It was a long day and it started early. We were up at 6:15 AM, ate breakfast and were off the ship for our 8 AM pickup. It was about a 90 minute windy drive to our first stop, Positano. We stopped for some photos just before the town and then the driver took us into town, parked and set us loose for an hour visit there. Honestly, we didn’t really know what to do. We hit a public bathroom with a long line of tourists, then we had snacks and coffee and looked in some of the shops. It was cute, but again, like Plaka in Athens, or Oia in Santorini, just overpriced tourist shops with pretty much all the same stuff.




We regrouped and drove on to Amalfi where we were given another hour. And again we sort of didn’t know what to do. There was a cool looking church, but we didn’t have enough time (nor were we properly dressed) to go in. It was hot. The lemons were really big, though! Like, softball size! It was after noon by then so we were getting hungry by this point and looked longingly at people eating Neapolitan pizza. But we knew we had a lunch stop next so we didn’t eat.











We left Amalfi at 12:30 PM and backtracked a bit toward Positano to eat lunch at Calajanara Restaurant. It was a beautiful view and the food was good, but it was really expensive (we paid over 100 Euros for the three of us for a fairly basic lunch and the most expensive meal we had on the trip). It also took a long time (we were there for an hour and a half). If I had my way, we would have just had a pizza in a little cafe in Amalfi and I think the other family felt similarly.


We left there and drove back again in the other direction (which made no sense to me - it was basically an extra 20 minutes or so of driving to go back to that restaurant) to Ravello. Ravello actually looked really cool and there were some neat looking things in town, but we only had 40 minutes there and everyone wanted coffee (Roger), or gelato (me), or granita (Emmaline). So we found a spot and had all of the above and that more or less killed all the time we had there other than sort of looking around and getting a nice view.







I think for all of us, Ravello was actually the favorite of the three towns we visited on the Amalfi coast and if we had it to do over again, we would have preferred a tour with less driving (and especially the back and forth driving that the lunch choice caused), a shorter (and cheaper) lunch and two cities only (probably Amalfi and Ravello). All that said, I did enjoy seeing the Amalfi coast and our driver was good and we hit everything promised by the tour (I just, once again, need to do more research next time).

By 4 PM we were back on the road to go back to the port, taking an inland route that was a bit quicker, arriving back at the port a little after 5 PM. We got back onboard the ship and because we had another hot and sweaty day, we all needed showers again before dinner. While we all took turns in the shower, we also organized and began packing in earnest before heading to dinner in Enchanted Garden. We raced out of dinner because, yet again, it was show night between dinner seatings and we didn’t finish dinner until 7:40 and the show was at 7:45.


We ended up actually having pretty good seats for the Victrophonics performance in the Walt Disney Theatre. They put on a fun villains themed show and we all enjoyed it a lot. Then we went back to the room to finish packing and organizing to debark. Roger and I went to bed early. Emmaline went to see Ellis Lozano, went to a Vibe farewell party and also to the atrium “See You Real Soon” party.

 

[Disnsyncey]

Amalfi is my favorite spot, Positano bothers me with nothing interesting to do.....there is an 1.5 hour hike out the back side of Amalfi, also a paper making museum, and the duomo is really neat! Sad you missed!

Ravello has those amazing gardens and we had a delicious meal towards the back of Ravello where it looked like the grandma was cooking too

 

[anricat]

Amalfi is my favorite spot, Positano bothers me with nothing interesting to do.....there is an 1.5 hour hike out the back side of Amalfi, also a paper making museum, and the duomo is really neat! Sad you missed!

Ravello has those amazing gardens and we had a delicious meal towards the back of Ravello where it looked like the grandma was cooking too

All of this sounds wonderful. I feel like if we had just picked a spot and really focused on the great things in that one place we would have been better off. Next time!

 

[anricat]

Disembarkation and Rome - June 30, 2025​

We had early seating for dinner on this cruise but had arranged ahead of time to come to second seating for breakfast since we didn’t need to be anywhere. Our server had an open table in his section (often families don’t go to final morning breakfast in the main dining room) so after getting ready and finishing our packing, we went down to Enchanted Garden around 8 AM for breakfast.

We finished with breakfast around 9, said our goodbyes to our amazing serving team and went up to the atrium to get in line to get off the ship. The line wasn’t too bad and we were able to walk right off, grab our bags and head outside. There were no customs or passport control. When we walked outside there were people there asking where we were going and I said “train station” and they had us get in line. Last time we were debarking in Civitavecchia, we had to take a shuttle to the front of the port, then walk to a bus stop, then take a city bus to the train station. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was a multi-step process. This time the city bus was right there and so we waited in line for a bus to arrive, fill up and then we were taken to the train station. Easy! (And tap to pay onboard.)

Unfortunately, we arrived just as a train was leaving for Rome so we had to wait for the next train 50 minutes later. We caught the 10:44 train and got off at the Rome - Trastavere stop to check into our B&B for the night. Roger had suggested the Trastavere neighborhood for our post-cruise stay and it was a really cute area. I would definitely stay there again. It was a short walk from the train station to B&B Suites Trastavere where we were staying and planned to drop off our bags until our room was ready. However, our room was actually ready when we arrived, which was nice! The room was spacious by European standards and had two beds: a queen and a single so it was perfect. The B&B was basically most of the floor of an apartment building with an outer door into a small lobby-ish area and then multiple rooms from there.

We regrouped and headed out to lunch, taking the tram up the main road (Viale di Trastevere) to Bacco Bistro, a little panini and coffee shop that was nearby. It was quick, easy, and cheap. While at lunch, we considered our options for activities, looking at the list of things we had made that we might consider and decided we wanted an activity with A/C so we picked the Capitoline Museum which was fairly close by and on the same tram line we took to lunch. We hopped back on the tram to the end of the line and then we just had a short walk to the museum.


The museum had a lot of really cool stuff in it and we went through two of the three floors, but we were already sort of running out of energy and it turned out that the museum only vaguely had A/C. It was probably still at least 80 degrees inside (possibly more) and we were all tired and hot so we just sort of gave up after a bit, even though I’m sure there was more cool stuff to see on the third floor.














We decided to walk to find some coffee and gelato and there was a very old bridge that Roger wanted to see, Ponte Fabricio. That bridge, along with the Ponte Cestio cross the Tiber and connect a little island in the middle of the river. From 62 BC and 46 BC respectively, both bridges have a long history with the Fabricio being the oldest bridge in Rome. Along the way we also spotted an ancient theatre that sort of looks like a mini colosseum (Teatro di Marcello, the construction of which was begun by Julius Caesar and completed in 13 BC). It's so amazing just walking around and being surrounded by ancient history.






There was a little gelato shop on the island and Emmaline and I got some gelato and then we set off to also find some coffee. (I had coffee gelato, thus killing two birds with one stone.) The first coffee shop we tried was clearly closed, even though the online hours indicated it should have been open. So we moved on and found another shop, but the barista was pretty much not having our attempt to order iced-coffee in mangled Italian. We finally ended up with some cold coffee out of the fridge. But I will say, when we got back to the states, we were glad to be back to the land of iced coffees.

We got back to our room and set about repacking and relaxing for a while at which point I went to go check in for our flight the next morning, only to find that the flight had been changed and we had gotten no communication whatsoever about it. I booked the flight through American, but it was actually a British Airways flight and there was clearly some disconnect. Thankfully I had logged in to check in or we wouldn’t have known. It worked out better because our connection in Heathrow was pretty tight as you have to exit passport control and then go back in through security for international connections. Unfortunately, this meant that our plan to take a quick train to the airport wasn’t going to work so I reserved a taxi in the FreeNow app (they don’t have Uber/Lyft there).


At 6:30 PM we headed out for dinner to a restaurant I had found ahead of time and had also been recommended by the lady at the front desk when I checked in. As we began walking in the general direction of dinner, I was getting directions in my maps app when I realized it wasn’t open yet and didn’t open until 7:30. Oops! So we went back to the room and relaxed a bit more. At 7:15 we left again, arrived at the restaurant and were told they were already booked up for the evening. Great.

We were all sort of sad that we didn’t have Neopolitan pizza in Naples so we set about trying to find someplace close that had that. We found a place a little ways up the tram line so we went back to the tram stop and hopped a tram to the pizza place. PizzaRé served up some huge pizzas that had amazing crust and were also pretty cheap (relatively speaking). The service was great and we were all very happy. Even better, there was a gelato shop next door. (Yes, more gelato!) This was some really good gelato (the shop was called Fonte della Salute and they had a TON of flavors). I had a dark chocolate orange flavor and it was so good. We had a lot of really good gelato on this trip so it’s hard to pick a favorite but that dark chocolate with orange really hit the spot.


After dinner we went back to our room, got ready for bed and finished packing up so we could head home the next morning.

 

[anricat]

Travel Home and Final Thoughts - July 1 , 2025​

It was an early morning. We got up and got ourselves ready and down the curb for our pickup for our taxi ride to the airport. Our driver was actually running about 5 minutes late but we had enough time built in. Apparently he decided to make up for it with probably one of the craziest taxi rides I’ve ever been on: lane lines were a mere suggestion, as were speed limit signs. At one point I looked at the speedometer and we were going over 130 kph (around 80 mph). Thankfully, we made it in one piece and in record time. The airport was packed even though it was only 5 AM.

However, we were able to get checked in, drop our bags, go through security and find our gate with no issues and in plenty of time. Our flight to Heathrow was on time and we had enough time in Heathrow to go through their whole leave-and-come-back-in-through-security song and dance. We bought around $35 worth of coffee and muffins from the Starbucks in our terminal (I’m not even kidding: airport pricing plus the value of the dollar right now) and it was actually not great, either. Also I had the time zone set manually on my phone (and thus my watch) from being on the cruise ship and didn’t set it back to automatic so we were initially sort of panicked going to the gate. But we had an hour more than we thought.

The flight home was long, but uneventful, as was our baggage collection and passport control. In fact, we were lucky on this trip that all the travel was pretty much uneventful. Our cats were very happy to see us and unlike the last time we went to Europe, no kittens were born under our deck. However, apparently a family of foxes moved in.

A few final thoughts about the trip that are pretty random and don’t really fit anywhere:

• Emmaline didn’t spend nearly as much time in Vibe as she usually does. She just didn’t really click with a friend group onboard.
• It was hot hot hot everywhere we went. The sun was bright and we saw a lot of people with sunburns.
• We all agreed that it was a great trip but we liked the Norway/Iceland/France cruise just a bit more.
• Our favorite moments of the trip were when we were off the beaten path in less touristy areas.
• I need to be better about researching free time/shopping/meals on organized excursions.
• British Airways’ Premium Economy seats are more comfortable with more legroom and better recline than American Airlines’ Premium Economy. However, the food was better on American. Also, it was cheaper to book through American (codeshared to BA) than to book the whole thing on BA. Also BA charges for seat assignments (even in Premium Economy) and American doesn’t.
• Many people on our cruise had issues with tours and transfers booked through Viator (and we have our own horror story from our last trip to the Med). Just don’t do it. Always book direct.
• I sure miss the beautiful blue ocean and amazing sunsets.

 

[happy wanderer]

Thank you for another amazing trip report! It was fun to follow along. Would love to hear what travel plans are ahead for you.

 

[anricat]

Thank you for another amazing trip report! It was fun to follow along. Would love to hear what travel plans are ahead for you.

Thank you! I'll be on the Destiny MV with a friend.

 

[rockchick04]

Did you guys have fireworks? I thought they couldn't do them in Greece and Italy but then I've seen some reports people had them last year!