Great trip report so far! We will be on the May 28, 2017, sailing to Northern Europe which will be our first cruise. We are discussing doing a 2018 medditerranean cruise so I'm really enjoying your report!

We are on that cruise too!! We did the med in 2012 as our first cruise it was great and I enjoy reading reports like this to remind me!
 
We are on that cruise too!! We did the med in 2012 as our first cruise it was great and I enjoy reading reports like this to remind me!

That's great!! We had a hard time choosing between the Med and Northern Europe, but took the plunge with Northern Europe. I agree that trip reports are great for reminiscing, and a tremendous resource for trip planning!! :) Have you found our cruise meet thread yet? Here's a link:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/di...ight-european-cruise-from-copenhagen.3513211/
:)
 
Day 3 Day at Sea Continued...

Next up we had an open bar to go to. We were part of a Facebook group that set up and open bar. It was for about 60 people and we all paid a little bit to attend. I think it was 14 dollars a person. Well, let me tell you, it was well worth it. It was an hour long and was set up in both Keys and O'Gills. There were 5 mixed drinks to choose from and you could order things other than that, like beer and wine and other mixed drinks. We started off in O'Gills and talked with an nice couple then we made our way over to Keys where we talked with two other nice couples. This was a lot of fun and the bar staff was very accommodating and made sure you always had a drink for that whole hour. Like I said before it was well worth it and a lot of fun.

Soon after the open bar we made our way down to the show for the night, Twice Charmed. We met up with our table mates and got some good seats. It was a very good show. Cinderella isn't my favorite princess but I did enjoy the new twist on the story. After the show we ran to the room to get dressed quickly because we were to meet up with a couple from the open bar and our table mates so we quickly got in our "formal wear". I don't have any pictures of us that night but I wore a skirt with a nice top and some flats, nothing too fancy. We met up with everyone at the reception and mingled a bit. We got some more drinks and a waiter sent me off to dinner with two glasses of wine, he said he had too many left to hand out and the reception had just ended haha.

Dinner tonight was in Animator's Palate. AP is my favorite restaurant on this ship. Tonight was standard rotational menu. Dinner was great. I got the black truffle purseittes, which I always love. The butternut squash soup (even though it was only September I needed some fall in my life). For my main entree I got the tuna steak, which was good but I found out that tuna steaks are not my favorite. The little dipping sauce it came with did make it quite good though.
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And the crunchy walnut cake for dessert.
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DH got sliced serrano ham, the purseittes, the beef tenderloin (I stole a bite and it was very good).
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After dinner we headed down to Fathoms for Match Your Mate. In case you do not know what that is, it's a game show where they take three couples that have all been married for different amount of time, they separate the spouses and they ask them silly questions. Whichever couple gets the most right wins. It is always a lot of fun and it was something we didn't want to miss. We got a good spot in one of the back booths. It was a really good show and didn't let us down. Then it was off for bed because we had to get up very early for Naples where we were going to be going to Pompeii!
When we got to our room this little guy was greeting us!
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Oh, got that tunna steak in AP too!! I admit it was my least favourite meal in the whole cruise, I thought it was rather overdone and dry (though the sauce was really good)
 
Day 3 Day at Sea Continued...
Next up we had an open bar to go to. We were part of a Facebook group that set up and open bar. It was for about 60 people and we all paid a little bit to attend. I think it was 14 dollars a person. Well it was well worth it. It was for an hour and was set up in both Keys and O'Gills. There were 5 mixed drinks to choose from and you could order things other than that, like beer and wine and other mixed drinks. We started off in O'Gills and talked with an nice couple then we made our way over to Keys where we talked with two other nice couples. This was a lot of fun and the bar staff was very accommodating and made sure you always had a drink for that whole hour.

Why have I never heard of this before on any DCL cruise I've ever been on? Crossing fingers this somehow happens to be set up on our Med cruise next year.
 
Day 4 Pompeii

This was my favorite day of the cruise! A lot of things will be hard for me to put into words and the pictures don't do it any justice either.
So to start this day out... We set our alarms for 7am, our tour meets at 8:15. But at 6:15 I was up and just couldn't go back to bed. I peeked out of our port hole and we were pulling into port! It looked so beautiful out so I quickly got dressed and headed up on deck. Pulling into Naples was just breathtaking.
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Mt Vesuvius
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I was taking some pictures then decided to go try to get DH up. But he wanted to keep sleeping until the alarm was going to go off. How silly! So I told him to just meet me at the front of the boat when he was up. So I went back up to deck 10 and continued taking some pictures and just enjoying the view.
Here is a picture of a helipad at the port.
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And a not so good panorama. (I need to learn how to get some good pano shots because mine never turn out!)
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Here is facing Naples/Napoli
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The port building
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DH was finally awake so we headed down to Cabanas for a quick breakfast. We made sure to get a seat outside.
Here was our view at breakfast.
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After breakfast we headed down the the Walt Disney Theatre for our meet up. Our tour meet up was for 8:15.

Originally we had booked the Pompeii half day adults only departure. But about a month before the cruise I stumbled across the Pompeii, wine tasting, and Mt Vesuvius by 4x4 and hike. It was $200 per person and we decided to splurge. I am so glad we did, though we will definitely be heading back to Pompeii in the future to spend at least a whole day there. This excursion was probably the best decision we have ever made!
 
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Day 4 continued...

We made our was from the Walt Disney Theatre to our bus and met our guide (I forget his name I always forget names, but he was great). We would be going to Pompeii first an he told us a lot about Pompeii on our way there. It was about a 30 minute drive. I am very glad we went to Pompeii first, there was almost no one there first thing in the morning and then towards the end of the tour it got a lot more crowded.

I loved these Mediterranean Pines that were right outside the entrance.
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You're going to see a lot of DH in photos, he's always in the way.
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The picture below shows that we were by a store, stores in Pompeii had sliding doors and you can see that from the indentations in the rock.
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Day 4 Pompeii continued...

While we were walking around we kept seeing a little dog, our guide told us that the little dog lived in one of the houses and would walk all around Pompeii and get food from people. The last time we saw him he was back on his way to the house he lived in. Thought it was a cute story.
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Inside of a well preserved house
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Frescoes on the wall
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More frescoes
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Joining in! What an exciting cruise to go on! I have always wanted to visit Pompeii and see the ruins. I thought it was so cute when your husband was called out for not dancing lol Really enjoying your TR :)
 
Day 4 Pompeii continued...

Next up we went back onto the bus to go to our lunch and wine tasting. After a 20 or so minute ride we pulled up to Cantina Del Vesuvio. A nice little winery with excellent views of the volcano. I was very excited for this because I love wine and I have a friend that had visited this winery before, and loved it. The story goes that there has been wine being made here since before 5th century BC. The wines they produce are often ashy tasting because of all the ash.
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We got seated with our two table mates that joined us on this excursion.
Our first wine was their white.
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The we were served a meat and cheese plate. Lunch was off to a very good start.
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Next we had some rose wine (I took this picture after I had already sampled quite a bit of it.)
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Next we got two different kinds of red.
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They kept pouring us more red after this, while we were eating our spaghetti.
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After spaghetti we got some sparkling wine (no picture). And then finally dessert. It was some sort of cake, I can't really explain it because Ive never had anything like it. It was good though. They served this with an apricot after dinner liquor. That thing was very alcoholy. Not any of our favorites. But it was served in a very cute glass.
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Afterwards we had time to shop in the shop. It was very nice and they sold all the wines and the glasses. They even sold the little chicken water pitcher that you see in all of my pictures. Here is the view facing away from the winery.
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We had an amazing lunch and wine tasting. The pasta sauce in Italy is very sweet and not savory like we were used to, but it was very good. I loved that they had whole pieces of basil in there, I love basil. We were very full after the tasting and maybe a little buzzed. DH even drank and enjoyed all of his wine, he's usually not a wine person. The day was turning out great so far.

Up next we hike up to the top of Mt Vesuvius!
 
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oooh loving the Pompeii update, thanks, ok questio
1. how long did you have there
2. Was it self guided or did you get taken around in a group
3. would you have preferred your original choice of just the Pompai excursion
4. Did you get to see Naples
 
oooh loving the Pompeii update, thanks, ok questio
1. how long did you have there
2. Was it self guided or did you get taken around in a group
3. would you have preferred your original choice of just the Pompai excursion
4. Did you get to see Naples
1. I think we had about 2 or 3 hours there.
2. we were in a group and had a guide.
3. I'm very happy we were on this excursion.
4. And we didn't see Naples. Just Pompeii, the winery and Mt Vesuvius.
 
Your pictures are wonderful. I'd always wanted to take a Med cruise. Maybe someday but until then I am enjoying hearing all about yours.
 
Day 4 Pompeii continued...

Up next we got back on our bus for our drive over to the base of the volcano, to Vesuvius National Park.
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Then we were loaded up into the 4x4s. These things were HUGE!
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The picture doesn't do it justice. Then we were in for a very bumpy ride up to the top. The ride lasted about 25 minutes. It was a lot of fun.
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Once up at the top we still had quite the hike to the crater. We hiked up at our own paces and we had about an hour and a half to get up and down. It took DH and I 17 minutes to get to the top. This hike was no joke and it was very hard. For many other people it took a lot longer. It was pretty cloud covered and cool up at the top this day.

This is looking into the crater
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Looking out towards the ocean
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In this next picture you can actually see some steam coming up from parts of the crater
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Bottom of the crater
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Then after we saw the crater and some amazing views we hiked back down. The way down was less strenuous. We waited around a little bit then got back in the 4x4. The ride back down was just as bumpy. But if you can actually imagine it, most of the people on there fell asleep on the way down. Including me! It was like being rocked to sleep. After getting off the 4x4 we got onto our bus... where a lot of us napped some more! And we were on our way back to the boat.

Until next time Vesuvius!
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Day 4 Pompeii continued some more...

After we were back on we got some showers and then headed up to the Cove Cafe for some coffee, if you can imagine we were still tired and needed a little boost! Dinner tonight was in Cariocas. I wasn't excited for the menu but once I got in there I was very happy with what i got. I got some prime rib, and DH got a white fish of some sort.
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The desserts were amazing.
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We also got little hats made for us.
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We got some sort of towel animal. And since tomorrow is Frozen night we got the rules for Anna's chocolate chase.
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Off to bed early tonight since we are in for a busy day tomorrow!
 
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Day 5, Rome!

Now originally we were not going to book an excursion for this day and we were going to wing it (I know silly right?!). But eventually I decided that we needed to see Rome! I'm really glad I did. We booked Imperial Renaissance Rome. I think it was about $90 per person.
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We set our alarms for 6am and were up for breakfast about 20 minutes later. Cabanas again.
Here is a picture of the port.
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Next up we went to our meeting spot, which was Fathoms. After that we were off of the ship and on a bus headed to Rome! Below are some of the pictures I took on the way to Rome.
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Overall the ride to Rome was pretty long and boring. We also got stuck in a little bit of traffic.
 
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