Lessons Learned From Our Mediterranean Vacation

1. Don’t overplan with too much walking for seniors and kids. Use more taxis, or car and bus tours to get around.

2. Make sure to carry lots of snacks for mid-morning and mid-afternoon blood sugar boosts.

3. Using a reputable tour company that has good communications takes a lot of stress out of the pre-trip planning. Jany from Romeinlimo, for example, was always helpful, courteous and responsive despite my frequent, and probably sometimes annoying, emails. She was that rare coordinator who understands that she needs to answer questions and do it promptly in order that her customers can have confidence that a specific tour will take place when, where, how and for how much, the customer expects.

4. As tours and transfers consume a huge part of a vacation budget, sharing them with others makes a lot of practical and financial sense. And it's more fun!

5. Due to the cruise length and breadth of ports (the two B2B itineraries were clearly designed to compliment each other), the distances between ports are smaller than on other cruise itineraries. Thus we could spend more time in most ports and this greatly increased touring flexibility and reduced stress.

6. Despite HAL’s reputation for skewing older demographically, the guests on our sailing were the youngest we’ve ever sailed with. The Mediterranean itinerary is definitely more demanding physically and perhaps this skewed the guest list to younger and more physically fit guests.

7. HAL’s approach to turnaround days on B2Bs was a very pleasant surprise: no annoying morning announcements; special lunch, spa and tour options; and no muster drill.

8. Loved HAL’s silent disembarkation process (as compared to our RCI and Carnival experiences). Very effective, quiet and orderly.

9. The port shuttles that charge a fee are almost always a rip-off.

10. Bring and wear sandals for the beaches in Croatia—very rocky and painful to walk on barefooted!

11. Relatively few places accepted (or wanted to accept) credit cards. While perhaps half of restaurants took plastic, virtually none of the museum, church or site admissions accepted them. This resulted in me withdrawing and using much more cash than originally planned.

12. Even when a restaurant accepted credit cards, nearly every one of them wanted tips in cash only.

13. As long as you are not a timid or conservative driver, renting a car makes a lot of sense in many ports. The rental process is very quick and easy. Renting a car is much more convenient, gives you a lot of flexibility to go where and when you please, and is more cost effective than hiring a private driver or taxi.

14. In Italy (and perhaps other places in Europe too), you need to buy your train or bus tickets BEFORE you get onboard one.

15. To drink directly from the ancient public water fountains in Roma, stick your finger into the end or bottom of the pipe, and the water will shoot up the small hole in the top surface of the pipe.

16. To board and ride a bus in Santorini, you need to be really aggressive, push your way onboard and squeeze into any available orifice. Then the onboard worker will push and squeeze his way to you somehow to collect the 1.20 Euro fare.

17. When taking pictures of large buildings, objects or scenery that won’t fit in a single camera frame, take multiple shots (making sure to overlap the images) and use photo stiching or merging software to create the final aggregated image when you return home. A great way to get those too-big-to-fit shots and for panoramas!

Best and Worst Bathrooms in the Mediterranean?

Another interesting tidbit was that, in 25 days in the Mediterranean, the nicest bathroom we encountered was on the walls of Dubrovnik, facing the Adriatic! It was near and just past this spot... Never expected that! The worst bathrooms were in Italy.

Bad Luck with Michelangelos

Looking back at everything we saw in Italy, and after doing some post-trip research, I now realize we had some bad luck when it came to seeing Michelangelo’s works. We toured Firenze on a Monday unfortunately, so the major museums were closed. Thus no chance to see the original David in the Accademia. At the Vatican in Roma, it was too crowded to get a good look at the Pieta in the Basilica. I happened on St. Peter's in Vincoli during a siesta when it was closed and thus went my opportunity to see Michelangelo’s Moses. We enjoyed a visit to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Roma but didn’t know to look for Michelangelo's “Christ the Redeemer”. On the plus side we enjoyed the Capella Sistina at the Vatican, and did see his tomb in Santa Croce in Firenze.

Roma, Italy - Heading Home!

Heading home today. My neck was hurting over the past week or so, and just these past few days, I noticed my neck, shoulder and back were all aching or hurting. Four weeks of schlepping all our stuff, including clothing, snacks and water, all over the Mediterranean caught up with me. I finally asked Andrea to carry the backpack a little through the airport, and that helped.

Roma, Italy - Trastevere, Piazza Navona (again)

We took Duman’s advice and checked out two neat churches just around the corner from our hotel: Sant'Ignazio di Loyola and Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The former has a couple “optical illusions”—a painted “curved” nave ceiling and a fake dome. The latter is the only Gothic church in Roma and has a Michelangelo sculpture that we forgot to see!
Later went to the Villa Farnesina but it was already closed for the day, so we just walked around Trastevere, crossed the Isola Tiberina and looked at (but didn’t wait in line to touch) the Buca di Verita at Santa Maria Cosmedin. We got ripped off by a pretty lady taxi driver who took us to Piazza della Repubblica instead of Piazza della Rotonda. She claimed she didn’t know where the Pantheon was. Sheesh. On the plus side, we never paid the bus fare to get to Piazza Venetia (need to buy your bus tickets BEFORE boarding) so it was probably all a wash getting back to the hotel.

We finally succumbed to the kids' requests for caricatures so we did it before dinner at the Piazza Navona. Then we had Fettucini Alfredo at the place the supposedly invented it: Alfredo alla Scrofa. It was good and we can say we did it, but at 20 Euros and a small portion, definitely not a good value.
After sampling various gelati places all over Italy, tonight Della Palma in Roma was officially declared the winner by Team Chen. Again, many thanks to Duman for his recommendations!

Roma, Italy - Capuchin Crypts, Villa Borghese, Foro Romano, Pantheon

The day started off well with a fascinating visit to the Capuchin Crypts of Santa Maria Concepzione in Roma. Although Daddy was disappointed that his reservation at the Gallerie Borghese was not honored (I guess the online reservation system isn't reliable!), we all had fun riding the funky electric bikes/carts around Villa Borghese park. Later, we spent a couple hours at the forum with hardly any complaining from the kids! To cap the day, we finally went inside the Pantheon. We'd been staying within a few feet of it for several days now, but finally checked out the inside. Very cool.
Favorite kid moment—Upon entering and seeing the Capuchin Crypts, Adam mutters, with a noticeable nodding action, “Cooooooool!” A close second would be riding the electric bike/carts in Villa Borghese.

Thoughts about our HAL Noordam Mediterranean Cruise

This was our first HAL cruise after several with Royal Caribbean and one each with Carnival and Princess. After spending 20 days onboard, here are my observations about HAL and the Noordam—ship, services and crew:
- Servers clear and clean tables very fast in the Lido so this was superior to RCI and Carnival. We found the behind-the-buffet service to be nice but less efficient overall. IOW, we much prefer RCI’s food stations or islands and helping yourself to what you want in the portions you want.
- Dining room, room stewards and room service were comparable to RCI
- Lido and main dining food quality was very good overall but I personally would call it a draw with RCI. My wife liked HAL better because of the superior seafood, but my parents liked RCI because their beefs was better.
- HAL uniquely offers free freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast and cappuccino/espresso at dinner
- Excellent and quiet handling of turnaround day for B2B passengers with custom tours, spa service, lunches, etc.
- HAL has virtually no night life and mediocre entertainment. This was okay for a port-intensive Mediterranean cruise but we’re not sure about it for all the sea days of a Caribbean cruise.
- There are far fewer activities and things to do onboard the ship, especially for kids. Specifically, Noordam has no rock climbing, wave pool, water slides or fountains, bowling alley, or ice rink. On the plus side, Noordam has an excellent library/computer center in their Explorations Café.
- Can’t understand why with a near-new ship, HAL doesn’t offer on-demand movies and entertainment (not check-out DVDs from library), or on-line billing, on-line shore excursion booking, and other on-line features directly from your stateroom either via TV or wifi access.
- The three elevator banks midship on the Vista-class are not linked or coordinated so they are not efficiently utilized
- Love the silent disembarkation—much improved over Carnival or RCI’s noisy and stressful debarkation routines

Last Day of Cruise: Civitavecchia, Italy

Debarkation was quiet, smooth and stress-free. We bid farewell to Noordam and her fine crew. We shared a Romeinlimo transfer with the Fosters into Roma. After having our hotel hold their luggage, we walked them to the Tiber and bid them farewell as they headed off to their Vatican tour and we headed south to stroll.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon checking out the Colisseum. We wasted some time looking for lunch and dinner places because a few of the recommend restaurants were closed. Not sure if they were just closed for lunch and/or dinner, or if they were closed for the rest of the summer.

Messina/Taormina, Sicily & Stromboli

We spent the morning visiting lovely Taormina, with a long visit to the Greco-Roman theatre. It was neat to see Mount Etna as a backdrop to this ancient theatre. The kids remained onboard in ClubHAL. On the return back to the ship, we caught part of the clock bell tower show in Messina—I was unimpressed. Later that afternoon, as we sailed north out of Messina, we got to see the smoldering volcano: Stromboli!

And just before dinner, we had a nice gathering of most of our CruiseCritic friends in the Crow's Nest. We dranks some champagne and took lots of pictures! Some of us had spent 19 days together on the ship and we really bonded.

Favorite kid moment—Not sure because they were in ClubHAL all day and claimed they didn’t do anything. Maybe they enjoyed Stromboli?

Sea Day

The kids’ confidence has been growing during this trip. Both Cara and Adam order their custom waffles at breakfast in the Lido, their dinners in the evenings, ask stewards for things, checkout DVDs and games from the librarian, etc.—all by themselves.

Adam’s swimming also progressed very nicely during the cruise. Today he did more forward floating and kicking and started to float backward. Carol Foster helped him a lot. Kids always seem to be more receptive to teaching from anybody who is not their parent.

Piraeus/Athens, Greece

I had originally planned another “daddy death-march walking day” for Athens, but after our experience in Barcelona, we agreed that it would be best to spend the money for a guided van/bus tour. So we hooked on with Maria’s group the night before. Maria welcomed us but I ended up having to do all the collecting, reconciling and paying of the tour driver monies. I still can’t believe the owner, driver and guide got 1,000 Euros for this full-day tour!

The morning started off a little rough for Cara—she threw up right after disembarking the tour bus at the foot of the Acropolis. Fortunately, she immediately felt better and hung in with the group just fine after that. The itinerary spent a lot of time at the Acropolis and the new Acropolis museum, we had lunch in Monastiraki, and got a city tour that included seeing the changing of the guards at Syntagma, Temple of Zeus

and the 1896 Olympic stadium. The only downside was that we didn’t spend any time in the Plaka. I’m glad we got in and out of the Acropolis by 11 am because there were massive crowds trying to get in just before 11 am! Someone later said those crowds waited an hour to enter.

After seeing his dad order chicken souvlaki in Corfu, Adam got it in both Oia and Athens. He ordered seafood pastas in Sorrento and Dubrovnik. Cara seems to have enjoyed her “greek” spaghettis in both places. They’re both definitely more adventurous with food than before!

As for my cold, today was the first day I think I can say I’m close to 100% again. While my cough still lingers, I definitely feel much better.

Favorite kid moment—Climbing the steps and stones around the Acropolis and goofing in the Acropolis museum. They also enjoyed the 5Euro orange slushy after the Acropolis tour.

Kusadasi/Ephesus, Turkey

Had a full and interesting day in Ephesus with our guide, Yelda. Terrace Houses are amazing. I’m very disappointed for all the people on the ship tours who never get to see them. Didn’t have any energy left on the return to Kusadasi to shop or hit the beach—maybe next time.

Favorite kid moment—Running and sliding on the glass floors at the Terrace Houses, and on the slippery marble steps all around Ephesus.

Santorini, Greece

Our day in Santorini started out with an exciting ride up the cliffs on the backs of donkeys. I’m very proud of Andrea for doing it despite every fiber of her being telling her that it was a bad and unsafe idea. It was slow, uncomfortable and a little dangerous (what with the being on the side of a cliff, concrete/rock pavement, and on-coming donkey traffic!) but you only live once, right?

The views from Fira and Oia were stunning and it was fun to walk the narrow passageways and steps in and around both towns. On the downside, we waited an hour for a taxi to take us from Fira to Oia, but fortunately we were in port for a full day, and weren’t in any hurry. We were also really squished in the bus on the return to Fira.
In Oia, we enjoyed our lunch at Lotza’s. The view was fantastic (what restaurant in Santorini doesn’t have a view?). We noticed a change about Cara during this trip: she now eats spaghetti with lots of sauce and no longer complains about not wanting too much sauce. In Rome, Corfu and now Oia (and probably other places I’ve forgotten), she’s ordered something off the menu and happily enjoyed her meal!

On our return to the ship, we decided not to rush our showers and be very late for the main dining room so opted for the Lido. Unfortunately, we later discovered that the Lido was closed for dinner on this one evening because HAL was doing a Santorini sailaway outdoor deck BBQ this evening. Had we known (or should I say, paid attention to the Daily Planner), we would have gone to the main dining room. For me, the BBQ chicken, ribs and accompaniments sufficed, but poor Andrea really had a hard time finding something good to eat and she regretted missing the main dining room this night!

Favorite kid moment—The donkey ride up the caldera and searching for donkey-related souvenirs

Katakolo/Olympia, Greece

We planned to take the train to Olympia from Katakolo, but during breakfast, Linda from my Cruisecritic group mentioned how easy and inexpensive it was to rent a car in Katakolo. Sure enough, the car rental process was as fast (and perhaps even faster) than in Corfu!

Driving to Olympia didn’t involve anything like Corfu’s hairpin turns and crazy side roads so we never got lost. Didn’t appreciate however the stupid woman at the gas station who “accidentally” put in 5 Euros too much gasoline into the rental car. She’s probably the car rental company owner’s sister. After returning the car, we did a lot of shopping, including buying some cool Greek glass plates and other stuff.

We had a surprisingly good day in Olympia—better than I had expected. While the ruins were nothing special, the site was pretty with lots of trees and some shade. The museum was interesting and the museum worker ladies all wore super tight pants!
Anyhow, I’m glad we didn’t take this day off!

Favorite kid moment—Running a 200 yard dash on the original Olympic stadium! And the funny-sounding Pelopian fascinated them to no end…

Corfu, Greece

We were late meeting the rental car rep in Corfu, but fortunately there were still plenty of cars available with another company right at the dock. We were off and on our way within minutes. Unfortunately, the Garmin Nuvi didn’t have any local maps so we got lost trying to find Kononi. I gave up and headed straight for Achillion Palace instead. Afterwards, we drove across the island to Palekas for lunch. Palekas sits atop the mountains with a nice view of the ocean. After lunch, we drove down to Palekas Beach for an afternoon at the beach. The water was cold but the kids had fun! We tried to buy water from these two Greek guys just off the beach but they were both asleep and wouldn’t wake up. So I took the water and only paid them when we were leaving!

One thing I’ve noticed is that, if you wake Cara up in the morning before she is ready to wake up, she is very groggy and grouchy for at least a few hours during the rest of the morning. Mom thinks it’s because she is tired, but that doesn’t explain why she is usually fine after noon. I think it’s because if her sleep is disrupted, it just takes her a few hours to regroup.

Favorite kid moment—Fun at Palekas Beach including the sleeping vendors

Dubrovnik, Croatia

I was especially looking forward to Dubrovnik for a long time as it was one of my mandatory stops when I was researching cruise itineraries. There’s something very intriguing about a medieval walled city that is nestled into the cliffs of the Dalmation coast. While it’s no longer a well-kept secret, the crowds were not too bad. Surprisingly, and despite the long day that would’ve permitted us to sleep in and start touring late, Andrea wanted to get up and start early! This worked out really well as the walls were not that crowded. I thought it would take at least a couple of hours to walk the walls but we did it in about half that time! Everything did seem to get busier and more crowded by late morning both in town and at the beach. We also found a jewel of a clean bathroom right on the walls—and the lady attendant there was insulted when we tried to pay or tip her! What a pleasant surprise!


There were only two non-Euro countries during our trip: Tunisia, Croatia and Turkey. Only in Croatia however, did the lack of having local currency become a small issue. While the taxi, the wall admission and most restaurants and shops accepted Euros, a few places only accepted Kunas. So this was the only country during our trip where I had to get non-Euro, local currency out of the ATM—albeit it was just 300 Kuna or about US$58.

We had lunch with Margo’s family at Teatar and later wandered the Placa for ice cream and souvenirs. Then we headed for Banje Beach. I wish we had brought our sandals because it was very painful to walk on the rocky beach with bare feet. It didn’t seem to slow down the kids though.
All in all it was a great day! The only downside to the day was that I got a cold—or it’s my allergies cropping up.

Roma on Turnaround Day

For our Civitavecchia turnaround day, I convinced Andrea that it would be best for me to go into Roma on my own and see some “boring” churches. They planned to sleep in, relax, and go to the pool while I was in Roma.

It turned out to be a pretty good few hours in Roma as I got some different views of the Colisseum and got to visit both San Clemente basilica and San Giovanni in Laterano—two very worthwhile places that are a bit off the standard tour routes. I only realize in hindsight that, in San Giovanni, that I entered the Basilica from a side entrance. No wonder the famous façade looked so dull for such an important church and why I couldn’t find the holy steps that were “across the street”. I also missed San Pietro in Vincoli, the chains and Michelangelo's Moses, because it just closed for siesta when I got there. Santa Maria Maggiore was a pretty good final spot for me to relax before catching the train at Termini back to Civitavecchia.

Napoli, Italy

We had another super (or over) ambitious day planned: Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano. I almost flipped out when Andrea suggested we skip the Amalfi coast so we could return to the ship earlier than scheduled. We hadn’t even started our full-day tour out of Naples. I gently reminded her that many people consider this THE highlight of their Mediterranean trip. As a compromise, we agreed to cut short our visit to Positano for a visit to a Sorrento-area farm to buy olive oil and limoncello, and to check out the animals. In hindsight, I still think we would’ve enjoyed more time in Positano, but at least we experienced the Amalfi coast—hope Andrea enjoyed it.

Rafaele of Romeinlimo was there waiting for us at the dock in Naples. We got out early to Pompeii, were the first group to enter, and so we had the entire place virtually to ourselves at first. Notice that there are no people in this picture! We enjoyed two great hours with our guide Lucia.

We arrived in Sorrento with just a few minutes to walk and shop near the main square (Piazza Tasso) before heading down to the waterfront area for lunch at Ristorante Delfino.
After lunch, we drove the Amalfi coast and spent just a few minutes in Positano.

After the visit to the Sorrento-area farm, we were headed back for the ship. Everyone was asleep by the time we arrived.
Favorite kid moment—Pompeii and Sorrento (although they won’t say why)

Palermo, Sicily

We had a private tour with a small group of 16 in Palermo. We started with a drive up to Monreale and toured its beautiful cathedral. We also enjoyed the views of Palermo below. We were all intrigued by the bodies and the interesting stories in the Capuccin Crypts. At the Zisa Castle, the kids were quickly bored in the Castle but had loads of fun afterwards climbing and running around on the water fountains in front. After lunch, we made a stop at Mount Pelegrino (sp?) for the best vista point of the Palermo area and then toured some of Palermo's other churches and buildings before heading back to the ship exhausted.

La Goulette, Tunisia

For our visit to the North African country of Tunisia, we decided to leave the kids aboard the ship with their grandparents while we did a full day tour of Ancient Carthage, Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum and the Tunis Medina Souk. I figured the kids needed a break from touring and they could spend some quality time with Yeh Yeh and Nai Nai. This turned out to be a great idea as it was probably 110 degrees most of the day, and most of what we saw would’ve bored them to tears.

Ancient Carthage was fascinating but you really have to enjoy ruins because it was hot and there was very little shade. And our guide noted that we were pretty lucky because it had been really hot the last few days! Sidi Bou Said was like the poor man’s Santorini. Great views and some bargains to be had from the vendors. The vendors were not nearly as aggressive or annoying as others had reported. The Bardo Museum was a highlight—the collection of Roman mosaics is extensive and their intricacy and detail is unbelievable.

A couple times during our tour, I felt that Tunisians were making up charges as they go. First, there was the practice of charging a Euro for each camera taking pictures to be a bit odd. I think this happened in Ancient Carthage and the Bardo Museum. Later, at the lunch restaurant, our guide walked with the restaurant owner or head waiter around to each couple to seek compensation. For each couple or family, they gestured a few times, said something in French, and seemed to just make up an amount. It was never consistent with what was ordered. Just seemed like they were winging it and hoping to make a Euro or two here or there.

We ended the tour in the Medina Souks which was pretty much a waste of time because 90% of the shops are closed on Sundays. You’d think the tour company would know this and spare us this part of the trip.

Favorite kid moment—The camel ride on the pier next to the ship. And on a “you have to shake your head in disbelief” note, my dad bought Adam a huge stuffed camel. What was he thinking? How did he think we were going to get this stupid thing home?

Sea Day

I’m sure it’s because this is a Mediterranean cruise itinerary, but this ship’s demographics most definitely did not fit the stereotype of a HAL ship. From my research on Cruisecritic, I had been told that HAL passengers definitely skew older than on other cruise lines. To our surprise, the crowd on this Noordam sailing is noticeably younger than on any Caribbean or other itinerary we’ve sailed on RCI or Carnival. We’ve seen nary a wheelchair, cane or oxygen tank onboard! There are however definitely fewer children than on RCI or Carnival ships. Here's Cara enjoying the not-that-crowded pool on our sea day.

Palma, Mallorca

We took a taxi to the Palma train station and then enjoyed a scenic (but very slow) train ride to Soller. After arriving in Soller, we immediately took the tram down to Puerto Soller. Looking back, I wish we’d spent some time in Soller first but oh well.

I’m pleasantly surprised by Adam and Cara’s new willingness to try and interest in eating new foods. They’re ordering off the adult menu almost every day in the main dining room for dinner! Andrea’s worried about Adam eating too much beef, but he’s trying so many different things! Cara got spaghetti and meatballs in Firenze and Adam ate seafood spaghetti in Sorrento! Cara however did not like the tomato-less pizza margherita in Soller. Overall Cara is still most comfortable with pastas, chickens and fish, and Adam now likes more seafood.