the full itinerary<\/a> so long as the link stays good.\u00a0 We added on two days on the front and a further day on the back end as well.<\/p>\nOur cabin was an oceanview cabin on the 5th deck, in the midship area, in fact, the furthest midship before hitting a door saying, \u201ccrew only.\u201d\u00a0 We had originally booked an interior cabin, both because we\u2019re cheap and because we made the decision late enough that oceanview or balcony cabins were no longer available, but then they offered an option to \u201cbid\u201d on an upgrade to an oceanview (which I assume was part of a general process of oceanview folks upgrading to balcony, balcony folks upgrading to a higher level of balcony, suite, etc.) which worked out nicely.<\/p>\n
One thing I was very concerned about was motion sickness, because I have become increasingly prone to it.\u00a0 I brought with me a full pharmacy, up to the prescription patch, though I was leery of it due to its side effects and wanted to simply have it in reserve.\u00a0 I did start with taking ginger pills (in fact, I had read that taking them starting several days in advance is most effective) but wasn\u2019t sure how much of a difference it made, and I was having some (modest) tummy troubles which could be blamed on all kinds of things, even including the travel itself, but could have been a side effect of the ginger (yes, even herbal supplements can have side effects), so I discontinued it.\u00a0 I also brought with me some Bonine, which I knew wouldn\u2019t do in its regular dosage, because it puts me to sleep even though it\u2019s supposed to be \u201cless drowsy,\u201d but, for the first travel day, I used half a pill the night before, and then for the next couple days I used small fractions of pills.\u00a0 Did it make a difference? I discontinued everything after the first half of the cruise with no ill effects but I can\u2019t say whether the initially pills were unnecessary or I had simply adjusted to the boat \u2014 the first full day was a sea day and I did feel bothered, though not unmistakably motion sick, by the swaying on the top deck, and this was fine later.\u00a0 But beyond all this, for the entire duration of our cruise, the water was so still there weren\u2019t even (that we could see) whitecaps on the water.<\/p>\n
Oh, and I had read, of the lower decks, that they have less motion but also more engine noise, but that wasn\u2019t really an issue; it was more of a white noise-type humming, with the exception of a part of one night when there was clanging that kept us up for a while.<\/p>\n
A list of items I wish I had known to bring along:<\/strong><\/p>\nA lanyard for the keycard.\u00a0 Yes, it was mostly fine to have had it in my pocket but, well, these are women\u2019s clothing pockets, and small, and I felt like I was always checking that it was there.<\/p>\n
A travel hat.\u00a0 I ended up getting a straw hat on our second port of call, because the sun was bothersome, sunglasses or no, but it was a nuisance, and a proper hat that could be scrunched up, and had a less-dorky strap, would have been nice.<\/p>\n
A bigger\/newer suitcase and more clothes inside it.\u00a0 By which I mean that the only \u201cregular\u201d suitcases we have (other than carry-ons) are older and predate that modern suitcases with a built-in frame; there\u2019s just a handle and wheels on one end.\u00a0 It was a nuisance to carry\/pull, and, in the end, that one as well as the suitcases my husband and son took, didn\u2019t really have enough capacity, especially since I discovered that the women tended to dress more nicely (e.g., simple sundresses rather than just shorts) than I expected and I felt a bit scuzzy in my shorts and t-shirts (though I\u2019m still glad that the cruiseline wasn\u2019t one with Formal Nights, which was more than I was interested in in any case).<\/p>\n
Things that surprised me:<\/strong><\/p>\nI had read that the cruise companies really just cover their costs with the baseline charges, and make their profit with all the upcharges, but I was still surprised that there was so much drinking, and so much promotion of drinking, onboard, though, at the same time, there did not appear to be any rowdy disruptive drunks that I noticed.\u00a0 Included in the cost were water, coffee & tea, lemonade, \u201cflavored waters,\u201d milk, and juices at breakfast.\u00a0 Then they sold a \u201csoft drink package\u201d of $8 per person, which my husband got, as well as a \u201cbeverage package\u201d for $60, which covered basic alcoholic drinks, and upgrades with more premium drinks for $100 or $130.\u00a0 Or you could order your drinks a la carte for something like $8 or $9 each.\u00a0 And there were certainly plenty of people with drinks in their hands by the pool or in the bars and entertainment venues in the evening.<\/p>\n
The other thing that they promoted were their \u201cspecialty restaurants\u201d though I didn\u2019t have a good understanding of how popular they were.\u00a0 In addition to the fact that there was an additional cost (a flat $30 for some, or ordering off the menu at an Italian restaurant at prices that weren\u2019t really any different than at an onshore restaurant), we never really felt the need, since the included-in-the-price food was actually pretty good.\u00a0 The buffets had a good variety (though a lot of stews, which I didn\u2019t expect but was fine), with Chinese and Indian food as well as standard American fare, plus pizza and hamburgers and the like, and fresh fruit as well as dessert items, and the main dining room restaurants were also good \u2014 it surprised me at first that the portions were smaller than at a typical American restaurant, but it made sense, after all, since you\u2019ve got appetizer and dessert included, there\u2019s no value to the customer in giving them a doggy bag, and, heck, anyone who\u2019s still hungry can always get a late-night snack.<\/p>\n
There were occasionally lines at the main restaurants but only as we were leaving, not entering.\u00a0 We also made sure to find a spot at a table at the buffet before heading off to get our food, which sometimes took some looking but was never unsuccessful.\u00a0 I did try to take small portions of everything to sample and avoid overeating (unlike some passengers with mounds of bacon on their plates!), and my son was a bargain-priced passenger, since his favorites were the saltine crackers, rolls, and banana bread.<\/p>\n
A third upcharge was one we didn\u2019t take advantage of \u2014 for the cost of a mere $30 a day, you could get a low-speed social-media WiFi package.<\/p>\n
Another surprise was how many families were on the cruise!\u00a0 There were not a ton of younger children, but there were a lot of teens and preteens, and there were a lot of young adults.\u00a0 Yes, there were older people, though, again, some of them were with family, rather than it being the stereotypical \u201ccruise ship full of retirees.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s just the norm these days and that stereotype hasn\u2019t been true for ages; I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Oh, and there was a significant push hygiene-wise.\u00a0 Not only were there hand sanitizers everywhere, but at the entrance to the buffet was a woman with a spray-bottle whose job it was to spray passengers hands with the mantra \u201cwashy-washy happy-happy\u201d and as much enthusiasm as possible.<\/p>\n
But one last surprise was a bit of a disappointment:\u00a0 I was honestly a bit bored during the sea (or half-sea) days.\u00a0 My son loved it, because it was far more entertained simply by watching the boat being unmoored, or by solving a sudoku with my husband or the like, but I found it a bit meh.\u00a0 Maybe I would have been more entertained on one of the mega-ships with more activities (the mini-golf, the bumper cars, whatever \u2014 though maybe I would have found that these have an extra cost or a long line and have been annoyed for that reason); I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Our ship as a 2,000 passenger ship and didn\u2019t have all the bells and whistles of the super-large ones.\u00a0 In hindsight, perhaps I should have checked out the books at the library once I got bored with the one I had brought.\u00a0 But there was not nearly as much organized entertainment on the ship as I had expected, and it was so unrelentingly hot that the pool wasn\u2019t appealing.<\/p>\n
What about the shore excursions?<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, that\u2019s coming up next, in more detail.\u00a0 But to begin with, a few general words:\u00a0 I was astounded at how expensive the cruise-ship sponsored excursions were, and we never did any of these, and I found myself very curious about how many of my fellow passengers did. There were two instances where we did a \u201cshore excursion\u201d by a private operator on-the-spot which worked out very well (Livorno and Santorini), and another where, in hindsight, I wished we had (Athens).<\/p>\n
In general, the destinations \u2014 Athens, Greek Islands, Italy \u2014 ticked a lot of boxes.\u00a0 If we had been there as a part of a \u201cregular\u201d vacation, sure, there would have been things we would have done that a one-day cruise stop didn\u2019t permit (e.g., the full panoply of archeological museums and sites as well as beaches), but I did feel like we were able to enjoy ourselves without the \u201cofficial\u201d excursions.\u00a0 At the same time, though, I don\u2019t know to what extent this would have been true for other destinations.\u00a0 Can you hook yourself up with \u201cunofficial\u201d and cheaper ways to get from the port to a Mayan ruin, for instance, or to a glacier in Alaska?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the case that we enjoyed English being the international lingua franca, with English text on the maps and the menus and the descriptive signs; in addition, my husband has some basic tourist Italian to get him through paying for gelato or giving a cabdriver a location, but I don\u2019t know how reliable that is in other parts of the world.\u00a0 One thing that did surprise me is that various announcements on the PA system onboard (but not too much else) were repeated in Spanish. \u00a0 Were there that many non-English speaking passengers onboard?\u00a0 Was it because the cruise director was Mexican so this was a trivial extra touch?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s it for now \u2013 more to come!<\/p>\n
Image: \u00a0By Abxbay \u2013 Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=27793009<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I\u2019ve been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the first time, in Italy and Greece.\u00a0 (I\u2019m still jet lagged as I write this.)\u00a0 And I want to write a bit about this, even if in the form […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1272],"class_list":["post-14172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-vacation-2019"],"yoast_head":"\n
What I learned on my cruise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I learned on my cruise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2019\/07\/Norwegian_jade_in_Venice-1024x465.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html\",\"name\":\"What I learned on my cruise\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What I learned on my cruise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What I learned on my cruise","description":"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What I learned on my cruise","og_description":"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2019\/07\/Norwegian_jade_in_Venice-1024x465.jpg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html","name":"What I learned on my cruise","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-02T15:05:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"So, other than a pre-scheduled post last week, the blogging has been quiet as of late, because I've been on vacation, namely, a cruise vacation, for the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/what-i-learned-on-my-cruise.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What I learned on my cruise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2019\/07\/Norwegian_jade_in_Venice-1024x465.jpg\")
<\/p>\n