The summer of 2018 gave us the opportunity to embark on a unique voyage across the Mediterranean aboard Norwegian Spirit. This cruise promised an extraordinary experience, and it exceeded all of our expectations. The variety of services, the quality of the facilities and the friendliness of the staff made the difference from day one.

Being my second cruise, compared to the first travel experience I had with Carnival, this trip made me like the cruise experience a little more. Maybe because of the cruise line or the ports or everything together. I still rather stay few days (at least) in a city to get to know it better, but we did what we could. Now I know I want to return to Croatia, Greece (always) and Malta.

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Civitavecchia, Italy

Cruise: Norwegian Spirit
Nights: 11
Ports: Dubrovnik, Venice (day 1+day2), Koper, Split, Corfu, Katakolo, Valletta. (read about my 2010 trip to Venice here)

First, I have to say LOVED all the ports. They were amazing, lot of things to see and to do.

Sunset somewhere in the med

We departed from Civitavecchia, an hour or so from the center of Rome. So obviously, before the cruise, we spend few days in Rome. If doing the same (or maybe after the cruise), taxi it’s around 130-150 euros. With the cruise we could book a bus as well to the airport, but we are visiting another town for 1 day before flying.

view from room (Civitavecchia)

In general, I have to say Norwegian was way better than Carnival. I felt the staff was better organized, not over-crowded, cleaner and food was delicious at all times, everywhere. Remember, I’m not an expert in cruising and this is my 2nd time doing it.

The ship has only one pool for everyone and another for kids and 4 hot tubs by the pool, so if you just want to relax without music or that many people (hot tubs sometimes looks overcrowded) you couldn’t do it (as we did in Carnival Magic). There are few areas where you can work on your tan and relax, but not by the pool.

We enjoyed few nights karaoke, including a night with a live band karaoke, but not adult’s comedy club as the last one. Room was smaller (not balcony this time), but good enough.

And our favorite, our Cabin Stewardess/Stateroom Attendant was AMAZING. Maria was super friendly and helpful. Not only that, she made the best towel animals ever! We loved each one of them that we created a little zoo in our stateroom, she even left a note for us on our last night 🙂

If going straight to the airport or Rome, try to book with the cruise ship a shuttle. Otherwise, for us, it was a bit of a mess to get a taxi, since they weren’t around so we needed to wait for people to get a shuttle that made a stop at the airport and then to where we were going… try booking transportation for your return 😉

Next cruise: Disney cruise! 😀

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