BOOKED HONEYMOON!

[UCLABelle]

Yippy!

Life has been really bad recently (moved grandma to a dementia care facility, major problems at work that cause me to dream of other jobs, my brother is having difficulties in college, and my husband-to-be just started a new job 1 hour away)...but good news came when I finally decided on a honeymoon (we, rather), and booked it!

7-night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise with two additional nights after in Rome! We have a nice "larger" suite on the 9th deck of the RC Navigator of the Seas ship. I am so excited. I studied Roman History at UCLA (many courses on it) and have never been....

Here is the itinerary:

Day: Port:
1 Civitavecchia Rome, Italy
2 Messina, Sicily
3 At Sea --- ---
4 Piraeus Athens, Greece
5 Kusadasi Ephesus, Turkey
6 Iraklion Heraklion, Crete
7 At Sea --- ---
8 Civitavecchia Rome, Italy


It was actually more expensive than a 10-night and 12-night cruise (with cool ports!) but our wedding is the 29th of August, and we both work as counselors at colleges. My husband-to-be works for USC (yuck, as we went to UCLA!) and their school starts that week, so we wanted to only take 2-weeks off....

 

[bee*]

that sounds great!! You''ll have an amazing time!

 

[Maisie]

Oooh how exciting! We looked at Italy for our honeymoon! I am sure you will have a wonderful time!!!

 

[zoebartlett]

Great news! It sounds like a fantastic honeymoon!

 

[musey]

Date: 11/8/2007 1:08:20 AM
Author:UCLABelle

My husband-to-be works for USC (yuck, as we went to UCLA!)

 

[Skippy123]

Yay for an exciting honeymoon Belle!!!

 

[HollyS]

Oh wow! That''s going to be so great!

 

[UCLABelle]

Thanks everyone! It feels nice to know others think it will be nice!

 

[Heidi]

wow - I''m jealous, that sounds amazing!! I also think its so great that you get to get a little "taste" of everything... lucky girl!!

 

[meresal]

Date: 11/8/2007 1:08:20 AM
Author:UCLABelle
Yippy!

Life has been really bad recently (moved grandma to a dementia care facility, major problems at work that cause me to dream of other jobs, my brother is having difficulties in college, and my husband-to-be just started a new job 1 hour away)...but good news came when I finally decided on a honeymoon (we, rather), and booked it!

7-night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise with two additional nights after in Rome! We have a nice ''larger'' suite on the 9th deck of the RC Navigator of the Seas ship. I am so excited. I studied Roman History at UCLA (many courses on it) and have never been....

Here is the itinerary:

Day: Port:
1 Civitavecchia Rome, Italy
2 Messina, Sicily
3 At Sea --- ---
4 Piraeus Athens, Greece
5 Kusadasi Ephesus, Turkey
6 Iraklion Heraklion, Crete
7 At Sea --- ---
8 Civitavecchia Rome, Italy


It was actually more expensive than a 10-night and 12-night cruise (with cool ports!) but our wedding is the 29th of August, and we both work as counselors at colleges. My husband-to-be works for USC (yuck, as we went to UCLA!) and their school starts that week, so we wanted to only take 2-weeks off....

ohh my gosh... I''ve been on the Western Medd cruise!!! You are going to absolutely love the weather and the cities!!

My mom and I went for my graduation present last August!! If you have any questions just ask... there''s quite a few thihngs they don''t tell you until you are on the ship or in the city intself. I can reccomend some great excursions also!!!

 

[Sujuann]

Sounds AWESOME!!! Doesn''t it feel great to get another BIG check off your list? You''ll have a great time!

 

[sera]

How exciting! Enjoy!!!

 

[hisdiamondgirl]

Oh UCLABelle....that is my dream dream honeymoon! I am sure it will be wonderful!!!

 

[ang3199]

Wow that sounds fabulous. Congratulations. I wish we could go on a great honeymoon like that!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

that sounds awesome!!! i love RC and im sure you will have a fabulous time! congrats!

 

[msb700]

oh wow!! that is fab...we had gone on an RC Navigator curise (Western Caribbean) and it was the most amazing ship/time/food/u name we have ever had!! we had a blasssssssssssssst!!

though make sure u book ur excursions as soon as u get there! (u can do it thru the TV!!) as the usually fill up real fast! we did that the first day we were there...

 

[UCLABelle]

Heidi- Thank you! We liked the "sample" feeling of the trip!

Meresal- Any tips are appreciated! We looked at the Western trips, to be honest, this one had the best dates for us! What a nice graduation gift for you and your Mom!

Sujuann- It feels awsome to have a big stress lifted!!! It was tough to figure out what to do!

Sera- I cannot even tell you how excited I am!

Hisdiamondgirl-Thank you! It does sound like a great dream honeymoon. I cannot wait! I didn''t really think of it until recently.

Ang3199- Thanks!

Asscher Halo Lover- Thanks! We have never been on RC (or a long cruise, rather!)....I hope it is as great as it sounds.

MSB700- ANY HELP ON EXCURSIONS would be appreciated , and we are going to have been on the same ship! The rooms look so small, are they any bigger than they look?!

 

[meresal]

Well, where to start?!?!

My mom and I took Norweigan(sp??) on the Western Medd.... however FF and I took West Carr this past March and it was Royal Carribean. In the time before we left, RC actually lets you log into their site online before the trip and you can schedule your excursions before you even get there. I deff reccomend this, because they do fill up extremely fast once you''re on-board. They have the entire list of every excursion at each port and the prices.

One thing we noticed about being in older countries, is that many of the churches and holy places have strict rules if you want to go inside. Be sure to take shorts that come past your knees, closed toe shoes, and a light cardigan that you can slip on to cover your shoulders. You can also jsut do some extra research on this before the honeymoon if you decide on what excursions you want to do ahead of time.

A great website called "Cruisecritic" was great and you can meet people that are going to be on your exact cruise. It''s alot like PS... when you absolutely can''t wait for something to arrive, you can waste hours there reading about the ship you''ll be on and all the people that have been on yur cruise before. They will tell you great dining, shopping, and even the good/bad excursions to go on!!! (Just go to the website and search for your ship... from there its easy!!)

You''re going to have a blast, and I''m getting so excited for you. It was a trip I will remember for the rest of my life, and have wanted to go back ever since we stepped off the ship!!!

 

[meresal]

OMG!! I just noticed that you are going to be on Navigator of the Seas. That is the ship FF and I were on in March. It is breathtaking, and enormous!! I''ve never seen anything so big in my life.

 

[msb700]

UCLA: Did you get the rooms with its own little baclony ? In any case, the rooms are relatively small, but definately dont have that claustrophobic (sp?) feeling..to be honest ur really really gonna spend VERY little time in the room that it doesnt make a difference! HAHAHA.. the navigator is honestly a MAGNIFICENT ship and try to make use of ALL the activities on board....they had 2 resturants that u had to pay for and we went to the italian one ...to be honest, nothing that special but the view was amazing (the whole ''wall/side'' of the resturant was glass and u saw miles and miles of ocean)...the buffet is great, the little coffee shops have these amaaaaazing sandwiches and my all time favourite self-serve ice cream!! (with all the toppings!!) man i went back and forth to that machine a million times!!!

and everytime ur room gets done ull always find an animal character made from ur towels...its hilaaaaarious and the housekeeping staff are VERY Talented and VERY nice...we get excited everytime we go back to the room to see wats in store for the day...(ill try to find some pics to post for u)...

as for the excursions, the first day ur on board they have a newsletter in every room (this letter is sent everyday actually detailling the events on the ship).. in the letter ull find details of the events for the coming day and also all the excursions u can book for the stops on the way...u have the option of booking thru their office at the main deck of the ship, or u can do it urself thru the TV...we immediately decided on wat we wanted to do in each port and then booked everything via the TV set...we then got charged at the end of the trip on check-out with the cost of the excusions...at certain ports we opted to skip the excursion and to just enjoy the ship itself and walking around the islands on our own....or like meresal said, u can simply book everything thru their website BEFORE u head there..but we first wanted to see the ship and how much we had to do on it before we decided on how many excursions we wanted to go on...

and you HAVE to go to the love show or love game they have....im not sure if they will still have it as part of their shows but oh my god it was a killer!! its basically a game show where they take couples from the audience and then ask them all these ''love'' questions and see if their SO can guess the answer rite...its hilarious coz a lot of the questions are very embaressing!!

sigh...i can''t explain how much fun ull have...i think ive rambled enuf now and ill stop however, feel free to ask any questions!!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

the best thing i did the last time i went on RC was i booked my excursions online about a month before the cruise....you can always refund them on board if you change your mind but you are guaranteed to get what you want!

and bring lots of loose small bill cash...you''ll need it for tips left and right!