Amazing, BUSY Mediterranean Cruise!
Norwegian Viva Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 10
10 Night Classic Mediterranean (Rome To Venice)
Sail date: September 30, 2024
Ship: Norwegian Viva
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 12754
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 months ago
Review summary
Overall, we had a fantastic trip! This is NOT a leisurely cruise, but that’s why we booked it. We wanted to be busy and see lots of sights with the convenience of having transport between ports provided for us. The public spots on the ship always seemed a little small and crowded. Considering the size of the ship and the amount of people on, I expected a little more space.Embarkation
Incredibly easy! We got on the ship quickly and easily, we did not have to wait long and there were MANY staff members available to help!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The specialty dining we experienced was very good! Very expensive, so we did not go outside of the two included in our package. The main dining rooms were okay, we felt that the portions were a little too small and the food was fairly good. The buffet was always very packed, the food was decent and always available. I had hoped for a few changes throughout the week but it mainly stayed the same.
Onboard Activities
We did the race track at the top which was pretty cool, we had hoped for more time for the “you and the track” option, it was only open for 45 minutes and not every day. The main pool is small, but nearly always available without too many people in it. The infinity pools were awesome and fun! The hot tubs were great but frustratingly there are only two main ones and they were often FULL of people.
Entertainment
Did not partake
Children's Programs
No kids
Service and Staff
The staff were absolutely incredible!!! Always a smile, always saying “good morning” or “welcome aboard”, always making sure we had something to drink anywhere we were on the main deck. Our room was always cleaned expertly while we were out! One person who stuck out to us to help us acclimate when we first boarded was Angelo. We often found him on the 7th floor on the pool deck. He was fantastic and so friendly!
Ship Quality
We always saw people around cleaning, wiping away water from the pool, clearing dishes. Cleanliness was not a problem!
Cabin / Stateroom
We LOVED this room!! We were surprised at how big the room was and having the balcony was so nice to relax on at the end of the day! It was a little warm, even with the max cool on. We had asked about a fan, but was told there were not any on the ship.
Ship tip
It’s a very big ship, spend a little time getting familiar with it!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We stayed a few days in Rome before embarking, of course it was amazing. We gave it two full days but they were very busy days! Civitavecchia was very easy to reach by train from the city, and there were many buses at the Civitavecchia train station to take us to the port.
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
We did “Let’s take a Selfie, Florence and Pisa”. I definitely recommend doing an excursion at this port, Livorno is not very accessible for tourism and Florence/Pisa are about an hour outside of the port. We loved this excursion, it brought us to all of the highlights! And our tour guides, Alessandro and Bianca were fantastic, very knowledgeable!
We did the “Pompeii and Enchanting Sorrento” at this port, and we are so glad we did!!! Sorrento really is enchanting, one of my favorite cities by far!! Our tour guide was Fabio, he was incredibly charming and again, very knowledgeable. Pompeii was incredible, we saw a small portion of it but it was regardless an amazing trip.
We did not do an excursion, we decided to walk up through the city this day. We made our way to Cristo Re for a beautiful view of the city. It was a tough walk!! All uphill through winding streets, so be prepared. They do have a “hop on hop off” bus in the city, but we decided to take our time and stroll through. The Piazza del Duomo is a beautiful square in the city with restaurants, shopping and the astronomical clock! We very much enjoyed this slower-paced city.
Wow, Malta was absolutely incredible. We LOVED this country!!! The tour we did this day was MLAV351181296 (cannot remember the name). We were a little disappointed with this tour, we made at least three if not four bathroom stops and spent half our time in this very short excursion waiting for people outside a bathroom. Our tour guide walked very fast from point A to point B without a lot of time to stop and take pictures, but again spent an ample amount of time outside bathrooms. We ended up losing one person along the way and she left without them, which we personally believed to be not their fault. We had many elderly people on this excursion and like I said, she walked very fast through winding streets without really making sure people were keeping up. We also couldn’t hear her most of the time, we were not given any listening devices on this tour.
We did an excursion to Siracusa this day, we loved this city it was very picturesque and part of the excursion was going to see the ancient stone quarry where they took stone to build much of the city! Very cool and we loved our tour guide! Once again, we spent a little more time waiting for people at a couple of bathroom stops when many of us wanted to look around and shop a little. One person also came on the excursion on a mobile scooter, and it did not seem ADA accessible. There were many times this person had to get off the scooter and walk while his family carried the scooter over uneven surfaces or even down stairs.
We did the Mons Repos excursion as a last minute decision and were so glad we did!! Corfu is a beautiful city, and Mons Repos was so cool to see!! Our tour guide was Katharina, and she was incredible! So nice and knowledgeable!
We LOVED Dubrovnik, and this was probably our favorite excursion of the whole trip!!! We did “CROATIAN RIVIERA & DUBROVNIK”, our tour guide was amazing and we had a little free time in the morning, which we were not used to and it was nice. The highlight though was this beautiful winery that’s been in the same family for 500 years, Winery Botaro. They gave us wine and cheese and homemade bread and we got to meet the boss of the family, their matriarch, Grandma. It was a beautiful winery with serene surroundings and delicious homemade food and wine. We will always cherish these memories!
We loved Split as well, we did not book an excursion and were glad we did not because it is a very walkable city! We explored Diocletian’s palace and the boardwalk at our own pace. Also, this town had some of the best food we’d had all trip!
Ravenna port is not built for tourists to walk around. However, we do have to give credit to the ship for organizing shuttles to get us to the train station!!
Disembarkation
We are very thankful the ship was able to organize shuttles for us to get to the Ravenna train station, because it was not as easy as it had been in Civitavecchia. However, once we got off the ship it was not very clear where we had to go and the buses were not well advertised.