Summer of 2019 - trip to the City of the Big Shoulders

The summer of 2019 was right there and my family didn’t have any plan yet. We didn’t want it to slip just like that without doing any fun stuff or visiting any fun place. By the end of July, we finally came up with a grand idea of visiting the funniest city in America, the city of the Big Shoulders, the Chicago. My research located an article published in 2014 in chicagotribune.com that cited a study by the University of Colorado at Boulder which ranked Chicago as America’s funniest city. (Here is the link to the Article).On top of that my nephew and his wife lived there and invited us. He told us, "Chicago boasts the iconic architecture, littered across the skyline, reflecting in the glistening Lake Michigan. Tourists from all around the world come to take a glimpse of this wondrous metropolis and enjoy the Chicago Blues." We thought, Awesome. It's an opportunity of summer time :).So, finally, by the end of July, we decided to visit Chicago, the Windy city for a week, and have fun. Question remained - fly or drive? We decided to drive from Toronto, Canada to Chicago, USA and have a fun-filled family road trip. Why drive? well! because it provided an opportunity for the entire family to talk and laugh, and bond while consuming the alarming amounts of chips purchased from the nearest convenience store. Road trip is fun, but it also requires waking up before the crack of dawn, which I only seem to enjoy out of my family members. Anyways, I was able to convince my children to wake up at 5:00 AM, because I reminded them about the famous Chicago Pizza, and they were ready to hit the road early morning. You might ask “why is it necessary to wake up that early”? Well, our trip involved crossing the busy Canada-USA border and it would become the the trail to the hell if we were late.

Chicago, glistering in night light, Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park 

We were on our way. Google Map showed estimated driving duration around 8 hours and 20 minutes. But, we knew that trips were full of surprises and additionally, we needed some extra hours to relax on road side eatery or the border crossing, or the Immigration etc.
And as guessed, it took us almost 12 hours to make the trip. We reached Chicago around 6:00 PM, just in time to catch the rush hour climax. 
That evening we were all pretty tired. Actually I didn't quite understand why my kids were tired? They were basically talking, laughing, sight-seeing while crunching the chips or sleeping the whole way!

Little bit of tiredness because of drive fatigue did not stop us venturing out that evening. After dinner, we walked along the Chicago’s scenic Lakefront Trail that followed the Lake Michigan shoreline. We're amazed how Chicago was able to keep Lake Michigan clean and tidy. For being one of the largest cities in the U.S, it was surprisingly in great condition. Lake Michigan really did frame the city, giving it dimension that other cities lack. The lakeshore trail was an amazing place to take an evening stroll. The city's skyline was basked in a fuchsia glow, and the skies pink ombre was the perfect background for the windy city. The lake complimented the setting sky beautifully by reflecting the vibrant hues on the rolling waves. One evening was obviously not enough to walk the entire Lakefront Trail (around 29.77 km), we only walked from the Shedd aquarium to the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.

A glimpse of Lakefront trail and City of Chicago. 

Day two:
We decided to hit the popular spots in the city. The first destination was the world famous Shedd Aquarium.

Outside view of the JOHN G. SHEDD AQUARIUM IN CHICAGO. 

The next stop was the “bean” or the cloud gate, a true masterpiece, in Grant Park . It was crowded, because of being a very popular tourist spot. We also enjoyed walking around the gardens and soaked our feet in the basins. We found the garden a quiet environment, in contrast to the bustling city that surrounded it.

Cloud Gate, the Bean at Millennium Park in Chicago. 

The final spot for the evening was the most anticipated one - The Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower ), the tallest building in Chicago and the 2nd tallest in America. We decided to go in the evening to catch the sunset and a glimpse of the transitional sun. It was very crowded, but the view from above was worth the wait.

Note: The skydeck is one of the main attraction of the Willis Tower, which is is like a glass box that sticks-out of the building.

It truly was mesmerizing to see the busy streets below our own feet, however, the time allowed on the glass floor was very limited, no more than 30 seconds. I felt that wasn't enough time to grasp the beauty of the city from 100 floors above. The time was just good enough to get some quick pictures. We still enjoyed the view from the large windows that surrounded the building. Through them, we were able to see how the city came to life in the night.

Night view of Chicago From Willis Tower 

View of Chicago before dusk

Day 3:

Our 3rd day in Chicago was actioned packed and filled with adventure. The first stop was the Adler Planetarium, located right next to the shore. The planetarium was a great learning experience and made us appreciate our universe. We also watched two shows there. One was about the solar system and the other was about stargazing. We also found that it was a great place to sit and gaze at the lake with the skyline in the background and to take pictures.

Next stop was Navy Pier. How could one visit Chicago , and not stop by the Navy Pier? As soon as we stepped onto the Pier, I were overcome with some sort of emotion. The emotion of hunger. So we stopped to eat lunch at Giordano’s for Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza. It was delicious.

The next stop for us was an architecture cruise. We really enjoyed watching each uniquely designed skyscrapers with own history and inspiration while cruising for 75 minutes. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and didn't miss any bit of information and even inserted some Chicago style jokes in between.

 

River Cruise - ultimate Chicago architecture experience. 

In the evening, we came back to the Navy Pier. Surrounded by Lake Michigan , the Pier was a great place to spend the evening, we found the atmosphere very up-lifting. We went on the Centennial wheel, and Chicago became ten times more breathtaking. The view provided us a new perspective of the city. My kids also had few other rides while I was wondering around.

The Centennial Wheel at Navy Pier - a signature attraction in Chicago. 

Day 4:

We woke up bright and early and headed towards Wisconsin. We were planning for three hours drive, it took more like 4 hours for us, because we took a little detour on the way. Instead of taking the highway, we took lovely country roads. Once we got to Wisconsin, our first stop was The House on the Rock, designed by architect Aex Jordan Jr. No suitable words to describe it, I'd simply say a piece of heaven on earth - just wonderful, unique, and so expertly made.

Note: I am not be able to show any inside artifacts of this place in the picture. Here is one (taken outside) that provides a quick glimpse of this magnificent place. But pictures don't do this place justice. You have to see it with your own eyes. You can really see Mr. Jordan’s passion integrated into his designs. I can go on and on about his intelligence and the years of work that have been put into this project, but the only way to fully experience it, is to see it yourself.

An outdoor glimpse of The House On The Rock. 

That night we stayed at the Ramada hotel located in the city of Wisconsin Dells. We found that the hotel was well maintained and service was fine. They also provided us the pass to Noah's waterpark as part of the deal.

Day 5:

We went to America’s largest waterpark, the Noah’s Ark Waterpark and we had a blast, a good one. What a great place it was for the whole family with over 80 family activities like The Scorpion’s Tail, Black Anaconda, Tadpole Bay Kiddie Play Area and Noah's 4-D Dive-In Theater. In 2018, they also brought "Raja - The World's Largest King Cobra" waterslide, into operation.

Note:

The city of Wisconsin Dells has number of theme parks and entertainment centers including Noah's Ark Water Park, and Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park and others.

 

 

Few Pictures taken while driving through the Wisconsin Dells. 

The same night we drove back to Chicago. It was 2 AM when we arrived back to my nephew's apartment.

Day 6:

We decided to take complete rest and just enjoy each other's company. We also had a family visitor. Later in the afternoon I went outside with my nephew to go around the neighbourhood and guess what I saw there? The Chicago White Sox's Guaranteed Rate Field. I wished I had chance to go see the game.

Guaranteed Rate Field located in the South Side of Chicago, home ballpark for Chicago White Sox.

Day 7:

7th Day was a shopping day. We spent some time shopping in and around Water Tower place in Chicago. Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to nearby waterfront beach. To our surprise, the water was clean. Amazing to see the long sandy beaches with number of activities right in the middle of the city. I Enjoyed some swimming and sitting on the beach and have small family picnic. There were lots of snack/food options as well as bike rentals.

 

A glimpse of a beach and view from Waterfront lake. 

Day 7:

We didn't want to drive home just yet, but we had to. We woke up at around 5 AM, said thank you and good bye and headed home to Canada. Spent another 12 hours for estimated 8 hours of drive but we fully enjoyed it.

Hope this blog helps you to plan your next trip to Chicago and enjoy to its fullest. See you next time.

Winter Festival of Lights in Dufferin Islands

Some beautiful pictures I captured while visiting "Winter Festival of Lights" in around Dufferin Islands (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) on January 23, 2016. If interested see more pictures from official site http://www.wfol.com/the-lights/dufferin-islands

Trip to Tobermory - a perfect getaway within driving distance of Toronto

My family's no-labouring plan for this year's Labour Day long weekend, included some cool & quality time at the warm Sauble beach, overnight stay in traditionally Scottish town of Kincardine as well as a trip to the majestic lakeside town called Tobermory. It was a short (two days only) plan for a long weekend. We intentionally made it two days only, so that we could return back home on Monday and finish any last minute, left behind preparation for a new school year starting from Tuesday.

    As seen from Ferry Terminal - Lake Huron and Islands nearby

                                         

Originally, our plan was to visit Tobermory for the full duration of the weekend, and soak in the beauty of the place, however because of an unsuccessful attempt to book a hotel (Expedia and hotels.com only showed listings that famously said - we are sold out), we shifted our attention to next near by town called Owen Sound. However I found myself in a similar situation and had no luck in finding a hotel in that city as well. At one point I was even thinking about giving up on the long weekend idea, but one of my friends gave  me the brilliant idea of booking a hotel in Kincardine, Ontario and I did. Early Saturday morning, we were to drive about 2 hours and 50 minutes from Markham to Sauble beach. However, thanks to my daughters' research of Kincardine, we changed the plan at the last minute. They found very good reviews about Station beach in Kincardine and convinced us to head directly there, rather than going to Sauble beach. The fact that we had been to Sauble beach before also helped to make that decision.

      On Saturday morning, we left home around 7:50 am. The first few hours of our morning was foggy, but the scene began to look better as it slowly lifted. Sometimes even few hours of driving (it is about two and half hours of  drive from Toronto to Kincardine) can be boring. However, if you have cheerful kids in the car, it's sure be a lot of fun. We enjoyed watching countryside while driving. We even played "I spy with my little eyes ... Even though my kids are teenagers now, they love playing this game on trips ,which keeps us all engaged so we don’t miss out on the little things." 

Conquering Kincardine

We were at Station beach by 11:30 am. I immediately fell in love with the beach because of it's clean pristine water, and long sandy shoreline. It is so conveniently located just in walking distance from the downtown and parking is free. As soon as I touched the water, I felt a deep need to submerge myself in it immediately. It was amazing to swim there. The beach wasn’t too crowded, which made it the perfect place to relax and take a breather. No matter what your idea of relaxing is, you can achieve there. You can swim, sleep, read, or maybe play beach volleyball. We had brought food from home, so we enjoyed little picnic there. I even had a good nap while sunbathing. My kids went for a walk along the boardwalk (a great place to walk, jog and enjoy the view) and took beautiful pictures and videos. The boardwalk became a walk & learn experience for them  as it  had  interpretive signs with information about local marine history and shipwrecks.

Station Beach - even birds are sunbathing here!!!

Marina at Station beach

Interpretive sign

Tips:

• Station beach is located at 151 Station Beach Road, Kincardine ON
• As per www.canoe.ca, this water is listed as one of the top 9 destinations for surfing.
• For those with mobility issues, there are 'MOBI-Mats' at Station Beach. The mats stretch right to the waters edge. 
• If you enjoy playing beach volleyball, then there is co-ed beach volleyball every Friday at 7 p.m
• The park has a bouncy castle for kids to enjoy
• The lighthouse and museum are just a 2 to 3 minute walk way and lakeside downtown Kincardine is just nearby.

After spending almost three and half hours on the beach, we drove to the hotel (Sutton Park Inn). The check-in process was smooth and the hotel was nice. After taking shower and having a fresh cup of coffee, we went out for a tour to downtown Kincardine. We parked our car, in the harbour street, near the lighthouse and went on a walk along Queen street. Kincardine is a small town located on the shores of Lake Huron in Bruce County and has strong Scottish heritage. I was told that during summer, every Saturday night, people in Kincardine celebrate and take part in Scottish Pipe Band Parades.

Queen Street, downtown Kincardine

If you have a sweet tooth, you should visit this little chocolate shop (Mill Creek Chocolates) located at 813 Queen street. They Offer the handmade chocolates in very personalized packaging finished with colourful wraps and ribbons. You can enjoy the chocolates yourself or bring as a gift. You'll love them.

Mill Creek Chocolates Shop at Queen street.

Mill Creek Chocolates showroom

We also had chance to have some friendly conversation with the sales lady. She told us a little history of Kincardine, the Mill Creek Chocolates as well as how she ended up living in Kincardine. Originally from Brampton Ontario, she once visited Kincardine, liked the town and since then has been living in Kincardine.
     I had read that Station beach had one of the most beautiful sunsets. But unfortunately the evening became cloudy around 6:30 PM and looked like it was going to rain. Frustrated a little bit, we instead went to see the lighthouse which we found very fitting to the aesthetic of the small town. Around 7:00 pm, we were about to head back to the hotel, it started raining.  It rained all night long but we were prepared for this. We had brought board game <<Monopoly>> with us. We played until about 11:00 pm and had tons of fun while snacking the Mill Creek chocolates.
     It's no secret that when I initially booked my hotel in Kincardine, the purpose was to use it just as a transit point. However, now, I have no regrets whatsoever. We enjoyed it fully.

Trip to Tobermory

The next day (Sunday) we got up on time to have a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, and after packing our bags we started driving to Tobermory. It was around a two hours drive. We reached Tobermory at around 11:00 AM. We purchased our tickets (be prepared to spend time in ticket queue. Even if you have pre-purchased your ticket online, you still have to stay in line to check-in and to get a parking permit for your car. They do have a separate window to serve the holders of pre-purchased tickets) for cruise (Bruce Anchor company - 7468 HWY 6).
Notes:

• The Bruce Anchor company offers few options. See their web site for more details.
• Ticket price also includes the parking fee and they have free shuttle from the parking spot to the Ferry Terminal and back.
• There are other boat and cruise services as well. Check the following:
  • Big Tub Harbour Resort Boat Rental
  • Blue Heron Cruises
  • Blue Anchor Cruises etc.

      We booked the Tobermory Explorer option and enjoyed the view (while staying aboard) of shipwrecks lighthouses, and several beautiful islands in the Fathom Five National Marine Park.

Bruce Anchor boat cruise

Big Tub Lighthouse

It was around 75 minutes of fun-filled cruising. The cruise moves at a slow speed around the "Little Tub Harbour", where you can see the sunken ships (Note: Tobermory is home to over 20 historic shipwrecks) through the glass window or glass bottom. Speed bumps up once it is out of Little Tub Harbour, water comes flying through the window and you'll get taste of fresh of water Lake Huron.

Sunken ship as seen from glass window of cruise.

One of the flower pot rock pillars in Flowerpot island

If you choose the drop off option to Flowerpot island, you need to follow few rules in order not to damage natural environment (see instruction in picture below). Looks like the name - Flowerpot comes from two rock pillars on it's shore, which exactly look like flower pots. The island itself is about about two square kilometres in area and is a popular tourist destination. Activities like swimming, hiking and camping are allowed there.

Flowerpot island - visitor information

One of the flower pot rock pillars in Flowerpot island

After returning from the cruise, we went for a walk on a trail in the woods, which eventually led us to the lake. We stayed there for about an hour - swimming and watching the waves of blue water continuously hitting the big rocks on the shore. My kids didn't want to return and asked if we could stay to stay for another day or so. But I had to refuse as we didn't have a hotel booked for another night.
      So, we started driving back home. We drove a good three hours and made a stop along the way for some food and drinks. It was around 10:30 PM, when we arrived home.
     For us, it turned out to be a perfect getaway within driving distance of Toronto. I would definitely recommend a trip to Tobermory for anyone! It is an amazing escape that fits the budget and time. 

European Journey aboard Epic

Recently (just two weeks ago), my family and I returned home to Canada from an amazing seven day European (Western Mediterranean Sea) cruise aboard Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Epic. No, we didn’t win an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe, but rather paid all expenses out of our own pockets :( Good thing that unlike the 1985 comedy film European Vacation, we came back with good memories, not controversies and conflicts.

Here is how Norwegian Epic looked like.
Picture taken from Cannes' Beach

We planned (for the trip) for a while, almost few months, since we purchased our Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Epic ticket from Costco Travel, back in March 2017, and the execution went almost flawlessly, except some minor issues here and there . Most of the work went on to devise a plan for shore excursions, because NCL's official excursion rate is way too expensive. We also planned how to stay safe, and secure our cash while in Italy and Spain. A few Travel books suggested that Barcelona, Rome and Naples are Pickpocketing Hotspots. I bought a Sling Chest Bag from Amazon. I had a hard time finding one, as I needed a sling bag that fits an iPad pro. Fortunately, we didn't have to face any pickpocketing. We found Italian, Spanish and French people very friendly, and helpful.

Note:

• Make sure to check in online through NCL website at least 48 hours before your cruise departure schedule. 
• Reserve your on-board entertainment (they quickly run out of seat). If you want, you can start registering for them few months in advance. 
• Print baggage tags in advance.
• Plan your shore excursions. You can purchase directly from NCL or plan on your own.

In terms of planning for shore excursions, I read travel books, researched on internet (used sites like https://www.rometoolkit.com/), used information available on NCL website as well as Cruise Critic site. My friend and I tried to devise a detailed plan for each city that we were going to go for shore excursions in a separate spread sheet tab with three alternate options. We put together a check list. We reviewed our plan by all members of both families (total seven people) few times and a final time just a week before flying to Barcelona.

In short, here is how our overall travel plan looked like:

• Flying to Barcelona from Toronto. 
• Spend a night in Barcelona. 
• Take cruise 2nd day from Barcelona.
• Take shore excursion in each city where ship docks and arrive back to Barcelona after seven days 
• Fly back to Toronto the same day. 

Below map shows are cruise schedule.

NCL Epic route. Image taken from NCL website.

Flying to Barcelona

We flew on Air Transat. Because of the Baggage Handlers' strike, we had a small delay in Toronto Pearson airport. Good thing, we had two kids belonging to Air Transat Kids club, we were prioritized while boarding the plane in Toronto.

Note: Make sure to register (free) your kid(s) to Kids club, you also get free seat selection and other surprise goodies.

While the service provided by Air Transat was very satisfactory, I didn't like the complementary lunch/dinner sandwich. It was kind of tasteless. However, I enjoyed the complementary glass of wine. Thanks Air Transat! Hope, you'll serve better sandwiches next time :)
Passing through the Spanish custom/immigration was hassle free. I said 'Hola' and handed over our family's passports to the immigration officer, he stamped them and let us go. No baggage delay. Hurrah!

In Barcelona

While we were heading out (of the airport) after collecting our baggage, my friend shouted, "Oh look, you're famous here in Barcelona. Someone is holding your name placard". "Yeah, you guessed it right, my friend", I said and I waved to the person holding my name. I wish I was famous, but it's just that I had pre-purchased (online) airport to hotel taxi/van service from suntransfers.com. They charged EUR 58.87 for a seven seater van. It had good and reliable service which I found as a very satisfactory deal. If we hired a van at the airport, we could have saved around EUR 10.00 or so, but we had to wait in a big line at the airport, negotiate and all that stuff. Our driver was pretty courteous, helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. My friend, with his just-in-time Spanish (I guessed little better than Google translate), was able to acquire a lot of information from the driver.

Finally, we were gliding on the street of great football/soccer city of Barcelona. We were so amazed looking around through our car window, we even didn't notice when we arrived at the hotel. Our driver had to knock us hard to let us know. Our hotel Garbí Mil·lenni (located near the cruise port and centre of the city), was nice. I had booked the junior suite for EUR 189.00.
We were greeted by Marco at reception. He was a nice Spanish fellow with a very business like attitude.

After taking a shower and recharging ourselves, we walked towards the world famous La Rambla street. Yes indeed, we had sometime for walking around and getting ourselves lost as we flew to Barcelona one day ahead of our cruise schedule. Even though, one and half day is not really enough time to visit all the places in the city of Barcelona - a city with rich history and great architecture, it's still better than arriving the same day and rushing to the cruise. So, I recommend anyone taking cruise abroad, get there at least a day or two ahead and avoid last minute rush.

Here, I'm walking on famous La Rambla street.

Special note about La Rambla: My family and I are deeply socked and saddened by the news of  the tragic loss of lives and injuries on La Rambla street caused by the terrorist attack. I’d like to dedicate this post for those innocent souls. I’d like to express my deepest sympathy to all those who have been affected by this terrible act. Read more about La Rambla terrorist attack here.

We had just enough time to tour the city on the Hop On Hop Out (HOHO) bus and we had purchased the ticket online in advance to save money (10% discount if you purchase online) and time. Barcelona has three (green, blue, and red) official HOHO bus routes . The first day, we took red and in the morning of 2nd day, we took blue line tour. HOHO bus seemed like a very convenient option for us;  we could get off at any stop where we wished to take more time to look around and could hop back on at the same stop or another.

Note: Another convenient feature of HOHO bus is ticket validity period. It comes with either 24 or 48 hours option. During that time frame, you can use it any number of times in any of the designated route.

A street view of Barcelona 
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus).

On the 2nd day, since we had to checkout from the hotel before noon and rush to cruise, we thought, we didn't have enough time to walk to La Rambla and take HOHO bus to tour the blue line, we decided to take a taxi instead from our hotel to visit the Antoni Gaudi's famous architectural project Sagrada Familia. The hotel receptionist called the taxi for us and we headed to Sagrada Familia. I paid EUR 16.00 for the trip. Luckily, just after spending sometime at Sagrada Familia, I saw the blue line station right beside the Basilica and we hopped on the HOHO bus and ventured the blue line. 
The blue line along with Sagrada Familia and other historic and architectural objects, include:
-Plaça Catalunya – The main square in the heart of historic city.
-Casa Batlló – The dragon-inspired house designed by Gaudí
-Park Guëll – An unique park from where you can see majestic city views.
-Camp Nou Stadium – The home stadium of FC Barcelona.

Sagrada Família, designed by Antoni Gaudí,
still under construction
(Started 1862 and anticipated completion date of 2026)

Tourist hot spot - La Rambla

Casa Milà/La Pedrera, designed by Antoni Gaudí
and built between 1906 and 1910,
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

At around 12:00 PM, we checked out of the hotel, and headed to the cruise. We got a seven seater van and the driver charged us EUR 25.00. Not a bad deal! The driver was cheerful and helpful and became our unofficial guide too. On our way to the cruise, I could see a huge ship from a distance, parked at the port. But, my younger daughter was saying that she could not see it. She worriedly said, “how come I can’t see it?". Later she laughed to herself, she was under impression that the huge structure looking like a multi story building was in fact our ship. Norwegian Epic is one of the largest ships. Third largest? As per Wikipedia. It accommodates more than 4000 people on board. See more details on the NCL site.

We were in a long queue of people on hot summer day in Barcelona, desperate to check into  the cruise to have that so called first time (or may be nth time) cruise experience.  Standing in line was a daunting task, but thanks to my friend's little son, we got some priority treatment for our luggage and ourselves.

Note: make sure to print your NCL Cruise luggage tag (you can find it in one of the pages of your NCL eDocument) before hand and attach/staple it into your baggage handle, so that your baggage is checked in without any issue.  For details, see NCL page - packaging for your journey. NCL staff deliver your checked in baggage to your room later that afternoon.

During check in, each of us got a NCL card (Note: it works like your identity while in the ship as well as your cash/credit card), with our room number on it. Children got the one with corner chipped, meant they're not eligible to enter into the adult entertainment zone or buy alcohol etc. It also worked as room key and and to enable the light switch.

Note: It is important that you have your NCL card with you or near you all times. It may be a good idea to buy waterproof cardholder, especially for children as they go into the water (pool, water slides etc) all the time.

On Board

Once checked in and passed through security, we took the escalator to enter the ship. In the entrance of the ship, we were greeted by cheerful NCL staff. And as we walked inside, we were amazed by the fancy carpeting and glittering chandeliers, and of course people from different corners of the world. We took the elevator up to the 11th floor where our ocean view balcony suite was located.  It was a beautiful suite with twin beds, along with sofa bed and just-in-time use ceiling bed. Just imagine a bed that comes out of the ceiling! Immediately my family started calling dibs on who got to sleep there but in the end I won! :) Yeah, amazing! That night, while sleeping on my ceiling bed, I could see the ocean in peace and in war/wave. Yeah, I have to admit that initially we didn't know about the existence of ceiling bed in our suite. I became furious, because there was not enough beds for a family of four and went hurriedly to customer service. They calmly explained me that the room service would come in the evening to prepare the ceiling and sofa bed.

Note: It is specially important to choose your room carefully while booking your cruise vacation. Location matters. It will be too noisy if it's near to engine floor or theatre or near to other entertainment venues. Also important is to choose which side of the ship you want your cabin, specially if you have ocean view window or balcony. Some info from NCL here. And some valuable insight from cruisecritc here.

The first day, we familiarized ourselves to all the cruise amenities - swimming pool, water slides, sports zone, gym and fitness place, running track, theatre, casinos, restaurants, buffet etc. We had good lunch in garden caffe on the top floor of the ship beside the swimming pool and water slides. I also spent some time in pool and went in the Jacuzzi to relax myself.

The 2nd day, I woke up early in the morning. I wanted to start with Yoga. I went to the balcony; it was very early, just the beginning of dawn and little bit chilly outside, but peaceful. And guess what? I did my Yoga for the first time in the middle of Mediterranean Sea. Below are two pictures taken from balcony that morning. One early morning and another little later. 

Cargo ship seen far.
Picture taken from my balcony, early morning.

Picture taken from balcony - Mediterranean Sea

I was also excited about jogging/running that day and went to deck 7 for jogging, but I was little bit disappointed that the track was only on one side of the ship, and all the life boats hanging there blocked the ocean view. And also because of hot/warm air coming from all big machineries there, made jogging not so pleasant. See some messages from people regarding jogging track here. Anyways, I ran around 20 minutes.
The whole 2nd day, we were on the water as there was no planned docking and most of us did whatever we wanted. We had continental breakfast at Garden Caffe on the top of the ship. The cafeteria was huge and selection of breakfast items was amazing and it operated 24 hours a day. Later, I went to swimming pool for a bit and then went to jacuzzi, there I talked to lady from Netherland and her husband for few minutes and after that spent time under the sun on beach chairs while reading the book I brought with me - The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley Ph.D., William D. Danko. And, What the heck! I was allegedly imagining myself as millionaire while relaxing and reading the book. Once, I'm awaken from my millionaire day dream, I went to the gym with my friend. When I looked out the window while running on the treadmill it felt like I was running on the ocean.
The Evening was total blast that day. We went to the Epic theatre to watch the 'Burn the Floor' performance. Wow, it was amazing. They presented it in a real professional way. As NCL puts it in their website, "...The performances of Burn the Floor are not just hot - they sizzle..." Yeah, they did. Everybody liked it including my daughters.

Dawn in Naples (Italian: Napoli)

What an extraordinary morning in Napoli! I just awoke up and saw the beginning of the twilight through the glass door (obviously, I was peering from my ceiling bed). I rushed to balcony, and in few minutes I saw the majestic sun rise. And after some time, we were nearing to port of Naples.

Sun rise in Naples (picture taken from the balcony of my suite)

City of Napoli from harbour front side
(picture taken from the balcony of my suite)

Today, we were having an early breakfast around 7:15 AM, so that we'd be ready to go out for the excursion. By 8:30 AM, we were ready to get out of the ship.

Note: You need your cruise card to check in and check out. In NCL Epic, the exit deck is usually either deck 6 or deck 4, depending upon the port and their infrastructure. Listen for an announcement to find which deck to exit from.
Note: At Naples, cruise ships dock at Naples Stazione Marittima, which is right in front of the city centre. From here, you can easily walk around the city or take the HOHO bus. Another option is to take the train (Naples Circumvesuviana) and go to Mt. Vesuvius.

We entertained the 2nd option and took the HOHO bus- "City SightSeeing Napali". It was quite a good choice and we really enjoyed the whole trip. The whole Naples city itself looked like a big open museum with it's architecture, arts, monuments and cathedrals.

Note: Just like in Barcelona, Naples standard "City Sightseening" HOHO buses also operate in 3 routes. Line A (Red), Line B (Blue), and Line C (Green). Price: EUR 23.00/adult; EUR 11.5/child. In addition, there is a 4th route (Purple line), which is called "City Sightseeing Hystorical Center - Cathedral" and it's cost is EUR 12.00/person. It operates in small van as it passes through narrow streets neighbourhoods. If you have standard ticket and you also want to take Purple line tour, you can just add EUR 3.00/person.

We ventured through all three tour lines and also the purple one. One of my favourites was the Purple line which passed through city's historic narrow street neighbourhood. Since, big double decker bus would not pass through the narrow street, they'd use smaller fifteen seater van on this route. 

Largo Castello at the Piazza Municipio, Naples
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

Guglia of the Immaculate Virgin (1750), Gesu Nuovo square
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

Naples, Mt. Vesuvius seen in the background
(Picture taken from the upper deck of HOHO bus. 

One of the historic narrow streets neighbourhood in Naples
(picture taken through the window of HOHO bus)

We returned to the ship after our Naples excursion around 2:30 PM and had fun on the ship. My daughter went for rock climbing, and she successfully touched and ringed the bell. Bravo!
Later in the night, we went again to the Epic theatre to watch a Broadway musical show "Priscilla Queen of the Desert". It featured the journey of three "divas" with hundreds of colourful costumes and headdresses along with disco hits from the 70s and 80s.

Note: Parental guidance is recommended if you're taking children to the show.

Road to Rome

We arrived in Civitavecchia, a port town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome on the 3rd day of our cruise trip. We were planning to go to Rome and visit Vatican today, so we were ready and got out by 8:30 AM. We took the free shuttle provided by NCL from the pier to the port gate and from there took a city bus (EUR 2.00 per person) to reach the train station. We got a combined train ticket ( Civitavecchia to Roma Termini (Rome)) plus HOHO bus tickets for Rome city tour at Civitavecchia train station.

Note: Some of the agents working inside Civitavecchia look and act like Train Italia staff, but be careful, they may represent private tour operator.
Note: There are express as well as local commuter train available from Civitavecchia to Rome. For details visit Train Italia web site.

So, we took the train. While going to Rome, the train was jam packed, and not everyone of us got a seat. But we were still happy that we were visiting the historic city of Rome. Once we got out of the Roma Termini, a bunch of street agents (representing tour buses and others) were behind us trying to sell tickets. Since, we had our ticket already purchased, we just moved forward, kind of ignoring them. We had to walk around 7 minutes to reach to our Big Bus Tour bus.

Note: There are multiple HOHO buses operate in Rome. You can find information about all these here. Compare and take the one that best suits you.


We were on the top of a double decker HOHO bus and it seemed like one of the hottest day here in Rome, however, we weren't worried much as we were sight seeing one of the greatest city on earth - Rome; and travel through it's history and visit the places where the ancient Romans lived, worked and socialized. We got a chance to admire the fine arts and architecture attached to Rome's grand buildings and beautiful churches. Compared to Naples, I found that historic monuments and buildings were well preserved/maintained here in Rome. Maybe Rome is richer and gets a bigger budget?

Touring Rome in style? Definitely, next time. 
Rolling Rome on Sageway? 

monument dedicated to King Victor Emmanuel II,
the first king of Italy, in Piazza Venezia
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

Rome colosseum

Street of Rome (picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

Road to Vatican. We were entering one of the smallest
but historically significant country of the world.

St. Peter's Basilica and Square, Vatican.

Hoping to see the Pope Francis and get blessings in-person, we spent around 2 hours around Vatican, but he decided to bless us remotely. :) Blessed, we returned back to our HOHO bus to complete the remaining tour of Rome. At around 2:00 PM, we returned back to Roma Termini to take train back to Civitavecchia. We had to ask several people to find out our exact platform, finally, Train Italia's agent helped us figure it out.

Back to the ship, after having a quick late lunch, I went to spend some time in pool and later on in Jacuzzi. That night, we went to watch the musical show "The Epic Beatles" in the Epic Theatre. Someone has posted a footage of the show here in Youtube.
Later on, we decided to go for dinner at the Manhattan dinning room. NCL Epic has a lot of dinning options. See here for details.

Note: If you like Indian dinning, you need to ask for an Indian menu. The main menu does not include Indian dishes.

Touching the Tower in Pisa.

The ship docked in the port of Livorno, Italy at around 7:00 AM and we were out for our excursion at around 9:00 AM. We planned to go to Pisa to see the leaning tower.

Note: There are few option for self excursion here in Livorno.
1. Take train, taxi or tour bus and go to Florence
2. Take train, taxi or tour bus and go to Pisa.
3. Take NCL Shuttle which charges EUR 12.00 and go to downtown Livorno and either take HOHO bus or other form of transportation to go around the city.

We wanted to go to Pisa, and fortunately, found a good deal with a tour bus. We had paid EUR 21.00 per person. The tour bus took us first to downtown Livorno, and from there another bus took us to Pisa.

Note: Here is their website, if you like to get more info or plan ahead for your tour. http://www.livorno.city-sightseeing.it/eng/tour-livorno-pisa.html

Port of Livorno, Italy

Piazza dei Miracoli -
Pisa Cathedral with the Leaning Tower of Pisa

For you to guess.

Hey look, I touched the tower!

Note: There is almost a 20 minutes walk from the bus station to the Piazza dei Micacoli. You pass through the parking lot, cross the rail line and go through the beautiful street with a lot of gift shops. Your bargain skill really helps here. Specially, if you want to buy any gift items directly from the walking street vendor.


We spent around 2 hours in Pisa and took bus back to Livorno at 1:00 PM. We were back to the ship by 2:30 PM for lunch. After lunch my friend and I went to try the rock climbing. You probably guessed it right, we couldn't touch and ring the bell, but nevertheless it was a very good experience.
Later that night, we were supposed to enjoy the Cirque Dreams and Dinner Entertainment. All dressed up, we went to the show, but after inquiry we found that the ticket we purchased "standard seating", might not give us the right experience, and also the show was not what we thought - a full fledged circus kind of show, but it seemed more of an acrobatic performance only. We asked to cancel our booking, and a nice lady coordinating the show agreed to give us full refund. We were little disappointed, but found another interesting dance show that featured dancing with the NCL staff.

Coming to Cannes.

The ship arrived around 8:00 AM in Cannes, France, but didn't exactly dock, it remained offshore and tendered the passengers to the shore . Since we had not reserved it in advance, we had to stay in line of hundreds of people. Fortunately, line moved quickly and we arrived at shore in no time.

Note: You can reserve (free) Tender seat from NCL concierge service few days in advance.
Note: On the shore, there is an information kiosk, wash room, wi-fi etc.

At the information desk, my friend asked some questions in French, but to our amazement, the lady replied in English. Any ways, we got a city map, and we headed to take the trip on Le Petit Train.

Note: Le Petit Train starts from Palais des Festivals, the Hotel Majestic beaches and for one hour goes around the historical part of the city and covers the Croisette Tour - luxury hotels, beautiful beaches, brand name boutiques, lavish yachts, Palm Beach, casinos etc. Cost EUR 10.00 (adult), EUR 5.00 (children)

We were amazed by the beauty of Cannes - clean well maintained streets full of flowers, towering palm trees and sandy beaches. It gave us whole different perspective of Europe - Luxurious, and Lavish life style and beauty. I've never seen so many luxury cars - Bentley, Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini you name it, parked in the small fragment of the street. Same goes to brand name boutique stores one after another. No wonder, this city is called sister city of Beverly Hills. If I had a million dollars, I'd definitely go there again, you know, to spend it in style!  
We spent an hour going around the city on Le Petit train, while inhaling fresh Cannes' air and submerging our eyes onto the beauty of French Riviera.

Cannes. Picture taken from balcony of my suite.

Le Petit Train

Street of Cannes - see the palm trees

(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

After the tour on Le Petit train, we walked for a while by the sea shore, looking for the perfect place for a blue water beach experience and we found one. Wow! What a pristine and warm water and perfect weather! Beaches in Cannes are really well maintained. They even have a fresh water tap there right on the beach for people to take shower after you are done with salty ocean water. For us, coming from Toronto, where we used to go to fresh water beaches, ocean water was whole new experience. Yeah, it felt salty! I know, I shouldn't have drank the water. But, a big wave passed through my mouth, oh sooo salty!!!

Beach, Cannes, France

Beach, Cannes, France

After spending two hours or so, we returned back to Tender Boat station to get back on the ship. We had to catch all the ship events as well! We tried to kind of balance between shore excursions and ship events and entertainments.
Back on the ship, that day other than our regular activities like going to gym, swim and Jacuzzi, we went to the “Michelle” musical show. Michelle not only sang and touched our heart but also made us laugh with her humor and funny stories.

Path to Palma De Mallorca

Even though, our ship was supposed to dock only around 1:00 PM today, I woke up early morning, went to the gym and when I came back to my room, everyone was ready to go for breakfast. Since, it was our last night before checkout early the next morning, we wanted to do as much as possible. After breakfast, my younger daughter went for Bungee Trampoline jumping and my older daughter went for Rock Climbing again.

Finally, our ship docked at Palma island port - Estacion Maritima 1 around 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon. We had already taken our lunch and were ready to explore the beautiful Palma island.

Note: Ships dock at the port directly in front of the old town of Palma. Around 10-15 minutes walk and you can pass the terminal and reach the street where you can catch a HOHO bus (Cost: EUR 18.00/adult, EUR 9.00/child)or other form of transportation or walk further ahead to the Palma town. However, in order to go to Mallorca island you need transportation.
Note: Each HOHO bus stop has name and number. The one near to port is number 14 (Estacion Maritima). If you want to go to beach, get off the HOHO bus at stop # 6 (Av. gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (porta des camp)

It was a very hot day and we had to line up for about 30 minutes for the HOHO bus. Once, we were on the top of open double decker bus, because of ocean wind, we didn't feel that hot after all.

Palma

Catedral de Santa María de Palma de Mallorca
(picture taken from the top deck of HOHO bus)

We got off the bus at stop #6 and walked to the beach of Palma. Since it was burning hot and we didn't have a beach umbrella, we did a purchase negotiation with a street vendor. He agreed to sell it at EUR 5.00, even though he originally priced it as EUR 15.00, it's because we promised to return it to him once we were done. We put up our umbrella, but it was so hot that we could barely touch the sand with our bare feet, so in no time, we jumped into the ocean water and it felt amazing!

Sea shore street, Palma.

Palma beach, near to HOHO bus stop # 6

Comparing Cannes' beach vs. Palma's one, both were amazing. However, water seemed cleaner in Cannes and a lot of weeds here in Palma. Also, unlike Cannes, no fresh water tap was available for beachgoers here in Palma, so we carried our ocean salt with us to the the ship :(
In the evening, we did our packing (as we had to check out early next morning), attached the baggage label and put our check in baggages in the corridor for NCL staff to pickup.
Later that night, we went to watch the four station concert. It was a really good show. Here, I found some footage of the show in an Youtube video.
After the show, rather than going to sleep, I went to Spice H2O - Hot White Party to get the taste of music and dance under the open sky. Spice H2O is adult only zone for having fun with music, dance and with some energizing cocktail-drink. Here, I found some footage of the show on Youtube.

Note: Get your tag for each luggage from NCL concierge and put your name, room number and other relevant info and attach it to each baggage and put your baggage in the corridor just beside your door. Next day, you'll collect them once you check out.

Saying Goodbye :(

The last day, it felt little sad as we were leaving the luxurious cruise life and going back to our every day life. But we had to do it anyways, so we got our last breakfast and headed for check out around 9:00 AM. I met my room service guy (from Indonesia) in the corridor, and gave him some tips and thanked him for his excellent service.
After checkout, we collected our baggages from baggage carousel and headed out to find a seven seater van to airport. It was a big line (few hundred people were already in line) for taxi. After around 40 minutes our turn came, but there was no van (only taxis were there). Now, we either had to split and take two taxis to the airport or wait for a van. After another twenty minutes, we finally got our van. The Spanish driver this time seemed not as friendly. He charged us more than the standard rate. We also ran into little blunder here. Driver asked us what our airport terminal number was. I checked our Air Transat eTicket and there was no terminal number written for return flight from Barcelona. When I said that there was no terminal number in the ticket, the driver said confidently it was Terminal 1. I countered him saying that we landed in terminal 2 while coming to Barcelona. However, he showed his confidence again and said it was for sure terminal 1. We agreed and he took us to terminal 1. We only found while we were already inside the terminal that we were in wrong terminal and had to go to terminal 2. By that time, our taxi already left and we had to take the airport shuttle bus (Note: takes around 20 minutes from terminal 1 to terminal 2) and go to terminal 2. Since we had enough time until our flight, it did not cause any lasting issues.

Note: Check your ticket carefully. Our Air Transat ticket had terminal info for outbound flight (both Toronto and Barcelona), but for Inbound flight, there was no terminal number for Barcelona airport.

At terminal 2, we found that there was a strike going on by the workers handling luggages, which delayed our flight by almost an hour.

We arrived in Toronto at around 6:00 PM safely. No issues at the airport. We were home in Canada! And by the way, the complimentary food provided by Air Transat was good this time. May be, because it was prepared by Spanish chefs? Anyways, thanks Air Transat!

Overall, the trip was quite fun and became a success story. We met amazing people from around the world, saw European culture, arts and architecture with our own eyes. In terms of the cruise, our family’s favourite would be the sky deck with the pool and water slides and beach chairs. We also equally enjoyed and used the gym, the sports court and the library.

Note: In terms of food, basically, the ship has everything (kind of) and best of all there is 24 hour FOOD! Nothing gets better than that. You can go and eat whenever you like, and eat whatever you like. Each day there is something different to eat and there are always special dinners of a certain theme for example “The Taste of Spain” or “Italian Night” or “Seafood extravaganza.” Regardless of the theme there is something for everyone (kind of) to eat and enjoy no matter what food restrictions you have.

Desert from NCL dinning.

NCL provided overall good services. The room was cleaned twice a day, once around noon - when we were out for the excursion and again in the evening - just before dinner. Room service did quite a good job. During the evening service, they created cute towel animals (towel art) and my daughters really liked them.

Towel (Art) animal created by NCL room service staff for our room.

Personally, both Europe and the cruise were the first time experience for myself and my family, and we really enjoyed it. If I had a chance to go again, I'd like to visit Rome and Naples and get a more closer look of the arts and architecture, but my daughters and wife told me that they would go to Cannes, France instead.