European Vacation with a Four Year Old, Day 4: Onto the Cruise Ship

We have embarked on the journey. The ship we are on is called the Epic, from the Norwegian Cruise Line. We got up pretty early and ate more delicious breakfast at our Rome hotel, which I will miss. Before we left, I took one more look out our balcony and pondered the building across the way. It was an old building, something I figured might have been important at some point. Turns out, it was.

The building was just one of the several buildings of the Museum of Rome, which was itself a culturally significant complex in its time. The complex was created during the time of the Emperor Diocletian, around the end of the 3rd Century and into the 4th century. I was looking at the extremely well-intact Baths of Diocletian. Suddenly, I really wished I would have had one more day.

But on we went after stuffing all of the bags from the six of us into the transport to the port where our cruise ship was harbored.

I have to say, my initial impression of Rome was that of quite a bit of old, run down buildings lining the road from the airport to the city. I expected more of the same of that on the way to the sea, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite was true.

I saw rolling hills, tons of greenery, charming old farm houses and I was suddenly transported to the world of Rome I had learned about, where the mark of a good man was how well he tended his little farm in the Roman countryside. I dreamed at once of living there, in the charming and sparsely populated ancient land. Taking life slowly, having a little farm, laughing together with my family. But, my family was right here beside me, and the rest of them are all back home. Still, it doesn’t hurt to dream. Italy, it turns out, is still a great place to do so.

Declan was immediately excited upon seeing the massive size of the cruise ship. It didn’t sour him at all about it while going through the onboarding process. The only thing that bothered him was that we weren’t going immediately to the water slide and the video arcade. The hardest part of the onboarding wasn’t actually the onboarding, but rather just waiting for our room. It took about three hours from the time we arrived until the time we were able to get into our room, and we were all totally glad to get there.

Only part of that time was a struggle, really, because it was a lot for a four year old to sit and wait that long. He didn’t understand why we weren’t just going to the pool right then. We killed time by going to the buffet and were pleasantly surprised that it was pretty decent.

That food was included in our price, including several other restaurants that all seem good. For instance, the Irish-style restaurant we had for dinner (named O’Sheehans, get it?) was pretty good too, for the price (no cost).

The laundry on the ship is a service, and it’s not cheap, so the first thing we did was wash a lot of clothes in the sink with to go detergent sheets Jodie was smart enough to pack. I rinsed them in the shower and then I strung them all up on a retractable clothes line I found in the shower. Good way to save some money.

We ended up paying for the unlimited arcade pass for Declan, because he absolutely loved it when we checked it out. We both figured that it would be a good place to have him hang out, especially when I’m working the week we are crossing the Atlantic.

I have to mention the funny interaction Declan had while we were signing up, however. So, as we were signing up, I asked how late they were open. He told me they were open 24/7, so I made a joke about sending Declan by himself up to go play when he has a hard time falling asleep at night. We chuckled, and then Declan spoke up.

“Last night in Rome, I couldn’t sleep so Dad gave me a pill!”

It sounded absolutely awful but hilarious and it made us all die laughing. It was true, he had a hard time calming down and falling asleep, way past his bedtime due to the nap he took yesterday. It was past 11 when he finally drifted off, but it only happened after I gave him a quarter of a 3mL tablet of melatonin (.75mL), something we had never done before. The way he said it was hilarious. This kid is full of funny one liners and you never know when he’s going to pop them out.

So now we are in for the night and happily unpacked and showered. Tomorrow we arrive at Naples to go to Pompeii and check out that slice of ancient Roman society. I’m really looking forward to our guided tour.

As a last notw, I thought I would mention the information for the hotel we stayed at in Rome, as well as the restaurant we went to for the cooking class we all loved.

Mascagni Luxury Rooms & Suites

3-in-1 Cooking class at Gusto