We traveled from June 8th to June 20th with our 5, Nanny and Grandpa, and Jenna, Michael, and Alexis. It was an absolutely EPIC vacation and we did and saw so many incredible things!
I have literally thousands of photos, but I will try to post some of the favorites.
Ann made us family cruise tshirts!
Sarah had to do CPR-style compressions on her clothing to get her suitcase to close!
10 excited travelers set off from MSP early in the morning on June 8th!
We had a layover in Montreal for about 5 hours.
Heading out on the long leg of the flight - about 8 hours from Montreal to Rome.
We flew overnight and some were able to get some sleep while others struggled to do so.
I did get my first "is there a doctor on the plane" call and was able to respond and help the patient. Happily, it was nothing serious and our flight continued on its way to Rome. I got a 20% voucher for a future flight on Air Canada as well.
We saw the sun rise from the plane on the morning of June 9th.
June 9th - Civitavecchia
Once we arrived at the airport in Rome, we had a private transfer to the port city of Civitavecchia (pronounced "Chi-vi-tuh-veh-key-uh"). Trevor didn't make the hour drive awake.
We arrived at a super cute guest house/hotel a block up from the water, called 7 Bells House.
The view of the fort and the waterline from the patio of the hotel.
We had fun exploring Civitavecchia for the day, trying hard to stay awake to reset our body clocks to the new time zone (7 hours ahead of home!).
We discovered we liked lemon soda.
And Trevor had a very large pizza!
Michael got us going on Geocaching and I found a tough one in the rocks of this pier!
We were offered this gigantic fresh crustacean (lobster, I think) for dinner!
Trevor didn't quite make it to the end of the day before crashing!
Cruise Day 1 - June 10th - Embarkation
We headed to the port to board the ship!
On the patio of our hotel, wearing our matching shirts, and ready to head off on our adventures!
As chance would have it, Italy just happened to be having a big celebration of some kind with their national Navy and the president of Italy was coming and they had streets closed off, a large military presence, etc. there in the port city and the port itself! It made shuttles unable to get through as usual and private cars and taxis that passengers hired were not able to drive into the port. We decided we would just walk, and it was a good thing we did! It was a long walk with our bags, but we made it there safely and still in good spirits. We were also able to all board together despite our different port arrival times! We got to arrive at the port early and get on the ship early (and together), so it all worked out for the best.
Disney Dream!
We had a nice lunch in Animator's Palate, complete with ice cream sundaes and Trevor's first (though certainly not last) Mickey ice cream bar for the cruise!
We're here!
Excited to have the Murphys with us on this trip!
(and it looks like they're excited too!)
Sail Away Party!
We got Grandpa to go on a cruise!
This is a major coup accomplished by my children. It is hard to say no to your grandchildren!
Ice cream on the deck. We visited it frequently!
Our dinner rotation started in Enchanted Garden.
Yay for creme brûlée!
Fun pics! We love the Disney photographers taking photos of our trip!
Day 2 - June 11th - Naples, Italy
For our day in Naples, we booked a private tour with Luca Zoppo (lucatourguide.eu).
We had a big wish list for this day in Naples port and none of the Disney tours could accommodate our whole group or all the things we wanted to do. Luca was a fantastic guide and we had a wonderful day!
We were up bright and early to get off the ship and we saw a beautiful sunrise off our verandah.
Off the ship and heading out with Luca
We started by heading on a ferry from Naples to the Isle of Capri. Unfortunately, that was the toughest part of the whole trip in terms of motion sickness. I was handing out Dramamine and Zofran like candy and a couple of our crew vomited along the way.
We discovered when we arrived that the waters were too choppy for us to be able to get into the Blue Grotto. The waters have to be very calm for the opening to be safe to enter. Sadly, that meant we didn't get to go into the Blue Grotto as we had hoped, but we got to go around the entire island on our own private boat, go into beautiful caves, and go through the arch of the Faraglioni rocks.
These are the small canoes that you have to use to get into the Blue Grotto. All docked that day!
On our tour around the island.
The water is SO pretty!
Coming up to the Faraglioni Rocks
Going through the arch
Back on shore on Capri, we got sandwiches for lunch at a local deli that makes fresh and delicious caprese sandwiches. They were YUMMY! Luca helped us translate what we wanted and they made them fresh.
While we were waiting for them to make the sandwiches, I watched one of the chefs cut the bone out of the leg of prosciutto. He was sawing away at it getting the bone out. He then lifted it up and handed it to me! I wasn't sure what was going on, but Luca said this is a great honor that he gave me the prosciutto bone! It still has meat on it, so we enjoyed chomping prosciutto off the bone!
We had a few minutes before our boat to Sorrento, so I waded into the gorgeous water!
ABear and JBear hopped in too.
I think we were still adjusting our body clocks by then! Here is the shorter ferry boat ride to Sorrento from Capri. We lost most of the crew to a nap, but happily, no more vomiting!
Nanny and Grandpa with the hotel they stayed in when they came to Sorrento on their anniversary trip many years ago.
Pretty views over the coast.
And stopped at a shop where we got to taste cookies, limoncello, candies, etc.
Then a sprinter bus to take us from there to Pompeii
Pompeii
So fascinating
So amazing
So tragic
Cool mosaics covering the floor in this house
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A small ampitheater
Mount Vesuvius in the background
The artwork and mosaics are impressive and well preserved
A bakery
Part of a huge mosaic made using tiny pieces
The marketplace
We also got to walk through a section that they are just now excavating. We walked on catwalks above the ongoing excavation while they were working, but we were not allowed to take photos. Some important areas had been excavated and were in the news the week before we arrived. Very cool!
Plaster casts of the some of the people buried in the ash
Luca showing us all the places we went in Pompeii
Then back to the ship for a yummy dinner and fun evening!
What a full day of fun!
Multiple desserts (or entrees or appetizers, etc) is completely normal!
Pretty sunset!
Fun "towel animals" (actually using the blanket, but whatever!).
Day 3 - June 12th - At Sea
For our day at sea, we enjoyed some fun around the ship, then got dressed up for formal night.
My shark enthusiast got a pic with each of the animated sharks on the screens in Animator's Palate.
The origami fish from Jonny was a nice touch too!
Day 4 - June 13th - Mykonos, Greece
We booked a private catamaran from Mykonos On Board for our Mykonos port day. There was some poor communication from them regarding timing and when and where to meet, so we ended up waiting in the heat and sun for almost an hour and half when we got off the ship, then had to shorten our day on the catamaran because of that and so that we could get back to the ship in time to get cleaned up for our dinner seating. Despite these setbacks, we had a blast!
We went by Delos and Rhenia and found some great swimming spots.
Family enjoying the catamaran!
Sailing in Greece!
Lookin' like he could captain this ship!
Missing dance studio audition week. Sorry, not sorry!
I got some selfies in on this trip...
But between the Disney photographers and all my family members around, including Michael with his fancy cameras, I got plenty of photos of me for "proof of Mom" on this trip!
Swimming time!
Alexis has the same name as the captain of the catamaran. (Alexis is a boy's name in Greece!) He was telling her all about how they have a naming day in March, there is meaning to their name (something about light or lightning?). Here is a video I caught at the very end of his explanation and then Alexis enjoying jumping off the boat into the gorgeous teal waters.
The water is SO GORGEOUS!
(And so is Alexis, of course)
Alexis x2 driving the boat
Trevor got a turn to captain the boat too!
The water is such an amazing teal blue! It is so hard to capture in photos what it looked like in person!
Retirement be like?
Did you think you'd be relaxing on the hammock of a catamaran in Greece, Dad?
(So glad the kids talked you into coming!)
Nanny and Grandpa relaxing on deck.
Beach babes!
We found Alexis a hot Greek boyfriend, Sam!
And he cooked lunch for us too!
Fish, chicken, veggies, etc. All so fresh tasting and delicious! Sarah particularly loved the grilled bell peppers with honey.
Exchanging social media details with Sam. I took this picture surreptitiously like I was taking a selfie and just happened to get them in the background! Ha!
Our ship in port in the distance.
Back to the ship, where they met us with ice water and cold towels before we got back on!
Then to dinner...
2 entrees and 2 desserts? Yes, please!
Trevor had fun doing the Mid-ship Detective Agency cases with all of us! You go around the ship collecting clues from the card activated framed pictures on the wall to solve a mystery. Grandpa even got in on the detective cases with Trevor by the end of the cruise!
(And yes, that is blotchy sunburn on Trevor's face/neck/ears. We all got pretty burned despite what we thought was adequate sunscreen! Poor Trevor got big blisters on his ears!)
There are also some clues on cute things like the Muppets Call Board.
More ice cream on deck.
Day 5 - June 14th - Santorini, Greece
Panoramic view from our verandah as the ship pulled into Santorini at sunrise!
Map of the area on the big screen in the theater on the ship before we headed out on our excursion.
The tender boat took us around the ship to the port and we got some beautiful views of the ship in the caldera.
We started on a traditional caique sailing boat to take us to the volcano islands (Nea Kameni Island primarily) and went by the aft of the ship then.
This is when we met our favorite photographer, Gretchen!
You can feel the heat where it vents out of the rocks!
At the top!
See the alligator rock in the background?
Back down to the sailboats.
Then we sailed around the volcanic island to a hot spring and some of the family went swimming.
Michael requested a flex shot! (I've been working out...and definitely sunburned from the catamaran tour in Mykonos!)
Climbing back onto the sailboat after the springs. "Hi, Gretchen!"
Then back to the port, where we took a cable car to the top of the cliff to explore Fira town.
Below us here was the donkey path, a long, winding, smelly, poop filled path where donkeys bring passengers up to the top. We preferred the cable car!
At the top, we walked around Fira and found the iconic blue domed buildings, quaint narrow walking streets, and a beautiful scenic overlook with a view into the caldera (and our ship awaiting us below).
The evil eye was everywhere!
Read the card in this photo to see how to avoid curses!
Trevor found Mickey Mouse art in Fira.
Up to a scenic overlook!
Oia (pronounceed "EE-uh" - don't ask me how!) behind us.
Hi ship!
Then we walked through Fira to go to LukuMum's for lukumades (Greek dounuts)!
They were SOOOOOO yummy and I had fun watching them being made.
We tried a few different flavors - traditional (with honey), apple/cinnamon, and ones that had chocolate hazelnut inside!
Then back down the cable car to tender back to the ship.
Once again, happy to not be on the donkey track!
When we arrived back on the ship, we found our pirate bandanas for Pirate Night!
We had time to try out the Aqua Duck water slide, which was SO cool to do while in port, because you can see all around the ship and look out over the caldera and the coast!
Sarah and Nanny
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Jenna and Alexis
Austin and Sarah
Trevor went quite a few times and Steve and I went on it too. We just didn't catch more photos.
Then Pirate Night!
We even got Grandpa to dress up for the festive occasion!
Arrrrgh, matey!
Trevor's kid menu became a pirate hat!
Every little detail...
(Mickey has a pirate eye patch on in this logo!)
ABear joined in on the Mickey ice cream bar fun!
Then to the premiere showing of Inside Out 2!
Then to the pirate party on deck.
Day 6 - June 15th - Chania, Greece (Crete)
In Chania (pronounced "han-ee-uh") we had a private tour of the White Mountains.
We started with a stop in a small mountain village at 2000 ft elevation for snacks of Greek coffee, Cretan mountain tea (malotira or ironwort tea), honey (made from bees on the mountain), olives, graviera cheese and more.
Here are olives budding on the tree.
A statue dedicated to a local hero.
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The boxes in this photo are the bee hives for the honey we ate at the little restaurant.
Arriving at the mitato
The sheep and goats were called to eat and came running!
Beautiful views from atop the mountains!
And then things fell apart a little bit....
Michael found another geocache and it was just 0.1 miles up the road from the mitato we were at, so he and the boys headed up the road. I walked with them, because I had a feeling the 3 of them could get into some mischief. And they did...
The geocache was actually up a cliff off the road. So my genius children decided it would be a great idea to climb said cliff to find it. Bear in mind that Austin is not supposed to climb higher than 6 feet due to his epilepsy (if he seized higher up, he could die from the fall!) and Trevor is a loose cannon that has had 4 sets of staples in his head! Well...nobody died, but Trevor tried! He climbed up and then for some unknown reason, did not go to the side where it would be easier to climb down, nor did he turn around and go down backward. He turned forward and, of course, fell forward and got unstoppable momentum going and FLEW off the side of the cliff! Happily, he did execute a pretty impressive roll upon impact and only ended up scraping off about a 1 inch diameter section of his palm.
We headed up to a beautiful little chapel next.
The sheep and goats were running nearby and you could hear their bells SO loudly up in the peaceful mountains.
This is the plant that the malotira tea is made from.
The tea has many potential health benefits and is specifically from the Cretan mountains.
These mountains were so beautiful!
Back on the ship enjoying some treats and amazed by the gorgeous blue of the water in Greece!
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Austin got to take some pics with his "spirit animal" Stitch!
Royal Palace restaurant
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Lobster tails for dinner
Our head server Dan went around to cut the lobster tails out of the shell for everyone.
Goofballs playing with spoons.
More fun photos on the ship
We got a photo WITH Gretchen, our favorite Disney photographer!
We did a fun drawing class and these were the results for me and Sarah.
More fun towel animals.
Then we turned back toward Rome and went through the strait of Messina, right alongside both Mount Etna and Stromboli, which are volcanos that have erupted in the couple weeks since our trip. It would have been SO cool to see an erupting volcano, but we just missed it!
Day 7 - June 16th - Day at Sea
On our day at sea, we did a scavenger hunt for Remy's ingredients. The prize when we finished was a recipe for Ratatouille (which Sarah made for us when we got home from the trip)!
The fun towel folding class was popular!
We once again enjoyed watching the "Jack Jack Diaper Dash" in which crawling babies race across a mat. Adorable and hilarious, as usual!
Trevor visited the Oceaneer's club (the kid's club he has aged out of) during the open house times so he could drive the ship on the simulator.
Gretchen, our favorite photographer, left us a sweet certificate.
The boys were excited about their Disney character Hawaiian shirts.
At Animator's Palate, we drew our own characters and watched them star in an animation later during dinner.
Grandpa's, Alexis's Trevor's and Michael's animations
3rd and 4th in this photo are Nanny's and mine.
Sarah's is the 1st one in this photo
Trevor's dragon Raspberry is the 2nd one in this animation.
Trevor made 2 and the 1st in this photo is his other one, then Michael's scuba diver next.
Sarah's character had a solo dance with Cinderella
Trevor's Raspberry had a solo with Mickey
Our travel agent made a gaffe on selling us travel insurance it ended up we didn't need due to being Minnesota residents, so trying to apologize, they sent each of our 3 rooms a bottle of blue sparkling apple cider. We enjoyed it at our last dinner on board.
We celebrated the Dads in our group spending Father's Day on the ship!
Trevor finally had another dessert besides his Mickey ice cream bar.
We LOVED our servers Loli (from India) and Jonny (from South Africa).
Sarah folded a monkey towel animal for our room after the towel folding class.
At the See Ya Real Soon party, we were watching from the 5th floor and found this fun gem. We called Trevor to come up right away because we knew he would love it. It is a "painting" screen in which you can control the ship with the steering wheel in the hallway in front of it.
June 17th - Debarkation Day - Rome Day 1
Off to Rome!
We ate at a restaurant down the street from our hotel called La Base.
The calzones were HUGE!
Then gelato! (LOTS of gelato during our time in Rome).
Our hotel was only a couple blocks from the Colosseum.
After dropping off our bags at our hotel in Rome, we headed out on our next adventure.
We did an eBike tour of the ancient Appian Way, aqueducts, and catacombs!
Our guide showing us one of the gates of Rome.
One of the churches people make pilgrimages to.
The Porta San Sebastiano
We biked to one of the catacombs entrances and had a guided tour. We were not allowed to take photos in the catacombs, so I don't have any once we went down into the catacombs.
Hard to see, but these are some graphics about how the catacombs were made.
Along the Appian Way!
It was very bumpy and a decent amount of off roading, but we all made it through and it was an amazing thing to experience.
All the way out to the ancient aqueducts.
The aqueducts with the mountains they draw water from seen in the background.
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A cute park with a turtle pond fed by the aqueduct along the way.
A gorgeous garden gate we found along the way.
Another of the pilgrimage churches - Basilica de Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
Relics of the Passion
Showing us the route we took on a big map of Rome. We biked 17 miles, a lot of which was rough terrain.
Our view of the Colosseum walking back to the hotel from our bike ride.
Another delicious dinner in Rome!
And more gelato, of course!
June 18th - Rome Day 2
We enjoyed a yummy breakfast at a local cafe before heading off to our next tours.
The apple juice was green and tasted fresh and delicious!
We started our Vespa Side Car Tour near the capital building.
Suiting up in our helmets for our Vespa tour
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The Caracalla Baths. These ancient bath houses could be used by thousands of people at a time. Now this area is used for events and even concerts.
We got fun pics pinching the top of the Pyramid of Cestius.
There are many many water fountains around Rome that have drinkable water coming through the modern aqueducts. It was hot weather while we were touring, but we just brought water bottles with us and we could always refill them at the water fountains. The water was delicious, actually.
How to drink out of the fountains around Rome without filling your water bottle. You plug the spout with your finger and a hole in the top dispenses the water like a drinking fountain.
In this panorama, you can see the capital building to the right and the Vatican in front.
The Cronks.
The capital building is between Sarah and Austin and the Vatican is behind Trevor's head.
See the Vatican in the background of this photo above and take note of how small it looks in the distance.
Then look at the photo below and see the optical illusion - the further back you go, the bigger the Vatican looks!
Then up Janiculum Hill to the Fontanone
Then off to the Vatican for a Vatican Museum tour and visit to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.
Trevor was excited to be in charge of the flag while our guide went to check us in.
Nanny's favorite piece of art in the world
There are actually 3 Pieta by Michaelangelo. I didn't realize there were 2 more than the one above.
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Romulus and Remus
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The tapestries were quite intricate and I have no idea how they make these!
"School of Athens" by Raphael
Painted around 1510 or 1511, this is a painting of an imaginary gathering of ancient philosophers. In the center are Plato and Aristotle standing. At the left is Pythagoras, showing his proportions system on a slate. At the right is Ptolemy, holding a celestial globe. I think they said the person looking out at the viewer may be the artist putting in a self-portrait.
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We got to view the Sistine Chapel, but we were not allowed to take photos, so I won't be able to show it here.
On the way out of the Vatican Museum headed to St. Peter's Basilica.
St. Peter's Basilica.
Unfortunately the huge beautiful altar was covered for restorations before the Jubilee year in 2025.
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The Holy Spirit Window.
The light coming through the window making it light up so beautifully is natural light from outside.
The Swiss guard, the elite guard for the Vatican and specifically for the Pope.
Michael asked the Swiss guard with this on his phone if we could have passes for the Papal Audience the next day and he got us 10 passes for Wednesday morning.
Wednesday, June 19th - Day 3 in Rome
For our last day in Rome, we crammed in a lot of fun sightseeing around Rome, an audience with Pope Francis, and a tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum.
The Trevi Fountain is a popular sight in Rome and is usually mobbed by people day or night. We found a live stream of the fountain the night before and even at 9pm, there were hundreds of people, about 8-10 rows deep around the fountain. We decided to get up really early and get there before it got busy. We went at 5:30am and there were not many people around. There was a part blocked off for a professional photo shoot, but still plenty of room for us to get some pics with the beautiful iconic fountain.
Sarah missed dance auditions this week due to our trip. One of her teachers/studio owners had a baby recently and named her Trevi after the Trevi fountain, so we posted this photo apologizing for missing auditions, but that she was saying hi to the Trevi Fountain for baby Trevi.
From there we walked over to the Spanish Steps, seeing other piazzas along the way.
The view from the top of the Spanish Steps - you can see the Vatican in the distance and that's where we walked next.
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Along the way, we walked down a road that was full of very high end stores. There was also the LEGO store and Trevor loved the big LEGO Roman soldiers in the window.
The Castel Sant' Angelo along the River Tiber while walking to the Vatican.
We arrived at the Vatican for the audience with the Pope and got in with our tickets that Michael obtained for us.
We got seats a little farther back so we could be along the edges, because we heard that we could get a closer view of the Pope when he came around in the Pope-mobile.
The Pope rode around St. Peter's Square on his Pope-mobile twice and the 2nd time, he waved right at us along the route.
The Pope gave a blessing and a short homily, which was translated into 8 different languages.
This beautiful sculpture in St. Peter's Square was unveiled in 2019 by Pope Francis.It is called "Angels Unaware" and it depicts 140 migrants ranging from a Jewish man escaping Nazi Germany to a Syrian refugee fleeing the civil war.
We headed out of Vatican City and headed to the Piazza Navona.
Because of the Jubilee Year coming in 2025, many of the fountains around Rome are blocked off for restoration work. The 3 fountains in Piazza Navona were blocked off, but had viewing windows.
Then we walked over to the Pantheon.
The painter Raphael's tomb
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We found a great restaurant for lunch.
Then headed back to our hotel and over to the tour meeting spot for our afternoon tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
Unfortunately, our tour guide for that tour was just terrible! We still got to see the sites, but out of our whole trip, he was the only tour guide that did a really poor job. The rest of the trip we had great guides!
Then on to the Roman Forum.
Our last dinner in Rome.
We be all fancy with the Fanta in wine glasses!
We be all fancy with the Fanta in wine glasses!
Of course, more gelato!
Nanny found her favorite gelato flavor, Lemon Cake.
We walked SO MUCH on Wednesday, that my watch (which doesn't typically register everything consistently), said that we walked almost 11 miles and over 23,000 steps!
June 20th - Traveling home
We enjoyed one last breakfast at the cafe down the street.
Michael and Grandpa with the proprietor there.
Getting caffeinated for the trip with a tiny strong Italian coffee.
Off we go!
The Cronk boys didn't last long on the flight before falling asleep.
The flight was easy and uneventful and we arrived home last Thursday night after a long day of traveling.
It was good to be home, but we were sad that our adventure and our time together was over.
We made so many memories and I hope my kids remember this trip forever!
After returning home, we were home for about a week, then spent the next 3 weekends traveling for a college visit to Michigan Tech in the UP, Trevor's fencing nationals in Columbus, OH over the 4th of July weekend, then Grandview Lodge for family reunion. More on those to come...
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