I’ve done a review on getting around Rome in a wheelchair, but I thought I would tell you about our first cruise to the Mediterranean. It didn’t start out so smoothly but ended up being a heck of an adventure!
One day while I was at the office Jason received an email about a Mediterranean cruise. It was such an unbelievable price he messaged me immediately. I’ve always been fascinated with Egypt so we knew we couldn’t pass up this chance. Until then our cruising had been relatively tame and we had only begun to lift the curtain on adventure travel. My boss acquiesced and only asked that I bring back a few photos. Because we were heading into our busiest season at work we decided to fly in the day of the cruise. We would arrive 5 hours before the ship left port in Barcelona. Our flight path was an easy one – Vancouver to Calgary, Calgary to Frankfurt and finally Frankfurt to Barcelona. It should have been simple.
All along I had a nagging feeling something wasn’t going to go right on this trip. I thought the problem was going to be our luggage, so I was extra careful to split our cloths up and pack everything we would need to survive in a carry on.Vancouver to Calgary went smoothly and we breezed through the connection with ease. Once we were onboard our long haul flight to Frankfurt I had dinner and decided to try to sleep. Somewhere over Saskatoon there was a page for asking if there was a Dr on board. Jason and I just looked at each other and our hearts sank. Another page for a doctor. Then the captain announced we’d be landing in Toronto to medically evacuate a passenger. People on the plane groaned but honestly if it had been my family member I would have hoped they would have landed the plane. Fair enough we figured, we’d get the passenger off the plane, refuel 
and be on our way. Not so much. We couldn’t fly directly to Toronto because our plane was full of fuel so we spent 7 hours zig zagging in Canadian airspace to enable us to safely land. By the time we had arrived no flight crew could be found to fly us out. That was it. We missed our cruise. Now what?! Air Canada did everything they could to make us comfortable. They offered anyone who wanted it a hotel room for a few hours and food vouchers for breakfast. Jason and I opted to stay at the airport since the flight out in the morning would mean coming back to the airport in just 5 hours. Jason called Aeroplan and got our flights sorted out. I sent emails out to the ship and to people who were expecting us letting them know we wouldn’t be joining them on the first few days of the cruise, but we would try to meet up with them for our tour of Rome. We then spent the next 7 hours Googling how to get from the airport in Rome to the port town of Civitavecchia. This ultimately resulted in us deciding we would hop in a cab, just to keep everything simple.
Some wonderful staff in the Air Canada lounge took pity on us and kindly got us upgraded into first class for our flight to Frankfurt. That made the trip pretty manageable! Once we arrived the airline had arranged a stunning airport hotel with a private escort who was unbelievably warm and helpful. 
We chatted happily with our escort and she slyly asked for us to be upgraded at the hotel, the room was beautiful and we were grateful for the rest. We took off for Rome the next day and arrived early enough and well rested enough Jason decided we should try taking the train. Honestly at 130 euro to take a cab or 12 euro to take the train it wasn’t a hard choice. It was a single connection from Rome to Termini, or city center, station and then Termini station to Civitavecchia and we met some very helpful souls along the way who helped me with our two big suit cases so I could help Jason.
Civitavecchia was easy enough to navigate and we checked into a hotel quickly. The elevator couldn’t hold Jason, myself and the luggage so we made two trips and laughed when we got the one room with a door that couldn’t easily open. We ended up at a local pizza joint for dinner and in the morning, too early for a cab to help us, we walked 10 minutes to the pier.
With the NCL Jade within our view we waited eagerly behind the chain link fence for someone to come and get us. I’ll never forget hearing the Auzzie accent of an officer coming off the ship and the relief I felt when someone took my bags and whisked us up to checked in. The staff were wonderful and so helpful.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; we are the lucky ones. We get to see a side of humanity not many folks get to. Complete strangers blessed us on every leg of this journey. I don’t know who many of them are, and I’ll never see them again, but I will ALWAYS speak of them very highly.
The icing on the top of the cake was once we were checked in the staff rushed us back off the ship, knowing we were trying to connect with a non-NCL tour,
and amidst the crowds of people a woman standing right in front of us looked at me and said “are ya’ll Amy and Jason.” Seriously. I hugged her and it took everything in me not to cry. We had a great day in Rome and after a 12 hour tour we re-boarded the Jade exhausted but grinning from ear to ear.
All in all it was a wonderful trip, a great story and an awesome lesson for me to take into this role as a travel agent. We learned how to be flexible and roll with whatever we are faced with. We learned we could depend on each other in a tight spot and that we’re a great team – and that it doesn’t take much to make us laugh.
“Eee’s your brother?”