Sometimes you just need a sea day!
- Ruth Mcbride
- Mar 17
- 6 min read
Day 4 Viking Vesta ‘Malta, Morocco and the Med’ 16 day cruise
Civitavecchia, Italy
We woke up this morning in Civitavecchia, docked next to our sister ship the Viking Mars. The Mars is on a 20 day repositioning cruise which embarked in Ft. Lauderdale and ends in Athens. It was interesting to see the slight differences in the two ships, with the Vesta being a 2025 ship and the Mars being built in 2022. The Mars holds 930 pax and the Vesta 998. Is you look at the back of our ship (on the right of the photo above), you can see a slight extension in the upper balcony area. This area is the Aquavit Terrace of the World Cafe which now has more outside tables on both sides of the World Cafe. The World Cafe now feels a lot roomier and spacious with these two ‘bump outs’ on the side. We noticed that the Mars did not have these ‘bump outs’. Small differences, make a big difference in the comfort of our new ship the Vesta, and we appreciate the small differences after having spent 138 days on the Viking Neptune (same size as the Viking Mars) for the 2022/2023 World Cruise.
When we listened to the pre-recorded Port Talk last evening and realized we were signed up for a long 8 hour day to Rome (1.45 hours bus ride to Rome, depending on traffic, 1.5 hour bus tour of Rome, 3 hours of free time and 1.45 bus ride back to the ship) we decided to abandon Plan A and NOT go to Rome! We went to Rome independently on the train from Civitavecchia last time we were here, but we didn’t want to do the same thing this time.
Our new plan was to take the ship’s shuttle as far as it would take us (exit of the Port) and then walk to the train station in Civitavecchia. I had found a town called Santa Marinella which was a 7 minute train ride south of Civitavecchia and the new plan for the day was to go to Santa Marinella for the day and explore the castle, beaches and sights.
When I woke up yesterday though I felt like I had a bit of a scratchy throat. Not a good way to start Day 4 of our 16 Day Cruise and 5 week vacation! Richard called for lemon slices and honey; we boiled the kettle and I sipped on some hot honey and lemon and water. I also have Immune boost tablets with me so I took a few of those and some strong fizzy antioxidant Vitamin C tablets, bee propolis throat spray and went back to bed.
The gym.
Showers in the ladies locker room.
Hot tub and therapy pool.
Heated beds.
Sauna in the ladies locker room.
By 10am after I woke up the second time I was feeling really good so I decided I would go to the empty gym and have a full workout. I spent 20 minutes on the recumbent bike and then did multiple reps on the weight machines, followed by 15 minutes of stretching. I then jumped into my bathing suit and sat in the steam room for 15 minutes, followed by 5 minutes in the snow grotto, 10 minutes in the sauna and then 5 minutes in the cold plunge pool. The cold plunge is definitely an aquired taste and it takes me a minute or two to get fully immersed in the cold plunge pool since it is truly FREEZING!
I showered, washed and dried my hair in the changeroom and felt like a $$$$ MILLION bucks after my workout and therapy experiences. There is something about endorphins from exercise that give me a ton of energy!
I went and grabbed Richard from the cabin and we went to the World Cafe for lunch. Our cabin on this cruise is located directly below the World Cafe so there are no cabins above us. We like being able to walk up the stairs one flight and be at the World Cafe where we can access the coffee/tea/juice/water station as well as the delicious homemade cookies which we are trying hard to avoid! Half of the World Cafe was closed since quite a few people had gone on excursions to Rome, but there were still a lot of people in the World Cafe who decided to skip Rome and either stay on the ship or explore Civitavecchia on their own.
The map of the small port town of Civitavecchia, Italy. The port is large, but the actual town itself is not that large.
After lunch we decided to go into the town of Civitavecchia since we had never been in the town before. We walked to where we thought the shuttle pick up area was (it was not signed) and waited for the shuttle. A couple who were walking back from town confirmed that we were in the right spot for the shuttle bus. About 5 minutes later the shuttle arrived and we jumped on and waited for other people (mostly crew) who wanted to take the shuttle to Civitavecchia.
The last time we were in this port the shuttle actually took us closer to the train station. This time the shuttle dropped us at the exit of the port. We grabbed a map from a very nice English speaking security guard and walked the 10 minutes into Centro Civitavecchia.
Parocchia S. Franscesco-Cattedrale Civitavecchia. The trees were just coming into bloom in town. It felt like a gorgeous spring day!
Centro Civitavecchia. Since it was 2pm there were not many stores open and hardly any people wandering around.
Civitavecchia is one of those towns that shuts down from 1-4pm every day. And of course we were there at 2pm so there wasn’t much open except for some souvenir shops, cafes, one pharmacy and McDonalds.
Forte Michelangelo in the background which is an operating military fort which we could just visit on the outside.
Ferris wheel by the sea.
We walked around for about 2 miles before we decided we didn’t want to wait until 4pm for the few shops to open and headed back to the shuttle instead. The temperature was beautiful and we were out in our shirt sleeves!
I blogged about Corsica when we returned to the ship and Richard was able to go to the gym for some stretching and therapy in the hot tub for his back which is still spasming. I forced him to book another massage appointment for tomorrow, as he needs to get his back figured out for the rest of our trip.
We met Dave and Julie for dinner in The Restaurant and were eager to hear all about Julie’s excursion to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel which she did for 10 hours with Viking. Unfortunately the large table next to us in the half empty Restaurant was so noisy we couldn’t hear Julie or have a conversation at our table. Richard went and got the Restaurant Manager to move us so that we could enjoy our conversations and meal. Viking was very good about accommodating our move and in future we will make sure we are not seated near the big tables in The Restaurant especially if a loud noisy group of people want to speak loudly!
We love sea days on a cruise and we decided that today was going to be just like a sea day! Do what we want, when we want and also have some exploration time by going into town, which of course we cannot do on a sea day. Rome is so far away from Civitavecchia and sitting on buses for long bus rides is not my thing. We will be back sometime in the future on a land exploration tour on our own and will stay in Rome and then do ‘all of the things’ that one does when one goes to Rome, without the added inconvenience of long bus rides and traffic.
Leaving Civitavecchia at 11:15pm last evening.
We watched the Viking Mars depart while we were having dinner around 7pm. We set sail on the Vesta around 11:15pm. Tomorrow is a sea day (YEAH!) and we look forward to hanging out and maybe finding a Mahjong game for me, a massage for Richard and some Team Trivia with Dave and Julie! Sea Days really are the best when you enjoy the ship, all of the activities that the ship offers and spending time with each other and friends!
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