We flew Luftnansa with the first leg on United, stopover in Frankfurt, and on the way home in Munich. Frankfurt, on a Wednesday, looked no better than sadly famous Los Angeles airport, busy mayhem. Venice Marco Polo was easy going home - clear signs, not many people, and the security line going fast. Of course I couldn't figure out the self-check-in kiosks, there was an employee helping others like myself. From Munich we got the new airbus. Air conditioner was not working, so we were sitting there with 33C (91F) inside, the attendants looked like glazed donuts - everybody was sweating. Once the motor started running, cold air came in, the rest of the trip was fine. Felt strange going downstairs to the lavatories on the lower level. I tried to buy the vaporetto (water bus) passes at a discount in advance, my credit card's code didn't work, so for a few dollars more we got them at the airport, and what a convenience it was! Immediately we put it to good use taking the bus 5 to the hotel. Who said the vaporetto lines are easy to figure out, never traveled with me! Wrong direction - check. Wrong boarding platform - check. The electronic display is there for all lines, but line 42 stop was behind a temporary construction fence with unloading at a different platform - additional confusion. Oh, well, it was like adding spices to cooking - more fun. It was easy to get around with English only, or to be exact, without Italian, just needed to know how to say it in Italian (or have your stop or museum name written on paper), and any older woman would point in the right direction. We loved this: take vaporetto, walk around to see the area, back to vaporetto to the next stop. So many bridges with steps avoided this way! And discoveries, like walking from Accademia through a narrow street to a plaza, then on to Zattere - yes, it's possible to walk from stop to stop without bridges. Tried a few Italian phrases I've learned before the trip. Probably my Russian accent is close to Italian as in reply to my greeting I was bombarded by an explosion of Italian language - switched to saying hello and the key word in Italian. This worked, along with (polite) hand gestures. Hotel. The Arlecchino hotel was fairly easy to find, only had to ask once. There is one bridge from P. Roma where the airport bus stops - low wide steps, easy to manage the luggage. Many people, especially the older ladies, have shopping bags on large wheels that they just drag over the steps, not afraid the wheels will fall off! Never thought it would be possible to find a hotel room smaller than a cruise ship cabin. The bed was rock hard, I kept thinking of people with bad backs - how they sleep on hard surfaces on doctors' orders. The water pressure in the shower was great, meaning water on the floor after shower; there was no shower curtain of course. My husband looked into the restroom and said: look, we have 2 toilets! Yes, first meeting with the bidet :) No shampoo provided, one shower cap, 2 shower gels not replaced in 3 days. The view was nice, on one of the side canals, bridge, and what not. The room and the whole hotel were very clean. Not all floors are accessible by lift. I saw people walking up, and even a couple carrying a stroller probably to the 1st floor (that is above the ground floor, equivalent of floor 2 in the US). The breakfast was so good, I would stay there again just for it! Breads and pastries on the tables with white table cloth, coffee in individual small white coffee pots is brought to the table, everything else is buffet style - cheese, cold cuts, eggs, cereal, fruit, yogurt, juices. We stayed in the P. Roma area, and for us it was good - we were looking for an easy access to everything. ACTV bus 5 from the airport to the plaza, vaporetto stops, free shuttle to the cruise ship. The shuttle does not stop at the ship; we had to walk a little with the luggage. The shuttle looks like a huge bus with luggage compartment, clearly signed, stops on the opposite side from the vaporetti. Going back we chose the ship shuttle to the airport for $30 per person, a taxi would be 30-40 Euros. That shuttle bus was on the left side when you get off the ship, don't ask the port personnel, they will direct you to the free shuttle to P. Roma, ask people with NCL logo. Venice. First of all we took line 2 to ride through the Grand Canal (line 1 is slower, makes more stops). If you have time, do the full circle on line 2; also take lines 42 and 52 to see other parts of the city. We had ACTV passes, and put it to good use! Of course we loved Venice, but noticed many buildings, and especially it's visible on white and on statues, have some black soot on them - makes houses look dirty, and this is mid-May, way after the spring cleaning. I read on the Internet that it's not easy to find a place to sit and rest, and this is true. As we didn't venture far from the vaporetto stops, we used the waiting area benches for this purpose. It's interesting how they announce the stops - first in Italian, then in English as "nextT stopP," and why is it the locals get up way before the vaporetto stops, they would definitely have enough time to walk to the exit. The Jewish Ghetto in Venice is easy to find, the entrance is by Gam Gam restaurant, vaporetto 42 Guglie. Every Holocaust memorial is different, this one (the plaza) invites you to sit and think. On recommendation of the Internet posters we ate at Gam Gam. Sorry to disagree with everybody, the food did not leave a lasting impression. We got better food next door to our hotel. Maybe we just expected too much? Walked the Rialto Bridge, kissed at the Bridge of Sighs, walked numerous other bridges - they all have names that escaped us, stopped for gelato at St Mark square. Out of 2 dozen tables outside 3 or 4 were occupied, my tired husband sat down at a side table while I was getting ice-cream, oh yeah, pay first, just like it was in Russia! Hazelnut and pistachio, our favorites! The moment I handed one gelato to my husband, a waiter appeared: the tables are reserved for customers who order food. We didn't argue. San Giorgio Maggiore - the vaporetto stop is right by the church entrance (and the ride is beautiful!). Inside, on the left side in the back is the ticket counter for the ride up to the observation tower. If you're afraid of heights, close your eyes. The view of Venice is so worth going to this island! Just don't be startled by the bells, they probably play every hour on the hour, and if you are at the top of the tower they are loud. Norwegian Jade. This was our 2nd cruise with NCL, and the ship was similar to the Jewel, only it looked the workload for employees was bigger. The beds were made after noon, towel animals only twice in 7 days, and I don't even know who was our steward as I've seen 3 people cleaning. On the first day the cabins were ready at 2.30, but the luggage was delivered early. We went to all evening shows, and liked them all - this is surprising as we usually find the shows to be of low quality. I had a puzzling experience in the gift shop. The ship currency is US, so when I saw the price in both US and Euro on the receipt I asked the cashier, and was told, as we are in the EU waters, they must convert all charges to Euro. I asked again to be sure: will my charge on the credit card be in Euro or US? She said, in Euro. Great, I got caught into duplicate currency conversion charges! Turned out, she didn't know how to explain, by law she was only required to inform how much this would be in Euro, the charge on the statement was in the US dollars. There were many activities and lectures; of course most of them was about sales of goods and services, but some info too. For example, at the acupuncture lecture we learned how to massage the head for better memory - and if you are laughing, think about it: any massage is better than none at all! And how to massage above the eye to get rid of floaters - this I will test after getting over the jetlag.We thought the food was very good, but the service was different - much better in the Grand Pacific compare to Azure restaurant. Lots of help was offered in the buffet, and nobody minded to share a table. Overall our impression of the ship, cabins, food, entertainment, order, employees' help was high. Corfu. Bus 16 takes passengers from the ship to the center of the city for 1.5 Euro, the driver has change, this would be a long uninteresting walk. I needed cash, and the bus stops in the town between two ATMs. Interesting, the locals ignored one of them in the park, everybody was getting money across the street, so we did the same. We thought it was a safety precaution. The town is very walkable, lots of narrow streets; we loved to explore them making silly bets if this was a dead end! Our first stop in Greece, we just wanted to walk around looking at people, homes, cafes, and of course souvenir shops! We felt safe, and people were polite.While I was asking for directions looking for the synagogue, my husband said, come with me, I'll show you something. There was a Holocaust memorial that we didn't know about, on a plaza close to the fort. I didn't see any mentioning of it anywhere on the Internet. It would probably be the easiest to find if you go from the synagogue back to the bus not taking any side streets, maybe 2 blocks away. When we stopped at the synagogue to take photos 2 people came out to invite us inside. Santorini. This is where I chickened out being terribly afraid of the small cable cars. The wires hang on supporting poles, and going over them the cars swing; this is very visible from the pier below where the tender dropped us off. Had an unfortunate experience before, and just couldn't make myself get on that car. So we walked around the pier, took photos of the donkeys and cable cars, and went back to the ship to get some suntan. In the evening half of the ship was on the upper deck to photograph and film the sundown, but it was probably the wrong day - no clouds, no drama in the sky, no colors. We left. What should not be missed are the lights - the whole village on the hill is lighted up along with the cable cars. I even have a photo to show. Mykonos. The free shuttle bus took us to the center of the very white town. Walked along the waterfront, admired the private yachts, photographed the windmills, unfortunately didn't see any pelicans, on the way back deliberately "got lost" in those narrow streets - such a nice experience! We walked up to the windmills along the shore, and back through the narrow streets, and both were interesting, beautiful, and we didn't want to go back on the ship! This felt like the most romantic stop. Katakolon. Very little is said on the Internet and the guidebooks about this village except it being a stop for Olympia. There were taxis, and we saw the train to Olympia - the whole train had only 2 cars, and it left, came back later, and just stood there. Off the ship we saw horse carriage rides, and of course we got on. The driver took us along the seashore and pointed out the Olympia Mountain. We also took a "train" ride - several cars pulled by a "locomotive" - another ride, this time outside the town to the beach. Museum of ancient Greek technology (inventions) is very informative and highly recommended, signs in English and also demonstrations on how the inventions work. I wish I could add the photos, getting a little better at taking them with the digital camera. What a great trip it was despite missing on Santorini. Our main impressions: Venice is an interesting place to visit; Greek islands are the place for a honeymoon, very romantic. For some reason, this cruise seemed too short - we were on a 7-day cruise of Caribbean, then it was just right. I wish to go back some day.