Like many others, we had several cruises canceled over the last couple of years and honestly were not sure if this one would happen. We were traveling with the in-laws (76 and 86 y/o), so to be safe, we booked everything, including flights and insurance, through NCL. We also took care of scheduling testing and securing all of the documentation they would need for Europe (French Sanitary Pass, EU QR code, and Greek QR code - of these three, we only actually needed the EU code and our vax record)

Our flight from BOS-JFK-FCO on Delta was nothing to write home about; we got there on time and in one piece. From Rome it was about a 40 minute bus ride to Civitavecchia where we got our first swab. Results took about 30 minutes and the codes were displayed on a large tv display - once your code came up, you were free to check in; to me, it seemed like we were all sitting there playing COVID bingo :)

Check-in was quick but we were surprised that NCL needed to keep our passports per order of the Italian government. We got them back with an Italian stamp a few days later, after we had finished our Italy ports. Read more