ALL ABOARD! We’re going on a Cruise y’all!

Big news!  We’re going across the water!!

Wait, no… not that water.  Before you get excited and think our visas finally came through and we are finally off to Pittsburgh, that isn’t happening yet.

We’re going on a cruise!!

What better way to make use of our time still in Europe than to explore it, right?

Initially we had planned to do a lot of little city trips, but for some reason that hasn’t been happening.  We always said we’d do a big trip this year, knowing it would be my 40th birthday and our 15th wedding anniversary, but we were never sure what we wanted to do exactly.  So when we started thinking about it we tossed around a lot of different ideas.

Should we go back to Paris and relive our honeymoon?  Naw, why do something again when there are so many new places to see.  Then we tossed around the idea of going to Norway and doing a driving tour around the Fjords, then a Norwegian cruise, then we swung way in another direction and thought about visiting Istanbul / Cappadocia and a few other places in Turkey.  We were all over the map (literally!) and couldn’t settle, so we decided to visit a travel agency and see what our options were.

We explained to her what our situation was, that we were celebrating one of my big birthdays, that it was our 15th anniversary, that we are leaving Europe soon and want to get to some of the places we’ve not gotten to over the years.  Her reply?  “Why on earth are you not considering a Mediterranean cruise?!”.  She had a sort of “Wait, hear me out!” reaction, and went on to explain that spending all that money to go to Turkey or Norway is fine, but you are only seeing one place.  With a cruise we could see a lot more different and exciting locations for a lot less.  Ok, granted, cruises aren’t cheap… but there’s also no way we could hit as many different locations on separate trips with food, travel, lodgings and everything else included for what we’re paying for this trip.

We weren’t sure at first but the more we thought about it the more it made sense and appealed to us.  Then the obsessive searching began.

Let me tell you, when I get something in my head, Google doesn’t know what hit it.  Before long I had narrowed it down to a few options, and we had some decisions to make in regards to what we were comfortable spending, and what we wanted to get for our money.  I read review after review, looked at photos of … well, every ship, every port, every cabin.  Inside room, outside room, balcony, shorter trip with a better room, longer trip in a broom closet, excursions, ports, aaaagh!!  Information overload!  I am fairly certain I was about one search away from taking down the entire internet.  I had so many tabs open on my browser that my laptop sounded like it was about to take off on a trip of its own.  It was bad.

We decided to go to the source and visited a company here in Rotterdam that specializes in cruises, so that they could help us figure out what exactly the cost was going to be and what suits us best.  You see, there’s all these little costs that sneak up on you, like with any travel.  You pay for the cruise but then there’s all these added costs like excursions and tips for the staff (why that’s not included in the price of the cruise makes no sense to me, it’s mandatory so what’s the point of having it separate?!)  but anyway…

We found our cruise!!  It’s more than we’ve ever spent on… well… anything, which makes us nervous and fills us with anxiety but it was go big or go home… or stay home, rather.

Not only do we have some cool occasions to celebrate, but we know we are leaving and this is like our last hoorah in Europe.  Also?  We’ve never done this!  In the 15 years we’ve been married, we have never just gone on a proper big holiday that’s just us, for us.  We’ve had amazing holidays visiting family, gotten to see some cool places where I tagged along on a work trip of Xander’s, or had a weekend away places close by, but that’s not the same.  This is something entirely different, and we’re so excited!!

SO here’s our cruise.  It’s a 13 day Mediterannean Cruise on the Norwegian Spirit.  We went for longer cruise in a broom closet! haha  In the end our choices came down to an 8 day cruise where we visit a few cities in Greece, Italy, Turkey and Croatia, staying in a room with a window or possibly a balcony or go with a longer trip staying in an inside room.  In the end, it was a no-brainer for us.  As much as I loved the idea of getting up and sitting on a balcony in my pajamas, looking out over the sea, we’d only get to do it for 8 days.  We wanted more time and more places, and more time outside our cabin enjoying ourselves.

Oh the things we will see!!

This is the map of the itinerary.  We will be visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, France and Spain with most of the stops in the first three.  We have only one stop in France and Spain, but we planned it that way as we feel like we’d likely have easier access to those areas on future trips to visit Xander’s family, so we concentrated on the areas we weren’t sure we’d get a chance to visit once we leave Europe.

Day 1 : Arrival in and First Day in Venice

On the first day we fly into Venice at 11am.  Our ship doesn’t leave until later that night at 1am, so we should have most of the evernoon and evening to explore the city.  That’s still in the planning phase, but there will be gondola, there must be gondola!  Another thing I am looking forward to that I read about in reviews of the cruise is the view of Venice at night as the ship is leaving.  It’s supposed to be absolutely stunning, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Days 2 and 3: At Sea

After Venice we have two days at sea (one of which is my birthday! Whoo hoo!), which gives us lots of time to explore the boat, get to know people, relax, take in some sun and prepare ourselves for the madness that was to come in the next two weeks!  There’s so much to do on the ship that I highly doubt we will be bored.

Day 4: Athens, Greece

Day 4: Our first stop is in Athens, Greece.  We have organized an all day excursion together with a few other couples from the cruise (which we hooked up with on the awesomely convenient CruiseCritic.com website!).  So much cheaper than the excursions provided by the ship or cruise company you book through!

Info from the tour operator:

So that should be a full day!

Day 5: Kusadasi, Turkey

Next up is Kusadasi, Turkey. We have also booked a four hour excursion here together with a group from the ship.  There is also a longer tour but since the ship is only there until 2pm we didn’t want to push our luck. We figured we could always walk around exploring to waste time, if we are finished too long before it’s time to leave.  From what I can see, Kusadsai has a nice bazaar, so if there’s time I’d like to find that.

The main attraction on the tour from Kusadasi is Ephesus.  Info from the tour operator:

Day 6: Istanbul, Turkey

On the sixth day we will be spending our 15th anniversary in Istanbul!  I’m so glad that this cruise is including this city because we had previously been planning a trip there, so I had already gotten excited about things I wanted to see.  This way I can still do that, only lots of other things too! It’s a win win!  We don’t plan to do an excursion in Istanbul, rather make a plan, grab a map and walk off the boat. We can navigate the city on foot and with public transit, do it at our own pace and save money for other ports where excursions are more necessary.  I am so looking forward to this city!

Day 7: Mykonos, Greece

Our next stop is the Greek island of Mykonos!  Isn’t it everything you imagine when you think of Greece?  Again, we have no real plans for this stop. We will look it up and get an idea of what there may be to see and do, or just roam around.  I wonder if it will be warm enough for me to put my toes in the water… hmmm.

Day 8: At Sea

My guess is that by this time we’ll be ready for a day at sea.  Time to get some rest, have some down time, do some reading (or knitting) and just see where our mood takes us.  I know Xander’s will take him to bed for a lot of naps.  Me? I’m not so sure… I will have to see when the time comes.  Possibly also naps, but I doubt it.

Day 9: Naples, Italy

Naples is another port I am really looking forward to, although I’ve not yet sorted out an excursion, we definitely want to have one.  The most popular seems to be the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, but it’s going to require a bit more research and planning.  The Amalfi coast looks absolutely stunning so if we can get a reasonably priced excursion that drives along there and takes us to some of the local sights, that would be great.  Fingers crossed!

Day 10: Rome, Italy

Rome is a big one and there’s a lot to try to fit into a single day, so we have organized an excursion for this port as well, together with a few other people from the boat.  The excursion that is put on by Norwegian themselves is 250 euro per person, which well, is nuts. Almost all of our excursions together don’t cost that much… so yeah, I’m so glad I found the Cruise Critic website, that’s for darn sure.  This is going to cover the highlights of Rome, including Vatican city.  It sounds like a really insanely busy day, I hope we manage to get it all done and make it back to the ship in time.  The port is a good hour+ drive from the city, so hopefully the tour operator knows what they’re doing.  I looked at a lot of reviews and everyone raves about how great they are, so it doesn’t sound like they’ve left many stranded yet.

Info from the tour operator:

Even if we don’t quite get to see everything, I don’t think we’ll be too concerned.  Rome is one of those cities that deserves a dedicated trip and I’m sure we’ll get there again someday so we can see it more in depth and give it the time it really deserves.

Day 11: Livorno (Florence / Pisa), Italy

This is another tricky port as Livorno is outside of both of the main desitinations most people want to see in the area.  There are a number of excursions going to both Pisa and Florence and we’ve yet to organize one.  At the moment I am looking into how difficult it would be to do it on our own with public transit, but we’ll see.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and we can jump  in on something someone else has organized. It would be a pity to go all that way and not get the obligatory corny “holding up the tower of Pisa” photo, wouldn’t it?

Better yet, photos of people doing the holding up the tower photos!

Day 12: Toulon (Provence), France

Toulon is still a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve been so busy looking into the other ports that I haven’t given this much attention.  So we’ll consider it still in the planning stages, but chances are we’ll probably do this as another roaming port and not put a lot of money into excursions. With family in the south of France, there isn’t really anything around there that we couldn’t re-visit sometime if we wanted to badly enough.  Plus, after the previous two days we’ll likely be looking for something with a slightly slower pace.

Day 13: Barcelona, Spain (the End)

On the final day our ship arrives in Barcelona at 5am and our cruise ends there.  The original flight that was included had us flying out at 1pm, but we arranged for a flight for the same price leaving at 8pm so that we would have the day to explore.  From what I hear, you could spend days in Barcelona and not run out of things to see and do, but like the south of France, it’s not a difficult trip to take as a side trip from my in-laws so chances are if we like what we see during that day, we’d make a point of returning to check it out a bit more.  I’m happy we have the day to at least look around a little, though!

So, that’s it, that’s our cruise!  It’s a trip like nothing we’ve ever done before, and as first time cruisers I so, so, soooo hope we enjoy it.

Have you ever done a cruise?  Did you like it?  Do you have any tips for any must see (or must avoid!) places on any of our stops?

Do you have any cruising tips for us?  I’ve been reading the Cruise Critic forums and they have a lot of handy info on there, so I think we’ll be quite well prepared, but you never know.

AAAH!! SO EXCITED!