Stage 3–Transatlantic Cruise

Jan 24, 2012 by Joel

When I was first planning my travel to visit Europe, I had a complete around the world plan. While the round the world plan is still in place it is noticeably different today then it was going to be last August.

Last August I was looking at flying from Brisbane to Rome, spending almost three months in Europe before flying to the USA, with just a few days before joining a Transpacific cruise from San Diego to Sydney. While I moved the flight for my Europe trip to March, the Transpacific Cruise stayed in place.

While on the Transpacific cruise, I made a decision to book a Transatlantic cruise, which kind of threw the flights that were already booked into a little bit of a mess, however, it is all but sorted out now and at least the major flights all but in place.

It did not take a lot though to realise that this Transatlantic Cruise is going to be the major feature of my journey this time. At 29 Days it is the largest single block of time in one place, even if the ship itself is moving, I still don’t need to change hotels for this time.

The Cruise

As an Overview this cruise is a total of 29 days. Of those days 11 are spent at sea, which includes the seven day Atlantic crossing. Ports in five different countries make up the 16 ports which are visited, with two overnight ports. All together one nice little cruise, which will be my longest cruise to date if only by one day.

Probably the best thing about this cruise is the variety of ports that are included across five different European Countries. Countries which include Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia.

Portugal – The first two ports in Portugal, are the islands of Horta and Ponta Delgada, before an overnight stop in Lisbon, and a day in Portimao.

Spain – Three ports in Spain include, Cadiz (Seville), Malaga, and finally Barcelona.

Italy – Livorno (Florence/Pisa) is the first stop in Italy, before heading south to Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples and Catania. With Venice being the final port after visiting Greece and Croatia.

Greece – Nafplion, Katakolon and Kerkira, make up the three ports in Greece over three days.

Croatia – Dubrovnik is the one and only port in Croatia.

All put together I think the range of ports and the places that I will get to see will possibly make this my most memorable cruise. While ticking off a good number of the places that I would have otherwise done by land, in probably much lower quality accommodation, or at a much greater expense.

Sight Seeing

Being with a cruise for sightseeing often can be quite an easy way to escape much of the need to do planning. Although it often is hard not to get stuck into finding out more about the places that you will be visiting.

To date I have taken one of two choice when visiting a port with a cruise. I have either taken a suitable shore excursion to see the highlights of the port, or chosen to walk the town and see what is there with others from the cruise.

There is of course a third option to privately organise a tour, however this does come with some risks, especially on tours that go any great distance from the ship. These tours can often be better because they are more flexible and generally consist of small groups rather then the sometimes 50-60 people on a shore excursion from the ship. However they have the negative aspect that should something happen you miss the ship leaving port, you will have to find your own way to the next port to re-join the ship.

At this stage I am still happy with what I am finding as part of the shore excursions offered by the ship, however I may find that this changes at some point in the future, but can only tell with time.

More to Come

There are just two stages of the trip left for me to share some information about. Which is the second stage in Europe, and the final stage in Canada and the USA. While not maybe as exciting as the cruise there are some great stops planned for these final two stages as well.

As usual please feel free to share anything about the places that I am going to be visiting, and if you have any questions about cruising feel free to share them, I am always more than happy to share some of my experiences.