Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

My VERY 1st & VERY late review of our Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on the Navigator!

Ireallyneedavacation

Recommended Posts

Ireallyneedavacation

Ireallyneedavacation

Posted
Posted

You might ask, "Why now, after all of these months would she do a review of a cruise she took way back in May of last year?". Well, after reading so many great reviews, I got inspired! Plus, I do believe that if you are interested in doing a land adventure, getting in as much as you can with a short amount of time, I might be of some help. Just ignore all of those people that tell you that you need to take it slow & only choose one or two areas to explore. If you are like me, you don't make it to Europe every year. When I am there, I want to make the most of it!...AND WE DID! IT WAS AMAZING!

Ok, a little background....I am Joanna. I am 41, never married, no children. In my late twenties, early thirties, I rarely travelled anywhere because I thought I needed to wait on my future husband to travel to all of those places I wanted to see. Well, in 2009, I decided I wasn't going to wait any longer.....for the travel part, anyway! In July 2011, I started planning this adventure with my youngest sister (Katie) who was 26 at the time and a single, hard working woman and my niece (Corrie) who turned 22 during the cruise and is student at the University of Alabama. Let me sidetrack here. If you from the South, been to the South or have heard of the South, you know of the Alabama/Auburn rivalry. Well, most of my family are Auburn fans, since 2 of my sisters (including Katie) and my brother and his wife went to Auburn. Corrie disgraced the family and followed her bf to Alabama....kidding (a little)! :) They are engaged now and do love them both eventhough they scream those curse words, "Roll Tide"! I am a true Auburn fan and will forever scream, "War Eagle"! Ok, back on topic....This cruise departed out of Rome or Civitavecchia to be specific. My original plan was depart a couple of days early and spend some time in Rome before the cruise. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to experience. This ened up being our itenerary...

May 18: Fly out

May 19-21: Venice, Italy

May 21-24: Florence, Italy with a side day trip to Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa

May 24-25: Pompeii and Sorento, Italy with a trip down the Almalfi Coast

May 25-27: Rome, Italy

May 27: Embarkation Day

May 28: Sicily, Italy

May 30: Athens, Greece,

May 31: Ephesus, Turkey

June 1: Souda, Crete

June 3: Debarkation and spending the day in Rome

June 4: Fly Home

This was a lot, and we knew it going in. LET the ADVENTURE BEGIN!

I got home from a work trip on May 17th, the day before we were to fly out. Thankfully, my flight didn't leave Pensacola until around 12:30 in the afternoon. This gave me time to pack, repack, weigh luggage, unpack, weigh luggage, unpack, weigh luggage and unpack some more. Thankfully, I got on the plane with my luggage weighing in just under the 50 lb. weight limit at 49 lbs.! I was meeting Katie and Corrie in Miami, as they were both flying out of Birmingham, AL. From there, we were flying Iberia Airlines to Madrid. The one thing about Iberia is that you cannot request a seat in advance. We tried getting them together once we got to the gate, but the plane was completely full. This was a bummer, but we were hoping to sleep most of the way, anyway. Unfortunately, our plane was late leaving Miami. We didn't make up the time on the way, and I believe almost everyone on the plane missed their connecting flights out of Madrid, including us! Now, you have to realize that with us being on a tight schedule, this took a big chunk out of our time in Venice, as we were stuck in the Madrid airport for HOURS....

......and jet lag has set in.

ItalyandMedCruise1024_zps0e3bfc49.jpg

This was after a little nap...

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...