Mediterranean & Greek Isle Cruise

The advertisement read: "Rekindle the passion of life with a Mediterranean cruise. Be swept away by the romance of Venice...be inspired by what once was in Athens...discover the history and culture of these cities that grace the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea," but what caught our attention and was most appealing to us was the fact that it was WARM there! After a whole 14 days of summer here in Holland, we Texans needed some sunshine and warm weather!

Our Itinerary

Aug 26 Fly from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Barcelona, Spain

Aug 28 Embark Emerald Princess in Barcelona Depart 10:00pm

Aug 29 Marseille, France Arrive 08:30am Depart 06:00pm

Aug 30 Livorno/Florence/Pisa, Italy Arrive 07:00am Depart 07:00pm

Aug 31 Civitavecchia/Rome, Italy Arrive 07:00am Depart 07:00pm

Sep 01 Naples/Mt Vesuvius/Pompeii Arrive 07:00am Depart 07:00pm

Sep 02 Day at sea

Sep 03 Mykonos/Delos, Greece Arrive 07:00am Depart 02:00pm

Sep 04 Istanbul, Turkey Arrive 08:00am Depart 06:00pm

Sep 05 Kusadasi/Ephesus, Turkey Arrive 12:00pm Depart 07:00pm

Sep 06 Piraeus/Athens, Greece Arrive 06:00am Depart 05:45pm

Sep 07 Day at sea

Sep 08 Venice, Italy Arrive 01:00pm

Sep 09 Disembark Emerald Princess in Venice

Sep 11 Fly from Venice, Italy to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Steve Martin's character, Neal Page, in Planes, Trains & Automobiles has nothing on us! During our 2+ weeks of travel, we rode planes, trains, taxis, trams, a cruise liner, ferries, a water taxi, subway, buses, a couple of mini vans and even paid to ride an elevator to the top of a mountain!

Home from our latest adventure

We returned from our cruise yesterday. After being gone for a total of 17 days, we're back in Hengelo. It was an awesome adventure. I'm currently sorting through pictures and will be posting a lot of information here...most of it for our own purposes and memories, but you are all welcomed to read as much or as little as you wish.

First of all, an advertisement...if any of you decide to go on a cruise, we highly recommend the Princess line. If you want to check it out, let us know. We can help you get a discount and also earn credit towards our next one!

It was awesome! Our ship was the Emerald Princess. She is newest jewel in the Princess crown, and is everything you would expect from such a modern, luxurious ship. There were multiple dining venues from formal to informal. We tried them all! There's a spa and fitess center. I had my nails done, while Rick took advantage of the treadmill to keep to his marathon training schedule as much as possible. We enjoyed enjoy Movies Under the Stars, the live shows in the Princess Theater, and game shows and smaller acts in the individual lounges. The pool and hot tub were always welcoming when we returned to the ship after our excursions.

Princess has special teen programs and Hank was greeted at our stateroom with a 12-page letter detailing all the activities in store for them. They had open house at the teen room from 2:00-5:00 p.m. and Hank was there when it opened! They were scheduled to register at 7:00 p.m. on embarkation day, but Hank was so excited, they let him sign in first and early. Their last cruise they had over 600 kids. Since school most places had started by the time we sailed, our cruise only had 41. I think that was better because they got a lot of attention. Sarah and Patti won Hank's heart and vice versa very quickly and I was immediately comfortable turning his daily activities over to them. They kept him and the other teens very busy and were kept close watch on them. Every time I called the teen room if he was not right there, one or the other of them knew exactly where he was and who he was with. He made friends with Jeff from Washington State (USA); Daniel from Portugal; Dan from Jimaca; Dominic and Chantel from the UK. Our whole 12 day cruise, we were only able to pursuade him to get off the ship a total of three times...Naples, Ephesus, and Athens.

The Teen Center was packed with Playstation® 2, the latest movies & music, Karaoke, giant screen TVs, card games, board games, and juke box with extremely modern music and lots of classics. They also offered ping pong tables and basketball, teens-only dance parties, T-shirt painting, pizza parties, mocktails, and teen dinners. They usually offer many more things and in fact they were offered to our group of kids, but Hank says they always wanted the simpler things like pizza parties, ice cream parties, etc. With only 41 kids they were able to really tailor it to this small groups wants and desires which he thought was really cool. More than anything, being a teen-age boy, he was really pleased with the 24-hour buffet! I think he probably ate his weight in pizza and shrimp!

As I've already shared with some of you, we had booked an Oceanview Double Stateroom with a picture window, providing added ambience and memorable views. However, on booking only staterooms with "obstructed views" (lifeboat hanging outside) were available. It being our first cruise, we decided for the price and a little sunlight it was worth it. Just prior to arrival, I looked at our boarding passes and found that our stateroom had been changed. We had been upgraded to an Oceaview Double with Balcony! This impressive stateroom had a small balcony, sliding door outside and patio furniture. It was the smallest of the balcony rooms, but definitely enough to impress and spoil us for all future cruises. It was so wonderful at night sliding the door open and listening to the waves and feel the cool ocean breeze. Our stateroom had a queen-size bed and a twin bed that dropped from the ceiling at night for Hank to sleep on. Other amenities included a refrigerator, television, spacious closet and desk. We were on the port (left) side just forward of midship. It was the perfect location.

Here are some links, in case you're interested:

• The Emerald Princess
• The ship's deck plans (We were in Baja410)
• Princess Cruise Line

I'll be posting pictures shortly, and you will see throughout pictures of the ship.

My next post will give more details of our itinerary then I'll post the Barcelona pitures!

Hope you enjoy!