Mediterranean Voyage

It's been over a year since we took a long cruise but we have enjoyed several  shorter ones.   Alan and I cruised to Quebec, Maine, and Nova Scotia two or three times,  to Bermuda with Kenneth, Victoria, Emmet, Lydia and Alexis, to Bermuda with Amy Ross's* groups (on one of Amy's cruises she let me play cruise director, carry a clipboard, count heads and host her parties).  Our last cruise was sailing  home from London on NCL's Epic inaugural voyage.   Now it's time to go back to our favorite cruise line, Holland America.

In just over a week's time, we'll be leaving Fort Lauderdale on HAL's Prinsendam, the ship we cruised around South America on in 2009.

For month's we've been busy researching ports,  making friends on Cruise Critic, and planning shore trips.  And, we can't forget packing.  Alan's clothes were selected last October before he left for Florida so all that had to be done for him was for me to put them in the suitcases and have them ready for pick up Feb. 25.  One wonderful perk of a Holland America Grand Voyage, which this cruise is, is we are allowed to ship two bags each by Fed Express....FREE.

If you want to follow along on a map, here's our itinerary for what Holland America calls

2011 Grand Africa and Mediterranean Voyage

Day	Date	Port	Arrive	Depart
0	12 Mar 2011	Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US		05:00 PM
1	13 Mar 2011	At Sea
2	14 Mar 2011	At Sea
3	15 Mar 2011	Gustavia (St. Barts), France	10:00 AM	06:00 PM
4	16 Mar 2011	Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
5	17 Mar 2011	Fort-De-France, Martinique	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
6	18 Mar 2011	Bridgetown, Barbados	08:00 AM	04:00 PM
7	19 Mar 2011	At Sea
8	20 Mar 2011	At Sea
9	21 Mar 2011	At Sea
10	22 Mar 2011	At Sea
11	23 Mar 2011	Mindelo, Cape Verde	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
12	24 Mar 2011	At Sea
13	25 Mar 2011	Banjul, Gambia VS	07:00 AM	06:00 PM
14	26 Mar 2011	Dakar, Senegal	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
15	27 Mar 2011	At Sea
16	28 Mar 2011	At Sea
17	29 Mar 2011	Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Spain	07:00 AM
18	30 Mar 2011	Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Spain		05:00 PM
19	31 Mar 2011	Arrecife, Canary Islands	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
20	01 Apr 2011	Agadir, Morocco	07:00 AM	02:00 PM
21	02 Apr 2011	Casablanca, Morocco	07:00 AM	06:00 PM
22	03 Apr 2011	At Sea
23	04 Apr 2011	Cartagena, Spain	07:00 AM	02:00 PM
24	05 Apr 2011	Mahon, Spain	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
25	06 Apr 2011	At Sea
26	07 Apr 2011	La Spezia, Italy	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
27	08 Apr 2011	Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy	07:00 AM	08:00 PM
28	09 Apr 2011	Lipari, Italy	Noon	06:00 PM
29	10 Apr 2011	Syracuse, Italy	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
30	11 Apr 2011	At Sea
31	12 Apr 2011	Kotor, Montenegro	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
32	13 Apr 2011	Split, Croatia	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
33	14 Apr 2011	Venice, Italy	08:00 AM
34	15 Apr 2011	Venice, Italy		11:00 PM
35	16 Apr 2011	Ravenna (San Marino), Italy	07:00 AM	03:00 PM
36	17 Apr 2011	At Sea
37	18 Apr 2011	At Sea
38	19 Apr 2011	Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt	06:00 AM	08:00 PM
39	20 Apr 2011	Port Said, Egypt	08:00 AM	08:00 PM
40	21 Apr 2011	Ashdod (Jerusalem), Israel	07:00 AM	11:00 PM
41	22 Apr 2011	Haifa, Israel	07:00 AM	11:00 PM
42	23 Apr 2011	At Sea
43	24 Apr 2011	Bodrum, Turkey	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
44	25 Apr 2011	Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey	07:00 AM	06:00 PM
45	26 Apr 2011	Piraeus (Athens), Greece	07:00 AM	11:00 PM
46	27 Apr 2011	Monemvasia, Greece	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
47	28 Apr 2011	Katakolon, Greece	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
48	29 Apr 2011	At Sea
49	30 Apr 2011	Cagliari, Italy	08:00 AM	05:00 PM
50	01 May 2011	At Sea
51	02 May 2011	Motril, Spain	08:00 AM	06:00 PM
52	03 May 2011	Cadiz (Seville), Spain	07:00 AM	11:00 PM
53	04 May 2011	At Sea
54	05 May 2011	Funchal (Madeira), Portugal	07:00 AM	02:00 PM
55	06 May 2011	At Sea
56	07 May 2011	At Sea
57	08 May 2011	At Sea
58	09 May 2011	At Sea
59	10 May 2011	At Sea
60	11 May 2011	At Sea
61	12 May 2011	At Sea
62	13 May 2011	Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US	07:00 AM

Some of the ports we've visited .   Many are new.  And some like Ephesus are life long dreams....thanks to good old Richard Halliburton and my favorite book after all these years,  Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels.  (I can just hear the grandchildren groaning, "there she goes again with Richard Halliburton.") A couple of ports we may not get to stop at due to conditions over there but so far there has been no word on cancellations.

I think I have set this up so you can comment. If  I did it correctly, we'd love to hear from you, the good, the bad but especially what can be improved.

*Give Amy at Commonwealth Travel in Falmouth a call if you need to book a vacation.  She's great.