Narnia

Today we arrive back where we started this adventure 117 days ago, San Pedro, California. We have completed our lap around the planet while visiting 44 ports in 23 Countries/Autonomous Regions, 9 of them were new for us. Our original plan was 25 countries with 11 new, but we missed Croatia and Montenegro due to […]

Today’s port, Puerto Vallarta Mexico, marks the next to last stop before we conclude this “Around the World” journey. Today’s weather is hot, the air is filled with smoke and it a bit hard to breath outside. If you were to glance at the “What’s in Port” guide for this port, you would read that […]

Today, the 112th day of this world trotting adventure, we make landfall in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. This in Central American country is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is home to 37 volcanoes, four of them active: Pacaya, Santiaguito, Fuego, and Tacaná. Today, Dan left […]

Day 110 finds us docking in the city center of Puntarenas, in the country of Costa Rica. It was a picture perfect clear warm day. We last visited this resort town of 100,000 people almost 20 years ago and we were a bit shocked to see that it appears to be slipping into decline. While […]

Way back in 1994, years before we were married, Sue and Dan embarked on their very first cruise. It was a15 Day Panama Canal voyage aboard the original Sky Princess. Our cruising life was launched. Today, 31 years later, marks our 63rd cruise aboard a Princess ship, this time the Island Princess (we have several journeys […]

Today’s port is Cartegena, Columbia. We originally visited this port on our very first cruise, 31 years ago (1994) aboard the original Sky Princess. She served many cruise lines under many names since then before being scrapped in 2013. We have been here several times since then Today we were met by our pilot just […]

After 8 days at sea, we arrive just before sun up in Port Everglades, Florida. This marks the end of the 4th segment of our world cruise and the beginning of the 5th. We have 1500 passengers disembarking and ending their cruise here (including our travel friends Dave and Gerne) with 1700 embarking to begin […]

Another day another port, this time it’s Las Palmas, Canary Islands, an autonomous communities of Spain. Las Palmas is located in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, about 150 km (93 mi) west of the Moroccan coast. Not much planned for today as we are kind of tired after the back to back ports […]

Another itinerary change. As we were leaving Casablanca on Easter Sunday, we were informed that we would be diverting from our original destination of Lanzarote, Canary Island due to expected adverse weather conditions and would instead be calling on Santa Cruz De Tenerife. Sometimes abbreviated as Santa Cruz, it is the capital of the island […]

Happy Easter from Casablanca, Morocco! Another country checked off the list. For most Casablanca conjures up the 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid and the famous scenes of Rick’s Café. Today’s modern Casablanca is the Kingdom of Morocco’s largest city with a population of about 3.22 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million […]

The Saturday before Easter finds us on a early morning very rough and windy approach to Cadiz, Spain. Caldiz is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, was founded by the Phoenicians as a trading post. Holy Week celebrations were underway with Christians Brotherhoods in Capirote (pointed hoods) were conducting reenactment processions in the old city. It […]

This morning we docked at Port Vell in Barcelona, Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. Barcelona is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, bounded to the west by the Serra […]

It was raining off and on as we pulled into the harbor at Marseille, France. Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements. Since the Viking Sea was already docked at the town center Joliette (J4) Terminal, we were docked at the […]

This morning we anchored in the deep bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, the gateway to the resort areas of Nice, France and Monte Carlo, Monaco. We have visited both of these areas before, but have never been to Villeffranche, so we decided to take this opportunity to visit this small port town. Since we were anchored […]

Day 85 of this cruise had us back in Italy, this time in Genoa. Located on the Gulf of Genoa in the Ligurian Sea, Wikipedia says Genoa has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean: it is the busiest city in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea and twelfth-busiest in the European Union. We can believe […]

It was pouring down rain as our pilot met us in the harbor to guide us to our berth in Livorno, Italy. This Ligurian Sea port city is located on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. The cruise industry uses this port as a gateway for tours to Florence and Pisa, Italy. We would not […]

Today we dock in the picturesque city of Ajaccio, France, on the island of Corsica in the Ligurian Sea. Ajaccio, capital of the island, may be best known for being the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1769. The city has several tourist sites dedicated to Napoleon’s history in the area. We docked at 8AM and made […]

Today is transition day as we dock at the Tyrrhenian sea port city of Civitavecchia, Italy. The Port of Civitavecchia is one of the major cruise ports of Europe and is huge with over 3.3 million passengers passing through each year! There are 5 cruise ships in port today, each of them offloading and onboarding passengers. […]

Today we visited the absolutely gorgeous city of Valletta on the Mediterranean island country of Malta. Check another country off the list! We would have to say, without a doubt, today was one of the most beautiful harbor sail-ins so far for this trip. The city was officially listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980. The […]