Corfu is not a huge island, but getting around it would have been difficult if we did not buy tickets to the hop on hop off city tour bus. In November the tour bus only follows one of the two routes it does during the regular tourist season, but it was sufficient for us. The first stop we checked out was the Vlacherna monastery. There … Continue reading Mediterranean cruise: Corfu, Greece

I am skipping one of the ports: Naples. We got off the boat only to eat pizza for lunch. We were not a fan of Naples. The port area was full of trash, smelled terrible, and as you walked into the city it did not get any better. There were so many people and we were almost run over quite a few times by both … Continue reading Mediterranean Cruise: Taormina, Sicily, Italy

Our next port included Lucca and Pisa. You could also choose to go to Florence, but we wanted to check out some new towns (even though we loved Florence). We were going to take the trains on our own, but Jef found a tour that would take us by bus that we thought would be easier and get us inside the towns faster. We were … Continue reading Mediterranean Cruise: Lucca and Pisa

Jef wanted to take a European cruise for his birthday this year. He found the itinerary he wanted through NCL. It was a 12 day cruise with no sea days. We stopped in a port every single day. The cruise boarded in Rome, so we left a day early to ensure that we would not miss the boat. I’m really happy that we gave ourselves … Continue reading Mediterranean Cruise: Rome and St. Tropez

We arrived at 6am in Ketchikan and we had to take a shuttle into the city for our excursion. It’s the only one that was not cancelled! On the way, the driver told us that they have precipitation there 234 days a year. They get 12 feet of rain on average. We were there on a beautiful sunny day. Our excursion? A trip on the … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Ketchikan

I was really excited about our excursion in Juneau: a helicopter ride to a glacier and then getting out and walking on it. We got up early to meet the tour and there were three other people that were waiting with us. The morning was foggy, which made us nervous. Then they had us wait in the van instead of bringing us directly to the … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Juneau

We got a call right before we were ready to disembark at Skagway that our excursion was cancelled. We were supposed to drive into the Yukon with numerous stops to see the beauty of the area as well as some wildlife. It was a six hour excursion. We had a lot of time on our hands and we were up early, so we decided to … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Skagway

On Saturday morning we sailed into Glacier Bay National Park. The park can only be accessed by boat or plane. The number of boats visiting each area is restricted and must have a permit. The park rangers who live there actually live a little outside of the park. The glaciers that you get to see at any given time depends on weather and wildlife activity. … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Glacier Bay National Park

We did not book an excursion in advance for Sitka. I really wanted to walk around the National Historical Park and it is easily accessible from where the shuttle drops you off in the middle of town. There is also an Alaska Raptor Center and Fortress of the Bear where you can see a lot of animals who were rescued and rehabilitated. There were quite … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Sitka

We chose to take the NCL Sun for our Alaska cruise. It is a smaller ship, which is nice because it is easier to get around. There were only 900 guests on board. There were also 900 crew members. We chose a room with a balcony, so we always had a view. This was one of our best decisions. We saw plenty of whales, seals, … Continue reading Alaskan Cruise: Icy Point Strait