Cruising the Med.

By Bruce McLean

We have just returned from nearly 6 weeks mostly spent travelling throughout Italy.

We planned a cruise on Grandeur of the Seas in the middle of our holiday as a break from the travelling and to give us a
chance to "catch our breath". The cruise was not intended to be the highlight of our trip but that is certainly the way it worked out.

We departed Civitavecchia, Italy on 30 June and from the moment we set foot on the Grandeur it was a fantastic experience. Everything was so professionally organised and we were surrounded by helpful smiling cruise staff. The ship was everything you see in the brochures and even though we had an inside cabin, it was very comfortable with everything we needed and a surprising amount of room.

Every meal was an experience and the food was first class. It was really great to be able to have a leisurely dinner, see the children go off to the kids club and then go to a fantastic show - every night!

The ports of call were great (even though it was a big decision as to whether we would actually get off the ship) and we really got to see more in a week than I expect you could do otherwise.

Cruising is really a marvellous, relaxed way to see a number of different places. As you will see from my photo (taken from Santorini) the Greek Isles are quite spectacular.

This was our first, but certainly not our last cruise. The kids are already asking me to bring home brochures for the next holiday.

Shane and the crew at Ecruising were terrific - both with the arrangements and helpful advice which we greatly appreciated as we were really not sure quite what to expect from our first cruise. Everything Shane and Skye told me was absolutely correct - even the advice that I would be "hooked" once I had my first cruising holiday.