The Party of 10 is back for our annual adventure. It doesn’t matter that we live in different states because our love for travel and more importantly for each other, bring us together like no time has passed. This adventure was unique in a few ways. This was the first trip to Europe for the four teenage boys. None of our group had been to Greece before so a lot of planning and research was needed.
With 227 islands and the mainland of Greece (roughly the size of England), it’s tough to even begin to see it all in one short week. Since this was our first time in Greece, we opted for a typical “starter-method” by spending the majority of our time on a floating hotel cruise. Not only could we get a good sampling of 4-5 islands, we didn’t have to lug our luggage around as we skipped across the Mediterranean Sea (in fact we traversed through four seas). With four of our Party of 10 being new to Europe, this was our ideal solution to easing them.
With so many cruise lines and varying itineraries, we chose Royal Caribbean because we had previously sailed on Royal before so there was a comfort level. Plus the price and itinerary fit our needs. To us, the itinerary was far more important than the actual ship. So which itinerary? Well we wanted one that started in one location and ended in another so we could add one more amazing city to see. Now the con to this approach is that flights were potentially harder to secure and maybe more money than a roundtrip flight. So you have to weigh the pros and cons of this scenario. Our final destinations: Athens – Mykonos – Crete – Zakynthos – Corfu – Montenegro – Sea Day – Venice. With this itinerary we actually were in 3 countries and spent time on either side of the cruise in Athens and Venice.
Would we do it again? Absolutely! One of our favorite places to go. The Enchantment of the Seas is more than 20 years old but she was the right size for our group. The kids could freely roam the ship and easily be found in five minutes. With only one sea day – the ship never felt crowded and we had plenty to do. The nightly Karaoke show was the place to be! I personally enjoyed the Abba sing-along as well.
Each night everyone ranked the places we had seen and at the end of the trip, the final ranking consensus was: Zaynthos got the top spot – definitely a place we all want to go back to with the bluest water we have ever seen. Venice came in 2nd which was thrilling. The parents had been to Venice on that first trip 13 years ago and we loved seeing the kids explore Venice for the first time. Mykonos came in a close 3rd although everyone agreed we had mostly seen it and didn’t necessarily have to go back. Montenegro was a delight and we felt we only saw a very small part. Corfu has amazing beaches and our trip to Porto Timio deserves its own post. 
Crete was just ok and was often tied for last with Athens. The only “weather” we had was in Athens so that may have spoiled the experience a bit but for the kids they didn’t really like the big city with some history. I wonder what they would think of Rome.
Look for more posts specifically about each of these islands and our recommendations.
