2010 was my folks' 40th anniversary year, and as such we wanted to do something special. Some of our 2008 Italy travel group was talking about putting together another trip, so we thought it would be good to celebrate their anniversary with another big trip. Back in the fall of 2009, the decision was made to take a cruise of some sort. Most, if not all, of the people that expressed an initial interest in the trip had cruised in the Caribbean at least once. Nobody was really excited about doing another one, so that ruled out that area. Some interest was expressed in an Alaskan cruise. However, the area that got the most votes was the Mediterranean. Many in our group had been at least in the general vicinity thanks to our 2008 Italy trip, and we all wanted to go back and see more of the area.
Some shopping around revealed a bunch of choices in both cruise lines and itineraries. After some discussion, a cruise on the north side with some eastern destinations seemed the best overall choice. The next decision was time of year to travel. The general consensus was that we wanted to go in the off season after the major summer holiday rush, probably sometime in October or November. We chose this time of year for two reasons. First, when you travel to Europe at times other than peak vacation season, pretty much everything is cheaper - and less crowded. Secondly, after spending time in Italy in June, we all wanted to go at a time of year that wouldn't be so bloody hot. Many places in Europe do not have air conditioning, and it can be quite uncomfortable when it is hot and humid. Royal Caribbean offered a sailing date and a schedule that fit everyone's interests: an Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas that sailed on November 11, 2010 from Barcelona, Spain. The ports: Barcelona, Spain; Toulon, France; Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy; Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy; Piraeus (Athens), Greece; Kuşadashi (Ephesus), Turkey; Santorini, Greece and Naples, Italy before returning back to Barcelona. I made the mistake of not grabbing the graphic of our itinerary before the cruise, but this one below is almost identical. The only difference is that instead of hitting Nice, France, we visited Toulon - which isn't very far from Nice, actually. Everything else, including the order we visited the ports, is correct. Well, except for one thing: the routes. Notice it shows that we went to the west and south of Sicily in both directions, and that we went south of Sardinia (the southern island of the two to the west of Italy) on our way back from Naples to Barcelona. In actuality, we cut the Strait of Messina between the boot of Italy and the island of Sicily in both directions. From Naples to Barcelona, we hit the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia. (BTW, the below graphic is courtesy of Royal Caribbean International's website.)
The next step was the best - and most economical - way to purchase the trip. Some neighbors in my folks' community recommended Pavlus Travel out of Albuquerque, NM as a great source for discounted cruises. These people had used them many times in the past to book some of their vacations, and they highly recommended them. Mom handled most of the communication with them, and they did offer prices less than booking the cruise directly through RC's website, so we all put our deposits down and the trip planning was underway. A bonus: we would get a credit on our room accounts on the ship by booking through them. In my case, I had a total of $245 of onboard credit. That would buy my Internet access as well as a few Scotches or cognacs or the like... 
Once the actual trip was selected, we needed to decide how we were going to get there and back, as well as decide if we wanted to stay in Barcelona either before or after the cruise. None of us (mom, dad or I) had been to Barcelona or Spain before, so we decided to get there early and have some time to see a little bit of Barcelona. Also, the trip would put us home very close to Thanksgiving, so that was another deciding factor to tack on a few extra days before the cruise.
Now that we had trip dates in mind, the next step was to purchase our airfare from Houston to Barcelona. We could have booked airfare through RC if we'd wanted to go that route, but Pavlus didn't offer air at the time, just the cruise packages. So we were kind of on our own to make air travel arrangements. This actually worked out best from the money point of view, as the cruise lines typically gouge for cruise/air packages. So the big decision was: who do we fly? All of us have Continental OnePass frequent flyer numbers, and they are definitely convenient since one of their major hubs is here in Houston. However, flights to Europe direct from Houston are limited - that means we would have had to connect through their Newark hub. I had nightmares just thinking about it - especially after our last experience there on the way home from Italy, and doubly especially since we would be returning so close to Thanksgiving. Those points, along with the fact that all of the US carriers are in nickel-and-dime mode, forced us to look at other carriers. Thanks to the Star Alliance, though, we could fly another airline and still earn Continental OnePass miles. Back in 2008, we did the same thing when Continental was a member of the SkyTeam partnership (Continental switched from SkyTeam to Star Alliance not long after Delta and Northwest merged): we flew KLM to Rome via Amsterdam. For the return trip, we flew Alitalia from Rome to Newark, then Continental from Newark to Houston. Since the alliances had changed, we ruled out KLM for this trip. However, because of the Star Alliance, Lufthansa was an option, and ultimately our choice for air carrier for this trip. Lufthansa has nonstop Houston-Frankfurt service, and nonstop Frankfurt-Barcelona service. That meant only a single layover and plane change each direction, and most importantly (especially for the return trip) no connections in any US airport. This was huge considering the fact that we'd be returning so close to Thanksgiving, and we all know how US airports are the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
So Lufthansa it was: the ability to earn OnePass miles, a great schedule, a decent price for round trip airfare to Europe ($802 per person), not having to transit through a US airport, a great airline with a reputation of efficiency and excellent service, direct flights from Houston, and - oh yeah - free booze in coach - all contributed to the decision to choose Lufthansa. Another bonus was a night in Frankfurt. Lufthansa has one daily flight from Frankfurt to Houston, and it typically leaves between 10 and 11 am, arriving between 2 and 3 pm Houston time. Our ship wasn't scheduled to dock in Barcelona on debark day until 6 am. The flight to Frankfurt that would get us there in time to catch that 10:15 flight to Houston left Barcelona at 6:40 am. In short, there was no way we could realistically expect to make that early flight from Barcelona. We were in luck, though: for no extra airfare charge, we could split our return trip over two days, so we did. We scheduled a 12:30 flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt on Tuesday the 23rd, and then caught the flight to Houston the next morning. The bonus here is that it would give us an afternoon and evening to check out a little bit of Frankfurt. Dad had transited through the airport before, and actually spent a night there once (including going into town), but neither mom nor I had been there. Being able to sample some authentic German food - and more importantly, beer! - was an exciting prospect for me.
FYI, we made all of the major travel arrangements - cruise, airfare and hotels in Barcelona and Frankfurt - back in January, 2010 (Jan 12 if memory serves). It definitely pays to make arrangements as far in advance as possible - especially with a group as large as ours (ultimately, there were 15 of us) - as it gives you plenty of time to plan, research, and shop for the best deals. I'll talk about the hotels we chose in the respective trip details sections.
With the cruise, hotels and airfare booked, it was time to do a little research about our ports and what was available for us to do and see at each of our stops. For those that have cruised before, you know that the cruise line always offers a selection of shore excursions and activities at each port of call. For small groups, this is usually the most economical way to see and do things in ports your not familiar with. RC did offer private tours for groups of different sizes - even individuals - but they seemed pretty expensive. So the thought was, "What about third parties?" There are always businesses in popular tourist destinations that offer private tours. The problem was we didn't know who to contact - until mom found a bunch of information regarding tour operators out on CruiseCritic.com. Turns out a lot of tour operators advertise and have reviews posted out there, and it turned into our primary information resource for third party excursion providers.
It turned out that we selected Cruise Critic-recommended providers for every one of our ports of call except for Toulon, France and Santorini, Greece. For Toulon, we arranged a private tour through a friend of Reba's that happens to live near Toulon. For Santorini, the consensus was that we would all take kind of a "free day" there to explore and shop on our own without an organized/scheduled excursion. I'll talk about the individual tour providers we selected in each of the articles related to each port we visited.
As mentioned, the excursions through the cruise line are typically expensive, and they herd you around like cattle: on the bus, off the bus, walk here, here's a little bit of info, back on the bus to the next attraction…wash, rinse, repeat. There's no personalization or anything like that. That's fine in a lot of cases - especially if you're a single traveller or have a very small group. With our group of 15 people, though, it made sense for us to look into private tours. The cruise line did offer them, but after researching and pricing third parties - and cutting the cruise line out as the middleman - it was cheaper, both overall and per-person, to book tours through the private providers. In fact, in several cases, it was cheaper per-person for the full-day private tour than it was for one of the cheaper, half-day, less-intense/informative excursions through the cruise line.
The process of picking the excursions was sort of procrastinated, but we did have everything in place approximately 2 months before we departed. That might have proven unwise if we were travelling in the peak season months, but since this was an offseason cruise, all of the providers were eager for our business.
A quick note about our airport transfers in Houston. The trip length made it uneconomical for us to drive ourselves to the airport and park a vehicle for 17 days. We also have a bad habit of not traveling light, and we didn't want to impose on friends for rides to and from the airport - especially since we would be getting home the day before Thanksgiving. We looked into limo services and the like, and ultimately chose Super Shuttle. For between $25 and $35 per person each way, it was cheaper than a limo or a taxi (especially considering the distances the folks and I live from the airport), and they would pick us up at home and drop us off there when we got back. It worked out perfectly, even though there was a little bit of a wait at the terminal after we cleared customs on the way home.
The final major detail we had to arrange: what would happen with dogs while we were gone? Between us, we have five dogs (I have 2 and mom and dad have 3). The rates for boarding them are exorbitant. We would have needed to rob a mint to pay that bill when we got back. In comes Amber Miller to save the day. She has taken care of the dogs in the past, and was willing to both house-sit at the folks' house and dog-sit for all of the dogs over there for the duration of the trip. Since she works in the folks' community club house about 3 blocks away, it was very convenient for her - and a nice extra "paycheck." As always, she did a great job of taking care of everything doggie-related, and it is comforting to know that we can leave and not have to worry about the dogs.
So with all of the major items tended to, the next thing to do was actually take the trip! Continue the story here.