My Cruise on Queen Victoria to the Greek Isles and Aegean Treasures - part 1 the itinerary

I thought that for this cruise I'd do my review of this Queen Victoria sailing in 2 parts, firstly the destinations and then the ship - partly because for me the decision to go was based on the itinerary, places I've always wanted to go to or been to and wanted to go back.

So, we started on 9th September in Rome not that you see anything just the hour drive from the airport to Civitavecchia and departed that evening for Naples.

Naples has a reputation, and I was a little concerned but we took a taxi to part of the Old Town and then walked along the narrow streets back to the ship. Now we Italy, so this was an excellent day but you do get to see some strange groups of people!

From Naples we headed after a day at sea to Santorini, 30 years ago I had a holiday booked for this beautiful island, but for 1 reason or another we could not go so we were really looking forward to this stop, and it did not disappoint.

The island of Santorini is the rim of an old volcano, and the ships anchor in the caldera and you are tendered to the port. There are 3 ways to the town, cable car, donkey or by foot, for me you need to take the cable car but watch for the queues, on the day we were there there were 6 cruise ships in and the queues were long and it was very hot so walking was a really bad choice!

From here we headed to Izmir for Ephesus, a historic ancient city although the day we visited I think everybody in Turkey was also there! At least I can say I've been to Asia, as this site is in the Asian side of Turkey.

Then for me one of the highlights, the sailing into Istanbul where we had an overnight stay, and it was great to get off ship in the evening and walk around the restaurants and some shops taking in the sounds and smells.

The picture below is taken from the balcony of the cabin and has the minaret's of the Blue Mosque and St Sophia's on the headland as well as Topkapi Palace.

Then there is the Grand Bazaar, don't forget your credit card! They say that there are 5 miles of passageways and thousands of stalls, I did not try to check but this is an amazing place.

After this stop in Istanbul, the ship sailed for Samos, Athens and Zakynthos- typically Greek with gorgeous weather in fact on 1 day the mid afternoon temperature was over 100 and the pool was a welcome cooling point.

From there we headed to Dubrovnik, a new place for us and one were looking forward to, especially as for a couple of years in was regularly in the news in the 1990's about the conflicts in the area.

It is a walled city and there was a courtesy coach from the ship to the town, this was the only day that the weather was inclement and we got caught in a storm on the wall, but found shelter and then a bar, well I have to get refreshments!

I have to say that we loved this port, and it is somewhere that I will go back to and may even do a land holiday here.

This was towards the end of the cruise and the last port of call was Venice, a city we visited about 6 years ago but only for a day. I had spent ages making sure we had a cabin on the correct side of the ship for the sail in especially as we had 2 full days in the port, however Cunard changed the itinerary and the sail into Venice was mid morning - I was not disappointed.

OK, if you stop on St Marks Square to get a drink or something to eat it is expensive a tea and coffee with the music was 30 Euros, but head off down the side streets and alleyways and you will stumble across so little cafes and bars which make a place like this.

After 12 nights we had to come home you can read my thoughts on the flights at A Tale of 2 Airlines, if I could have stowed away to do it again I would have done! This to me was one of the best itineraries that I have seen and I would happily do this trip again.

Part 2 about the ship will follow in due course.