Our parents have taken numerous cruises in the past and have raved about the sites they got to see and the experience of travelling to several different countries during one trip. It began as a bit of a joke, teasing our parents about taking a big trip before their daughters got too old, but it worked!
Our parents have loved taking NCL cruises in the past because they don't like to be tied to a dining schedule. In their experience, the "freestyle" way of cruising worked best. We decided to take the 12-day Mediterranean cruise travelling from Istanbul, Turkey and ended in Barcelona, Spain. The big attractions to making that decision resided with Greece and Croatia. The rest of it, truthfully, was going to just be new places none of us had seen.
We arrived in Istanbul after a VERY cramped and uncomfortable flight aboard American Airlines and stayed for one evening in a little hotel in the old part of Istanbul. Surprisingly, Istanbul quickly became one of our favorite places! The people were extremely friendly, everything was affordable thanks to Turkey retaining their own currency, the city was very clean, and the food was wonderful. The only downside? The extremely sudden calls to prayer throughout the day. Make sure your hotel isn't located next to a minaret that carries the calls to prayer over the loud speakers attached. It can be quite startling to wake up to early in the morning!