Our background: We are a Danish couple in the mid-late 50s, and this cruise was our first cruise ever. For that reason, I obviously cannot compare the cruise to any previous cruises, but I can compare it to our expectations, and after all, I guess that's what really counts.

Our travel plan: We arrived in Singapore 3 days early, to get over the jetlag, and also because we love Singapore, and wanted a few days in this great city. Flying Business Class on Singapore Airlines turned out to be a great idea. Wonderful service and great food on board made time fly (sorry!) on the long flight. On Dec 20th we boarded Nautica, and for 18 days it was our "home". More about the cruise itself later. Arriving in Sydney on Jan 7th, we stayed here for another 3 days, before we started the long journey back to Denmark. However, we had chosen to split the journey into two parts, so on Jan 10th we flew to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and stayed here for 3 days, and then finally on Jan 13th we took a Lufthansa flight back to Europe.

The itinerary: Read more