Having decided to finally return to Europe after many years, it was a cruise that came to mind. We had already done two Princess cruises in the past year to the Caribbean so I knew that Princess was the way to go. The itinerary was what finalized the decision..they offerd the most time in the most interesting places on a cruise that is very port intensive.

We flew from Houston to Newark to Frankfurt to Venice...lucky to go first class in the new lie down seats on Continental...all was great until we got to Frankfurt.....terrible place to connect. They post inaccurate gate info and the airport is huge; we almost missed the Lufthansa connection to Venice and that was also a joke....no boarding order. just cattle rushing the gate...really funny.

Spent two days in Venice prior to boarding the ship. Stayed in Mestre at the Hotel Tritone strictly for thr convenience of not hving to haul all the luggage over the bridges and canals...worked out well as Venice was extremely hot and humid. Mestre is not exactly a tourist attraction but has the easiest access to the port. Read more