This was the first cruise we had ever been on and it's interesting how we even found it- we were looking at going on a vacation in the south of Spain and logistics seemed like such a hassle for getting between cities. So, we went in search of a cruise and some criteria included: luxury ship/rooms, long days at port (no ships leaving too early), and no sea days since we did not know how we would fare. Restaurants on board should be nice, but that wasn't as high of a priority. It became clear to us early on that we would not be happy with a cruise line that had thousands of guests so we decided we would cap it at 1,000. That also took care of ensuring we would be on a luxury or at least somewhat luxury line, too.

At the end of the day, we ended up choosing this cruise because the dates, price, and itinerary worked out. And I am so incredibly glad that it did as we had an amazing time!

The ports of call were: Barcelona- Palma de Mallorca- Valencia- Cartagena- Malaga- Cadiz- Lisbon. Some of the excursions were disappointing and we did at some point complain that we had a bad tour guide one day. I wish I had known not to go to Mijas as a day trip in Malaga, for example. But, we got to see every city in the afternoon after doing a morning excursion and it worked out well for us as a whole. Read more