We have already been on a cruise ship in 2025. In January, we boarded the NCL Dawn in Mauritius and disembarked in Cape Town, South Africa. That was during our winter away. However, when we discovered both a reasonable cruise deal and a great airline price to its embarkation port, we grabbed another chance. It will be during Jay's September birthday week. Next month, we will hopefully be able to fly to Barcelona on the 2nd; that is, as long as Air Canada staff do not strike and cause travel disruptions! We have just one night in a hotel. We'll return to Vancouver the day the MSC ship returns to Barcelona. It should be a great 8 nights!
We will not be visiting any new countries on the Mediterranean cruise. We have already stayed in Spain, Italy, and France. Ibiza belongs to Spain and the island of Sardinia is a part of Italy. We spent a month on France's Côte d’Azur although we didn't make it to city of Marseille. So the two islands and the major city in southern France will be new experiences.
We have spent a great deal of time in the Middle East. Jay and I have lived in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. In fact, more than one third of my teaching career took place in the Persian Gulf. Today, we bought a 7-night MSC cruise leaving from Dubai. We'll be doing it just before Christmas and returning with Jay's sisters to Sri Lanka for most of our upcoming winter away. This cruise will be an interesting week of both new and old for us.
Neither Jay nor I have been to the country of Qatar, so this cruise will allow us to add another new country in 2025. By the end of the year, we will have visited a total of 98.