Friday, December 15, 2006

World Cruise Overview



The map reflects the route that our cruise ship will take on our World Cruise adventure. During the course of this voyage, we will visit 44 ports, in 27 different countries, over the span of 109 days. Our ship will transit the Panama Canal, sail the Chilean Fjords, cruise around Antarctica over a three day period, and transit the Suez Canal.

We will spend 56 days at sea sailing in the Atlantic, Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and in the Red, Arabian, and Mediterranean Seas. We will also spend 53 days on land.

The World Cruise consists of seven major segments.

Segment I. Starting in Miami, we will visit one port of call before transiting the Panama Canal where we will make stops in Ecuador and in Peru before reaching Valparaiso, Chile, our first port of call in South America.

Segment II. From Valpairsao we sail south with visits to various coastal ports in Chile and Argentina before sailing around Cape Horn, along with three days of Antartica cruising. Additional stops will be made in the Falkland Islands, Argentina and Uruguay, before reaching Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Segment III. After the ship stays overnight in Buenos Aires, we set sail for Rio de Janeiro where the ship will also have an overnight stay to conicide with the Carnaval festivities in Rio. After leaving South America we will continue our journey to Africa with stops in Walvis Bay, Namibia and an overnight in Cape Town, South Africa.

Segment IV. Following a second overnight in Capetown, and a stop in Durban, South Africa, we will visit other countries in Africa such as Mosambique, Kenya, and Seychelles before reaching the port of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Segment V. After spending a couple of overnights in Dubai we will visit several other Middle East locations including Salalah, Oman; Luxor, Egypt; Aqaba, Jordan; Ashdod, Israel, Alexandria/Cairo, Egypt; and then we will proceed to the Mediterranean with stops at Athens, Greece and Istanbul, Turkey.

Segment VI. The cruise ship will have an overnight in Istanbul and from there we will sail to other Mediterranean ports including another port in Turkey, two additional ports in Greece before visiting various ports in Italy and ending in Civitavecchia, Italy which is the port that serves Rome.

Segement VII. After leaving Rome, will will make additional stops in Italy, Spain, Morocco and France before our journey comes to a conlusion at the port of Southampton, England.

Our home during the entire 109 days of our voyage will be on the Crystal Serenity Cruise Ship which is part of Crystal Cruises. The Serenity entered service in June of 2003. The Serenity is a beautiful cruise ship and just the perfect size vessel for a World Cruise. The ship can carry around 1,100 passenger's with a 650 person crew.

We arrive in Miami on January 6 where we will spend a few days at the Four Seasons Hotel prior to the start of the World Cruise. This year's World Cruise has been named "World Cruise 2007, Treasures of Sun & Sea". The World Cruise offically kicks off at 7:00 PM on January 11 with a Black Tie Formal Gala Celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel. The following afternoon we will be transported from the Hotel to the Miami Cruise Ship Terminal where we will board the Crystal Serenity.

Keith & Anne Marie