Many don’t like flying, but there as many who avoid the Bay of Biscay. But to fly cruise is to get a far more exciting cruise, where your holiday is packed with ports- not the journey getting there and back again.

We always take shore leave. Often we book our own flights, which means we can use a cheaper airline, and as we travel light, we normally only have one case between us. We then book a hotel for a night or two in the ‘home port’. The Azura uses Malta, which is somewhere we have not stayed over night as we feel we have seen it on the available time. But the Queen Victoria is using three great ports this year, Barcelona, Trieste, and Civitavecchia. As an experiment, take a look on Booking.com and see where you could stay and for how little – and then book a CityAppTour which is a self guided tour that works on your phone. As we did in Lille last week.

Imagine a week full of great ports because the whole time is in the Mediterranean not getting there and back… and there is a great city you can join at.

Barbados

In the winter, flying into Barbados is the same principle. Your two weeks are spend in the Caribbean, not getting there and back.

The main difference is that you have to immigrate to the ship on arrival. To explain, the ship becomes your ‘country’ of stay, you immigrate to them, and then visit the ports on a mass acceptance and go ashore using your cruise card. It is different at different ports.

In Barbados, you stand on the runway, get on a bonded bus, then are taken to ship immigration within the port. You do not enter Barbados until after you have become a ward of the ship.

Malta

In Malta, you enter the country, then leave it, immigrating to the ship. You can then walk back into Malta as a guest from the ship.

The Queen Victoria uses three great cities this summer. Just look at them and think about that extra day, and cost it against going there for a holiday. When you have looked at your departure fort, take a look at Booking.com and see what it might cost.

Barcelona, best seen by Metro ticket, and a city that looks wonderful in the evening.