So this summer I was blessed with the opportunity to go on an amazing cruise around the Mediterranean with my family. This was my second cruise around the Mediterranean, however, last time I went on MSC Lirica around the Mediterranean to a number of different places including, Tunisia, Mallorca, France and a couple others (I will get back to you with a separate blog post about that!)
The Royal Caribbean is a cruise line that has different ships, and the one that I went on was called Rhapsody Of The Seas which sailed from; Venice to Greece, to Montenegro, to Croatia and then back to Venice.
This blog post will be an overview of my Royal Caribbean cruise experience.
Day 1
We flew from Gatwick to Venice very early around 4am and arrived in Venice where we would be boarding the cruise ship. Of course, we had to take a taxi to the dock which I was happy about as I was able to charge my phone since the power bank was dead!
After queuing for a while, getting our cruise boarding cards, and going through security with our luggage, we finally boarded the ship.
We boarded the ship around 12pm, and the ship did not set sail until 5pm, so the rest of the time was spent exploring the ship and doing what I do best… taking pictures!
Day 2: Day at sea
The whole of day 2 was spent at sea, cruising to Katakolo. You may think, “what on earth were you doing for a whole 24 hours on a ship?” But there was always plenty to do. From swimming, to spa, to theatre performances, and a range of different activities that are scheduled by the cruise line. You will never be bored because there is literally always something to do, as well as something to eat with the range of restaurants onboard.
Always entertainment in the lobby
Day 3: Arrived in Katakolo
After a night of exciting performances, and activities, we went to sleep and woke up in Katakolo in Greece. To get the most out of the cruise, we had pre-booked excursions from all of the ports that we would be arriving at using an excursion provider called Cruising Excursions.
In Katakolo, we went on an Olympic Tour which explored the ancient Olympia by horse and carriage. It was incredibly hot so we stopped by a nearby Café called Pergola to get some refreshments. I was not impressed with the hygiene of the Café or the customer service at Pergola (I have attached a photo of the glass that was used to serve drinks. This was said to be a result of being in the dishwasher and nothing was done about it) but we were desperate for some drinks. We then continued on to the Museum.
the Pergola café
glass used to serve Diet Coke
Museum
The tour lasted a total of around 4 hours, before we were able to board the ship again. Each and every time we got on the ship, we had to go through what looked like airport security. This is because there were strict rules about not bringing alcohol from outside onto the ship, because the ship would not make as much money from its bars. We were also not allowed to bring extension cords or irons onto the ship for safety reasons.
Although we were very exhausted from the tour, once we got back on the ship it was lunch time and so we headed straight to the restaurant. Once we were done, we just enjoyed the ship’s facilities and attended a few scheduled events that were still taking place for passengers who did not leave the ship at Katakolo.
Day 4- Arrived in Santorini
We woke up in Santorini after a night of sailing across the Mediterranean Sea. This was one of the places I was looking forward to the most. Partially because I had heard a lot about Santorini, but mainly because Rick Ross was there in 2017 and made it look cool 
So I took this excursion quite seriously because I was going to be in the famous Santorini. We disembarked very early around 730am and got onto a tender which would connect us to shore from our cruise ship. It was all very exciting.
As soon as the tender docked, we took a cable car up the Rocky Mountain to the peak, where you could see Santorini in all of its glory, with breathtaking views. Unfortunately we missed our tour bus that the cable car would connect us to but we took a cab, and thankfully were able to meet back up with the group and not miss out on any of the tour
We wandered the streets of Santorini, which was unbelievably hot. We picked up a few souvenirs such as token fridge magnets, Santorini’s famous pistachio nuts and also stopped by an ice cream parlour that was selling the most delicious mango sorbet ice cream and other refreshments.
After visiting the famous area of Santorini, we hopped onto the tour bus with the rest of our group and went for wine tasting.
This was located at the top of a mountain with incredible views and a lovely way to soak up the culture of Santorini.
Once this activity was done, we headed back to the location where we would get a cable car back down to the shore to catch our tender. What we did not realise was that the queue for the cable cars would be extremely long. It was so long that we took it in turns to stand in line for about an hour until we finally made it onto the cable car which was 6 euros per person.
We enjoyed the last views of Santorini from the cable car, before boarding the tender that would take us back to the ship where the fun would continue.
This evening was super fun on the ship because we had a disco on board! (Click here to watch my Instagram Santorini highlights)
Day 5: Day at Sea
After the two consecutive excursions and constant partying I was absolutely KNACKERED, so very grateful to have a day at sea to catch my breath before arriving at our next destination, Montenegro.
Although there were plenty of activities going on this day, I just wanted to take it easy and catch up on my rest. So I spent the day eating, drinking, sunbathing and most importantly, sleeping!
It was lovely because I was able to take my food from the buffet out onto the deck and eat whilst soaking up the sun. I spent the majority of the day here, and was able to catch the beautiful sunset.
Day 6: Arrived in Montenegro!
We woke up in Montenegro. I was not sure of what to expect but I sure did like the exotic name.
Similar to the Santorini experience, we had to get a tender to connect us to shore. Once we got to shore, there was a huge sign saying welcome to Montenegro which I HAD to get a selfie in front of.
Disappointingly, there was no 3G coverage in Montenegro which was a little inconvenient, however, the country is incredibly beautiful I didn’t mind too much. We hopped onto the Cruising excursions tour bus and made a move towards the Mosaic museum. I wasn’t particularly intrigued because the museum was extremely small and not much was going on here, apart from a few historic pieces.
For me, the best thing about the museum was that there was a young girl right outside the museum hustling. She was selling small souvenirs at very affordable prices so I bought about 4-5 souvenirs from her. You go girl!
We didn’t spend long at the museum, and soon after went to another part of Montenegro which had very lovely views and nice places to eat with WiFi.
I spent the day vlogging my trip to Montenegro and the footage will be out on my YouTube channel in due course. (Click here to subscribe!)
After staying here for a while and getting something to nibble and drink, the tour was coming to an end so we made our way back to the ship.
Day 7: Arrived in Split, Croatia
After a night of usual on board fun, we woke up in Croatia. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Croatia simply because all I knew Croatia for was being a party island. To my pleasant surprise I saw that it was much more than that. A country with culture and amazing scenery.
We had a hop-on- hop off tour bus experience where we visited a number of different places such as St. Marks Square, and nearby I saw Gregory’s Toe and made a wish on it. 
On the way back to the ship, there were a number of stalls where you could get some souvenirs and of course I did. I spotted a sailors hat which just made sense given that I was on a cruise and once I got back on the ship, I wore it around all evening until we sailed away from Croatia, back towards Venice.
Day 8: Day at sea sailing to Venice
The night before we arrived in Venice we were asked to put our luggage outside our doors where they would be taken off the cruise ship.
Day 9: Arrived in Venice
Since we disembarked from the cruise ship early and our flight back to the UK was not until evening, we decided to kill time by exploring Venice. This meant that we used a unique service offered by the Venice port, that would transport our suitcases to the airport and we would collect it just before our flight once ready to check in. This was handy as we were able to do our activities without carrying all our suitcases around Venice with us.
Whilst in Venice, we got a water taxi, ate at the famous St Marks’ Square and took a ride on a Gondola before returning to the airport for our flight back to London.
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