A Few Facts About Our Mediterranean Explorer and Crossing Cruise

It seems that Tim and I have been going non-stop since returning from our two-and-a-half-month volunteer stint at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Tim has been working as an Election Judge for Larimer County for the past week, just as he did last year. Today is election day and his final day on the job. We’ve also been busy scheduling doctor and dentist appointments, haircuts, and all those other things that must be done before we leave for Europe in two weeks.

We will fly to Florence via Frankfort on November 21, 2023, and will spend five nights there. It will be nice to be able to explore this incredible city at a relaxed pace while we recover from jet lag.

Next, we will join our pre-cruise extension, Ultimate Italy – Tuscany, and will spend three nights in an eighteenth-century villa. Our days will include tours of Tuscany, Florence, Sienna, and San Gimignano.

On November 27, we will board our ship in Civitavecchia, the closest port to Rome. We will follow the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal with multiple ports of call before our mid-Atlantic crossing to Fort Lauderdale, where we will disembark. The cruise will last 24 days.

Mediterranean Explorer and Crossing

We will be sailing on the Viking Neptune, one of Viking’s newest ocean ships. As soon as we disembark in Fort Lauderdale, lucky guests will then embark for the 2023-2024 Viking World Cruise.

Like the Viking Venus that we sailed on last year, the Viking Neptune carries only 930 guests. That’s one of the things we love about these ships. Once again, we selected a Deluxe Veranda Stateroom on deck 3, also known as a DV6. 

Despite our growing proclivity to upgrade to higher levels of accommodation elsewhere, such as business class airline seats, we were quite pleased with our DV6 cabin last year. In fact, we found that we preferred its location to other more expensive cabins. We know we will enjoy our cabin again on this upcoming cruise.

Viking Neptune Deck Plan - Our Cabin Is Circled in Red

Our Deluxe Veranda Stateroom Layout