My husband will be flying in to Rome from his base in Afghanistan for 15 days in Oct. 2009. I will be coming from the states. We want to take a 7 day cruise and also rest. He works 14 hr days!!!. What is my best avenue as to city arrival, embark port, place to stay and ease of transportation? We are RCI members, he can stay with Armed forces rec centers, and have a somewhat limited budget; but we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary in Jan. so we consider this a special trip too. I have thought about flying to Rome. Port out of Citivecchia then stay somewhere with peaceful views and serenity. I have no idea which to take the Spain, France Malta route, or the Dubrovinik, Istanbul, Greece route. Also is there a better area to fly into, Venice, Barcelona, Nice ???? Please help any way you can. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

we've done both east and west med cruises and both of them are really great, we actually do this every summer. We usually fly into Venice and then embark at this port which always seems very easy. we have never started from the port of Civitavecchia but i'm sure this would be just as easy as any other port, usually cruise lines can arrange transportation from your hotel, or from wherever you might stay.
I can't say which route I like more, but Dubrovnik, Istanbul, and Greece were really interesting and new with a lot to see. I really enjoyed all of the stops in Turkey and Greece, the people are so friendly. Dubrovnik was somewhere I didn't really research and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, it is such a beautiful city.
I can't speak for Malta, but Spain and France are always lovely, and very relaxing. The seafood and sangria is always good in spain
The food is great either way you go and the temperatures are in the same range. I would suggest you take a look and see what cruises are offered in october and pick whichever is more appealing to you.
good luck planning your trip, you'll have an amazing time

kgf,

First off, thanks to you and your husband for your service! As to your questions, since you're looking for a week on-board and are C&A members, I'd suggest you check out Royal Caribbean's early October cruise out of Civitavecchia, or one of the weekly Greek Isles cruises from Venice. Either way, you don't have to get on another plane and you can either immediately get on a ship or relax in Rome and then make your way at your leisure (by rental car or train) to Venice.

If you want to see more of the Med, the roundtrips from Barcelona offered by most cruise lines are probably the best way to go, given airports/sea ports and general hassle. Barca is a beautiful city in its own right and has a purpose-built cruise terminal to make embarkation easy.

I hope that helps