“Not all those who wander are lost” – J.R.R. Tolkien
We have taken some fabulous family cruise vacations over the years!
The Collins family has taken some fabulous cruise vacations over the years! We are posting a few of the more interesting ones so that others can see our experience on the various cruise lines both good/bad. Hopefully it will inspire you to do some traveling of your own to make memories with your own family.
The Caribbean is one of our favorite cruise destinations, no matter which port it is. Of course, living in San Antonio, TX it allows us the golden opportunity to drive 5 hours and then cruise out of the port of Galveston TX. More often the cruise line routes from that port normally travel to many of the same 5 ports in the Western Caribbean with little route variation. So, we will try to give information and reviews on all of the ports that we have been to and all of the ships we have been on over the years.
Holland America MS Zuiderdam, April 2026
7-Day Eastern Caribbean: Amber Cove & Bahamas
For this cruise, we drove from San Antonio TX to Austin TX and then flew round-trip from Austin TX direct to Miami FL. The cruise route was Miami FL -> Half Moon Cay, Bahamas -> Sea Day -> Grand Turk, Turk & Caicos -> Amber Cove, Dominican Republic -> Sea Day -> Key West FL -> and back to Miami FL.
10-Day Mediterranean
October 2025, during the now infamous US Government shutdown, we drove from San Antonio TX to DFW, then we flew overnight from DFW -> ATL -> FCO Rome airport. We toured Rome for a day on our own, and then we took the local train from Rome to the seaside town of Ladispoli, Italy where we stayed the night in a VRBO rental home. The next day we took the local train from Ladispoli to the port town of Civitavecchia Italy where we boarded the NCL Sky cruise ship. The cruise route was Civitavecchia, Italy -> Livorno, Italy (Florence/Pisa)-> Cannes, France -> Barcelona, Spain -> Palma Mallorca, Spain -> Alicante, Spain -> Motril, Spain -> and then due to an impending Portuguese dock workers strike we skipped the port of Cadiz/Seville, Spain and we did an extra sea day -> arriving 12 hours early in Lisbon, Portugal. Then we flew overnight back from LIS -> BOS -> DFW, and finally drove back to San Antonio TX the next day.
FAQs
What is your favorite cruise so far?
Fall of 2025 we took the NCL Sky on a 10-Day with 9 ports Mediterranean cruise visiting Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. A wonderful cruise with lots to see and visit. We usually prefer balcony cabins, but we didn’t even mind our inside cabin on this cruise because we were never in it except to sleep as we were always on the go visiting so many awesome ports of call.
What is your favorite cruise line?
We have enjoyed all 4 different cruise lines that we have taken our journeys on over the years. For our style of cruising, we do prefer the quieter more traditional cruise lines like Holland America, or NCL. We also enjoy the active style of the Royal Caribbean ships as well. So, no one particular favorite cruise line yet.
What is your favorite port?
We really enjoyed the port of Barcelona, Spain. We originally thought we would not like it because it is such a big city, but after we got there and explored around the city walking down the Las Ramblas with Christoper Columbus pointing the way through a local Paya festival, we just fell in love with the laid-back style of the Barcelona. We also took a taxi to the Sagrada Familia church and visited a local supermarket to top off our day in port.
What is your favorite port in the Caribbean?
We really enjoyed the port of Grand Turk, Turk & Caicos. Seeing the donkeys all over the island was just too cool, and our afternoon at the beach club on the island golf cart tour was just wonderful.