61 Night World Cruise

Dubai is a city built on ambition and air conditioning, rising from the Arabian desert into a skyline of record-breaking towers, artificial islands, and mega-malls. The Dubai cruise port at Mina Rashid sits in the older part of the city near the historic Creek district, about 15 minutes from the modern skyscraper core along Sheikh Zayed Road.

Doha is the capital of Qatar, a small, wealthy Persian Gulf state on a peninsula jutting into the Arabian Gulf. The city has about 2 million people in its metropolitan area and has transformed from a quiet pearling and fishing port into one of the most architecturally ambitious cities in the Middle East, fueled by natural gas wealth.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a city of about 1.5 million people spread across an island and mainland peninsula on the Persian Gulf coast.

Athens cruise port is in Piraeus, a busy port city about 10 kilometers southwest of central Athens. Piraeus is its own city, not just a terminal, and it handles cruise ships, island ferries, and commercial traffic all at once.

Rome's cruise port is in Civitavecchia, a working port town about 80 kilometers northwest of the city. That distance is the single most important thing to understand about this stop.

La Spezia is a working Italian naval and commercial city on the Ligurian coast, but cruise passengers know it primarily as the gateway to Cinque Terre, the five colorful fishing villages clinging to the cliffs along a rugged stretch of coastline just north of the city. The La Spezia cruise port sits at the edge of the city center, a short walk from the train station that connects directly to the Cinque Terre villages.

Cannes is a Mediterranean resort city of about 75,000 people on the French Riviera, known worldwide for its annual film festival but offering far more than red carpets and paparazzi. The city sits on the Golfe de la Napoule with the Esterel massif's red porphyry cliffs rising to the west and the rolling hills of Provence behind.

Palma de Mallorca cruise port is one of the busiest in the Mediterranean and the main cruise gateway to the Balearic Islands. Palma sits on the south coast of Mallorca, the largest of the Balearics, about 250 kilometers south of Barcelona.

Ibiza is one of Spain's Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean, about 150 km off the coast of Valencia. The cruise port is in Ibiza Town (Eivissa), on the southeast coast of the island.

Valencia cruise port is Spain's third-largest cruise port (after Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca) and a rising star on Western Mediterranean itineraries. Valencia sits on the east coast of Spain about 350 kilometers south of Barcelona and 350 kilometers east of Madrid.