There is nothing like a nearly month long vacation to celebrate the 1 year mark of being in Mauritania. All the overtime, comp time, and work trips has afforded me quite a bit of time off to enjoy this summer, and with the embassy population at an all-time low during PCS season (it will be back to full in a month), it only made sense to take my first R&R when my absence from post would have the smallest impact.
Truth be told, this R&R was a long time in the making. Being posted in Nouakchott affords us 3 R&R trips, so it requires a bit of planning. Typical protocols dictate an R&R should not be taken in the first 6 months or last 6 months of a tour, so that essentially gave us a 1 year window to plan our trips. About a month after arriving to Nouakchott, fresh from travelling with a 7 month old baby, we decided we wanted to take a nice long trip that would be as kid friendly as possible. When our eldest was 3 years old, we took a Disney Cruise to Scandinavia and it was the perfect combination of convenience, culture, and relaxation, so our minds immediately drifted to a cruise.
As luck would have it, Disney was operating in the Mediterranean during the summer months, and with that our plans went into motion. We booked a one week Disney cruise from Barcelona, Spain with stops in Cadiz, Lisbon, Vigo, Le Havre, and ultimately stopping in Southampton, UK. We started our trip with a few days in Barcelona, to help us get over the travel since flights out of Mauritania are usually overnight affairs, but also to give us time to enjoy the great city. Here are a few photos of our brief time in Barcelona, which I think justified the extra time. Barcelona is a wonderful place full of friendly people, and by European standards, quite affordable.
From there, we boarded our cruise boat and hit the high seas for a wonderful weeklong cruise, mostly along the Iberian peninsula. I think I mentioned it when I discussed our trip to the Canary Islands, but I definitely understand why Northern Europeans in particular LOVE vacationing in Spain. Friendly people, fantastic food, and incredibly affordable. We stuck to tourist sites and even then, beer and wine was only $2-3 a glass, and nice meals out were roughly $10 per person, for some of the best meals we have had in years.
The cruise itself was wonderful. I could write an entire blog post on how wonderful Disney is when it comes to balancing entertainment for kids and adults on their cruise line and the quality of the food and entertainment, but it really is fantastic. They have great kids clubs for all ages. My eldest was always begging to go back to the Disney club for her age group, and even our youngest had a blast in the nursery. Angeli and I had a great time going to some mixology classes, doing of shore excursions, and we had a couple of nights to ourselves at the adults only restaurants on the ship, which was very welcome after nearly a year in Mauritania without a proper nice dinner date (mostly because Mauritania doesn’t have nice restaurants). Here are some fun shots from on the actual boat.
And of course no Disney is complete without some time with a few princesses.
Of course, one of the best things I love about doing a sort of destination cruise is being able to hit all these wonderful cultural hot spots. They afford you a little taste of lots of wonderful places, and let you experience them without kids complaining that they are walking too much, or too hot, or too cold. It sort of allows you the best of both worlds, a relaxing cruise, but also the opportunity to see an experience cultures or places you might not have gone to otherwise. Here are a few photos of our on shore excursions:
Overall, it was a fantastic cruise, and we are already trying to plan something during my year in Peshawar, maybe to Alaska. I can’t recommend them enough if you have kids that love Disney, and want the full Disney experience without the stress of going to the theme park. We hopped off the boat after what felt like the shortest week of our lives, and began the next phase of our vacation, which I will cover in next weeks post. Until then, thanks for stopping by! – Nick
