While I am sure that most of you would be hesitant to step foot onto a cruise ship or into the country of Turkey right now, this weekend I will fly from Philadelphia to Athens and depart on a week-long Mediterranean cruise.

I’m confident we’ll be all good in terms of safety, otherwise I obviously wouldn’t be going. The cruise line is Azamara Club Cruises and the ship is the Azamara Journey, which is a mid-sized luxury liner owned by Royal Caribbean. We’ll leave Athens on Monday and make stops in Mykonos, Ephesus, Kos, Rhodes, Marmaris, and Santorini.

The last cruise I took was a little over a year ago when I went to Alaska. I talked about how an Alaskan cruise is different from a Caribbean cruise (other than the obvious), saw the bluest water of my life, and also learned a great deal about prostitution (seriously). My voyage on the Azamara Journey will be my first “lux-liner” experience, though, so I look forward to discovering the differences as compared to your typical cruise ship. While last year’s ship, Rhapsody of the Seas, holds about 2,000 people, the Azamara Journey fits just under 700.

Azamara recently made headlines when they announced that they would give guests the cost of their airfare back in the form of ship credit. In addition to Greece and Turkey, the cruise line also offers routes to Italy, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, China, and the French Riviera.

Stories and photos to come!