Need ship and port suggestions for Mediterranean cruise ( mostly Italy)

my husband and I are loyal to Royal but realize this may not be the best choice for Mediterranean cruise when wanting to visit as much of Italy France spAin as we can! But I love ship activities and no offense don't want to be hanging with a much older crowd who go to bed at 9pm. I'm spoiled! I know symphony of the seas is doing this itinerary in 2018 but feel its size limits ports! I don't want an oot dated old fart ship but we do want to see as much of Italy as we can! If I could do back to back to sail around the"boot" and touch on Spain and France I'd book now!! Please help!!! Norwegian, Royal??? Where do I turn

Have you checked out Carnival's Med cruises for next year on their to-be-released ship the Horizon? This is the one I'm doing next April. I choose it because of its 4 stops in Italy, which is the one country I have always wanted to visit. Also has one stop in France and begins and ends in Spain.

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I know what you mean, old farts of all ages who go to bed at 9 PM, or just sit drinking. Look at MSC and Costa in the Mediterranean, a wide choice of itineraries, and I can state from personal experience, the Grand Bar (main lounge) on Costa is usually still busy long after midnight, never mind the disco. They are however somewhat larger ships.

Warning- most travel agents are completely ignorant of Costa, these are not American-style, waddle-up-to-the feeding-trough ships, unscrupulous agents will tell you anything to get your credit card number. The experience will be also quite different between off-season and European school holidays.

Also- read advice carefully you've clearly stated you want nightlife in the Mediterranean on a smaller ship, make sure that's what's being considered;

The problem with Costa and MSC is that they spend less time in port. Europeans often cruise just to get away and relax, never leave the ship. So the ship does not stay in port as long. Tours in English may be cancelled for lack of interest. In the Med, it is all about the ports. the ship is just your hotel. After 12 hours touring in port in the hot summer, all you want to do is shower, eat, and go to bed. Just like the old farts. Find an itinerary you like, not a cruise line or ship you like. Start with http://www.cruisetimetables.com and choose ports you would like to visit, and the time you have to travel. It will tell you who calls there and their itineraries. This will help narrow down your selections. And doing back to back cruises can work to get in more ports. You can even do what we call a side to side - it's like a back to back, but on different ships. Even different cruise lines. EM

To "see as much of Italy as we can", we go to Italy. Port calls simply do not give enough time to give anything more than a frustrating taste of places like Venice, Rome, or Florence. They just let you say you were there.

Spending a couple of days in each of several cities in Italy, followed by a TA home (which gives a taste of some French, Spanish or Portuguese cities) might be the way for OP to accomplish goals.

I've cruised the Med quite a lot and frankly, there is no time to do onboard activities as you are usually off the ship at 8am and don't come back onboard until nearly 6pm. At that point you have been walking most of the day, often uphill or up a hundred steps plus walking around wherever you were touring and are physically tired. Since the Med ports are so close together, you know you will have to get up the next morning at around 7am and do it again. Most Med cruisers just want dinner and bed at that point, but if you really want to, you can still dance the night away on most cruise ships.

Here are some really amazing cruises for Italy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/articles/The-top-10-cruise-holidays-in-Italy/

Basically, I think you should consider a non-mainstream cruiseline on a small ship that can get into ports the big ships never even approach and spend the night in port so you can eat dinner onshore.

One in particular of interest would be Regent Seven Seas Rome to Venice 10 nights:

Rome (Civitavecchia)

Florence

Gaeta

Sorrento

Taormina

Corfu

Kotor

Dubrovnik

Umbria

Venice

https://www.rssc.com/cruises/VOY170628/summary/default.aspx

Another cruise of interest would be Windstar cruises Sicilan splendors (roundtrip Rome) 10 days. They also have Classic Italy and the Dalmation Coast and Venetian Passagewas that may be of interest to you.

If you are interested in Northern Italy, Uniworld offers Gems of Northern Italy

Milan, Verona, Venice, Padua, Bologna, Taglio di Po, Venice Islands, Venice. It's a river cruise and all the shore excursions, food and wine with dinner are included in the price. The food is specifically whatever the Italian cuisine is from the area in which you were touring that day and local products are sourced along the river by the chef. You won't be on the ship much at all - mainly for breakfast, some lunches and dinner and there is not much entertainment onboard as dinner is at 7pm, but you will be well and truly exhausted by evening. After dinner the combo will play in the lounge and sometimes they bring onboard local entertainers - we had a great German opera singer at one port. I've been on these river cruises and while most guests are in their early 60's, there are also guests in their upper 20's - 90's. So it's actually quite the mix and you will be sure to find interesting people to hang out with.

If you want to do an overall Med cruise, my advice is to choose one that starts in Barcelona. Stay in Hotel 1889 on Las Ramblas for at least 2 - 3 days before the cruise and go see the Gaudi sites and also take a trip to Monteserrat:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=5716P2&d=187497&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

At night go to a Flamenco show:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=36255P2&d=187497&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

Some of the best ships doing the routine Med tours are:

NCL Epic (highly recommend you get a The Haven Spa Suite)

PRINCESS Royal Princess

For a lower cost trip, I recommend MSC Merivaglia - which has a Yacht Club where basically it becomes an all inclusive cruise for those in Yacht Club suites - highly recommended! These ships are Italian and have an international clientele, so the shows are music and dancing and really great! A level of professionalism above what you normally see on a cruise ship. Food is Neapolitan - the BEST cuisine in the world. They do a round trip from Barcelona:

Friday, June 16 Barcelona, Spain6:00pmSaturday, June 17 Marseille, France9:00am5:00pmSunday, June 18 Genoa, Italy8:00am5:00pmMonday, June 19 Naples (Capri), Italy1:00pm7:00pmTuesday, June 20 Messina, Sicily, Italy8:00am6:00pmWednesday, June 21 Valletta, Malta8:00am6:00pmThursday, June 22 At SeaFriday, June 23 Barcelona, Spain9:00am

If you can do a longer trip, you could do something like this 12 day Seabourne Oddesey cruise - just keep in mind longer cruises typically have more retired people onboard due to vacation time limiting those who are still working:

Sunday, July 16 Barcelona, Spain5:00pmMonday, July 17 Roses, Spain8:00am5:00pmTuesday, July 18 Carcassonne (Sete), France8:00am11:00pmWednesday, July 19 Sanary-Sur-Mer, France8:00am5:00pmThursday, July 20 Monte Carlo, Monaco8:00am11:00pmFriday, July 21 San Remo, Italy8:00am5:00pmSaturday, July 22 Portofino, Italy8:00am5:00pmSunday, July 23 Florence / Pisa (Livorno), Italy7:00am7:00pmMonday, July 24 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy7:00am6:00pmTuesday, July 25 Amalfi, Italy8:00am5:00pmWednesday, July 26 At SeaThursday, July 27 Monemvasia, Greece10:00am6:00pmFriday, July 28 Ermoupolis (Syros), Greece8:00am6:00pmSaturday, July 29 Athens (Piraeus), Greece7:00am

I think navybankerteacher is right, for a major European city two weeks makes a difference, not two hours.

SuiteTraveler raises some interesting points, I agree it is possible to waste a lot of time and effort if you don't do port research to decide what interests you. A city tour to get an overview is a good idea if it's your first time there. A Royal passenger may find smaller ships too expensive. If you have the time, repeating one of the 7-day loops might work, using the first visit to plan the second.

I do not recommend any American ship for dancing.

The problem with Costa and MSC is that they spend less time in port. Europeans often cruise just to get away and relax, never leave the ship. So the ship does not stay in port as long. Tours in English may be cancelled for lack of interest. In the Med, it is all about the ports. the ship is just your hotel. After 12 hours touring in port in the hot summer, all you want to do is shower, eat, and go to bed. Just like the old farts. Find an itinerary you like, not a cruise line or ship you like. Start with www.cruisetimetables.com and choose ports you would like to visit, and the time you have to travel. It will tell you who calls there and their itineraries. This will help narrow down your selections. And doing back to back cruises can work to get in more ports. You can even do what we call a side to side - it's like a back to back, but on different ships. Even different cruise lines. EM

This is some of the best advice yet!!!!! Thank you for taking the time!!

I've cruised the Med quite a lot and frankly, there is no time to do onboard activities as you are usually off the ship at 8am and don't come back onboard until nearly 6pm. At that point you have been walking most of the day, often uphill or up a hundred steps plus walking around wherever you were touring and are physically tired. Since the Med ports are so close together, you know you will have to get up the next morning at around 7am and do it again. Most Med cruisers just want dinner and bed at that point, but if you really want to, you can still dance the night away on most cruise ships.

 

Here are some really amazing cruises for Italy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/articles/The-top-10-cruise-holidays-in-Italy/

 

Basically, I think you should consider a non-mainstream cruiseline on a small ship that can get into ports the big ships never even approach and spend the night in port so you can eat dinner onshore.

 

One in particular of interest would be Regent Seven Seas Rome to Venice 10 nights:

Rome (Civitavecchia)

Florence

Gaeta

Sorrento

Taormina

Corfu

Kotor

Dubrovnik

Umbria

Venice

https://www.rssc.com/cruises/VOY170628/summary/default.aspx

 

Another cruise of interest would be Windstar cruises Sicilan splendors (roundtrip Rome) 10 days. They also have Classic Italy and the Dalmation Coast and Venetian Passagewas that may be of interest to you.

 

If you are interested in Northern Italy, Uniworld offers Gems of Northern Italy

Milan, Verona, Venice, Padua, Bologna, Taglio di Po, Venice Islands, Venice. It's a river cruise and all the shore excursions, food and wine with dinner are included in the price. The food is specifically whatever the Italian cuisine is from the area in which you were touring that day and local products are sourced along the river by the chef. You won't be on the ship much at all - mainly for breakfast, some lunches and dinner and there is not much entertainment onboard as dinner is at 7pm, but you will be well and truly exhausted by evening. After dinner the combo will play in the lounge and sometimes they bring onboard local entertainers - we had a great German opera singer at one port. I've been on these river cruises and while most guests are in their early 60's, there are also guests in their upper 20's - 90's. So it's actually quite the mix and you will be sure to find interesting people to hang out with.

 

If you want to do an overall Med cruise, my advice is to choose one that starts in Barcelona. Stay in Hotel 1889 on Las Ramblas for at least 2 - 3 days before the cruise and go see the Gaudi sites and also take a trip to Monteserrat:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=5716P2&d=187497&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

At night go to a Flamenco show:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=36255P2&d=187497&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

 

Some of the best ships doing the routine Med tours are:

NCL Epic (highly recommend you get a The Haven Spa Suite)

PRINCESS Royal Princess

 

For a lower cost trip, I recommend MSC Merivaglia - which has a Yacht Club where basically it becomes an all inclusive cruise for those in Yacht Club suites - highly recommended! These ships are Italian and have an international clientele, so the shows are music and dancing and really great! A level of professionalism above what you normally see on a cruise ship. Food is Neapolitan - the BEST cuisine in the world. They do a round trip from Barcelona:

Friday, June 16 Barcelona, Spain6:00pmSaturday, June 17 Marseille, France9:00am5:00pmSunday, June 18 Genoa, Italy8:00am5:00pmMonday, June 19 Naples (Capri), Italy1:00pm7:00pmTuesday, June 20 Messina, Sicily, Italy8:00am6:00pmWednesday, June 21 Valletta, Malta8:00am6:00pmThursday, June 22 At SeaFriday, June 23 Barcelona, Spain9:00am

 

 

If you can do a longer trip, you could do something like this 12 day Seabourne Oddesey cruise - just keep in mind longer cruises typically have more retired people onboard due to vacation time limiting those who are still working:

Sunday, July 16 Barcelona, Spain5:00pmMonday, July 17 Roses, Spain8:00am5:00pmTuesday, July 18 Carcassonne (Sete), France8:00am11:00pmWednesday, July 19 Sanary-Sur-Mer, France8:00am5:00pmThursday, July 20 Monte Carlo, Monaco8:00am11:00pmFriday, July 21 San Remo, Italy8:00am5:00pmSaturday, July 22 Portofino, Italy8:00am5:00pmSunday, July 23 Florence / Pisa (Livorno), Italy7:00am7:00pmMonday, July 24 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy7:00am6:00pmTuesday, July 25 Amalfi, Italy8:00am5:00pmWednesday, July 26 At SeaThursday, July 27 Monemvasia, Greece10:00am6:00pmFriday, July 28 Ermoupolis (Syros), Greece8:00am6:00pmSaturday, July 29 Athens (Piraeus), Greece7:00am

O my gosh, thank you so much for taking your time to give us such detailed info! Others have said the Italian owned ships tend to cancel??? We can do longer as I own my own co and my husband has a lot of vacation. We were planning on spending several days pre and post cruise too!!

Awesome !!!!!!!

my husband and I are loyal to Royal but realize this may not be the best choice for Mediterranean cruise when wanting to visit as much of Italy France spAin as we can! But I love ship activities and no offense don't want to be hanging with a much older crowd who go to bed at 9pm. I'm spoiled! I know symphony of the seas is doing this itinerary in 2018 but feel its size limits ports! I don't want an oot dated old fart ship but we do want to see as much of Italy as we can! If I could do back to back to sail around the"boot" and touch on Spain and France I'd book now!! Please help!!! Norwegian, Royal??? Where do I turn

Wow I hope you find the perfect c ruise to suit your tastes. Seeing all the times we sailed in Europe, we sailed HAL after having done many land trips.. I don't think I can help you much. Start in Rome, , have a portr in LIvorno for Florence, sail to Venice. We had two cruises when we stopped in Napoli. Loved it. We had been to Capri and Amalfi coast, Pompeii, Sorrrento, before so we spent all day in Naples both times.

We have done two 7-day Med cruises and we are Diamond on Royal. We were glad we had previously sailed on both ships because we barely saw the ship. We had one day at sea and we were EXHAUSTED and trying to get rested for the next day. It's VERY port intensive. We wanted to see as much as possible. We arrived in Rome two days early so we got to see a lot of Rome prior to boarding the ship. We had to be up early, and we hit the ground running. We ate outside the ship, on our tours every day and only returned to the ship an hour before the ship sailed. By the time we had finished dinner, we would try to plan something to do on the ship but it amounted to little more than stumbling to a show of the casino or the shops and trying to stay awake until a decent hour before turning in for the night. We had private drivers at all the ports and a guide for a couple of them. That made all the difference in the world. Whatever you do, choose the itinerary, THEN the ship. In spite of the exhaustion, we came home and immediately booked another Med cruise to cover countries and areas we didn't get to see on the first one. It was wonderful and I'd do it again in a hearbeat.

That's great info!!! I've read several blogs where people suggest private drivers, guides! I assume u sailed on Royal? Jewel and vision have nice itineraries! Symphony will do med in 2018 but limited ports!

I have done about 10+ mediterranean cruises over past 20+ years... pick a line you like, ports you like and go for it. all cruises in the Mediterranean are port intensive... that means the ship is less important...we have cruised Princess, Celebrity, Holland America, Cunard, crystal, NCL and a few lines no longer around -- out of Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Istanbul, Athens... and into these ports as well. The Mediterranean has so much to offer you can't go wrong...assume you do more than once, twice etc., if you get addicted like we are... we are going again in October out of Barcelona... on a TA which hits southern spain, gilbrater, and the canary islands...

O my gosh, thank you so much for taking your time to give us such detailed info! Others have said the Italian owned ships tend to cancel??? We can do longer as I own my own co and my husband has a lot of vacation. We were planning on spending several days pre and post cruise too!!

You are fairly safe from cancellation on all the major lines but any ship can have a mechanical problem that causes a cancellation - I've seen it in the med with Princess, NCL, HAL, MSC, and others. Usually they offer you a cruise on another ship either leaving immediately or for use later or you could completely cancel. This is where the importance of having cruise insurance comes in and going into your embarkation port early can be helpful. If your cruise cancels once you are there and you were going for a longer time, it is not all that hard to change ships or even cruise lines and turn your trip into a land/sea vacation, then get your money back for the cancelled cruise when you return home. You might have to choose a cruise leaving a few days later than your original cruise. While the cruise line will refund your tickets if they cancel either by crediting you with a new cruise (most likely) or refunding, the cruise insurance may take care of any other expenses you have due to a cancellation.

In the Med, you typically don't pay for your shore excursions up front - you pay at the end of the tour, so if the cruise cancels, then you would need to rearrange things - cancel shore excursions you booked and book new ones for the new cruise - maybe change days if the cruise port days have changed but you would not be out any money. If you have a laptop that would be pretty easy to do from your hotel. So do book private shore excursions and if something goes wrong, you're not out anything.

At any rate, yes, sometimes there are cancellations due to mechanicals, but not all that frequently. What we usually do is choose a newer ship - something under 5 years old, if possible. We seem to have had good luck with that strategy so far.

I also want to mention there are some real bargains for those who can cruise for longer. Once you get past may 12 - 14 days, the prices barely creep up - so if you can do a longer cruise, I say go for it! Or even consider doing a combination of a Med cruise and then a river cruise. The two top river cruises are Rhine and Danube - you might look at one of those - they are GREAT!

That's great info!!! I've read several blogs where people suggest private drivers, guides! I assume u sailed on Royal? Jewel and vision have nice itineraries! Symphony will do med in 2018 but limited ports!

Jewel and Vision are excellent choices for a Med cruise if they have the right itineraries.

When it comes time to plan excursions, check out this site:

http://www.shareashoreexcursion.com

You can plan your own excursion and get a few others from the ship to join in and cut down the costs. You can solicit for others to join you through the Cruise Critic roll calls. I did this on my last Med cruise and it worked out great.

I was not impressed by the nightlife on NCL- very lowest-common-denominator, couch-potato stuff.

It's a six hour time change from Florida, don't forget to factor in jet lag.

I was not impressed by the nightlife on NCL- very lowest-common-denominator, couch-potato stuff.

It's a six hour time change from Florida, don't forget to factor in jet lag.

Not sure what you mean about the nightlife? There were many options on my cruises - ballroom dancing show, Broadway musical, Cirque du Soleil, Dueling Pianos, Blue Man Group, Comedy Club, Nightclub, Ice bar, movies in H2O (Well, maybe the movie is couch potato stuff)...

What do you prefer to do for nightlife?

If you are going for a longish cruise 10+ days may i suggest not just concentrating on Italy and France?

Some of the most beautiful, interesting and cheaper ports are on the other, eastern side of the Med.

Dubrovnik (Croatia), Valetta (Malta), Kotor (Montenegro) and pretty much most of the Greek Ports (Mykonos,Corfu,Rhodes,Santorini,Athens)come to mind.

Knock spots off of Italy IMO.

The best cruises are the ones that go to both sides of the Med...you get Italy and a whole lot more.

No doubt there are many people who consider sitting and listening to dueling pianos, or sitting and looking at Blue Men, or sitting and looking at people pretending to ballroom dance, or sitting in an Ice Bar to be intellectual pursuits, that's why NCL has them. Even though the OP clearly asked about nightlife, none of the replies gave them even that much information to help make an informed decision about what the ship provides.

To "see as much of Italy as we can", we go to Italy. Port calls simply do not give enough time to give anything more than a frustrating taste of places like Venice, Rome, or Florence. They just let you say you were there.

 

Spending a couple of days in each of several cities in Italy, followed by a TA home (which gives a taste of some French, Spanish or Portuguese cities) might be the way for OP to accomplish goals.

This is a good idea. We don't cruise much these days because we prefer to go someplace and actually stay there for awhile. We also prefer to rent a flat--it allows us to travel light (I have no problem spending five minutes every other day tossing in a load of laundry and then putting it away once it's done), eat healthier (and save money in the process), and not be on top of each other. Also the owner of the flat will often greet you and be a wealth of local information. We don't typically like to stay in the middle of the tourist area. For example in London we prefer South Kensington or Notting Hill. Residential, very safe, convenient to grocery stores, wine shops, yoga studio, pubs with locals, not full of tourists and quiet streets that aren't crowded.

Spending time in one place also allows you to take time to just relax and chill out if that is what you feel like doing one day instead of the frenzied "gottaseeitdoit" mentality most tourists have. We also find things you would never see or do if you were just another tourist getting off of a large cruise ship for an afternoon on a pre-planned itinerary following someone holding a sign overhead.