todderrific

Thanks for all of the awesome feedback! Our itinerary skips Santorini and Mykonos for Olympia and Athens. Based on everything I've heard here and some of the research I've done, I think that's okay.

We just booked today! Can't wait to see it all!

Nice! Enjoy Madrid! We're coming from NYC. If we do this cruise itinerary, we're planning to connect through Vienna on the way to Venice, and we'll spend a night there.

I lived in Chicago my whole life... just moved east two years ago. It's an awesome city and I miss it a ton! Small world!

Awesome! Another awesome tip, thank you flip8683. I'm looking to book with points and the options out of Venice aren't great... so I was actually thinking we'd train to Milan after the cruise docked, stay there a night, and then fly home from there. Train prices are reasonable -- $20-30 USD and to Milan it's only about 2.5-3hrs via highspeed rail!

That's really good to know, Captain-John... thanks for the heads up!

Thank you all for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

Hi Cruise Friends!

We're considering taking the 10/21-10/28, 7 night Adriatic and Greece Cruise from Venice. I've pasted the full itinerary below. All of the earlier sailing dates through Aug, Sep, and early/mid-Oct are sold out (Balconies and above) and this sailing is the only one with Balcony availability at the moment. That fact alone is making me hesitate.

For those that have cruised this time of year in Greece and Croatia... would you recommend it? Anything we should be aware of that might disappoint us or make us wish we took an earlier itinerary?

Your feedback is so greatly appreciated!

Here's the full itinerary!

10/21: Venice (Embark @ 5pm)

10/22: Dubrovnik, Croatia(1pm-9pm)

10/23: Kotor, Montenegro (8a-2p)

10/24: Olympia (Katakolon), Greece(11a-5p)

10/25: Athens (Piraeus), Greece(7a-5p)

10/26: At Sea

10/27: Split, Croatia (8a-5p)

10/28: Venice (Disembark @ 8am)

Thanks for all the great tips! It's official - we're going to Alaska on Norwegian in a Balcony stateroom from 9/14-9/21.

We're really looking forward to it!

Now onto the shore excursion booking... wish me luck :)

Thanks for those tips! Good, so I've made one decision: a balcony is the way to go!

I've read through a number of the reviews on Cruise Critic and it seems like it's hit or miss for both - you either love the cruise line or your hate it. Some say the food is terrible, others say the food is amazing. Some say the service is terrible, others say the service is outstanding. And same goes for other aspects of the experience.

It's tough to make a decision when the reviews are so divided!

Based on the itinerary alone, I think I might go NCL. That one visits Glacier Bay. Princess is going through Tracy Arm Fjord. Based on what I've read, Glacier Bay seems to top the list of 'most beautiful sight ever!'

Hi there!

I'm planning to gift an Alaskan cruise to my partner for Christmas. We're a young, gay couple - I'm 27, he's 30 from Chicago. For years we've talked about how pretty and memorable a cruise to Alaska would be…so I figured, "what a great Christmas gift!"

As far as what we're looking for in a cruise - it's pretty simple: we want to be able to see beautiful Alaska and relax. I'm generally exhausted and ready for bed by midnight, but he's more of a night owl…that being said, I definitely want the option to stay up late and party-hardy if we're in the mood (errrr...just in case I get forced to stay up and party-hardy)! It'd also be nice if there were other GLBTs on board so we don't feel out of place.

We're looking to cruise sometime in September 2014… In doing some of my own research and talking to agents at Travelocity, Orbitz and the cruise line's themselves, I think I've narrowed it down to Norwegian or Princess, but I need help from some expert cruisers to make my final decision!

Norwegian seems appealing because of their Freestyle cruising, whereas Princess seems like they're a little more modern and sophisticated (not that that's a bad thing). My fear is that Princess might have a slightly older crowd. I've also read that Princess ships typically shut down after 9:00pm.

Any recommendations? Any other cruise lines I should consider?

On a semi-unrelated note, I'm also trying to decide between an Oceanview and a Balcony. Any tips?