ssjhook

Hey guys,

I'm looking to book a cruise and it will probably be through NCL

I am trying to make heads and tails of their protections and flight packages.

From what it appears there is no benefit of booking a flight through them other than they handle of all of the arrangements for you and you can put the pricing into the cost of the cruise.

It does not appear that they have any type of flight guarantee or reimbursement other than their travel protection which I'm guessing is not different than getting it directly from the airlines.

If this is the case I'm wondering if its a bad idea to book my own flight to Venice set to arrive the day before the cruise, that way the $300 i save per person could be used for a hotel and I can take my mom around Venice for the day, or is this a bad idea?

Second question is should I consider travel insurance if cancelling my trip is not a probability? I read something online that cancelling your trip or heavy medical expenses on the cruise are the top reasons to buy insurance, it seems that my insurance is nearly nearly 10% of my overall costs which seems rather pricey and the additional medical coverage they provide doesn't seem like it would cover any extremely serious medical bills.

the ncl jade looks like a good choice but we may have to wait until may for that one!

I looked at the emerald and it appears to be sold out in september, does anyone know when it goes back to the greek isles? and are there anymore ships you guys would reccomend?

Hopefully want to leave in october or november, if not probably around march, definetly don't want to be in the off season but also don't want to go when its not pretty

I like that port map however I think santorini is a deal breaker for me my mom wants to go there so badly

Ok guys so I'm the type of person who loves to plan things out as much as possible, planning out a trip to a greek island cruise has proved to be quite an information overload!

First things first is I'd really like for your guy's help to pick a cruise line / cruise

My mom has been wanting to go to Greece since as long as I can remember she's been blabbing about it for 20 years and I'm finally just going to take her so she can find something new to dream about lol

Here's what I know, my mom is absolutely in love with Greece and Italy, so I would either like the cruise to include a Italy take off or an Italy port along the way.

The other thing I know is her favorite island is Santorini (shocker)

I would like this cruise to be around 7 days, I think a 14 day cruise would be too much for the both of us. The cruises I've found in my parameters seem like they range anywhere from 600-1100 bucks, I would like to keep it more towards the 700$ range

One of the cruises I've found so far that seem to fit the bill is the princess emerald greek island cruise, it leaves from Greece and stops in naples and rome as well as santorini and some other greek islands

I tried to find a cruise that left from venice and hit up a good amount of greek islands but the ones I found went to other places like turkey and Croatia and they usually took 14 days

Do you guys have any other suggestions? Also any idea how much more expensive it is to fly to Greece as opposed to venice?

I am 30 and my mom is in her late 50s, we love to eat (especially sea food) and my mom loves to play slots, we're not really into spa treatments and will probably do our own adventuring out at the ports (for the most part), I think the biggest things we are mostly looking for is a cruise where we can eat good food without having to pay extra and an onboard casino if possible, also any good entertainment is a bonus

thanks for the help!