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I am leaning towards Silversea given everybody's input.  As a general rule, did you find it more advantageous to book their airfare and hotels (front end and back end) or did you book all of that yourself?  We are definitely only going business class.

30 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

that can work  for some  lines

 

the OP is considering Oceania  ..DO NOT BUY BUS CLASS  from them 

JMO

 

Why not?  Just curious...

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I'm probably stating the obvious, but have you priced up the cost of travel insurance?

Yes, I have that covered.  I have been using them for years.

No affiliation:  tripinsurancestore.com

Please let me clarify.

We would be staying for 2 nights on the front end and 2 nights on the back end so total trip duration would be 11 nights.  

Sounds like the choice is between Silversea Moon $5670 vs Oceania Marina $2199.  

Thanks for helping me remove Viking from the mix.  

The process of elimination continues.  Thanks

Background:

My wife and myself (55 years old).  I have underlying health issues so we generally go to bed early as the daily excursions are enough for me to crash afterwards.  Therefore, gambling/shows/entertainment at night are mostly wasted.  

Itinerary:  Barcelona to Rome or vice-versa

Requirements:  Balcony room, mid-ship.  Nice excursions during the day to explore the ports of call.  Good food is important.

We are very light drinkers.

Three candidates: 

Viking Sky - April 9th.  Barcelona to Spain.  $3899

Silver Moon - April 22nd.  Rome to Barcelona.  $5670

Oceania Marina - April 25th.  Monte Carlo to Barcelona.  $2199.

Silversea - We have sailed Silver Spirit to Alaska and thought the food was sub-par.  Otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves.

The price disparity is throwing me for a loop as I can't figure out when you add the gratuity and other items to the lower price point if it is equivalent.

Are these comparable ships or is there a night and day difference?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Anthony

P.S.  Unrelated to which ship, I have one side issue which you might help me figure out.  We live in Tampa but may move to Birmingham by the time the cruise ship leaves.  Therefore, my originating airport could change.  How do you suggest I do the airfare component?  We would only fly business class as direct as possible.

Wow. Thank you all for the info and pdf file.

Now to narrow the itinerary. But thanks to all of you there are basically 4 luxury lines to pursue:

Uniworld, Tauck, Amaway, Scenic.

Once I finalize a cruise line & itinerary, I may have a few follow up questions.

Thank you again.

Anthony

My wife and I are looking to take a 7 day Rhine cruise and would like to know:

Who are the the top 3 best cruise Rhine lines including foood?

What is the best way to book them (Travel agent or ??? or discount.

Without going into a lot of detail we are 50 but I have health issues so travel is arduous on me. For this reason the only way we travel (which isn't often) is first class all the way.

We just did an Alaskan Trip and took Silverseas which was one of the top recommendations from this forum. In hindsight, the food was disappointing but otherwise we had a blast!

While I say money is no object, in reality our budget for 2 excluding airfare will be $10k-15k for a room with a real balcony (not french balcony).

I forgot to ask, what is the best way to book a European cruise? Travel agent? Do European River cruises offer OBC (on board credits) or other perks or are they all priced equally from regardless of where I book it?

Thanks in advance....

Anthony

I thought that I would add our 2 cents and share our experience (we are first time cruisers) and were on the QM2 during the fire & rough seas.

After leaving Quebec the captain came on the loud speaker and shared with the passengers that the previous 2 cruise ships (which had been in port with us and departed prior to us) decided to seek shelter and turned around given the rough forecast. He then informed us that we were on an oceanliner which was built for these conditions and stated that we would sail through these rough conditions.

Maybe the ship can handle it but I dont' think the majority of the passengers were pleased with this decision. It is my belief after talking to numerious crew members who were taking pictures of the rough seas that we experienced waves of 10-11 meters or 30'+. I think that the ship rolled hard throughout our return to NY on day 8 and to a lesser extend on day 9.

Regarding the fire we were dining at first seating with the announcment came. It was startling and scary to hear about 5 announcements in the period of 15 minutes (I think only 1 was from the captain at that time). At no point did they clearly tell us to return to our cabin for further instructions. Everybody was confused as most of the announcements were instructing the crew to report to their fire stations or pet owners to the kennels. I don't think that they knew the scope of the fire in the early moments and quite frankly were terrified at the prospect of launching rescue boats in 30' seas.

I speculate that the rough seas and fire are related. I think the captain was pushing the ship hard through the seas and maybe overloaded the turbine. I have no proof but just my speculation.

I view the 10 day trip as 2 different adventures: The first was 7 days from NY to Quebec and the second was the 3 day return to NY. I loved the first part of the trip and do believe that it exceeded all of our expectations. As far as the last 3 days, I think that it could have been handled better.