Mediterranean Cruises in general question

I understand some, many, all (not really sure) Mediterranean cruises have passengers embarking and disembarking at various ports. Not like the Caribbean where we all get on the first day, and all leave the last day of a specific cruise.

Does that make things different? Will there be a different vibe (feeling) on the trip? I suppose muster must be held more than once? Anything else we need to be aware of?

I do know the specific cruise we are looking at is a 7 night cruise, with passengers able to embark, etc, at 5 of the 6 ports. Is there a legitimate home port? Just trying to get a feel for how it works and how it might feel different. Thanks

Muster drills are done, and required only for those embarking at port.

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I understand some, many, all (not really sure) Mediterranean cruises have passengers embarking and disembarking at various ports. Not like the Caribbean where we all get on the first day, and all leave the last day of a specific cruise.

 

Does that make things different? Will there be a different vibe (feeling) on the trip? I suppose muster must be held more than once? Anything else we need to be aware of?

 

I do know the specific cruise we are looking at is a 7 night cruise, with passengers able to embark, etc, at 5 of the 6 ports. Is there a legitimate home port? Just trying to get a feel for how it works and how it might feel different. Thanks

What particular cruise line are you considering?

I have taken only Celebrity inthe Med. ,anywhere form 11 to 15 day sailings. The only folks I saw leave or get on ship with lugage at any port was twice, once in Naples and once in Spanish port. I think they were entertainers who got on for number of days.

All the foks I got to know on ship or on my roll call were there for the whole sailing.

I know some of the luxury cruise lines do have people on the ship for a variety of sailing days at the same time.

In general on most cruise lines in the Med as well as everywhere guests board at the beginning of the cruise and leave at the end of the cruise.

Keith

In general on most cruise lines in the Med as well as everywhere guests board at the beginning of the cruise and leave at the end of the cruise.

 

Keith

Not all. The European cruise lines definitely allow different embarkation ports. I have seen alternative ports for embarkation from the US cruise lines in the Baltic...not sure in the Med....

It can affect the "over-all" feel of the cruise. After all, it's the passengers who make the difference in a cruise.....on a Caribbean cruise, where everyone starts and ends at the same place, you get a "feel" for the crowd....late night, or early-to-bed....depends on the passengers! When you have multiple boarding and passenger changes...you really never know WHAT the over-all cruise will "feel" like. I'm sure you will have a great time, no matter what!

Med cruises tend to be very port intensive with long days spent off the ship. I think there's less concern about ship "vibe" and more about touring off the ship.

MSC has some cruises you can board in any port. The Divina for instance, does seven day cruises that you can board any day in April through September, 2018. Rome-Palermo-Cagliari-Palma de Mallorca-Valencia-Marseille- Genoa-Rome-Palermo-Cagliari-Palma de Mallorca-Valencia-Marseille- Genoa-Rome, etc. I don't know how muster drills are handled.

I understand some, many, all (not really sure) Mediterranean cruises have passengers embarking and disembarking at various ports. Not like the Caribbean where we all get on the first day, and all leave the last day of a specific cruise.

 

Does that make things different? Will there be a different vibe (feeling) on the trip? I suppose muster must be held more than once? Anything else we need to be aware of?

 

I do know the specific cruise we are looking at is a 7 night cruise, with passengers able to embark, etc, at 5 of the 6 ports. Is there a legitimate home port? Just trying to get a feel for how it works and how it might feel different. Thanks

Share the cruise info, makes it easier to answer questions/understand.

I have heard of one European line that runs continuously throughout the Med and passengers can board at many points but for main stream lines I cannot imagine a seven day cruise with em/disembarkation at all the ports.

Unlike those Caribbean cruises that just loop/repeat the same routes, many main stream lines in the Mediterranean travel from one port to a very distant port, i.e Barcelona to Athens and back or through the Suez to Asia etc, over many days and so divide it into several "voyages". One can book different segments (term for two in sequence is back to back). Sometimes they sell them as A to D at one price and B to E at another price and A to B and B to C ...

On those the muster drill is held on each segment. Does it affect the ambience? It can but if you are on A->D and leave the ship in the morning to explore port B you will not even see the embarkation though will see some of your fellow pax leaving and luggage out the night before.

A friend travelled 84 days b2b over six segments, repeating some ports on the way back, and enjoyed the poker table waiting for the next crop of players :)

It is MSC, Seaview Oct 2018. There are 6 ports, including Barcelona where we plan to board and depart. They also sell the cruise starting at 4 of the other ports.

Med cruises tend to be very port intensive with long days spent off the ship. I think there's less concern about ship "vibe" and more about touring off the ship.

That will be fine for us. 2 days after this cruise ends, we have a Transatlantic booked to come back to Florida. Will get plenty of down time and ship time then.

Not all. The European cruise lines definitely allow different embarkation ports. I have seen alternative ports for embarkation from the US cruise lines in the Baltic...not sure in the Med....

You'll note that I said most and not all. :)

Keith

Back to the OP's question if some would get on or off the ship you probably won't even know other then seeing a few pieces of luggage in on passenger decks the night before they get off. When anyone boards you would likely be in port touring, etc.

Keith

Thank you all. Just curious to if it was the norm or not. Sounds like it might not be the norm, but not rare either.

Like everything we do new, we'll just look at it as another adventure.

I think both Italian lines, Costa and MSC have ships which do this.. the tragedy which happened on Costa Concordia was in the evening after some passengers had boarded at Civitavecchia, and I believe hadn't yet had their muster. Rules about that were tightened afterwards.

Sometimes Med cruises consist of two legs, each one week, some people get off and new passengers embark.

MSC certainly do this on some cruises, and the ambience does change a little, but as an earlier post said, European cruises are more about the ports of call. We first experienced this on MSC Opera a few years back, a one week round trip from Southampton with four ports of call, with passengers leaving and joining at three of them.

The oddest thing was that the "powers that be" must have decided that the UK was the official "start and finish" port and therefore menus and entertainment were timed around that. So, the Gala Menu and Grand Farewell Show were held as we left La Rochelle, our final port of call, which must have seemed really weird for those passengers who had just got on and were at the beginning of their cruise.