14 day Italian Med - what to expect?

Hello All!

We are big Royal fans and have sailed on Royal several times, but never in Europe. We just booked our first European cruise , the Italian Mediterranean 14 day out of Southampton. Not only is it our first European Cruise, but it is also our longest, having only ever done 7 day cruises. Our sail dat is in July of 2016, but I am already feeling the compulsive over planning kicking in!

So, seasoned travelers, what can we expect? What are some of the major differences between European and North American cruises? Specifically, I am wondering about embarkation, level of dress for dinners, bringing wine or water on board, level of activity, atmosphere,currency for tips (Euros, pounds, or dollars) etc. Also, for a 14 day cruise, what is the best way to handle laundry? Because we are flying in from San Francisco, we are going to try to pack light. I am a little worried about staying tidy over the course of a two week cruise!:eek:

Any insights, advice, or well wishes would be welcomed!

TIA,

Lorie

We have not been on RCI in the Med but Celebrity in 2013. We have spent a lot of time on land throughout Europe. Generally most Europeans dress less casual than Americans. Felt a bit under dressed with shorts and athletic shoes. We paid for all our excursions in Euros (which we purchased from our bank at home before we left the US). We gave about 15%gratuity unless at the end we thought them to be exceptional and then added a bit more. We loved the Mediterranean and would do it again in a heartbeat.

We just did a Med cruise in Sept. (Barcelona) My opinion it seemed there were more diverse nationalities on board. Sometimes more rude people (maybe a culture thing?) it seemed as some figured lines weren't meant to be waited in you just reach in a grab what you what you want? My girls were very frustrated by this. But as far as the ship and cruise went I don't feel it was that much different than going from the states.

- we were through check in and on board ship in 10 mins!

Tips we paid in US $. .

Our cruise was port intensive so many times only 1 show in the evening instead of 2 and I believe 1 or 2 nights none.

Dress - we saw all varieties. In fact it was kind of interesting we saw some people who were dressed real fancy in the morning, we had to wonder if when they read the cruise compass and it said formal that they thought they needed to dress up all day?

We definitely had an enjoyable cruise though and are hoping to maybe do the Greek isle in the fall.

I did a review of "Our families viewpoint of our Med cruise" and I have some information on it if you are interested in DIY days in any of your ports. Not sure where all you will be going.

Happy planning, but don't be surprised when you get there if you forgot alot of the stuff you read! DH on more than one occasion said I thought you had read up on all this and figured it all out? My reply was I read so much I couldn't keep it all straight and forgot quite a bit!

We did a Med cruise with Royal last year and the year before. Both were wonderful. We were only on a 7-day cruise, but with the pre-cruise and post-cruise days, we were gone for 2 weeks. We used the wash 'n fold on board for underwear, socks, pj's and a couple of shorts/capris and t-shirts. Nothing that would shrink or that wrinkled easily. In our party of 5, women carried either cocktail dress or slacks and a couple of sparkly tops. Men? Suit and a couple of shirts and ties. We didn't really feel under-dressed during the days on tours in shorts and/or capris and comfortable sandals. We did carry a couple of t-shirt dresses that could be used for tours of churches but still kept us cool (June was hot). We would come back from a tour, shower and change for dinner. We repeated the slacks with a different top because we only wore them for a few hours. We didn't spend any time in dirty clothes. We sent a couple of things to the ship's regular laundry service (favorites that we wanted to repeat). I used blacks, tans and white with a few tops in colors that could be mixed and matched. Since there were 5 of us, we found it more convenient and even more economical to hire a private guide/driver. Check your roll call for others that could share a tour. We were able to save time and see exactly what we wanted. It's very port intensive so we were getting up early, leaving and staying on the go all day. I washed a few lightweight items out in the sink (with the mystery gel from the shower), rolled it tightly in a clean towel to squeeze excess water out, hung it up to dry. We had a balcony and I used a few clothes pins to clip it to the back of a chair on the balcony. By the time we were ready for bed, the items were dry. I don't know what your itinerary is, but some of the places are so hot such as Pompeii and Turkey, that we wore some of the t-shirts and shorts that wick the sweat and they don't wrinkle and are easy to wash out and dry. We also wore some of these types of athletic wear on the ship during days at sea, or a swimsuit and cover-up for the day. I carried a travel size of Downey Wrinkle release for the few tough wrinkles. We didn't look any different than the rest of the tourists. Anyone who suggests you dress in order to blend in and not be identified as a tourist must believe that you being at tourist sights is not a dead give-away or having a camera with you at all times. We looked like everyone else at the tourist sights. They are much better at spotting tourists than we are at disguising ourselves. We just used the same precautions we would use in any city when on vacation. We used Euros to pay for our tours and our tips and small items we purchased. We used credit cards for any significant purchases. Be sure to notify your bank and credit card companies of where we would be and when. This was our second Med cruise and our bank managed to screw up the limit we could get from an ATM and we had to make TWO expensive calls to get it fixed. We tried to use our credit card whenever possible. Enjoy your trip. I would go again in a heartbeat and two weeks sounds absolutely wonderful. Jealous.

I've done the Italian Med itinerary twice. It is very port intensive and if it's your first trip to Europe, you will probably want to do quite a lot of sightseeing.

On Gibraltar: There are taxis when you get off the ship that will take you to the rock. It cost us about £30 each and we stopped at the caves, we stopped to see the monkeys (Don't feed them!) and the fort at the top. We had the driver drop us at the top of the town and walked down the hill into the town centre. You can walk back to the ship from there in less than 10 minutes.

Cannes: There's a little train that takes you around the town at the port. We did that and then had a beach day. Sometimes the ship stops at Nice instead of Cannes. I'd still have a beach day, because once you hit Italy, it's non-stop ports.

Rome: We did a ship excursion because we were worried about the train not getting us back to the port in time (it's about an hour from Rome). We saw the Colosseum, the Forum, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. A whistle stop tour but worth it.

Pisa: The ship docks in Livorno, which is about half an hour away from Pisa. There are taxis you can get to Pisa. Again, we booked a ship excursion because we didn't want to worry about missing the ship.

If you want to go to sites like the cathedral at Pisa, or the Vatican, make sure that you are not wearing shorts or have bare shoulders. You won't be allowed in. I wore a sundress and had a summery scarf to wrap around my shoulders.

If I remember correctly, the ship docks somewhere in southern Spain on the way out of the Med. We went to Alicante (beach day) and Cadiz (beach day). Both of these cities have Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) buses which take you everywhere if you want to get a feel for the place and have little headphones you can listen to that tell you about particular things/sites/attractions. You can get on and off as much as you like.

Lisbon: Amazing city. The ship docks right at the city centre. Get up early and go up on the deck to watch the ship clear the bridge (something like 3 metres clearance - it's impressive and a little scary!). We walked around for a bit, but there are HOHO buses at the port. Totally worth it here in my opinion, because Lisbon is quite sprawling. If you want to be more of a local, you could have a go on the trolley cars.

Use the $25 wash and go for your clothes. We used this service twice during our two week cruise (husband, me, two kids).

Europeans aren't as chatty or overtly friendly as Americans are. They're not being rude, that's just how they are. I seem to recall the ship was mainly populated by British, however, there were also Spanish, Americans, French, and Norwegians.

As a transplanted American (grew up in PA but have lived in Britain since 1995), the one way to spot Americans in Europe is that they wear sneakers. If you want to fit in, you should wear some other comfortable walking shoe.

It's a great itinerary and a great cruise. Make the most of your sea days to catch up on your rest. You'll need it!

What to expect from a 14 day Med cruise? Lots and lots of walking! We only tend to have breakfast and dinner on a cruise but don't hold back otherwise on snacks and drinks etc but thanks to all the walking didn't put on a single pound!

Embarkation at Southampton is really easy. First cruise we were on the ship within 30 mins and the second cruise only took about 10 mins.

I've never been brave enough to try and take water onboard at southampton. I'd be pleased to hear if others have done it. We've taken the usual 2 bottles of wine per stateroom and I'm tempted to get my other half to take 2 as well this time as we commented last time that no one checked.

Dress wise, I've never cruised from the U.S. but from what I've read on here if say people stick to the dress codes more. When we dress up formally we tend to stick to it all evening, not go and get changed again after dinner.

Tipping - when you sail from the UK the tips are built in to the prices as us Brits don't understand tipping! Of course you can give extra on top and we have done so and found that it got us excellent service with one particular waiter going out of his way to serve us, find us seats, etc.

Which leads me on to the nightclub. No one uses it on UK cruises. No idea why but we went in there whenever we struggled to get a seat somewhere else. Our friendly waiter was in there and was just delighted to have some company! We're on Explorer later this year and I was sad to hear that they might be doing away with the nightclub as it's the only place we've ever been guaranteed to find seats on busy nights!

Sailing from the UK you'll find most people on board are British. The poster above who mentioned people being rude would find that less of an issue on a UK cruise. After meeting some (what us Brits believe to be) very rude Spanish people (though I do think it's a cultural thing - we're just not used to it), I've always said I won't do a cruise which starts from Barcelona.

I can't help with packing tips I'm afraid! As we're only a 1 hour drive from soton I tend to massively overpack then not wear half the stuff! Use the laundry bag deal and maybe just use the laundry service where necessary. It's not cheap but probably cheaper than excess baggage fees!

And I get the sneakers comment from the previous poster. Brits aren't used to extreme heat so to enclose my feet in a sneaker just seems ludicrous to me! ;-) Most of us wear sandals or flip flops with our tshirts and shorts but no one is going to judge those sneaker wearers!

Re tips - we tend to tip in Euros as we'll have some for the ports. I don't know whether the staff have on board money to spend in dollars but for us it would mean changing more currency so I figure while they're based in Europe they might want to spend some money ashore.

You'll have a ball!

We did a 17 day Mediterranean cruise out of Southampton. It was in November, so cooler weather than summer, but we managed with carry-on luggage. We have travel clothing that can be laundered in a hotel sink, but also used Royal's cruise ship laundry once. If you'd like to read more about a cruise wardrobe when using carry-on luggage, there are several active threads under "cruise fashions" on Cruise Critic.

Most of the passengers on our cruise were British and drove their cars to the departure port. They were able to bring more luggage! Overall, the shipboard and "in port" attire was less casual than on USA cruises. I would say not only less casual, but more sophisticated. Many ladies wore dresses in the evening, even if a "smart casual" night. The age demographic was older due to the longer cruise, true with most longer cruises. We cruised on the Independence, and out of nearly 3000 passengers, there were about a dozen from the USA, another dozen or so from Canada, with the majority British. We very much enjoyed our cruise and conversations with passengers from all over Great Britain.

Regarding the ports - this was one of our favorite cruises. I loved getting up early and watching our ship sail into port. In Portugal I was reminded of all the early explorers who sailed from those same ports to the "New World." In all ports we walked a lot, both on tours and exploring on our own.

Enjoy your cruise and planning your days in port. Also check your specific cruise roll call and join conversations about activities and excursions.

We are in the same boat (er, ship :)) as Lorielucks, on the 6/4 Indy from Southampton with two teenage kids. Thank you all for the advice and thoughts - they are very helpful. No matter how savvy a traveler I think I am, when going to a new destination, it's great to get advice from fellow cruisers.

Keep the tips and advice coming!

What an exciting cruise you have to look forward to!!

We did a 12 day Med cruise last August which was by far the best cruise vacation we have ever done. We have typically sailed mostly Caribbean in the past, like you, and found that planning for the Med cruise was quite a bit of work. But what fun it was.

I LOVE the planning process and have to say that because I did so much research and planning, our whole trip went off without a hitch. I scoured through Cruise Critic reading all I could about the Port of Calls forums, as well as the Roll Call for our cruise. I read Rick Steves Med Cruise book and found that extremely helpful in planning. I had a binder set up with a plastic sleeve for every day. Each sleeve contained a paper copy of any bookings/reservations I had for the day along with cash needed (if payment needed to be done after the tour) and tips. I even had TP stashed in there, because using restrooms there are a tad different than home. :D I took that plastic sleeve out, put it in my bag and had all I needed for that day. No last minute scrambling.

Because it was our first time, we knew we'd want to do tours in most places. We looked closely at ship tours and other local tours to see what was the best fit for us. When in Italy, we found that tours booked with local tour operators worked best of us, and we found others in our Roll Call that had the same interests. That worked out fabulously. And sometimes, a ship's tour worked best for us.

Others here have already provided great information about their experiences with boarding in Southampton. Great advice! We boarded in Barcelona, and found embarkation to be very smooth with no problems. We were able to bring on 2 bottles of wine and 4 Litres of water with no issues.

We packed lighter than on Caribbean Cruises because of the baggage weight and it worked well. Dress on board was similar to Caribbean, perhaps a little less casual, but honestly - we saw all kinds and it was fine. What I would highly recommend, is to pay good attention to what kind of shoes you will wear when walking around on tours. And you will do A LOT of walking. I scouted around and bought a good brand of sandals that I knew would be comfortable. It was very hot when we were there, and didn't want to wear sneakers. That was a smart move and well worth the extra expense.

Activity on board will vary, depending on if you are at sea or at port. Sea days are like any Caribbean Cruise, but port days - we were off first thing, and arrived back well before the ship left - usually ready to have dinner and get a good nights sleep. As it was a port intensive cruise, many ports were back to back, and we had little energy left for any evening activities. The tours were that good!!

On our cruise, I will note that dining times were later than on Caribbean Cruises.

First dining was at 6:30 and late dining was at 9:00pm. Wow!! We did MTD and found that people were lined up well past 9:30pm just to begin their dinner.

Currency: USD on the ship. Euros in ports. We also learned that they don't expect tips quite the way we are used to. While we always did tip after a tour, we did at a lower amount that we would do at home.

Laundry: We did the 'wash n go' package that RCI offers, but I also did a lot of washing in our sink. I brought small travel laundry soap packets with me and simply used the towels (like someone also mentioned) to squeeze out the water and hung to dry. We wore our clothes several times. It worked great.

The great thing for you is that you a good amount of time to plan. Enjoy the process and have fun planning!

Lots of British cruisers out of Southampton. They will dress up for formal evenings, mainly because they can drive to port and don't have to worry about baggage allowances! And also because we love to dress up!

Difference between UK cruisers and North American? LOL that's easy... white shoes!

Tips. Euros is probably the best currency for European cruises. Although we don't tend tip on such a grand scale, contrary to what some folk say .... most Brits do tip. We don't however, have a problem withholding tips if service is poor. Don't be afraid of the porters at Southampton - they don't hold your luggage to ransom if you don't tip! And we don't tip up front, that is plain wrong!

We ARE friendly, just don't expect us to tell you our life story in the first 10 minutes of meeting.

Temperature in July the Med will be hot. Temperature in the UK will probably not be hot.

Nobody eats before 8pm.

Children tend to stay with their parents and all eat together.

Nightclubs will be empty.

Don't think you will have time for a leisurely breakfast. You will have to wake up very early in the morning to make the most of the ports you visit.

And, finally expect to be absolutly exhausted and in need of another cruise when you get home.

What a fantastic thread! We are also doing our first trip to Europe this year, sailing on the Anthem on June 20 for a 14 night Mediterranean cruise. Thanks for all the great info and tips! Keep them coming!

Really appreciate the tips as we'll be on our first 14 day this summer as well.

Bummed the nightclubs will be empty -- what about the bars and other evening activities?

So excited to see this thread! All great tips and advice, thanks so much! On the longer cruises, did they repeat the dining room menus 2x each? We've decided to do MTD due to the heavy port schedule and will decide a day or two in advance if we'll hit the dining room or another venue (actually am SUPER excited for once that we can probably eat EVERYWHERE on board a few times).

Great thread. We leave in 19 days for 4 weeks on land before a 12 night med cruise out of Barcelona & then a 7 night cruise out of Venice. 12 months of planning meticulously so I don't have to worry about a thing when we are away. (Hopefully).

We are waiting for our first sea days, (4 days in) before my husband gets a drinks package- as we will most likely be way too tired to make use of it in the first few days.

We have most of our excursions booked thru our roll call, which has been awesome!!! If you can buy a microfiber towel that can roll up tight, that will help if you are doing some of your own washing in your room.

Look out for my review upon our return.

Hailey.

So excited to see this thread! All great tips and advice, thanks so much! On the longer cruises, did they repeat the dining room menus 2x each? We've decided to do MTD due to the heavy port schedule and will decide a day or two in advance if we'll hit the dining room or another venue (actually am SUPER excited for once that we can probably eat EVERYWHERE on board a few times).

There were no repeat menus on our 12 day Med Cruise. We always found something wonderful to order on each menu.

There were no repeat menus on our 12 day Med Cruise. We always found something wonderful to order on each menu.

This. There were no repeats during our 14 night cruises. My SIL, who loves Caesar salad, ordered it every night as her starter even though it was on the menu only once. They were more than happy to make it for her.

A cruise out of Barcelona will differ from a cruise out of Southampton . We went from Malaga on adventure and it was the liveliest cruise ever- whole cruise Zumba by the pool, the tiniest swimsuits, lots of topless bathing (not a problem for me but some guests kicked up a fuss). Quite a young Spanish crowd-not much drinking just natural exuberance.

The med cruises are port heavy and long days. We were exhausted after a week. Some families gave up and stayed on board. The ports and destinations are great though.

Really appreciate the tips as we'll be on our first 14 day this summer as well.

 

Bummed the nightclubs will be empty -- what about the bars and other evening activities?

The rest of the bars and venues will be full, just not the nightclub. Saying that, I've just remembered we did a Med cruise from Southampton 2 years ago (on Crown Princess) and the nightclub was fairly well used till about 0200 in the morning.

What a great thread. Cruise critic at it's best. Somebody asks for advice and people happy to help. Just wish I add something useful to add [emoji1]

One other thing I did notice on our Med cruise versus others. The windjammer in the evening was very busy especially when we had long port days. People would have had to cut their day short to make it back for dinner or eat at the WJ instead.

Wow! Thank you for all the great replies! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear.

So it sounds like I will need to get some Euros for tipping on tours. Would the ships crew also prefer tips in Euros? Or is the pound preferred? I would guess pounds if the ship is based in the UK. Oh, and that raises another question for me- will our on-board account be charged in dollars, Euros, or pounds? What will the ships currency be?

I am glad to hear that people tend to dress a little more for dinner. Call me old fashioned, but I like to dress for dinner. And on that subject, does anyone know how many formal/semi-formal nights we can expect on a 14 night cruise?

Also, my DD asked me to find out if anyone knew anything about the teen club - she will be 13.5 years old and is hoping that the youth activities will be interesting. Anyone have any experience with this?

I am so excited to take this cruise. I keep looking at the itinerary an gasping at the thought of what we will have the opportunity to see! As a high school history teacher, I talk about so many of these places all the time and it thrills me to know that I will finally get to see, hear, smell, touch, taste some of them!

Again, thank you CC'rs for your wealth of knowledge and advice! You are the best!!

Lorie

I had a binder set up with a plastic sleeve for every day. Each sleeve contained a paper copy of any bookings/reservations I had for the day along with cash needed (if payment needed to be done after the tour) and tips. I even had TP stashed in there, because using restrooms there are a tad different than home. :D I took that plastic sleeve out, put it in my bag and had all I needed for that day. No last minute scrambling.

 

What a great idea! I may have to steal this from you!:D

Wow! Thank you for all the great replies! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear.

 

So it sounds like I will need to get some Euros for tipping on tours. Would the ships crew also prefer tips in Euros? Or is the pound preferred? I would guess pounds if the ship is based in the UK. Oh, and that raises another question for me- will our on-board account be charged in dollars, Euros, or pounds? What will the ships currency be?

 

I am glad to hear that people tend to dress a little more for dinner. Call me old fashioned, but I like to dress for dinner. And on that subject, does anyone know how many formal/semi-formal nights we can expect on a 14 night cruise?

 

Also, my DD asked me to find out if anyone knew anything about the teen club - she will be 13.5 years old and is hoping that the youth activities will be interesting. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

I am so excited to take this cruise. I keep looking at the itinerary an gasping at the thought of what we will have the opportunity to see! As a high school history teacher, I talk about so many of these places all the time and it thrills me to know that I will finally get to see, hear, smell, touch, taste some of them!

 

Again, thank you CC'rs for your wealth of knowledge and advice! You are the best!!

 

Lorie

Wow! Thank you for all the great replies! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear.

 

So it sounds like I will need to get some Euros for tipping on tours. Would the ships crew also prefer tips in Euros? Or is the pound preferred? I would guess pounds if the ship is based in the UK. Oh, and that raises another question for me- will our on-board account be charged in dollars, Euros, or pounds? What will the ships currency be?

 

I am glad to hear that people tend to dress a little more for dinner. Call me old fashioned, but I like to dress for dinner. And on that subject, does anyone know how many formal/semi-formal nights we can expect on a 14 night cruise?

 

Also, my DD asked me to find out if anyone knew anything about the teen club - she will be 13.5 years old and is hoping that the youth activities will be interesting. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

I am so excited to take this cruise. I keep looking at the itinerary an gasping at the thought of what we will have the opportunity to see! As a high school history teacher, I talk about so many of these places all the time and it thrills me to know that I will finally get to see, hear, smell, touch, taste some of them!

 

Again, thank you CC'rs for your wealth of knowledge and advice! You are the best!!

 

Lorie

You'll have 3 formal nights, rest will be smart casual.

My daughter was 12 the first time we did a 14 night Med cruise, and 14 the second time. She was in the teen club constantly. They had lots of activities at all different times of the day. There were occasions when they'd book out the sports deck and have time on the Flowrider, or they'd do activities in the pool. There was always something going on on sea days. We had a rule that she had to have dinner with us, she had to come to ports with us, and she had to be in at ship's curfew. Otherwise, we didn't see her! She'd leave us post-its in the room with notes on, or she'd come and find me at the pool. Your daughter will have a blast!