Alaskan vs. Mediterranean....help!

[kittygirl159]

My FH and I are planning our honeymoon for June 2010 and can't decide between an Alaskan and a Mediterranean cruise. What are the pros and cons? What are the best lines for each cruise? Any adivse???

[6rugrats]

Advice? Impossible to advise the best cruiselines because everyone likes something different. For example, I'd never cruise on Carnival or NCL but lots of people love them. I've never been on an Alaska cruise, but have been on several Med cruises.

 

Med cruises will probably be more expensive, especially considering the cost of airfare to get there. They are also very port intensive; you will probably be doing a lot of sight seeing.

 

You should probably sit down and decide what is most important to you on a honeymoon. Do you want to just relax and hang out? Do you want to tour historical sights and visit romantic places (Med). Are you interested in viewing wildlife, glaciers and beautiful scenery (Alaska)? How much do you want to spend?

 

Then, go to a TA or request brochures from the cruiseline for cruises you are interested in. That's a good start to making up your mind where you want to go.

 

I wouldn't go either place for a honeymoon, as I would rather relax and hang out on a beautiful beach with no stress to be somewhere. Everyone likes different things.

[Blue0824]

My FH and I are planning our honeymoon for June 2010 and can't decide between an Alaskan and a Mediterranean cruise. What are the pros and cons? What are the best lines for each cruise? Any adivse???

 

What do you envision doing on your honeymoon? Do you want a more leisurely pace or to be on the go exploring and sight seeing? In Alaska my family did enjoy excursions but also felt like the trip was leisurely and nicely paced. We found it very relaxing. Haven't been on a Med. cruise yet, but traveled a lot through Europe, and just based on our planned excursions for our November Med. cruise, we'll be quite busy on our port days. Unlike the above poster, we are not beach people, so that was never an option for our honeymoon! This summer when I desperately needed a break from work, our choice was Paris over any beach.

 

Other things to consider are... amount of time to travel to each location, Europe may require more time if you want to get in early to adjust to the time changes or explore a little more. $$ is another consideration, in Europe you have to deal with the weak dollar. I think I'd also consider your future travel plans. Have you been through Europe yet? Then this might be a great trip to take. Alaska just seems more accessible since it is part of the US and not as long of a flight.

 

We chose a Holy Lands cruise through Princess because of the ports. We really wanted to get to Israel and Egypt and aren't sure when we'll get to take longer trips to those locations so we figured we should at least visit, although very briefly, while we could. Generally when we travel it is for a week at a time, so this is a splurge for us as with travel both ways we'll be gone for 16 days. We're really looking forward to the trip. Good luck planning yours, I'm sure whichever you decide will be great!

[InspiredBride]

I was trying to decide between Alaska and Europe for our honeymoon as well, and finally just booked an Eastern Med. cruise from Venice for this November! For us, it came down to a few deciding factors, but mainly...

1) What time of year we could take the trip and

2) How much the trips would cost.

We were able to get time off in November and found an amazing deal on flights as well as the ship.

I'm sure either one would be incredible! And whichever one you don't pick, just start planning for an anniversary trip!

[kittygirl159]

What do you envision doing on your honeymoon? Do you want a more leisurely pace or to be on the go exploring and sight seeing? In Alaska my family did enjoy excursions but also felt like the trip was leisurely and nicely paced. We found it very relaxing. Haven't been on a Med. cruise yet, but traveled a lot through Europe, and just based on our planned excursions for our November Med. cruise, we'll be quite busy on our port days. Unlike the above poster, we are not beach people, so that was never an option for our honeymoon! This summer when I desperately needed a break from work, our choice was Paris over any beach.

 

Other things to consider are... amount of time to travel to each location, Europe may require more time if you want to get in early to adjust to the time changes or explore a little more. $$ is another consideration, in Europe you have to deal with the weak dollar. I think I'd also consider your future travel plans. Have you been through Europe yet? Then this might be a great trip to take. Alaska just seems more accessible since it is part of the US and not as long of a flight.

 

We chose a Holy Lands cruise through Princess because of the ports. We really wanted to get to Israel and Egypt and aren't sure when we'll get to take longer trips to those locations so we figured we should at least visit, although very briefly, while we could. Generally when we travel it is for a week at a time, so this is a splurge for us as with travel both ways we'll be gone for 16 days. We're really looking forward to the trip. Good luck planning yours, I'm sure whichever you decide will be great!

What do I envision doing? Anything but sitting on the beach and relaxing...we live on an island in the Caribbean so we get to do that quite often. I would prefer to be exploring and sight seeing, but at the same time, do things at a leisurely pace. I know sometimes you can't have the best of both worlds.

[Powriv]

If you like the outdoors and wildlife, pick Alaska.

 

If you like history and museums pick the Med.

 

Have a good honeymoon wherever you decide to go