Planning a family cruise to Europe which line?

[delgadofam2002]

We are planning a cruise to Europe for my daughter's 15th bday she wants a cruise that will go to Itlay & France. Which cruiseline do you think would be the best? I am thinking Princess/RCCL/Celebrity depending itinerrary & price. I assume we would probably see more on a land tour but I think that would cost way more money.

[kitty9]

A land tour is not necessarily more expensive. I've seen quite a few two week land tours, with many meals included, that worked out cheaper than a cruise. Find a good local travel agent and look through some land tour brochures and then make a price comparison. And yes, you'll see much more on a land based trip than on a cruise ship.

 

If having other kids on board for you child is important, I would highly recommend Royal Caribbean. Celebrity tends to attract less families as does Princess. When we did one of our Med cruises that went to France and Italy, there were over 350 kids on board, and this was on RCI's Brilliance of the Seas.

[Essiesmom]

You are not going to get ports in France on a cruise on one of the mass market lines that are most familiar to us in the US. The closest you might get is Monaco, unless you choose a European based line such as Thomson, Pullmantur, IberoCruceros, Fred Olsen...Or one of the higher end lines that have smaller ships.

Suggestion: Go to cruisett.com. This is a site that can tell you what ships will be in any port on any given day. On the left side click on port schedule, and it will bring up a list by country. Click on the ports that you are interested in, and then choose the month you intend to cruise. This will tell you what ships call at that port. You will have to resezrch using the 2009 schedules, because they don't have 2010 on it yet.

Another site which does pretty much the same thing is cruisetimetables.com. This one operates the same way, but it does have 2010 schedules up, and it not only gives you the ship, but also the itinerary and when the cruise starts, etc. The top portion is departures, scroll further down the page for ports of call. They also have some lines that cruisett does not. But neither site is perfect. But it is a place to start. EM

[Keith1010]

That is a wonderful was to celebrate your childs birthday.

 

The advantage of a cruise line over a land tour is that you will not have to constantly unpack and pack and spend a lot of time in buses,etc. While there are places that you can see on a land tour that you cannot see by way of cruise there is still so much to see on a cruise.

 

You will find that there are many more places to visit by Italy compared to France by cruise ship, but there are a few stops that the cruise ships make in France.

 

I think that the three cruise lines that you mentioned would be quite nice for the family.

 

Our first cruise of this area of the world with our two children was, in fact, with Princess and I think they did a marvelous job.

 

I am also very familiar with the other two lines and they would be fine as well.

 

I would look at the itineraries for each of the three cruise lines to see what the offer in the time frames you are considering.

 

Wherever you go, consider the ports of embarkation and disembarkation in two key ways. First, consider ease or complexity of flying to and from these ports from you home city.

 

Secondly, I highly recommend that you arrive at the start of the cruise two to three days before the cruise. Why? Because if you have a flight delay or cancellation you will not miss the ship. Second, so that you can get over the jet lag and begin your cruise feeling fine. And finally, so that you can see more of the area that you will start from. So, think through that port of embarkation since you could spend a few days touring there.

 

Oh, and I have visited ports of call in France on USA oriented lines but again you will predominantly see Italy lines.

 

Please post other questions as you do your research.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

You are not going to get ports in France on a cruise on one of the mass market lines that are most familiar to us in the US. The closest you might get is Monaco, unless you choose a European based line such as Thomson, Pullmantur, IberoCruceros, Fred Olsen...Or one of the higher end lines that have smaller ships.

Suggestion: Go to cruisett.com. This is a site that can tell you what ships will be in any port on any given day. On the left side click on port schedule, and it will bring up a list by country. Click on the ports that you are interested in, and then choose the month you intend to cruise. This will tell you what ships call at that port. You will have to resezrch using the 2009 schedules, because they don't have 2010 on it yet.

Another site which does pretty much the same thing is cruisetimetables.com. This one operates the same way, but it does have 2010 schedules up, and it not only gives you the ship, but also the itinerary and when the cruise starts, etc. The top portion is departures, scroll further down the page for ports of call. They also have some lines that cruisett does not. But neither site is perfect. But it is a place to start. EM

 

I agree with you that none of these sites is perfect.

 

I have not been too impressed with that cruisett as it doesn't list many of the cruise lines.

 

I was not aware of cruisetimetables.com so I plan to look at that one.

 

One that I find to be better than cruiseett in terms of listing more ships is

http://www.cruisereport.com/PortsOfCallList.aspx

 

Keith

[spongerob]

Western Med cruises are probably going to include ports in Italy, France, and Spain. You can look at cruises that leave from Southampton on RC and Princess. We took a 14-day cruise this summer from Southampton that worked out very well for us. If you go in August during the school break there will be lots of kids. We have taken three European cruises and there have always been a fair number of younger people on board.

[boulders]

Disney will also be cruising the Med in 2010, so I would include them in your list, assuming that you are planning the cruise for next summer.

[Essiesmom]

I agree with you that none of these sites is perfect.

 

I have not been too impressed with that cruisett as it doesn't list many of the cruise lines.

 

I was not aware of cruisetimetables.com so I plan to look at that one.

 

One that I find to be better than cruiseett in terms of listing more ships is

http://www.cruisereport.com/PortsOfCallList.aspx

 

Keith

Just visited this site, and I find a lot of cruise lines missing: P&O, AIDA, Pullmantur, IberoCruceros, fred Olsen, Phoenix Reisen to name a few. Checking Venice, they do not list Costa as calling there, but they do...a lot. EM

[euro cruiser]

Our extended family of 11 went on a western med cruise this summer on the NCL Gem. We had three stops in Italy (Naples, Civitavecchia & Livorno) and one in France (Cannes). There were over 800 kids on the cruise, which was during July.

[jocap]

Our extended family of 11 went on a western med cruise this summer on the NCL Gem. We had three stops in Italy (Naples, Civitavecchia & Livorno) and one in France (Cannes). There were over 800 kids on the cruise, which was during July.

NCL Jade will be taking over this route next year, whilst Gem moves to Venice and does b to b cruises.

If you want to visit France, you'll have to look at cruises from Southampton, Dover or Amsterdam; the med cruises often only touch on Cannes or Monte.

It's possible to take a hotel train from Paris to Barcelona, if you wish to see France 1st; or similar from Paris to Venice.-jocap.

[chipmaster]

We are planning a cruise to Europe for my daughter's 15th bday she wants a cruise that will go to Itlay & France. Which cruiseline do you think would be the best? I am thinking Princess/RCCL/Celebrity depending itinerrary & price. I assume we would probably see more on a land tour but I think that would cost way more money.

 

A land vacation versus cruise is a very different experience, both great but different.

 

For cruise, think ports and only places close by ~ 50-100km max. Or you spend too much time getting to and from the attractions. Also think/plan for only ONE day in each port as a rule. Thus your ability to have leisure days eating, relaxing or strolling are very limited. But you can't beat the fact you can see often 5 to 6 ports in 7 days or 10 ports in 12 days. No land vacation can do that with the convenience of one unpack convenience. Do plan to spend a bit of money or time / research to get the most of your limtied time in port. We really liked the convenience of one unpack, no worry breakfast/dinner and then a wonderfuly new city every day. But we did miss not having more time in each port.

 

Land cruise gets you more time in every city but liekly fewer cities. For that you get leisure time and much more time to dive into cultural and stuff.

 

Only you can decide what is best. But as to which line, I'd not worry so much as to line as to port lineup. Your daughter is old enough to probably enjoy the ports and things like kids club etc. will hopefully be less important then gettting that dream line up of ports.

 

Cost comparison is different as I doubt there are many apple to apple comparison where the land tour matches the cruise ship variety nor a cruise ship tour that matches the lands time in port.

 

Happy planning!