Europe - 7 or 12 day cruise?

[themtbabe]

Hi all,

 

I am planning a Med. cruise for next summer. I want to leave out of Rome, and see Athens, and other Greek ports. For all of you seasoned Med cruisers, which do you prefer - 7 day or 10-12 day? I have never been to Europe before. Any advice would be welcome. I will plan to spend a few days pre-cruise in Rome.

 

 

Thanks!

[Keith1010]

I would go for 12 days rather than 7. There is so much to see and while you won't see it al in 12 days you will see quite a bit more than 7. It is port intensive. I would also arrive there a few days before the cruise so that you can see tour the embarkation city and so you can get over the jet lag and so that a flight delay or cancellation does not cause you to miss the ship.

 

Keith

[LBumb]

so far i have only had 12 days cruises in my dreams

[Goes Cruising]

If it's within your budget (time and money), do the 12 day. Consider the cost of the air fare and the travel time, one week is really not enough.

 

Med itineraries are very port intensive every day you add will add up to new sights and adventures.

 

The Med still is and may always be my favorite region to cruise!

[ggo85]

I would do the longer cruise. We've done several cruises out of Rome -- all 10-12 days. I can't imagine doing less because, as noted above, there is so much to see and do. And, a longer cruise tends to give you a couple of sea days, which are great on a port-intensive itinerary.

 

Of course, this assumes you can do a longer cruise from a finance perspective.

[PCWalton1]

Keep in mind the time you will spend before and after the cruise. There is the travel time back/forth and most likely you would want to spend time exploring the port you are starting in or the surrounding area. We had a 7 day cruise out of Venice back on May 12-19 but ended up gone from May 9 to 21, almost two weeks. It took us a good 24 hours to get over there and the same to get back. We also spent time in Venice and Milan before and after. I wrote a review you may want to check out for ideas.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1638871

 

Bill

[villauk]

I would definitely go for as long as you can. Europe is very port intensive so it's always nice to have a few sea days in between the long sightseeing days. 12 days is great and even better is adding a few days pre or post cruise. Most cruises depart from cities that are good to explore for a couple of extra days i.e. Barcelona, Venice, Rome etc.

[ollienbertsmum]

Hi all,

 

I am planning a Med. cruise for next summer. I want to leave out of Rome, and see Athens, and other Greek ports. For all of you seasoned Med cruisers, which do you prefer - 7 day or 10-12 day? I have never been to Europe before. Any advice would be welcome. I will plan to spend a few days pre-cruise in Rome.

 

 

Thanks!

 

I would do a seven day cruise and spend the extra days on land seeing several iconic cities 'properly' (I am thinking Rome,Paris, Barcelona or London) it would be nice to choose that starts and finishes in different ports - but you have to decide on your budget

[endymion6942]

Hi all,

 

I am planning a Med. cruise for next summer. I want to leave out of Rome, and see Athens, and other Greek ports. For all of you seasoned Med cruisers, which do you prefer - 7 day or 10-12 day? I have never been to Europe before. Any advice would be welcome. I will plan to spend a few days pre-cruise in Rome.

 

 

Thanks!

 

I would not go on a European cruise less than 12 days. I would plug in an extra week or more for pre or post cruise sightseeing. IMHO.

BTW: I have 3 European cruises under my belt. The shortest cruise was 12 nights.

[marci22]

If you are doing Rome precruise, I would do a 7 night. Otherwise, you will need a lot of time off.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I have only done 12-14 day cruises in Europe...would only do shorter one if I could do several days on land pre, post or both!!

[Loyal2RCCL]

Regardless of where the cruise departs from, if you can manage it, I suggest the 12 night itins. You're already traveling so far, paying a lot for airfare etc, you might as well make the most of it and see/do as much as possible. I also suggest you fly into your departure city a day or two to get acustomed to the local time and recover from jetlag.. not to mention seeing all the local sights. The Europe cruises are very port intensive and not much of a relaxing vacation. Enjoy

[endymion6942]

I did the 12 night Holy Land cruise on the Mariner last year. We did 8 nights pre-cruise and 2 nights post cruise in Rome .

[rjrpar]

I would strongly recommend spending at least 2 weeks in Europe. It is too far and too expensive to fly only to be there for a 7 day cruise. Now, if you spend 3-4 days pre and post-cruise, that's a different story. We go on 12 days cruises and usually spend 3 days pre-cruise.

[themtbabe]

Thank you everyone for your advice! Now i just have to find the right itinerary. May have to go with Celebrity for this one. Though, I will still and always be "Loyal to Royal!" I am a teacher, so I have the whole summer to explore. Yeah!

[Gordo]

We have been planning our first Med cruise for this fall. We are booked on a seven night cruise out of Barcelona with one sea day.

 

As we have been exploring our tour options, we wish our cruise was longer (doesn't everyone :D).

 

We chose our cruise based on the ports and so are very pleased with our choice, but right now we are feeling a little overwhelmed as we will have five intense port days and then a sea day. We wish there was at least one sea day in between the five so we would get a break.

[Sinppu]

Many people will tell you Europe is worth a land tour or multiple trips. It is. It's like comparing it with North America and asking is 7 or 12 days enough to see the whole continent :p

 

I'd take the longer cruise. That way you'll see more. Just trying to decide which cities would interest you in Europe might be a battle. A day or two is not enough in ANY of them so if you do not have several months on you to check the whole of Europe out, the longer cruise is a better idea.

 

I live in Europe and I still haven't seen everything I want! ;)

[north29]

B2B. B2B 12 Day cruises. At the price they are now it is possible if desired.

I say this because there are so many good tours off the ship and independent ones that, well there is so much history to see and as a teacher, so much to learn and share with students.

 

On the other hand a more practical view would be the 12 day at least cruise and pick out a place to stay 4-5, at least and enjoy the local culture.

we have done this several times and WOW great experiences with trains, local non tourist places, did I say lasting memories.

[daveky]

I would do the longer cruise. With the price of flight and so much to see and do spending more time in europe/med is a better option. Unfortunately with my work constraints, was only able to do the 7 day med cruise last month and with staying a night in venice on the front end and a night in venice after getting off the ship and the lengh of the flight was still gone 9 to 10 days, but would have loved to done a longer cruise.

[artypharty]

"IF" I only had two weeks I'd do a week in the embarcation port (preferably Barcelona, Rome or Venice) then a 7 day cruise. I love living in a City, even for a short time, there is so much to see and such unhurried touring and oogling of the sites. You can relax, grab a bite to eat at a sidewalk cafe and take in the ambience of the City. Then, there is the cruise... zooming into different ports and feasting on all there is to see at each one, then zipping out again.

 

We did that the last cruise, a week in Barcelona (LOVED it) and a week on the ship. It's the best of both possible worlds in my opinion.

[Racing fan]

We made that choice 6 years ago and went with a 12 day Carnival cruise versus a 7 RCI cruise. You are not going to spend a lot of time on pretty beaches like the caribbean so take the time to enjoy the ancient cities and unique cultures. Plus you lose 1 full day getting there and have to deal with jet lag.

 

PS wear the most comfortable shoes you can find; you feet will thank you.