Cruise the Med..how to choose?

[Lovetwocruz2009]

Hi All,

 

This will be our (me and DH) first cruise to the Mediterranean. I am looking to go summer 2014. My question is how do I choose? I want to see Italy and France.

 

Any suggestions for what month to go, cruise length 7 or 12, what itinerary?. We have never been to Europe. Our budget including cruise and airfare is $6,000. Is this reasonable? I will set aside additional money for excursions and trinkets. We are open to other cruise lines.

 

Thanks for all of your help.

[golfadj]

Interesting post, after 25 or so cruises to E Coast we also want to do Europe next year.

 

Thinking though it might be better to try a cruise line that regularly does it as opposed to Carnival which does it relatively infrequently.

[trvlgirlmq]

I've so far done 4 land vacations to Europe so I will offer some token advise.

 

Weather: Apr-Jun will be much cooler than July onward. Still pretty warm but more manageable.

 

Time: With the cost of airfare relatively high compared to the cruise I would go with 12 night itinerary. Most bang for the buck. Not only will you hit France and Italy but another country or 2 or 3.

 

Line: The only line out with itineraries currently is Norwegian. RCCL will have Europe out between March 14-30 and who knows when Carnival will release. I do know from checking port schedules that Legend will be doing Baltics and Liberty should be in the Med.

 

I hope this helps and have fun planning.

[BobbyD]

During the summer of 2011, we went on an anniversary/college graduation cruise with our two sons. Chose CCL because it was MUCH cheaper than Royal. Magic was new and was wonderful. I would definitely cruise the 12 day itinerary if you have a choice. We chose a western med itinerary, leaving from Barcelona, through Monaco, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Sicily, Naples, and Dubrovnik. Trip of a lifetime and Carnival was wonderful. Excursions are very expensive and exhausting but worth every penny. We did all private excursions with Rome in limo. We went in June and weather wasn't any worse, maybe better, than CT in the summer. That's some basic info but the fun was also in the planning! My wife is spoiled and wants to go back!!

[maggie cruises]

best time to go is mid sept to mid oct

 

go for as long a cruise as you can manage

 

add days pre and post cruise

 

budget $5000 per person and this is accounting for more than you may need..but just be safe versus sorry

 

open up a special travel funded checking account for you overseas atm usage and have a backup account and debit card..just in case

 

use credit cards for everything you can..restaurants hotels museum tickets

 

do not be afraid to carry euro cash from home..the exchange rate differential from here to europe is seriously negligible (sp)

 

book your cruise through a big online cruise agency..i cant say the name here...as far in advance as you can..and remind your ta that you will be expecting price reductions..obc..free wine..etc. on our last med cruise he got me a $1500 reduction and an upgrade on 2 cabins at final payment.

 

do your research..do not be afraid of this...ask for discounts on pre and post hotel rooms...google is your best friend here.

 

use your credit cards for everythin you purchase on a day to day basis and cash in your points for cash.

 

buy your travel insurance within 14 days of initial trip deposit and dont forget to insure your plane tix cost and anything else that is non refundable..you can estimate this

 

 

plenty more advice for you..but I have a kid that needs to be driven to work..ttyl

[leenieweenie]

interesting post, after 25 or so cruises to e coast we also want to do europe next year.

 

Thinking though it might be better to try a cruise line that regularly does it as opposed to carnival which does it relatively infrequently.

 

since i always value your opinion and advice--who do you think you will be booking with? Norwegian or royal or other?

[yoursurfer]

We did a Med cruise in April 2009. It was cold, but as we lived in Europe at the time were expecting it. We traveled with MSC cruise lines. Very European, food, non English speaking staff etc. again we were used to this because we lived in Germany at the time, but remember the announcements on the ship were all in Italian!!!! I would definitely choose Royal. We had friend do this one and said it was way more "Americanized". Also remember that these cruises are very port intensive. Not a lot of relaxation, lots of walking. We will go again, it was one of the greatest things we've ever done!

[mairead224]

I would recommend MSC. They are not a great line for kiddies hence the reason we jumped ship this year but their ships are very beautiful especially the new Divina and their cabins are large and the balcony's have plenty of room that you could easily enjoy a meal out there.

If you check out msc.co.uk you can do a virtual tour of the fantasia.

 

For example this year we were thinking of doing the divina from Venice but had planned on upgrading to their yacht club (full butler service and free drinks for entire cruise!!), total cost for 2 adults and 2 kids was €3800. Balcony Cabin cat 9 was only €1800!!! Big bonus with MSC is kids go free but in saying that if there is nothing for kids to do on the ship then .....!!! As a previous poster mention most travellers will be european but if anything that should just add to your vacation!!! With MSC you can get on at any port you wish and I would recommend doing one week for ship and maybe one week for a little tour of Italy or Spain. Hmm on second thoughts maybe I'm leaving my side down .... maybe a week in Ireland!!!! We can't gaurentee you the weather but we can gaurentee the craic agus ceoil (Thats Irish for fun and music!!!)!!!

[Lovetwocruz2009]

Thank you for all the information. I received some advice on the Royal board too.

 

It's time to check out airfares from California. Yikes!

[golfadj]

since i always value your opinion and advice--who do you think you will be booking with? Norwegian or royal or other?

 

At this point have no idea. Will start looking mid year but will look for best deal perhaps doing a TA but open to everything.

 

And than k you

[Jemery]

There has been a lot of good advice already; based on our experience with Carnival in the Mediterranean, I would choose another line. They're fine for short cruises, a week or less, in the Caribbean, but they seemed out of their depth in the Med. I wouldn't choose the first couple of cruises of the season, or the last couple, because of the increased chance of weather issues. I agree with the 12 day cruise. We got a good deal on airfare booking through Carnival. Be aware that excursions, either through the ship or on your own are expensive. If your ship cancels ports, you may or may not be able to get refunds on tours you book on your own.

-John

[Lovetwocruz2009]

There has been a lot of good advice already; based on our experience with Carnival in the Mediterranean, I would choose another line. They're fine for short cruises, a week or less, in the Caribbean, but they seemed out of their depth in the Med. I wouldn't choose the first couple of cruises of the season, or the last couple, because of the increased chance of weather issues. I agree with the 12 day cruise. We got a good deal on airfare booking through Carnival. Be aware that excursions, either through the ship or on your own are expensive. If your ship cancels ports, you may or may not be able to get refunds on tours you book on your own.

-John

 

I didn't think about booking the airfare through the cruiseline. I usually get better deals to Miami or FL on my own. This is a good idea to price. Also how much would you say I should budget for the excursions? $200 to $250 per day? I didnt think about the no refund policy with a private tour.

[mek]

I didn't think about booking the airfare through the cruiseline. I usually get better deals to Miami or FL on my own. This is a good idea to price. Also how much would you say I should budget for the excursions? $200 to $250 per day? I didnt think about the no refund policy with a private tour.

 

I use private tours in Europe frequently and I have never run into a problem with a no refund policy if the ship misses a port - they will tell you that upfront. You will see more, with a smaller group, for a better price, if you go with private tours.

 

Depending on the port, you can get many nice private tours in the price range you have mentioned.

 

Do be aware if you buy air through the cruise line, you will have no say in the itinerary and you may end up with less than desirable flight times/connections, etc.

[wwbill4]

In October of 2012 I saw this cruise to the Med visting Barcelona(Start of cruise and end),Marseilles, France; Florence/Pisa,Rome,Naples,Dubrovik,Venice,Sisily. These were the best ports to see in Europe. Could not find anything close to this itinery. Add to that the cruise for an outside cabin for 12 days was under 2400 for 2. Yes it was Carnival but they would be putting close to 155 million into the ship just prior to our cruise. I am expecting big things on the new "Sunshine", formerly the Destiny.

Add to that we are going over Memorial day so obtaining our air back in November 2012 was a must. Our TA told us any decrease in fare would could get, well it never went down. Infact it has since gone up.

Booked our hotel in Barcelona for the day before the cruise leaves, it is just under 200.00

Between our cruise and air and Hotel we are at approx 5100 now. I am assuming another 4K approx. And that's cheap!

Do your research, Enjoy!!!

Bill

[YaWk3Y_BoMb3r]

I wish I could afford Europe. All this talk of its awesomeness is depressing! This talk of $5k, 6k etc is just too much for me to spend for vacay. I'm only 25 and just cant justify that.

[p_mori7]

We did CCL in the Med last year.

 

Excellent experience, and affordable.

 

Recommended.

 

and we want to do the Baltics with Carnival as well.

 

Our trip cost was about $7500.00 all in.

 

We had a Cove Balcony, but we did take advantage of major price drops because of Concordia incident.

[Holders3]

I wish I could afford Europe. All this talk of its awesomeness is depressing! This talk of $5k, 6k etc is just too much for me to spend for vacay. I'm only 25 and just cant justify that.

 

If you are working start a savings for just that NOW. I so wish I had been more disciplined at that age and traveled when I could. If you have to make a 5 year plan or even more make it a budget priority and you won't find the years are gone and you didnt go. For various reasons I've never been and so wish I could but now it is too late.

[sailawaybellaluna]

I think you've gotten a lot of great advice, but I'll just chime in and say that I really LOVED our 12-night adventure on the BREEZE through the Med.

 

As someone else recommended, I think September is an excellent time to go. It's considered the "shoulder season" in France and Italy and prices are much less than the summer, but just slightly more than winter since you're still getting great weather!

 

We had perfect weather the entire time!

 

I was a little hesitant about booking Carnival because...well...I know RCCL and Norwegian can do a much better job putting together a quality cruise. But, the Breeze was brand new and we got a steal of a deal (3 of us in a porthole cabin for $2900 including all taxes and port charges). The diversity on board was awesome - about 35-40% Americans and the rest were Europeans and South Americans primarily...A different crowd than you'd typically get from Long Beach or Miami.

 

I'm not sure where in California you are, but I used a website that tracks airfare to send me a notification when it was quite cheap. The site is narrow boat dot com (if you get what I'm saying). We got our tickets for $800 each, which was quite a good deal roundtrip from LAX to Barcelona.

 

One thing to consider is finding an itinerary that is round-trip from the same port so you don't have to buy a multi-city airline ticket (which may be more expensive). Many of the itineraries begin in Barcelona but end in Venice, so this is something to consider.

 

We did most of our excursions on our own, and quite economically. If you're interested, a wrote a detailed review which you can find here.

 

I will say that I thought 12 days was a bit too long, and I LOVE cruising! Next time I might consider a 7 - 9 day and then spend a couple extra days in the port city, just soaking up the culture a bit...

 

Have fun planning!

[letsgo39]

In October of 2012 I saw this cruise to the Med visting Barcelona(Start of cruise and end),Marseilles, France; Florence/Pisa,Rome,Naples,Dubrovik,Venice,Sisily. These were the best ports to see in Europe. Could not find anything close to this itinery. Add to that the cruise for an outside cabin for 12 days was under 2400 for 2. Yes it was Carnival but they would be putting close to 155 million into the ship just prior to our cruise. I am expecting big things on the new "Sunshine", formerly the Destiny.

Add to that we are going over Memorial day so obtaining our air back in November 2012 was a must. Our TA told us any decrease in fare would could get, well it never went down. Infact it has since gone up.

Booked our hotel in Barcelona for the day before the cruise leaves, it is just under 200.00

Between our cruise and air and Hotel we are at approx 5100 now. I am assuming another 4K approx. And that's cheap!

Do your research, Enjoy!!!

Bill

 

We did this same itinerary on the Carnival Magic in June 2011 with our son and grandson. It was absolutely a fantastic cruise and a great way to see all these wonderful ports. We have been to Europe every year for the past 11 years,mostly on our own but I chose this way for my son and grandson to see Europe for the first time.By the time we cruised after booking Early saver we had around $1200.00 in OBC plus many price drops. I would say that the ports this cruise covers are probably the must see ports on a Mediterranean. Don't give up on price drops as we got most of ours after final payment.None of us thought 12 days was to long. You almost had to drag us off the ship!

[dolphin2012]

we have a carnival sunshine cruise planned for june.. so far we are at 8100.00 but that is for three of us in a oceanview room.. the airfare from texas was expensive and going thru carnival for that saved us alot. This also includes a room in barcelona for two days and transfers from the airport and to the ship... I have been checking on the excursions which are also pricey from carnival.. most are eight to ten hours long so can run from 89 to over 200 per person.. some include lunch etc.. its a once in a lifetime trip for us celebrating 40 yrs together.. if you book early you will save alot.. our cabin was 772.00 per person...have fun!!!

[Jemery]

I use private tours in Europe frequently and I have never run into a problem with a no refund policy if the ship misses a port - they will tell you that upfront. You will see more, with a smaller group, for a better price, if you go with private tours.

 

Depending on the port, you can get many nice private tours in the price range you have mentioned.

 

Do be aware if you buy air through the cruise line, you will have no say in the itinerary and you may end up with less than desirable flight times/connections, etc.

 

On our Med cruise, we only arrived in one port one the scheduled day, and Monte Carlo and Venice were canceled outright; a number of people on our cruise got burned on privately booked tours and arrangements. I agree in that range, you can get some really good tours.

 

Air arrangements; we couldn't have had better connections than we got through Carnival, and that would probably be true through most reputable lines, plus they usually include transfers from airport to pier and back; invaluable if you don't speak the language - they are impossible to miss when you get off the plane after an overnight flight, and most flights to Europe will be overnight, and you'll get off the plane tired.

-John

[letsgo39]

On our Med cruise, we only arrived in one port one the scheduled day, and Monte Carlo and Venice were canceled outright; a number of people on our cruise got burned on privately booked tours and arrangements. I agree in that range, you can get some really good tours.

 

Air arrangements; we couldn't have had better connections than we got through Carnival, and that would probably be true through most reputable lines, plus they usually include transfers from airport to pier and back; invaluable if you don't speak the language - they are impossible to miss when you get off the plane after an overnight flight, and most flights to Europe will be overnight, and you'll get off the plane tired.

-John

 

I have never,not once had to pay a private excursions in advance on any of our ports in the Med.The payment was always due at the end of the tour.I don't understand how people get burned if they don't have to pay in advance. I have never even had to pay a deposit.As far as flights go I wait for good deals on my Europe flights and have never paid more than $950.00 to get to any place in Europe and I travel to Europe every year..

[kingoftheicedragons]

We booked our first European cruise when Carnival first announced all of its different European cruises, and it was a hard decision which one we wanted. We weren't really all that thrilled with a longer cruise because of time away from work, but that's what we ended up going with.

 

When first looking at all the cruise options on Carnival, I wanted to go on all of them. What we ended up doing was counting the number of different countries each would go to. Since it's our first time in Europe, we wanted to get to as many different countries as we could. Then, we looked at price--both for the cruise and airfare, especially if embarkation and debarkation were in different cities.

 

We were all ready to book a Baltic cruise when I realized that Carnival had some itineraries that included Greece and Turkey, which really piqued my interest. So we changed our minds and picked the last sailing of the Legend in the Mediterranean. When this cruise was canceled, we changed to the last sailing of the Sunshine in the Med, which still did the Athens and Izmir stops.

 

So, we'll get 12 days on the Sunshine and get to go to a minimum of 7 different European countries--and I'm still trying to figure out if we'll be able to add any other countries such as San Marino, Monaco, or Andorra as well.

[tiggerman101]

Med cruises are exciting and completely diferent from a Caribbean trip. I will be doing my fourth one in May on the Sunshine. I have done the CCL 12 day Magic "Grand Med" (with Letsgo39), and a 12 day Eastern Med and 8 day Greek Isles with NCL. I recommend the Carnival 12 day trip around Italy to Venice and back. It is my favorite cruise to date and an absolutly amazing itinerary.

 

I think your budget (without excursions, etc) is pretty reasonable. Just remember, excursions will be more then a Caribbean trip, but very much worth it. My advice is research your heart out. Plan out your ports and make some (tough) decisions. You can not see it all and personally, I would never try to. Look at each port and pick out key sites you would like to experience. Your port days are long and fullfilling, but you will be wrecked if you try to fit "everything" in each day. Just relax and enjoy the sites you can see.

 

Have fun!

[kingoftheicedragons]

 

I think your budget (without excursions, etc) is pretty reasonable. Just remember, excursions will be more then a Caribbean trip, but very much worth it. My advice is research your heart out. Plan out your ports and make some (tough) decisions. You can not see it all and personally, I would never try to. Look at each port and pick out key sites you would like to experience. Your port days are long and fullfilling, but you will be wrecked if you try to fit "everything" in each day. Just relax and enjoy the sites you can see.

 

Have fun!

 

I think this is something worth mentioning that I've learned with planning our upcoming cruise in the Med this year. We have 8 ports (plus embarkation and debarkation cities). While I will admit we got a very good price for the cruise itself, the price of the excursions in those 8 ports will be ALMOST the same as the price of the cruise, and in one of those ports, we plan to do it on our own with no formal excursion. I believe the total cost of the excursions we want to do will be about $750/adult.

 

And some cities in Europe are very expensive. Our cruise starts in Venice, so we're paying a lot of money for one night at the hotel before the cruise. Barcelona was quite a bit cheaper for hotels, it seems. I have also heard that London is another place that your hotel is likely to cost a small fortune.