Which itinerary would you suggest for a first timer?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We have never been to Europe and I've always wanted to visit Italy.  We have a 9 night booked with Celebrity in the retreat with an awesome itinerary for next summer.  Here's the itinerary:

 

Barcelona

At sea

Marseille

Villefranche

Santa Margherita

La Spezia (2 days!)

At sea

Naples

Rome

 

It's on the Equinox, so the retreat sundeck does not have a pool, which is someplace we would spend a lot of time on our sea days.

 

We recently booked our first MSC cruise.  I've read so many wonderful things about their Yacht Club so we're super excited to give them a try.  We have high hopes!  It made us wonder how much we could save if we switched from X to MSC for Europe next summer and it's quite a lot.  If we love it while we're on ship, we could go ahead and book.  Here's what I have found that looks good to us (these are all 7 days):

 

MSC Seaview - Love the price and round trip from Rome, which is one of my must sees! (4K less than Celebrity!)

Rome

at sea

Palma De Mallorca (I know nothing about this port!)

Barcelona

Cannes

Genoa (Portofino)

La Spezia

Rome

 

MSC Europa - Awesome ship!  (Apx. $3500 less than Celebrity)

Naples (Pompeii) - Another good place to be.

Messina ( I don't know anything about this port)

La Valletta, Malta

at sea

Barcelona

Marseille

Genoa (Portofino)

Naples

 

MSC Europa - Just getting on in Portofino instead of Naples (Price same as above)

Gena (Portofino)

Naples

Messina

La Valletta, Malta

At sea

Barcelona

Marseille

Genoa (Portofino)

 

Are the MSC itineraries good?  I have already researched for the Celebrity cruise, but have plenty of time to research some different ports.  The places I want to see most are Rome, Venice, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast.  I realize Venice isn't near the other places.  My thinking is with a shorter cruise, which is also less expensive, that would give us more time and money to see other places pre and/or post cruise.  Would one of the MSC itineraries be any better than the other, especially as a starting point?  For instance, for flying in and out of Italy (especially flight prices), and traveling by train to other areas of interest?  

 

 

 

 

 

[marazul]

The itineraries all have something to offer. BUT check the amount of time you have at each port. Some lines are cheaper because they only spend a short time in each place and save on port fees.  If this is your first time, it is simply not worth it.  You want to maximize the time at each port.

 

Also, one-way cruises tend to visit more ports than round trip cruises, plus you get to spend more time at both end cities.  If you end in Rome, you can easily take a train to Venice and fly back from there.

[mapleleaves]

agree with marazul ...be very mindful of those port times.

 

If you look at  LIVE CRUISES in the banner above, there's a current MSC Europa in the works.  They boarded in Barcelona so perhaps you can board at multiple ports ??

[marazul]

BTW - you are not getting on in Portofino. The port is Genoa which is 20 miles away.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

27 minutes ago, marazul said:

The itineraries all have something to offer. BUT check the amount of time you have at each port. Some lines are cheaper because they only spend a short time in each place and save on port fees.  If this is your first time, it is simply not worth it.  You want to maximize the time at each port.

 

None of the say when we arrive, just till 7 or 8 PM. 

27 minutes ago, marazul said:

Also, one-way cruises tend to visit more ports than round trip cruises, plus you get to spend more time at both end cities.  If you end in Rome, you can easily take a train to Venice and fly back from there.

Right

16 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

agree with marazul ...be very mindful of those port times.

 

If you look at  LIVE CRUISES in the banner above, there's a current MSC Europa in the works.  They boarded in Barcelona so perhaps you can board at multiple ports ??

In Europe, MSC lets you board at multiple ports. 

13 minutes ago, marazul said:

BTW - you are not getting on in Portofino. The port is Genoa which is 20 miles away.

That’s pretty typical in Europe, isn’t it? 

[marazul]

24 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

In Europe, MSC lets you board at multiple ports. 

That's still a round trip. They run a loop.

See if you can find out arrival times for MSC. Maybe on the MSC board? Post there. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

4 minutes ago, marazul said:

That's still a round trip. They run a loop.

See if you can find out arrival times for MSC. Maybe on the MSC board? Post there. 

I understand that. It seems like it would be a lot of extra work for MSC as far as keeping it straight which rooms are available when. I asked the guy doing the Live from Europa about port times. 

[euro cruiser]

MSC is famous, or really infamous, for weird port times.  I looked at one of the Europa itineraries and it shows the stop at Naples from 1 PM to 8 PM.  

[NCteacherlovescruising]

22 minutes ago, euro cruiser said:

MSC is famous, or really infamous, for weird port times.  I looked at one of the Europa itineraries and it shows the stop at Naples from 1 PM to 8 PM.  

It’a frustrating that their website doesn’t list port times. 

[marazul]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

It’a frustrating that their website doesn’t list port times. 

Play it safe. 

Maybe look at other lines.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

11 minutes ago, marazul said:

Play it safe. 

Maybe look at other lines.

If we don’t switch to MSC, we’ll keep our Celebrity cruise.  I’ve been so excited since the day we booked it!  Since booking our upcoming cruise with them I’ve found their yacht club passengers love them. I figured if we love the YC too, why not save the money and book while onboard. 

[euro cruiser]

MSC does list port times, you just have to work for it.  Look at the itinerary then click on details and page through port by port, the time will pop up.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, euro cruiser said:

MSC does list port times, you just have to work for it.  Look at the itinerary then click on details and page through port by port, the time will pop up.

You’re correct. I had to click on maps instead of itinerary. Thanks!  The port times are fairly standard. 8-11 hours, . Celebrity does has one overnight, which would be cool. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

12 hours ago, euro cruiser said:

MSC is famous, or really infamous, for weird port times.  I looked at one of the Europa itineraries and it shows the stop at Naples from 1 PM to 8 PM.  

Day 1 

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 

To 07:00 PM

Day 2 

Day At Sea 

 

Day 3 

Palma De Mallorca (Baleari Is.), Spain 

From 09:00 AM To 11:00 PM

Day 4 

Barcelona, Spain 

From 08:00 AM To 05:00 PM

Day 5 

Cannes (Côte D'Azur), France 

From 08:30 AM To 05:30 PM

Day 6 

Genoa (Portofino), Italy 

From 07:00 AM To 06:00 PM

Day 7 

La Spezia (Cinque Terre), Italy 

From 07:00 AM To 06:00 PM

Day 8 

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

 

 

Day 1 

Naples (Pompeii), Italy 

To 08:00 PM

Day 2 

Messina (Taormina), Italy 

From 09:00 AM To 07:00 PM

Day 3 

La Valletta, Malta 

From 08:00 AM To 05:00 PM

Day 4 

Day At Sea 

 

Day 5 

Barcelona, Spain 

From 09:00 AM To 06:00 PM

Day 6 

Marseille (Provence), France 

From 07:00 AM To 06:00 PM

Day 7 

Genoa (Portofino), Italy 

From 08:00 AM To 04:00 PM

Day 8 

Naples (Pompeii), Italy

 

The port times looks ok to me. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by NCteacherlovescruising

[Vineyard View]

We were just in Malta a couple weeks back. We’ve been to a good number of ports in the Mediterranean and Malta was one of those stamp to memories. A large MSC ship was also in port. I believe they left around 3:00, which is probably an on board by 2:00. While we enjoyed the quiet after such a large number of people sailed away, I did find myself thinking that it would have been a shame to have such a short day. We did not sail until 11p. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

5 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

We were just in Malta a couple weeks back. We’ve been to a good number of ports in the Mediterranean and Malta was one of those stamp to memories. A large MSC ship was also in port. I believe they left around 3:00, which is probably an on board by 2:00. While we enjoyed the quiet after such a large number of people sailed away, I did find myself thinking that it would have been a shame to have such a short day. We did not sail until 11p. 

I keep hearing how amazing Malta is!  

[Vineyard View]

41 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I keep hearing how amazing Malta is!  

It will NOT disappoint!

If you have a chance to read a little history of Malta it may being what you are seeing more to life. It did for me. Enjoy!

[CynBeth6]

We will hopefully be on our Med cruise with Royal this summer. We were supposed to go the year Covid hit. Some of the ports had changed but no big deal. We leave out of Barcelona and are coming in a few days early. It has a day at sea and then we do Marseilles, Villefranche, Genoa, Portofino, and Livorno and end at Civi Port outside of Rome. We are then spending a few nights in Venice and 3 nights in Rome. Could be more if the scheduled airport strike still happens the day we are supposed to fly home. We are so excited and keep praying nothing happens to prevent us from going or having an issue while overseas.