Who else is looking forward to the Med in 2007?

[LauraS]

I just had to share about this great group we just opened up for our members. This one has ME intrigued, I'm really thinking of joining folks on this one:

 

Emerald Princess 09/02/07 - Greek Isles and Med Cruise - visiting 11 ports of call!

 

This is my dream itinerary, now I'll just have to coax hubby into joining me:

 

Itinerary

Day 1 - Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

Day 2 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

Day 3 - Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy

Day 4 - Naples/Capri, Italy

Day 5 - At Sea

Day 6 - Santorini, Greece

Day 7 - Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

Day 8 - Mykonos, Greeceo

Day 9 - Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Day 10 -Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

Day 11 - Corfu, Greece

Day 12 - Venice, Italy

Day 13 - Venice, Italy

[randolph]

LauraS, we too like Princess and have been interested in the Medit., but Princess seems expensive compared to other lines in Mediterranean.

Am I right, and is it worth the difference.

Thanks

[Schplinky]

Actually, the prices for the cruise Laura mentions are very competitive with what we paid for Brilliance. A bit cheaper, in fact.

[randolph]

Schplinky, appreciate the quick comments. I imaging airfare will be about $1300pp from LAX. Normally we book our own air for cruises (usually cheaper), but to the Mediterranean with 2 one way flights, just wondering.

[Juliadlf]

I just had to share about this great group we just opened up for our members. This one has ME intrigued, I'm really thinking of joining folks on this one:

 

Emerald Princess 09/02/07 - Greek Isles and Med Cruise - visiting 11 ports of call!

 

This is my dream itinerary, now I'll just have to coax hubby into joining me:

 

Itinerary

Day 1 - Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

Day 2 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

Day 3 - Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy

Day 4 - Naples/Capri, Italy

Day 5 - At Sea

Day 6 - Santorini, Greece

Day 7 - Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

Day 8 - Mykonos, Greeceo

Day 9 - Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Day 10 -Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

Day 11 - Corfu, Greece

Day 12 - Venice, Italy

Day 13 - Venice, Italy

 

I'm glad to see your considering this one and hope you are able to join us . :)

 

Julia

[randolph]

Julia, I don't believe what I just heard from you. "Now I have to coax my husband to go." What is he nuts? You must go and enjoy life togheter.

[Schplinky]

Schplinky, appreciate the quick comments. I imaging airfare will be about $1300pp from LAX. Normally we book our own air for cruises (usually cheaper), but to the Mediterranean with 2 one way flights, just wondering.

 

We're in Canada and Europe is often v expensive from here. My partner found on his last trip to Hungary that it was easier to break out the ticket. he flew round trip to London from Ottawa for $700 and then flew round-trip to Hungary for a few hundred. The round-trip to Hungary from here was several hundred more than his combined airfares. It's just a thought but it could help you.

[Juliadlf]

Julia, I don't believe what I just heard from you. "Now I have to coax my husband to go." What is he nuts? You must go and enjoy life togheter.

 

Laura has to coax her husband.

No need to coax my husband. He is already reading all the guides on Greece. I decided to organize a group cruise for this itinerary because of the many ports we do get to visit and the pricing is really good.

 

Julia

[pdesai]

My new husband and I will be cruising with Celebrity for the first time this June for our honeymoon. We are doing the 12 day Med. itinerary. We will be visiting Barcelona, Spain, Nice France, Florence, Rome, Naples (Capri/Sorrento/Pompeii) Italy then off to Santorini and Athens Greece and our last leg of the tour will take us to Croatia and then finally Venice. We have never been to this part of the world and I am hoping to gain some of your insight into which excursion I should take...Florence verse Tuscany (San Gimignano/Volterra). I figure Rome will give us the city feel and the majority of the other sites will give us the ocean..I thought Tuscany would be perfect..however not sure if I want to miss Florence....any advice? And has anyone done this tour?

[ehogan]

We did a Med. cruise on the Brilliance in May 2005 and I have to say I was disappointed in Florence. However, that was partially because we only did a walking tour of the city and it did not leave us enough time to enter the Uffizi. A lot depends on how interested you are in art versus countryside. For city ambience I don't think you can beat Rome (we spent 7 days there and that was not enough).

 

If you really want to get the feel of Tuscany, you should probably go with the tours that take you to Lucca or San Gimiano, that is what we plan to do in 2007.

[randolph]

Just booked the 9-2-05 12day Med (cruise critic group cruise). Since we had future cruise credits, we did not have to pay any deposit ($200 cr.).

It does pay on Princess to purchase "future cruise credit." Sure beats $600 deposit each.

[MVPinBoynton]

Randolph,

I sure hope you didn't book 9-2-05. If you did, you missed the ship!:D

We always like to have the future cruise vouchers. They are wonderful. We got two of them when we were on the Diamond in Feb. and now only have one left because of our 5-26-07 Grand booking.

[Schplinky]

How do these vouchers work?

[randolph]

MVPIN, oops it is 2007. Hate when that happens.

Schplinky, on all Princess cruises there is a future cruise consultant onboard. It's announced on ship and in the daily bulletins. Anyway, on your next cruise see the consultant. If you give Princess $100 for you and your sweetie, you can use this for a future cruise (within 4 yrs of deposit) as your TOTAL deposit. The balance is still due when everyone else has to pay theres. You just don't have to fork out money you may or may not have at the time of booking. Princess will also give you 1/2 of your future cruise credit as "on board credit." You can not lose. Can't do better in Vegas.

[MVPinBoynton]

Schplinky,

If you take a 12 day cruise, you get $200 ship credit to use on the 12 day cruise. So you pay your $200 which fulfills your deposit requirements when you do book and you can get up to $200 credit to your cruise account to boot. Hard to beat. Plus if you decide you don't want to take another Princess cruise (very unlikely:)) they will give you a full refund of the $200.

[Michael Kays]

Hi guys,

 

I noticed a lot of people were wondering about pricing for 2007 so I thought I'd chime in.

 

I booked a May 29th 12-day cruise on Emerald Princess (it will be a brand new ship). It was $3300 for a balcony, which I think is quite a bit more than last year.

 

I was kind of expecting that though.

 

Also, I've never sailed on Princess before but the Princess "experts" all agree that if you book directly with Princess you pay a lot more. So, I may wind up transferring the booking to a TA and it may end up cheaper than $3300. Definitely recommend using a TA

 

But for those who are interested, that's their pricing for a 12 day.

 

Melissa :)

 

We just booked June 10, 2007 Emerald Princess 12 day Venice to Barcelona.. cat BA Balcony aft C753 for $2779 pp including all port fees and taxes..Princess price was over $3300 for same cruise same cabin..

[Schplinky]

Schplinky,

If you take a 12 day cruise, you get $200 ship credit to use on the 12 day cruise. So you pay your $200 which fulfills your deposit requirements when you do book and you can get up to $200 credit to your cruise account to boot. Hard to beat. Plus if you decide you don't want to take another Princess cruise (very unlikely:)) they will give you a full refund of the $200.

 

forgive me for being slow.

 

So it works like this?

 

You have to be on a Princess cruise att he time you do it

You pay $200 for no cruise in particular

When you do choose your cruise, you use that money as the deposit AND you get the same amount in shipboard credit?

[Juliadlf]

forgive me for being slow.

 

So it works like this?

 

You have to be on a Princess cruise att he time you do it

You pay $200 for no cruise in particular

When you do choose your cruise, you use that money as the deposit AND you get the same amount in shipboard credit?

 

Here is a link which explains/clarifies the FCC on Princess. Hope this is helpful to you: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=331098

 

Julia

[MVPinBoynton]

Julia,

Thank you for providing the link, since it does do a better job of explaining it than I could.

 

Schplinky,

You would simply go to the future cruise desk and ask for an open booking. That way whenever you decide where you want to go, it will be used for it.

[Schplinky]

Thanks for explaining. The part I didn't get was the onboard credit. It didn't seem to make sense to pay ahead if you weren't getting anything extra for it.

[susancruzs]

I think it makes great sense to pay ahead of time! A cruise credit is good for 4 years! I purchased 2 ($200.) on my Sea Princess cruise last fall and used them for my B2B Royal Princess Med cruises! I wanted to book early and I'm not out $1,200 for deposits! My 1st cruise isn't until May 20, 2007.

 

Cruise credits were paid for already so basically I have two cruises booked over a year out and no money tied up. Last year I had alot of money tied up in deposits for my Fall Sea Princess B2B and I really don't want to do that again.

 

Susie

[Schplinky]

Sigh!!!!

 

We found out last night that the sailing we booked within seconds of it going on sale in order to get a corner aft was cancelled due to a charter. Of course, by all the other corner afts on the other sailings we were looking at are gone. Oy!!!

 

Oh well, we will have to drink extra wine and eat more chocolate with the $200 we'll save by taking a later sailing.

 

p.s. sorry if you're on the RCL board. I already whined there. Just looking for more folks to feel bad for me. :)

[24butterfly]

We've booked on the Aug 5th--Carnival Freedom. Just called them and got my on board past guest $200 credit. Now to write them and ask them to take us to Cinque Terre when we dock in Livorno--we've done Florence lotsa times.....

[cruzingracie]

We sailed on Carnival's Liberty out of Rome last September and absolutely loved it. It was my dream vacation.

 

We have just booked on RCI's Splendour for a 7 night Greek isle cruise out of Venice. We're booked for the October 6, 2007cruise and got very good prices. Venice was one of my favorite spots last year, so we're planning on flying in a few days prior to the cruise to wander some more through the winding streets of Venice. This time, friends and family are going so it should be even better!

[dileep]

My new husband and I will be cruising with Celebrity for the first time this June for our honeymoon. And has anyone done this tour?

 

Participate in the ROLL CALL for your cruise and monitor those of others this summer for the same itinerary and you will get a lot of useful info and find partners to share tours etc.