Best Family cruise. Help !

[Vic Mackey]

Hi,

 

cruised once on Ocean Village2 last year.

 

Looking to go with 14 family members cruising in the Med for between 7-12 nights.

 

any suggestions folks.

 

Looking for mid priced options ?

 

Thanks

[Keith1010]

There is no best cruise line for children. There are many good ones.

 

There are many choices available for families. Here are some to consider. Celebrity, Princess, and RCI.

 

I would start looking at these and then find an itinerary that will work for you.

 

As you consider the itineraries look also consider if you can easily fly to and from these areas from your home city.

 

Also, I highly recommend that you fly in at least a couple of days before the cruise so keep the embarkation port in mind as you think through a place that you might want to spend a couple of days touring. The avantage of flying in ahead of time is that if your plance is delayed or canceled you will still have time to make it to the ship and it also provides you time to get over the jet lag before you begin your cruise.

 

Keith

[boulders]

I've been researching a Med cruise for our family for 2010. Here's what I've learned.

 

Disney is also cruising in the Med for 2010.

 

RCI's Independence of the Seas sails out of Southampton to the Med, so that would save you some airfare. It also has the most bells and whistles - ice rink, rock climbing, waterpark etc of any ship currently sailing.

 

Regent Seven Seas (not known as a mid-priced line) is offering a 2 for 1 special plus $1000 off if booked by July 31 plus free shore excursions plus air plus very low prices for the 3rd and 4th. These inclusions put Regent at about the same cost as Disney or Independence.

 

DS13 cruised the Med last year with his grandparents and cousins on HAL. He had a good time.

 

After looking at all these options, I booked with Celebrity on the Equinox for next year. Equinox is a new ship that sets sail this August. Our cruise sails from Rome to Venice. It was the itinerary that sold me, in addition to the prices. Regent has a similar itinerary, but with no sea days. Celebrity was much less expensive than any of the other options. It also seemed like a better fit for our family - better food than some of the other options, no costumed characters (although we love WDW) and much more restrictive smoking policy than other lines.

 

Hope this helps.

[CeleBrat]

We cruised the NCL Gem in the MED last summer with with a total of 8 family member. We chose NCL because of its Freestyle Dining, and the fact that we wouldn't HAVE to pack extra formal clothing for the trip.

 

And, with no set dining time, we were able to truly enjoy our time in port, and not have to worry about rushing back for dinner.

 

Link to the review is in my signature. Enjoy!

 

CeleBrat

[Essiesmom]

Since you are already on the other side of the pond (from us) you have some options not regularly marketed to us. Thomson Holidays. P&O, Costa, MSC. Check them all out. with such a large group, I would find a good travel agent who you can talk with face to face and explore all the possibilities. EM

[emms]

We are a family of 4 ,we booked our cruise for next year on Celebrity Eclipse .We live in Wales not near a decent airport so we chose to sail from Southampton which is probably a 4 hour drive but at least we havent got all the worry you get at an airport .We are doing the Spanish Med which has some good ports of call ,a few lazy days at sea (not entirely sure about the Bay of Biscay)Celebrity have interconnecting rooms quite important as I wont want my 15 yr old son prowling the ship on his own!

Roll on August 2010 !!:)

[chipmaster]

Hi,

 

cruised once on Ocean Village2 last year.

 

Looking to go with 14 family members cruising in the Med for between 7-12 nights.

 

any suggestions folks.

 

Looking for mid priced options ?

 

Thanks

 

You will likely get likely as many different answers as you do responses.

 

What are your priorities, the ports, the ship, specific amenities?

 

I planned a similar gather for 11 people from 3 generations from 7 to 80 with as much variation in interest as age. For us, flying from the USA, it was all about the ports. Thus the line was of less importance than the "ports" We bounced back and forth between several itenerarys was Venice more important then Cairo, Istanbul versus Dubrovnik, Athens versus Santorini. It drove me crazy :eek:

 

Finally we settled on Princess's Grand Med that hits a large number of the our must do ports; Venice, Athens, Kusadasi/Ephesus, Istanbul, Naples, Rome, Florence/Pisa, Barcelona as well as Mykonos and Marseille to boot.

 

Good luck planning ;)

[Vic Mackey]

We cruised the NCL Gem in the MED last summer with with a total of 8 family member. We chose NCL because of its Freestyle Dining, and the fact that we wouldn't HAVE to pack extra formal clothing for the trip.

 

And, with no set dining time, we were able to truly enjoy our time in port, and not have to worry about rushing back for dinner.

 

Link to the review is in my signature. Enjoy!

 

CeleBrat

 

many thanks