Cruising in Europe
 

We are thinking of visiting Italy, Spain, and the Greek Isles. Would like to hear what Cruise Line, Ship, and Routes you enjoyed or not enjoyed. When is the best time to cruise, when not, and how far out did you purchase your trip. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

One not to take is MSC. I did a Mediterrean cruise as the ports were very interesting. However I prefer American cruise lines in Spring or Fall purchasing up to 9 months out for a cabin.
If price drops, you can negotiate.
Consider HAL, Celebrity or Princess.
Great info can be gleaned on www.cruisecritic.com.
Due note that your time in port is minimal as opposed to land tours.

We've done two Oceania Med cruises, and it quickly became our favorite line. Both were in the fall, wnhich we liked--not too hot or crowded.

vacationstogo.com great deals
cruisecritic.com for ship reviews.
I enjoyed Princess Barcelona Venice last 11 days
Might look at something like that $1299 pp balcony
all in good value.

We did both Mid-May and Mid-October and the weather was great on both. Be prepared to be exhausted from the daily sightseeing, one great port after the next. On most European cruises you only get one or two sea days on 9 through 12 days cruises.

If you're looking for a deal, check out the Carnival Breeze, new ship debuting this June.

On European cruises the ports are far more important than the actual cruise. We used the ships strictly as floating hotels. We never saw any of the entertainment in the evenings since we were up early and touring most of the day, and were to exhausted to stay up much after dinner. Always had lunch on land and barely had time for a quick breakfast.

Having said that, they were the two best cruises we've taken, based strictly on the weather and the ports. We did a 12 day out of Rome and a 9 day out of Barcelona. On those 2 cruises combined we saw, Rome(twice), Naples(twice), Capri, Amalfi, Messina(twice), Taomina, Stromboli, Barcelona(twice), Monaco(twice), Nice, Livorno, Florence, Marseille, Venice, Dubrovnik, & Palma de Mallorca.

That's why I say you'll be exhausted when you get home.

Best cruise we have taken was HAL from Venice to Split, Athens, Istanbul, Mykonos, Ephesus, Santorini, Olympia, Venice. It was 11 Days, You can extend to Spain, but with more days involved. Places that were not too interesting were Split and Olympia, and some cruises will offer some different ports. I think too that if you can arrange private tours ( not ship sponsered), your land excursions will be better. Most ships tours spend a third or half their time on shopping opportunities - usually at carefully selected shops. Arranging private tours is a bit of work, but with time and asking advice on this and other websites it can be done. The prices are comporable.

We did a 10 day Med on Princess cruise line. We have been on many cruises but the Med was awesome. We did late October. If visiting venice as a port be careful of flooding. I would have chosen a different time frame. The port of Croatia was to rough and we had to skip although it was on the itinerary. other than that the weather was great no problem. We did Rome and stayed 3 days extra there. Did all the greek islands they are great to see if even once. Did the Almalfi coast. Loved Italy the best. If you go be sure to go on cruisecritic.com and sign up on roll call. Seasoned travelers will be looking for people to go on private tours. You will save a bunch of money. Avoid the ships tours. They are costly.

Did a Mediterranean one out of Rome on Celebrity, Solstice visiting Greek Isles and Turkey which my daughter and I enjoyed. Another one I would like to take is on the Solstice out of Barcelona. Check these out on Vacationstogo.com.
The Solstice is a beautiful ship with a good crew.
Our luggage was 3 days late arriving due to rerouting of the airline,but the crew could not have been nicer on this ship helping us get the luggage and providing us with Tshirts, toileteris in the meantime.
You can't miss with these cruises on this ship.
We went in Sept. and the weather was great.

We have done several Med and Greek isle tours with Holland America and enjoyed everyone. HA is our cruise line of choice.

We also did the Eastern Med out of Barcelona end May last year on the Solstice and had a wonderful time, weather was just great and crowds manageable. Celebrity often has some very good deals on their Med itineraries, we met several people who were doing back-to-back cruises, one couple was doing 3! You could get in Barcelona a few days earlier and take in the sights pre-cruise.

I read somewhere that if you are an English speaker you should book a cruise that leaves from an English speaking port so you can better socialize onboard.

People posting here do not seem to think that's too important.

Is it not really all that meaningful/important?

We've only taken three European cruises, so I wouldn't call myself an expert, by any means. One left from Stockholm, one from Barcelona, one from Venice. All had predominantly English speakers on board.

Goldengrain, I have never heard of that recommendation. We have been on six European cruises and only one left from an English speaking port. Didn't notice any difference. Probably an old wives tale told by someone who has never been on a cruise.

It would be very difficult to leave from an english speaking port when doing a Med Cruise. I don't see how that would even be possible. We have left from Puerto Rico on several cruises where there were many spanish speaking folks. In this case the captain will usually speak on loud speaker in both languages.

Thank you. It's funny how a person remembers such things. I appreciate your clearing this up. It seemed to make sense when I read it.

I love the VacationsToGo website. It is very easy to find what you want and to compare deals without having to consult a third party.

I do notice that they do not have a section for all inclusive cruises, but I suppose that is because 'all' can be parsed in different ways.

Also, it seems as though some cruise lines try to stop at as many ports as they can on a given tour and others like a lot of time at sea. The one I was looking at, Regent, seems to charge a bit more, too, but to my mind, that is what a cruise is all about, seeing the world. I read a comment that they make more money if they can keep people on board longer and that seems to make sense.

As I note that tropics hasn't bothered replying to any of these fine suggestions in the last twelve days, I can't really see the point of offering any more.