First timer to cruises-need some advice
 

Hi, my wife & I are considering doing a cruise next year in the Mediterranean, hopefully taking in Dubrovnik, greek islands, etc. We travel to London from Australia often to see a relative. We picked up brochures from a travel agent, and we are a bit confused as to the best company to go with, ie. Princess, Costa, P & O, and another called Orient Line.
We liked the look of a new P&O liner called Ventura starting up in 2008 (which is when would like to go), and also liked the idea of leaving from Southampton, as we like visit friends in Fareham, nearby.
Appreciate any advice regarding cruise companies, liners, etc.
Also, in regard to "formal nights" does one have to go formal, or can you dine elsewhere on the ship, without getting dressed up. We don't worry about formal type functions, we are happy in smart casual, and prefer to sit on the deck enjoying a wine & watching the moon/sea.

You sure can choose alternate dining in buffet if you don't want to go formal. As for cruise line, there is so many of them and it is hard to advise without knoving your interests and tastes. Read cruise lines info and cruisers reviews.

Not all cruise lines offer a buffet so do your research. P&O is more traditional so if you are a fan of casual, consider Princess, Costa, Carnival and RCI who all offer buffets in the evening.

Personally, for a good value in the MED, I would choose MSC.

thank you for the advice.

Been on lots of cruises;
"formal night" was, to one man on the Amsterdam, a plaid lumberjack shirt!! ho ho. Never been on the Orient Line, but left out of Southampton on a cruise up the Norwegian coast on the Princess and it was spectacular...Hope you have a great time (we just came from Australia and it rained the entire time we were there).

Clarasong - yes we had lots of rain in various part of Australia recently, but still the dams in South East Queensland are still low, and the drought is playing havoc with vegetable prices. Apparently, heavy rain in Victoria, wiped out certain crops.
Apparently we are having one of the coldest winters on record for Qld, a few weeks ago, the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns, experienced frosts.
In regard to the formal nights, my reason for asking is that when I travel to London, I don't take suits, etc with me, as I mainly wear smart casual attire, and I don't feel like lumbering around airports, London, carrying suit/s in a special carry bag, and dressing up for formal nights doesn't really grab me.
Where I live in Qld, we wear short & t-shirts nearly all year round. Come to think of it, I don't think my old suit would fit me now anyway.
What are your thoughts, in regard to the time spent ashore, is it sufficient to see the main sights?
My wife has just shown me a brochure on Crotia, where we can fly to Dubrovnik direct from Gatwick, stay in hotel near the city/beaches, then take a 7 night cruise on a sailing vessel around the Adriatic islands, like Hvar, Sipen, Mljet, etc....it looks pretty good to me. It has half board (breakfast & lunch), then at night when they pull into one of the islands, you go ashore to a cafe or restaurant for dinner & drinks.
I will have to weigh up the difference in cost & what each offers in regard to sightseeing. I like the idea of swimming each day at various islands, living in a t-shirt & swimmers.
Crotia was our main country we wanted to see on a cruise, as we have travelled around Europe before, visiting Venice, Rome, Nice, Naples, capri, Sorrrento, etc.
A few years ago, we did a trip with Laskarina Holidays, where we flew to Samos, then they bused us to the fishing village of Ormos (just wonderful holiday, late seaon, hardly any tourists), and we also did a side trip to Patmos for the day. Our accommodation was on a hillside overlooking the agean, had a nice pool, self contained unit for cooking (breakfast & lunches), but we dined out at night at one of the several Tavernas. The most tourists we saw in the village would have amounted to no more 20 people. Its a holiday that I will remember for many years to come.

For a better idea about cruise lines and ships try going to: www.cruisecritic.com and www.cruisemates.com. The first one will be especially helpful because it has tons of passenger reviews as well as professional appraisals. For formal nights you can certainly dine elsewhere if you wish. Most ships have speciality restaurants for a moderate surcharge so this may be a good option for you. If you choose this just be sure to make a reservation (most require one) asap after you board. The issue of what is formal also comes up too. There is suggested attire but enforcement or adherence to these suggestions is often not followed. Have a great time. I hope to cruise Greece one day. Cheers mate. :-) Larry

Jacketwatch - thanks for the websites, I will definitely look them up.

tropo,

certainly check out the cruisecritic website.

A line that cruises the mediteranean you may want to look into is Oceania. It is an upscale line with smaller ships around 660 passengers. There are NO formal nights, open seating-eat when you want, with whomever you want, and they don't charge for the specialty restaurants. The food is great.

I don't recall if they have Australian wine aboard, but you may bring your own, although I found their selection quite good.

I REALLY recommend Oceania cruise lines too. We have sailed with them twice now. Ships are smaller, only 800 passengers, 4 restaurants, no assigned seating or times, no silly "Captain's dinners" and a very luxurious experience. I would certainly prefer going with Oceania, rather than one of those huge ships with thousands of passengers and assigned dinner tables and hours.

To Tampatramp & Kleroux - I will certainly look into the Oceania, it sounds like what I am after.

Many thanks.

One jacket/blazer will do - don't need whole suit - for formal nights. The longer the cruise is the more formal nights there are - mind you the dinners are often good on formal nights.

I don't know if you are aware of this but long pants are the must for dinners - no shorts allowed.

DH wears khaki trousers and nice collared shirts in evenings and throws on blazer (sometimes tie) on formal nights. Some other people just go overboard and wear tuxedos! Not my DH!

Mind you, again, you might enjoy dressing up a little bit - you'll be in the mood ...

ENJOY!!!

We just returned from a cruise of the Mediterrean on NCL. They offer a buffet as well as specialty restaurants. Most of the time, we returned tired from excursions, so we would hit the buffet for a light snack and then go to one of the restaurants later. The buffet was adequate. We felt it was like Vegas on a cruise ship, as far as the quality of the food. The specialty restaurants were superb.

Well, circumstances change, we have now opted to do the 7 day sailing trip starting from Dubrovnik, to the islands of Hvar, Sipan, Korcula, etc, then return to Dubrovnik, and perhaps have a couple of nights there, before flying back to London Gatwick.
We chose the sailing trip, as we both like swimming, and it appears the wooden sailing boat (with around 25 people) pulls up at various bays for a swim, and they have dinner on the deck. No dressing up at all, all we need are shorts, t-shirt & swimmers, and as they say, a sense of adventure. Apparently each night they berth on one Crotias islands, and the passengers can walk into the village or town to dine/& wine....sounds like fun to me.

Whooops, that last message should read, they have a 3 course lunch on deck, and wine is optional, and dinner is on-shore at various island towns/villages.

Sounds wonderful... I like the idea of having dinner in the various towns.

Don't forgot to walk the city walls in Dubrovnik!

Carole

Carole, yes we will certainly walk the walls of Dubrovnik. We intend to stay a night or two in Dubrovnik, on Lapad Peninsula. Apparently the harbour for these sailing cruises is close by, called Gruz Harbour.
We enjoyed sailing around the Greek Islands in a wooden sailing boat, that we wanted to do it all over again.
I think its more intimate to be only travelling with about 20 people, and I like the idea of calling into various islands towns for dinner & drinks each night. My travel agent gave my wife a brochure called Crotia & beyond, and we are looking forward to visiting the island of Hvar, and especially Mljet National Park (from the photos it looks like lakes within an island)
The only thing now is to be book the holiday in a shoulder season, hopefully, so its not crowded, just like the time we spent on the greek island of Samos (on that trip we were able to find small beaches or bays with no other person, it was ours for the day)