Mediterranean Questions
 

I would like to take a cruise around the Mediteranean next year. The ports of call for the cruise I am interested in will be Barcelona, Villefranche (Nice), Livorno (Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome), Mykonos, Kusadasi (Turkey), Piraeus (Athens), Santorini, and Naples.

My question is regarding when to go. There is one sail date for mid to late October. I was originally interested in this date for 2 reasons:

1. The last time I was in the Med. it was August, it was EXTREMELY hot, and I thought that maybe October would be more pleasant.
2. I have frequent flyer miles for 2 R/T tickets to Europe. Before May 15th and after October 15th, each ticket is only 40,000 frequent flyer miles but, between May 15th and October 15th, each ticket would be 60,000 FF miles. It would be nice to get 3 R/T tickets for 120,000 FF miles rather than just 2, if I can.

So, how is the Med during the second half of October? I would like cooler temps than the 90s, but I also don't want very cool, damp weather, either.

There is also a cruise beginning Sept. 29, and others beginning late May through the Summer.

Please tell me what you think. I would love to read your opinions.

Thanks.

I just got back on Saturday from a med cruise--same iternary that you mentioned except croatia instead of turkey. The weather was absolutely the best. Average throughtout was approx. 78
degrees with little humidity. We did have rain in Rome,actually rome closed due to a power blackout.
I don't know if Europe is always that warm at that time of the year or it may have been an exception due to the extreme hot summer they had.

Hope, thanks for the reply. I'm so glad that you had a wonderful cruise! I hope that the weather is just as nice at the end of October as it is at the beginning.

Could you please tell me which cruise line and ship you sailed on? How did you like the ship? Also, how did you enjoy Croatia? And, are there any must see excursions you would recommend? Did you take ship's excursions, or did you arrange private excursions?

Hope, sorry for the rapid-fire questions, but thank you so much. I will be looking forward to reading more about your cruise.

Sorry I can't help in answering your questions, happy2travel, but I was hoping to get some info from Hope as well! My husband and I are trying to plan a Med cruise that sounds like the exact itinerary as Hope's - either on RCCL or Celebrity. Unfortunately, we have to go in the summer - so much for no hot weather! But I'd love to hear more about your trip, Hope. Excursions, suggestions would be great!!! THANX!

TO Leigh-
If you have to go in the summer, DO JUNE- as in early June , if possible- to avoid the crowds and heat...

Best time for the MED is last 2 weeks in MAY and middle 2 weeks in Sept, IMHO...

However, Mid OCT . should be fine unless the summer prior is not too hot...

We did a Med cruise for many of those ports in May - and it was GORGEOUS !!!! All the flowers were in spring bloom, and it hadn't gotten really hot yet. It was in the mid to upper 70s..., maybe hit 80s in Santorini. Another time frame you could look at....

We are leaving on the 24th. for our 2nd. med. cruise with RSSC.Weather is usually perfect for us S.Floridians, sweater weather (highs of 70). Tourist spots are bare. It is the best time.

Sorry it took so long to get back.
This was our first cruise for us.We are 45 yrs old and we went with another couple.
We chose the celebrity millennium after much research through cruise boards etc.
Not having anything to compare to we have to say that we loved everything. I think we hooked on cruising.
As for ports we only booked the 4 hr tour of acropolis in Greece.
The rest we did on our own.
We rented a car in Santorini--went to the beach in the south, drove up to Oi and finished up in Thira to catch the sunset.

In Naples we took the hydrofoil to Sorrento and mid afternoon took the train to Pompeii and then took the train back to Naples and walked (1/2 hr)to the ship in time for 7:00 sailing.

We chose to forgo Florence(as all of us has been there before) so we rented(done in advance)a car in Livorno (it was there at the dock) and drove to Siena and then to Volterra.

Villefranche was a breeze.We were tendered in to port. From there its a short walk to the train station where you can buy a ticket to anywhere--Monaco,Nice,Cannes. Since we had to wait an hour for the train to Nice we chose to take the bus which is only a 15 minute drive. The bus stop is on top of the hill so we just took our time walking up to it.
Back from Nice we spent some time in Villefranche--such a pretty town then back to the ship.
I'd be happy to answer any other question.
Hope

I forgot to mention Dubrovnik. We took the ship's bus into town. Its a lovely town but not really much to do. The walk on top of the wall is the highlight-great views. The ships bus took us back for the 5:00 sailing.

There are many trip report on this itinerary on CruiseCritic.com