If unpacking once is a major plus the rent a house or a cottage somewhere. There are oodles of them available.
You don't say how old the children are, or when in summer you want to travel.
Remember much of the Med could be unbearably hot in the summer, and will inevitably be crowded.
Think out of the box a bit. What about northern Germany, or a Scandinavian country, or even rural Netherlands or Belgium. Poland even.

If Venice is of interest 1) go off season and 2) don’t do it as daytrippers. You’d hate it in the summer as a day tripper. To enjoy that one, you really do need to give yourself time to get off the beaten track.

I went over Christmas. Christmas itself is lovely. The week after is when the crowds kick in. I can’t imagine adding cruise ships and heat on top of that.

interested--watching

What about the best of both worlds? Small boat cruise on the Greek isles:
https://www.theglobesailor.com/gulet...eece-cp40.html

We have been on four ocean cruises and three river cruises in Europe (additional elsewhere). We have also travelled extensively in Europe on our own for many years. Both types of travel have their appeal, but the key is the itinerary. If the Mediteranean appeals to you, there are any number of cruise lines and itineraries. If Greece does not particularly appeal to you, then perhaps starting on the other end, say Barcelona and working your way to Rome or Venice might appeal to you better. You unpack once, have a variety of eating choices on the ship, recreational activities galore, and (usually) wonderful service. Pulling into a port in the morning can be magical, and beats arriving by train or plane any day. Despite what others on the forum have said, I think everyone should experience the luxury of cruising at least once. It can be just another way to make memories for your family, just as planning and travelling on your own can be.

Regarding excursions, you can take a few of the ship's offerings if you have on-board credits, or you can plan to see ports on your own to save money and customize your visit to suit you and your children.

I took a cruise once, and it was lovely, and I'm not going on another until I'm old and decrepit, and then it will be a river cruise and not an ocean cruise. The thing to recognize is that a cruise is primarily a shipboard experience, as the short stops and cruise-passenger-overload factor make the ports of call very unrepresentative of what the place is like. If you think you will enjoy spending time on the ship and don't mind that for the most part you'll be with the same sort of people you could meet at home, perhaps it's a good choice. If your goal is to experience Europe, you have to go independently. It's more work, but you will have a chance to experience the locations, food, people better.

Not everywhere is super crowded in the summer. If you can go June/early July, it will be fine. Pick a base and explore from there.
Even the Cote d'Azur is fairly quiet in early summer; or pick Provence with a few days on the coast added. Plenty of 'quaint' villages, and plenty to see and do.

We were in the Trieste area some time ago in early summer; beautiful area, lots of things to do, quiet, great food and reasonably priced.

So pick an area that appeals to you, and come back with more questions.

Surely the great thing about big ship cruising is the opportunity to dump 1000 people's waste into the sea, pour various ship's lubricants into the sea, fill the sky with the as much CO2 as possible while sending a drum beat into the water. Environementally the things are a disaster. If one sinks there are few countries with enough hospitals to support them and very few ports are able to service them to the pleasure of the spending clients.

Vacations are not good for the planet why make it worse in beautiful places?

what bilboburgler said - https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2.../cruises.green


A few years ago we went to Dubrovnik (in summer). It was more crowded than I ever remember Disney World being. Awful. Then around 5 pm the two cruise ships tooted their horns and departed amid a huge cloud of brown smoke that lingered for at least an hour. But then. It was heaven. But those cruise ship passengers never got to experience it like that. And they didn't see what their chosen form of 'luxury' transportation was doing to the place.

And here I believed all those fake news stories put out by the cruise lines that their human wastes are treated before discharge and that a cruise ship puts less exhaust into the atmosphere than the small number of jet planes flying around the world.

I am no huge fan of the cruise industry, believe me, but citing 12-year old articles about cruise lines dumping human waste at sea is not terribly helpful. Throughout the world, over the past decade the cruise industry has come under intense scrutiny and regulation about its waste disposal practices, so much so that the Friends of the Earth have been producing a cruise line "report card" - https://foe.org/cruise-report-card/ - for years. If the commercial ocean shipping industry was half as regulated - way more ships, way more toxic waste from ballast tanks etc. - the oceans would be noticeably better off. That's not to say the cruise ships couldn't and shouldn't do better, far from it. But how about the lovely tourist-friendly city of Victoria BC that pumps millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca every day? Would you stop having your $78 afternoon tea at the Empress?

Things aren't always rosy on land in Europe either - https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/wat...treatment-maps

For the OP, once again I'd ask the ages of the kids.