NCL Star or RCCL Radiance for Greek cruise

Hello! My family and I take a cruise every 2 years and we are looking cruising out of Venice to the Greek Islands next summer. We range in age from 18-84.

Looking at two itineraries with pricing almost exactly the same. Any thoughts?

NCL Star: Athens & Santorini, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia Kotor, Montenegro; Kefalonia, Greece; Split, Croatia

RCCL Radiance: Dubrovnik, Croatia; Corfu, Greece; Santorini, Greece; Chania (Souda), Crete, Greece; Piraeus (Athens), Greece; Katakolon, Greece;

Thanks!

Kathy

If you haven't, you can also post this on the NCL anf RCCL boards for more response based on actual experience.

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RCCL Radiance: Dubrovnik, Croatia; Corfu, Greece; Santorini, Greece; Chania (Souda), Crete, Greece; Piraeus (Athens), Greece; Katakolon, Greece;

Do you mean Rhapsody? I think Radiance is still sailing Alaska in Summer 2018.

We just did a Greek island cruise in Jewel of the Seas it was great. Jewel is Radiance class but I think Rhapsody is a different class

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Based on the itineraries, considering Split, Dubrovnik and Kotor are three of my favourite ports anywhere then that would get my vote.

NCL Star - took it to the Baltics a few years ago; really liked the ship.... great thermal spa; highly recommend the thermal spa pass.

Can't comment on the RCCL Radiance... that being said, I'm not a big fan of RCCL....

Check the hours in port. We took an RCCL ship to Corfu, and we were in port a mere 4 hours... Chania is very industrial. We took a KTEL bus to Rethymnon and then explored the old town in Chania.

Kotor is lovely; Perast and the islands are great photo opportunities.

Kefalonia has the Melissani Cave Lake; quite nice.

I would say Kotor + Kefalonia is better than Corfu + Chania.

Split was ok to me; it probably wasn't my favorite because my tour guide was raging anarchist. The waterfront was pretty and the old town/Diocletian's palace were just ok to me.

Haven't been to Katakolon so I can't comment on the port.

The NCL Star has a better itinerary IYAM, and on such a cruise, itinerary would be my personal deciding factor.

I liked Corfu, however, we rented a car and explored the other side of the island from Corfu town.

I would trade the Adriatic ports of Split and Kotor for Katakolon and Crete.

It's worth checking what time the ships are anchored @Santorini. IIRC the NCL ships sometimes dock in the early afternoon and stay 'til late(10p?) -- Perhaps allowing for the opportunity to catch the famous Santorini sunset along the Caldera rim as well as being able to enjoy less masses of cruise tourists -- who will have left to return to their ships by mid-afternoon.

The carrying capacities of the small iconic villages of Santorini aren't really set up for (at times) as many as 10k cruise ship visitors descending on to the island on any given day.