In your opinion...

What is the best cruiseline to take for a Mediterranean cruise?

What is the best cruiseline to take for a Mediterranean cruise?

Which "BEST" do you mean, need and can afford? Best value? Best ports to visit? Best ship offerings? Best food, service, rooms, entertainment, etc.????

We have done three cruises. Late June 2006 on 204-passenger Seabourn Spirit, Athens to Istanbul, enjoying the Greek Isles over seven days. Then late July 2008 on the 940-passenger Crystal Symphony, Dover to Stockholm, enjoying the Baltics and Russia. And this year July 1-16 on the 296-passenger Silver Cloud from Copenhagen seeing the Norway Coast, fjords, above the Arctic Circle, Land of the Midnight Sun, etc. All three lines are excellent with great service, fellow passengers, staff, etc. What’s best? The honest answer is . . . “It depends!!!”. Ports, schedules, timing and prices vary much, especially right now with this economy and two of these lines expanding (especially Seabourn) so much. You need to seek what best fits your exact personal needs, budget and interests. We are planning a cruise next June on Celebrity Solstice from and returning to the Barcelona to hits key places in Italy, the Croatian Coast, etc.

Tell us more on your specific needs, budget range, past Europe experiences, travel style, personal interests, etc.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For lots of interesting details, great visuals, etc., from our July 1-16 Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. Don’t be shy and feel free to ask any questions of interest.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

What is the best cruiseline to take for a Mediterranean cruise?

This really depends on your budget. How much do you want to spend? I'm a luxury cruise fan, but not everybody can manage that, even me sometimes.

I agree with the others that you need to do some research to see which best meets your needs. We cruised in the Mediterranean each of the last two years ... first on the large Ruby Princess and this past summer on the smaller (680 passenger) Pacific Princess. We enjoyed both!!!!

I went on my first cruise in May; a one week E Med cruise. I'm certainly no expert, but I made my decision based on the itinerary. The ship or cruise line wasn't as important to me as which ports we would be visiting. Also, I knew that I wanted to depart from Venice so that narrowed the options. Then I looked at how long the ship was at each port and at what time. Member Reviews of the remaining ships was helpful as well.

Melinda- what do you want from your cruise?

Is it the ship?....most of them will be pretty similar, if you're going for the mid range.

Is it the ports? There are various routes, and some will have, say, Venice and Greek islands; others Barcelona and N. Med.... yet others will reach down to Africa.

If you're just asking for our personal preference in cruise lines, then we all have our reasons....Of the 5 lines I've sailed with, I'd have to go for P&O, for many reasons, but I'm just as happy with Louis or Thomson, and have no complaints about NCL or Princess!!!:cool:

Jo.

posting a response to my question. You all have given me great ideas on how to pick my cruise!

The mainstream lines are very similar with different twists. My measure of the best cruise/ship in the Med. is the ports that I want. Study carefully and you find not all cruiselines offer all ports, many different permutations. This is different then the Caribbean or Alaska.

If one must have a certain list and I'm sure yours are different than mine for me to say Princess may be very mislleading where the best line up of ports for you is on Carnival or Costa.

I would suggest make a list of the ports you most want then go to any one of many cruise web sites that list ports/schedules and find the line that hits the most of them. From there pick the line/cabin that meets your other list of important item.

Happy planning!

What is the best cruiseline to take for a Mediterranean cruise?

posting a response to my question. You all have given me great ideas on how to pick my cruise!

Hi, Melinda! As you narrow your options, you might post a little summary on your top two or three choices, your personal needs/interests, ports of highest interest and why. Then, if it's helpful, folks experienced in these areas and ships can give you some added feed-back and comments.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For lots of interesting details, great visuals, etc., from our July 1-16 Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. Don’t be shy and feel free to ask any questions of interest.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Be sure to check how long the ship stays in each port. Are there overnights? Are important museums, etc. open or closed on the day your ship is in port?

I took my first Med cruise on Ruby Princess this past May/June. We visited 10 ports in 12 days - average age on our ship was 60ish (some older) and was very exhausting. I am mid 50s (and admit overweight) and had a very fit 19 y/o niece with me and we had no problem, not to say it wasn't tiring though. When planning tours, be honest about your limitations - some older couples were unable to finish a tour or continue on at certain sites because of the hilly terrain or walking on broken or uneven cobblestones in the heat.

Major reason I chose our cruise was the itinerary and adding pre and post cruise days we were gone a total of 3 weeks. That further pulled me toward the Princess cruise b/c of the laundry center on each deck. It allowed us to pack lightly and I did laundry twice while on ship (early on and right before we disembarked). Not my idea of fun to do laundry on vacation but it saved airline fees with all the luggage/weight restrictions in addition not having to haul all that extra stuff around in our pre/post cruise locations. It was my experience that leaving from US to head overseas no one really seemed to care much about luggage weight here but overseas I saw people opening up their luggage to redistribute the load among their luggage b/c they were told some luggages pieces were overweight and would have to pay extra.