What is the Best Cruise Line for Holy Land Cruises?

DH & I are planning a cruise to the Holy Land for our 25th anniversary in 2017. I know it's a long way off, but we want our "once in a lifetime, dream trip" to be perfect. We all know booking the perfect cabin often includes booking as soon as the itinerary is released. Mass market cruise lines are what we're used to (we've cruised on Celebrity, Princess & NCL: ranked in order of preference), but we'd consider the most economical luxury lines also. We still work, so we can't go on some of the longer cruises I've seen offered. Two weeks including travel would be preferable, but we'd be willing to take a few extra days off for a better experience. We're open to a low impact, land & sea trip also. From my research, time limitations appear to restrict our options substantially, which is why I'm coming to you all for help. Hopefully, you have some tips for choosing the cruise to make the most of fewer days. Below is a list of the things that matter most for this trip:

- Most time spent in the Holy Land focusing on walking in Jesus' footsteps & Christianity.

- Great food included & excellent food for a fee.

- Good options for dining on the balcony for breakfast & lunch, even if we have to pay extra for it. (We probably wouldn't want to book a suite, as a better room service menu is the only perk that would matter to us.)

- Shows & entertainment in general aren't very important to us. Although, onboard lectures on the Holy Land would be nice.

Last question (for now :p) when can we expect the Oct. 2017 cruises to be released. TIA for the help. :)

We have done a number of holy land cruises, mainly because we have family there and it is an easy way for older folks like us to travel there, my DH is 82, I am 67.

We just returned from a Celebrity cruise on the Silhouette booked because we had 3 days there, we are elite on Celebrity but also elite on Princess. We have done the holy land on Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Cunard, NCL and Crystal over the years.

Even though we are elite on Princess and Celebrity, of all the lines, I enjoyed the Cunard cruise on the Queen Victoria the most... found the cabin, service in the MDR, room service, entertainment the best of all the lines. But, Cunard is more formal... one must dress every night for the MDR and for other activities around the ship after 6 pm. We like that atmosphere, not everyone does. Men must wear a tie and jacket to the MDR every night, except the first and last night of the cruise.

Ref what line is best... for you, I would look at what is available and go from there.

We were not that impressed with our NCL Jade cruise in the holiday land by comparison to other lines. We don't care for freestyle, did not find the food and service any where near what we are use to but made the best of it, skipped the MDR, did the buffet in the late afternoon, it was fine. We paid about $1000 less per person on NCL, so we figured we got what we paid for, would do NCL again for the right price itinerary... once again they had 3 days in Israel which is not common. The cabin on the Jade, a mini suite was quite nice, comparible to Princess, HAL.

We don't do tours over there, since we have family so can't speak to what you can expect from the lines in that way. We have seen the holy sites many years ago, on our own.

On our recent cruise, I was disappointed with the guest speaker on the Holy Land that Celebrity had on board to provide information... went to one talk... he rambled... did not make sense to me.. so never when back. Since I knew something about the area, did not think his presentation made sense.

By comparison did a cruise to Spain in April on HAL, the Neiuw Amsterdam... the speaker was so good about Spainish history... the cruisades and how ancient history related to what is going on in the world today, I could not wait to go each day to his talk... we had 16 days and many of them seas days. You never know who the speaker will be...

Bottom line it really depends on what the cruise lines are offerring... the political climate over there, influences whether cruise lines are offering cruises.. Even if things are not good, hang in there, for the 3 months before our Celebrity cruise in October, Israel and Gaza were at war... many folks booked wanted Celebrity to made a decision on whether the cruise was a go or no go 3 months out. Celebrity did not - and we were glad they did not we made both ports in Israel, Ashdod and Haifa.

Hopefully other can offer more info on tours off ships to help you. Israel is an amazing place to visit.

If lecturers are important to you, you may have mixed luck on the mass market lines. On the Princess cruise I took in the Med, there was NO lecturer other than the one trying to sell Princess tours. Same with my HAL Med cruise. Apparently HAL does have lecturers, but only on their longer (14+ day) cruises -- and even then, they may not necessarily be lecturing on the area you are visiting.

I have found the best lectures that are tied to destinations, are found on small specialty lines such as Voyages to Antiquity and Swan Hellenic. Their ships are small and service is very personal. On the minus side, there are few balcony cabins and not much onboard entertainment other than the lectures and some classical music.

If the Holy Land is your main reason for the cruise, be sure to get cruise insurance. Given the situation there, the itinerary may change at any point prior to (or even during) sailing. If the change is prior to sailing, you might want to cancel -- hence, get "cancel for any reason" insurance.

As Pris says, you probably should look for itineraries that spend 3 rather than 2 days in Israel. That's about as many days as you are likely to find on any shorter cruise.

One other thought -- lines that are not heavily catering to American travelers (e.g., those based in Great Britain or Italy, for example) are less likely to cancel ports of call in Israel based on minor incidents that flare up from time to time. (In cases of major incidents, like the one earlier this year, all bets are off.)

Having said all of this, had you perhaps considered a land trip rather than a tour? I've done both, and you see so much more of Israel on the former.

I agree with the last statement in the above post. Our Egypt/Israel cruise a few years back was wonderful, but was just "a taste' even though we were 3 days in Israel. Since, we have taken a Egypt/Nile river cruise and a land tour of Israel. Saw and experienced a LOT more.

I would first start with itinerary as many cruise lines have cut back on where they are sailing in this region.

Very few cruise line have issued itineraries for 2017. Once you have them then see who is sailing there and if they are gong to places of interest.

Then come back with your list and we can provide input.

But remember there is no best that fits all. What I prefer you might not or other issues comes into play.

Keith

We have done a number of holy land cruises, mainly because we have family there and it is an easy way for older folks like us to travel there, my DH is 82, I am 67.

 

We just returned from a Celebrity cruise on the Silhouette booked because we had 3 days there, we are elite on Celebrity but also elite on Princess. We have done the holy land on Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Cunard, NCL and Crystal over the years.

 

Even though we are elite on Princess and Celebrity, of all the lines, I enjoyed the Cunard cruise on the Queen Victoria the most... found the cabin, service in the MDR, room service, entertainment the best of all the lines. But, Cunard is more formal... one must dress every night for the MDR and for other activities around the ship after 6 pm. We like that atmosphere, not everyone does. Men must wear a tie and jacket to the MDR every night, except the first and last night of the cruise.

 

Ref what line is best... for you, I would look at what is available and go from there.

 

We were not that impressed with our NCL Jade cruise in the holiday land by comparison to other lines. We don't care for freestyle, did not find the food and service any where near what we are use to but made the best of it, skipped the MDR, did the buffet in the late afternoon, it was fine. We paid about $1000 less per person on NCL, so we figured we got what we paid for, would do NCL again for the right price itinerary... once again they had 3 days in Israel which is not common. The cabin on the Jade, a mini suite was quite nice, comparible to Princess, HAL.

 

We don't do tours over there, since we have family so can't speak to what you can expect from the lines in that way. We have seen the holy sites many years ago, on our own.

 

On our recent cruise, I was disappointed with the guest speaker on the Holy Land that Celebrity had on board to provide information... went to one talk... he rambled... did not make sense to me.. so never when back. Since I knew something about the area, did not think his presentation made sense.

 

By comparison did a cruise to Spain in April on HAL, the Neiuw Amsterdam... the speaker was so good about Spainish history... the cruisades and how ancient history related to what is going on in the world today, I could not wait to go each day to his talk... we had 16 days and many of them seas days. You never know who the speaker will be...

 

Bottom line it really depends on what the cruise lines are offerring... the political climate over there, influences whether cruise lines are offering cruises.. Even if things are not good, hang in there, for the 3 months before our Celebrity cruise in October, Israel and Gaza were at war... many folks booked wanted Celebrity to made a decision on whether the cruise was a go or no go 3 months out. Celebrity did not - and we were glad they did not we made both ports in Israel, Ashdod and Haifa.

 

Hopefully other can offer more info on tours off ships to help you. Israel is an amazing place to visit.

Thanks for the suggestions. This is exactly the type of info I was hoping for. I didn't know I needed to be looking for 3 days there. That helps a lot.

Cunard sounds very appealing. We enjoy dressing up also. I'll check out the options on their site. Of the lines we've sailed, NCL was my least favorite. The only way we'd consider booking with them would be if the itinerary was excellent & the price was a lot cheaper than the others.

If lecturers are important to you, you may have mixed luck on the mass market lines. On the Princess cruise I took in the Med, there was NO lecturer other than the one trying to sell Princess tours. Same with my HAL Med cruise. Apparently HAL does have lecturers, but only on their longer (14+ day) cruises -- and even then, they may not necessarily be lecturing on the area you are visiting.

 

I have found the best lectures that are tied to destinations, are found on small specialty lines such as Voyages to Antiquity and Swan Hellenic. Their ships are small and service is very personal. On the minus side, there are few balcony cabins and not much onboard entertainment other than the lectures and some classical music.

 

If the Holy Land is your main reason for the cruise, be sure to get cruise insurance. Given the situation there, the itinerary may change at any point prior to (or even during) sailing. If the change is prior to sailing, you might want to cancel -- hence, get "cancel for any reason" insurance.

 

As Pris says, you probably should look for itineraries that spend 3 rather than 2 days in Israel. That's about as many days as you are likely to find on any shorter cruise.

 

One other thought -- lines that are not heavily catering to American travelers (e.g., those based in Great Britain or Italy, for example) are less likely to cancel ports of call in Israel based on minor incidents that flare up from time to time. (In cases of major incidents, like the one earlier this year, all bets are off.)

 

Having said all of this, had you perhaps considered a land trip rather than a tour? I've done both, and you see so much more of Israel on the former.

Thanks for the help & the suggestion to look for GB & Italian based cruise lines.

It appears guest speakers are the luck of the draw. The lectures on Celebrity to Alaska were great. The speaker for the Panama Canal on Princess was good, but a bit boring. I don't know about the others. That's the only lectures we were interested in as most of our other cruises have been to the Caribbean & Mexico. Now that I think about it, I don't remember a guest lecturer on our NCL cruise to Alaska.

Buying cancel for any reason insurance is a great idea. I already passed that tidbit of info onto DH. We'll definitely be doing that.

We wouldn't mind to add a land visit to a shorter cruise. We just have a reservations about going on a land only trip. There are days when I don't feel like walking all day. When you're with an organized tour, you have to go at their pace. Going on our own would take a lot of research to assure we did it safely. A cruise gives me rest time. It helps that there's very little walking to meals. The tours are usually different lengths, so we could choose how long we want to be on land each day. Combining a few days on land would be good, if we can stay nearby the attractions we want to see.

I agree with the last statement in the above post. Our Egypt/Israel cruise a few years back was wonderful, but was just "a taste' even though we were 3 days in Israel. Since, we have taken a Egypt/Nile river cruise and a land tour of Israel. Saw and experienced a LOT more.

Thanks for the input. A river cruise combined with a land tour sounds great, if there's a way to safely do the land portion on our own.

I would first start with itinerary as many cruise lines have cut back on where they are sailing in this region.

 

Very few cruise line have issued itineraries for 2017. Once you have them then see who is sailing there and if they are gong to places of interest.

 

Then come back with your list and we can provide input.

 

But remember there is no best that fits all. What I prefer you might not or other issues comes into play.

 

Keith

I'll definitely be checking itineraries. With this post, I was hoping for some suggested cruise lines to give me an idea of which lines I need to monitor for 2017 itinerary releases. The sites that I know of that sell multiple cruise lines don't include all of them.

None of them. Do an escorted land tour. Much much better if the sites in Israel are important to you.

DON

Ditto on none of them. There is far too much to see in the area for this to work well as a cruise ship tour. Get yourself a land tour. Its a geographically small area with most of the stuff you want to see a good distance from ports, and a ton of depth there.

I agree with the last statement in the above post. Our Egypt/Israel cruise a few years back was wonderful, but was just "a taste' even though we were 3 days in Israel. Since, we have taken a Egypt/Nile river cruise and a land tour of Israel. Saw and experienced a LOT more.

Our land tour of Israel and Egypt is still the highlight of all our travels; only thing that comes close to comparing was an African trip. We were about a week in each country.

I have not cruised to the region, so I can't address that. I'd probably go with the cruise that gave the most days in Israel.

It's a good thing we have a long time to plan this trip. Apparently, we're going to need it. :eek: You all have us thinking seriously about doing a land tour in Israel followed by some type of shorter cruise to end our trip relaxing before the long flight home. Now, we just need to find a tour that hits all the spots we want to see & find a short cruise in a region that appears to not have any. No problem at all. :p

I think you are headed in the right direction.

To mitigate your concerns about land tours, keep in mind that in most places you can choose to wait out some or all of a strenuous walking tour of a particular site, if needed. Most tours are very good at pointing out spots where you can rest (and often still get an overview).

Also, our tour had a lot of short-ish stops at individual churches or monuments interspersed with a few longer walks at larger sites (like Caesarea, Beit She'an, and of course, Jerusalem.

Be warned- even if the itinerary shows a port stop, a cruise line will cancel the stop without hesitation if there's a bit of bad publicity. That's happened to me, both Israel and Egypt.