The Med

I bet that lots of people on here have done the Med to death. I would love the cruise companies to find new places to visit or is it because a lot of ports don't have the facilities to take cruise ships?

Are you asking about new/different ports in the Med? Or about cruising in new areas of the world?

Seems a lot more cruises are offering Asian itineraries in the last couple of years....

If you want the Med, look at smaller ships that visit different ports. I'll be on my 7th Med cruise this fall and am still visiting a few new ports, plus there are different things to be done even in ports I've visited before (e.g., in Kusadasi one can visit at least 5 fantastic sets of ruins other than Ephesus).

Here's an off-the-top-of-my-head list of some of the ports I've visited so far on Med cruises -- seems like plenty of choices to me:

Italy: Civitavecchia (Rome); Naples; Sorrento; Venice; Palermo; Trapani; Cagliari (still haven't gotten to Ravenna, Messina, Genoa or La Spezia!)

Greece: Athens; Mykonos; Rhodes; Corfu; Katakolon (Olympia); Crete (2 different ports); Nauplio; Ithaca; Monemvasia (and will be visiting Kavala, Thessalonika, Volos and Skiathos in October -- still haven't made it to Santorini!)

Turkey: Istanbul, Kusadasi (Ephesus); Antalya, Antakya, Tasucu, Iskenderun (still haven't got to Bodrum)

Other Eastern Med: Alexandria; Port Said; Sharm el-Sheikh; Haifa; Ashdod; Cypress (Limassol); Beirut (Lebanon); Tartus & Latakia (Syria); Sarande (Albania)

Other Western/Central Med: Lisbon; Barcelona; Marseilles; Tunis & Sousse (Tunisia); Malta; Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar (Croatia); waiting impatiently for the day I can get to Libya, and also haven't done any of the southern Spain ports

Have a look at HAL's itineraries. They get to some very interesting ports.

Yes I was referring to new places in the Med. What I should have explained also is my restriction of having to sail from a UK port.

Seems the cruise lines that sail from the UK go to the same places all the time.

Is there a reason you must sail from a UK port?

how many places that anyone would care to visit it the Med have the facilities for the ships and something anyone would want to see?

we did Med last fall

this spring we are doing NOLA to Barcelona

sept we are doing Alaska

since you're a lot closer then us.. give us your idea for a 12 to 14 nights with new ports?

Yes I was referring to new places in the Med. What I should have explained also is my restriction of having to sail from a UK port.

Seems the cruise lines that sail from the UK go to the same places all the time.

Could you not look for a cruise out of the UK that ends up somewhere else, from where you can take another ship with a more varied itinerary?

We have done a lot of Mediterranean ports over past 15+ years. To do so, we have cruised in and out of Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Istanbul, plus we do look for interesting itineraries on Transatlantics from Florida ending up in Rome or Barcelona, with port stops in the Mediterranean.

We find all Mediterranean ports offer a lot so repeating them is still amazing.

We would love the OP to post where they think cruises should visit. On our own cruises we have managed to get to well over 120 ports on 6 continents. There are certain ports, like Bordeaux and the Kiel Canal that are only accessible to the smaller cruise ships. Certain other parts of the world are not considered safe enough for certain cruise lines and must be bypassed. Many other areas are not routinely visited by cruises because of the expense and difficulty in passengers getting to regional embarkation ports. And there are other issues that can create difficulties. The new environmental rules developed for Antarctica will now limit the ability of most cruise ships to enter their waters. New low sulphur fuel rules, which will soon apply to all USA ports, will probably cause some ships to totally avoid US Ports.

Another issue is the ability to dock, vs using tenders. Tendering operations are always a challenge to the cruise lines, require extra time, and good sea conditions. All cruise lines and most passengers prefer docking to tendering...and this is often an issue with smaller Med ports.

Cruise lines are always looking for new and interesting ports, and some cruise lines such as HAL (which used the Prinsendam as a "pathfinder" ship) are always reaching out to new ports and then evaluating their success by surveying passengers. The OP specifically mentions the Med where we think cruise lines use just about every possible port that has the infrastructure necessary to support large ships.

Hank

To the OP - have you looked at the riverboat cruises, instead of the ocean-going ones? Those use smaller ships and can go to more ports.

Is there a reason you must sail from a UK port?

Myself & my husband cannot fly so are restricted to doing round trips from UK ports. I know that is our problem and not the cruise lines but was just curious as to whether it was feasible for cruise companies that do the Med to go to new places, maybe other ports along the South of France or the coasts of Italy and Croatia.

Myself & my husband cannot fly so are restricted to doing round trips from UK ports. I know that is our problem and not the cruise lines but was just curious as to whether it was feasible for cruise companies that do the Med to go to new places, maybe other ports along the South of France or the coasts of Italy and Croatia.

But we think they already go to most possible ports in those places. I cannot think of another place in the South of France that could be used as a cruise ship port because of lack of infrastructure, shallow waters, etc. And it is hard to imagine finding new ports in Italy, which is already covered by cruise ships calling in all areas.

But here is my question to you. Since you live in the UK you actually have access to the entire European continent via train! You also have access to the every other continent via train (Asia) or ship. Cunard routinely has crossings to the US (which gives you access to everything on our side of the pond) and their world cruise itinerary (and some of their other long itineraries) literally spans the world. We, ourselves, have visited Europe (from the USA) without having to fly (although we do routinely fly) and next fall will be going from the US to New Zealand via cruise ship.

Most of the world is accessible via ship and/or land transportation for those with the time and money.

Hank

But we think they already go to most possible ports in those places. I cannot think of another place in the South of France that could be used as a cruise ship port because of lack of infrastructure, shallow waters, etc. And it is hard to imagine finding new ports in Italy, which is already covered by cruise ships calling in all areas.

 

But here is my question to you. Since you live in the UK you actually have access to the entire European continent via train! You also have access to the every other continent via train (Asia) or ship. Cunard routinely has crossings to the US (which gives you access to everything on our side of the pond) and their world cruise itinerary (and some of their other long itineraries) literally spans the world. We, ourselves, have visited Europe (from the USA) without having to fly (although we do routinely fly) and next fall will be going from the US to New Zealand via cruise ship.

 

Most of the world is accessible via ship and/or land transportation for those with the time and money.

 

Hank

I was thinking of train travel too, it opens up the entire continent - and riverboat cruises stop at many smaller ports that the oceanliners don't go to.

I agree with you both but I would certainly miss my ocean cruises and all that entails.

as part of NBC's Olympic coverage they did a segment on the Trans Siberian Express (Moscow -> Vladivostok) absolute top of the line first class tickets run about $1300 this is definitely on my short list.. wife's not so much.