Double Cruising in Europe

Perhaps some of you long time cruisers can help but I'm having a hell of a time trying to find two back to back cruises in Europe.

It seems impossible to go on a Baltic cruise and Eastern Mediterranean cruise with a one or two day gap in between next summer 2015 (June thru July). Flying into/out of Europe is getting more and more expensive and the need to double dip on these holidays is an absolute must moving forward not to mention the horrid conditions of airlines and my unwillingness to fly twice on them!

I did finally manage to find one itinerary on two different cruise lines for Eastern Med in late June then flying to Stockholm for a Baltic cruise on a different line.

Am I missing something as to why cruise lines don't make it easy to book two cruises back to back? It seems that would offer the best bang for the buck so what gives? Any ideas?

Mr. Biz

If you insist on the Baltic and the Eastern Med, I would imagine you might have some issues with a B2B. If you are more flexible as to where in Europe you visit, check out the itineraries of the Prinsendam. They usually are created where one can easily combine 2 or more cruises together without repeating large geographic areas.

I hope this suggestion will be of some help.

Because there are so many other variables on cruise scheduling than people trying to cruise in two areas of Europe B2B. Things like the length of cruises the various ships are doing as related to what is natural in the given area. For example, 10 day cruises in the Baltic seem a "natural" length. Yes, there are some 10 day routes in the Med, but 7 and 12 day are also "natural". Many people want variety in their cruises, such as something different than the standard 10 day Baltic, with more ports, or more time in ports. So on some cruise lines you see 9 day routes, or 13 day routes, or 15 day routes, mixed in with the standard 10 day routes. Which would make synching them with ships elsewhere tricky.

Many cruise lines make B2B pretty easy on the same ship. To expect cruise lines to coordinate their schedules all over Europe seems a bit of a stretch, at least to me. Realistically, if you find two with a gap of 2-3 days, I think you have done fine.

Don't forget to look at flight schedules - flying in and out of different airports in Europe as well as the cost of flying from South to North in Europe will also add to the costs of the trip.

Maybe you can find cruises out of Amsterdam, Southampton or another port in central Europe.

Thanks for the responses. The problematic thing seems to be every cruise line wants to set sail off the same day, usually Sunday. There are so many cruises (300+) according to my source during the summer that this should be an easy thing but if all cruises leave on Sunday and return on Sunday then it becomes impossible because you can't instantly go from Venice to say Stockholm. There is travel time involved going from one area to another and in the event of airlines delays or other disruptions I'd like to have at least a day or two of breathing room to go from one city to the next.

I'm trying to do two 7 day cruises. Ideally the first would go Sunday thru Sunday then the next would go Monday thru Monday or Tuesday to Tuesday but those don't seem to exist.

My options for the most part are to wait a full week then hop on the next Sunday. As I said I did find an Eastern Med cruise out of Venice then one out of Stockholm right after with only a day breathing room in between but that was it out of 300+ cruises listed. I haven't checked the river cruises so that may work but I'm just astonished cruise lines haven't thought to help build schedules that allow their cruisers to do two cruises back to back in different regions in Europe.

This seems like a no-brainer to me to package Eastern or Western Med with Baltic or NW Europe cruises B2B for those that want to spend two weeks in different parts of Europe. A river cruise with these packages would go well too but right now I'm having to jump through hoops to make it happen.

if you can do more than 7 day cruises you might find something to suit your needs

It would take several days to get from the Med to the Baltic area for a B2B

RCCL have a Baltic cruise July 5-12 out of Stockholm then you would need to fly to either Rome, Barcelona or Venice & pick up another RCL ship for July 15 or 16th

So, how would you get a ship who's itinerary is an Eastern Med for one week, over to the Baltic for another 7 day cruise? It's not a no brainer. It would take a ship at least three days to get from it's ending port in the Eastern Med to a Baltic port. The cost for this kind of thing would be huge. The reason why cruise lines put different ships in different locations in the Europe is because they can't do one 7 day in Northern Europe and then the next 7 days in the Med.

if you can do more than 7 day cruises you might find something to suit your needs

 

It would take several days to get from the Med to the Baltic area for a B2B

 

Actually the quick flights and new high speed train from Barcelona make travelling around Europe super speedy these days.

London to Barcelona is 9 hours and Barcelona to Copenhagen is also quick.

Have you tried MSC and Costa? Im sure that we looked at B2B cruises last year that did Holy Land then Eastern Med etc.

Of course another option (although drastic)is leaving your cruise early if you dont mind missing a few sea days.

Try thinking outside the box. Do your Baltic cruise first, then one from Venice. I haven't checked cruises for next year (or even this year), but we have cruised from Venice on HAL and Celebrity, and both cruises had an overnight for the forst night of the cruise. Board on Sunday, sail on Monday. You could get off a Baltic cruise on Sunday, fly to Venice and board anytime until around an hour before sailing on Monday. Or spend a couple days in the departure city before the second cruise. Go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and research who is sailing from where in your time frame next year. I'm sure you will come up with something. EM

So, how would you get a ship who's itinerary is an Eastern Med for one week, over to the Baltic for another 7 day cruise? It's not a no brainer. It would take a ship at least three days to get from it's ending port in the Eastern Med to a Baltic port. The cost for this kind of thing would be huge. The reason why cruise lines put different ships in different locations in the Europe is because they can't do one 7 day in Northern Europe and then the next 7 days in the Med.

I was not suggesting that a cruise line use the same ship for both trips, rather I was suggesting the cruise lines schedule their departures for the possibility of someone getting off of one ship onto another. As it is right now most if not all leave on Sunday and return on Sunday. An alternative would be to let the passengers get off at the last port and travel from there.

I would expect the customer (me) to fly or take a train from the mediterranean up to the north either Denmark or Stockholm or thereabouts.

Has anyone gotten off of a boat early?

Try thinking outside the box. Go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and research who is sailing from where in your time frame next year. I'm sure you will come up with something. EM

Thanks Essiesmom, the website was very helpful. I've spent some time looking and I still only found one set of itineraries that matches but I'll keep looking!

Cruise lines certainly do accommodate back to backs, but the OP is talking about an "Open Jaw" back to back which is a totally different kind of thing. We have done a few of these type trips, but it is simply two cruises with some time between for road travel. We have actually done one on the same day, where a cruise ended in Harwich and we hired a car/driver to take us a few hours to Southampton to pick up a different cruise. The OP might want to consider that sometimes the best way to do these things is to take a multi-day or even week (or more) break between cruises. The time between can then be used to do a land trip (between the ports) by train, rental car, etc.

Hank

I was not suggesting that a cruise line use the same ship for both trips, rather I was suggesting the cruise lines schedule their departures for the possibility of someone getting off of one ship onto another. As it is right now most if not all leave on Sunday and return on Sunday.

 

I would imagine the Sunday to Sunday itineraries have been designed to suit customers who don't have unlimited time for their vacations. This allows them to leave home on the Saturday, join their cruise on the Sunday, then travel home again on the following Sunday.

Cruises that run Monday to Monday require more days off work for homeward travel, so they might lose some customers doing this. And then people who want to do B2Bs, like you, would then want Tuesday to Tuesday cruises, and then there would be a need for Wednesday to Wednesday cruises and so on. Where should it end?

If you fly into London, there are various Baltic cruises going from Harwich- I see HAL and RCI, and from Dover- Saga (over 50s), Disney and others. They're on various days, so some should return you in plenty of time to catch a flight to a port in the E. Med for the next leg. You won't be far from Stanstead airport, and should be able to pick up a flight from there; if not then it's not such a long journey back to one of the London airports.

Thanks for the responses. The problematic thing seems to be every cruise line wants to set sail off the same day, usually Sunday. There are so many cruises (300+) according to my source during the summer that this should be an easy thing but if all cruises leave on Sunday and return on Sunday then it becomes impossible because you can't instantly go from Venice to say Stockholm. There is travel time involved going from one area to another and in the event of airlines delays or other disruptions I'd like to have at least a day or two of breathing room to go from one city to the next.

 

I'm trying to do two 7 day cruises. Ideally the first would go Sunday thru Sunday then the next would go Monday thru Monday or Tuesday to Tuesday but those don't seem to exist.

 

My options for the most part are to wait a full week then hop on the next Sunday. As I said I did find an Eastern Med cruise out of Venice then one out of Stockholm right after with only a day breathing room in between but that was it out of 300+ cruises listed. I haven't checked the river cruises so that may work but I'm just astonished cruise lines haven't thought to help build schedules that allow their cruisers to do two cruises back to back in different regions in Europe.

 

This seems like a no-brainer to me to package Eastern or Western Med with Baltic or NW Europe cruises B2B for those that want to spend two weeks in different parts of Europe. A river cruise with these packages would go well too but right now I'm having to jump through hoops to make it happen.

What about looking at river cruises back to back?

Take a look at Holland America ..

The problem with doing all that in two weeks is that it's simply too much geography to cover in that time frame. Three weeks would broaden your options, a month would really be the amount of time to do that cruise unless you add in an alternate for of transportation between the ports at the end of one cruise and start of the next.

Have you considered doing a few days on land on either end of a cruise instead of just cruises? We had a great trip in June, leaving home on June 9, flying on June 10, landing in Venice on June 11, spending a few days in Venice, then a cruise from Venice t o Istanbul, where we disembarked on June 21, and spent a few days there before flying home.

Honestly, it was great, but very tiring, I can't imagine two cruises, wanting to see something at every port. We were gone for 2 weeks. We'll go back in a couple of years and see another area.

You may already know this, but if you fly intra Europe, your luggage and carry-on allovances vary from airline to airline.

For the most part you are allowed a lot less than your allowance flying with a transatlantic ticket.

Last year RCCL did a 10 night Baltic cruise in and out of Copenhagen, followed by a 7 night Norwegian fjords cruise back to Copenhagen. Then a 10 night cruise of the British Isles to Southampton. We took the last two legs and then spent more time in England. But the point is there are some interesting, varied, itineraries if you don't stick solely to E. Med AND Baltics.

Thank you for all the suggestions, they have been a big help. Part of the reason for the itinerary is to try to accommodate my son (Baltic), my daughter (Venice/Greece), and other members during this time frame.

With the war between Russian and Ukraine and possible sanctions and the potential for eventual travel ban to Russia, I may need to rethink my whole baltic cruise or change it to avoid Russia if possible which is adding complications.

Stretching it to three weeks isn't doable given the vast array of activities my kids are involved with during the summer and taking time off work for that length of time would be a stretch as well. I've already got a tentative trip to Iceland in March of 2015 as well that will eat up time and resources.