What cruise line for Europe?

Hey there, I am a loyal RCCL cruiser and would like to cruise out of Italy or Spain on a 10-12 day cruise in the month of September (can be 2015 or 16) Not thrilled with any older ships like Vision of the Seas so was thinking maybe it's time to find a new cruise line. Any ship suggestions? Going for the ports but would like to have a nicer/newer ship. 2 couples - early 40s.

I had the same problem when trying to book my Mediterranean honeymoon cruise. I ended up picking Celebrity's Reflection. The ship was new and we really enjoyed it. It was a 10 day round trip from Civitavecchia, Italy.

Check out Celebrity's web site.

Their 2015 and 2016 European cruises are listed. :)

You can't go wrong with X but Europe is not about the ship . it is all about the ports. Pick the trip by the ports you want most . You will be off the ship most days all day and tired at night , so the ship will not matter like it does in the Caribbean. If you can save on the base fair by going with a cheaper line you can use that money for excursions which can really add up in Europe.

Agree totally. It is about the ports in Europe, not so much the ship. So your first research should be on routes in that area, at that time.

Most Med cruises are port intensive. They often have just one or two sea days on a 10 or 12 day cruise.

Great itineraries on Celebrity. Took the Silhouette last November round-trip from Rome. Saw lots of Italian and Adriatic Sea ports. Going next October round-trip from Barcelona to the Greek Isles, with stops in Italy.

Arlene

You might want to take a look at Princess. Princess also has a big presence in the Med, and offers some really great itineraries.

I have been lucky enough to have gotten to do 2 cruises departing from Venice, and it's is wonderful starting point. One was a longer one than you are looking for .... 19 days and was a transatlantic to Ft Lauderdale, with a number of stops in Med ports before crossing the Atlantic.

The 2nd was 12 days, Venice; Ravenna, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; Santorini, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Kusadasi, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece; and ending in Athens. That was a truly awesome itinerary that I would just love to do again.

We have cruised in the Mediterranean many times, 6+ times or more, over past 25+ years: on Princess, Celebrity, Cunard, Cyrstal, HAL, and NCL.

We have cruised from Rome, Barcelona, Istanbul and Venice. All cruises are port intensive.

I would highly recommend Princess, Cunard and HAL, as first choices. We usually try to cruise on newer vs older ships. Celebrity, NCL are choices for us if we don't find something we like on the other lines.

The truth is if you pick one of these lines you can't go wrong... cruising the Mediterranean is amazing... that is why we have gone back so many times. Just returned from a cruise out of Rome on the Silhoutte, booked because we had 3 days in Israel. Prior to that we did a TA on the Neiuw Amsterdam, HAL from Florida to Barcelona over Easter.

Pick one and go, you will not be sorry. We first booked a cruise in l989... more expensive then today, we were hooked we went from Venice to LaHavre France, ship went on to Southhampton, we got off in France. Kept going after that because we enjoyed it so much. At that time we went on the old Royal cruise line, no longer in business today. We paid $7500 for two for a limited view cabin, that price did not include air or expensive on board or on land. Today you can do a lot better. :)

We had done 4 Med cruises in the past three years. 3 on Celebrity, this year on RCI. We selected Celebrity based on price and ship. Twice on Solstice class ships, once on Millenium class. We very much enjoyed all three Celebrity cruises. In fact they remain among our favourite cruise ship experiences.

The itineraries are very port intensive so we were not overly bothered about cruise line. We narrowed it down to HAL, Princess, and Celebrity on the first three. We then booked just inside the final payment window when our 'target' price hit. It just happened that X was the best deal.

This past Oct we did a short 8 day on Serenade. It was fine, but we certainly prefer the MDR food on Celebrity. We needed one way air home-RCI and Choiceair had the best combination of cruise fare, itinerary, and air fare for our requirements.

We did our first Med cruise with NCL Norwegian Jade about 5 years ago. Absolutely loved it. Athens to Istanbul. Now booked for our second. We have chosen HAL because of the Itinerary - Barcelona to Venice. I agree with other posters, choose the ports you want to go to and then find a cruise that goes there. Most seem to be port intensive with very few sea days. I think ports you want to visit should be the key to your planning. Good luck.