Want a smaller ship, stops in Barcelona and southern Italy

I have poked around without any success. I’m hoping to find a smaller cruise ship for the spring or fall of 2019. Can depart from any location in Europe but I would love the itinerary to include Barcelona and go around the boot of Italy. A stop in Portugal would be a bonus!

Do you know of such a cruise?

Thanks so much.

Have you looked at Princess …. specifically the Pacific Princess …… to see of there's an itinerary that would work for you. She's a delightful small ship …. 670 passengers. I've cruised on her several times and she's my favorite ship in the Princess fleet.

Look at Oceania also

How small of a ship ??

Look at the top of the page FIND A CRUISE maybe starting in Barcelona or ending there & see what is there in your time frame

Look at Oceania also

How small of a ship ??

 

 

Look at the top of the page FIND A CRUISE maybe starting in Barcelona or ending there & see what is there in your time frame

Oceania

I would look at itineraries from both Viking Ocean and Oceania.

Viking currently has 5 identical ships, with the oldest dating from 2015. All have 930 pax.

Oceania has 6 ships, with 4 of them being older (1998 - 2000) Renaissance Cruises (R-ships) similar to the Princess ship mentioned in a previous reply. They have max passengers of 684. They also have 2 newer ships from 2011/2012 with 1,250 pax.

If you want even smaller then I suggest checking out some of the luxury brands.

Viking Ocean, Windstar, and Oceania all have interesting itineraries in that area.

The OP could help by answering a few related questions. When you say "small" what do you mean? 100 Passenger, 200, 400, 800 etc? And you might want to consider that many of the smaller vessels fall into the ultra luxury class (i,e, Seabourn, Sea Dream, Silverseas) which are quite expensive.

One very good possibility (if you are willing to pay the price) is Windstar's Wind Surf. It does a fantastic 14 day itinerary departing from Barcelona on May 1, 2019 and going around the boot of Italy up to Montenegro, Croatia and ending in Venice. If we were not already planning to be in Australia we would likely book this cruise ourselves.

Including Portugal becomes a challenge because of the geography. We have done such cruises but they were much longer itineraries on larger ships.

Hank

You didn't say how long the cruise should be...If you want both Italy and Portugal, you will need a lot more than 7 days. I suggest you go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and plug in your desired ports in the Ports of Call section. It will tell you who is calling there, and their itineraries. EM

To include Portugal, you'll really need to start from the UK, which will have many cruises down to Lisbon or other Portuguese ports before sailing round Gibraltar into the Med, and often ending up in Barcelona.

Smaller ships- Look at Fred Olsen, Cruise and Maritime, Saga (50+ years, though); middle size will be P&O's Aurora; NCL Jade. I don't have the sizes at hand, but the 2 smaller Queens and P&O's Arcadia, which is the same build, aren't seen as big ships these days- all of these leave from Southampton.

To include Portugal, you'll really need to start from the UK, which will have many cruises down to Lisbon or other Portuguese ports before sailing round Gibraltar into the Med, and often ending up in Barcelona.

 

Smaller ships- Look at Fred Olsen, Cruise and Maritime, Saga (50+ years, though); middle size will be P&O's Aurora; NCL Jade. I don't have the sizes at hand, but the 2 smaller Queens and P&O's Arcadia, which is the same build, aren't seen as big ships these days- all of these leave from Southampton.

Oceania occasionally does Lisbon-Rome.

I would look at itineraries from both Viking Ocean and Oceania.

 

Viking currently has 5 identical ships, with the oldest dating from 2015. All have 930 pax.

 

Oceania has 6 ships, with 4 of them being older (1998 - 2000) Renaissance Cruises (R-ships) similar to the Princess ship mentioned in a previous reply. They have max passengers of 684. They also have 2 newer ships from 2011/2012 with 1,250 pax.

 

If you want even smaller then I suggest checking out some of the luxury brands.

Azamara also have 2 (very soon to be 3) R class ships.- well maintained and very good shipboard staff.

As long as you don't need to start and end in the same port, another option might be to use the cruisetimetables website to find cruises departing from Lisbon and sailing eastwards into the Med. I think some of the lines other posters have mentioned have some itineraries that start in Lisbon and end in Barcelona or even go as far as Italy. Most (although not all) of the cruises departing from Lisbon are on smaller ships.

Windstar had an itinerary that started in Lisbon and went west. Don't know if they still have it for next year but it might be worth checking.