Late Oct. Cruising - Crowds?

[Jeepsterchick]

Hello -

We are starting our Barcelona-Venice Cruise Oct. 17th on the Grand Princess. I know the weather will be cool - even cold/rain. I was wondering about the crowds this late in the season? Does anyone have any thoughts or experienced the sites in Rome/Florence/Venice this time of year?

I did see the Venice Cruise Schedule, and there will be several other ships in port during our days there.

Thanks!

[jbond]

We've done two cruises in October to the Med. The weather has been OK. There will be lots of people, I mean lots. But you can still see the sites and enjoy everything. The busiest place we visited was the Trevi Fountain. It was unreal. But we saw it and moved on. In Florence, outside the Duomo was very crowded, wall to wall people, but you can break away and enjoy the sites. It's an awesome cruise, we're going back in October, so the crowds didn't influence us too much. Check out our photo album at http://community.webshots.com/album/204703768KfaZBF Vol 2 will show you Naples and the Amalfi Coast. We will be going to Venice on our next cruise, the most romantic city in the world. I can't wait to go there again.

[Aussie Gal]

We finished our cruise last year in Venice in the middle of October around the 15th. Be prepared for the high tides and having to walk on the duck boards. We had to do this on quite a few days. It makes it hard when arriving from the ship to the hotel. Our hotel had a side door onto a minor canal and we used a water taxi from the ship but the tide was so high the boat could not go under the bridge to the side door so he let us out about 100 yards from the hotel, it was the only place to pull up and we had to manage the water, duck boards and suitcases plus it was raining. It was not an easy arrival at our hotel but we managed and it was an interesting travel experience to remember.

 

We have been to Venice three times and this was the first time we had seen it flooded. We had visited Venice in September on the other occasions. There were still plenty of tourists about, probably not quite as many as in August or September but enough to make the city seem busy. I always love it at night when the day trippers leave.

 

Jennie

[Jeepsterchick]

Wow! - I hadn't even thought about the flooding in Venice - and rain. Interesting.

I will make reservations when possible to avoid crowds - I was thinking I might not have to - we'd be roaming around alone. Guess not!

Thank you!