Early planning stages - Western Med cruise ... need some advice

[JediMom]

Hello!!

 

We are in the early planning stages of our soon to be 4th cruise :) Cruise will be in 2014, planning on roughly a 7 day Barcelona to Rome type of cruise.

 

There are 3 of us, myself, DH and DS who will be on the cusp of turning 9. DS is turning into a big history buff and I think he would enjoy the ports ... but would probably be OK hanging out in the kids club as well. We will be celebrating both my 40th birthday and our 15th anniversary on this trip :)

 

So here's where I need some advice. For the first time ever, we're considering an August trip and avoid pulling DS out of school - he'll be in the 4th grade. But is the Mediterranean going to be enjoyable in the heat??

 

We have been on Liberty and LOVED that ship!! But it was a Caribbean cruise where we chose the cruise more for the ship then the ports and we explored the ship as much as we could. I imagine on a port intensive cruise, the ship itself would be less important.

 

This will be our biggest trip for quite some time (maybe retirement??) so we are choosing itineraries more for the ports then anything else. I like the idea of starting in Rome and ending in Barcelona and adding a few days to each end for local siteseeing.

 

We're going to give an inside cabin a try on our cruise this winter. Assuming we can manage having an inside, is a balcony a must have for a med cruise??

 

Questions:

August vs October?

Serenade vs Liberty?

Must see ports?

Inside vs balcony?

Has anyone ever left their kids in the kids club and gone out to port on their own?

[mimimoo2]

We did an 11 Day Med in 2008. This is what I would do if I did it again.

 

I would choose October over August. We went the end of November and had beautiful weather. I hear the weather in October is the best in the Med. I also have heard it is extremely hot and crowded in July/August. There were enough crowds when were were there in Nov/Dec, so I can't imagine what it would be like in August.

 

We were on the Brilliance, which is Radiance class, (like Seranade) which is our favorite. I have not done the Freedom Class, doing that this Sunday. Liberty would be a blast, but I don't think you would have enough time to do too much on the ship as the tours are long, and you are exhausted if you do excursions like we did.

 

We had a balcony cabin, which I felt was a waste on a very port intensive cruise. We do not do Insides (I like to know if it is day or night) but if I did it again, I would save the money and get an OV. The balcony is always nice, but we hardly spent anytime in the room, since we were in port almost every day.

 

We did not have any children with us, but others that we shared tours with had a 9 year old, and she went on a few of our shared ones, I am thinking she did the rest with her family. If your son is interested in history, he might really enjoy this. They are long days, though.

 

As a side note, we flew into Rome 3 days early and ran out of time, and fley into Barcelona a day early and thouroghly enjoyed our tours at each place. We did book private tours at each port except for Athens (Pireus) and Nice (Villefranche).

 

In Rome, we used Rome in Limo and liked them so much we booked them for 3 days. We got to see way more than anything through the ship. We had Vinny as our guide and if you let them know you have a child, they might be able to find interesting stuff to include.

 

I hope this helps,

Lisa

[Sthrncrusr]

I've done the med in June and Nov. While June is hot, if you dress appropriately it is no different then a hot summer day in the states. And you can always head back to the ship for a dip in the pool or pop into a restaurant or museum to cool off. I think Liberty is much better geared for a family specifically because of the H2O zone, kid clubs, and family attractions and shows. And it has recently been given a facelift! As mentioned above, the excursions booked through the boat are long (think 8 hrs) so booking half day excursions through legit/safe private companies might be a thought so you are not completely exhausted. We have left our kids in the club on some excursions and taken them on others. Depended on weather and excursion. Overall, if this is a once in a lifetime trip, I'd focus your money on the excursions versus the balcony and if the price of an ocean view is not much more than an inside room, take the ocean view. The views are beautiful and like stated above you know what time of day it is! I believe the kids club has night time care until 1am so if you don't want to be huddled in your inside room while your son falls asleep, he could go to adventure ocean to hang out and lay down until you pick him up later that night. Thus, allowing you to enjoy the public decks all over the ship and putting more money in your pocket for excursions! There is so much history to see but it is a lot of walking and really long days. I'd pick two to three places in each city and stick to those. You will enjoy your vacation regardless but I remember coming back from my honeymoon exhausted because we did 8-10 hr tours each day starting at the crack of dawn! I relished the one sea day we had!!! After a while all the tours ran together. I think we could have saved a little $ by doing some stuff on our own or seeing the main attractions in each city. There is a lot so read up in the ports of call section.

Best of luck!

[Travel R]

 

Questions:

August vs October?

Serenade vs Liberty?

Must see ports?

Inside vs balcony?

Has anyone ever left their kids in the kids club and gone out to port on their own?

 

I have just completed my review of our recent Mediterannean cruise that includes info on most of the questions you have asked that included Rome and Barvelona, and an 8 1/2 year old (in a bit of detail) - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1876478

 

But to quickly answer the questions:

 

August vs October?

It started getting warm at the end of June when we went (not bad some days, but a bit warm on those long excursion days), and I have some friends that just got back (An 11 or 12 day Western on Carnival) and they said it was very, very hot (but had a great time). August is getting into the warmest period for the Mediterranean. I have also been to Southern Spain in late September a few years ago (non-cruise) and it was still a little warm on some days we were there, but very doable most of the time for touring the cities on foot. If I could chose between August vs. October, I would choose October, but having a child, there will be much kids onboard during the summer months.

 

Serenade vs Liberty?

I chose the much smaller Legend over the Liberty (they had very similar itineraries) because it was a very port intensive cruise so the ship would not mean as much to us, the price was much lower for the deal I received, and the Legend had also recently had a refurb (not sure about the Serenade).

 

 

Must see ports?

For our cruise, Rome and Barcelona were the two must-see ports. However, if we were going further west Athens & Venice would also have been must dos (and in our the bucket list). Valencia was also very nice.

 

 

Inside vs balcony?

This is an extremely personal decision, but this was our first balcony, and if I can afford it, I will try to continue booking balconies (depending on the price). We also had great weather for a balcony, and it was just great sitting out there coming into port or late at night. I also took much more advantage of the balcony than my DW. [Here's a link to my specific post about our balcony stateroom, and why I enjoyed the balcony - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=39355335&postcount=111]

 

 

Has anyone ever left their kids in the kids club and gone out to port on their own?

We did not leave our kid in the Adventure Ocean, but we did leave our DD13 aboard while we went off the ship (although only for about a half hour). However, there were a number of other passengers that had done just that. Just note - we did try to find excursions each day that we believed the kids would enjoy, so except for the one day we did not have an excursion, we had all left and returned to the ship together.

 

I hope this helps.

[madisonlee]

I have actually done a15 day cruise through the whole med and it was in July. I was 17 at the time my parents took me and I fell in love with Italy. So much so I did a full summer abroad in Florence

First thing, it is great that you doing Rome to Barcelona because itis incredibly difficult to do Rome in a day. So much to see and soo much history.

Second thing.If can I would strongly suggest not doing August because it is extremely crowded in the summer months. When I lived in Florence you could tell if there were cruise ships in port by the huge influx of people. In August you are not getting cruise traffic but also the people who are just on vacation. My friends who live in Italy say that fall everything calms down a bit.

Third, do an inside cabin. We had a balcony but the ports are the famous cities. If I remember correctly each port is half hour to and hour drives. Yes it's nice but I would rather use the money in the port to bring home something nice. I still wear my gold penant I got in Florence.

[ShellDil]

We did both the Eastern and Western Med cruises this summer with an 11 yr old and 13 yr old. We did the Eastern on the Navigator and the Western on the Epic. So I can't really compare the ships, but as far as the ports - if you are doing the Med, you're cruising for the ports not the ship. We thought we'd love the Epic, but we were so busy off the ship that it didn't really matter what ship we were on in the long run.

 

As far as Aug or October - it will be hot in August - I think your son won't have an issue with the heat, but will you? We went in June and on our day in Florence it was 102 degrees! I'm NOT kidding! :eek: However, the heat didn't stop us from enjoying anything that we did. (We also traveled with my parents who are in their late 60's and they were fine as well with the heat as well as the long days).

 

Personally, if you travel in October, I wouldn't pull your son out of school to have him spend port days in the kids club. And honestly I couldn't see leaving my kids on the ship while I was in port anyway. My kids may not have chosen to go to the Mediterranean, but they honestly enjoyed this vacation as much as any we've been on. Long days or not!

 

We did have balcony cabins and we DID use our balcony every day. We'd often get room service for breakfast and eat on the balcony. This was very convenient since our port days were so early. I loved eating out there while watching the ship dock. Not fighting the buffet and being out on the sea. For me, the balcony was worth it, not to mention the extra space the balcony gives you when you have a kid, or in our case, kids, in the same cabin. It gives you someplace to get some space a bit!

 

My review is in my signature - and it includes some time before and after our cruises plus most of the ports you'd be choosing from if you want some insight of cruising with kids!

[JediMom]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

 

Last night DH and I were discussing the trip and now we're thinking of changing to late June. Yes, it will be hot, but hopefully tolerable, And DS would only miss the last week of school which is pretty much a write off anyway.

 

I'm sure I'll be asking more questions as our planning gets more underway. Thanks to everyone who posted your trip reviews - they'll make some fantastic reading I'm sure :)

[Tamac100]

Hello!!

 

We are in the early planning stages of our soon to be 4th cruise :) Cruise will be in 2014, planning on roughly a 7 day Barcelona to Rome type of cruise.

 

There are 3 of us, myself, DH and DS who will be on the cusp of turning 9. DS is turning into a big history buff and I think he would enjoy the ports ... but would probably be OK hanging out in the kids club as well. We will be celebrating both my 40th birthday and our 15th anniversary on this trip :)

 

So here's where I need some advice. For the first time ever, we're considering an August trip and avoid pulling DS out of school - he'll be in the 4th grade. But is the Mediterranean going to be enjoyable in the heat??

 

We have been on Liberty and LOVED that ship!! But it was a Caribbean cruise where we chose the cruise more for the ship then the ports and we explored the ship as much as we could. I imagine on a port intensive cruise, the ship itself would be less important.

 

This will be our biggest trip for quite some time (maybe retirement??) so we are choosing itineraries more for the ports then anything else. I like the idea of starting in Rome and ending in Barcelona and adding a few days to each end for local siteseeing.

 

We're going to give an inside cabin a try on our cruise this winter. Assuming we can manage having an inside, is a balcony a must have for a med cruise??

 

Questions:

August vs October?

Serenade vs Liberty?

Must see ports?

Inside vs balcony?

Has anyone ever left their kids in the kids club and gone out to port on their own?

 

Hi Jedimom, just returned from adventure med cruise from southampton. my daughter is 6. Med cruises can be very port intensive. If some of your ports are straight after each other it can be very tiring. We only did a Rome trip with our daughter in August it was extremely challenging in the heat as an adult, let alone a child, and we were quite glad we dipped out of the port on the next day, which was Livorno (ie FLorence and Pisa). We did leave her in kids club one day, although this was only for a morning - we knew she wouldnt be interested in wondering around and would prefer a few hours in adventure ocean.

I do love a balcony, but note a lot of the ports are commercial so not that pretty, but the coastline is beautiful. many of the ports are day trip so early starts and late finishes often the norm, so would you miss the balcony??

 

interested to hear peoples opinions re serenade v liberty - we are off on liberty next year.

 

Trudy

[griffy116]

We did a Med cruise last June, leaving from Rome (Civitavecchia). It was amazing and my Grandson (17 at the time) was celebrating his graduation from high school. While it's hot, we were in New York this July and the heat was MUCH worse. I would want to keep the disruption from school to a minimum. We did private excursions,which meant that we were able to see and enjoy in six hours what a ship's excursion didn't get around to in 8 hours. We loved coming back to the ship with some time for a dip in the pool before getting ready for dinner. It gave everyone a nice time to cool off and relax. My Grandson is a history buff too, and enjoyed it so much, he is accompanying us on another Med cruise in 2014 (June again) to a few different ports, but once again using Rome as our pre and post cruise home base. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. Enjoy.