Need help picking a European cruise

[charliem]

Hello,

We may be asking too much here but we are having a difficult time picking a European cruise for 2014. We are experienced cruisers but have never been to Europe. This is what we know we want:

 

Sail on Celebrity ship

 

Ports we would like to see:

Rome

Venice

Barcelona

Paris

St. Petersberg

 

Best times of the year for these ports, weather wise.

 

Length of cruise-10 to 14 days

 

We know the chances of making all of these ports are slim but we would like to make as many as possible.

 

We have looked at the Celebrity site until our eyes have crossed and we are just getting more confused by the minute. We are posting in the hopes that someone, on this forum, has had the same "wish list" as we have.

 

Any suggestions you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

Charlie

[CruiserBruce]

St Petersburg isn't going to be on the same cruise as the Med ports listed. At least not without a B2B, which will be longer than 10 days. Probably not realistically less than 20 days.

 

As Paris is about two hours from the ports on the Atlantic, that complicates things too.

 

Then, if you want to talk "best" times, weather wise, well, the Baltic "best" times are later June into early August. The same time frame in the Med is getting warmer and warmer. A little reading down the board here will clearly explain the weather and other issues. Similar reading on the Northern Europe board will explain the issues there.

 

Sorry, without a B2B, and some compromise on the weather, this is very near impossible.

[cruisemom42]

Europe is vast. You won't be able to get all those ports on a single 10-14 day cruise.

 

Specifically, all the ports except St. Petersburg would be ports of call for a Mediterranean cruise. But to visit St. Petersburg, you'd need a Baltics cruise.

 

The rest of the ports MIGHT be possible -- but at this point the outlier would be Paris. Paris is not a port. It's more than 2 hours from the closest cruise port of Le Havre. Most Med cruises that start and end in the Med do not include Le Havre. That port is most usually found on cruises departing from England or the Netherlands and heading down to the Med (or the reverse, doing the Med but ending in a northern port).

 

I suggest you talk to a travel agent who could help you figure out the logistics to fly into Paris, spend a few days there, then fly or take the train to an embarkation city such as Barcelona or Venice or Rome. From there, you should be able to find a cruise that hits the remaining spots. Except St. Petersburg. :o

[buggins0402]

Hello,

We may be asking too much here but we are having a difficult time picking a European cruise for 2014. We are experienced cruisers but have never been to Europe. This is what we know we want:

 

Sail on Celebrity ship

 

Ports we would like to see:

Rome

Venice

Barcelona

Paris

St. Petersberg

 

Best times of the year for these ports, weather wise.

 

 

Length of cruise-10 to 14 days

 

We know the chances of making all of these ports are slim but we would like to make as many as possible.

 

We have looked at the Celebrity site until our eyes have crossed and we are just getting more confused by the minute. We are posting in the hopes that someone, on this forum, has had the same "wish list" as we have.

 

Any suggestions you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

Charlie

 

You will probably have difficulty finding any cruise in the 10-14 days you have that will get you to Paris and St. Petersburg and Venice. You might want to focus on Venice, Rome and Barcelona and save the other two cities for another cruise. Or fly into Paris for a few days and go to Barcelona for a start of a western med that will take you to Venice - but those are usually 12 day itineraries and you would probably need to devote 15 days to add Paris. Example would be the Equinox out of Barcelona on Sept 20.

[buggins0402]

Also you might check Barcelona departures on HAL. There are a couple 12 days. And, one 10 day on Sept 10 from Barcelona to Venice. If you flew into Paris, then to Barcelona and end in Venice if you allocated 14 days you might be able to do a whirlwind tour.

[dolittle]

Like everyone else is saying this at least two cruises , to start you might want to look into X wine cruises which overnight so you can have two days in Paris. They have some other off beat ports you might not have though of.

[p_mori7]

Fly to Paris, spend 2-3 days there, take the TGV to Barcelona, start a cruise there that will visit Rome & Venice.

[CathyCruises]

Fly to Paris, spend 2-3 days there, take the TGV to Barcelona, start a cruise there that will visit Rome & Venice.[/quo

We have done several Med cruises with a few days in Paris at the end--easy to do. You can also fly to Paris from BCN for less than $100--cheaper than the train and took less than 2 hours.

 

Highly recommend an S class ship on Celebrity--the ships are gorgeous!!

[TMLAalum]

Fly to Paris, spend 2-3 days there, take the TGV to Barcelona, start a cruise there that will visit Rome & Venice.

 

Totally agree- Paris is NOT a cruiseport (nor is Berlin) but many itineraries list these 2 cities as stops. It takes between 2 to 3 hours one way just to get to Paris from LeHavre and you will be so rushed you won't experience the wonders of the city of light unless all you want is a "Been there, Done that" tee shirt...

 

Fly to Paris, spend 2-3 days there, take the TGV to Barcelona, start a cruise there that will visit Rome & Venice.[/quo

We have done several Med cruises with a few days in Paris at the end--easy to do. You can also fly to Paris from BCN for less than $100--cheaper than the train and took less than 2 hours.

 

Highly recommend an S class ship on Celebrity--the ships are gorgeous!!

 

Intra-Europe flights are very reasonable (although luggage weight is limited) and make sense to get from one place to another with limited vacation time.

 

Celebrity S-class ships are my favorite and Celebrity's port stops are between 10-12 hours, which gives lots of time to explore in many places.

Rome also warrants more time than a day stop, so here's a suggestion:

 

Fly to Paris- 3 nights

Fly to Barcelona- overnight there

Take a 7 or 8 night cruise out of Barcelona that ends in Rome or Venice

Spend the remaining nights you have available in either of those cities and fly home from there!

[TMLAalum]

Celebrity's Equinox has a 7 night cruise departing from Rome and ending in Barcelona with a couple of dates to choose from.

 

So a possible itinerary for you would be:

Fly into Rome

3 nights in Rome

Board cruise- 7 nights

Debark in Barcelona

1 night in Barcelona

Fly to Paris

3 nights in Paris

Fly home

 

Total=14 nights!!

 

Then your next cruise could be a Baltic which would get you to St. Petersburg!

[buggins0402]

Fly to Paris, spend 2-3 days there, take the TGV to Barcelona, start a cruise there that will visit Rome & Venice.[/quo

We have done several Med cruises with a few days in Paris at the end--easy to do. You can also fly to Paris from BCN for less than $100--cheaper than the train and took less than 2 hours.

 

Highly recommend an S class ship on Celebrity--the ships are gorgeous!!

 

I might be missing something on the 2014 Celebrity itineraries. Didn't they used to have one S class always doing a Western 12 day out of Barcelona, visiting Venice, throughout the almost the entire spring/summer/fall European season? Last night I could find only a few Celebrity cruises that visited Barcelona, Rome and Venice on the 2014 itineraries. Might have missed something though.

 

For the OP. You might want to try a on-line TA's website and put in Barcelona, Rome or Venice as a departure port, and put in one of the other ports as a port visited and see what comes up for choices. Out of Venice, you will see mostly Eastern Med cruises (Greece), however.

[CathyCruises]

 

I might be missing something on the 2014 Celebrity itineraries. Didn't they used to have one S class always doing a Western 12 day out of Barcelona, visiting Venice, throughout the almost the entire spring/summer/fall European season? Last night I could find only a few Celebrity cruises that visited Barcelona, Rome and Venice on the 2014 itineraries. Might have missed something though.

 

For the OP. You might want to try a on-line TA's website and put in Barcelona, Rome or Venice as a departure port, and put in one of the other ports as a port visited and see what comes up for choices. Out of Venice, you will see mostly Eastern Med cruises (Greece), however.

 

I haven't looked at the itineraries in ages--lately we have been doing TA's and then a land vacation once we get to Europe, but that only works if you have a lot of time. You're right though--if you include Venice, you usually get Greece and Turkey as well--not that there's anything wrong with that!;)

[iancal]

Like others have said, you need to be very careful if you expect to see much of Europe from a cruise ship.

 

We have done many independent land trips to Europe. The only reason we have combined them with cruises lately is because the pricing has been so very good over the past few years.

 

When to go depend on where you are cruising. For Med and Eastern Med cruises we like the end of Sept/early October.

 

We are of the belief that if you are interested in lets say Italy, or France, a cruise is the absolute worst way to experience these countries. In Italy, Venice is a good port stop. But Rome, Livorno are poor. You spend more time in travel or get hooked into grossly overprice ship transportation/tours.

 

Barcelona and Venice are the only ports on your list that will afford you the opportunity to get off the ship and go directly into town. It really irks me when I see cruises that have Paris, or Rome, or Florence, etc. listed as port stops. It is grossly misleading.

[CathyCruises]

Like others have said, you need to be very careful if you expect to see much of Europe from a cruise ship.

 

 

 

It really irks me when I see cruises that have Paris, or Rome, or Florence, etc. listed as port stops. It is grossly misleading.

 

Funny you should say that--at one point, Celebrity's main Med cruise ad had a huge picture of the Eiffel Tower/Louvre--I said that it was very misleading to imply that you could 'see' Paris from a cruise ship. Maybe a flash tour, but certainly way less of Paris than even Rome or Florence. I too thought it was borderline deceitful.

[charliem]

I want to thank everyone who replied to my post. When considering an European cruise this is the first day of school for us so we have learned something from each of your comments. We did not expect to be able to stop in each of the ports I mentioned but we did not know that some of these cities actually don't have ports. So we are now a little bit more educated.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Charlie

[CathyCruises]

I would recommend reviewing the S ship itineraries--so Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse, Silhouette or Reflection. I'm not sure that they all do the Med in 2014 but easy to figure out. Just look at the options and that will help you determine how many of your target cities you can get to within your time frame. You may find some other places that you hadn't considered but that sound interesting.

 

As mentioned, you can always add in cities by train or plane either at the beginning or end of your cruise--I like a few days on land after the cruise so I don't have to go straight home! For instance, it's very easy to get to Venice from Rome by train.

 

Hope this helps!

[buggins0402]

I want to thank everyone who replied to my post. When considering an European cruise this is the first day of school for us so we have learned something from each of your comments. We did not expect to be able to stop in each of the ports I mentioned but we did not know that some of these cities actually don't have ports. So we are now a little bit more educated.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Charlie

 

Because Rome is so far from a port and in the middle between Barcelona and Venice - a roundtrip from Rome that includes the other two works well (that way you could see Rome before the cruise starts). While not ideal, one can get a sense of the city in just a day port stop. And, with Venice, most ships stop overnight - so again you can get a decent sense of the city.

 

The problem you have is Celebrity doesn't do round trips out of Rome that do both Venice and Barcelona (from what I have found). So it's either a case of seeking a line that does, or doing a Celebrity 7 day and skipping Venice and doing Paris by land, or doing a longer Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona that hits the western med cities on your hit list (with a less than optimal amount of time in Rome).

 

P.S. If you decide to do a Baltic to focus on St. Petersburg (instead of all the other cities), just beware that Berlin is not a cruise port either! It's another one of those 2 hour away cities.

[iancal]

And watch out for those pre and post hotel offers from the cruise lines.

 

We have never, ever seen what we would call a reasonable offer. Any that we have seen has been grossly overpriced.

 

I think that the cruise lines take advantages of Americans who are unsure of travelling in Europe......language etc. I can assure you that language will not be an issue in any of the major cities that you go.

[zoncom]

Did some of this this Spring on Silhoutte; Venice to Rome,12N. Best X ship I have done and I have sailed most of them. Great itinerary also. Got off, flew EasyJet to Paris for 5N on land. The standard Barcelona-Rome 12N or flip also gives excellent European overview for first visit.

[zoncom]

Charlie, You sound detail oriented. Go to your library, get the excellent cruise port books which come out annually. Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, Berlitz. Authors also have excellent websites. TripAdvisor.com also.

[TMLAalum]

Charlie, You sound detail oriented. Go to your library, get the excellent cruise port books which come out annually. Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, Berlitz. Authors also have excellent websites. TripAdvisor.com also.

 

In 2012, Rick Steves published his first-ever guidebook for Europe aimed at cruisers- Rick Steves Guide to Mediterranean Cruisports. Even if you're not a fan of his, his tips for navigating most all of the Med ports is the best I've found! I believe there is a newer edition with more ports included.

[puppycanducruise]

Oh, that's too much for one (or two) cruises. Pick one. Baltic Cruise that stops in St Petersburg (my favourite) or a Med cruise - maybe stay in Rome (or Bacelona) a couple of days before the cruise. You have lots of decisions to make. Don't try to do too much in one trip - plan on going back.

[nikel]

Did some of this this Spring on Silhoutte; Venice to Rome,12N. Best X ship I have done and I have sailed most of them. Great itinerary also. Got off, flew EasyJet to Paris for 5N on land. The standard Barcelona-Rome 12N or flip also gives excellent European overview for first visit.

 

 

Doing the Silhouette Venice to Rome in 10 days...can't wait., but looking into the Eclipse TA for next fall and want to do Paris first 3-5 days. Would I take Easy Jet from there to London, Southamptom. What would be my best options?:confused:

[CathyCruises]

Doing the Silhouette Venice to Rome in 10 days...can't wait., but looking into the Eclipse TA for next fall and want to do Paris first 3-5 days. Would I take Easy Jet from there to London, Southamptom. What would be my best options?:confused:

 

I would take the Eurostar TGV from Paris (Gare du Nord). It's a fun trip to London, just a little over two hours. Then you can transfer to a train for Southampton.

[Cornishpastyman1]

Hello,

We may be asking too much here but we are having a difficult time picking a European cruise for 2014. We are experienced cruisers but have never been to Europe. This is what we know we want:

 

Sail on Celebrity ship

 

Ports we would like to see:

Rome

Venice

Barcelona

Paris

St. Petersberg

 

Best times of the year for these ports, weather wise.

 

Length of cruise-10 to 14 days

 

We know the chances of making all of these ports are slim but we would like to make as many as possible.

 

We have looked at the Celebrity site until our eyes have crossed and we are just getting more confused by the minute. We are posting in the hopes that someone, on this forum, has had the same "wish list" as we have.

 

Any suggestions you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

Charlie

Hi Charlie

 

In case it's any help the link in my signature has some videos of all the ports you list except Paris. Good luck - I'm sure wherever you choose will be memorable, Tony