Tips to book our first European cruise.

[Szt]

One “mistake” we made last time was in picking a 7 night cruise with 6 ports. This meant each stop was shorter than we would have liked and couldn’t do much in any one port. 

[juanarcin]

I have yet to do a US cruise that cmopares to cruises I've done in Europe or Asia. Everyone is tellig you to do your research which is always good advice, however, I understand what you mean by just wanting to experience somethign different without anythign in particular in mind. coming up with something when starting with  nothign in mind will always be difficult.  I would suggest seeing the starting/ending ports for European cruises. once you have a handful of locations, look into those and see which ones you would be most excited abotu getting to know. Spend some time there before or after the cruise.

 

As many have said, some of the ports require travel to get to the mian attractions. So instead of focusing on what ports are best, focus on what starting/emding destination is best and just enjoy the cruise as an added bonus where you may learn abotu locations to revisit.

 

I took my first cruise ever out of Rome and spent a week there before the cruise. I was most excited about Alexandria because I wanted to see the pyramids. That stop got replaced with Istanbul. I was sad, but I fell in love with Istanbul. To this day Rome and Istanbul are places I highly recommend and have gone back to multiple times. Cairo on the other hand has been a place I'd likely never go back to. 

 

As a side note, if you want really different, I'd suggest Asia. Europe is definitely different from the US, but it feels familiar. Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner, everyone speaks English, Cab rides will be playing the same music you hear out here...But Asia is different. My visits to Japan and Thailand were  the first time I felt I was in another world. Either way, enjoy whatever you decide to do!

[AKJonesy]

Another idea are canal boats or Narrowboats.  There are a ton of them with all kinds of itineraries based upon your interests; wine areas, biking areas, etc.  If you are interested, I'd start by looking at some you tube vids.  This is something we are going to do on the Mississippi, and I'd love to do a canal/narrowboat in England.  T

[DarrenM]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:23 PM, KyleClark said:

Hello All - we are seasoned cruisers here in the U.S. but we want to get out of our comfort zone and take a European cruise. We will fly from NYC and looking for a cruise where you don't have to travel and hour or two to see the attractions.  Is there such a cruise?  Any tips or anything you would do differently to enjoy this bucket list trip?

 

Thx..

Kyle

 

OK So places that are must for me were Naples(Pompeii) Kotor and Dubrovnik.

 

All are port places.

 

And if you can get to Istanbul then go. Its bonkers but brilliant.

Edited September 6, 2023 by DarrenM

[Szt]

The first place to start is warm or cool? Then ask yourself- big cities or small towns or resort towns and beaches? If you like warm- the Med or Aegean are awesome. If cooler is better- Northern Europe- Iceland, Norway, British Isles, Amsterdam, Belgium, etc. If you like chocolate you have to try Norwegian chocolate. It’s the bomb!

[schmoopie17]

Also, read the fine print for each cruise stop. Many require tendering, which wastes a lot of valuable sightseeing time...and tendering is round-trip, so factor in double the time. Not to mentioning the pain of the whole tendering process.

[Szt]

Kotor is an hour long tender each way. Plus, as the previous post mentions, since everyone want to go ashore as early as possible and return as late as possible expect long lines and waits for tendering to and from. 

[Essiesmom]

2 hours ago, Szt said:

Kotor is an hour long tender each way. Plus, as the previous post mentions, since everyone want to go ashore as early as possible and return as late as possible expect long lines and waits for tendering to and from. 

It was far less than that when we tendered on Silhouette.  And we docked on Nieuw Amsterdam.  Tender at Belize is far longer than Kotor.  EM

[edinburgher]

3 hours ago, Szt said:

Kotor is an hour long tender each way.

Really? That would surely be exceptionally long for a tender operation.

Could you perhaps be confusing the long and beautifully scenic sail-in along the Gulf of Kotor with a short tender ride once anchored?The scenic section is indeed approximately an hour or 80 minutes long.

[Szt]

1 hour ago, edinburgher said:

Really? That would surely be exceptionally long for a tender operation.

Could you perhaps be confusing the long and beautifully scenic sail-in along the Gulf of Kotor with a short tender ride once anchored?The scenic section is indeed approximately an hour or 80 minutes long.

No confusion. Maybe it was 45 min. But it was very long. We just did this in Oct so my memory is clear. Maybe different lines or ships get closer to the port. But when we asked why they had us waiting in theater for tenders ( no we were not going on an excursion) they said because the tenders were so long it was better to give people numbers rather than have them stand in line. 

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, Szt said:

No confusion. Maybe it was 45 min. But it was very long. We just did this in Oct so my memory is clear. Maybe different lines or ships get closer to the port. But when we asked why they had us waiting in theater for tenders ( no we were not going on an excursion) they said because the tenders were so long it was better to give people numbers rather than have them stand in line. 

So were you in the tender for 45 mins  or waiting to board a tender?

[ldubs]

12 minutes ago, Szt said:

No confusion. Maybe it was 45 min. But it was very long. We just did this in Oct so my memory is clear. Maybe different lines or ships get closer to the port. But when we asked why they had us waiting in theater for tenders ( no we were not going on an excursion) they said because the tenders were so long it was better to give people numbers rather than have them stand in line. 

 

I would guess there must have been some issue causing the long tender ride.   45 minutes for that port seems very long.   

[Szt]

Maybe some ships get in closer than others. But I clearly remember my shock when the crew told us it was an hour long ride. It also affected when we had to queue up for the last tender back. It was a pleasant ride to town, but definitely a tender not an excursion. When we were above the town looking down into the bay, we saw other cruise ships much closer than our. Our ship was at the mouth of the bay. 
 

Santorini was another port where getting to and from the ship was a time factor. The tender wasn’t that bad, and they will keep running tenders till the line is gone. However, it’s quite a line to go down the tram. Since that line is not all going to the same ship, if you get to the bottom after the last tender left you are sol. We purposely took a ship excursion at that port because we read how much time could be wasted just getting up the cliff. Our tour took us up by bus. We had 8 hours in port. We arrived at 2:00. It was 2:30 before we were on the bus. Then it was about an hour to Oja. We had about 90 min there before we had to get back in the bus. We got back to Fira just in time to find a beautiful spot to see the sunset. We enjoyed a wonderful Greek dinner (soooo good) at a place locals recommended. By the time we finished dinner, it was dark. We strolled the very crowded streets of Fira making our way to the tram. That took about a half hour in line. We got back to the tender port with about an hour to spare. We would have loved to have had considerably more time in the daylight. 

[Szt]

26 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

So were you in the tender for 45 mins  or waiting to board a tender? In the tender at least 45 min. I don’t remember how long the wait was. We were told there was tender on it way back but it would take a while. Fortunately the tenders were huge.  

[cruisemom42]

51 minutes ago, Szt said:

No confusion. Maybe it was 45 min. But it was very long. We just did this in Oct so my memory is clear.

 

I was there last October on Celebrity Constellation. It didn't take us anywhere near 45 minutes. More like the usual 15-25 mins. Were there other ships in the fjord that maybe led to yours being anchored further out?

[Szt]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I was there last October on Celebrity Constellation. It didn't take us anywhere near 45 minutes. More like the usual 15-25 mins. Were there other ships in the fjord that maybe led to yours being anchored further out?

Yes, many. Like I said, we were so far out you could barely see the ship in the fjord at all

[schmoopie17]

16 hours ago, Szt said:

 

Santorini was another port where getting to and from the ship was a time factor. The tender wasn’t that bad, and they will keep running tenders till the line is gone. However, it’s quite a line to go down the tram. Since that line is not all going to the same ship, if you get to the bottom after the last tender left you are sol. 

We had a Greek Isles cruise booked for next September. After reading MANY negatives things about the Santorini tram and donkey path, we decided to cancel. (There were other issues, as well). We still may end up re-booking, but we're looking at other options.

[donaldsc]

There are lots and lots of cruises that have what you want.  Do some research on your own and come back w some more specific questions.  Right now your post is much too general.

 

DON

[Szt]

3 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

We had a Greek Isles cruise booked for next September. After reading MANY negatives things about the Santorini tram and donkey path, we decided to cancel. (There were other issues, as well). We still may end up re-booking, but we're looking at other options.

Don’t get me wrong. Santorini is beautiful! The sunset was truly spectacular. Being there in Oct, we didn’t have to fight crowds to find a great spot to watch it. This was our view as we ate probably the best meal of the trip. But I think maybe a land based trip to Greece would be better than a cruise. We would have loved to have had more time.