Which cruise do you recommend?

[Lorenky]

Hello. We’re a couple in our 60’s, pretty new to cruises and are looking at taking a cruise that includes Greece in September 2025.  We’re debating between a couple of different cruises. We will be staying in Italy for a week before the cruise, flying into Rome, and Venice is one of our destinations. We could cruise Italy to Greece but flying from Italy to Athens for a cruise would work as well.   We want to have Santorini as one of the Greek ports and would stay several days in Athens at the end of the cruise. We would get a balcony room on all these choices. We’re looking at these 3:
-Celebrity Infinity 9 night Best of Greece cruise, which is roundtrip from Athens.  We like this because it gives the most time in Greece and Celebrity’s good reputation but would have to fly Italy to Athens
-Norwegian Pearl 10 day Greek Isles from Venice to Athens. We like this for the convenience of leaving from Venice since we will be visiting there, and the chance to see Croatia as well as Greece
-Star Princess 10 days Europe-Mediterranean from Rome to Athens.  We like this because we prefer direct flights and can fly direct to Rome, and Princess has a good reputation, but might be a little less convenient for our Italy portion.
Does anyone have thoughts on the differences in these cruises and which might be the best choice? With just looking at the itineraries, we prefer the Norwegian cruise because it leaves from Venice and adds Croatia, but we’re not certain about going with Norwegian versus Celebrity or Princess.  Any thoughts on these cruises would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

[mapleleaves]

Keep in mind that the Pearl won't actually depart from Venice.  NCL usually uses Trieste as it's Venice port.  It's an easy 2 hr ride from Venice to Trieste, by train or flixbus (10-15E) or NCL transfer (60-70).

 

I think you'll get more feedback if you post links to each cruise.  People will want to see which ports are included, and the port times.  

[Lorenky]

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=4525
 

https://www.ncl.com/cruises/10-day-greek-isles-from-venice-trieste-to-istanbul-santorini-athens-and-croatia-SKY10VCEKOPSPUDBVKOTCFUJTRPIRJMKKUSIST?destinations=4294949354,4294949395,4294949385&embarkationport=4294949317&sailMonths=4294949333&numberOfGuests=4294949461&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=SKY10VCEKOPSPUDBVKOTCFUJTRPIRJMKKUSIST
 

www.celebritycruises.com//itinerary-details/9-night-best-of-greece-cruise-from-athens-piraeus-greece?packageID=IN09M315&sDT=2025-09-27&cCD=CO

[Lorenky]

44 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

Keep in mind that the Pearl won't actually depart from Venice.  NCL usually uses Trieste as it's Venice port.  It's an easy 2 hr ride from Venice to Trieste, by train or flixbus (10-15E) or NCL transfer (60-70).

 

I think you'll get more feedback if you post links to each cruise.  People will want to see which ports are included, and the port times.  

Thank you. It looks like it’s not really convenient to get from either Rome to the port or Venice to the port, but of course, it wouldn’t be that convenient to get to the airport either. Just something we have to deal with. Hopefully I correctly posted the links just now so the people can see the cruises.

[marazul]

@Lorenky

If you want to see Santorini, don't take a cruise that stops in Santorini. You have plenty of time before or after the cruise to visit the island independently. It is a 30 minute flight from Athens. Plan to stay 2 or 3 nights. There are many lovely hotels at all price points.  That is the only way of avoiding the crowds, donkeys and cable car nightmare in Santorini.

 

You could fly from Rome to Athens and change to a flight to Santorini. Fly back to Athens for your cruise. Enjoy more Athens at the end. Take advantage of your extra time to do it right. Check out all these flights in aegeanair.com. 

 

You could also look at line with smaller ships, like Seabourn, Windstar, Silversea, etc. They port a lot closer to Venice than the bigger ships. They also have more interesting Greek islands itineraries.  Just skip Santorini on the cruise.

[Lorenky]

Thank you. The smaller cruise lines were out of our budget.  What about the Celestyal cruises that stay in port overnight and have 2 days in Santorini? Would this be a better option? We liked the idea of a cruise because the ferries to Santorini seem very long and somewhat uncertain with the strong winds that can happen. We had thought of flying Athens to Santorini but were already planning a possible flight from Italy to Athens and then from Athens to Barcelona. Plus the flights from San Francisco to and from Rome. So we didn’t want to fly to Santorini as well. I suppose if we cruise Italy to Athens without Santorini we could then fly to Santorini and from there to Barcelona. Clearly there is lots more to think about. 

[marazul]

@Lorenky -

Just a few comments:

 

Depending on which cabin level you book, WIndstar could be competitive with the cruises you are considering

 

Celestyal is a Greek cruise line and as such it is allowed to dock at the Santorini ferry port.  That avoids the donkeys and the cable car.  Staying overnight is a big plus.  Just consider that it could be a bit "basic" compared to the amenities of the three cruise lines you are considering.  

 

The flight (30-40 minutes) to Santorini in September would cost you 87 euros R/T.  There are about 10 flights per day.  You can easily fly out a couple of hours after your flight from Italy arrives.  Just change gates. If you also fly Aegean Air from Italy, the gates will be in the same section of the terminal.

https://e-ticket.aegeanair.com/A3Responsive/dyn/air/booking/;jsessionid=NOPSr8rt0gePvH7FoPidRXkfz52LYS9M8mBXSFU5!1704415698952#!/flight

A one-way flight (2 hours) from Rome to Athens in September is 60 euros:

https://e-ticket.aegeanair.com/A3Responsive/dyn/air/booking/;jsessionid=HEun468p8J4FhoQ8HRKD16n7lvGa17wRGchtsl0K!1704416041857#!/flight

Aegean also flies to Barcelona.  Depending on the day of the week, the one-way fares start at 120 euros.

Aegean is a very good airline.  We fly it often.

 

Anyhow, think about it.

 

 

[Lorenky]

Thanks, just another quick question. I see the amount of cruise ships in port varies widely day to day. In smaller ports such as some of the Greek Islands, how much is too much? Just for instance, when Princess docks there will be 5 ships, Norwegian will have 3 ships, Celebrity will have 2 ships.  How many ships becomes just too overwhelming in a small port? Thanks again.

[marazul]

12 minutes ago, Lorenky said:

Thanks, just another quick question. I see the amount of cruise ships in port varies widely day to day. In smaller ports such as some of the Greek Islands, how much is too much? Just for instance, when Princess docks there will be 5 ships, Norwegian will have 3 ships, Celebrity will have 2 ships.  How many ships becomes just too overwhelming in a small port? Thanks again.

Check out this thread:

It depends on the number of people on each ship.  Add up the number of people in those ships. The cable car can carry 600 people per hour. The year round population of this small island is 15000.

You figure it out. Yes, it will be between extremely crowded and too much.

 

[mapleleaves]

All 3 itineraries look great !  The choice will come down to YOUR interests and priorities.

For me the NCL cruise stands out by far; I actually considered this itinerary for 2024 but it got bumped by a land trip. It visits places I want to see or have enjoyed in the past, and I'd love to have a couple of days in Istanbul post cruise.

(my cruise last Sept missed Kotor due to rough seas and I'd love to get there.  I was so disappointed but luckily Dubrovnik surpassed expectations which lessened the sting).

 

As for Santorini, our port time was 2p-10p, with only 1 other ship in port ( 8-5). In theory, it looked easy. And my original plan would have worked perfectly .... take the NCL excursion "Charming Oia Village" to avoid the cable cars, in Oia inform the guide that we were leaving the group, then explore Oia on our own, take a bus/taxi to Fira, return to the ship by cable car for the sunset around 7pm.

HOWEVER, the OIA excursions were sold out. ( I didn't book the cruise until 6 weeks prior).  We stood in the cable car line for 2 hrs, so it was 4pm by the time we got up to Fira. We wandered around for an hr, took some photos, all the while watching for a taxi to Oia. By then it was 5pm so walked to the taxi stand; no taxis and no bus at the bus station. Then we debated whether we should skip Oia; what if we couldn't find a taxi to bring us back to Fira, or the bus was full.  So we hung around Fira for another hour and about 6:30/7pm went to the cable car expecting another long line. There was NO ONE !!   The views from the ship were wonderful; we watched the lights coming on all along the cliff and a very brief sunset due to clouds.   

So ..... if I was to visit Santorini again, I'd take the NCL excursion, OR,  the water taxi. We considered the water taxi; it sat at the dock for an hr waiting for additional pax but we didn't expect that we'd be in line another hr for the cable car.  

Good luck with your choice!  It will be a tough one, but nice to know you can't go wrong !

 

[Lorenky]

Thanks for all your replies. With the crowds, tendering, and difficulties in Santorini and other ports I’m not sure at this point if cruising is the way we want to explore Greece. We’ll think all this through. I appreciate the input. 

[marazul]

15 hours ago, Lorenky said:

Thanks for all your replies. With the crowds, tendering, and difficulties in Santorini and other ports I’m not sure at this point if cruising is the way we want to explore Greece. We’ll think all this through. I appreciate the input. 

Lorenky - Cruising is not the way to explore Santorini.  Don't give up on a cruise to Greece because of Santorini.  Santorini is the bottleneck created by megaships.  All other ports are fine even if crowded. Your original plan of a week in Rome first and several days in Athens at the end is very good.  You named Santorini as a priority.  To avoid disappointment do consider my suggestion of flying there for two nights.  If you do that and take a cruise that does not include Santorini, you would have another port you would not have visited in the original itinerary. 

 

On the other hand 10 days on a land tour of Greece including some island hopping is great. Although we do take cruises in Greece, we also do a lot of land and island travel on our own.  If you choose this option you can also go to places like Delphi, Meteora and the Pelopponesus.  Do consider flying to some of the islands because some ferry trips are very long.  We have sometimes made arrangements for local travel with Fantasy Travel, an excellent local company.  They offer hotels at all price categories, transport arrangements within Greece, etc.  Look at their offerings and email them for suggestions and prices.

 www.fantasytravelofgreece.com

You can also do short cruises with them using Greek cruise companies that dock in Santorini - no donkeys! 

Edited January 6 by marazul