Help us choose! Princess vs. Celebrity vs. Carnival for Med cruise

[JackieT]

We are choosing between the following ships... Emerald Princess 12 day cruise from Barcelona to Venice, Carnival Freedom 12 days from Rome roundtrip (but hits most we want), and Celebrity Millennium 12 days Venice to Barcelona.

 

We really want to hit Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples (Amalfi Coast), somewhere in France, Barcelona, and either Turkey or Croatia depending on the cruise we choose which is why we narrowed it down to these 3.

 

It seems that Celebrity Millennium isn't getting great reviews lately and that the ship may be worn a bit? Anyone with information on this? I thought Celebrity would be the best of these 3 cruiselines, but it's not worth it if the ship isn't that good. I'm hesitatn to go on Carnival because I had always heard it was a party line. Is this true for the med cruises? It's a new ship the Carnival Fredom and it's great ports that we want. Finally, the Emerald Princess looks nice, but again another new ship and I don't know anything about the cruiseline. New ships do sound fabulous. I've only cruised Royal Caribbean and Costa in the past, so I've never been on these lines.

 

As you can see, we narrowed down the itineraries, but need more info on these cruiselines and ships. Thanks!

[mountainmare]

We just were on the Millennium Oct 5-17 (I wrote a summary here--you can look for it).

This was our first non-HAL cruise, but we picked the itinerary.

For a Med cruise the ports and the length of time in the ports are more important than the ship. The Millennium is in good shape and may have a dry dock before you cruise. I'm used to smaller ships on HAL and more formal service (some say stuffy) so we learned that while Celebrity is good, its not our first choice in cruise lines. For this trip the itinerary made it the trip of a lifetime and we would gladly do it again, we basically used the ship as a floating hotel that just happened to take you to your next stop every day.

 

If the Carnival Feedom hits most of what you want and the time in the ports are long enough to do what you want then that is the cruise for you--don't worry about the ship. If you normally cruise RCI then you are used to larger ships. A European cruise is different from a Caribbean cruise, you don't use the ships facilities as much.

[ehogan]

We are booked on the Carnival Freedom for the Med next March. This cruise goes to Turkey and Greece as well as Italy.

 

We chose the cruise because it is a new ship and has excellent ports. Another plus was that it cruises out of Rome and we will spend three days pre cruise in Rome. Last year we did Rome for 7 days between two cruises on the Brilliance and we still feel a need to go back - an amazing city!

 

Don't worry about the "party" reputation of Carnival, we have been on three sailings of Carnival and never found anything to be a problem. You will also have a different clientele aboard a Med. trip. The focus, as the previous poster mentioned is the ports and by the time you get back to the ship each night most people want a good meal, some entertainment and a good sleep before hitting the next port in the morning. I think if you are only interested in "partying" you would be more likely to go on a Carib. cruise where the focus is the ship, the sun and the booze.

[vacationhappy]

We chose Pricess for the following reasons -

 

1. Self-serve laundary - great for longer itineraries

2. Fresh water pools - we had our kids with us

3. Anytime dining - loved this feature in the Med. Since this cruise is very tour intensive, it was nice to take take our time going to dinner and not end up in the buffet. Sail away every evening ended up being a highlight of our trip because the scenery and sunsets are breathtaking. If you choose traditional dining and have early seating then you will miss it....late seating can sometimes be too late because you are tired from long touring days. We are big fans of anytime dining on trips that are tour intensive (Alaska, Med)and we love traditional dining for more relaxing Caribbean/beach cruises.

4. MUTS - Movies under the stars was very relaxing after a long day and a great way to unwind.

[flyfish37]

I will round things out so that the decision is not too easy. We are taking Millenium next Sept. Venice to Barcelona simply because of the itinerary. We are not experts having been on only one previous cruise (on Princess). Our cruise is 14 days (you referred to 12). I wanted the two days in Rome and three days at sea. I also wanted to hit Venice and not have a round trip. The extra day in Ephaseus is OK I suppose, although I am not sure why they did this. I have been reading up on Celebrity recently as well and am concerned by some of the negative posts. If Princess had the same itinerary, I probably would have done that one. But I am not that worried about Miilenium. I think that there were a lot of people who have developed expectations for Celebrity that are much higher than for Princess and Carnival and are realizing that you can't continue to offer premium service and still offer the same price as the other lines. Our 14 day cruise is the same price as the 12 day Princess Med cruise. Something has to give. But I am looking forward to the smaller ship and we are easy to please.

[enfuego06]

We did the 12 day Carnival itinerary in July and had a fabulous time, so great in fact, that we have booked another Med cruise on the Carnival Freedom for next year. We chose Carnival b/c of the itineray - we also wanted to hit Rome, Venice the most. Being roundtrip from Rome, allows the most time here, more than other cruiselines that only stop there for a day and there's so much to see, its worth it! And Carnival is in Venice for 2 port days. Which is great. I thought all of the ports were fabulous and a great mix of places.

[MavisMarie]

Have you considered going on Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas?

 

They have an itinerary you would be pleased with. Barcelona, Villefranche (Nice/Monte Carlo), Florence, Naples, Venice, Dubrovnik Croatia, Corfu Greece, Rome, and back to Barcelona.

 

If time of the year is not a problem, the prices on the April 29, 2007 cruise are the lowest I've seen: $1999 for a nice balcony stateroom and only about $30 more for a larger balcony stateroom. This particular cruise is 14 days long and has 4 days at sea and 2 days in Rome instead of the usual 1 day.

 

Best wishes on making the perfect choice for you and I hope you enjoy your cruise. :)

[LILynn]

We were on Princess this September. It was amazing. I have been on RCCL, NCL, Carnival and Celebrity in the past but I have to say this was the best cruise we were ever on.

 

That being said, this was the first time we went on a Princess cruise. I made a list of those ports that I just had to go to - Venice and Santorini were my 2 must sees. Princess was the only one that went to both the ports the time we wanted to go. You will spend so much time in port that you really need to base your decision on that. I am sure all of the cruises will be great - my advice just pick where you really want to go.

 

My favorite ports turned out to be Venice, Santorini, Florence and Rome. We really liked all the places we stopped at but those were my favorites.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Lynn

[dbh62ark]

JackieT, I think you have received a lot of great advice on this thread. We are lucky to be going on our 15th cruise in Europe next May, so I have a bit of a different perspective than some of the other board members. It's going to be hard to find a perfect itinerary in one cruise, but we also have found that the ship is not as important as the itinerary in the Med. Even though we have spent a lot of time in the Med on ground and cruise trips, the Millennium has an awesome itinerary that we booked for '07. I would recommend that you cruise a ship that either begins or ends in Venice, my favorite place in the world!, so that you can stay a couple of days before or after the cruise. It is simply magical, and I like it better than Rome (Venice is much easier for tourists).

 

Flyfish37, we really enjoyed seeing Ephesus, and I think you will find that it is a nice addition to your itinerary.

 

Happy travels to all,

Donna

[JackieT]

Thank you so much for all of everyone's great advice. We will take your advice and pick the one that has the ports we want to go to. All 3 cruises are attractive, we need to narrow down if we want to basically to to Turkey or Croatia, that's the man difference. We've been to Greece for our honeymoon so we've spent a lot of time there. We'd love to go back, but it's not a must. I'm very excited. We've been to Europe before a few times, but this is a dream cruise we've always wanted to take and hit some ports we've never been to before. Thanks again everyone, this board is fantastic!

[Bruin Steve]

Jackie,

I've cruised on seven different cruise lines, including 4 European cruises in the past five years on three different cruise lines (Princess, two on Celebrity and the latest on Oceania)...

 

By far, my favorite cruise I've ever taken has been on the Millennium...

 

Consider, among other things that the Millennium sails at full double occupancy with only about 2,000 passengers on a 91,000 gross ton ship...

 

With Carnival's Freedom, you will have around 3,000 passengers on a 110,000 gross ton ship...

 

I don't think you'd get the party crowd on that European sailing that you'd get on a typical Carnival short cruise, but...

 

From my experience, you'll get a far classier cruise on Celebrity with much better food and service...

 

Most important is the itinerary, of course, so, let's compare (I don't know your dates, so I chose three at random):

 

Carnival:

Sat Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00pm

Sun Naples, Italy 7:00am 6:00pm

Mon At Sea

Tue Venice, Italy 2:00pm

Wed Venice, Italy 3:00pm

Thu Dubrovnik, Croatia 10:00am 7:00pm

Fri At Sea

Sat Messina, Sicily, Italy 7:00am 5:00pm

Sun At Sea

Mon Barcelona, Spain 7:00am 5:00pm

Tue Cannes, France 9:00am 8:00pm

Wed Livorno, Italy 7:00am 7:00pm

Thu Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 8:00am

 

First, what I don't like is the "round trip"...I'd rather sail in and out of different ports in order to spend a distinctive pre- and post-cruise stay in each...Basically, you have the following 7 ports: Naples, Venice, Dubrovnik, Messina, Barcelona, Cannes and Livorno plus 3 "at sea" days...Venice is the only port in which you have evening hours...it's an "overnight", but you really have a shortened day on either side...I'd much rather have it be the embarkation port...that way, you can spend a few days there pre cruise...and really get a chance to enjoy it...

 

Princess:

1 Barcelona, Spain 10:00 PM

2 Marseille (Provence), France 8:30 AM 6:00 PM

3 Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

4 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

5 Naples/Capri, Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

6 At Sea

7 Mykonos, Greece 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

8 Istanbul, Turkey 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

9 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 12:00 PM 7:00 PM

10 Athens (Piraeus), Greece 6:00 AM 5:45 PM

11 At Sea

12 Venice, Italy 1:00 PM

13 Venice, Italy 5:00 AM

 

Here you get 8 ports (plus that extra different disembarkation port) with only 2 at sea days: Marseilles, Florence, Rome, Naples, Mykonos, Istanbul, Kusadasi and Athens...Venice is again an overnight, but you can do a post-cruise as well if you like...Again, no evening hours except the overnight in Venice...But, here's the real trade between Carnival and Princess...You lose Messina (no great loss) and Dubrovnik (which I love), trade Cannes for Marseilles (I'd rather have Cannes, but only slightly), but pick up Mykonos, Athens, Istanbul and Kusadasi...That's a heck of a trade off...There is so much history in Athens, Istanbul and Kusadasi, that they are easily worth the trade...

 

Celebrity:

Sun, Aug 05 Venice, Italy Boarding

Mon, Aug 06 Venice, Italy Depart 4:00 PM

Tue, Aug 07 Dubrovnik, Croatia Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Wed, Aug 08 At Sea

Thu, Aug 09 Athens (Piraeus), Greece Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM

Fri, Aug 10 Santorini, Greece Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM

Sat, Aug 11 At Sea

Sun, Aug 12 Naples/Capri, Italy Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 6:00 PM

Mon, Aug 13 Florence, Italy Arrive 8:30 AM Depart 8:00 PM

Tue, Aug 14 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM

Wed, Aug 15 Nice (Villefranche), France Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 8:00 PM

Thu, Aug 16 At Sea

Fri, Aug 17 Barcelona, Spain Departure Arrive 5:00 AM

 

Here you get 7 ports: Nice, Livorno, Rome, Naples, Dubrovnik, Santorini and Athens, the two different begining and end ports and again an overnight in Venice...From the Princess itinerary, you, basically, get back Dubrovnik but lose Istanbul and Kusadasi...and you get Santorini (absolutely fascinating and beautiful) instead of Mykonos (pleasant, but no match for Santorini)...

 

So, it's Messina/Dubrovnik versus Mykonos/Kusadasi/Istanbul/Athens versus Dubrovnik/Santorini/Athens...On that criterion, I'd give the slight edge to the Princess route over the Celebrity route...with Carnival clearly bringing up the rear...

 

IOW, I probably would drop Carnival from consideration and view it as Istanbul/Kusadasi versus Dubrovnik/Santorini (and better food and service)...Either would be pretty good...

 

You might also want to look into Oceania...We just did a cruise with them Istanbul to Venice (stopping at Kusadasi, Rhodes, Mykonos, Athens, Santorini, Taormina, Amalfi, Kotor and Dubrovnik)...A slightly different experience on a 30,000 gross ton, 684 passenger ship (entertainment not as good, but food was outstanding...with all open seating and no formal nights)...

 

Good luck...

[randolph]

We were on a 2 week Alaska on the Summitt (sister ship) recently and really were not impressed with the ship (have been on 23 cruises), but everything is subjective. We will be on the Emerald Princess after the summer crowds doing Rome to Venice. Since we plan to max out port times and hate rushing for a set time for dinner, we're going Princess for the choice dinning (choice of 5 dinner restaurants) at our leisure. Have been on sister ship Diamond Princess and loved the ships layout. With the addition of the outside diamond vision movie screen, we couldn't help but choose the Emerald (again subjective). Any choice you make you will enjoy...as long as YOU are on the ship right?

[JackieT]

Bruin Steve, thanks a lot. You're reasoning sounds exactly like mine. I literally just broke it down exactly how you described it the past hour. I printed out the 3 cruises, and now have placed them in the order that you just put them in. That's great. It's nice to see it presented like that as well. I really want to go to Turkey which is keeping Princess up there, although the trade off is Croatia which I want to see, just want to see Turkey a bit more though!. I will look into Oceania as well, thanks again to you and everyone that helped me see this all better. I felt all over the place until I posted here and received some great feedback.

[BCHappyGal]

I will add my 2 cents worth here. Just back from our Med cruise aboard Carnival's Liberty. WE are avid cruisers and our favorite line is Celebrity in their Millium class vessel. However itinerary was (and generally is) most important to us. The 2 must see cities were Rome & Venice. However if you want to see Rome you need a cruise that either starts or ends in Rome as Rome is a 2 hour drive from the port. So as you can see a 1 day stop in Rome on a cruise will mean that you are spending most of your time on the bus driving into Rome and let me tell you the scenery along that highway is nothing to wirte home about! If I had a port of call in Rome I would skip trying to get into the city of Rome for any kind of tour and just do a local countryside tour and have an easy day then either pre or port cruise travel to Rome for 3 or 4 days of intense sightseeing. Also I can recommend hiring private guides in all the ports. It is well worth it. WE had guides in all our ports except for Livorno and the French Rivera where we hired only drivers and we could definitely tell the difference and I wished I had spent the extra money.

[Bruin Steve]

...The 2 must see cities were Rome & Venice. However if you want to see Rome you need a cruise that either starts or ends in Rome as Rome is a 2 hour drive from the port. So as you can see a 1 day stop in Rome on a cruise will mean that you are spending most of your time on the bus driving into Rome and let me tell you the scenery along that highway is nothing to wirte home about! If I had a port of call in Rome I would skip trying to get into the city of Rome for any kind of tour and just do a local countryside tour and have an easy day then either pre or port cruise travel to Rome for 3 or 4 days of intense sightseeing...

I hate to trash someone else's opinion here...of course everyone is entitled to their opinion...

BUT...

First, Rome is NOT a "two hour drive" from port...We did a ship shore excursion in 2003 and made it from the ship to the center of Rome in under an hour...(We had only 11 in our excursion so they used a "mini-bus" which is able to use the shorter route...but, any minibus or private tour can do the same)...Also, I understand they have now added an express train from the port ot Rome--which may now be used by the shore excursions as well--but someone else will have to note if they've done this...

 

Second, Rome is a great city...and there is a lot to see there, BUT, it is not necessarily any more important than the other ports..."Importance" is an individual determination...For example, I'd been to Rome several times and spent considerable time there...so, for me, getting to Athens or Santorini or Istanbul (Istanbul, BTW, is a phenomenal city with incredible sites to see) were more important...It all depends on what is important to YOU...

 

Third, IF you want to spend an extended time in Rome, you really DON'T need your cruise to start and end there...Rome is VERY easy to get to (Remember the old saying "All roads lead to Rome"??? If your cruise starts in Venice, you can always fly into Rome instead and spend a few days there pre-cruise...just as you would with that Rome departure...It is a very short train ride up to Venice...and just about as easy to get from the center of Rome to Venice as it is to get from the center of Rome to a ship at Civitavecchia...You can always fly in several days early to Rome, spend a few days there and a couple more in Venice pre-cruise, if you want...Or you could toss in a day in Florence in between, then use your Livorno port stop to visit San Gimignano or Lucca or Pisa...Getting around Italy is VERY easy...The more difficult places to get to are the Greek Islands, the Turkish ports,etc.

 

The problem with the Rome round trips, again, is that you are limited to starting and ending in the same region...and that by having to backtrack, you get one or two fewer ports...

 

Take it FWIW, it's just my opinion....

[Juliadlf]

We've sailed on the Carnival Liberty (new ship that year) in the med September 2005 and I can say for our sailing, no party ship. I was also concerned about the "party" reputation Carnival has. People were turning in early because of all the tours that departed each day- early - and on sea days it wasn't a problem either. As for which cruiseline - its a hard choice as I think each of them have their good points. We choose Emerald Princess for September 2007 based on the itinerary. We didn't choose Carnival because it didn't go to Venice, Mykonos or Santorini. For us, the itinerary is a big choice factor and time of year to travel.

We haven't tried Celebrity yet in europe but perhaps one day when the itinerary is right for us.

 

One thing to remember though....all ships, at times do not dock at certain ports for various reasons, ie weather or security alerts and you'll end up missing the port so if your heart is set on visiting a certain port be aware of the possibility of missing it.

 

Have fun with your research. So many to choose from but you will find the right one for you.:)

 

Julia

[NancyIL]

I hate to trash someone else's opinion here...of course everyone is entitled to their opinion...

BUT...

First, Rome is NOT a "two hour drive" from port...We did a ship shore excursion in 2003 and made it from the ship to the center of Rome in under an hour...(We had only 11 in our excursion so they used a "mini-bus" which is able to use the shorter route...but, any minibus or private tour can do the same)...Also, I understand they have now added an express train from the port ot Rome--which may now be used by the shore excursions as well--but someone else will have to note if they've done this...

 

Second, Rome is a great city...and there is a lot to see there, BUT, it is not necessarily any more important than the other ports..."Importance" is an individual determination...For example, I'd been to Rome several times and spent considerable time there...so, for me, getting to Athens or Santorini or Istanbul (Istanbul, BTW, is a phenomenal city with incredible sites to see) were more important...It all depends on what is important to YOU...

 

Third, IF you want to spend an extended time in Rome, you really DON'T need your cruise to start and end there...Rome is VERY easy to get to (Remember the old saying "All roads lead to Rome"??? If your cruise starts in Venice, you can always fly into Rome instead and spend a few days there pre-cruise...just as you would with that Rome departure...It is a very short train ride up to Venice...and just about as easy to get from the center of Rome to Venice as it is to get from the center of Rome to a ship at Civitavecchia...You can always fly in several days early to Rome, spend a few days there and a couple more in Venice pre-cruise, if you want...Or you could toss in a day in Florence in between, then use your Livorno port stop to visit San Gimignano or Lucca or Pisa...Getting around Italy is VERY easy...The more difficult places to get to are the Greek Islands, the Turkish ports,etc.

 

The problem with the Rome round trips, again, is that you are limited to starting and ending in the same region...and that by having to backtrack, you get one or two fewer ports...

 

Take it FWIW, it's just my opinion....

 

I really appreciate your input, Steve. We'll be making this decision for 2008.

[notmartha]

If food and entertainment (beyond gambling) is important to you, don't go on Carnival. The food and entertainment was extremely disappointing when we sailed on Liberty during August.

 

The other consideration is that even though it has Venice, Livorno and Barcelona on the ports, you really don't have enough time spent there unless you are contented with just seeing a small sliver of any of them. At Livorno it takes about 1.5 hours each way to go to Florence or Tuscany, so you lose a lot of time. At Barcelona the ship got into port at 8AM and leaves at 5PM (or thereabouts I think). The problem is spaniards sleeps in late, and takes a siesta, so I would say that if you really want to visit Barcelona you are better off with a ship that has it as an embarkation/disembarkation port.

 

The drive from the port of Rome into city center is 1.5 hours, without traffic. I am not sure where the 1 hour came from - maybe to/from airport only (as FCO is about 25 minutes from city center).

 

You save some money with Carnival, but IMHO when you spend thousands on the cruise it's not worth saving a couple of hundred and make yourself miserable.

 

I have cruised with Celebrity, Princess and RCCL in the past (not to Med), and all of them are far superior. Heard some pod problem with the Millie class Celebrity ships, so that's one reason I didn't book it, but the passengers we met while waiting at FCO from the Celebrity Galaxy on the E. Med cruise seemed to have enjoyed their cruise.

[Bruin Steve]

The drive from the port of Rome into city center is 1.5 hours, without traffic. I am not sure where the 1 hour came from - maybe to/from airport only (as FCO is about 25 minutes from city center).

 

Well...most certainly it WAS from the ship in port to the center of Rome...and we DID do it in just under an hour...

 

Just to see that I am not crazy, here is the Mapquest directions from Civitavecchia to Rome:

 

http://www.mapquest.com/directions/europe.adp?go=1&do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl=EN&qq=hltF3hzNT9vgCYgFpG%252fDI6Zd139xgLqWl5mHnyn%252b%252b8o%253d&ct=EU&rsres=1&1y=IT&1a=&1c=Civitavecchia&1z=&2y=IT&2a=&2c=Rome&2z=&r=f

 

...just under 51 miles, estimated time 1 hour, 4 minutes...

 

Here is the basic story, as relayed to us by our guide on our shore excursion:

There are TWO main roads from the port to Rome...One of them is restricted to the large buses--the other shorter, quicker road ...the longer more congested route allows the buses...

 

Most of the Shore Excursions are required to take the longer, more heavily trafficked road and, yes, it takes over 1.5 hours...

BUT, because we were on a smaller excursion with only 11 passengers, we were in a minibus--which is not restricted from the quicker route...We averaged at least 60 mph on the 51 mile journey and made it there in under an hour...

 

We actually saved so much time, the guide and driver took us extra places not on the advertised itinerary...

 

Private cars can, obviously, do the same...of course, yes, traffic must cooperate as well...but, yes it is doable...

 

The Millennium, BTW, shows the hours in Rome as 7 am to 7 pm...and most of the full day tours run about 10.5 hours...It is a pretty full day in Rome...but there is nothing wrong with it...

 

What we've found in MANY European ports is that the docks are a fair distance form the sites you want to visit...Same is true in LeHavre, Villefranche, Naples, Gdansk (if like Princess, they dock in Gdinya) or Stockholm if you're on Princess and have to dock in Nynashamn...In some ports you're closer, others you're not...it's all part of the experience...but it's still a great experience...

[doctrd]

You asked for opinons on the 3 cruise lines.

 

I recently returned from the Princess (Grand, but Emerald next time), and would highly recommend. I think the itinerary is the best. We stayed 3 nights in Venice (plus one night on ship), and 3 nights in Barcelona.

Highly recommend staying at each end of the cruise to really experience those cities.

 

All excursions arranged thru private tour guides also a great recommendation. Many hints and tips on these boards.

Book early....I see the price for July 28 has already gone up 200 per person from 3 months ago when I booked.

We have already booked the same cruise for next year!

[notmartha]

Well...most certainly it WAS from the ship in port to the center of Rome...and we DID do it in just under an hour...

...

 

What we've found in MANY European ports is that the docks are a fair distance form the sites you want to visit...Same is true in LeHavre, Villefranche, Naples, Gdansk (if like Princess, they dock in Gdinya) or Stockholm if you're on Princess and have to dock in Nynashamn...In some ports you're closer, others you're not...it's all part of the experience...but it's still a great experience...

 

Bruin Steve - thanks for the explanation. We took the shuttle bus from the cruise dock to FCO, so that explained why it took so long.

 

On the way to the port (we did a r.t. from Rome), we had a private van, but we ran into an accident site near the port so it was nowhere near an hour, and goodness knows if our driver took the shorter route.

 

My point is - if you want to spend thousands of dollars going to European cruise, you probably don't to be stuck spending many hours in traffic, sitting at a van/limo/tour bus. I think the port distance to interesting sites is a big factor in deciding which cruise iterinary is better. My assumption is that most people can't spend that kind of money or time year after year doing Europe, so it's best to maximize whatever you've got and do the cities not near the ports on your own, on a separate pre/post cruise land tour.

 

Unless my recollection of time/directions is completely off - Naples is less than one hour from some of the major sites like Capri, Pompeii and Sorrento (the furthest?)

 

I learned the hard way, and that's just my opinion. Others may think that even a couple of hours spent on the site is enough, and each person has a different tolerance level of how much time is too much spent on traveling (mine was an hour or less).

[Dr. Pam]

Have you considered RCCL 12 day Med-Venice cruise departing out of and returning to Barcelona. Their itinerary has your required ports and what I like about it is that is allows some sea days. We did a 7-day Med cruise aboard the Splendour in summer 05 and did a port everyday except for the last. It was exhausting. I have sailed on Rccl, Princess and Disney in the past, and my main reason for booking the Brilliance was the itinerary. We decided that this trip was a vacation as well as a European tour. Hence we decided on this itinerary for the 3-days of RnR onboard. Also, Barcelona cruise terminal was so easy for embarkation and disembarkation. Just my $0.02.

[RickandAnne]

You've gotten some very good advice here, the best of which I think is that it's not the ship as much as it is the itinerary. We've sailed on the Millie and like her....she won't disappoint.

 

But the reason I'm writing is that I have a friend who just got off of the Millennium about three weeks ago and had these comments about the ports. He said the biggest surprise was Dubrovnik, which his group thought was absolutely beautiful.....a real surprise. His other major comment (and it has already been said here) was that Venice was absoutely the best stop of the cruise....and his cruise ended there. Dubrovnik was second only to Venice. I can't speak for the other ports.....my first Med cruise is actually less than a week away. Hope you have a good trip.

 

Rick

[RickandAnne]

BTW! If you decide Millennium, and want a balcony, consider one of the aft Concierge Class cabins....their balconies are about 275 sq ft.....my standard on Millennium class ships. There are other oversized balconies on these ships as well. There are 16 cabins on deck 6 in category 2C that have balconies that are twice the size of the standard balcony. They are just forward of the lifeboats and just aft of the forward oceanview cabins. They are the first 8 2C cabins on both sides of the ship. I was in 6035 and a client in 6020.

The oversize balcony is not reflected in the deck plans, but they are fully twice the standard size.

 

The 2 forward corner oceanview cabins on deck 6 and 7 are huge, probably between 250 and 300 SF. The cabin window looks forward and this would be the choice for anyone looking for added space without the extra price of a suite. The cabins are 6004, 6005, 7002 and 7003.

 

All of these anomilies are also on the other Millenium class ships.

 

Rick

[Love 2 Travel]

We just returned from the Millie , Barcelona- Venice. We loved our experience. The ships's service was very good and as far as showing wear- we did not notice anything out of the ordinary. We enjoyed the T-pool, especially after a day at port spent walking all over the place. A great way to unwind and "massage" our aching muscles. We loved the ports. Rome is hard to do in one day but we had a private tour booked and saw all the major sites. We realize we would like to spend additional time in rome in the future- but a Med cruise is for sampling. One day in any port is not enough to see everything but it will give you a chance to get the flavor of the area and decide if you would like to reutrn. great way to see Europe- a floating hotel where you unpack once. We loved both Barcelona dna Venice and would suggest addtional days pre and post cruise.

 

Good luck with your decision. No matter whcih line you choose I am sure you will have a fabulous time.

 

Gail