Advice for European Cruise Choice

[LILynn]

Last year we went on the Grand Princess to Italy and Greece and had the most amazing time, especially in Italy.

 

So now we are trying to decide what to do this year and I have it narrowed down to the following 2 choices. I know they are very different and any comments would be appreciated. Here are the 2 choices:

 

 

Royal Princess:

1 - Rome

2 - Portofino Italy

3 - Monte Carlo

4 - Corsica, France

5 - Sorrento/Capri

6 - Messina, Sicily

7 - Valetta, Malta

8 - Corfu

9 - Kotor, Croatia

10 - Split Croatia

11 - At sea

12 - Ravenna, Italy

13 - Venice

 

 

Choice 2 - Grand Princess

 

1 - London

2 - Paris

3 - Brussels

4 - At sea

5 - Copenhagen

6 - Oslo

7 - At sea

8 - Edinburgh

9 - At sea

10 - Glasgow

11 - Dublin

12 - At sea

13 - London

 

They bothe sound wonderful but choice to has so many sea days but choice 1 has a lot of ports I don't know much about.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Lynn

[spongerob]

We went on a British Isles cruise in 2005 and liked it so much that we're going back this year. Personally, I like having a couple sea days to recharge the batteries and relax. Most of the port calls in the British Isles were long days and even with a couple days of rest thrown in, we were still pretty beat by the end of the cruise.

 

I think the only way we could handle one of the port-a-day Med cruises would be to tack on a transatlantic crossing to catch up on our sleep on the way home.

 

Tough choice, neither is wrong.

[Druke I]

Both good itineraries.

 

I like sea days, and prefer smaller ships, so for me the choice is fairly easy:

Royal Princess!

[bubbadog]

i would pick #2 its a great itinerary,and with the sea days spaced like that it helps,as rob said its port intensive,we did this cruise and loved it ,we will do this one again,we just talked about it the other night,hope you have a great t ime;));)

[camNaud]

It really depends on what month you plan to go on your cruise?

 

P.S. Kotor is not in Croatia - it's in the world's newest independant republic, Montenegro. It's an amazing place went there in September.

[emdia43]

Also bear in mind what your preference is for weather- likely to be hot in summer in the Med and very unpredictable in GB in the summer,it could be hot,raining,cold, whatever- also the excursions are very city-oriented on the GB cruise.

[Spikesgirl]

Like Spongerob, we are headed out to the British Isles this summer on the Grand. I would have killed to do the Grand's itinerary with the Royal. The smaller ships are really great inasmuch as you can really get to know your fellow passengers and the crew. They don't offer as much by way of ship activities, but it all depends upon how much it takes to amuse yourself.

 

Really comes down to how many sea days you want and which ports are more important to you.

 

Charlie

[Globaliser]

Choice 2 - Grand Princess

 

1 - London

...

13 - London

Caution: Grand Princess is most unlikely to be going to London. Most cruise lines lie about this. The ship will probably be going to Southampton rather than London.