Cruising the Med - CC in September or CS in November?

[ustal]

Mostly I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's done the Med very late/off-season. DH and I are considering a 14-night Mediterranean Legacies cruise on the Summit, and the options are 19th September or 14th October.

 

Our Concierge Class budget for September would stretch to a Celebrity Suite on the November sailing, which sounds great! I'm a bit of an early bird, and DH is definitely a night owl, and my impression from the drawing on Celeb's website is that the sitting room in the CS would be separated enough from the bedroom that I could be up and about while he slept on - is that right?

 

I have a very Irish complexion, so I'm not a huge fan of too much sun. We're both from Europe, and we've already been to most of the cities the cruise visits, so a few rain days are fine. That said, I don't want to get completely rained out every day either, and I do like to be able to stand out on deck without needing a ski jacket, at least now and then :-)

 

So, is a CS "all that", and is the Med in November still a nice holiday spot?

 

Thanks!!

[Ine]

I think the best date - weatherwise- would be the October 14 sailing.

Not that hot anymore, still nice and warm, little chance of rain etc.

November is rather unstable, can be nice, but chance of more rain and also a chance of storm.

[tom_uk]

One thing that would put me off October (or later) would be that the hours of daylight would be noticeably shorter than in September. Perhaps not by much, but I think it would be noticeable, especially by the end of the cruise.

[ustal]

The October sailing doesn't really work for us date-wise, but even if we can fit it in, there's still the "is it better to hold off to November, so that we can have the suite, or take the CC cabin in <earlier month>" question...

 

I don't mind that the evenings will be dark earlier - our last cruise was a midnight-sun Norwegian one, and I missed having a few beautiful sunsets!

[clivep]

We did the 14 night Med cruise on the Summit on 1st November last year. The year before we took a 10 night Med cruise on the Century at the beginning of November and a 14 night Med cruise on the RCCL Legend of the Seas at the end of November.

 

The temperature is just about right for us in November as we find the summer too hot in the Med. Even in November we sleep with the balcony door wide open at night and take an electric fan with us.

 

The weather is unpredictable. In 2007 on the Century we had no rain at all and on the Legend of the Seas there was only a couple of days with showers. In 2008 the weather forecast was for rain the whole of the first week of our cruise but we only had rain for the first three days with the odd shower on the 5th day. Mind you, the rain was heavy with thunderstorms and lightning. We couldn't dock in Livorno and went to Spezia instead where there were difficulties with tendering. The second week had no rain. The temperature had a high of 17-18 in most ports with Rome being 21 centigrade. The sailing after ours also encountered thunderstorms.

[CathyCruises]

I was on the sailing with Clive and agree that our weather was better the 2nd week than the first. But the folks who cruised after us, departing Venice on 11/15, apparently had pretty bad weather the whole cruise, issues not being able to leave ports, etc.

 

You mention September, October and November--of those, if it were me, I would absolutely go for October even if it were in a CC. I liked the Nov 15th itinerary better than the Nov 1st one, but was worried about the weather and I am so glad I chose what I did.

 

And in this economy, why not just hang back and wait to see what happens with prices--you are bound to pay more if you book now rather tha waiting. I just saw a sky suite on a NZ/OZ cruise next month for $2,099!

 

In any event, have a great time!

 

Cathy

[RodPat]

I have stayed in a CS and the living room area is completely separate from the bedroom. You would be able to do anything you want while your other half sleeps. The window wall in the living room gives a spectacular view. If you decide to go in November, you would not make a mistake with a CS.

 

Pat