Jump to content

I NEED SOOOOOO MUCH HELP from ya’ll!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!


Europeantraveler1
 Share

Recommended Posts

My husband and I are avid cruisers having cruised on a number of different lines (HAL; PRINCESS; OCEANIA; etc..) over several years.

We are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in 2020 and are trying to put together a family cruise in June , 2020, that includes our oldest daughter and her spouse and our two grandsons (13 and 15 by then) and our younger daughter, plus us!

I want to make it particularly interesting (itinerary-wise) for the grandsons so am leaning towards the western Med. (Rome; Florence; Marseilles; Barcelona, etc...) although my husband is leaning toward the opposite (Venice, Corfu, Dubrovnik; Athens, etc...).

We’ve cruised both areas....and although I liked Greece and Croatia, etc..I thought the grandsons would find most of the Greek sites to be repetitive with a lot of ruins that may not rouse their interest as much as we’d see on the other itinerary. Greek ruins are mostly in very, very crumbling condition but more so than the ruins you’d find, for example, in Rome.

So, that’s one area we are asking you ‘experts’ to comment on...

Another is,.......although we love Oceania, HAL, and are okay with Princess,.....we wanted to be able to cruise on a ship with a few more bells and whistles for the boys and with a more ‘family’ vibe.

We’ve looked at RCL and now this may be wayyyyy out in left field but we have considered the Italian cruise ship line MSC. We’ve read the reviews...understand it is a family-owned cruiseline...and realize it may be part of the ‘European experience’ to sail on a NON-American owned line.

I would appreciate ANY and ALL suggestions; experiences cruising on MSC or RCL as a FAMILY. Anyone out there tried the larger suites that would accommodate more than 2-3 to a room? I am also having difficulty finding prices but from what I’ve read...MSC is pretty reasonably priced (a GOOD thing when we have seven people to consider). There are lots of pros and cons to every ship/line (although our last cruise in Feb.2018 on the RIVIERA was near perfection but too old of a group and too expensive for our family trip). LOVE to hear from anyone out there!!! THANK YOU!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a port heavy cruise, like in the Med, I'd concentrate more on the ports and itinerary and less on the ship offerings. granted, we haven't done a Med cruise yet but that's how we would plan it (and we'd leave the kids with grandparents. LOL!).

 

What about Alaska? There are lots of amazing excursions and it would probably be a good multi-generational cruise. We are doing that this summer and our kids are a lot younger than your grandsons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My son is now 24 and we did these itineraries more than once. I am with your husband - you really need to consider how far the port is from Rome, Florence, etc with Venice, Dubrovnik, Corfu, you are right there or very close and my son enjoyed it very much as a teen.

 

We have not tried MSC and from what I have read, am not inclined to - particularly for a special occasion. They boys will enjoy RCL with plenty to do and lots of other young people, That said, even my son prefers Celebrity with Princess a close second. Whichever itinerary you choose, it is so port intensive, the ship really is secondary. Have you asked your children and grandchildren what they would like to see?

 

 

I will add another idea, one of our favorite cruises was Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Oslo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’d agree with onlthelake - my 3 year old loved the Baltics (and he’s recently asked to go back so we can take his baby brother who was in my belly during that trip). Most cities were really close and easy to diy (except St. Petersburg, where you should arrange a private tour for just your family and Berlin which is far from port but there are nice things to do in Germany near where you dock) Norway and Alaska are also both great for kids.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The interests of your grandsons could change dramatically in two years. They will be two of seven. I would have the parents of the boys get a copy of Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports, read about the ports and have the kids give them an idea of what they would like to see. Some of the Adriatic ports may not be covered, he recommends Lonely Planet for those. Agree that the Med. is about the ports, not the ship. And for ideas about MSC, browse the MSC board here, under Cruise Lines A-O. Cruising MSC on their home turf, so to speak, is different than cruising one of their ships dedicated to the North American market. EM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I leave for an MSC Med cruise in 6 days, so I'll let you know! I can say, just from my research (and I'm a pretty research-intense person when it comes to my vacations), their ships have significantly less of the "bells and whistles" in the Med. Their newer ships have a few more, but are mostly in the Caribbean. That said, I agree with some of the other posters that it would be nice to decide what to focus on: cool ship (in which case, save on airfare and stay closer to home), or port-intensive. Given the boys ages, some ships MIGHT allow them to stay on-board while the adults go ashore, which might give you the best of both worlds if they get tired of "looking at piles of rocks", as castles were once described to me.

 

As a side note, my daughters got excited about our upcoming trip because we watched the MSC episode of "Might Cruise Ships" on the Smithsonian channel. You may not be able to find the exact combo of ports and ship you're looking for, but the boys might get some better ideas of their options if they watch a few.

 

Happy Sailing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I leave for an MSC Med cruise in 6 days, so I'll let you know! I can say, just from my research (and I'm a pretty research-intense person when it comes to my vacations), their ships have significantly less of the "bells and whistles" in the Med. Their newer ships have a few more, but are mostly in the Caribbean. That said, I agree with some of the other posters that it would be nice to decide what to focus on: cool ship (in which case, save on airfare and stay closer to home), or port-intensive. Given the boys ages, some ships MIGHT allow them to stay on-board while the adults go ashore, which might give you the best of both worlds if they get tired of "looking at piles of rocks", as castles were once described to me.

 

As a side note, my daughters got excited about our upcoming trip because we watched the MSC episode of "Might Cruise Ships" on the Smithsonian channel. You may not be able to find the exact combo of ports and ship you're looking for, but the boys might get some better ideas of their options if they watch a few.

 

Happy Sailing!

 

My grandsons are great kids and will go with the flow! I’ll try to find the “Mighty Cruise Ships” you mentioned! And, I’ll look forward to your observations/experiences on your MSC Med cruise report!! Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've cruised quite a bit with our kids and just got back from an MSC Western med cruise. The cruise was amazing - but MSC was not. I can't in good conscience recommend them. It was a very port intensive cruise and we absolutely loved the itinerary (Genoa, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palma, Malta, Messina, Rome, Pisa and Florence, back to Genoa). The itinerary was great for my kids - 6 and 10. But they are very bright and mature kids who love to travel.

 

But seriously, MSC needs to get their act together. Their customer service sucks, and the food on board was bad. And there was just nothing to do on the ship. I suppose if we had gone in summer they might have been in the pool more. It was cool, so they did swim once. Though they thought the salt water pool was nasty. lol

 

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend that part of the med, but I'd look for another line other than MSC! Or look into Yacht Club on MSC? I don't know anything about it, or even if they do it in the med, but from what I read on the MSC boards, it's a whole different experience. But even then, the food would still suck I would think....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've cruised quite a bit with our kids and just got back from an MSC Western med cruise. The cruise was amazing - but MSC was not. I can't in good conscience recommend them. It was a very port intensive cruise and we absolutely loved the itinerary (Genoa, Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palma, Malta, Messina, Rome, Pisa and Florence, back to Genoa). The itinerary was great for my kids - 6 and 10. But they are very bright and mature kids who love to travel.

 

But seriously, MSC needs to get their act together. Their customer service sucks, and the food on board was bad. And there was just nothing to do on the ship. I suppose if we had gone in summer they might have been in the pool more. It was cool, so they did swim once. Though they thought the salt water pool was nasty. lol

 

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend that part of the med, but I'd look for another line other than MSC! Or look into Yacht Club on MSC? I don't know anything about it, or even if they do it in the med, but from what I read on the MSC boards, it's a whole different experience. But even then, the food would still suck I would think....

 

 

First of all,...thank you very much for your input! You didn’t mention which ship you were on...was it Divina or Seaside?

I gathered from your post that you didn’t cruise YC. I’ve read on CC from many contributors that if you’re considering MSC and you can afford it, the YC is the only way to go! Otherwise MSC can be a disappointment. Sorry you had such a downer for a cruise experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all,...thank you very much for your input! You didn’t mention which ship you were on...was it Divina or Seaside?

I gathered from your post that you didn’t cruise YC. I’ve read on CC from many contributors that if you’re considering MSC and you can afford it, the YC is the only way to go! Otherwise MSC can be a disappointment. Sorry you had such a downer for a cruise experience.

 

I would suggest you look at NCL for a family cruise. I’m not sure what their itineraries are for 2020 but they have good ones in 2019.

 

We have taken grandchildren to Europe on both land trips and cruises and the kids have loved all the ruins in the Eastern Med area. I would start or end in Rome so you can spend a few extra days there.

 

This August we are taking our family of 16 (including 8 grandchildren ages 4-18) to the Baltic on the NCL Breakaway. This size ship wouldn't be our first choice but the dates were right and all the kids think it will be great.

 

Whatever you decide, it will be a wonderful experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were on the Orchestra, which I gather is the worst of the MSC ships. Don't get me wrong, the trip was amazing, but the ship was a let down. In someways though I think that wasn't all bad. We cruise with extended family a lot, and on this ship people weren't all running off in different directions to do stuff in the evenings and sea days, because there was nothing to do! lol So we did spend more time together as a family.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

As the mother of a ten year old boy I can tell you he finds things he's studied in school to be really interesting when he sees them for real. He also is interested in learning about his heritage. They do study Egypt, Greek and Roman Mythology in school and Rick Riordan is a very popular author of books for teenager about just these subjects- I'm thinking the boys would probably not be bored!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can only speak about Royal Caribbean. We were on Freedom last year with our 3 & 7 year old and had an amazing time. Our oldest loved the kids club. They have an area for teens as well that yours might enjoy. This year we will be going on Adventure and my parents will be joining us. We were initially booked on NCL Epic, but after reading reviews about the cabins and limited pool space we switched.

 

Royal Caribbean seems to have plenty to do for every age group. This is what really attracted our multigenerational family. Kids club, pools, etc for the kids, adult only solarium, shows, etc for the adults. We have not cruised on the much larger ships yet, but I'm sure we will soon.

 

As far as rooms- last cruise we booked adjoining balcony rooms. It was great to have the extra space, and the extra bathroom with the kids. On the upcoming cruise in November we have an ultra spacious, former family, ocean view room and my parents have a balcony room. We are looking forward to trying this larger room, but will definitely miss the extra bathroom. I am hoping when the 90 day mark hits the prices will come down enough to possibly switch to a suite. We will find out in August.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...