Considering the 7-ni Adriatic and Greece Cruise from 10/21-10/28.. is that too late??

Hi Cruise Friends!

We're considering taking the 10/21-10/28, 7 night Adriatic and Greece Cruise from Venice. I've pasted the full itinerary below. All of the earlier sailing dates through Aug, Sep, and early/mid-Oct are sold out (Balconies and above) and this sailing is the only one with Balcony availability at the moment. That fact alone is making me hesitate.

For those that have cruised this time of year in Greece and Croatia... would you recommend it? Anything we should be aware of that might disappoint us or make us wish we took an earlier itinerary?

Your feedback is so greatly appreciated!

Here's the full itinerary!

10/21: Venice (Embark @ 5pm)

10/22: Dubrovnik, Croatia(1pm-9pm)

10/23: Kotor, Montenegro (8a-2p)

10/24: Olympia (Katakolon), Greece(11a-5p)

10/25: Athens (Piraeus), Greece(7a-5p)

10/26: At Sea

10/27: Split, Croatia (8a-5p)

10/28: Venice (Disembark @ 8am)

I did a Greek Islands cruise the last week of October a couple of years back. The weather was fine, cool which was perfect for siteseeing. The only thing I noticed was in .Santorini a lot of small shops were closing up for the season. There wasn't a problem with crowds, especially in Oia.

Our first cruise was an Eastern Med itinerary from Rome (went to Olympia, Athens, Ephesus and Alexandria). It was in late NOVEMBER. The weather was not suitable for laying out in the sun...but it was great for stomping around all the sites all day without breaking too much of a sweat. I imagine October will be a little warmer.

We thought it was a great time to be in this area. When I look back at the photos, I'm often wearing a long-sleeve Henley shirt, with the sleeves pushed up. Carrying a light jacket, because first thing in the morning was chilly. But once the sun was all the way up...VERY nice.

We aim for this time of year:

1. Less crowded, easier for touring

2. Typically comfortable and cooler weather - also better for touring.

3. Less children on board the ship (and we love children) as they are in school typically.

We went on that cruise the same week last year. I don't like hot weather, so I thought it was perfect. Generally low to mid 60's, needed a light jacket or hoodie in the morning.

You will love it!

Brilliant time to go.

Thank you all for the feedback! I really appreciate it.

spring and fall is the best time to see italy/greece. no crowds.

I have sailed often in this area and the weather is fine, depends what you are used to of course, but very pleasant usually.

Venice can get foggy though so your disembarkation may be delayed - factor this in to return flight times etc.

On Star last October, she didn't dock until 13:30-14:00 yet was supposed to dock at 08:00 or 09:00 - she was held in the bay outside Venice until it was safe to enter.

That's really good to know, Captain-John... thanks for the heads up!

My wife and I are on this cruise,hoping for great weather also. I learned from another post that the day our cruise comes back to Venice October 28th is the day of the Venice Marathon and some roads might be closed and to plan accordingly. We decided to stay over a night and fly out on Monday the 29th just a FYI

Awesome! Another awesome tip, thank you flip8683. I'm looking to book with points and the options out of Venice aren't great... so I was actually thinking we'd train to Milan after the cruise docked, stay there a night, and then fly home from there. Train prices are reasonable -- $20-30 USD and to Milan it's only about 2.5-3hrs via highspeed rail!

I like how you think Todderrific. We are using American Advantage miles flying in on Firiday the 19th and staying at a hotel close to Saint Marco for 2 days. We were able to get a nonstop from Ohare to Venice for 30000 miles each. Coming back we are staying at a Holiday Inn using their cruise package that will pick us up at the port or there abouts, include a breakfast and then shuttle us to the airport on Monday. Since we are already that close we are flying to Madrid staying over a night and then flying thru Philly back to Chicago and be home by 7 pm tuesday. One thing you might already know with frequent flyer miles that you can connect in a different city and then fly out on the same amount of miles as long as it is within 24 hours. So we are flying to Madrid monday arriving by 2:30 pm, going to see Madrid that evening and then fly out the next day at noon back home for 30000 miles each plus taxes.

Nice! Enjoy Madrid! We're coming from NYC. If we do this cruise itinerary, we're planning to connect through Vienna on the way to Venice, and we'll spend a night there.

I lived in Chicago my whole life... just moved east two years ago. It's an awesome city and I miss it a ton! Small world!

Maybe we will meet up on the cruise. I grew up on the Northwest side of Chicago ( Jefferson Park) now we live in Geneva just west of Chicago

I did the Adriatic over Halloween on the star in 2017. The temperature was cool, I live in Russia and found it cool. I would recommend a light jacket. Santorini was shutting down for the season as another poster mentioned. But, that meant that it wasn’t busy. I had a fantastic trip, I might even do it again this year. I also might go on the epic it depends on the school calendar.

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Thanks for all of the awesome feedback! Our itinerary skips Santorini and Mykonos for Olympia and Athens. Based on everything I've heard here and some of the research I've done, I think that's okay.

We just booked today! Can't wait to see it all!

Thanks for all of the awesome feedback! Our itinerary skips Santorini and Mykonos for Olympia and Athens. Based on everything I've heard here and some of the research I've done, I think that's okay.

 

We just booked today! Can't wait to see it all!

We’ve been to Santorini, Mykonos, and Athens and completely disagree. Santorini and Mykonos are 2 of our favorite ports in the whole world, absolutely gorgeous scenery and amazing food! Athens was a bit of a letdown; sure it has the Acropolis, but in general it’s pretty rundown. I’m sure you’ll have fun regardless of what you do, though; just sharing my 2 cents.

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Sounds fantastic. It’s so hot in Italy and Greece in the summer

We went in mid October last year on the same itinerary and found the weather to be perfect. We didn't like the Venice flights either so we flew in to Rome and took the train to and from Venice.