Europe - any thoughts

[heidikay]

We are thinking of a Europe 2012 cruise with my kids ages in 2012 (16, 12, and 9) Not sure what we should do. My kids have never been to Europe. Should we take a short week cruise and sightsee on land for another week or do almost all of it by ship? Should we do northern or mediterranean? I just don't know where to start. Any thoughts???

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Heidi

[cb at sea]

If it's Europe you wish to see, do a land-based vacation....it takes more than 8-10 hours per place to fully experience Europe or the Med! A cruise with a land-based would be ideal!

[chipmaster]

Two years ago we did a 10 port/12 day cruise kids similar age, 8, 12, 14. IMHO what you choose is a complicated question about how many countries, how much time and what you want to share with them.

 

Land base is nice and leisurely, but I can't imagine them being so interested in say one week in Italy with 3 days Rome, 2 days Florence, 2 days Naples for example. We figured the cruise was best, get in see 10 wonderful place in 12 days. Yeah in each port you only get a whirlwind sampler, but in someways perfect. Most kids can't appreciate a bunch of museums, churches and a cruise whirlwind offers enough variety and not long enough that there is variety. Yeah you can't do a comprehensive but again for kids they only need a sampler. They and we can comeback another time, YMMV

 

 

We are thinking of a Europe 2012 cruise with my kids ages in 2012 (16, 12, and 9) Not sure what we should do. My kids have never been to Europe. Should we take a short week cruise and sightsee on land for another week or do almost all of it by ship? Should we do northern or mediterranean? I just don't know where to start. Any thoughts???

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Heidi

[Keith1010]

We are thinking of a Europe 2012 cruise with my kids ages in 2012 (16, 12, and 9) Not sure what we should do. My kids have never been to Europe. Should we take a short week cruise and sightsee on land for another week or do almost all of it by ship? Should we do northern or mediterranean? I just don't know where to start. Any thoughts???

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Heidi

 

I highly recommend a cruise over a land vacation for your family.

 

We took our kids on a Mediterranean cruise when they were 16 and 12 respectively.

 

It worked perfect.

 

We chose excursions carefully so that we didn't make it too intense for the children while at the same time finding excursions that would work well for everyone. We made sure we paced ourselves and struck balance.

 

The ship provided a nice balance for everyone (both adults and kids). The children had a great time on the ship but at the same time had a great time in port. I really think this is because we balanced everything.

 

At one port,we left our son on the ship and the three of us went on an excursion.

 

I would recommend a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. Seven days is just too short for that type of cruise.

 

I also recommend flying in around three days prior to the cruise so pick a port of embarkation that would allow you to see plenty over the three days. Rome is a great example and would be wonderful for both parents and kids.

 

The advantage of arriving early is several fold including if you should have any delays with the flights you will not miss your cruise, it provides a nice opportunity to see a lot of one particular area before you board the cruise and finally and most important it allows everyone to get over the jet lag and be fully rested to begin the cruise.

 

Finally, the advantage of the cruise is you will cover a lot more places than a land vacation. True, you don't get depth of anyone place except where you embark but to me it's important to expose the family to a lot of places the first time you visit

 

Keith

[rebeccalouiseagain]

The one thing I would recommend is sailing out of either Barcelona or Venice. The airports are not far from the cruise terminal. My first pick would be Venice. There is a bus when you get off the plane straight to Piazzle Roma. The hotel I would recommend is the Ca Doge right in Piazzle Roma. The kids would love Venice and from Venice you can take trains to Florence, Rome and Milan very easily.

 

The itinerary I would recommend is Venice- Istanbul on Holland America. Just fabulous. This is the one cruise I would like to do again (I've done Barcelona-Venice on Celebrity Millenium The British Isles on Grand Princess and Norway on Celebrity Equinox).

 

Sailing in and out of Venice is surreal and a wonderful experience.

[epixx]

I'll tell you our experience, but I think your decision depends on your kids.

 

We have taken our kids to Europe 5 times since they were 9 and 5 (now 16 and 12), including one land only one week trip and 4 12 day cruises (3 Med and one Northern Europe).

 

We had much better experiences on the cruises than on the land only trip. Our kids really preferred to return to the ship at the end of the day and be assured of lots of food that they liked, a swimming pool, plenty of fun activities at night, and peers to socialize with. On the land only trip, we had much more trouble at the end of the day with food and entertainment, and the kids got tired of just hanging out with each other and their parents.

 

I agree with spending a couple of days at the departure city before and/or after the cruise. Our favorite cruise with the kids was the Northern Europe trip. It was really easy and quick to get to almost all of the ports, the weather was much more conducive to touring (summer), and there was tremendous variety in the port stops. Of the Med cruises, we did two round trip Rome (Civitavecchia) trips and a one way from Venice to Barcelona. I recommend the one way, as you can spend time in different cities before/after the cruise.

 

Have a great vacation.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I should have mentioned that the Venice- Istanbul sails in an out of Venice and the nice thing about this cruise was that you have an overnight in Venice and an overnight in Istanbul. So if you do this itinerary you don't even have to use a hotel at all. I agree with the previous poster that Northern Europe and the British Isles are great trips in summer. I enjoyed all of the cruises but the Holland America one I mentioned was the easiest for me. Also, standard cabins on Holland are larger than others in the industry.

[heidikay]

Thank you for all the advice. I would never have looked at Holland America (one line I have never cruised) but will look at that Venice, Istanbul cruise. That sounds wonderful. Though I have to admit I am leaning toward Northern Europe. Never even thought of the weather factor. I have been to Italy but never in the summer so I was never affected by heat.

 

Yes we would for sure consider sightseeing before the cruise and maybe after as well. Thanks for all the encouragement.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

My favorite cruise line is Celebrity but Holland and Princess seem to have better itineraries. Just a plug for Holland- the ships are small and intimate. There is an area on Holland called the Oasis for teens, which is a private area for kids ages 13-17- complete with hammocks. I spoke with an 18 year old on one of my Celebrity cruises and she had sailed on Holland and really liked it better for this reason.

 

Holland has self-serve laundry and after a day of touring we loved having dinner poolside from the buffet- which serves the same food at night as what is being served in the main diningroom.

 

I loved the library at the front of the ship. This was a great place to relax with coffee and take in the scenery.

 

All and all I thought Holland did a great job with multi-generational families and there were plenty of teens onboard.

 

Another great perk was the dessert buffet by the pool. It was exceptional.

[brazilgirl]

We have done the Northern Europe and the Western Med cruises with our kids....we loved both of them.

 

Some considerations:

 

We did the Med cruise in May , thus avoiding the heat and crowds. Our kids were a bit younger and they missed a chunk of school (approved and supported by teachers , they did special assignments about the trip). The ports are farther away than in Northern Europe ...we ended up booking private tours which were costly but well worth it.

 

The highlights were Venice , Livorno ( we visited Lucca and Pisa , amazing!)and Santorini. I´d say we really enjoyed all the ports (Barcelona, Villefranche, Livorno , Rome , Naples , Dubrovnik , Athens , Santorini and Venice). A good overview of Europe , very active and varied. Lots of famous sites , whcih is interesting for the kids (i.e the Coleseum , Leaning Tower , gondolas , Acropolis).

 

 

We did the Northern Europe itinerary in July-we mixed it with a land trip , which was great. We flew to Paris , spent 5 days there , got the Eurostar to London , embarked in Harwich the off on our cruise....we visited Warnemunde , Amsterdam , Stockholm , Helsinki , St. Petersburg (2 days) , Tallin and Copenhagen ( 2 days). The weather was nice , the ports were easy to navigate on your own ( no long trips ) and no huge crowds. We did opt for a private tour for our family in St. Petesburg (highly recommended).

 

 

We saw lots of beautiful castles , gorgeous scenery , the kids loved Tivoli....less "famous" stuff , but soooooo nice. We rented a car in Copenhagen , which was fantastic and explored the countryside. Post cruise , we spent 3 days in London ...the kids loved London and Paris , well worth doing the pre/post cruise jaunts.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Kim

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I must say that once you are in Europe the temptation is to see and do everything. The great thing about cruise is that you have the American electrical plugs in the room, there are plenty of English channels on the tv, unlimited entertainment for the kids, consistently good food, etc. etc.

 

Now I have also enjoyed land travel but it is more expensive and the kids are bored after dinner. We watched the King of Queens in German in Salzburg. Fortuneately we've seen all the episodes.

 

Little things that you take for granted like having a doctor onboard- with reasonable rates. The kids have a sense of freedom that they don't have on land.

 

Unless you have an unlimited budget- cruising is just cheaper. I spent $ 3000 on land for 6 days with two people. I spent $ 3000 for the cruise for 12 nights- saw more, ate better and my son enjoyed it more. Plus- they do rip you off on land- overpriced taxis, overpriced meals, exchange rate sucks. I will say that I felt safest in Northern Europe because their aren't gypsies but I loved Venice- Istanbul and wish I could do that again. Just a great cruise experience.

[6rugrats]

Holland has self-serve laundry and after a day of touring we loved having dinner poolside from the buffet- which serves the same food at night as what is being served in the main diningroom.

 

Not all HAL ships have passenger laundry facilities. I think HAL is a great choice though.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for all the advice. I would never have looked at Holland America (one line I have never cruised) but will look at that Venice, Istanbul cruise. That sounds wonderful. Though I have to admit I am leaning toward Northern Europe. Never even thought of the weather factor. I have been to Italy but never in the summer so I was never affected by heat.

 

Yes we would for sure consider sightseeing before the cruise and maybe after as well. Thanks for all the encouragement.

 

Let me give you another suggestion.

 

Before you finalize what port to begin and end the cruise carefully research flights. While it is true that Venice is located closer to the Cruise Ship terminal than Rome it is much easier to fly to Rome than it is to Venice. Don't misunderstand me I am not saying that Venice is a bad choice but I am just noting it is harder to fly to. Also, carefully research what you would visit in each city and look at hotel and other costs. Venice is very expensive. Again, it's a beautiful city but I just think it's important to not lock yourself into one place.

 

If this was me what I would do is keep an open mind and look at all of the cruise lines and itineraries and then carefully narrow them down.

 

One more piece of advice look closely at which ships are sailing in Europe as you narrow all of this down along with the children's programs.

 

All of the advice I am giving you is what we did when we planned our first Europe cruise with the children and it really made for a wonderful cruise.

 

Keith

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I did the Barcelona- Venice itinerary and here are my thoughts... Italy is best done on land. Florence is not a day trip. Rome is not a day trip. You need time to spend here. There is just too much to do for the short period of time you are in the port. Lake Como is beautiful but not a cruise port. There are lovely places in Northern Italy like Merano/ Muran outside of Bolzano/ Bozen that are not accessible via cruise. So if Italy is your destination, cruising really isn't the best way to see it.

 

Greece- Turkey was scenic and there is not way you could cover the ports of call by land- so this is a great cruise. The British Isles cruise was wonderful- there were so many sites easily accessible from the ship, with the advantage of being able to speak the language. Norway is spectacular from the ship. I can't stress enough how magical it is to sail in and out of Venice and IMO cruising is all about what you can see from the ship. Sailing during the day and going through the Dardenelles and into Istanbul is just magnificent. On the typical Med. Barcelona- Venice route you wake up in each port and most of the ports (except for Venice) are pretty ugly.

[junglejane]

Lots of good advice here. I'll just chime in with a few comments. I second the recommendation for a combination land/cruise trip. We're going to fly to Rome for 5-1/2 days before our 11-day cruise on the Celebrity Equinox in June. It's so expensive and such an effort to get there, that we always want to stay long enough to make it worthwhile.

 

One itinerary that hasn't been mentioned is the British Isles. We did that on Princess in the summer of 2009 and it was great fun. We spent a week in London before the 12 day cruise. Lots of fun stuff to do -- especially castles, castles, castles. Plus it was nice to be able to read/speak the language. The weather was cool and mostly pleasant with just a little rain, as opposed to the Med where we expect it to be hot and humid this June.

[chipmaster]

FWIW for us we did an open jaw flight and cruise with Princess. I'm sure everyone has their unique favorite line up of ports. I found the Princee Grand Med line of ports hard to beat.

 

Started in Venice with an extra day for exploration, ended with an extra day in Barcelona. Inbetween we had Athens, Kusadasi, Istanbul, Mykonos, Naples ( Amalfi/Pompeii ), Civitavecchia ( rome ), Livorno ( Florence/Pisa ) and Marseilles.

 

Good luck with your planning

[rebeccalouiseagain]

All of the itineraries mentioned are good ones. I think the parents need to decide which places they most want to see and not worry about the kids choices. The kids will love any cruise.

 

I like the small size of Holland and I have to say that while there were activities for the kids- the youth program didn't overshadow the ports of call. My son wanted to go with me on excursions but he didn't ever want to leave the Celebrity Fun Factory. My parents never saw him almost the entire cruise and they were a bit disappointed that I didn't make him do the tours (he was 6 at the time).

 

On Holland he ran into kids from the youth program while on the excursions and this was fun for him as well.

 

I did the Grand Princess British Isle cruise with him in 2008 right after the Holland America cruise and he liked both cruises equally. He liked the hot tubs on Princess and the top floor sky bar. He liked that kids program a bit better than Holland. On Holland we really enjoyed the individual attention that we got- the great food and the library/coffee bar. It was very intimate and lovely. So thumbs up to both of these vessels.

[onthelake]

Doesn't anyone in the family have a 'must see' city? We have done land trips and cruises in both the Med and northern Europe. We appreciate unpacking one time and being somewhere new each day, although the overnights some itineraries offer in cities like Venice and Istanbul are wonderful. I have to agree, with families, it is nice to have a place to go back to at night where everyone knows they will have a meal they enjoy, entertainment that suites them and a swimming pool or other leisure activity to unwind.

 

For me, Venice is unforgettable. For DS, it is London or Paris. DH is all about Italy. Northern European cruises are great because most of the ports are near the city centers and you can easily walk around. Have each family member propose a city or country they would like to visit and work from there. Choose the cruise that goes to the ports you want, don't worry too much about the cruise line, any one you choose will be fine.

 

As for airfare, we are looking at that right now too. Choose the best airfare you can find from your part of the country to Europe and then you can use a low-cost European carrier to get to your embarkation port. A couple of years ago, we flew RT Paris, spent about a week there then flew a low-cost carrier to Barcelona to meet the ship for only 32 Euro each. We disembarked in Athens and flew back to Paris for about 40 Euro each. Good luck and bon voyage!

[Keith1010]

Doesn't anyone in the family have a 'must see' city? We have done land trips and cruises in both the Med and northern Europe. We appreciate unpacking one time and being somewhere new each day, although the overnights some itineraries offer in cities like Venice and Istanbul are wonderful. I have to agree, with families, it is nice to have a place to go back to at night where everyone knows they will have a meal they enjoy, entertainment that suites them and a swimming pool or other leisure activity to unwind.

 

For me, Venice is unforgettable. For DS, it is London or Paris. DH is all about Italy. Northern European cruises are great because most of the ports are near the city centers and you can easily walk around. Have each family member propose a city or country they would like to visit and work from there. Choose the cruise that goes to the ports you want, don't worry too much about the cruise line, any one you choose will be fine.

 

As for airfare, we are looking at that right now too. Choose the best airfare you can find from your part of the country to Europe and then you can use a low-cost European carrier to get to your embarkation port. A couple of years ago, we flew RT Paris, spent about a week there then flew a low-cost carrier to Barcelona to meet the ship for only 32 Euro each. We disembarked in Athens and flew back to Paris for about 40 Euro each. Good luck and bon voyage!

 

If you plan to go directly to the port of embarkation for a pre cruise stay I would look hard at finding a flight that either gets you with the primary carrier or one where the airline has an arrangement with the other carrier so you can check your bags all the way through. Also sometimes those low cost airlines have hidden costs charging a good deal for luggage and limiting what you can even carry on the plane.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Ryan Air for example has baggage weight in very fine print. My bag was over and i was forced to pay 200 Euros for my suitcases on top of the fee I already paid in advance for two checked bags! On the return flight- I put all the heavy stuff in our carryons (they don't weigh them) and all the light stuff in the baggage. This worked.

[Onessa]

We've done land trips and cruises with our DD in Europe. DD is now 15 and we've done a Med cruise each of the past four Novembers (over US Thanksgiving vacation)

 

We generally fly in two to three days before the cruise so we can spend some time in the port city. We have done primarly 7-11 day cruises. We have cruised out of Venice, Barcelona, Rome and Athens.

 

DD perfers the cruises to land-based due to the social opportunities that cruises offer. She always seems to find a few girls her age to "hang" with -- and has remained friends with several of them.

 

She enjoys art so art museums are always popular with her. The outdoor history sites are great -- she really liked Rome, Pompeii, Ephasis and Athens. Being a typical girl, she also likes shopping -- Venice and Barcelona were big hits.