Magic of the Meditteranian Cruise

[Fozwald]

Has anyone been on this 24 day cruise. We are hoping to do the cruise in 2016 or 2017 and would like to hear of others experiences.

 

Would love to know of any blogs about the cruise.

[syesmar]

I was on a sailing last year and loved it! Also did a 20 day sailing in 2011. Haven't looked at next year's itineraries, but highly recommend these sailings!

 

A few things to note:

It is port-intensive, to say the least! Pace yourself, prioritize, plan.

 

July & August will be hot. That's when we went and would do it again because of our schedule. Wear cool-max or similar clothing, moisture-wicking socks, etc.

 

If you have a choice, I recommend choosing the sailing that goes to Naples, Rome & Livorno toward the end. (You may be jet-lagged at the beginning and these are huge port days).

 

I'm not sure about next year, but noticed this year the Zuiderdam offered 22 day itineraries that mixed intensive ports with island days (Corsica, Sardinia, Elba). I really liked the scheduling because it gives a breather between heavy days.

 

--Again, we loved the sailing! Highly recommend it!

[Randyk47]

Has anyone been on this 24 day cruise. We are hoping to do the cruise in 2016 or 2017 and would like to hear of others experiences.

 

Would love to know of any blogs about the cruise.

 

I can't speak to the specific cruise on Holland America but can say, looking at the itinerary, that the ports visited are amongst our favorites. We've cruised some 60 days +/- in the Med over the past three years and have visited all of the listed ports at least once and a few, like Santorini, three times. It would be hard to say one port is better than the other, suffice to say this 24 day itinerary is a great sampler and certainly hits the majority or many of the highlights of the Med. Speaking only to the itinerary it would be hard to beat for a single cruise.

[DeeniEncinitas]

Did inaugural 2010,2013, on The Nieuw Amsterdam 24 day! Great experience, and enjoyed every minute of it. Stayed in Europe for 2 months after cruises.

Will be doing it again on The Eurodam in Oct. 2016. And again be in Europe after.

Never did any excursions with HAL always do our own. If this is your first time enjoy some excursions. Our food onboard was wonderful, also enjoyed our diners on our balcony from the MDR, or from Tamarind.

Happy sailings!

Denise:)

[Danni3ll3]

We just came back from this cruise. It was amazing!! We did most of our excursions with people from our roll call and made fast friends with them. The three excursions we took with HAL were Livorno, Rome and Naples since they generally were at quite a distance from the port and we wanted to do something other that what our roll call group was doing.

Be sure to attend the roll call meet and greet. If no one sets it up, volunteer to do it. Follow the stickie at the top of the roll call threads.

We attended the Master Chef's Dinner and also had dinner at the Tamarind. Both were amazing.

Bring good walking shoes, a hat and an umbrella. The umbrella is for shade.

One excursion not to miss is Ephesus. Take a private tour and be sure it includes the Terrace Houses.

One more tip we got was to make sure we took Euros with us into Greece because of the situation there. Hopefully next year, this will be a moot point.

If you get on in Venice, be aware that you can't take a land taxi to the port if you stay on the island. We stayed in Mestre right across the train station and a land taxi can take you to the port from there.

You are going to have a fantastic experience.

[iancal]

It is an excellent itinerary. If you possibly can, avoid the summer months and select a mid May/June or a mid Sept/Oct date. Less crowds, not as warm.

 

Do some research and don't be afraid of private tours. There were four of us on a private Ephesus tour. We had a van, driver, and tour guide. They got us to the sites, don't miss the Terrace homes, before the crowds. The guide eliminated the trash and trinket/carpet stops. The total cost of the tour for four of us was less than what we would have paid, combined, for the ships tour.

 

If you can, spend some pre and post cruise time in Europe.

Edited July 20, 2015 by iancal

[Fozwald]

Thank you all for the great feedback.

We are thinking of travelling in June to avoid the bigger crowds ....... When are school holidays in Europe?

[richarduk]

I've never noticed much difference between June/July/Aug and Sep in terms of being busy, maybe with the exception of ports next to beach resorts.

 

Of course most school holidays are Jul and Aug, but you have to consider that in Spain, June is a popular holiday time, plus during August French and Italian cities seem to half empty and people head to the beaches for holidays.

 

As far as which months to cruise the med I would always go between late June at earliest to early-mid Sep. Anything out of those periods and you're morel likely to get some showers and storms, especially as you head past mid Sep.

 

Even during the hottest periods the temperature at sea on your balcony is great. If you enjoy dining on your balcony, or outside on deck, I would definitely suggest mid summer.

 

We've been on a number of summer Med cruises between mid Jul and early Sep and there never seems to be much crowding, and not a huge number of kids on HAL.

Edited July 21, 2015 by richarduk

[boulders]

Germany and UK are mid July to August, France is July and August, Italy is June, July, August. European school holidays

 

 

Our July Magic of the Mediterranean cruise in 2012 had 300 kids.

 

I got heat illness at Delos. Bring plenty of water wherever you go and be aware that it may be difficult to find an ATM while on a ship's tour. The tiny restaurant on Delos wouldn't take anything but cash and I was all out. They did take pity on me and discounted a single drink for the 4 of us for the insufficient change I had left. In Venice, an ATM ate my bank card and the bank it was attached to was closed for lunch. Accck! It all turned out OK in the end, but still.

[take us away]

The sail into Venice is one of the most wonderful things I have ever experienced. What can I say - I still get choked up thinking about this! Strongly recommend you get up early and go up and out of deck.

 

Also recommend the very earliest departure for a private tour to Ephesus (as someone has already said, a private tour is definitely the way to go and there are lots of tour companies available. We had 5 people which was perfect. We had just completed the tour of the terrace houses and were at least 2/3 of the way thru and I turned around to see literally wall to wall hordes of people walking down the main drag as the buses had arrived!

Edited July 21, 2015 by take us away

[Laurino]

Has anyone been on this 24 day cruise. We are hoping to do the cruise in 2016 or 2017 and would like to hear of others experiences.

 

Would love to know of any blogs about the cruise.

 

It's a wonderful cruise. We took it in July 2014. I did a long photo review on this board, check it out here.

[rajkr74]

Has anyone been on this 24 day cruise. We are hoping to do the cruise in 2016 or 2017 and would like to hear of others experiences.

 

Would love to know of any blogs about the cruise.

 

We did the 22 day Adriatic & Med. Dream cruise on 4-14-15 on the Zuiderdam. It is a little different than the Magic of the Med that you are looking at but they both have a number of ports in common. Our weather in April-May was excellent with high 60's and low 70's and NO rain. Very port intensive with only 3 sea days in the 22 days. We really enjoyed this cruise.

 

Here is a link to our pictures from that cruise on Microsoft OneDrive. We did spend 6 days in Rome at the end of the cruise.

 

http://1drv.ms/1MJoMLg

[RMLincoln]

We also stay in Mestre. Along with a lower cost for hotels it's a balance between the advantage of easy-in / easy-out with luggage and the added short ride to Piazzale Roma where the bus drops you and you can get on the vaparettos for your day in Venice or the lagoon island. We love Venice, especially the classical music in the evenings.

 

Heading out to Greece and Turkey on the Mediterranean Empires cruise in September! Happy planning, m--