Favorite Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

[jdkbrim]

My husband and I are hoping to finally go on a Mediterranean Cruise.  I am looking for recommendations on Mediterranean cruise reviews to read (from any cruise line).  We are primarily Carnival cruisers, but have also sailed on Royal Caribbean, MSC, and Costa.  I went to Europe years ago while I studied abroad in college and love the idea of going back without all the overnight train rides and constant switching of overnight accommodations.

 

I would also love to hear recommendations on favorite ports outside of the obvious frequent ones like Rome and Barcelona.  We don’t drink alcohol so are not interested in wine tours.  I especially love seeing unique things (whether museums or places) and participating in unique experiences that I can’t see/do anywhere else.

[Essiesmom]

I would get a copy of Rick Steves’ Mediterranean Cruise Ports.  Read about the ports.  I realize there may be some places you would like to revisit, but not all would be ports…. Make a list of the places you most want to visit.  Then go to www.cruisetimetables.com, choose those ports from the ‘cruise to’ list, and the time of year you want to visit.  It will tell you who calls there, and their itineraries.  You might have to decide on eastern or western Mediterranean, or do more than 7 days to get some of each.  EM

[kwokpot]

6 hours ago, jdkbrim said:

My husband and I are hoping to finally go on a Mediterranean Cruise.  I am looking for recommendations on Mediterranean cruise reviews to read (from any cruise line).  We are primarily Carnival cruisers, but have also sailed on Royal Caribbean, MSC, and Costa.  I went to Europe years ago while I studied abroad in college and love the idea of going back without all the overnight train rides and constant switching of overnight accommodations.

 

I would also love to hear recommendations on favorite ports outside of the obvious frequent ones like Rome and Barcelona.  We don’t drink alcohol so are not interested in wine tours.  I especially love seeing unique things (whether museums or places) and participating in unique experiences that I can’t see/do anywhere else.

Are you going to book the Carnival Pride only, or considering other lines? What month are you looking to cruise? How long? 

[cruizergal70]

If you go to Naples, look to do the "Underground Naples" tour. It was excellent. 

[pc_load_letter]

You will probably go up into the Adriatic. Those are where my favorite ports are.

 

Dubrovnik. Be sure to take the tram to the top where the famous battle was fought.

 

Zadar. Beautiful old city with lots of Roman influences. Dive into the sea while you're there! 

 

[Host Carolyn]

I suggest you go to the Ports of Call section on the message boards and look at the individual country sections . Lots of good posts here with pros and cons on the ports, tours, etc

[cruisemom42]

If you like getting info from reviews, just pick a line/ship and start reading. Doesn't take long to skim through them. Just be forewarned that a lot of folks use those as a forum to complain about what are actually fairly small glitches or minor upsets.

 

There are two schools of thought on picking a ship/line for a Med cruise. The first camp (which I'm in) holds that the itinerary is generally more important than the ship itself as these cruises often have packed itineraries with few sea days.  Much like the Caribbean, cruises in the Med tend to focus on a particular geography rather than hopping around the entire Med basin.  You'll find Western Med (Spain, France, Italy), Eastern Med (Italy, Greece, possibly Turkey), Adriatic (Eastern Italy and Croatia plus possibly Kotor or Koper), Greek Isles, and so on. Occasionally a few cruises will dip into the southern Med and visit Egypt, Cyprus, Israel. Those tend to be relatively pricey due to the rarity of the itinerary.

 

The other camp would say the ship is as important if not more so. Not sure I see that, but it's a good idea to pick a line you think you'll like. If you've been happy with previous experiences on Carnival, Royal, etc. then why not consider them?  I would only caution you to check itineraries carefully on MSC and Costa as they cater primarily to Europeans in the Med and their port stops tend to be shorter than other lines'. 

 

As you research, feel free to ask specific questions on the ports of call boards here as well as the cruise line forums.

[Mary229]

I am not an avid fan of Rick Steves but he did this YouTube video of his cruise.  I found it informative especially as he recommends when to do the cruise line shore excursion, when to hire a guide and when to go independently 

 

 

[wowzz]

Just remember that Rick Steves is followed by so many Americans,  that the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself, has been lost.

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by wowzz

[pris993]

My DH has family in Europe and the MIddle East, so we did about 15 Mediterranean cruises over the years.  Never did one that I did not like.  We usually explored ports on our own, easy to do in the Mediterranean.  We booked our first one in the l980s, from Venice to London.  At the time expensive for us but we loved it so much we just kept going back. My advice is pick an itinerary of interest, research the ports and just go, you will not regret it.  

[cruisemom42]

18 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just remember that Rick Steves is followed by so many Americans,  that the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself, has been lost.

 

 

And this is something new?

 

Decades of Victorian and Edwardian travelers (and not just from the US) went round Europe (and other places) in lock-step with their Baedeker's and Murray's clasped firmly in hand.  (As parodied by E.M. Forster in A Room with a View when the author has Lucy Honeychurch on an adventure "in Santa Croce with no Baedeker.")

 

One can poo-poo the use of such guides, but in a sense they deliver a sense of security to others not used to taking off on their own. Eventually, once one builds confidence, they can be abandoned or only consulted occasionally.

 

 

 

[Mary229]

18 hours ago, wowzz said:

Just remember that Rick Steves is followed by so many Americans,  that the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself, has been lost.

 

I don’t think Americans are any more or less adventurous than anyone else.   I assume this traveler, our OP, is not a frequent traveler and this may be the only Med cruise for a while. I think Rick’s video is a good overview for someone who is trying to maximize a single time holiday.   As I said I am not a big fan of Rick but this is a good overview video

[shipgeeks]

What I found helpful in his guide was the distance from port to a number of attractions, whether one could walk there, etc.  Just the basic nitty-gritty; a good start.

 

[ldubs]

On 8/21/2022 at 3:34 PM, wowzz said:

Just remember that Rick Steves is followed by so many Americans,  that the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself, has been lost.

 

 

". . the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself"

 

I might be missing what this means.  Does anyone do this?   I'm in agreement with Cruisemom42 on this one.     

 

Be it Rick Steves, CruiseCritic, or someone/something else, having some guidance is an important tool, I think.  Maybe even more so for port calls that are only  hours long.   There isn't enough time to do a lot of discovering on our own.  

[Essiesmom]

58 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

". . the essence of exploring and discovering by yourself"

 

I might be missing what this means.  Does anyone do this?   I'm in agreement with Cruisemom42 on this one.     

 

Be it Rick Steves, CruiseCritic, or someone/something else, having some guidance is an important tool, I think.  Maybe even more so for port calls that are only  hours long.   There isn't enough time to do a lot of discovering on our own.  

And Rick Steves tells you how much you can do in the time you have.  And isn’t that the point?  Telling you what there is to do in the time available, without using a ship excursion.  Not everyone using his books is going to do the same thing.  EM

[ldubs]

6 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

And Rick Steves tells you how much you can do in the time you have.  And isn’t that the point?  Telling you what there is to do in the time available, without using a ship excursion.  Not everyone using his books is going to do the same thing.  EM

 

To me it is.  In fact, this thread has lead me to download his Northern Europe cruise port guide.  

[sleepingcat]

On 8/20/2022 at 1:56 PM, jdkbrim said:

My husband and I are hoping to finally go on a Mediterranean Cruise.  I am looking for recommendations on Mediterranean cruise reviews to read (from any cruise line).  We are primarily Carnival cruisers, but have also sailed on Royal Caribbean, MSC, and Costa.  I went to Europe years ago while I studied abroad in college and love the idea of going back without all the overnight train rides and constant switching of overnight accommodations.

Hi, a bit of input from the UK, where we brits are lucky enough to be a lot closer to the Med.  the great joy of most European cruise ports is that ships dock really close to the centre of the town/city, so just walking off the ship and wandering is a great thing to do.  And Europe is mostly pretty safe. (watch your handbag in Barcelona, though). 

 

I was surprised that no one commented on thinking about where you will fly in to and how good the connection is to the port.  Rome and Barca are the obvious ones.  But if you want to relive your rail travel on Europe's now wonderful high speed network, fly into Paris and travel on from there . (my sister and her family have just been to Italy for 3 weeks by train from the UK, they totally loved it and avoided all the airport horror of this summer). 

 

and who would you like as fellow passengers? the lines you mention will be a nice mix of Europeans and Americans I think. for a completely different experience, sail from Southampton (fly in to LHR), maybe on a British ship and get that old fashioned cruise experience.  it ll take longer, but you ll get some lovely ports including Lisbon which I think is the best sail in in the world, and a fabulous city with lots to see and do. (and a smaller ship can get in to dock at lesser visited ports, too)

 

I think there should be plenty of port reviews to check.   have a look at some of the less visited ports, eg Cartagena (wonderful roman remains), Almeria, Malta is gorgeous, La Palma de Mallorca, Amalfi. We didn't like Gibraltar, but going up the Rock is a must for naval and military history enthusiasts.  as you can tell , we love travel and I could go on and on. whatever you do I am sure it will be  a great trip.  

[wcook]

On 8/20/2022 at 8:56 AM, jdkbrim said:

while I studied abroad in college

What was her name 🙂 

 

Anyway… unpopular opinion: Western Med cruises on a mainstream lines are pretty similar. You really can’t go wrong. Enjoy. Two specific suggestions:

 

1. MSC will have a much larger percentage of Europeans. Zero problems as everything is also in English, but it feels a bit foreign to Americans. Depending upon your personal preferences, that’s either good or bad. 
 

2. As for a not-Rome/Barcelona port - Genoa. Good for walking around, tons of museums and sights, and best of all, it’s right there when you get off the boat.