Is a Celebrity cruise a good way to see Europe for the first time?

[TMLAalum]

Book the cruise as the filling in a sandwich. Spend at least a couple of days in your departure and arrival ports.

If your itinerary includes LaSpezia, my recommendation is to forgo any ship tours to the Cinque Terre, Florence or Pisa. Instead, DIY to Porto Venere, which is an exciting public bus ride from the port and provides a taste of the Cinque Terre, without the fighting the hordes of tourists in those small villages. 

IDK if it is still running, but we took a 3 island boat tour from there, had a relaxing lunch and explored. That day was one of the best we've experienced from any of the 6 Celebrity European cruises we've sailed. Porto Venere: Tour around three islands (porto-venere.com)

[Cruise till you drop]

23 hours ago, mfs2k said:

My wife and I are talking about a Mediterranean cruise next June to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  I've been to Europe a few times in my life and my wife never has been there. A 10 night Celebrity Ascent cruise from Barcelona to France and Italy ending in Rome would cost us about $6500 for the cruise (all included fare).  This doesn't include flights from NYC, pre and post stay accomodations, insurance and cost of excursions. I figure the total cost of the vacation would be about $15,000 which is double what we would normally spend on a 7-10 night vacation.

 

I'm wondering if this is a good way to see Mediterranean ports and get a feel for Europe.  We've sailed on Celebrity twice (Equinox Aqua and Beyond SS) and am happy with the Celebrity experience.  I have no idea how much it would cost to travel to Europe.  I imagine we could do it for a lot less and travel on a budget, but that would be an entirely different experience and we wouldnt see nearly as many places. Is one day in each port on a Celebrity Med cruise a good way to experience Europe or is it better to fly to a city and explore on our own? Would we really save a lot of money?

 

 

May I ask if part of your question may have been unanswered?  I thought part of your question was whether Celebrity is a good cruise line to experience Europe (versus other cruise lines)?

 

Reason for asking is that this is my impression for the subject of this thread 

[mfs2k]

16 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

May I ask if part of your question may have been unanswered?  I thought part of your question was whether Celebrity is a good cruise line to experience Europe (versus other cruise lines)?

 

Reason for asking is that this is my impression for the subject of this thread 

I'd welcome your opinion on whether Celebrity is a good cruise line to experience Europe, versus other cruise lines.

[Flatsman]

What TMLAalum said.  Cinque Terre is beautiful, but the cruise ships bring the tours there and it gets crowded on the trails.  If you do Porto Venere, it's fun to explore and the higher you go , the better the views. The real town is on on Via Capellini. Must see sights include Church of San Pietro, the other big church - San Lorenzo, and Castello Doria, where a hike up the terrace  will reward you with a panoramic view.  To eat, try Portivene (Un Mare de Spori); Local dishes with a modern flair. They are closed on Mondays.

Crusing is a "gateway" to find something in which you are interested.  Lots of good advice on this thread.  If you  do stay before and after your cruise, read a lot of guide books, consider hiring a local guide and buy your tickets in advance to the museums and sights, which are of interest to you.

[JeanieC,Aston]

A tip….most ports of call are not the main cities of Europe,are easy to walk around for a taste of local life,food,drink etc.

For the big attractions like Barcelona,Rome,Florence,Athens and Naples etc jump on the HoHo bus to get a real glimpse of the place,,get on and off if you want to visit somewhere like the Trevi Fountain or Acropolis,,,the HoHo in Barcelona is the best in Europe imo.

[rmalbers]

I think the cruise/s that X does to ancient sites/ports is a good way to see them because a lot of them were/are along the coasts.  As far as European cities, a cruise is not really a good fit. 

[drowelf]

We look at cruising this way.

 

Cruising is great way to visit a lot of places for a taste and see if you want to come back for a more extended stay. 

 

For example, we did a Rome->Dover cruise back in 2019, 2 of the ports were Lisbon and Gilbraltar. We got a taste of each and decided to go back. We did Gibraltar for a long day on a cruise and then did 3 days in Lisbon on the post cruise land portion of our adventure. 

 

Sometimes 1 day in the city is enough, other times we decide that there is enough to see in a city that we put it on the list to visit again on a land adventure. 

[Kelownadon]

I don’t think I explained well enough just how wonderful and all encompassing the cruise ship tour was out of La Spezia to Cinque Terre. It started with a bus coach to Porto Venere, which some have mentioned already as a must see, where we had time to wander around and take pictures. Then it was off on an open ferry boat up the coast past all the villages that make up Cinque Terre. Final stop was Monterosso where we had another 2 hours or so to wander and get a drink on the patio overlooking the beach. On the drive back to the cruise ship we were even able to see the leaning tower of Pizza from the highway.  
 

 

[George C]

23 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

I have to disagree with you George. The BEST way to visit Europe for the first time is to backpack around it, sleeping in hostels, while you are single and in your early twenties. 😉

😀

I was stationed in Germany when getting out of the army way back in 1971, getting a European out was somewhat popular you could see Europe then still get a military flight back home , but all I wanted was to get home to New York City. 

[binro01]

Here is my take as someone who visited Europe. A Western Med cruise is tough. The ports you visit have some of the best things you want to see too far inland, causing very long excursion days with 30% of the time on a bus. If you want to to a cruise in Europe, I would look more Eastern Med, Greece and Adriatic coast of Croatia. The ports there are right on the water and you get much more time in the actual culture vs Western med cruises.

 

My wife and I are planning for 2024 Late September to early October a cruise from Athens for 9 nights to do a Greek Island cruise. We will then fly to Paris for a few nights there and then take the train to London for a few nights there, followed by travel up to Scotland for a few nights there before flying back to the US. so for us, 18 days in Europe, but only 3 countries.

[mfs2k]

1 hour ago, Kelownadon said:

I don’t think I explained well enough just how wonderful and all encompassing the cruise ship tour was out of La Spezia to Cinque Terre. It started with a bus coach to Porto Venere, which some have mentioned already as a must see, where we had time to wander around and take pictures. Then it was off on an open ferry boat up the coast past all the villages that make up Cinque Terre. Final stop was Monterosso where we had another 2 hours or so to wander and get a drink on the patio overlooking the beach. On the drive back to the cruise ship we were even able to see the leaning tower of Pizza from the highway.  
 

How much was the excursion? 

 

[Kelownadon]

14 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

How much was the excursion? 

 

I can’t remember as it was back in 2018, but knowing me, it couldn’t have been that expensive as I wouldn’t have done it. I seldom take excursions, especially those offered by the cruise ship company but that one I did as we wanted to make sure we got back to the ship prior to departure. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Kelownadon

[montythecat]

I agree with binro01. I was about to write something similar. If you 

are flying into Rome (essential to stay in the city for at least two

days before the cruise) I would head east, not west. OK, Barcelona

is good, but I reckon there is more history and there are better scenic

coastlines during an eastern Mediterranean cruise. As for Celebrity, if

you are thinking about an Edge Class ship make sure you are happy

with fewer opportunities for views from lounges and bars compared

to other cruise lines or Celebrity’s Millennium and Solstice Class

ships.

[Vagabond Knight]

Think of a European cruise as a wine tasting or beer flight.  With a cruise, you get to try a little taste of a lot of different flavors, and then you can decide which ones you enjoyed enough to purchase as a full glass.

 

If you come away from a port satisfied after having a few hours there and having tasted a bit of the local food and taken some pics to post to social media, then you probably don't need to spend a bunch of time or money traveling there in the future. If you absolutely loved your visit and have to drag yourself back to the ship with a list as long as your arm of stuff you want to do there, then you can feel comfortable committing  to a more extensive land-based vacation to that location in the future.

[drowelf]

1 hour ago, Vagabond Knight said:

Think of a European cruise as a wine tasting or beer flight.  With a cruise, you get to try a little taste of a lot of different flavors, and then you can decide which ones you enjoyed enough to purchase as a full glass.

 

If you come away from a port satisfied after having a few hours there and having tasted a bit of the local food and taken some pics to post to social media, then you probably don't need to spend a bunch of time or money traveling there in the future. If you absolutely loved your visit and have to drag yourself back to the ship with a list as long as your arm of stuff you want to do there, then you can feel comfortable committing  to a more extensive land-based vacation to that location in the future.

Totally agree. I really like that analogy, especially as sometimes you only get a brief glimpse of your port city. For example when we did Lisbon in 2019, we only got a brief 1 hour walking tour down by the Monument of Discovery (Belem) area as we went out in the country side to visit Pena Palace in Sintra and the lovely sea side town of Cascais. We liked what little we saw of Lisbon and that enticed us to go back and spend a few days there, which we just did on our recent 6 day cruise and 13 day DIY land adventure in Spain and Portugal. 

[LizzGo]

Some great advice here. I would just like to underscore what has been said multiple times: It's a sample, not a full meal. It is by far not the best way to see Europe but it is a great way to get a feel for what you may want to visit in the future.  But more importantly, research your ports and see how far the place you want to visit is from your port. Some friends went to Florence from Civitavecchia and it was over two hours by bus one way! They were disappointed but they could have found that out themselves before booking. Another thing about European ports- not so nice. They are shipping ports, many quite old and industrial. La Spezia (Cinque de Terre) is quite nice; as is Cannes. You could spring for a private guide to meet you a port, which would be money well spent. Or the HOHO bus is a great option. All have been very good in our experience.