Spain vs Greece

[cathy cruisin]

Trying to decide between cruise with ports of calls: Barcelona, Mallorca, Malta, Palermo, Tunis on a Costa Cruise vs Turkey, Corfu, Mykonos, Satorini, Dubrovnik MSC cruise ------ anyone with experience, please advise. Is Costa better than MSC both ships similiar....just can't decide

[betonic]

I have no experience with either MSC or Costa but based on itinerary I would go to Greece in a heartbeat. I love Santorini and any cruise that stops there makes it for me!

 

Good luck with whichever cruise you decide on.

[tom_uk]

I've been on an MSC ship (Sinfonia, 2005) and we really enjoyed it. Mind you, it was our first cruise. I posted a review here:-

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/yourfav/yfc_md_sinfonia.asp

 

No experience of Costa.

 

There are considerable differences between eastern & western med cruises, especially the 7 day cruises that MSC & Costa mainly do. The western med will mainly be major cities: Barcelona, Palma, Palermo, whereas the eastern Med ports are mainly much smaller: Mykonos, Santorini, Dubrovnik - very different types of destination.

 

The other thing to check is the arrival times & length of stay for the eastern med cruises. Those that start at Venice seem to be pushing it a bit to get to Santorini, and some stays can be short. Does the cruise you're looking at call at both Mykonos & Santorini in the same day?, for example That would be a real rush, with just a few hours at each. And how long at places such as Dubrovnik?

 

My personal view is that I think that these companies' Western Med cruises are rather better in terms of port stays, even though the actual ports themselves may not as alluring. But if you want to cruise to, say, Mykonos and Santorini (and they are stunning places) then you might be better doing so on a longer cruise - e.g. Celebrity & Princess do 10, 11 & 12 night cruises - that allow much longer stays at these destinations. For the 7-night cruise with MSC, Costa, Royal Caribbean, NCL, etc, there's actually a lot to be said for the Western Med.

[rebeccalouise]

i have only sailed Costa in the Caribbean. The ship was the Victoria and it was ultra modern- crowded- smokey and the cabins were tiny. We had a good time mind you but it wasn't atmospheric for me. I didn't like the decor. Maybe minor to some but I like understated elegance and it was lacking on Costa.

 

So I would do the MSC- simply because my mother just did MSC (one of the smaller ships in the line) and loved it.