Mediterranean/transatlantic back to back questions

[spearmint]

We are thinking of taking Summit's Mediterranean cruise from Venice to Barcelona during the last half of November 2009, followed immediately in early December by Summit's transatlantic cruise to San Juan.

1. Has anyone done this? Is 28 days too long to be aboard?

2. What is the weather normally like in the Med at this time of year? I assume it is not cold, but really know little about it.

3. Did you mind the Atlantic crossing? Is it normally rough on the southern route?

 

Any advice/comments will be appreciated.

Bill

[Denny01]

We signed up for a similar B2B - we are on the Solstice E. Med 20 Nov 09 and TA from Rome to Ft Lauderdale on 30 Nov 09.

 

We've done a TA before and felt like we'd just got settled in and enjoyng the cruise when we reached the end in Dover. We met friends who were going on the follwing Baltic cruise out of Dover and we were very jealous, a friendly jealousy.

 

Well, we are going to be the one's who stay aboard looking forward to enjoying the ship even more. There is enough variety that you shouldn't have any problems being on the same ship for 3+weeks. The dining is varied enough, the different entertainment venues allow more exploring, and you'll really get into a schedule that you can truly enjoy.

 

I'm still working and our 10+13 days +travel to/from will be well worth the time I have to take off. I suggest you go the Summit Roll Call for the Med and TA cruise and start reading and posting some. For the TA and your Med cruise, there will be many posters who will be doing the B2B on your ship and you'll get some good info.

 

As for weather, it will be cooler and may get a bit more rain, but it will also by much less crowded in the ports. You'll have all the nice museums, shopping areas, tourist sites to yourselves. It won't be as hot as the Med cities can be in the middle of Summer, and Nov shouldn't get cold, just cool. There are weather sites that give you the ave temps for your ports for the time you are there.

 

As for the crossing, you'll be crossing the S. Atlantic which is usually 'calmer' than the N Atlantic. I've crossed on a cruise ship in early Spring, and on Navy ships many times. Had a bad crossing in Feb in N Atlantic, but pretty smooth in S Atantic. Obviously, it can get rough depending on local weather systems, but early Dec is usually pretty calm. Our TA cruise was like glass, but it can differ for each crossing. As with any wx discussions, it's all a generality.

 

Denny

[Karynanne]

We took a B2B on Mercury this past Feb. for 29 days. Australia/New Zealand, So. Pacific, and Hawaii. It was wonderful, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! You settle in and enjoy the ports, and enjoy the ship.

[spearmint]

Thanks, Denny01 and Karynanne. Denny, I will post on the ports of call boards, too, and check out the roll call. Good advice. :)Bill

[Druke I]

I for one don't think 28 nights is too long aboard.

 

I love both trans-Atlantics and trans-Pacifics.

 

Weather and sea state is always a gamble. I've had smooth crossings, and

a couple of pretty rough ones as well.

[hajekfam]

We are thinking of taking Summit's Mediterranean cruise from Venice to Barcelona during the last half of November 2009, followed immediately in early December by Summit's transatlantic cruise to San Juan.

1. Has anyone done this? Is 28 days too long to be aboard?

2. What is the weather normally like in the Med at this time of year? I assume it is not cold, but really know little about it.

3. Did you mind the Atlantic crossing? Is it normally rough on the southern route?

 

Any advice/comments will be appreciated.

Bill

 

We did nearly the same route this past Nov/Dec on the Millennium boarding in Venice, except that we ended in Ft Lauderdale. With travel time, a precruise stay in Venice, and a post cruise stay in Florida, we were gone for over a month.

1. 28 days on board was perfect - the Med cruise was so port intensive that you really didn't feel like you were on a ship. It was go-go-go. The real cruise part was the transatlantic - it gave you a perfect chance to rest up from the hectic pace of the Med.

 

2. When we arrived in Venice - it was cold. It actually was colder than the temp in Chicago the day we left to fly over. I was so glad that I grabbed a sweater as I was walking out of the house in my spring jacket to go to the airport. It came in handy under my jacket in Venice. I was a little sorry that I didn't grab my gloves - my hands did get cold walking around Venice at night. I don't know if it was colder than normal in Italy or if it was the normal temp. We were in Venice 2 days before we boarded the ship and then the ship overnighted in Venice. In fact, we had booked an evening gondola ride from the ship (according to what I had researched the gondolas do not normally do evening rides in Nov) and it ended up being canceled due to the weather (cold and rainy - in fact it felt like some of the rain was a little sleet or snow). As we went south toward Turkey the weather got warmer, but as we headed toward Florence, it got cooler again - not cold like Venice. Once we left Barcelona, the weather got warmer as we went further south toward Ft Lauderdale. I would advise wearing long pants (don't have to worry about getting into churches with their dress codes that way) and dressing in layers so that as the day warms up you can take off a layer as needed.

 

3. The transatlantic leg was our 4th transatlantic crossing on Millennium - Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale. We had previously done one in Sept 2001, Oct 2003, Nov 2005. I have to say that this Dec 2007 transatlantic was the warmest one of all. All of our transatlantics were calm and we had wonderful weather on all. But weather is luck of the draw (or rather date). On one of our transatlantics the Connie was crossing within a day of us and they had bad rainy weather, where we had wonderful weather with rain only two nights (both of which had a party planned poolside).

 

Comments: Being gone for that length of time, we did bring the laptop. Even though we brought a lot of SD cards for the camera, hubby downloaded the pictures every day or couple of days and labeled them while the info was still fresh. Also, we had to take care of bills while we were gone for over a month, transfer funds between accounts, and even just check up on family (let the grandkids see a pic of Nana & Papa riding on a camel for example). We also had to book our rental car for our post cruise stay in FL (before we left, the hot deals weren't out for the dates we needed yet). We found that the processing speed on our laptop was faster than the ship's computer. Using the ship's wifi and our laptop, I was able to search out car rate and fill out our info for rental in less time than it took to just access the rental site on the ship's computer in the internet cafe (we had to print out the rental agreement so we had to use the ships computer for that once the car was rented).

Hope this answered your questions - If you have any other questions, ask away!

[Denny01]

hajakfam

 

Greatly appreciate your info. It helps those of us who have already taken TA's. Thanks a million.

 

I resist taking my computer. Tired of lugging around a tegular laptop that takes up a lot of room and since I use it for business and home, I'd kill me to loose it.

 

After reading another thread from a blue ribbon poster, I bought a small mini-computer mainly for cruising/traveling to get on the internet, and download photos onto a memory stick. Sounds like I'll use it for sure on the TA. This one is perfect.It's 7in and 2lbs.

 

Again, thanks - we can tell you are not only a seasoned cruiser, but also an excellent poster, even without seeing the 4000+ posts!

 

Denny

[hajekfam]

Thsnks Denny!

We fell in love with cruising back in 1992 and really expected to do more of it now that we retired (our 28 day back to back last year was our retirement gift to each other). However, higher fuel prices and lower stock prices are cutting into our retirement funds so it seems like cruising will be a once a year thing for us in retirement also.

[tally10]

We have 4 transatlantics under our belt and like every poster has said, weather and seas are the luck of the draw. This past April on our crossing from Ft. Lauderdale to Amsterdam, we had 20+ ft seas. The Jewel of the Seas handled the seas fine. I had the "patch" on and had no problems. It was also cold. This past December, we cruised from Barcelona to Miami and the seas were 6 ft. or less and it was WARM. The pools were packed. You just can't tell. Transatlantics are great cruises and are usually a good value. Looking forward to the Equinox transatlantic in Nov. of 2009! A B2B would be wonderful experience and so many memories to be made.

[Texed]

We took a B2B on Mercury this past Feb. for 29 days. Australia/New Zealand, So. Pacific, and Hawaii. It was wonderful, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

 

Go ahead Karyn, rub it in. :cool: