Best Cruise Line for the Mediterranean

[lottapud1]

Hi...we just finished cruising to Alaska on the Celebrity Infinity and are planning a cruise next July through the Mediterranean. I was wondering what everyone thought would be the best cruise line to do this at a reasonable cost as I know there are cruiselines with "suites" only...so something more affordable than this, but still great. Also the group varies in age from the mid thirties to early 50's....thanks for any information. We want to make sure our vacation next year is even better than this one....

[cruiserking]

Hi...we just finished cruising to Alaska on the Celebrity Infinity and are planning a cruise next July through the Mediterranean. I was wondering what everyone thought would be the best cruise line to do this at a reasonable cost as I know there are cruiselines with "suites" only...so something more affordable than this, but still great. Also the group varies in age from the mid thirties to early 50's....thanks for any information. We want to make sure our vacation next year is even better than this one....

 

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic Matt.

 

If you enjoyed your cruise on Celebrity you might consider one of their itineraries for the Med. Some other similar lines you should look at are Cunard and Holland America Line. We've sailed HAL in the Med aboard the Noordam and adored it. There are some very good balcony cabin rates for HAL in the Med.

 

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria are elegant formal ships. There are several routes from Southampton to the Med. The voyages will tend to be slightly pricier than HAL and Celebrity.

 

It comes down to where exactly you want to cruise in the Med and what time of year.

 

Have fun planning.

 

Jonathan

[chipmaster]

Hi...we just finished cruising to Alaska on the Celebrity Infinity and are planning a cruise next July through the Mediterranean. I was wondering what everyone thought would be the best cruise line to do this at a reasonable cost as I know there are cruiselines with "suites" only...so something more affordable than this, but still great. Also the group varies in age from the mid thirties to early 50's....thanks for any information. We want to make sure our vacation next year is even better than this one....

 

What is best depends on what your priorities are.

 

For the Med its such a port intensive set of ports, think Rome, Florence, Athens, Cairo, etc. etc. If you take full advantage of your day in port you'll hopefully be off at dawn and back just one hour before sailing. Thus 80% o f your waking hours will likely be in port and hopefully 90% of your memories :D

 

For us the cruise line was of secondary importance and the ports we could get in our time window was priority. We ended up choosing our cruise for the ports, luckily Princess had it for us.

 

I'd suggest you make a list of the top 5 to 8 ports then find the cruises that hit the most or all of them. For better or worst you might find it be Carnival or maybe you'll get lucky and find it to be Celebrity.

 

If you are into the amenities of one line or another then of course you'll only have that lines port lineup. As to Cabin that is preference, for some the balcony/suite is the only way for others its about the "value."

 

Happy planning

[kitty9]

Best is a very difficult term to answer because what's best for one person could be the worst for another. It all depends on what YOU want from a cruise. Do you want a small ship, do you have kids and if not is cruising with a ton of kids a no go for you, is great food the most important, do you need a ship that has tons of on board things to do? See, there are a lot of variables and I don't think any one person can tell you what ship would be the best for you.

 

But, if you liked Celebrity, why not go with them? Personally, for a mass market line, you can't go wrong with Celebrity. They don't attract as many kids as lines like NCL or RCI, their food and service is top notch and they do a very nice job with their Med cruises.

[Blue0824]

I agree with figuring out which ports you would like to visit first and then finding the ship who's itinerary hits as many of them as possible. We have traveled quite a bit through Europe so for us we wanted to make sure our ports weren't duplicating past vacations and we really liked the idea of seeing Israel and Egypt in addition to some European ports. This really narrowed our options down and made the choice pretty easy once we set our port priorities.

[thinfool]

This person is new...good to have him, but

 

he started this same thread a few hrs ago...can they be merged??

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

Some ideas for you, but please remember that there is no "best cruise line or ship".

 

Consider a transatlantic - repositioning cruise as these are great fun and can be much cheaper.

 

Find a cruise that visits Venice, Dubrovnick, southern Italy such as Messina, Marseille (for Provence), Barcelona and Cadiz (for Seville, Spain), Another interesting port is Gibraltar.

 

Although difficult, try and find a cruise that spends lots of time in each port. For example for Barcelona, find a cruise that arrives in Barcelona very early in the morning and leaves in the early evening if not later. And an overnight in Venice would be especially nice.

 

Princess has some excellent ships such as the Emerald Princess in the Med.

[6rugrats]

This person is new...good to have him, but

 

he started this same thread a few hrs ago...can they be merged??

 

Unfortunately, as it tends to "clog" up the boards, there appears to be no rule against spamming on this webpage, though the moderators can merge and close threads as they see fit.

[AmoMondo]

As well as considering which part of the med you want to do (a lot are either East or West) decide what port you want to start your cruise at. I'd really recommend combining a med cruise with a few days stay on land pre or post cruise or both. It is a good contingency for delayed flights or baggae, gets you over the jet lag and alo lets you get a better feel for Europe. I'd recommend Barcelona or Vnice as great embarkation points and places to have a stay in