DH & I are celebrating our 30 year anniversary AND even better our second (and last) son’s graduation and are looking a Mediterranean cruises. My sister did an amazing one but it took 14 days and I don’t have enough vacation.
Can anyone recommend a cruiseline/route? We’ve cruised several times in US/Mexico & Alaska but are not familiar with the European lines.
Thanks in advance!
We did a 12-day Med cruise on Princess a few years ago. Cost a small fortune but I was glad we did it. A bummer right now is that Turkey is “hot” and none of the cruiselines stop there (Ephesus is a must see).
What sort of things do you want to see and do? Ancient Greek/Roman ruins, wine country, etc?
I don’t drink (I know I’m a freak 
so don’t care about wine country, but I like the idea of Greek/Roman ruins and Santorini is supposed to be fabulous. If you cruise to Greece though you get fewer different countries. I’d love to see the glass factories in Italy. The best options seem to start in Barcelona and end up in Italy, but I’m worried about additional airfare costs in that scenario.
You should think about what size ship you want. Sometimes, it’s easier to see where the lines you like go rather than work from the places. There are some smaller boats that do river cruises or just the Greek islands and have access the big lines do not, but they don’t have tons of amenities on board nor do they tend to cover large distances.
I encourage you to look at Seadream Yacht Club. We have taken two cruises with them and were spoiled in the most fantastic way. One of those trips was a Mediterranean cruise that included several stops in France and Italy. The Seadream ships are small compared to those of other cruise lines. There are 95 crew members for 112 guests. The food was unbelievably good. It’s well worth the cost and will likely be a trip you would never forget. I hope you find the perfect trip and have a lovely time!
Azamara. My DH and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary (we are in our mid 40’s) and were looking for a shorter cruise also. We are doing a fall Mediterranean 7 day cruise because of work constraints. We plan on adding 2 additional days at our departing port and adding 2 more days in our post cruise area. I haven’t used the cruise line yet so I can’t tell if its great or not, but I do like the smaller ship size, and the itineraries a lot. I have heard Viking Ocean cruises are pretty good also, but fill up quickly.
We did an Azamara Mediterranean cruise for our 30th and it was fantastic. Very port intensive with no sea days, which is what we prefer. And yes, Ephesus was the highlight, the cruise line even arranged a private night time chamber music concert at the Great Theater.
Our neighbor’s did the Viking Ocean Cruise from Rome to Barcelona. They raved and raved about it. I think it’s very pricey but the price includes airfare? Or airfare was an included add on. They were very very happy with the air travel and transfers.
The ship has included tours at every stop but they did some private tours and really enjoyed them.
This may be a little left field, but the Disney cruises in the Med and in the North Atlantic are consistently amazing, according to my fellow Disney nuts (we stick with Royal Caribbean and stay in the Caribbean for now). There aren’t as many kids on the Disney ship in the Med as you’d think, and they do a good job of separating the kids from the grownups so you don’t feel like they’re underfoot.
My closest friend has a 16 yo (as do I) and the 16 yo always finds kids her age on the Disney ships to hang out with.
My H won’t cruise on the Disney ships because they don’t have casinos (he’s mathy, loves to play blackjack), but other than that and being rather pricey, they’re very well regarded.
My inlaws cruise the crystal lines, which are very fancy and seldom have any kid on it (they loathe kids).
Maybe start in Venice and end up in Rome. That way you can see Venice, Dubrovnik, Athens, Naples, and Rome (maybe a Greek island in there, too).
Following - this is on my bucket list, as are the European river cruises.
Look at Windstar cruises - small boats, did Barcelona to Rome 10 years ago and loved it.
We did an eastern mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean several years ago - a six or seven day cruise starting and ending in Rome. Not as many ports as you would hit with a longer cruise, but this worked well for us - especially since we had younger kids and this was our first cruise. We did the Baltics cruise with Norwegian last year - 9/10 day cruise from Copenhagen. Port intensive - but just fabulous. We loved it.
I did Azamara last summer with my sister in law: Athens to Venice through the Greek Islands, Ephesus, and then the Croatian coast. Very generous amount of time in each port. Tips are included as are non alcoholic drinks and house wine and maybe cocktails. (I don’t drink so I don’t remember) We used some on board credits for a couple of tours. Other places we either walked around or I set up our own tours based off of recommendations from Cruise Critic.
I will say my heart is with Windstar. Among our cruises with them was a Greek Islands cruise. However in the past they had an itinerary that was more off the beaten path. We really liked being at places that were not overrun and where the Greeks vacationed. the cabins are smaller and there are no balconies on the sailing ships but with only 140 - 250 people the feeling is so much more relaxing. No big shows and fancy entertainment which was ok by us. My mom did the Venice to Rome via the Croatian coast on the WindSurf and thought it was great.
There is a website that is (somewhat) useful Cruise time table. You can search a port and see what the passenger load will be. Most of our stops on Azamara did not have too many other ships in port at the same time. However Dubrovnik had something along the lines of 10,000 people disgorging into port and it felt very crowded. The nice thing about Azamara staying later in ports is that by 4 PM most other tourists were heading back to their ships. The somewhat useful part is that I saw incomplete listings of ships in port. The best way to be sure is to google for each port’s homepage.
Too late to edit
Here is the name of the better website for checking port loads Cruise TT. For whatever reason, on my browser - when I click on a port it sends me to 2016. I then have to choose the correct month.
It is also possible to search for your ship and then the ports will display along with which other ships will be in port at the same time.
In 2012 we really like our Norwegian Epic 7 day cruise … starting/ending in Barcelona. (We did a night prior in Barcelona, night after in Barcelona… then high speed train to Madrid - 2 nights. flew home from there). We had stops in Naples (Pompei, Sorrento) , Rome, Florence, Cannes, Marseilles. We had a GREAT time!
Advantages - toooo many to list!
Disadvantages:
I’ve done two Med cruises (I used to live in Europe). One was 10 day and one was 12 day. Both were with Norwegian Cruise Lines because they offered the best value. Pricing was better in euros both times and kids were only 99euro each on our second cruise. While food wasn’t the best, accommodations were small but decent, entertainment was really good, and the itineraries were great. I’d love to go with another, more upscale, line some day, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend NCL to someone who will otherwise not be able to afford to do the cruise or who wants to save on cruise fare to splurge on excursions. (Happy to talk money saving budget ways if anyone wants specifics - we did our first Med cruise for $100pp/day total expense, but we were able to drive to the starting port.)
First thing is to send you to Cruise Critic’s website and forums for information. You’ll quickly get to information overload, but it is valuable information and worth sorting through. Especially for what to do in ports that best matches your interest and budget.
If you like Greek/Roman history - I would highly recommend a cruise that stops at Athens (you can DIY this port very easily) and Izmir/Ephesus to visit the Terrace Houses. The latter is the absolutely the best preserved houses and set up that we saw. I also really, really like Rome, and the Colisseum is fantastic, but the Forum is truly ruins.
If a one way cruise has the ports you want to hit, then look for either an open jaw ticket (oftentimes the same cost as a round trip) or get a cheap flight between the ports on Easy Jet. (Just be sure to make note of Easy Jet’s strict luggage policies.)
I hope you find what you’re looking for!
We didn’t care too much about the amenities/shows on the cruise. Being vegetarian, food was sometimes an issue - but the cruise lines usually worked with us to get us something palatable. Our main focus on all our cruises has been the itinerary and of course, cost. There are excursions offered by the cruise line, but we have never done any of these. Too expensive and didn’t fit in with what we like to do. We prefer to do our own research and then travel on our own (use cruise critic for recommendations).