Cruise Ships

Larry,

Great to hear that you enjoy cruising. For me, never been and never plan to go. In this forum you will find more on-the-ground travelers than you will find cruisers.

"Horses for courses" is my mantra. A rental car, Eurail pass, tour bus, bicycle, riverboat, or a cruise ship may all be options DEPENDING upon the planned itinerary.

Clearly, Paris or Zurich don't lend themselves to cruise travel. Ports on the Mediterranean do. There are clear limitations to having a predefined schedule - a la a cruise line or a RS tour or even train schedules - but if you know what you want and the cruise ship fits, it can be a wonderful way to travel. Unpack once, and let the captain do the driving, the chefs do the cooking, and the staff take care of the room.

Rick has a guidebook to Mediterranean Cuise Ports, which is geared towards DIY from the ship: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/mediterranean-cruise-ports

I haven't done any cruises in Europe. My first two visits to Europe in 1967 and 1970 were by ocean liner and the US Navy, respectively. These eliminated any jet lag.

I haven't used a huge cruise ship but I have been watching with interest the Northern Ireland exploits of the around the world live-aboard Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey ship. After 4 months stuck in Northern Ireland they got 15 miles yesterday before going back and anchoring. Maybe tonight?

Here's a link to a TV special that Rick Steves did on cruising the Mediterranean. cruising the med

Many people have negative opinions regarding the impacts that cruise ships have on the ports they visit. And because the time actually spent visiting a place is so short, it's a different limited experience from touring on the ground. But clearly it's a popular option for many.

Thank you so much for the info about Cruise Boats. Very Appreciated

We have taken 21 ocean cruises since 2010. Our last one was in 2022 when we did Celebrity to the Galapagos Islands.
We don't do cruises anymore since we have done cruises in the Caribbean, Europe, 3 tranatlantics, one transpacific, Australia, Japan and China, Singapore to Dubai and three to or from South America.

Cruises up the coast of Norway, around the Horn of South America, Alaska visiting two huge glaciers, through the Panama Canal are perfect for the scenic views.

Also, we did other cruises that combined visiting some ports and on the same trip included a land trip that was separate.

Our favorite cruise lines were Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines. It is best to compare itinerary and price.

The “huge” cruise boats you mention, topgunlc85, hold so many people that there must be a lot of travelers who like to go on them. I haven’t gone on a big ship cruise. You said that you pretty much enjoyed most of the 6 cruises you’ve taken … I wonder which ones you didn’t enjoy so much, where they went, and what wasn’t so great with them? Any information you can provide to educate us on what to watch out for or avoid would be helpful. Thank you, and Hope your next trip is good!

As for the size of the cruise ship, we like the relatively smaller ships that hold 2500 to 3000 passengers rather than the huge ones that carry 6000 or more.

When traveling with a large group of friends we usually cruise. Otherwise the logistics are a nightmare. Our last cruise this past May was on Holland America’s ship the Rotterdam up the coast of Norway. There were 8 adults.
1. At 66 years of age we are too young for this cruise line. We never saw so many walkers, Wheelchairs, and canes in one spot. And people would sit down at the cafes and never move till the next meal. The books, games, and cards came out and they never left. Also, the activities on the ship were practically non-existent. One afternoon they offered adult coloring - sad. What was sadder was that we attended as there was nothing else to do.
2. Unless you are 100% into scenery and hiking, Norway was a snooze. Being city people we enjoyed Oslo but that was about it. Even Bergen had slim pickings.
3. The excursions offered by the ship were very expensive, like $200+. The cruise itself was costly so we just booked 2 excursions. Most of them were for hiking and biking etc.

Have we gone on great cruises, yes. We went with Celebrity on their British Isles cruise and had fun and interesting ports, such as Belfast, Guernsey, and Dover. We also got to St. Petersburg, Tallin, and Helsinki on a cruise - places we probably would never have visited in our own.

Like any tour you are looking at you have to do a little research. Check out the ports, the size of the ship, whether they dock or you have to tender, the number of cabins and guests, etc.

I recently went on a cruise but only to placate my wife who has been badgering me to go on one for years. It was a Cunard cruise to Bruges, a 4 night taster to see if I would enjoy it. I insisted on staying in a Queens Grill room as a major part of going was to enjoy the food, cruise ship buffets concern me!

It was OK. The room was great, we had a penthouse suite but the food wasn't as good as I anticipated. The ship was lovely and well staffed but I was bored, it was all quite monotonous and the days just felt centred around meal times. It confirmed what I had suspected and that cruising is not for me.

Regarding Barbara's comments, I can say that we have never experienced a cruise as bad as she outlined.

We have never done Holland America cruises, but it has a reputation for cruising with the oldest passengers, still, it has a good reputation.

As for doing a coastal Norway cruise up several amazing fjords, I can say that that cruise with Royal Caribbean in 2019 was fantastic.

The scenic nature of the places we visited was exceptional. We found private tours from the ports that were super and half the cost of the ship's excursions. Some people prefer renting a car or doing Norway by rail. The logistics for that are huge due to the terrain you encounter into the interior of the country. Our cruise went all the way past the North Cape and doing that by car or rail is just too much. You would need to fly to get to some of those far north places easily.

Also, Norway is one of the most expensive countries in Europe and if you cruise your lodgings, meals and transport is included with the cruise. I remember in 2019 buying a beer in Norway, cost was 8 Euros. I had been to Portugal earlier that year and remember buying a similar beer for less than a Euro.

I like cruises for places not particularly easy to visit such as Greek islands ( and just last week in maritime Canada ) but for most of Europe that I am interested in, they are not near the coast and visiting Paris, Rome, Florence, and Berlin from their ports makes little sense to me

Like any tour you are looking at you have to do a little research.
Check out the ports, the size of the ship, whether they dock or you
have to tender, the number of cabins and guests, etc.

Absolutely yes. Same if you choose a bus tour. While the stress of getting from place to place is taken out of the equation, it's the effort that you put into the rest that can make the difference of a successful trip over a hum drum experience. We've cruised several times as well and never regretted it.