Mediterranean Cruises

Where do you want to go and what kind of ship? The Mediterranean is a big place.

IMO cruises are great for destinations where you only want to spend eight hours. Rome, Barcelona, London, Berlin, etc. are places to spend days rather than hours. If I were to pick a cruise in the Mediterranean, I'd pick one with ports of call where I can see most of what I want to see in a one day stop.

As far as the cruise ship/line question, here's a few rules I go by:

Cruise length decides the crowd. If you want a young energetic scene on a cruise, it has to be a shorter cruise. If you want an older crowd pick a longer one.

Lines are like restaurant chains. Every ship in the line will have certain similarities. The more important distinction is ship by ship. Like restaurants, some ships are better managed than others, they're cleaner and the service is better. When you start getting an idea of the general cruise you want, check cruisecritic.com to see thoughts of passengers on the boats that run that route. Take their praises and criticisms with a grain of salt but get a flavor of the boat and whether it's one you want to sail on.

To answer your question, we prefer Holland American for a good balance between price and service. They have several out of Rome.

I agree Holland America is my favorite cruise line for the Mediterranean. For me, I love cruise ships to see ports that I am interested in, so that I can return some day and spend longer amounts of time to
really explore the city or country. When I first started traveling to Europe this is what I did. I now
prefer to go and stay for longer periods of time
staying in apartments to really get to know a city and it's people. Cruises do have their place in European travel. They do take US dollars mostly, so you will save money there.

Bon Voyage,
Debi

We had a fabulous experience last month with Easy Cruise. Unlike standard cruise lines, we arrived at most islands before noon and got to spend the whole day and night there, not sailing until the next morning around 5 AM. The focus was on visiting the Greek islands, rather than the ship activities. We loved this simplified concept in cruising. It was very casual and relaxing. And most amazingly...really inexpensive.

Thank you all for your replies. I have recently returned from a month in Europe (you all were so helpful as I planned). I visited Paris, France, Rome, Venice, Cinque Terra, Avignon, Madrid and Barcelona. Upon my arrival home my husband announced that he would like to travel via cruise ship to see especially Greece. The cruise lines seem fairly similar in the places that they visit and my question, although somewhat vague, was to see if anyone had an especially nice experience and could offer there thoughts on what was good and what was not. CruiseCritic is especially helpful if you know the cruise line, etc, hence my question as to WHICH lines have carried a postive/negative experience. Thanks all.

We really enjoyed a Windstar cruise in May 2005. The ships are small (300 passengers, plus staff), and can get in to the smaller ports so they aren't competing with all the big ships at each port.

WS's cruise through the Greek Island and along the Turkish coast is on our wish list.

WS's food is good, there is no cheesy "show" or games. Mostly boomer age (+/-) couples; American, Canadian and European.

We loved the cruise and itinerary (Cote d'Azur), loved our state room, staff, other travelers. It was a good time!

Happy trails, Dawn!

Thank you for that suggestion, I will look into Windstar.

Dawn,
I live in Austin too. There is a travel agent that works for "Holiday Cruise." This is in the Gatetway shopping area. Her name is Diana, and she really is the best travel agent I ever had. I seldom use travel agents, but Diana is wonderful, and I'm arranging a trip to Alaska through her. There are great deals for Mediterranean Cruises there. I hope you check it out! By the way, I don't work for "Holiday Cruise." I'm just a happy customer. The last time I saw her, she even suggested for me to take a cruise to Greece! Great way to see the Greek islands! But I really want to go to Alaska this time.

BTW, for those fans of the EasyCruise concept, they have a sale on selected cruises for next year, if booked by month's end.

my wife and I took a royal caribbean cruise last november from venice to greece and croatia. we really enjoyed the trip. fabulous food and we got to see very interesting things.