Mediterranean cruise?

Well....it all depends on what you want. What is your budget? Where do you want to sail? How old are you, and are you bringing kids? A good place to start is www.travelocity.com and you can search by European cruises during the month(s) you want to travel. Introductory lines include Carnival and MSC, medium-tier lines include Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, medium-plus lines include Disney and Celebrity, and high-end lines include Crystal, Silverseas, Cunard, etc. Do you want a European based line (e.g. Costa, MSC, P&O) or an American-based line (e.g. Carnival, Disney)? For most cruise lines, the Med is typically a route that attracts repeat cruisers, so generally the ships are pretty nice and the clientele pretty knowledgeable, although of course that may vary.

Mediterranean is big , where do u wish to concentrate?

Eastern or western Mediterranean? How many times have you visited Europe?

The PPs have posed some necessary questions to narrow down your very general question. We would need to know your preferred ports, time of year, the makeup of your group, what types of activities you would expect to do ashore, and the amenities and general atmosphere you prefer on board.

If you have never cruised before, you might want to find a travel agent that specializes in cruises. They can help narrow down your options to better suit your expectations. I'd also recommend that you check out Cruise Critic. com - a website specifically for cruising questions.

Having gone on two Med. Cruises with Holland America, I suggest you check into the cruises they offer.

We have done 20 ocean cruises in the past 9 years, including four that included the Med.

Don't just go to Travelocity and pick a cruise. Do your research on the cruise lines and the ports that you want to see.

Go to cruisecritic.com and check out the reviews of the different cruises as well as the boards where people post great information. Also, if you join cruise critic, you can post questions that others will respond to in detail.

There are many cruise lines and if cost is important to you, learn which ones are the mainstream cruise lines and which ones are the upscale or more expensive.

Here are some tips:
1) What is important for you? If the ports are the most important, then focus on that first. If dining or entertainment is important, then you should not what cruise lines get high ratings and awards for dining and/or entertainment.
Celebrity gets high ratings for dining and it is a mainstream cruise line. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line gets good reviews for entertainment. Princess and Holland America are other main stream cruise lines that won't bust your budget. Carnival is as well, but the tend to appeal more to younger people. I advise to stay away from the Italian cruise lines MSC and Costa.

2) Cost is important. Normally, if you book early (a year or more in advance) you save, however last minute sales can save as well. The more expensive cruise lines are Viking (ocean), Cunard, Crystal, Seabourn and Scenic. Also, Disney is great if you have young kids, but it is expensive.

3) If you want to do a Med cruise, I would recommend one that leaves from Venice and stops in Dubrovnik, Croatia, then to the Greek Islands and Athens, or the Western Med that includes Barcelona, Monaco, Rome and more.

Check cruise lines and compare what you get for what the cruise costs. Also, if you use a travel agent like Vacations to Go, you might collect some small benefits.

We did Mediterranean cruise with few Princess ships and we loved it!

Thanks everyone for your replies and helpful suggestions. We have been to Europe once on a RS 14 day best of Europe and have crushed to the Caribbean 2x on Holland America. We had a good experience on Holland America. We haven’t settled on either western or eastern Mediterranean regions.

We are traveling to Greece in April and after a RS land tour, we added a 7 day cruise of the Greek isles. Our focus was on Greece, not the whole Mediterranean- which is huge! I like the cruise professional’s response: what’s your priority and go from there. Happy Travels =)

If you are interested in something a little different, we really enjoyed Star Clippers which has several sailing ships. It is unlike a typical cruise, no big shows or casino, only one dining room, no elevators, not great for kids. But the ships are smaller, you are in port longer and it was such a fun experience.

Some cruises are all about the ship and others are about the ports. A Med. cruise is about the ports. We tried MSC in the Caribbean this past year and loved it, so we booked the MSC Grandiosa for a western Med. cruise. We are easy to please and it was very inexpensive.

Most of the shorter cruises in Greece (in the Aegean, not the Mediterranean) are really not all about the ports -- the brochures just make it look as if they are. In order to seem to cover a great number of islands in a short (4-5 day) period, most of these cruises only allow 6 hours or so ashore... and sometimes less than that. Only in Rhodes I blieve, is the stop as long as 7 AM - 7 pm. The major lines all go to the same v touristic ports; Mykonos - Santorini - Heraklion Crete - Rhodes - sometimes Patmos - Istanbul. why? Because these are the only ports deep enough to take those mega-ships.

The most infamous situation is in the Cruise-Crushed destination of Santorini. In fact the overload there is so dire, that the island now limits the number of passengers allowed to land; 8,000 I think (!!). Some days there are FIVE cruise ships anchored in the caldera, and since they're unable to dock at the island pier, people must be shuttled ashore on launches... and passengers who sign up for the (costly) shore excursions get first trips. Then all must wait in line to go UP to top of island on cable-car. Thus it may require you nearly 2 hours to even set food on a Santorini Street ... then to get Back to ship, more waiting in line. A huge disappointment for many... On most stops, one moves in a crowd surrounded by hundreds of fellow-cruisers, little opportunity to break away and find quiet places or authentic Greek life. And almost all of them depart by 6 pm or so, so that one never has the wonderful experience of dining on a shore at a little table in a taverna while watching an Aegean sunset. Instead, one's dining indoors, with the same hundreds of people you've been with all week.

JenC is correct that a schooner cruise can be very different; these go to smaller islands, and almost always stay overnight, sometimes 2 nights. In Naxos, I often see happy people walking off these vessels onto the harborside for dinner, or going off to a beach to swim. something to consider. THer are also a number of motor-ships small enough to go to smaller islands - this website lists some: http://smallships.travel/Greek-Isle-Cruises.html?gclid=CNnz_vm-1J0CFR4HagodMSHUsA -- of course, they aren't as economical. However, when looking at the mega-ships' rates, one must factor in the considerable add-on costs for shore excursions & other features.

I can only second what Janet is saying, having seen the Santorini situation from the other side:

We happened to visit a restaurant on the crater side of Fira one day. The food was mediocre and overpriced.
The next day, we happened to visit a restaurant in Firostefani or Imerovigli, can't remember which. We got excellent food at acceptable prices.

What had happened? The first restaurant was within cruise ship tourist radius, the second one wasn't.
The first one counted on tourists who would never return anyway. The second one relied on tourists who were staying on the island and might return another day if they liked the place, or recommend it to others.

Once we had realized this, we absolutely avoided the cruise ship radius with its mediocre restaurants, its tons of jewellers and overpriced souvenir shops.

And - sorry to be throwing cold water on your plans, but that's just the way we feel about it - it made us quite sure that we would never take a cruise, since that that's what we expect it's going to be like in pretty much any port.

The most infamous situation is in the Cruise-Crushed destination of Santorini. In fact the overload there is so dire, that the island now limits the number of passengers allowed to land

As far as I am aware, Venice and a number of other places are considering similar measures because they are just being overwhelmed by day tourists (who are basically not spending any money in town except for a few souvenirs) and huge pollution issues by fuel oil emissions from those cruise ships. Venice has actually been threatened to be put on the "UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger sites" unless they manage to control and ban cruise ships from the canals near the historic center.