Mediterranean cruise

BruinSteve

Environmental Compliance Officer
We would like to tak a Mediterranean cruise in June for our 30th anniversary. Any suggestions?

Depends on what you want in a cruise...

Have you been to the Med before?
Is there a specific part of the region you'd like to specialize in?
Do you want a large ship with all the amenities or a smaller ship with a quieter ambience?
What are your price constraints?
How long a cruise do you want?

Personally, my favorite is Celebrity...I think it offers the best of all worlds--large but uncrowded, excellent food and service...

If you want a smaller ship (and a higher price) try Azamara or Oceania...

Here are Celebrity's offerings for this June:

12 Night Mediterranean Cruise Celebrity Century
Prices starting from 1,349.00 USD on 03-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Barcelona, Spain, Nice (Villefranche), France, Florence/Pisa(Livorno),Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Sicily (Messina), Italy, Mykonos, Greece, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Naples (Salerno), Italy, Barcelona, Spain

12 Night Mediterranean Cruise Celebrity Century
Prices starting from 1,399.00 USD on 15-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Barcelona, Spain, Nice (Villefranche), France, Florence/Pisa(Livorno),Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Venice, Italy, Split, Croatia, Naples (Salerno), Italy, Barcelona, Spain

12 Night Mediterranean Cruise on board Celebrity Century
Prices starting from 1,649.00 USD on 27-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Barcelona, Spain, Sicily (Messina), Italy, Mykonos, Greece, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Naples (Salerno), Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Florence/Pisa(Livorno),Italy, Provence (Toulon), France, Barcelona, Spain

10 Night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Celebrity Equinox
Prices starting from 2,299.00 USD on 04-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Sicily (Messina), Italy, Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Mykonos, Greece, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Rhodes, Greece, Santorini, Greece, Naples/Capri, Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

11 Night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Celebrity Equinox
Prices starting from 2,349.00 USD on 14-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Santorini, Greece, Mykonos, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Naples/Capri, Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

10 Night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Celebrity Equinox
Prices starting from 2,249.00 USD on 25-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Sicily (Messina), Italy, Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Mykonos, Greece, Rhodes, Greece, Santorini, Greece, Naples/Capri, Italy, Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

The Century is one of Celebrity's older, smaller ships but was completely refurbished a couple of years back. The Equinox is one of Celebrity's newest ships...larger and with all the latest improvements.

Azamara offers:

10 Night Greek Isles Cruise Azamara Quest
Prices starting from 4,749.00 USD on 10-Jun-2010
Cruise Ports: Athens (Piraeus), Greece, Nauplion, Greece, Mykonos, Greece, Santorini, Greece, Rhodes, Greece, Bodrum, Turkey, Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey

Oceania offers:

10 Days aboard Insignia | Fares from $3,413 per guest
Sail Date: Jun 17, 2010
Rome (Civitavecchia); Bonifacio (Corsica) ; Porto Venere (Cinque Terre); Provence (Marseille); Cannes; Portofino; Olbia/Porto Cervo (Sardinia); Saint-Tropez; Sanary-Sur-Mer; Sete; Barcelona

14 Days aboard Nautica | Fares from $4,928 per guest
Sail Date: Jun 04, 2010
Barcelona; Valletta; Aghios Nikolaos (Crete); Alexandria; Cairo (Port Said); Ashdod; Haifa(2); Limassol; Marmaris; Kusadasi; Istanbul (2)

Oceania and Azamara offer smaller less than 700 passenger ships and a more relaxed atmosphere...

Good luck...
 

Parrot Mom

Bosun (Boatswain)
PLEASE read the review of the Costa ship in Europe before booking..most Americans are not happy with the line....just a warning.. Have to agree with BruinSteve..Celebrity offers great itineraries and Barcelona is wonderful... we have embarked from there four times,three times on Celebrity and once on NCL
 

BruinSteve

Environmental Compliance Officer
We are contemplating the Costa Concordia in Sept for a 7 day west. Med. Spends a day in Tunis. Very excited!!

My sister did a Costa cruise in the Med and wishes she'd chosen another line...
In her opinion, the food and service were NOT to the standards we are used to on most American-oriented lines...The entertainment fell far short...and the ship was not up to her standards either...

Costa caters to a European crowd--most passengers are Italian or French...So, forget English speaking comedians, for example...and, there are other cultural and language differences...

Of course, some people like some of those differences...

For us, we prefer the cruise lines I suggested...
 

Ine

Lecturer
Also on MSC lines you will find mostly Italian passengers, as friends of us had on their cruise.
Announcements, entertainment etc. are in italian first and after that in various languages.
Problem is that most italian passengers start to talk again after that and you can hardly hear the same in other languages.
Indeed if you have a choice you might like Celebrity, HAL or Azamara etc. better.
 
You will be surprised at the amount of choice available just on a med cruise, it depends what you want from your holiday. There is a choice of loads of Ex Southampton cruises if you live the UK which saves the hassle of flying. There are year round cruises from Barcelona, Venice, and Rome so you can add a few nights at port before your cruise. Also it depends how far into the med you want to go most of the larger ships mostly go to western med as the ports are bigger but if you want to expereience the unusual destinations then your best bet will be an eastern med cruise. With regards to the ships it depends on what you prefer personally i prefer the larger ships so I would choose RCI or Princess as they have nicer itineraries.
 

mtnmusic

New Member
We would like to tak a Mediterranean cruise in June for our 30th anniversary. Any suggestions?

You might look at availabilities on HAL Nieuw Amsterdam. It's a brand new ship being built in Venice right now and will be a sister ship to Eurodam. We're booked for back2back cruises in September and can hardly wait having done the Baltic on Eurodam last summer.
 

silverservice

New Member
as mentioned from southampton, there are lote of cruises to the med. as well as celebrity and rci known in the usa, there is the lesser known p&o ships
7 of them. also cunard, queen victoria and queen mary2 both doing some cruises to the med. if you are flying to the med cruise ports, save an hour or 2 and come into london! regards, mike. ps, most of these would be ex southampton round trip southampton.
 
Good Luck you all the way, its fantasitc destinations you have opted for your trip. Recently I completed my trip to the same place and by cruise answers, that was nice trip to go. any way happy journey and have a great vacation
 

VELISSA

New Member
One of the delights of this region and a shore excursion is the lovely authentic town of SETE in the south of France. It is considered as the most fascinating small town on the Mediterranean coast according to the Daily Telegraph UK. Bordered by sandy Mediterranean beaches on one side and canals on the other, a daily market with abundant local produce, fabulous seafood especially fresh oysters from the neigboring oyster beds, 5 museums, 22 art galleries, festivals. Have a look at the the tourist information website for tours such as the gourmet walking tour. Well worth the visit.
 
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sportygal

New Member
It all depends on what you are looking for when booking your cruise? Do you wish to have a larger boat with a larger boat population, or a smaller yacht-like experience like Windstar? Windstar offers a couple of different options when sailing through the Mediterranean They stop at "secret coves" and provate islands, and offer fine dining every at every meal. They also have watersport equipment on deck. As mentioned before, it all depends on what you are looking for in a cruise. Good luck!
 
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