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Post by WullieFort on Aug 16, 2019 14:34:58 GMT
I'm being persuaded to consider trying a holiday next year cruising around the Western Mediterranean. Never tried this before. Anybody have any experience of this type of holiday ?
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Aug 16, 2019 14:44:19 GMT
I'm being persuaded to consider trying a holiday next year cruising around the Western Mediterranean. Never tried this before. Anybody have any experience of this type of holiday ? We did an eastern Mediterranean (Italy, Greece, Turkey) cruise and an Alaskan cruise and had a blast both times. For me it's less about the cruise itself and more about the excursions, so it depends what you want out of it. I'd say the only downside to a cruise is the specific times you're given to explore any given stop. If your heart is set on a specific destination, I wouldn't use a cruise to get there. But if you want to dabble in a few different places and chill out in between, a cruise is the way to go. There's no shortage of things to do (or food to eat) on the ship when you do find yourself there.
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Post by Zos on Aug 16, 2019 14:45:58 GMT
My sister goes every single Boxing day for a few weeks. She adores them.
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Post by Winston Wolfe on Aug 16, 2019 14:46:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2019 14:50:43 GMT
i've been on 2 Caribbean cruises...both great...but Royal Caribbean is TONS better than Carnival...if you can't stand kids, never take a Carnival cruise....on Royal Caribbean, less kids and less of a party atmosphere...but they do really treat you like royalty....
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Post by FrankSobotka1514 on Aug 16, 2019 14:57:40 GMT
If you like a vacation where you’re packed into a gigantic floating hotel surrounded by all of the people that you wanted to get away from in the first place with their screaming kids with no way to get off save for the 10 minutes they let you off at your destination all the while wondering what type of disease or infection you’re going to get while on this gigantic floating hotel, then by all means a cruise is for you.
My advice? Take a plane to where you want to go and enjoy the destination at your leisure.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Aug 16, 2019 15:09:12 GMT
If you like a vacation where you’re packed into a gigantic floating hotel surrounded by all of the people that you wanted to get away from in the first place with their screaming kids with no way to get off save for the 10 minutes they let you off at your destination all the while wondering what type of disease or infection you’re going to get while on this gigantic floating hotel, then by all means a cruise is for you. My advice? Take a plane to where you want to go and enjoy the destination at your leisure. It depends on the cruise line and where you're going. I'd never do a Caribbean cruise because those are just a week of drinking. I'd never do a Disney cruise because those are nightmares unless you're 8. Again, I think it's all about what you want out of it. To be honest I did fuck all on the actual ship on both cruises. Checked out a couple shows at the stage and ate food. I didn't go to the casino, the pool, etc. Just jogged around the deck for exercise. I'm not big into partying or lounging around so to me the ship was as you said, a floating hotel. It was a good way to work a bunch of stops into one trip without making accommodations 15 times over.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Aug 16, 2019 15:36:13 GMT
I have the experience of one cruise in the Caribbean a few years ago. The way I see it, it combines two very different types of vacations: the one where you just relax, and the one where you want to go to a specific destination for sight-seeing. The thing is, if all you want is to relax, then an all-inclusive resort is a better choice: the rooms are bigger, the food would probably be just as good, the swimming pools aren’t as crowded, you have the same or better entertainment options. And if your goal is to do sight-seeing, a cruise severely limits your freedom of choice of where to go and how long to stay at each place (on the other hand you don’t have to worry about going from one place to the next, or changing hotels every second day, which is certainly an advantage). So it’s a compromise.
Personally, even though I loved every minute of the cruise I took, I am not sure I would go on another one unless it’s to some place like Alaska where the travel IS the destination. But don’t let my opinion discourage you; it’s just that given the choice of spending two weeks lying on the beach or visiting castles and churches and museums and old historic towns, I will take the latter every time, and for that type of vacation a cruise is not the best option.
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Post by WullieFort on Aug 16, 2019 16:30:25 GMT
If you like a vacation where you’re packed into a gigantic floating hotel surrounded by all of the people that you wanted to get away from in the first place with their screaming kids with no way to get off save for the 10 minutes they let you off at your destination all the while wondering what type of disease or infection you’re going to get while on this gigantic floating hotel, then by all means a cruise is for you. My advice? Take a plane to where you want to go and enjoy the destination at your leisure. Hahahahahaha. That's not what the brochure says!!!
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Post by WullieFort on Aug 16, 2019 16:41:00 GMT
Thanx for the stories, guys.
You've opened my eyes, although maybe I was better off with them closed
I like traveling and visiting different places. If I go, it will be in September when all those pesky kids are at school and it would be a new kind of adventure for me.
The initial charge from the shipping line apart, did you find it expensive?
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Aug 16, 2019 17:07:58 GMT
Thanx for the stories, guys. You've opened my eyes, although maybe I was better off with them closed I like traveling and visiting different places. If I go, it will be in September when all those pesky kids are at school and it would be a new kind of adventure for me. The initial charge from the shipping line apart, did you find it expensive? It's expensive but worth it. As I mentioned earlier, for me it's all about convenience. The Mediterranean cruise is a great example of value. Sure you're not on your own timeline on a cruise, but I got to see a ton on that cruise that would've been a real pain to schedule in such a short window of time if we were traveling any other way. The ship is one set of accommodations and from there I saw multiple islands as well as mainland Italy and Greece, as well as Turkey. We stayed three extra days in Rome after the cruise because that's not a walkthrough destination, but even discounting that, the cruise was like three trips in one. It's a bargain financially and in terms of the hassles of traveling. As others have mentioned, a cruise for the sake of relaxing or partying seems like a total waste of money. But when you turn it into your opportunity to see several locations that you wouldn't necessarily want to spend several days at anyway, it can be enormously cost effective.
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