Winter Cruise in the Med anyone?

[Cloverlady]

Hi all
Wondering wether to squeeze in a one week cruise around the Med in January next year...

I KNOW it will be cold and I KNOW it might be choppy, but wondering if anyone has done this?

Could treat it as a sight seeing holiday I suppose?

We're booking P&O Norwegian Fjords for April, and have Florida in July, so a week away in Jan would break up the winter, (but I don't really fancy land based holidays other than Florida right now. Really got the crusing bug! )

Thanks for any input!

[vhm672]

Personally I would not do that for the following reasons:

I am easily bored on sea days if I can't be outside or on the balcony. I loathe cheesy activities / quiz games

If the port is a tender there may be more chance of missing it due to weather

not all sightseeing opportunities will be available out of season.

[danisleigh]

We did a Med Xmas and new year cruise years ago! We had to cancel our stop in Rhodes due to bad weather and we had a couple of choppy days but we had nice weather in Crete and turkey and a lovely day in Athens too. I have great memories of the holiday and as long as you go not expecting great weather I am sure you will too!

[welshwiz]

Not been on a Med cruise in Jan but have been on a couple in Nov and one in Feb - MSC/NCL/Costa(last minute not main holidays). I too was dreading choppy days but we didn't have any at all maybe we were really lucky but the cost of the cruises were so cheap and port intensive that we couldn't pass up on the trips - can't recall any tenders on the itineraries we went on.

Maybe more research from a wider community will give a fuller picture but we were really happy with our choices and prices (tend to book them last minute).

Whereas, we've had some choppy seas in the Caribbean in summer but hurricane season so to be expected that we encounter the odd storm but we have been stuck to school holiday dates for family vacations.

[Scotty]

Done late Nov/Dec in the past and it was lovely, not sure if I would risk January. But if the price was right never say never.

[Gill H]

Only done September, and even then it was a bit chilly on deck, and we had torrential rain one day. So it must be me! Fortunately I won't be with you so you should be OK...

[Cloverlady]

Thanks all for the input. (LOL Gill H! )
After more thought and research I think we will book it tonight.
Ive read up on average temps in the ports of call and those down south in Sicily and Malta don't seem TOOOO bad.

It's a lovely ship and it will be a break, we will just pack layers

[thedriver]

We did NCl from Barcelona to casablanca,canaries and then a couple of mainland spain ports before back to Barcelona on 27/12/16

although some of the ports arnt in the med - the weather was beautiful - shorts and tshirt weather in the day - we were very happy as we had been expecting to wear early soring type clothing.

we had a fab time - and would consider again

[Cloverlady]

Originally Posted by thedriver

We did NCl from Barcelona to casablanca,canaries and then a couple of mainland spain ports before back to Barcelona on 27/12/16

although some of the ports arnt in the med - the weather was beautiful - shorts and tshirt weather in the day - we were very happy as we had been expecting to wear early soring type clothing.

we had a fab time - and would consider again

See more...

Thanks, that's reassuring to read!

We've booked this now.
Although it's January we are on an amazing ship with lots to do.
OK it won't be a hot holiday, but we have that later in the year, and we can have lots of fun on the ship with the addition to calling at some lovely ports for a look around.
We'll just take layers and what will be will be!
Can't wait!

[JudeB]

I've just booked a Med cruise for January too. It's for DH birthday. We are going with MSC embarking in Barcelona. This will be our 2nd cruise, our other one was Royal Caribbean to Greek Islands in Nov. Weather was very choppy then, and we had a couple of itinerary changes but still had a fab holiday.

If you haven't already done so, go on to Cruisecritic forum for more tips and advice. Happy planning