Advice - a mediterranean cruise

[Floridag1rl]

I have been on many cruises and love them. Firstly dinner you do not have to dress up as long as men have long trousers with a nice polo or shirt that is fine. Ladies I generally wear trousers with different tops. On a one week cruise you may have 2 formal evenings hubby then wears his suit and I just wear what I feel. I don't have any long dresses and there is no need to wear them. Have a look at the Jane McDonald channel 5 program called the cruise. She did a lovely cruise around Italy on the MSC Mergavlia. We booked for next October(2018). I have been cruising with P&O, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Costa and soon to be MSC. They are all pretty much like for like, but if you have young or teenage children Royal Caribbean are great. P&O is great for couples. The food was fantastic with Costa. Holland America is also really good. DH and I are going on the MSC Poesia in November this year as well. You normally have 3 choices to the dining program we nearl always chose freedom or late dining. Some ships have great shopping others are just okay. The shows are normally fantastic and each ship will have a little extra like Aqua shows, ice shows or even circ de soleil. What I like about a cruise is the fact that all food is included and trips can be booked and paid for befor departure so you don't need a lot of spending money. I would recommend cruising you just need to try one and see.

[grottyrotty]

Originally Posted by danisleigh

I agree...we cruised DCL last year thanks to the make a wish foundation organising it for my son and it blew us away too but the prices compared to what we can get with other cruise lines are crazy. We would love to cruise DCL again one day as it is amazing but last year we cruised on the NCL Epic around canaries over school easter holidays for £1450 for thre if us in a balcony cabin including drinks packages and upgraded dining... prices like that are hard to turn down!

See more...

Hadn't even thought of DCL for the med
That price for NCL sounds incredible!

Originally Posted by jas72

So much so we've booked again. Perhaps we are the "cheap holiday camp" type of people which is why we enjoyed it so much.

Best of luck looking but unlike Disney there isn't too much to plan so don't stress too much about it.

See more...

Soooo many companies to look at though and, as it's new to us, I feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment

Thanks everyone. Certainly plenty of really helpful advice and tips. Now need to apply myself to a bit of googling, as I think we really need to do at least one cruise

Deb

[Bats]

Originally Posted by Gill H

We have just got back from our first ever cruise, 7 nights round the Med on the Disney Magic. Utterly wonderful and would love to go again.

Most of the things you mention are optional. Yes, there is a formal night and a semi-formal night. In practice, 'formal' means anything from full-on evening dress to smart trousers/shirt and skirt/blouse. Frankly, as long as you're not in ripped jeans or a swimming cozzy, you're fine. But if you really wanted to avoid that night, you could eat in Cabanas buffet and wear what you want.

Semi-formal - to be honest I didn't notice any difference from other nights.

There's also pirate night of course! Again, dressing up is optional. Peter had a striped t-shirt and a shirt with anchors on which he wore with black jeans. I wore a black flowered skirt and a black 'wench type' blouse which I'd sewn plastic coins round the neck of.

As for table mates, you can ask for a table on your own if you like. Lots of people do. Our tablemates didn't turn up the first night as they had gone to Palo (the upscale restaurant which costs an extra $30 per person and is absolutely phenomenal). On the second night, they turned up, but explained that they had booked lots of long excursions and therefore were going to change to the later dinner seating. So we were left on our own. But the table next to us - three retired American couples - invited us to sit with them if we wanted, and they adopted us from then on! But if you wanted to sit on your own, no one thinks that's strange.

Dinner is two seatings, you can ask for early or late. However, if you wanted you could eat at Cabana's any time instead. You would really miss out though, the restaurants are amazing. You eat in one of the three restaurants every night, on a rotation, and your tablemates (if you have them) and servers come with you. So you get to know your servers and they know your preferences.

The shows are on twice a night so whichever dinner seating you are on, you can still see the shows and do all the late night stuff - which is fab! Everything from a relaxed piano bar to karaoke and a slightly risque Mr & Mrs style game show. But again, all this is optional, if you just want to be by yourselves there's plenty of opportunity.

As for excursions, Disney offer their own (which are convenient but quite pricey) or you can book with another company or DIY. You do need to make sure you get back to the ship in plenty of time though.

We made our own way to Herculaneum on a HOHO bus and had a look round Naples (in torrential rain!) We didn't bother with Rome - it's almost 2 hours on the coach each way, and we didn't want to try cramming Rome into 6 hours. To be honest we could do Rome off season when it's quieter and cooler, and spend several days there, much cheaper than we could go on a cruise. So instead we enjoyed a quiet ship.

We took the Disney excursion to Pisa - about 30 minutes on a coach, then a little train through the cobbled streets (think 'Kilimanjaro Safari' and about as bumpy!) and spent a few hours seeing the sights.

We were supposed to go to Villefranche, where we had intended to just amble round the town. But the high winds meant the tender boats wouldn't run, so instead they changed the itinerary and we had a sea day. The next day we went to Marseille instead, and had a nice wander round the port.

There are longer itineraries which take in more ports, too.

We were completely blown away by the ship. It really has the feel of 1930s luxury liners (with the added bonus of being able to bump into Cinderella, Stitch and even Thor!)

Definitely worth considering.

See more...

Great report Gill and so pleased you had a good time!
We've done about 5 Med cruises, all with DCL. There is a cruise line and ship for everyone, it's just a job to find the right one if you're unsure!
Whoever you choose to sail with, just take it easy, don't try to cram everything in and enjoy it!

Joa

[JudeB]

Have a look at the Jane McDonald channel 5 program called the cruise. She did a lovely cruise around Italy on the MSC Mergavlia. We booked for next October(2018).

Great tip - off to see if I can find this now as I have just booked a trip for DH's birthday in Jan 19. Have only cruised once before and that was with Royal Caribbean, hadn't even heard of MSC but agent has told me they are very good. Can't wait. The hardest thing now is keeping it a secret for as long as possible!

[disney_l81]

Originally Posted by JudeB

Have a look at the Jane McDonald channel 5 program called the cruise. She did a lovely cruise around Italy on the MSC Mergavlia. We booked for next October(2018).

See more...

We saw that ship when we docked in Genoa (to visit Portofino which was stunning by the way!) It looked huge!

[danisleigh]

My brother in law and partner went on the Meravglia over Christmas around the Med.

[Cloverlady]

We are booked on the Meraviglia next January, aroud the Med.
We've sailed with MSC before and absolutely loved it, and the Meraviglia looks a beautiful ship!

One nice little thing/gimmick about MSC ships is that as you sailaway from each port they always play 'Time To Say Goodbye'
It was quite moving, especially as we sailed away from our last port!
We can't wait to be hearing that song again!

OP, I know this thread is old now, but I could have written your initial post.
We didn't fancy cruising as we thought it was all dressing up really glam and that's not really us, we thought it was for retired people mainly and thought you had to pal up with people on a cruise-long basis and that we would be sea sick the whole time.
Nne of this turned out to be the case!

We are hooked on cruising now with several more already booked, next one in less than 2 weeks! CURSE that first cruise!

[disney_l81]

Originally Posted by Cloverlady

We are booked on the Meraviglia next January, aroud the Med.
We've sailed with MSC before and absolutely loved it, and the Meraviglia looks a beautiful ship!

One nice little thing/gimmick about MSC ships is that as you sailaway from each port they always play 'Time To Say Goodbye'
It was quite moving, especially as we sailed away from our last port!
We can't wait to be hearing that song again!

OP, I know this thread is old now, but I could have written your initial post.
We didn't fancy cruising as we thought it was all dressing up really glam and that's not really us, we thought it was for retired people mainly and thought you had to pal up with people on a cruise-long basis and that we would be sea sick the whole time.
Nne of this turned out to be the case!

We are hooked on cruising now with several more already booked, next one in less than 2 weeks! CURSE that first cruise!

See more...

Same as us now going on our 5th cruise, I've got another booked for October with my mum, and looked at Oasis of the seas for next year. It's certainly addictive