Has anyone booked or taken a Mediterranean cruise? What cruise line and ship? What were your destinations? We are thinking Spain, France, Italy combo.
MsA2MrsA
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Re: Mediterranean cruise reviews?
We actually did a very similar cruise for our honeymoon. We did a 7-day Celebrity cruise (Celebrity Equinox) that started in Rome and ended in Barcelona. We spent 2 nights (3 days) before the cruise in Rome and 3 nights (4 days) after our cruise in Barcelona.
Our itinerary for the cruse was: Day 1: Rome (departure port was actually Civitavecchia) Day 2: Florence/Pisa (Livorno) Day 3: Villefranche (Nice/South of France) Day 4: Ajaccio, Corsica Day 5: Sardinia Day 6: At Sea Day 7: Palma De Mallorca, Spain Day 8: Barcelona, Spain - where we ended the cruise
They are actually offering similar cruises now, but Sardinia is no longer on the itinerary. One one cruise it's replaced by an overnight stay in Mallorca and on another it's replaced with Ibiza. All the well it wasn't the best port - although my least favorite port by a landslide was Corsica.
I BY FAR enjoyed the time that we spent on land more so than the actual cruise. I don't know if it's because some of the places (Corsica and Sardinia - and we did a cave excursion in Mallorca that I did not enjoy) were such a let down after we saw Rome, Florence & the South of France (I LOVED the South of France); but I felt like the cruise was more rushed. We didn't get to experience everything that the places had to offer - especially in Florence & South of France - because we only had a few hours in port.
I really, really loved Florence when I went there in 2007 - more so than I liked Rome - and I just felt that the cruise stop didn't do it justice. Also because for places like Rome and Florence, the port is about an hour and a half drive from the city. So you are wasting nearly 3 hours in round-trip travel time.
Plus I felt that after enjoying the food in Italy & France that the cruise ship food was just a let down. I'm normally not picky and I really do love cruising in Caribbean. It wasn't being around a lot of people that I didn't enjoy, it was just the whole nature of the trip. I really would have liked spending 2-3 days in Florence or the South of France.
What is good about the cruise is that it gave us a chance to see both Rome and Barcelona, which we probably would not have done if we strictly did a land tour. I really, really wanted to see Barcelona because I had never been there before and my fiancé wanted to check out Rome (I saw Rome back in 2007) so this was a great way to see both.
If I were to recommend a Mediterranean cruise again, I would definitely recommend one that starts and ends in different cities so you could extend your stay. I would also do a shorter one (7-day or so) so you could fit in an extended land stay.
If you do decide to do a cruise, Celebrity was actually really great. And if you are staying in Rome or Barcelona FM me, I have some recommendations!
