Best time of Year to cruise Europe

[CrazyCanuck]

Trying to decide about a mediterranean cruise with our family. Couple of questions for all of you seasoned cruisers.
1) We would like to go in the summer as kids are out of school. What are the seas generally like then?
2) Are you in more open waters than the Carribean?
3) Any preference in lines? We are sort of off RCCL for now and are wondering about Princess or Holland America for the kids. They are 7 and 15.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[andrew73]

We did the med. in Nov. '01 with Holland America and the weather was perfect (maybe thanksgiving break for the kids). It was also more affordable and more appreciated since we left in the beginning of a Chicago winter. About the same waters as the Carribean. HA was great but not many kids on board.

 

[BruinSteve]

We did the Mediterranean on the Millennium this past August...We are somewhat restricted to July and August due to school schedules--even when we don't take the kids, because my wife works for a school district...

August is not optimum, unless you really enjoy hot weather--May would really be best, but we can't all travel then...Personally, I have no problem with the heat--remember, Mediterannean climates have extremely DRY summers--so, although it's hot, there is little humidity, making it quite comfortable...just dress cool...

The seas are quite calm --we found them to be better than any of our Caribbean ventures (which always seem to be hurricane season)...no need for any concern...

We went with Celebrity due to a number of reasons and it turned out perfectly--we loved it...
One of the most important aspects of a Mediterranean cruise is the itinerary ...and the Celebrity itineraries have some major advantages...They do "one-way" routes--Venice to Barcelona or vice-versa...This allows you to do different pre- and post-cruise stays in the two excellent and different ports...Second, no "back-tracking", meaning more time, more time in ports and more ports...RCCL's Brilliance, for example, alternates routes between one thyat does Venice and the Adriatic and another that includes Athens and the Aegean...The Celebrity route took us to BOTH Venice (and Dubrovnik and Corfu in the Adriatic) AND Athens and Santorini in the Aegean...

The ship itself was magnificent and the service superb...

On our sailing, there appeared to be quite a large number of families with kids of various ages...including a lot of families from Europe...The kids all seemed to be enjoying themselves...I would not hesitate to do the Mediterranean on Celebrity with the kids...I don't think I'd do HAL with the kids...We took our kids with us on Princess in the Baltic a couple of years back...and the kids absolutely hated Princess and the ship...it was in August yet there were maybe only 20-30 kids out of 2000+ passengers and our kids were mad...nothing seemed to be geared toward them (To be truthful, everything, even the entertainment, seemed geared to the octogenarian crowd)...

We were so impressed with the Millie that we're taking the kids with us to Alaska this July on the Summit...

Have fun...

By the Way, you can read my entire detailed review here:

http://www.cruise-addicts.com/reviews/readreview.php?id=0000002441

 

[cruisegary]

So, assuming you do not have school schedules to deal with, and would actually prefer to sail when kids are not onboard, when are the good months? And not so good?

 

[CrazyCanuck]

Thanks for the responses!

We have booked for June 05 on Millenium. We are looking forward to the trip. The ship is very booked already! We had a hard time getting three cabins close together but we're there!

Picutures of the ship look beautiful! We're a little close the front which makes me a little nervous so we'll hope for calm seas!!

 

[Lady Jag]

You could always change to a more Northern itinerary. How about the Golden Princess in late July? Our son will be 15.5 by then and our other son will be 13 by then. This itinerary is really interesting and I believe the weather will be a bit cooler too.