Help with choosing 7 day or 12 day Med???

[Disnylvr77]

Ok So here's my dilemma: My family me, DH, DD 16 and DD 10. 1 OV and 1 Inside state room on each cruise.

The 7 day 2013 sailing in June is June 8. My DD will not be out of school until June 18 so I would have to pull her from school 10 days early and I don't know the final exam schedule yet. She's in 10th grade next year. Cost is $6434.00.

The 12 day sailing is June 27th but cost is total of $12500.00

My question is for those that have done the Med sailing is it worth double the cost to do the longer sailing (only by 5 days) but you get to go to other ports or would you suggest shorter sailing and then doing land based trip???

OR the other option would be to look at another cruise line for better dates so that I didn't have to pull them out of school early.

HELP! MY BRAIN IS SO TIRED!!!!!!!

Stephanie

 

[Tracerr00]

It's a tough decision. We are going on the June 1st 7 night sailing and my 13 year old daughter will end up missing the last 4 days of school. It was a tough decision as well but I decided to bite the bullet and do it! Our school district allows you to take your child out of school for vacations and such for up to 10 days no questions asked but I still feel a little bad that it will be the last few days of school. But my daughter put it in perspective and she said that she will get so much out of the cruise that in the long run it will be so much more educational. She's good at being persuasive!

Would the August 7 day sailings be an option? Unfortunately they aren't for us. The 12 night sailings are a little too pricey for us so the June 1st one is our best option. Good luck making a decision!

 

[Disnylvr77]

No the august sailings aren't an option because high school sports. It would take them out of options for her junior year.

So it's either June or nothing.

Thanks,

Stephanie

 

[kcashner]

You are almost doubling the cost, but you are also almost doubling the length of the cruise...remember that embarkation day is really more like 1/2 day...so your "useful" time will go from 6 1/2 days to 11 1/2 days. Not quite double, but getting there. And cost is not quite double, but still a bit increased on a "per night" basis.

My hesitation is that it is the last 10 days of school. I trust that's the last 2 weeks--10 class days? Can you talk to the teachers about finals before you book. Maybe put it in the sense that she has this awesome opportunity, but...and don't say anything about the possibility of doing it later.

The other way to think about it is that the air isn't going to change...which makes the cruises much closer in price on a per night basis.

 

[ldo]

Only you can decide the price. For your kids' ages, if you do the 12 day, I would do the one with Naples--Pompeii is a significant thing to see--we will be arranging a trip around taking our kids to Pompeii next year (over Athens, Greece).
I would not take a 10th grader out the last 10 days. She will have finals. Those tests and grades are more important that sailing on DCL, IMHO. If you are at all considering, I would have a conference with the principal and get his/her blessing for the trip. If the HS thinks it is a great idea and has no issues and is willing to give finals before/after, then maybe. In our school district, this would be unexcused--no make-ups.
There will be several other cruiselines sailing the Med. in 2013. I would sail on RCCL or NCL before taking my HSer out. We have done 3 European cruises. For a 1st time to Europe, I really like sailing out of Rome on a 7 day and including a few days pre-post to really explore Rome in depth. Rome is easy to get around in and the trains are super easy. I prefer Rome to Barcelona for history, ruins, etc. If you look on viator.com, you can get an idea of all the things to do in Rome.
If you do a 7 day out of Rome and it does not include Naples, it is VERY easy to do a (long) day trip to Pompeii using the train or via shuttle or tour (viator.com or other tours). It is also very easy to get from Florence to Rome or reverse. There is a great tour on viator.com out of Florence called "Full Day Tuscany" that inlcudes Pisa, Siena, San Gigmarno (sp?) and lunch at a wine estate/farmhouse. If you can at all swing this--I HIGHLY recommend it! This was our favorite thing of a 18 day land/cruise and my 9 and 13 yr olds favorite thing. Elaine (ps--we booked the Epic for July 2013 7 day out of Rome). We have done RCCL in Europe--loved it. DCL, still our favorite cruiseline--but we need 7 day in July ot of Rome--and the ports are what's really key in Europe.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Since you're going that far, you might as well enjoy as much time between flights as possible.

And as much as we love Disney, it makes sense (and cents) to price-check other cruise lines. You'll be spending so many days in port that there won't be as much time to play on the ship. For lots of days at sea, we love DCL. But if you're going to spend most of your time in port, the Disney atmosphere isn't as important. (gasp, did I really say that?)

 

[Anal Annie]

Ok So here's my dilemma: My family me, DH, DD 16 and DD 10. 1 OV and 1 Inside state room on each cruise.

The 7 day 2013 sailing in June is June 8. My DD will not be out of school until June 18 so I would have to pull her from school 10 days early and I don't know the final exam schedule yet. She's in 10th grade next year. Cost is $6434.00.

The 12 day sailing is June 27th but cost is total of $12500.00

My question is for those that have done the Med sailing is it worth double the cost to do the longer sailing (only by 5 days) but you get to go to other ports or would you suggest shorter sailing and then doing land based trip???

OR the other option would be to look at another cruise line for better dates so that I didn't have to pull them out of school early.

HELP! MY BRAIN IS SO TIRED!!!!!!!

Stephanie

OK, first of all I would not pull my DS out of HS for 10 days for a vacation and especially not the last 10. There will be important tests then for sure. Vacations in our school district are unexcused. Plus he's in a special advanced program where he has an attendance requirement to meet.

I see you're trying to price 2 cabins for 4 people so you're paying a lot more for your kids in that 2nd cabin. Why don't you price ONE cabin for one of the 12 night cruises? The price is a lot less for the 3rd & 4th passengers VS pax # 1 # 2 in the 2nd cabin. Most cabins do sleep 4 and that would certainly save you a bunch?! I see you said August is out but so what's wrong with sailing in July? Why not price those too? If it was the only way to cut costs on the 12 night cruise I'd certainly sail in 1 cabin. A lot of people with 3 kids have to book 2 cabins to fit but you don't have to do that.

We did a 7 night Med cruise last August and sandwiched it in-between several days on land and it worked out really well. We really enjoyed going to Paris first. I would not go to Europe for a 7 night cruise and not add time on around it. It's too far and the flights are too expensive.

I would not do the June 8 cruise with a HS student who would miss that much time including finals.

 

[NancyIL]

When you're paying a lot just to get to and from Europe, you might as well spend as much time there as possible. I would choose a longer cruise, although not necessarily on DCL. However, if you strongly prefer to sail with Disney - I would price it again with everyone in one cabin, as Anal Annie suggested.

 

[Disnylvr77]

Thanks so much for everyones input!

I'm going to check into dates on other lines. Those of you that chimed in reconfirmed that I'm NOT going to pull her at the end of school. I was on the fence but you guys just reconfirmed it!

July is REALLY REALLY hard for us to get vacation! I'm in healthcare and my husband is a firefighter! So we have better luck with June and August is out so I'll look at Epic out of Rome and see what I come up with!

THANKS AGAIN! I STILL LOVE DISNEY! I can't wait until my Alaska cruise August 2012!

Stephanie

 

[hart6066]

personally, I just don't see the advantage of doing a cruise to Europe if you're really going to see Europe. If you already live over there or are taking this just as a relaxing vacation, great, but to see the sights, personally I think it is far too expensive and you'll miss on many of the things to do in Europe.

To really experience the different places, you'll want to have your food and entertainment in the city you're visiting--not on the boat. There are just so many easy ways to do Europe now--you can easily rent an apartment, or use a tour company if you don't want to have to navigate city to city. It's just my opinion, but I'd rather do a cruise vacation OR a European vacation--I just don't think the 2 really mix the way Disney does it and you end up spending a fortune (be sure to factor in transportation from all the ports, tours around the cities, etc). Doing it on your own just land would also give you much more flexibility or you could do a summer Disney cruise to the Caribbean which would probably also be cheaper.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[ldo]

not to start a debate, but, IMHO, having done European cruises and land trips as well, the cruise with SOME land wins hands down for us with kids. I certainly agree you can't get the in-depth experience, but being able to tour around in a new place each day with ease and then coming back to the ship to relax and hang out with other kids and having PM entertainment was great.
On the land portion in Europe, my kids did not have to freedom to eat whatever/whenever they wanted, there were few TV stations, most hotels, apts had no pool, certainly no kids club, and no one else but our family to hang out with---and after all day of touring "looking at old buildings and churches" to a 9 yr old, that break was great on the ship. Also, taking trains here and there got really old, even though we packed super light.
Which is why, IMHO, I still recommend, esp. for a 1st experience, taking a cruise, but also staying pre and or post at a great place to get that in-depth perspective, eat like locals, etc. But, a cruise-comparable local dinner for 6 persons would have been $200+ a night a a local place. We managed to eat for 100 euros--no appetizers, no desserts, splitting 1 bottle of water, 2 glasses of house wine.
And it's not all about pleasing the kids--DH and I planned a land Italy trip last summer, but then get a great price on a cruise and did 12 days Italy/Greece. We went 11 ports, including 5 ports in Greece---no way I could do that with a land trip.
The cruise is also a decent value, as we spent about $700 a day for 6 persons on DIY land using OK, not great hotels, and rationing out food, eating out only at dinner and cheap places, using public transit--no frills.
When we got on the cruise the 2nd week, the kids felt like they were at the Ritz. However, as the ports are really why you are there--I view the cruise more as a floating hotel with travel to new places and the ship is not that important--compared to when I sail in the Carib.---we go on DCL for the ship.

 

[cindy18]

Just for what it's worth, and with full disclosure that we have booked the 12 night on July 25:

First, I really agree with your decision not to pull a 10th grader out at the end of the year. I have one now and she has several exams in the last 10 days once classes end.

Second, we went on the 12 night Baltic cruise in 2010, and we are big fans of longer cruises. We did the 7-night Western and the 7-night Alaskan, and they were both terrific, but the 12 night was just amazing and not even a little bit too long (we were in tears getting off the boat in Dover, which is saying something because I love England).

Third, I think that these cruises are a wonderful way to see a lot of Europe. I absolutely agree that you need to spend real time in a given city or town or village to get to know it, but when we went on the Baltic cruise, we were in 7 countries in 12 nights, seeing places we never would have gone to on land, and it was so relaxing and easy and FUN. We plan to return to certain of the countries we were in, but it was a great way to get an overview. I think the same is true of the Med. Other than the Amalfi coast, DH and I have been to all the French and Italian ports, but we're so excited to show our DDs these places (other than Rome, where they have already been), and the idea of being in Croatia and Malta, even for a day, sounds very cool.

Finally, of course you can do these cruises on another cruise line. We actually discussed that with our DDs before we booked because the price was a little high, but this will be our 7th cruise on DCL, and our DDs are pretty passionate about it (and frankly, so are we). I know people have had fabulous cruises with NCL, RCCL and Celebrity, among others, but we do think that DCL does something very special and that the ships are uniquely beautiful, and even in a port intensive cruise, those things matter.

Hope that helps. And hope you have an amazing cruise, no matter what you decide.