Cruise recommendations...Europe??? Any other super cool location

[ashley4931]

We are already looking at other cruise destinations for the future because we know we will love our 1st Disney Cruise so much and are so excited. We've heard so many great things! We're going to the Bahamas in September. Has anyone sailed anywhere else before? We were looking at a Europe one so we could get a taste of other countries without having to do too much planning on our own, but weren't sure! Any feedback would be great!

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

I'm sure you will get plenty of answers to this. Everyone has a favorite. Alaska and Europe are always popular. I thought I'd share how I approached picking my second DCL cruise. After learning I loved cruising with DCL, I decided I wanted all the sea days I could. I looked at a Transatlantic and thought this would be great. I had to decide between Westbound with England,Ireland and Canada as ports or Eastbout with Spain and Portugal. I chose the EBTA because I didn't have much interest in seeing Spain or Portugal so I figured I could get a good taste with DCL. Turns out I loved both countries after visiting. DCL allowed me to get a great taste. Since then I've cruised DCL to places I've always wanted to go, and that also works well. But picking a DCL cruise that goes somewhere you are only somewhat interested in, can be a great choice.

Europe you indeed to get a "taste." The port days are intense and usually back to back to back so not as much resting and relaxation if you plan to get off in each port. But each night you can relax on the ship and have your meals prepared for you. No hunting for a place to eat. You might not be getting as much local food, but it's nice sometimes not to have to hunt down a place and struggle through a non-English menu. Sometimes it's just nice to have the food show up and eat. I'd say pick something you think you will enjoy "enough" and go for that. I've learned that personally the location I cruise is not as important as if there are things I am interested in doing in that port.

Enjoy your first cruise, and don't forget to book that placeholder for your second cruise!

 

[ashley4931]

I'm sure you will get plenty of answers to this. Everyone has a favorite. Alaska and Europe are always popular. I thought I'd share how I approached picking my second DCL cruise. After learning I loved cruising with DCL, I decided I wanted all the sea days I could. I looked at a Transatlantic and thought this would be great. I had to decide between Westbound with England,Ireland and Canada as ports or Eastbout with Spain and Portugal. I chose the EBTA because I didn't have much interest in seeing Spain or Portugal so I figured I could get a good taste with DCL. Turns out I loved both countries after visiting. DCL allowed me to get a great taste. Since then I've cruised DCL to places I've always wanted to go, and that also works well. But picking a DCL cruise that goes somewhere you are only somewhat interested in, can be a great choice.

Europe you indeed to get a "taste." The port days are intense and usually back to back to back so not as much resting and relaxation if you plan to get off in each port. But each night you can relax on the ship and have your meals prepared for you. No hunting for a place to eat. You might not be getting as much local food, but it's nice sometimes not to have to hunt down a place and struggle through a non-English menu. Sometimes it's just nice to have the food show up and eat. I'd say pick something you think you will enjoy "enough" and go for that. I've learned that personally the location I cruise is not as important as if there are things I am interested in doing in that port.

Enjoy your first cruise, and don't forget to book that placeholder for your second cruise!

Thank you! Great recommendations!!!

 

[o&smom]

We have used DCL to explore parts of 5 continents. We have been to the Med, Baltic and Northern Europe. We have taken our kids since they were barely 7 and 3 months. May great memories. We have learned we really love Barcelona and Copenhagen. Not a bad port ever! You can see where we have been in my signature. Ask any specific questions you want. Would be happy to help.

 

[angelinaxox]

I have loved my cruises in Europe. I have taken six cruises (prior to Covid). Three were on Princess, two were on Disney and one was on Royal Caribbean. I did the Baltics, British Isles, Iceland and three Mediterranean cruises (Spain and Italy, Greece, Turkey and Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Croatia).

Some things to consider when looking at cruises in Europe is to decide what your interest is in things like the temperature, history, city/towns, ruins, museums, entertainment, palaces, churches and nature, etc. These things might make the difference in which European itinerary might appeal to you the most.

I travel in the summer so my Mediterranean cruises were hot. I have also discovered that I can only visit so many churches and museums before I am bored. But I do enjoy visiting historical areas and seeing nature. So I always try to do a mix of tours. I also like to make sure I have downtime on the boat to break up a hectic schedule of touring so I look for a cruise itinerary that offers a few sea days.

My cruises departed out of Dover, Southampton (twice), Barcelona, Copenhagen and Venice. Venice was my favorite sailaway port.

These have been a few of my favorite cruise stops to visit: St. Petersburg (which I don't think the ships are stopping at now), Normandy, Ephesus, Iceland, Wales, Inverness, Edinburgh, and Malta. I preferred Mykonos to Santorini as Santorini was extremely crowded from the cruise ships the day we were there.

I hope you find this info to be useful in your planning.

 

[mousefan73]

My recommendation for any European Med sailings is have Rome Civitavecchia as your start. Med cruises usually have Barcelona or Rome as starting point with then a single port day in the other. Barcelona is "doable" as a one day port stop (port in city- smaller). Rome- you couldnt pay me.. ( port too far out ( like can be 2 h hours out), too much to see, to crowded and congested for one day, HUGE city.
Unless you have the cash to pay for a private driver and tour but still you only get a tiny taste. Rome you need at least 2 full days to scratch the surface; Its like saying lets do London or Paris in 6 hours...

 

[msmama]

I pick cruises by destination. And I've no interest in the Bahamas or Caribbean (though I have been to both). We're not a beach or sit by the pool family so cooler weather destinations are good for us.

Canada (from NY) is great for me since I'm within driving distance, but short.

I'm all about as many days on board as possible so Transatlantic and Panama Canal were great for me. Norway, Iceland, Scotland from Dover was amazing, too.

Mediterranean was fantastic but BRUTAL. Hiked Mt. Vesuvius, toured Pompeii, Vatican, Rome (Trevi Fountain, Colosseum), Florence and Pisa all in THREE DAYS. Really most of those places should have at least three days on their own! I'm glad I waited until my son was a teenager for this one. There were some kids on some of our excursions who looked miserable (and at times I was with them).

I'm debating last minute end of summer British Isles and Westbound TA, but haven't bit the bullet yet.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We loved our one and only DCL trip to Alaska, it was a great way to see the Inside Passage with small kids and the three sea days meant we got a lot of relaxation in between our adventurous port days. I don't think I'll ever want to do a Med cruise because to me destinations like Barcelona, Paris, Rome, and the Athens deserve a few days each to really experience them and the local food. I had a NYC - Bermuda cruise booked for 2020 and 2021, both canceled, but I still think that's a nice itinerary especially if it's a HOTHS cruise. Other destinations I would consider on DCL would be Norway and Iceland, and the fall repositioning cruise from NYC to Puerto Rico.

 

[brentm77]

We are already looking at other cruise destinations for the future because we know we will love our 1st Disney Cruise so much and are so excited. We've heard so many great things! We're going to the Bahamas in September. Has anyone sailed anywhere else before? We were looking at a Europe one so we could get a taste of other countries without having to do too much planning on our own, but weren't sure! Any feedback would be great!

We took the Italy/Greece cruise last week. It was super expensive, and I was worried we would think we didn't get our monies worth. But, I can honestly say it was the best vacation I have ever had and I don't regret the splurge.

Between the extra time spent in Rome prior to boarding, and then seeing places we wouldn't likely travel to if not cruising, such as Sicily, two Greek isles, Athens, it was absolutely fabulous. And the stop at the Amalfi coast at the end was the cherry on top. We were consistently surprised by each place being different than we expected and just had a great time all around. It was such a relaxing way to see so many places that would have taken much effort to get to on their own. There were places we now want to spend much more time, and others that we felt we had just enough of and were glad to come back to the ship. But having everything unpacked for eight days, a consistent/easy dinner every night after being adventurous for lunches on land, and just a nice familiar place to relax after long busy/hot days was so great. Each time we came back to the ship, I was glad we had splurged on Disney too, instead of some of the alternative lines we looked at. It just works for our family and was the right touch of familiarity in foreign locations. Don't get me wrong, we also loved our long evenings in Rome, as well as the time to really get to know the city, and see the benefits of land trips in Europe, bur for getting a sampling of some harder to reach locations, it was just right for us. We are already talking about which other countries we want to do by ship and which we will do by land.

I plan to write up more on our experience when I get the time. I also learned a lot about what worked best for excursions, both private and through DCL and plan to post about that soon too. In short, I highly recommend Disney's Italy/Greece cruise to those who like cruising with DCL and want to see that part of Europe.

Edit - the forced down time on the two sea days was just what we needed too. No guilt that we were in Europe and should be out seeing stuff, just pure relaxation to recharge our batteries.

 

[brentm77]

My recommendation for any European Med sailings is have Rome Civitavecchia as your start. Med cruises usually have Barcelona or Rome as starting point with then a single port day in the other. Barcelona is "doable" as a one day port stop (port in city- smaller). Rome- you couldnt pay me.. ( port too far out ( like can be 2 h hours out), too much to see, to crowded and congested for one day, HUGE city.
Unless you have the cash to pay for a private driver and tour but still you only get a tiny taste. Rome you need at least 2 full days to scratch the surface; Its like saying lets do London or Paris in 6 hours...

100% agree on Rome. We spent four full days there and still only touched the surface. I have never loved a city I visited as much as I loved Rome. And the late evenings there were to die for. The city was a completely different experience at night. I was so glad that was our base city and not a one-day stop. For Athens and Santorini though, we thought a full day was just right and don't have the desire to go back for a longer stop. Mykonos - maybe a week at the beach there would be nice, but it would be hard to justify with Hawaii and the Caribbean being more accessible. The Amalfi coast for a day was too short and we are now talking about spending a week there. I think it is the prettiest place I have ever visited. We would also like more time in Sicily too, which we weren't expecting.

 

[brentm77]

Europe you indeed to get a "taste." The port days are intense and usually back to back to back so not as much resting and relaxation if you plan to get off in each port. But each night you can relax on the ship and have your meals prepared for you. No hunting for a place to eat. You might not be getting as much local food, but it's nice sometimes not to have to hunt down a place and struggle through a non-English menu. Sometimes it's just nice to have the food show up and eat. I'd say pick something you think you will enjoy "enough" and go for that. I've learned that personally the location I cruise is not as important as if there are things I am interested in doing in that port.

This was exactly my experience too. I LOVE food and trying new things. But eating in Europe felt like work at times. Meals were often slower than I would have liked, and even finding a decent restaurant was difficult at times. When I was in Rome, I loved every single meal, but they were so long, and there were times I just wanted quick and easy and there weren't really any options for that in the area we were staying without a long walk to somewhere with more street food. So it was a bit of a relief to be on the ship after Rome and have easy dinners. We still got to sample all kinds of food in each port, but dinner was time to relax after long days.

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

but it would be hard to justify with Hawaii and the Caribbean being more accessible.

For me it wasn't hard to justify for Hawaii at all because I didn't feel like a week on a beach in Hawaii was a vacation style I'd enjoy. Being able to see a bunch of different islands and experience a few highlights while still being on a DCL ship and having 5 sea days as well was what made me want to go on that cruise. I had highlights on each island of things I wanted to do, but not enough to maybe fill a week on each island. And I didn't really want to island hop by plane and all the hassles that come with that option. Of course I didn't get to see all my top choices in each island, but I got to do several in each island which was great. I'm not sure I would have ever considered Hawaii without the DCL option; and loved every second of that trip.

 

[brentm77]

For me it wasn't hard to justify for Hawaii at all because I didn't feel like a week on a beach in Hawaii was a vacation style I'd enjoy. Being able to see a bunch of different islands and experience a few highlights while still being on a DCL ship and having 5 sea days as well was what made me want to go on that cruise. I had highlights on each island of things I wanted to do, but not enough to maybe fill a week on each island. And I didn't really want to island hop by plane and all the hassles that come with that option. Of course I didn't get to see all my top choices in each island, but I got to do several in each island which was great. I'm not sure I would have ever considered Hawaii without the DCL option; and loved every second of that trip.

I probably wasn't clear. I was saying going back to Mykonos for a week for a beach vacation would be great (after visiting it on the DCL med cruise), but I probably couldn't justify traveling all that way for beach time, when I have two great options a lot closer to home.

I have spent a lot of time at Hawaii and I would still love to do the DCL cruise there. It sounds fun.

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

I probably wasn't clear. I was saying going back to Mykonos for a week for a beach vacation would be great (after visiting it on the DCL med cruise), but I probably couldn't justify traveling all that way for beach time, when I have two great options a lot closer to home.

I have spent a lot of time at Hawaii and I would still love to do the DCL cruise there. It sounds fun.

That makes complete sense. Interested to hear about your experiences on the Italy/Greece cruise when you create a post.

 

[lilsonicfan]

We did a Mediterranean cruise with Rome being only a port day and frankly we loved it. Of course it wasn't long enough but there were reasons we chose this cruise, so I didn't mind. We did in fact pay for a private driver (it was less than a ship excursion for our family would have cost) and had a tour guide as well, we went to the Colosseum (full tour), catacombs, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Forum, a street market, had lunch, bought some gladiator souvenirs, it was a very full day.