To Cruise or not to Cruise??

tomcollins97

I have never been on a cruise before but am contemplating a 1 week Mediterranean or Greek cruise with Royal Caribbean towards the end of October. Me & my partner are both in our late twenties.

Has anyone been on a Med/Greek cruise before? What did you think of it? It is a suitable holiday for a couple in their late twenties? Neither of us are crazy clubbers but would like a certain amount of life for the week!

Any suggestions or info gratefully received!

Tom

bug

I would highly recommend it, I've been on two with Royal Carribean, its so much fun. Go for Voyager or Navigator.

tomcollins97

Where did you go Bug - and what time of year??

bug

tomcollins97 wrote: »

Where did you go Bug - and what time of year??

I went on the same 1 week Med cruise in September last year, with a group, departing from Barcelona on to Villefranche etc..

Then I went on one in May - a four day cruise, again departing from Barcelona, and ending in Ibiza.

The ships cater for every need. Little advice; book a normal cheap stateroom and when you get to the pier in Barcelona - go down to guest relations and ask them have they any balcony rooms and how much for the upgrade. Amazingly cheaper than booking the balcony rooms on the web and worth it if you smoke/ want to get private views leaving the ports. I think we got it an upgrade for about €100 euro.

Everything is in dollars on the cruise, they give you a seapass which you attach a credit card to at the beginning of the cruise on the pier. There is no need for cash on the boat, the seapass covers everything. You won't spend too much either, we went relatively crazy and spent about 1200 dollars between two of us for a week, we ate in the not-included restaurants though out of pure choice and went a bit casino mad. My winnings did help to reduce that bill though .

The only cities I would bother doing an arranged tour in are Rome (if you havent been before, an arranged tour is a good way to see the highlights of the city in such a short space of time, and you get fed in a nice restaurant.

For Naples you can take the Hyrofoil (right beside where the boat pulls in)over to Sorrento while everyone else goes to Pompei...?

Common misconceptions about cruises.

1) they are full of old people. - Not true, there are a few purple rinses, but the nightclub at four am begs to differ, and it's good crack.
RC also seem to be reaching out to the European Market lately due to the dollar/ euro ratio, which is attracting less purple rinse and more europeans.

2) I dont like boats I'll get seasick - Not in the Med, and the stabilisers on the ship keep the massive boat steady. It's a massive piece of enginnering, bigger than the titanic. You may find yourself walking funny down the corridoors at 12am onwards, but you wont be able to tell whether its you, or the stabilisers are slightly off. Thats how much you would notice.

Any other questions I would gladly offer any advice I can.

scoot on

I'm just back from a 7 night Alaskan cruise. Myself and my bf are also mid to late twenties. We have a fantastic time. I'd highly recommend it. There's something for everyone on the boats. Lots of different restaurants and bars to cater for all ages. As bug said you'll find lots of young people in the night club later in the night.
We did a freestyle cruise with NCL which really suited us as it was totally relaxed. No dress code or anything like that which was great.
There's loads to do on board with the casino, comedy shows, basketball courts, table tennis, a gym etc etc. It's just like a floating hotel.