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Tell me about European Cruises....
Looking into a Eurpoean cruise in 2013. We're close to platinum on carnival so we'd rather sail with them. Which port did you leave from? Did you love the cruise? We like the idea of visiting a bunch of places instead of just one city. Tell me all about your cruise.
Thanks in advance.
Re: Tell me about European Cruises....
dh and i took a 12 night on the splendor in sept/oct of 2008 and we had a great time. we left from civitavecchia (rome's port) after spending 3 nights in rome first, went to naples, dubrovnik, venice (overnight), messina, barcelona and livorno (florence/pisa's port). we were also to stop in cannes but the seas were rough that day so we could't.
all in all it was agreat time. we had a nice balcony room and the others who cruised with us (all with inside or oceanview rooms) were on our balcony pretty much every night for happy hour.
At sea, heading to Lisbon, Portugal
Which part of Europe did you have in mind? Greek Isles, Western Mediterranean, Canary Islands, British Isles, Norwegian coast, Baltics, the Arctic, the Black Sea, Iceland & Greenland?
If you're determined to stick with Carnival, they really only have two choices this year. Only one of their ships (Carnival Breeze) is based in Europe, and it does either 12-night roundtrips from Barcelona or one-way sailings between Barcelona and Venice. I wouldn't be surprised if 2013 is similar, because they've drastically scaled back their European sailings over the last few years.
Of the five cruises I've done in Europe, the Baltics were my favorite for culture and city sightseeing, and the Norwegian coast was my favorite for nature and scenery. For the Baltics, we left from Oslo, because it was the cheapest option, and it was convenient. For the Norwegian coast, we sailed from Southampton, which was fairly simple and gave us the option to spend a few days pre- and post-cruise exploring London.
You're not the only one. I vastly prefer cruising other parts of Europe over the Mediterranean, because some of those ports are so rushed. My Med cruise was among my least-favorite European cruises, but my cruise along the Norwegian coast was one of my favorite cruises ever.