Auto

Last night my wife brought up our desire for a kid-less vacation to her parents, and they were open to the idea of coming over to watch the kids! So this pipe dream may be a little less pie-in-the-sky than I thought. Depending on when they could come over, it would either be the fjords at the end of May or Western Med in the beginning of the month...fingers crossed it pans out!

Hello, I'm Jason, but go by Auto. My wife and I have 4 daughters, aged 13, 7, 5, and 3 (soon to be 4). We currently live in Germany, but will (unfortunately) be headed back stateside next summer. As part of making the most of our time in Europe, we started cruising this spring with a Western Med cruise out of Barcelona (on Disney). We loved it so much that we decided to do an Eastern Med cruise to Greece for Thanksgiving (ok, actually leaving Venice on Nov 3). We're headed out on the Rhapsody and are excited to give Royal Caribbean a try (and hope we like it since it is waaaaayyy cheaper than DCL).

I was leaning towards fjords. The constant struggle between me and my wife is that she is a beach/ocean kinda gal and I prefer the mountains. We cruised out of Barcelona in May, which was amazing. All of you headed out in a few weeks are going to love it! Plus, it won't be so hot, which is a plus. The highlight for our family was the Leaning Tower, words can't describe how cool it is to see in person. The one thing we wish we had was a mulligan for Rome, when we went there we were on a not great shore excursion (and the kids were tired and grouchy by the time we made port there). So that is the big draw for us about doing the Med cruise- and I think I'd like to check out a bigger ship with more offerings.

Thanks Matt! I looked at the cruise compass and it looks like there should be lots to do. Hopefully the weather is still warm enough that far south to enjoy the pool. I also listened to your podcast from your Rhapsody cruise to get some info- good stuff!

Last night my wife said a wonderful thing to me- "I think we should seriously try to get someone to watch the kids so we can go on a vacation just you and me." This is against the backdrop of us preparing to move back to the States from Germany next summer and trying to make the most of our remaining time in Europe. So I did some checking and the following cruises match our timeline (May 19) and interests: Oasis- Western Med (a mixture of places we've been to and woulnd't mind seeing again and some we haven't) Serenade- Norwegian Fjords (never been, more on my bucket list than hers) Explorer- England/France/Spain/Portugal (places we've never been, except Normandy, but I was working that trip and missed out on a lot of the sights) It's a wash for us to get to London or Copenhagen or Barcelona, so that isn't really a consideration. We're going on a Greek Isle cruise in November, and we have any semblance of fun on it, there is a good chance I will visit the Next Cruise desk with one of the above in mind. So, the question is...what would you do?

Hello...new here, but been lurking for a little bit since I booked our family's first RC cruise on the Rhapsody in November to the Greek Isles. This is our first time on RC, but our second cruise (sailed with Disney to the Western Med in May). We loved that cruise so much that it completely changed our vacationing perspective and made cruisers out of us all. Anyway, I am now a little worried that my girls (age 13, 7, 5, and 4) will not have as much to do onboard the Rhapsody. Any insight on this? We booked this cruise for the itinerary (1st, and probably only, time to Greece), but also want to make sure the girls aren't bored after looking at Greek ruins all day. Also, any tips and tricks I should know about the ship, ports, etc? Thanks!