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Mother + Daughter = Europe


Neesa

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I had my daughter very late in life so basically I'm super old! She would be 16 in 2022. We are really interested in a RCCL sailing in Europe, we love to travel and are ready to spread our travel wings.

Thoughts on an itinerary that we can navigate together including a longer sailing 7 nights + and the flight to embarkation port city as well as hotel accomodations and finally safe transportation to the ship itself. 

I will have my MEI guru Sharla book everything for us and we were leaning towards Italy and Greece but wondering for those of you who have done something like this about your experience. What would you do? Suggest? 

We have travelled together to parts unknown before but only in the States, I appreciate your thoughts on our dream mother daughter sailing! 

Thanks so much!

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Just from my own searches recently and over the past year and a half, it looks like Royal really doesn't do many itineraries longer than 7 or maybe 8 nights (e.g., the Anthem group cruise to Norway next year). Odyssey has a couple of 9-night Greek Isles sailings that include an overnight in Athens, which could be really nice.

If you want more options for 10+ night sailings, which I personally feel is a bit of a minimum if flying all the way to Europe from the US, then you might want to look at doing a side-to-side booking for 14 nights total, or else look at lines like Celebrity that specialize more in longer itineraries.

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I don't know much about European cruising, but I do know that getting from the Barcelona airport to the cruise port is very easy. I am not a good foreign navigator so getting from the airport to cruise port would be important criteria for me.

Perhaps a B2B to make the cruise longer if that's what you're looking for.

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I have taken river cruises and MSC cruises around Europe. I stayed in Rome for almost week they took a day cruise that took me to Capri. IMO cruising through Greece is the best way to see it. I would suggest maybe doing a 7 day but flying into one destination a few days earlier to explore and staying a few days later to explore another port. RCG doesn't have a lot of longer itineraries but maybe you can combine 2 or work around one. I will tell you as a person who did a lot of land vacations, it is much cheaper to cruise.

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I'd take a Baltic Sea cruise over a Med cruise any day. Bonus point: even Royal has longer itineraries there (up to 10 days). You could even do a Baltic Sea cruise and a Med cruise - or a Norwegian fjords cruise. Flights from Stockholm to Barcelona or Rome take about 3 hours and  flights in Europe are quite cheap if you don't need any bells and whistles.

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We have a 14 day booked for June 2021 which is round trip out of Barcelona and we get to Rome, La Spezia for Pisa/Florence, Nice, Crete, Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, and Ephesus.  We plan to fly in a few days early but not sure yet if my work schedule will allow a little time after to fly to Lisbon and spend a few days there.  That is if we are even able to go.  Hope they would have something similar for 2022.

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I live in Europe and have cruised several times in the Med. Although I highly recommend these sailings I do want to say that you won't really see Europe this way. 

If you want to cruise I would recommend Barcelona to Civitavecchia (Rome) and adding days in front and back of the cruise.

If you have time, take a train from either city to Paris. High speed trains are not very expensive if you book in advance. First class one way costs about 100 euro per person. Stay a few days in Paris, take the train to London and visit there a few days and fly back. 

All depends on time and budget of course. 

 

Have a great time with your daughter, sounds like a lovely plan! 

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8 hours ago, Marga said:

I live in Europe and have cruised several times in the Med. Although I highly recommend these sailings I do want to say that you won't really see Europe this way. 

If you want to cruise I would recommend Barcelona to Civitavecchia (Rome) and adding days in front and back of the cruise.

If you have time, take a train from either city to Paris. High speed trains are not very expensive if you book in advance. First class one way costs about 100 euro per person. Stay a few days in Paris, take the train to London and visit there a few days and fly back. 

All depends on time and budget of course. 

 

Have a great time with your daughter, sounds like a lovely plan! 

I think I like this idea. Barcelona is a lovely city (unless you're Lionel Messi in 2020), lots to explore in and around that you might not get to on a cruise. 

I've not been to Rome, but it's on my list.

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You can also sometimes find transit cruises within Europe.  I'm booked on Adventure of the Seas from Copenhagen to Amsterdam in August 2021 and there was one for this year between Copenhagen and Barcelona (presumably cancelled!). It's a great way to see a wider variety of places and you can add on additional city breaks before and after.

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On 8/29/2020 at 8:07 AM, Neaxan said:

I'd take a Baltic Sea cruise over a Med cruise any day. Bonus point: even Royal has longer itineraries there (up to 10 days). You could even do a Baltic Sea cruise and a Med cruise - or a Norwegian fjords cruise. Flights from Stockholm to Barcelona or Rome take about 3 hours and  flights in Europe are quite cheap if you don't need any bells and whistles.

I second this! But it depends on what you are looking for in your adventures. We loved our 10 night Mediterranean cruise for the ruins in Italy and Greece but it was SO hot even in mid September 

The 14 night cruise we did of Scandinavia and Russia was simply incredible. Weather much cooler which we prefer and there is so much to see right near the port in most cities so easy to navigate by ourselves by walking or HOHO tours. We also sailed from Southampton which allowed a visit to London first (some also did Paris!) 

You really can't go wrong in Europe though and we have never had an issue with transit or safety. Do your research first and take the regular precautions you would in a big city and you will be fine !

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