Not after one of them posh dress for dinner type cruises of yesteryear nor an 18-30 or swingers cruise.

Just a nice ship that stops off in a few Med ports of choice. 6 -9 nights type duration

any cruise or holiday companies I should be looking at please?

never done one before BTW,

The channel 5 equivalent of iPlayer will have Cruise from last night on it. MSC do a join anywhere circular cruise that goes around Sicily, Malta, Barcelona, Marseilles and Naples. That was last nights programme. Not my sort of thing but different strokes and all that.

I’ll let you know next September after we’ve done ours with P&O on Brittania.

We’ve only done 1 before which was a Norwegian one with P&O on Azura.

Top tip, lose weight before you go cos you’ll pile it on. You can just eat all day.

We did a Thomson Red Sea cruise about six or seven years ago. (Me, my wife, two small kids.) It was all inclusive, the food was good, plenty of decent alcohol. Cabin was fine. There were some lectures about the places we stopped in Jordan and Egypt which were interesting. My wife and eldest enjoyed the evening shows while I enjoyed a sip of Bushmills reading in the cabin, looking after the youngest. No black tie needed, or ridiculous dress code. All good so far.

However, the day trips were horribly expensive. (Eg over £200 to go to Petra on a coach, which would have cost £20 plus food by taxi.)

On the penultimate day the port authorities accused the ship of discharging waste and stopped it from moving, which meant we missed the final day at Ras Mohammed and missed our flight. From that point onwards Thomson were a complete shambles. Cue a massive complaint from me and some money back. I’m not sure I’d ever use them again.

Hire a camper van and do it yourself. Then you wont be stuck in a floating hotel full of people eating till they pop and drinking till they self embalm themselves. Also you wont be ripped off when you do get to a destination.

having just done the croatian islands, there were a few cruise ships. Big ones, party boats, but some ‘normal’ ships. About 20 cabins, decent stuff, nice locations. Mostly Katarina Line. Looked good.

Trimix – Member
Hire a camper van and do it yourself. Then you wont be stuck in a floating hotel full of people eating till they pop and drinking till they self embalm themselves. Also you wont be ripped off when you do get to a destination.

Because the real alternative to a cruise is to spend a fortune on hiring a small, cramped camper. Make sure to wash up properly, stow those ceramic mugs, and make sure you don’t drink too much before those easy drives to get to the Med.

Cruises aren’t my thing – my wife booked it – but campervan? Really? 😆

Because the real alternative to a cruise is to spend a fortune on hiring a small, cramped camper boat for yourselves.

Hire a camper van and do it yourself.

You… errrr… well …

Hang on.

You do know what a cruise ship is right ?

Hire a camper van and do it yourself.

& visit maybe 10 interesting places/cities in a 2 week period in a van as opposed to the comparative luxury of a decent ship?

Last time I looked it was about £850-900 a week to hire a camper/motorhome, & thats without other expenses. Fuel/food/drinks/parking/site fees/ferries.

However, the day trips were horribly expensive.

I think this is the case if you use the cruise company. A couple I worked with & did a fair few cruises used an outside company, maybe https://www.cruisingexcursions.com/ or the like.

I’m no expert on cruising but If I had 2 weeks to ‘do’ the Med I’d rather be on a big eff of ship than a poxy little van.

Last time I looked it was about £850-900 a week to hire a camper/motorhome, & thats without other expenses. Fuel/food/drinks/parking/site fees/ferries.

Makes going on a cruise look a bargain.

But we all know that the real alternative is to sit at home with a slab of cheap lager, watching Cash in the Attic and Jeremy Kyle.

My tip to enjoying the Med: don’t go to places where cruise ships dock and turn the entire place into a selfie stick ghetto from 10am to 4pm.

I like towns that have an ironmonger shop. It indicates that there are people who live there who do jobs that aren’t just based on tourism.

Hire a camper van and do it yourself. Then you wont be stuck in a floating hotel full of people eating till they pop and drinking till they self embalm themselves. Also you wont be ripped off when you do get to a destination.

True. But he won’t have a captive market of bored and randy wives to plough…

OP, Are you shacked up or single? Former – van. Latter – Floating fanny-island.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wFEB4Oxlo[/video]

Don’t get me wrong, if I had 40K+ to spunk on a motorhome & X amount of weeks a year free to roam around Europe I’d do it, but if you haven’t a spare fortune & time to do it, then a cruise is a good way of seeing what you otherwise wouldn’t.

I definately wouldn’t hire a camper/motorhome for 2 weeks in Europe though.

I have two clients who went on the same cruise ship at the same time around Norway but with vastly different experiences. The first paid for a standard ticket with his wife and spent the two weeks living in a cramped cabin and fighting every mealtime with thousands of surly Russians to get something to eat at the buffet and queuing for hours for the day’s excursion. Ryanair on water is what it sounded like. The other client booked an exclusive class ticket for her and her husband and they had a spacious cabin with sitting area waiter service at meal times and separate bar and entertainment areas from the crowds. The first came home hating it because it was stressful the second came home relaxed and enjoying the experience. The second client told me her ticket cost about 500 euro more but as she had done the basic package before she knew it was well worth it. Personally I would hate being on a floating prison.

Personally I would hate being on a floating prison.

This tells me youv’e been in neither a prison nor a cruise ship. I’m lucky & have been to both!