Cruises - Affordable Mediterranean Cruise Advice

I am currently an exchange student in Europe for the first time, and would like to take a cruise in April over my spring break. Being in college, I am on a limited budget and was wondering how to find a cheap nice cruise in either the Eastern or Western Mediterranean. Any advice is appreciated.

To get a good overview of what's available for your dates, use the vacationstogo.com search engine. Once you've decided what cruise to concentrate on, you may find it cheapest to book through a U.S. online cruise agency. The prices are generally better than with booking in Europe -- though not ALWAYS. Have a look at cruisecompete.com to get offers from various agents, but check out their reliability via google, tripadvisor forums, etc. April is still early for the Med season, but you will be competing with others on school vacation for the inexpensive cruises.

Finally, get the most cruise information possible on the boards at cruisecritic.com

Hope you enjoy your first cruise -- it can be addicting. (We're doing Buenos Aires to Valparaiso on Celebrity Infinity in just a couple of weeks.:D)

Costa and Louis Cruiselines offer some of the cheapest rates for Mediterranean cruising, keeping in mind you get what you pay for and safety compliance is also an important concern when looking at the cheaper cruise lines. There are some great itineraries out there and the convenience of the departure/arrival ports can also be an important factor. Genoa is an easy port to get to by train. Civitavecchia in Rome is more problematic. Take a look first at the departure port that is closest to you and see what cruise lines service it, and then work backwards from there.

If you're willing to take the risk of not going on the cruise, April is also early enough in the cruise season (in fact, it's probably too early for a lot of the mainstream lines), that they often have some last minute sales to fill ships. Course, given that we're basically February now, last minute is really any time now. There's probably also some smaller lines that primarily cater to Europeans that might have some ships there too.

That said, April is a little early for most cruise lines to do too much in the Med. Costa and MSC both will have a larger presence there, and I think RCCL has a ship year round nowadays, but most of the ships that are going to spend the summer over there are still finishing up the Caribbean season over here. (Late April, early May seems to be when they start moving them over.)

As mentioned, Vacations To Go's 90 day ticker is probably a reasonable spot to look to get an idea of what might be available at what price.

Make sure you check the age requirements for each cruiseline. Most cruiselines require you to be a certain age before you can book. For example, RCCL requires that at least one person in each cabin is 21 or older. Costa has the same requirements, except for holiday or peak season sailings, where the age increases to 25.

The more "mass market" lines like Carnival, RCCL, Costa, NCL, etc are your best bet for cheap. Choose an inside, lower category room. Remember that the lines price rooms based on a minimum of two persons. If you sail solo, you will pay up to 200% for the privilege. Exceptions to this are a couple of ships run by NCL and Holland America. Holland America, however, is a more upscale line that others, and will generally cost more. Exceptions are found with research.

You might also look at the website cruise.com. I like that you can use their search feature to compare all the lines that are sailing a particular region. Plus, they often have extra discounts not offered by other online agencies or the cruise lines themselves.

Either way, you will most likely pay more for a cruise anywhere in Europe than to the Caribbean or Mexico.

We have done several European cruises and have found great bargains (about $85 a day) but you couldn't pay me to go on another Costa cruise. (Awful food, service and shows). We paid almost the same for Celebrity and NCL. Now that Celebrity has feestyle dining with prepaid gratuities I would choose them again.

Here is the link for the 90 day ticker http://www.vacationstogo.com/ticker.cfm?t=y&sp=y Closer to sailing date there are often great deals, especially on inside cabins, and if you are on a budget, those would be ideal for you. Have a ball ;)

Some slightly more unusual itineraries will be available from Thomson. They have a fleet of 5 ships, and operate from different ports when compared to the major US/European lines. They may not be what you're looking for but as they wont usually come up when searching with a US agent, it would be wise to seek them out before you book. If you wish to, and if it's easier, they have a large airline that will fly you cheaply to Corfu, Turkey, Cyprus, Palma or wherever the port of embarkation is. This may be cheaper than you trying to arrange your own flights, particularly at short notice.

April can be a hard time for the mainstream lines to fill the ships. MSC, Costa, Royal & NCL all have ships based in the Med year round. You should be able to find something, but I wouldn't leave it too much later. Ships, at least at the company I used to work for, nearly always went full, and usually without last-minute discounting. Of course, there are exceptions, but if you're trying to fit it around a specific date, flexibility won't be an option.

If you're travelling on your own, NCL will probably be one of the better budget options, as Norwegian Epic, with its new Studios are priced for one and should save you lots over the single supplement elsewhere. However, it doesn't start sailing from Spain until mid-May.

Mark

Hey

I live in India. I always want to go on Cruise. I'm even saving but I want to know the minimum amount one should keep in mind while thinking of cruises.

Barcelona has become a good port for inexpensive cruises - especially last-minute ones. And many of the lines sailing from BCN cater to Americans (unlike the European lines with their more lenient smoking allowances and topless decks). EasyCruise used to follow the easyJet model for inexpensive short-term cruises but they were incorporated into a Greek company a few years back. Speaking of which, you might try looking for inexpensive Greek island cruises out of Pireaus. You won't be on a large cruise ship with all its amenities but you might be able to avoid the dreaded single supplement.

Make sure you check the age requirements for each cruiseline. Most cruiselines require you to be a certain age before you can book. For example, RCCL requires that at least one person in each cabin is 21 or older. Costa has the same requirements, except for holiday or peak season sailings, where the age increases to 25.
thx for the info!

Unless you have a friend sharing the cabin with you, prepare to pay more than published rates as a single.