Originally Posted by
tentseller
We did the 7 days RCCL western Mediterranean cruise in 09 as a family trip for my parents' 50th anniversary. RCCL was a nice ship for younger children for I had nephews and nieces under 6 and they seemed to be preoccupied.
However, Mediterranean cruising during the summer months can be hot and humid. There is also quite a long ride from port to the central part of cities.
I also made the mistake of "this might my my family's last trip together to some of these places" and not pacing ourselves. So every day it was: grab buffet breakfast and load up the backpack with snack and liquid, get off the ship for excursion, rush back post excursion and clean/dress up for family dinner during the early seating (24 of us), immediately to bed so we can repeat the routine for the next day.
So you recommend RCCL.. but its hot and humid.. How bout the Scandinavian Russian cruise? Do you think that the weather is lighter going towards Russia, and more bearable.. If we don't hit the Scandinavian Cruise this time, we'll likely try to hit it up eventually..
Good to know that the ship is good for kids.. Did you find the tours sold from RCCL reasonably priced.. I understand reading material its a bit of a tourist trap on most cruise ships, but is RCCL fair.. seems fair on the children side of things on board.. did RCCL charge an arm and a leg for children to attend the excursions..
Originally Posted by
exbayern
Much of my year and certainly my summer has been in Med cruise ports. It is interesting to see the tourists and the package tours and how much they try and cram in and rush around trying to see and do it all, especially during the very hot humid summer months.
I am also shocked reading some of the cruise blogs/sites about how much people are willing to pay - upwards of 800-1000 Euros for instance for a 'day tour' of Rome from the cruise ship with a driver.
Travel doesn't have to be expensive in order to enjoy things, and often taking a slower pace is less costly as well as more enjoyable. OP, we have pointed out to you before how overpriced many of the multi-day bus tours are, especially many of the North American based or targetted ones, and how little value they really provide.
I still strongly, strongly, and again strongly encourage you not to waste five days at Disneyland Paris. There simply isn't enough to do there to merit it, and even in peak season one can reasonably see and do almost everything in two days. With children that age, you won't be able to ride all the rides anyways, and you cannot equate it to WDW or even DL because the systems are different, guests are different, and tastes are different. It is also much easier to get around because the vast majority of families (other than from the UK or America) don't bring strollers, and there is thus far less congestion in the parks.
There are places where the train isn't really an option. My part of the world can be an example - RVO Bus gets one around to some of the really must see areas in a much more convenient (and cheaper, and faster) fashion than the train, and often goes where the train does not.
On another thread I pointed out to you that some of the tour packages can run close to $30,000 for a family of four for a week. That is just outrageous, and you don't need to spend anywhere near that even for seven weeks, if you are willing to be somewhat more like a local.
Different strokes for different folks.. most people I know would agree with you and not do Disney for so long.. for us, we only do Disney.. In Florida this past Christmas, all 20 days at Disney.. yes, no Universal, Sea World.. no nothing.. and 8 entire days at Disneyland this past summer.. people thought we're out to lunch.. we just love Disney and know that this isn't the way people go about doing Disney.. If we could stay longer than 5 days we would at Euro Disney.. why rush through everything.. and there's going to be a tonne of restaurants, events, shows, fireworks, that we will want to go through.. Plus Disney in a different country and a language I don't speak, I have a feeling it'll take us more than 5 days.. because we want to do everything..
I read on some of these cruise blogs this book where if you pay $37, you will learn the secrets of how to save $$$ when dealing with cruise ships.. I almost purchased the buy button, but didn't as I'm weary about these get rich quick schemes.. even no risk return policy, I thought I'd better ask if anyone here has benefitted from material such as this book when it comes to saving money on cruise ships..
Any tips on how to deal with these type of cruise ships? Can you prebook and get a discount.. I would have done a land tour for 14 days for $8,000 for my family.. lower if its good quality.. but can't go on this land tour because none of the tour companies take 2 year olds.. which is a real downer for me..
So cruise ships is my bread and butter to sit back and relax a bit.. even if we don't do excursions at every stop, this will at least provide us the opportunity to be catered to and travelling around where we normally wouldn't travel going on our own.. My wife thinks I don't do much when we go it alone, so she wants to take tours.. I've started doing tours this past summer in San Francisco, and actually don't mind it.. Obviously we don't want to be squeezed but understand that tour operators have to make a buck.. but is there a way to deal with these cruise ships to stretch the buck a bit further?