European Cruise
8 November 2007
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Sarah asked:
“I am planning a European cruise. I was wondering if anyone knows the best month and why? I just don’t want to find myself visiting Europe when everyone travels there.
I just want to avoid the crowds. Also I have a 3 year old child, I am just not sure if I should take him. If I do the Euro cruise and decide not to take him, I have my mother who can stay with him.
If anyone can give me an advice on that too, I’d sure appreciate it…”
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As far as the cruises in Europe, first you need to decide which destination.
I worked on ships some 10 years and my favorite (in the world) are the Baltic cruises. They run from June trhu August.
Leaving Southampton or Dover or Harwich in the UK and going to: Stockholm, Oslo, Kopenhagen, Tallin (amazing!), Helsinki, St. Petersburg and some other places along the way.
Several companies have a Baltic season, its proven to be one of the most profitable, second only to Brazilian season.
I did it with both large ships and small ones.
My favorite was Thomson Celebration, very old ship, British passengers, great food and service.
But if you are into partying this will not be your style and pace.
If you prefer a younger athmosphere, Celebrity has a ship that serves a younger crowd as does the Royal Caribbean.
On the Baltic cruises, several cities are walking distance from the port and very safe, exception being St. Petersburg where you have to go on tour with the ship’s shore-excursion staff.
Norway with Midnight Sun is cool as well, but a lot slower.
Both take 14 days. They also have some Norway with Fjords that last 7 days.
There are companies that run from Amsterdam, but avoid Costa at all cost. Costa stinks. Carnival managed to turn Costa into the worse cruise line Ive ever worked on.
The Mediterranean has several options, with Greek islands, no greek islands, with Africa or not… but honeslty, Baltic is 10 times nicer.
Look for a place called Visby (some call it Wisby), not many ships stop there, but it is amazing. A Swedish city on the Gotland Island, civilization there dates back to 7000 BC!
Denis
29 December 2007 at 7:52 pm