Mediterranean Cruise or Land Tour of Europe?

[mousefan73]

IMO if you want to see middle or southern europe do land. Things like british isles or especially Norway , Baltics a cruise is most effective. I feel bad for cruise folks who think they can do London or Rome in 8 hrs. For me it‘s a tease. We are doing a med cruise in June. The Oasis from Rome, naples, palma, barcelona etc. but we live in europe and have been to all cities except Naples. And there my only must see is Pompeii / herculus??? For us this trip is cruising and seeing sites on the side. Same with Mallorca. We have spent 2 vacations one week each. So the few hours there in Palma we are hitting the city beach and that’s fine. I like the suggestion of doing a cheaper cruise along with more land.

 

[zebsterama]

My vote is land. Take the Chunnel from Paris and go see London.

 

[anjuan]

I think you can’t go wrong either way. I would talk to your son and get his opinion too. We did the Med this past June with 4 days beforehand in Barcelona. For us it was a great combination. Like some others have said, my 13 year old DD loooved the socializing with other teens on the ship and now has friends in multiple countries! For her doing tours in multiple countries without the ship breaks would have been too much. I would have just ended up having a moody teen. Plus I really loved having a central room to come back to each night and not having to haul our luggage around to multiple places since it was just her and me.

I also wanted to note that I checked other cruise line prices and when we went in early June there wasn’t much difference in price from Disney.

But either way my biggest piece of advice is to try not to cram too much in or you may burn out. Plan for some time to stop and smell the roses!

 

[cruiser21]

I think it really depends on how much you want "me" time--not planning every single thing including meals, lodging, transportation in addition to how social your DS is. I've travelled a lot with DD who is an only child and while she's a good sport when it's just the two of us, she definitely prefers the socialization aspect of land group tours and/or cruises. For her graduation this summer I literally offered her any choice of vacations anywhere and she chose the a river cruise with ABD so she would have lots of other people around. We're ending it with a few land days but that's at my insistence

I recognize children are different but having been a single parent of an only child, having others around was best for our situation.

My kids are a lot like you daughter.
We spent time in London and Barcelona before and after our cruise. The biggest downside is when you come back to the hotel at 5 or 6pm there’s nothing do. These aren’t Disney world resorts in Europe. Most of the time your hotel room is about the size of a ships stateroom. The best thing about cruising with teens is you can spend time with them on shore and then go your separate way on the ship. Like my kids I also like the social aspect of the ship. You don’t get to see as much on a cruise, but for us it’s more relaxing and fun.

 

[kaseyC]

Another option is an escorted tour with a company that specializes in family travel like Adventures by Disney or Tauck Bridges. It's kind of the best of both worlds, you get a in depth land tour with activities that appeal to all ages plus the kids bond and hang out with other kids. I took my two youngest daughters on a Tauck Bridges Ireland tour a couple years ago and it was fantastic. Started in Dublin and ended in Shannon. The girls met and had a blast with a great group of kids while enjoying traveling through out Ireland and participating in some super cool tours and activities.

 

[Shanti]

I would do a cruise on another line and do a land portion. You're a teacher and off for the Summer you don't have time constraints. I'd want to take the longest vacation possible for the least amount of money.

I actually do have strict time constraints, because I share custody of my son. The two weeks that we're spending in Europe is the absolute maximum we can do. That's why I said that cancelling the cruise would not really be about the money, but about about the opportunity to do these other things on land. If I were to cruise, I wouldn't hesitate to cruise DCL because we both love it.

 

[Shanti]

Another option is an escorted tour with a company that specializes in family travel like Adventures by Disney or Tauck Bridges.

I can't afford those. I checked pricing for when we could go (June), and both ABD & Tauck make DCL cruises look cheap by comparison.

 

[mmmears]

I would start first by figuring out where you really want to go and what you really want to see. And then see if land makes more sense than sea. For the Med, I'd note how long it takes to get from port to city/attractions. I have heard it's quite extensive.

We did the Norway/Iceland/Scotland cruise this past summer and it was amazing. I have no regrets choosing a cruise or choosing to sail DCL. We also took a land-based vacation (on our own, not a tour) when my DD was 13/14 and she had a great time. That was mostly inland, so land-based made sense. Personally I think the cruises are best when you're interested in the port cities like we were for our Northern European cruise or for a place like the Greek Islands. It's not fun to waste 2-3 hours of your only day at one port just trying to get to/from what you want to visit.

ETA - I've been thinking about this a lot, as we start to think about other parts of the world we would like to see. The cruise is great since there's no packing and unpacking, food is taken care of, etc. But IMHO it really depends on the itinerary and what you want to see.

 

[babyruth]

thanks for asking this. we are actually considering a similar predicament. we have a party of 7 and the ages of "kids" range from 22-5, they all actually want to cruise. but the cruise for the week is the same price as actually spending 2 weeks in Italy...so it's a tough decision. we also have two kids with food allergies, thus we haven't even priced other cruiselines. we know we aren't going to go back for a long time. probably never again all together. i'm still going back and forth between just booking the cruise and breathing a sigh of planning relief, to obsessing over possible land schedules and trains between cities.

 

[cruiser21]

I can't afford those. I checked pricing for when we could go (June), and both ABD & Tauck make DCL cruises look cheap by comparison.

I about fainted when I priced out an ABD tour. They look amazing, but way out of my league. Honestly what you have planned sounds like a lot of fun. Disneyland and a Disney cruise you can't go wrong with that.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

We have done 5 land trips to Europe and 1 land/sea combo. When we do a land trip we pick 2 places as our "homes" and spend a week in each such as 1 week in Brittany and 1 week in Paris. We rent a house or apartment and a car for the countryside portion. Our days are relaxed and we tour at our own pace. We always get a home with a pool (not in the city) and have that to look forward to in the evening. We love shopping for our groceries in the supermarkets and outdoor markets and using all of those wonderful fresh veggies in our meals. I love cruising but for me, Europe is best seen by car and on foot. We're headed to Provence for 10 days next summer and I can't wait.

 

[Shanti]

I talked to my son and he said he wouldn't mind skipping the cruise to see more sights on land. I believe him because he loved our recent non-amusement trips to Niagara Falls and San Francisco. He seems ready to explore the world now, and not crave family entertainment so much. So we're going to do more land touring instead of cruising. Thanks to everyone who shared their perspectives.

I still welcome advice on touring Europe by land, if anyone wishes to give it. We'll be visiting France, Spain and Holland over two weeks. Not trying to see all the cities or must-sees, just the things that really appeal to us personally.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

In my opinion, a cruise is first and foremost a cruise, no matter where it's destination. And the ship is the main draw, which you pay dearly for. If you want to sightsee and experience other countries on more than a few hours of drive-by tourism, then go with a land trip. But if you'd like to mainly take a cruise, and have the benefit of stopping in and getting a small taste of the ports you visit, then take the cruise.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[kaseyC]

I talked to my son and he said he wouldn't mind skipping the cruise to see more sights on land. I believe him because he loved our recent non-amusement trips to Niagara Falls and San Francisco. He seems ready to explore the world now, and not crave family entertainment so much. So we're going to do more land touring instead of cruising. Thanks to everyone who shared their perspectives.

I still welcome advice on touring Europe by land, if anyone wishes to give it. We'll be visiting France, Spain and Holland over two weeks. Not trying to see all the cities or must-sees, just the things that really appeal to us personally.

I don't think you can't go wrong either way. Europe by land or cruise is fantastic. We've just realized as our girls got older that they have found land trips more enjoyable and more relaxing.