The Wonderful 'Med'

[Tenpin]

The Mediterranean is a great place to start your cruising experience, generally a short flight and more 7-day holidays on offer. Who wants to pay for 14 nights or more if you don’t know if you will like it?
The more popular cruise lines plying the ‘Med’ are P&O, Fred Olsen, Royal Caribbean, Princess, NCL and Thomson. With the Italian lines becoming more available, Costa & MCL, then they must be considered if for nothing else the discounted deals they sometimes offer.
Also making head roads into the ‘Med & Europe’ are Holland America, Celebrity, Oceania Cruises and of course Cunard, these are 5* cruise lines but are now affordable by many.
From my February price list there is a P&O 3 day taster in May from Southampton at £399, a 7-day on the NCL Jade now to November from £589, up to 20 days on HAL Eurodam at £1925. All are inside cabins.
I have not motioned Ocean Village 1 & 2 as both these ships are moving to Australian shores within the next year or so. Which is a shame as these filled a place in the market for 1st time cruisers.
Over the coming weeks I will outline the pros and cons of each line, to give you a better idea of what to expect.

So what about the ‘Med’
Broadly speaking all ports of call can be done as DIY and a cheaper prices than ships tours. BUT do your research before you go, and get back to the ship in plenty of time. (45minutes at least before sailing time)
Ships tours are expensive, but to some worth every penny, the certainty of not missing the ship, usually exceptional guides with information about the sights you will not get from a taxi driver. A good indicator is the travel time by coach given on tour brochures on board.
I.E, Rome is two hours from where you dock, Florence about 90 minutes, both worth buying a ships tour if only to the city centre. Again all ports can be found on the web with lots of info and best places to visit.

I will add to this post as questions are raised.

[FoxMan]

That is a very informative post.

I wonder if you could answer my question tho, Lets say i booked a cruise for me and my partner for 7 days, and she or me became sea sick and we would like to get out of the cruise at the nearest dock point where planned anyway, do they refund any of your payment ? Or is this to do with your insurance.

Thank You in advance

[Harleybabe]

FoxMan Wrote:That is a very informative post.

I wonder if you could answer my question tho, Lets say i booked a cruise for me and my partner for 7 days, and she or me became sea sick and we would like to get out of the cruise at the nearest dock point where planned anyway, do they refund any of your payment ? Or is this to do with your insurance.

Thank You in advance

From what I have learned when my Daughter and Hubby were seasick and my Father was at sea for very many years and in the roughest conditions imaginable if you are seasick it lasts for 2 or 3 days and then you get your "sealegs" so to speak and are then ok. If you do suffer from seasickness you will suffer it everytime you set sail to sea, it is not something that you get used to or immune to. I could be wrong but I would not have thought holiday insurance will cover seasickness as it is not considered an illness as such. If you disembarked at any point I would assume it is you that will pay to get home as many people do get seasick.

[Tenpin]

FoxMan Wrote:That is a very informative post.

I wonder if you could answer my question tho, Lets say i booked a cruise for me and my partner for 7 days, and she or me became sea sick and we would like to get out of the cruise at the nearest dock point where planned anyway, do they refund any of your payment ? Or is this to do with your insurance.

Thank You in advance

Firstly the quick answer is no refunds, this would indeed be down to your insurance terms. highly doubtful for sea-sickness.

BUT!!!!!!
I very much doubt that either of you would become sea-sick to that extent, unless you hit a storm or gale, which again is un-likely as the weather forecasting is so good today that they change course to miss bad weather.
Seacondly with a modern ship the use of Anti-roll bars fore & aft (back & front) & huge side stablizers reduce motion a lot in minor seas.
Thirdly At the first sign that you may not feel well then a quick trip to reception will get you a sea-sickness pill, that failing to work then a visit to the Doctor will get you a injection, which indeed will stop motion sickness. (Jab will cost though)

Now I suffer from motion sickness in a car, but take a pill most days at sea and I am fine. You could also try Wrist Bands, Ginger Tablets or Tonic, or any motion tablet like Stugeron 15 which allow you to drink as well.

Hope that helps,

[Harleybabe]

My daughter gets seasick on the ferry to Belgium from Hull when it is like a millpond and she has tried every remedy, even from the doctors. When we booked our cruise the travel agents told us the ship was so big, had stabilizers, we would not hit bad weather etc that there would be no seasickness at all. How wrong he was! Lady I work with went on a huge liner last year and despite anti sickess pills and treatment from the ships Doctor (injection and then an enema) she still suffered for 3 days. No offence but cruise passengers still suffer seasickness even on the new modern ships and it is complacency to assume there is a miracle cure for everyone. If you do suffer it is horrendous for the days you are sick. the sea is vast and there is bound to be motion and therefore seasickness.

[Tenpin]

Hi Harleybabe,

To be honest I think your post only applies to about 1% of all cruise passengers.

Yes there are certainly those who get ill regardless of weather or motion, those will get sick even if the ship is in dock, we had a deckhand on one tanker with us who got sick when leaving King Georges Dock in London sailing down the Thames, but was fine in rough sea.
I myself get car sick, but only if I have to sit in the back. after 60 plus cruises I have only suffered three times, two of them crossing the Bay of Biscay in March.
Patches, pills, injections and even wrist bands work for lots more people than they don't.

It sounds like you know more cruisers than I do, as apart from myself I only know one other who has this problem. 1.5 million Brits will cruise this year about 100 will get so sick they will not cruise again.

[Harleybabe]

Hi Tenpin, Sorry but I do not know where you get your figures from as many that I have spoken to over the last few years have indeed suffered seasickness and from what they said it is not just the odd few on the ship. As I said I was in the same cabin as two members of my family and was on I believe the 3rd largest liner in the world at that time in calm waters and they suffered terribly. Google it and you will come up with stuff like this;

What Is Seasickness?
Seasickness. Just thinking of it is enough to make you feel squeamish. Seasickness is probably the number one reason that many vacationers who love to travel do not cruise. Seasickness is simply motion sickness that occurs on ships, and is sometimes called mal de mer. Seasickness is the reaction of your body's inner ear balance system to the unfamiliar motion of the ship. The movement of the ship causes stress on the balancing portion of the brain. Your brain sees things on the ship such as walls and furniture and instinctively knows from past experience that they are supposed to be still. However, since these items are actually moving with the sea and the ship, the inner ear gets stressed and confused and nausea sets in.
Seasickness often disappears within a few days, even without treatment. The brain finally adjusts to this new environment, and the sufferer gets his or her "sea legs." One unfortunate aspect of long trans-ocean voyages is that it may take a while for you to adjust to being on land again. How horrible to think that about the time you recover from seasickness that "land sickness" sets in!

Who Gets Seasick?
Seasickness and motion sickness can affect anyone. Ninety percent of all people suffer from some type of motion sickness during their lifetimes. As an experienced cruiser who has had seasickness a few times, I can testify that it makes you feel miserable and embarrassed.

[Tenpin]

Hello Harleybabe,

Firstly I was answering a hypothetical question, the quick answer being that very few people do suffer from acute seasickness on the short overnight sailings between ports in the Mediterranean, at any time of the year, as for the most part we are sleeping.
You will have noticed that I did say unless you hit a storm, which of course I am unable to predict, not knowing when this cruise might take place.

This Thread being about the Mediterranean I assumed that this was being asked, not about crossing of the Atlantic or sailing from Southampton across the Bay or English Channel. Given that cruises in the Med are usually short hops very close to shore then in the main there is very little motion. Had the question been about a Transatlantic crossing on Cunard, I would have given a different answer.
Yes I agree there are some people who the different cures do not work on, I am sorry your daughter is one of those. Having done many ‘sea days’ even feeling queasy is no fun as I can verify, but the pills do control my motion sickness to some extent.

In giving any advise we assume certain things in order to be as helpful as we can, in this case I believe I gave a truthful answer, but neither you or I can tell who will be ill.

[jonydeesuja]

Cruises of the Mediterranean are available year-round, though the most popular departures are offered between April and October. Most vacations range from seven to 14 nights, but some sailings are longer. Ports of call vary depending on your itinerary, but your cruise may include stops in picturesque ports in countries like Croatia, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, France or Italy. Some cruise lines also offer cruise tours, a combination of a Mediterranean cruise and a land tour to Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey, or London and Paris.