10 things I wish I had known before taking a European Cruise

Before I explain what I wish I had known, let me first say that I LOVED OUR EUROPEAN CRUISE, and I would HIGHLY recommend it. We were able to tour Greece, Italy, Spain, and France, and it was an amazing experience!😁

Do tons of research on transportation BEFORE you leave home! And WRITE IT DOWN IN DETAIL! The ports are so far from the cities and tourist sites. We thought it would be much easier to get to places, but it wasn’t! We had to walk MILES to the train station in Livorno to get to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We tried to get an Uber or other ride share, but there just weren’t any. It was difficult to do research on the ship because of the limited internet usage. My recommendation: immediately when you get off the ship, ask the taxis that are there to take you to the nearest train or bus station. Then, once there, you can buy tickets to the city you need. Once off the train or bus, ask the taxis there to take you to the attraction(s) or exact parts of the city that you want to see. Public transportation is inexpensive in Europe. Train tickets are about $5-7 and bus rides are on average $1-3.

2. Speaking of internet- just buy the unlimited internet package from the cruise ship! Our AT&T bill the month of our cruise was $999.18! 🤦‍♀️ Also note that land and sea require 2 different international add-ons. The land wasn’t bad- $12 a day for the first line, $6 a day for the 2nd line with a limit of 10 days in a month. (The most you’ll pay in a month is $180). Where we got in trouble was overage charges while at sea. We bought the $60 cruise package for each phone, ran out of data, upgraded to the $100 packages, ran out of data, and were charged overage charges. We also got some free WiFi with our cruise price, but that went FAST!

3. Skip the organized excursions! We were so disappointed in the very little amount of free time we were given. We only took 3 excursions out of 7 ports, but on those 3 we felt like we were just walking places, following everyone, and couldn’t see and do what we wanted to. One excursion literally gave us 23 minutes of free time. We had so much more time and freedom finding our own transportation, even if it was tricky and challenging sometimes.

4. You never have enough time! When you’re at the mercy of bus and train schedules, you have to carefully plan your day so you don’t miss the cruise ship. Many times, I felt stressed that we were cutting it close to get back to the boat. We were always just one missed train or bus away from disaster…🤦‍♀️

5. It’s EXHAUSTING! The ship always docked at 7-8 am. We only had 1 day at sea without a port, so there wasn’t much time for rest! We were up and at ‘em early every morning in order to see everything at the port. This is not for the faint of heart and is not a vacation if you want to relax!

6. Pay up for a balcony! When we first booked, I purchased the cheapest (smallest) room possible. We ended up bidding on a balcony room upgrade, and we won it. Our bid was $400 per person ($800 total), but TOTALLY worth it!!!!! That was a highlight for me- sitting and on the balcony having coffee, reading a book, listening to the waves, watching the sunrise, and waking up and pulling back the curtain seeing a new scene every day. I could never not have a balcony now!!😆

7. Keep your bathing suit (and anything else you need for hanging out at the pool) in a bag with you when boarding the ship. We boarded at 11 am, but our room wasn’t ready until 3:00. We checked all of our luggage, so we had nothing with us. We ate in a restaurant, then sat by the pool, but we could have been sitting in a hot tub!

8. Take advantage of the 2 day flight variation. Get to the port city early. It took us a full day to recover from the long flights and time change. You need a little time before getting on the ship. We added 2 days before and 2 days after the cruise, and we were so glad we did.

9. Skip the buffet- except for breakfast! The breakfast buffet was delicious and a quick option for grabbing food before you leave the ship early on port days. We tried the lunch buffet once and the dinner buffet twice, and each time we were disappointed. The food was cold and stale. Avoid the lunch and dinner buffets if you can.

10. Do NOT waste your money on the priority status option. We were on Norwegian and paid $199 each for priority status that was supposed to get us a list of perks. The only thing we used it for was free breakfast delivery- a $4.95 value…ugh! We never needed it to get off the ship or for early disembarking (we didn’t want to get off the ship early- we couldn’t check into our Barcelona hotel until 3:00 pm). It was a BIG WASTE OF MONEY!

All of these things aside, once again, I would HIGHLY recommend a European cruise. We were able to tour Greece, Italy, Spain, and France. It was an INCREDIBLE trip that I feel SO blessed to have had the opportunity to do!😁