Prior to booking the Norwegian Barcelona to Venice cruise, we had a similar itinerary booked on Disney. When I saw that the Norwegian Spirit was going to Istanbul, Ephesus and Athens, three exciting ports that the Disney itinerary did not include, I cancelled the Disney cruise and booked with Norwegian. The cost was just about half of what the Disney cruise cost. In fact, by the time I paid for the cruise, bought air fare and paid for great shore excursions in every port, my costs were just about what the cruise alone cost on Disney.

Having cruised a Disney Mediterranean itinerary before, I knew what to expect. With Norwegian being so much less expensive, I set my expectations a bit lower and I have to say, we were not disappointed with any aspect of the cruise. Yes, the cabin was smaller than a Disney cabin. No, there was not as much storage space, but for the price, we felt the cruise was absolutely wonderful and a total bargain.

Embarkation in Barcelona was smooth and easy. We were surprised that we had to surrender our passports since we were traveling to non-European Union countries. We were glad we had color copies of our passports with us, although the cruise check-in folks offered to make black/whiter copies for us. Read more