Getting married in October or November of this year and looking to plan the honeymoon. My tentative plan would be to travel to Italy to spend one or two nights in country then head out on a Mediterranean cruise.

Aside from google, I don't have much of a starting point for a cruise in that region. Any initial ideas or first hand insight just to get me heading in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Best prices? Best destinations to look for? Are there decent cruises starting in Italy or should we consider something else?

Never done a cruise but Santorini is amazing.

Not a ton of help JD, but wife and I just booked a cruise for August out of Venice, Italy that stops at Kotor Montenegro, santorini Greece, Athens Greece, katakolon greece, then back to Venice. We are going to spend a couple days in Venice before the cruise to see some sights. Celebrity Constellation is the line and ship. Venice or Barcelona seemed to be the 2 most popular departure ports to choose from.

Other port options were stops at Dubrovnik Croatia, and places in Turkey. Barcelona departure will have you more stops in France and Italy.

See if the Costa Concordia is available

A few years ago I did Rome, Palermo, Tunis, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, La Spezia, Rome

My mom wanted to go so I went with her

IMO cruises are for old people and I would never want to see Europe like that

Thanks for the insight guys. Definitely looking to hit Greece as a couple of you have mentioned. I'm checking out Celebrity too CBarrett, that sounds like exactly what we are looking for.

I know it's not the optimal way to "see Europe" but its the lazy, old person way to do it, which this time is exactly what we're looking for!

We took a Celebrity cruise a couple of years ago for my sister's 25th anniversary party. Itinerary was from Rome to Messina, Athens, Ephesus, Rhodes, Santorini, & Mykonos, and back to Rome. I've been dragged onto a couple of Caribbean cruises and swore I wouldn't do another one, but Celebrity blew them away. Great ship, great destinations. Plenty to see and do. Everything was first rate. I would have loved to stay overnight in some of these places, but for a cruise it was top notch.

Check out off offerings on Oceania Cruise Line. Smaller ships but very nice and excellent restaurants. We sailed with them from Athens to Istanbul via several islands and loved it.

If you're going to cruise the Mediterranean, especially Greece in November be very aware that many of the islands are pretty much shut down. Of course there are some that will always have things to do but just be aware. Did my honeymoon November last year in Vienna (the best place to go in November), Venice (do not need more than one night), and Florence (Tuscany is incredible) and it took substantial research to find things to do that were not shutdown for the off season, so plan ahead. Just a heads up!