Family Holidays: Mediterranean family cruise holidays

Take the Family holiday rating 4 stars out of 5

Why

The perfect combo.
Long lazy days plus non-stop culture for you.
Long crazy days and non-stop ice cream for them.
Cruising is great for adults and kids but for totally different reasons.
Be honest, when you were five would you rather be wandering around a baking hot Roman ruin that resembles a few piles of broken bricks or zooming down a water slide and going sea-shanty-crazy.
The great thing is – you can do both.
You see Pompeii while they stay on board and cause their own volcanic destruction.
Or if they do want to go to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the gleeful hope that it might just fall down – that’s available too.

You can take your pick from a variety of different cruise ships. We've chosen to share some information about one of them – Royal Carribean's Brilliance of the Sea. Because the ship is American – the rules are wholesome all-American apple pie – which is handy for families: No loud swearing, no topless sunbathing on the main pool deck, no hogging of sun loungers,
Oh and, of course, No dieting!

Top left: Pool Deck
Top middle: Sports Deck
Top right: Leaning Tower of Pisa

Bottom left: Pompeii
Bottom right: Theatre

When

Royal Caribbean runs cruises throughout the year.

How

take the plane and then sail

Take the family on the short flight from the UK to Barcelona. Join the ship then sit back and enjoy the ride. Or at least the ebb and flow.

Stay

Many cruise ships migrate from the Caribbean in Spring, which is why your family may find themselves on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship! They're one of our recommended options. And if you'd prefer a more 'informal' cruise then check out P&O's Ocean Village ship.

Do

As much or as little as you and your family like. Nothing’s compulsory – well, apart from the waterslide!

Whole days at sea can pass in madcap family holiday madness – hours splashing in the pool, burger and chips at the cheerful Seaview Café on Deck 12, games of mini-golf, a workout in the gym and, yes, one more go on that waterslide.

Then there’s the culture: here’s a flavour of some of the ports the Brilliance of the Seas calls at:

Ajaccio

After Barcelona, the first port of call is Ajaccio in Corsica. The ship anchors in harbour so you take a tender (small boat) into town. The crumbling, ochre-coloured buildings of the old town, the Maison Bonaparte (Napoleon’s birthplace) and the distant craggy mountains are all well worth a look.

Livorno.

Take a half-day tour from Livorno to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Be warned, it’s busy in high season. There’s a short hike from the coach park to the Tower, with thousands of visitors trudging through the streets where souvenir stalls sell plastic towers and raunchy Michaelangelo joke boxer shorts. Climbing the tower (tough on a very hot day) costs 15 euros each. But reward yourselves afterwards by sitting in the shadow of a fountain, eating delicious pistachio and tiramisu ice cream and watching hundreds of people trying to take the same photo of their friend ‘propping up’ the leaning tower.

Pompeii

If the kids can’t be tempted to see horrific gnarled corpses lying around, leave them on board and head to Pompeii on a three-hour excursion from Naples. It’s amazing. Despite the crowds, excellent guides make the town of AD79 truly come alive, pointing out the brothel, the amazingly preserved frescoes in some of the houses and the tiniest details, like the Roman equivalent of a ‘Welcome’ doormat, written in mosaics. It’s a must, particularly if your children are studying the Romans at school.

Barcelona

It might be time to say goodbye to the ship but Barcelona has plenty to offer families – from an astounding array of mime artists on the Ramblas (including a white-painted man sitting on a toilet) to Gaudi architecture, superb seafood and breathtaking cable car rides from where you can admire your ship looking tiny below.

Eat

Your heart out. It’s all included in the price. So tuck in. And you don’t have to fret about the kids leaving expensive food. There’s the Champagne Bar for adults and the excellent Windjammer Café for kids with a pasta station, pizzas, loads of salads and vegetables and a generous choice of main courses. Unfortunately when Take the Family was last on board, it shut at 4.30pm and opened again at 7pm – which as we all know is prime High Tea-time. Although there’s always room service (if a little basic).

Cost

Prices for a 12-night cruise start from £1,309 per person, including flights plus all food and entertainment. Ports of call include Villefranche; Livorno; Naples; Venice; Dubrovnik; Croatia; Corfu and Civitavecchia (Rome).