The secret is getting out $$ for $$ the best bargains are trans-atlantic cruises!! You can fly to Europe,stay a few daysat a reasonable hotel and tour that city whether it's Rome, Barcelona or Venice. and then cruise back to Florida..We have cruised t/a NCL last year from Barcelona, Celebrity from Barcelona and this October to celebrate our 55th anniversary we will cruise from Rome... Start looking now and check out prices, ports and ships.. Oh yes, we did cruise Princess from Manaus to Ft. Lauderdale..didnt care for Princess compared to Celebrity.. You can cruise with a balcony and CC level for well under $3,000 per person.. or in some cases per couple.. The reason you want to cruise FROM EUROPE is that you get to see great cities and when your exhausted.. leisurely cruise back to the US/Florida.. Bored, in the middle of the Atlantic..I think not.. I do know in retirement as Parrot Pop says "there are no days off.. We do prefer t/a because in many cases they are less port intensive and we are finding it harder and harder to say that if this is Tuesday it must be Rome, if it's Wednesday it must be Florence... you get the point.. Right now you can check out the Celebrity Eclipse t/a next year or as we are going to do.. wait until the new Celebrity Siloutte which is just being built has its itinerary released.. If the four of you are going to be celebrating your anniversary on the ship.. there are fabulous "extra" restaurants.. I do know that we will celebrate our 55th anniversary in Rome.. and hopefully see the Trevi Fountain at night... and on the ship.. h ave a special romantic supper at Muranos.. BTW we celebrated our 50th anniversary on the Celebrity Century..our 40th was spent going on the NCL Majesty to Bermuda. As it is we prefer 14 day cruises...and two nights in the departure port..

I did a transatlantic crossing on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 (which regularly plies the Atlantic, so not really a re-positioning) and think it would be a terrific way to celebrate a milestone wedding anniversary, if New York-Southampton would work for you. While not out of your suggested budget, the QM2 however IS de rigueur formal for dining in the Britannia restaurant and many passenger even dress up to some degree for "afternoon tea" (which may appeal or not). I was not bored one iota...(drama classes, theatre, musicals, movies in the "Planetarium", poetry readings, a spa, plus many things I didn't have time to do like trivia games night in the pub, quoits, ping-pong)...loved every minute!

Have fun deciding! Daniel

ParrotMom -- wasn't the cost of 1 way airfare more than the cost of the cruise? I looked into a transatlantic cruise a while ago and the cost of airfare 1 way was three times the cost of the cruise. Or did you do something differently that I don't know about?

Parrot Mom,

Our last 3 cruises have been on Celebrity so I was pleased to read your recommendation. As for touring a few days prior in Europe: do you suggest using the precruise packages provided by Celebrity or should we attempt to do this on our own? Also if we do the latter is it difficult and expensive to arrange transportation to the port?

As you can see we are very inexperienced at this. All previous trips to Europe have been with group travel. I am experienced in arranging our U.S. trips (hotels, car, air.) I guess I'm nervous about the language barrier.

I'd slso like to read your comment re: the expense of one way airfares.

teacherD.. we have thanks to other cruises found a fabulous affordable hotel in Barcelona and also upon their recommendation found a fab. english speaking guide. If you are going from Barcelona write me at parrotmom@verizon.net Our driver picks us up at the airport, drives us to t he hotel and then if we want to tour picks us up and the day we leave the the airport is at the hotel to pick us up with luggage and then drop us off.. The cruise we are doing from Rome in November, we have found a hotel and on another board people who are hiring private service to get them to the port. On the whole it is better to meet people on the cruisecritic.com board who are on the same cruise and arrange private tours.. much better.. and not always cheaper, but it's better to be with 8 people than 60..

GBelle..depending on where you are going.. watch for the sales..We have flown Aer Lingus and for the second time Swiss Air.. I want to arrive at the port country with no more than one change over/transfer. Depending on the cost of your cabin (inside, etc.) maybe we are paying round trip from Boston via Zurich, Zurich to Rome.. approx. $900.00 each.. There are certain airlines I do not want to fly on... Celebrity has a new deal.. and frankly booking airfare is the most stressful.. We fly after Labor day..more like October and fares do go down. We just booked for a cruise in three weeks Southwest Air from Providence.. less than from Boston round trip to Ft. Lauderdale. As a matter of fact.lol our last t/a in November cruised into NYC and we took a Peter Pan Bus home to the next town...no fuss, no TSA..and no hassle of waiting in airport, etc. etc.. it was a delight

ParrotMom -- So you purchased a round trip airfare but only used it one way?

If you are looking for something under $3000, there are a few transatlantic cruises with SeaDream Yacht Club, and all except for one are under $3000. This is a great deal for such a high-end, luxury cruiseline. You can find some great deals doing transatlantic, and I love the idea of spending lots of relaxing time by the pool, having people wait on me hand and foot, and eating amazing food. And congratulations on your 40th wedding anniversary!

We are discussing our first t/a cruise and also have concerns about the one-way airfare, or in our case, a multi-city fare. We have to get from Orange County, CA to Rome and then from Miami back to CA. I looked to see what the fares are running for the same time period this year (we'd be cruising in 2011) and the airfare was over $2,500 per person! That is just not in our budget. So I looked at round trip SNA-FCO and round trip MIA-SNA, and the cost was just about $1,200 per person. We just wouldn't use the return part of either ticket.

But it's still pretty expensive, so we'll just have to wait and see if we can pull it off.

SCFoodie, have you check with the cruise line on their multi-city airfare? Soemtimes, they may surprise you. We are flying (from the east coast) to Athens to start a cruise and flying back from Rome. The airfare is about $900 plus tax. I try to book some fare on my own and the cost is more than double.

You may also find cheaper airfare after the airline has published their new schedules. Usually they change their schedules twice a year and you can only confirm after the schedule is out. Base on the fine print, everything is suject to change, sometimes without notice.

TeacherD,we have done maybe 4 t/a's all with Princess. We are going again in Sept London to Fl. Do not use cruise line precruise packages, remember they are charging you per person, not night for your hotel.We booked our air with Princess,$600 each.good deal. this is a 16 day cruise they balcony for 1599.00. So you can do a 3000.per person. About the tours,if you know a few words,hello,thank you, and please you will find most speak English, they like for american to try their language. So do the trip, you will not get bored, and since you are going with another couple, you all will be in this together. Good luck.

I think if you can arrange the timing, you can do this for the price you want and have a fabulous time. We took our first cruise (7 nights in the S. Caribbean) in March and came home and immediately booked a TA for three weeks latter. We did the TA cruise in April on Princess, Crown Princess, from Ft. Lauterdale to Rome, with ports of call in Spain and France. We left the ship a day early (Pisa) so we could tour Cinque Terre, Luca and Florence.

We choose Princess because it fit our budget, and we wanted to try a TA. We had a great time. We were not bored for a minute. There are other itineraries I would have enjoyed more, but some ports were new to me, and I really loved Provence.

I liked departing from the US and being really relaxed by time we got to Italy. It depends on what your schedule is like before the trip. It also depends on when you can go, and what ports of call you would enjoy.

Check prices on vacationstogo. We got super great prices and excellent service both times, at the very last minute.

You can easily plan all your time in Europe yourself with help from folks on the Europe board, even some of your port days. Somebody can help you with anything from cost of train tickets to best routes, hotels, etc.

Oops. Sorry, Just realized I misspelled Ft. Lauderdale.
Anyway, just looked at vacationstogo, and there are several repositioning cruises in the next few months for under $1000,00, some as low as $449.00 for 14/15 days. In the Spring, you will find more going from US to Europe to spend the summer in the Med. Fall and winter, they are coming back to the Southern US or further South for the winter.

Sorry, realized I hadn't answered a question about air fare.. we do not live in Florida and airfare is a major problem for us... there is no such thing as "one way". It seems many of the people who do c ruise t/a are from the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area and or not so far away that they can't drive the port.. There is transportation available I believe from either port in Florida to the other for low cost...