Thoughts On European or Scandinavian Cruises?

I have three blogs posts to write, some trial financial software to test out, and some social media to schedule today. Instead what have I been doing for the past hour? I’ve been playing with tools to investigate future vacations. I started with just browsing various flights, then ended up checking out Scandinavian cruises. So instead of doing all of my work, I decided to write this post and get your thoughts.

All of this came to be from doing the open searches in Skyscanner for flights. I was just searching flights from Malaga to “everywhere”. This is often how I choose our destinations. I see where the deals are and then go from there. Compare prices on flights with Skyscanner. Next, I moved on to see where we could go without a flight. Of course this led me to travel within Spain and Portugal or a cruise out of Malaga.

Hmmm a cruise?

The last time we were on a family cruise was for our 10th wedding anniversary, which was 12 years ago as of March. It was a Caribbean cruise, which took us back to Cozumel. That’s where Alan and I first met each other. We had such fond memories of that cruise and everyone had fun. Why haven’t we been on more cruises? The kids are older now and maybe it is something they would enjoy, with their teen freedom?

Mediterranean Cruises

Malaga is the second largest cruise port in Spain. We would just have a one-hour drive to the port and just hop on a cruise ship and go. The have a few short cruises and several which are a week or more. The only thing is, we have visited many of the ports of call already and I’m hoping for some new experiences. So the investigation moved on to other parts of Europe.

Scandinavian Cruises

Have you been on a Scandinavian cruise? The Scandinavia cruises look amazing, including new destinations for us. Of course we are on a school schedule, which means the summer months are perfect timing for us. We’ve been to Stockholm and remember how expensive it was to stay there. A cruise would be an ideal way to visit some great places and help keep the hotel and food costs down.

Maybe I am just living in some fairy tale dream. The thought of seeing ancient castles, Viking history, and beautiful landscapes are very tempting. We can usually find inexpensive flights around Europe and then take off from there. I still need to do more research and thinking, but maybe this is good for Alan’s big birthday coming up this year?

River Cruises

Okay, I also briefly looked at various river cruises. Each destination looked picture perfect and intimate. These looked great for Alan and me, but I am not sure it would be at the pace for our teens. Perhaps this is something we should do in a few years to plan our 25th anniversary.

This is likely a bigger expense for us, but the limited time we have with our kids is starting to hit home now. Lars just has another 1 1/2 years until he is off to university. I know that doesn’t mean we will never see him again, but for some reason I feel we need another good family vacation. Our entire life is like a vacation, but just something special for all of us to remember. They were so young on our last cruise, I question if they really remember anything or if it is just from viewing photos.

Of course, it doesn’t need to be a cruise. We may just explore like we normally do. I am just in investigation mode and wanted input from our readers.

Have you experienced a family European cruise or a Scandinavian Cruise? Tell us all about it, including recommendations and tips. Comment below or send us a message.