Eleven days across Europe
by sea

There's a particular kind of magic to waking up in a new European city every morning, walking off the ship into the heart of an old harbor town, and being back aboard for dinner with a glass of wine and the lights of the next country sliding by your window. Europe by cruise is a different way to do Europe — and we are converts.

This is the field journal from ten days aboard NCL Star: what worked, what we'd do differently, and why we'd absolutely book another European sailing without thinking twice.

The pitch — why Europe by ship

Three reasons we'll do this again. One: you unpack once. Compare that to the typical European itinerary where you're hauling luggage through cobblestone streets every other morning. Two: you wake up in the city. The ship docks at dawn, you walk down the gangway and into the old town. No airport transfer, no hotel check-in, no losing half a day to logistics. Three: you can sample. Some cities you'll fall in love with and want to come back for a week. Some you'll see for a day and know you didn't miss anything. The cruise is a tasting menu of Europe — and a fantastic way to figure out what you actually want.

The ship — NCL Star, candidly

The Star isn't NCL's newest ship and you'll feel that in places — the design is more "comfortable hotel" than "wow factor." But for a Europe sailing, that's actually right. You're not on this ship for the ship; you're on it for the cities. The Star is well-laid-out, the dining is reliably good (the Cagney's steakhouse and La Cucina Italian are both worth the upgrade), and the crowd skews experienced cruisers — which means smoother service and quieter public areas.

We came back from this trip with a list of three cities we want to spend a week in. That's a great problem to have. — Seanna, in the airport on the way home

The ports — in brief

Greg's working on a port-by-port breakdown — what to do, what to skip, the small place we found for lunch that we still think about. It's coming. In the meantime, the photo gallery below tells most of the story.

See all 158 photos from this trip →

What we'd do differently —

1. Add days on either end. Cruise day one starts in the embarkation port and ends with the ship leaving. If that port is somewhere amazing — and ours was — it's worth flying in two days early so you actually get to see it. Same on the back end. We added two days at the end and could have used four.

2. Pick port excursions sparingly. The ship's bus tours are convenient and you'll see the headline sights, but you'll see them in a bus, with sixty other people. We did better walking off the ship with a paper map and just heading toward the old town. If you want a guide, hire a private one for half a day — it costs about the same as the ship's group tour and you'll have a vastly better day.

3. Pace yourself. Europe is intense even at a relaxed pace. We had one sea day mid-cruise and we needed it. If your itinerary is all-port-no-sea-day, you'll hit a wall by day five.

Want to do this trip? —

NCL runs European itineraries on the Star and several other ships from April through October. We can plan something similar — or shape one around different ports based on what you actually want to see — for you, your family, or your group.

Plan my Europe trip