The Med itinerary is the greatest-hits album of travel: Rome, the Greek islands, Athens, sometimes the Amalfi coast, one stage set after another. The trade-off is honest and worth knowing: port days are short and the famous sights are far from the docks. Rome's port is ninety minutes from Rome.

So the skill of a Med cruise is choosing, not collecting. Pick the two ports that matter most to you and book the long excursion there; treat the others as walking towns, harbor lunches, and a swim. Santorini rewards the opposite of ambition, skip the bus tour, ride the cable car up, walk the caldera rim from Fira toward Imerovigli, and sit down early for the sunset crowds.

Shoulder season, May and late September into October, is the whole game in the Med: same sea, half the heat, half the lines.