Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

We are lifelong NCL cruisers. we still love NCL just not this ship. The ship doesn't seem to be able to entertain or accommodate full capacity. 99percent of the crew was super nice in spite of the work overload, the other one percent just couldn't handle the stress and lashed out.

We enjoyed the trip. The ship and service were excellent. Many, many thanks to Hayley Williams. Again, worst aspect was the lack of internet - it was extremely poor which in today's world is a huge factor. People need to be able to conduct business, check on accounts and family, etc. We have had two previous tours with Viking, the internet on those ships was much better.

Overall, a great itinerary and great staff. Jet lag tip, the first sea day was 4 days into cruise. Be aware, some port terminals had long walks to buses if you have any handicaps with walking.

very relaxing cruise with great food,good shows and excellent dining and bars

I would highly recommend this cruise on this ship!

A totally wonderful trip. The only negative was the late flights home. The ship is beautifully designed, the meals in the dining room were fine, every member of the staff was a pleasure to deal with. Highly recommended!!

Angelo and Lillian yet again helped us curate an amazing trip. This was our honeymoon and everything was absolutely perfect. They helped with some technical issues we faced with the cruise lines website and even coordinated with family and friends to have some memorable treats delivered to our stateroom. We have our next trip already booked with Dream Vacations and can’t wait to experience more of the phenomenal service they provide!

every thing was excellent it was our first cruise in 25 years and we didn't know what to expect but every thing was above and beyond our expectations

It was okay. The cruise lines cancelled 4 excursions and we had to scrambled to find 4 other excursions. Don't like the shoreline credit perk as it is too restrictive. It would be better if it is simply OBC.

Definitely worth going on...amazing places for people of faith, shopping was amazing, people and food...very cool places

Enjoyed our time on the Pearl. Good food. Clean ship.

This was our 12th cruise, 2nd in the Med. We have cruised New Zealand, Australia, Alaska, across the Atlantic and all over the Caribbean. We have traveled to Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Japan) and extensively in Europe (and the U.S. of course) countless times. Main Dining First of all, your head chef Joe is amazing. His recipes and execution are impeccable and 5 star. If he is directly responsible for the efficiency of the kitchen, then he gets 6 stars! If there is a kitchen manager behind the scenes other than Joe, he or she is to be highly commended. I have never had such great service even from the best restaurants (and we’ve been to some of the best around the world). Timing is everything in food service. The timing of food delivery was such that hot food came out very hot. The cold came out very cold. Even the salads were cool but not icy (which speaks to the efficiency of the prep work). I’ve only had better service at my own house! Our service team (which we enjoyed for about half the cruise) was also outstanding. The team of Santanu, Omar and Keith, our sommelier, had absolutely perfect timing. Our wine glasses were never empty, the spacing of the courses was right on time, and the attention to detail was exceptional. This team outperformed the specialty restaurants (we tried all three). The only criticism I have is the temperature of your red wine. It was all too warm! Red wine should be stored at 55 degrees F. I was forced to commit the cardinal sin of adding ice to my reds. I even asked Keith to ice one down for a few minutes. Your wine choices were excellent but I would have liked more mid-priced options. Great wines are not always expensive. As it is, we spent about $500 on wine over the 10 days. Excursions We had two formal excursions, one sponsored by Celebrity, the other by . I will share our experiences with both. In Istanbul, we took a half day tour of the major sites on a Celebrity tour. It was pretty good, but lacked one critical element: FOOD. Every excursion that exceeds 4 hours should include food. I can’t stress this enough. After about 3 hours, you can’t process what you are seeing. You need a bathroom break and food. This has happened a few times in our travels and is a sore point with me. Locals are the best source of potential food options (hopefully steering one away from touristy junk food). We enjoyed such a treat on the United tour of Ephesus. Even though it was tied to a commercial venture (in this case, a carpet vendor), we were served marvelous local food at a perfect point in the tour. The other issue with excursions is there was precious little advance information on ports we visited. Key information such as top activities and closings were either omitted or scarcely mentioned. We missed the Grand Bazaar, belly dancings, whirling dervishes and a visit to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul all because we were ill-informed of closing days and evening entertainment options. As travelers, we bear some of the responsibility of planning our travels, but YOU are the experts on the ground in these places and, at a minimum, should highlight the not-to-be-missed options in every port and ensure there are sponsored excursions to take them in. Entertainment With one notable exception, the entertainment on the ship was sub-par. Even Carnival has better talent. Stephen Barry was the exception. The man should be on Broadway! Sing-alongs and silent discos are fun (the one out on deck was particularly so), but the talent was sorely lacking. Your cruise director needs to spend a little time in Dublin or NYC finding real talent. General The ship was an ideal size, not too big, not too small. Oddly, there were no elevators or stairs aft or forward, just two sets amidships. A bit too crowded by the pool on days at sea. Too much space wasted on upper decks with a grassy space (?) and odd side rooms. But hardly ever a long line for disembarking or dining. A few tips for the two main cities on our trip Athens: We stayed in Athens both before and after the cruise (after a brief visit to Vienna as our entry port for Europe). Our hotel, Athens Gate, was in a perfect location and very affordable. It boasts a rooftop restaurant (with fantastic food) with a view of the Acropolis. The shopping alleys of Plaka are not to be missed. The Hop-on bus is a waste of time. Although we routinely take one in major cities, I would not recommend it here. You see half of the sites on the way to/from the airport and the port. I would also not recommend the Monastiraki area. Far too risky for my blood. Istanbul: The port area is thriving and alive all day and most of the night. Great views of the city from there and terrific Turkish food right next to the ship. The port restaurants are full of locals (that’s how you know they are good). Highlights of the city are many but make sure to see either the Grand Bazaar (closed Sundays!) or the Egyptian Spice Market, Hagia Sophia (also closed Sundays) and the Blue Mosque (which is spectacular at night). Take in a belly-dancing show and/or a whirling dervish show. A cruise on the Bosphorus is a highlight for some.

As lovers of history, my wife and i booked a ton of walking tours on this cruise, and as a result, were pretty much exhausted every night, but we still had a fabulous time (Thank God for sea days). Would gladly do it again but would back down a little on the tours. We're in our 70's and we completed them all, so let that be your guide. Would I sail on Celebrity again? Absolutely!

Enjoyable and relaxing 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

It was a great way to see Mediterranean. Would recommend

The dining staff are wonderful! Our room stewart also very good. We felt relaxed and everything went so well. So glad that there are sinks prior to entering the buffet to make sure the guests wash their hands before eating. Keep that going! Keeps that safe and healthy for all.

Good except for the food.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Overall we made the best of the disappointments presented by NCL. We planned this for a long time as a 60th bday celebration, Masters graduation, and cancer survival. So maybe my expectations were too high. Ship was nice, food was okay, service was great other than Customer Service Desk. Free at Sea not as promised. Next Cruise not worth the time to plan. The ship took us to the ports we wanted to see. Will need to think about booking NCL again.

Great cruise it was like an adventure every day would highly recommend

Azamara is positioned similar to Regent or Oceania, however it does not execute as well as those. The ship is well appointed and even though it's 20+ yrs old, the last dry dock was 2018 and they did a good job in updating the ship. Regular cabins are tiny, the ocean club suites are very spacious and well appointed. Food is average at best; Specialty dining is 8/10 overall good but some execution flaws with seafood (crabcakes, lobster, scallops). General dining is not good; Powdered oily eggs, some frozen items. For lunch I stuck with salads and burgers which are easy to execute. Service was exceptional. Also itinerary is good as all days there's a port call and generous time to spend on each, however a couple of ports (Argostoli and Olympia) were filler ports. Embarkation was confusing; The customer service team couldn't confirm if we needed to show up to Venice Marittima or Chioggia. We showed up at Marittima and there was no signage of Azamara personnel. After 3 stops within the port we finally found them and the took us to the ship. Had I know that we could embark myself in Chioggia, we could have driven ourselves. Accounting/Guest relations/Bill settlement was very confusing; A day before disembarking I requested a balance of my total vacation charges, the staff provided a balance of $380 debit. I spent an additional $100 and expected $480 the last day I was charged $1,424. While I requested a balance for the total spend, guest relations only gave me the balance for the amount while on board and did not clarify of the extra $948 spent on prepaid tours before embarkation date, so beware that any charges prior to embarkation are not included in partial balances while on board. In Summary. Excellent itineraries and Service, Fair ship and amenities, Average to below average food and some process flaws keep Azamara a tad below its more established comparable peers.