Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

Smoking allowed in cabins, on balconies, in the casino, in bars, in crew accommodation areas, etc. From there, the smoke fills all other places: the theater, the corridors, etc.

It was very relaxing

We had a cruise on the Norwegian Jade in late January, 2010. The ships ports of call were wonderful. We started out from Barcelona (Spain), then we visited Civitavecchia (Italy), Pireus (Greece), Izmir (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt), and Valetta (Malta), and we finally returned to Barcelona. The ship was very attractive and well-maintained. The food was adequate, but far from excellent. However, the musical shows were outstanding. They were some of the best weve seen on cruise ships. But the cruise itself was marred by some unknown sickness that the ship apparently was carrying. By the ships own admission, it had some 2% (of reported cases) of its passengers on the cruise prior to ours getting sick with vomiting and diarrhea. However, Norwegian Cruise Line did not notify any of us until we checked in for boarding the ship in Barcelona. At that time, it handed us an announcement that passengers in the last cruise experienced some intestinal viral infection that caused fever, diarrhea, vomiting and/or intestinal pain or discomfort with the implication that these passengers got sick while visiting the ports of call. To combat this unknown sickness, the ships crew expended extra efforts to keep the ship cleaner by disinfecting everywhere. In fact, boarding the ship was not from 1 p.m. as announced in the literature; it was delayed three hours until late afternoon so that the cabins presumably could be further disinfected. Passengers had to disinfect their hands at every public gatheringthe shows, restaurants, and buffet lines. In the buffet lines, the crew served everything, including glasses of water and unopened boxes of cereals! Nevertheless, many people still got sick on our cruise. When we got to Egypt, the Egyptian authorities delayed anyone from disembarking the ship for over five hours! They apparently were checking the health records of the ship and were determining whether or not to quarantine the ship! But by the time we were able to disembark, half the first day was irretrievably gone. That created a lot of chaos, extra expense and hardship among the passengers to rearrange their schedules to visit Cairo and the pyramids and sphinx, switching or canceling the tours to accommodate this unforeseen change. Norwegian Cruise Line should have been more upfront with its passengers regarding this uncontrolled noxious viral intestinal illness aboard the ship. But for this unknown sickness on the ship, we would rate the cruise at least a very good! Also, though we don't recommend this ship (in its present condition), we've had good experience with NCL in some of its other ships.

The cruise was great. I would advise trying all of the resturants, although I thought the Tex Mex was horrible. Went on excursions at all of the ports, thought Turkey was the best and the trip to the pyramids, with all of the pesky vendors, was by far the worst excursion I have ever been on. Seeing the pyramids and all of the trash around Egypt, ruined the image I had of how beautiful they would be.

I would recommend it because of the value for a 12 day cruise. We had an ocean stateroom and got a very good price from . My personal opinion is NCL is good over all but the excursions are very disappointing. If you are going on this cruise, I would recommend to book your excursions outside of NCL. I had tried to reflect the issues to the excursions desk and I was being ignored. I would definitely travel again with NCL because the value it brings but definitely not the excursion (except for Turkey)

Made all the right stops, 1-9-2010 to 1-20-2010 dates worked with my time off. Clearly MSC caters to itiallian families to fill the vacancy. Ship charged for items that are normally free on other lines. Kids ran free throughout ship, shows, dinner, 2 and 3am knocking on cabin doors. Food was terrible compared to other cruise lines. Shows were very similar to American Idol tryouts.

This was my third cruise with Norwegian, first time on the Jade though, but best ship Ive been on so far! The stateroom was bigger than any Ive seen before. Very comfortable and place for everything. We were welcomed with a bottle of chilled wine, giant chocolate covered strawberries, and a luxurious bathrobe courtesy of ! Thank you! We felt like royalty when we arrived in our stateroom and for the entire 12 day cruise. The ship has every amenity you could possibly want and the largest duty free store Ive ever seen! The shows were great even when we were experiencing some pretty rough seas and it was very dangerous the acrobats said the show must go on and they gave us an excellent performance! The Eastern Mediterranean was everything Ive ever wanted to see. It was a dream come true to ride a camel in front of the pyramids in Egypt! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming! We spent two days taking in the sights in Caro where we had the best, most knowledgeable guide ever and she stayed with us the whole two days! We stayed in a 5 star hotel (I would gladly give it 10 stars!) right below the pyramids! It was beautiful. We had a couple of delays, one in Greece and the other in Egypt due to the officials clearing our ship taking longer than normal, but our guides for our excursions made sure we saw everything we were suppose to see and then some! I would recommend booking excursions through they are much cheaper and much more personalized! On our Caro trip for 2 days there were only 5 of us so we were able to do more and learn more. I could go on forever about what an awesome this cruise was, but instead Ill just recommend you experience it for yourself. Bon Voyage!

I loved the cruise. It was our family's second cruise and we enjoyed every aspect of it. We did miss one of our ports of call but with the weather conditions we experienced I can understand why. The Captain did his very best to make sure we enjoyed our cruise while still taking our safety into consideration. The ports (Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Eygpt) we visited were awesome and it was one of the best ways to get to all of them without the hassle of flying to all. I would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone.

It's a good size ship. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Very clean ship. Didn't like the stench of cigarrette smell in the casino and while walking through some cabin halls. Food was not that great.

Splendor of the Seas was a great ship and crew!!! Great itinerary and shows on board.

A very nice ship. It's very new and all common areas are clean especially the public washrooms are clean and spacious than most ships. It would have been perfect if the staff are better trained and more visible in the Oceanview Cafe.

Great cruise experience

The ship was just large enough for friendly encounters and ease of service. No long lines to go anywhere or lines to wait for food service. The new Windjammer Cafe has a more open concept for ease of service, not having to wait in line for hot food when cold is served is a plus. I did however miss the use of trays to carry food to the table. This necessitated more frequent trips to carry food. the Lounges were tastefully done, my favorites being Colony Club Lounge and Schooner Bar. we have been on over 30 cruises and first impressions are very important. from the time of boarding to Disembarcation We prefer a more formal atmosphere for dinner and were not disappointed as many people dressed for dinner. It was refreshing to see families coming to the dining room with their children dressed appropriately. this sends a positive image for future posterity..The Dining Room staff was wonderful in their service and memory. we were treated royally. This ship had a cigar lounge that pleased my husband. the Server Eric Badoon was exvceptional. from our first night he remembered every client's name, used it frequently whenever he saw us. People like this make Royal Caribbean look very good and caring. We were very impressed with the speed and accuracy od service. i would most definitely sail the Brilliance again.

It was very well run so as to spend optimal time enjoying and relaxing. They were obviously all about customer satisfaction and cleanliness.

ship was beautiful

Nice ship with Hawaiian decoration. Very professional staff, clean, excellent service, new show every day including comedy, Flamenco, Broadway and Opera.

Costa has been expanding their ship fleet very quickly. In doing so, they forgot that its more than steel that matters: customer service is what brings back customers. 1. The itinerary did not leave much time to explore each port, even with the shore excursions 2. The 'free time' at the end of each shore excursion was no more than 15 minutes! 3. The ships crew boarders on the rude. 4. Not enough bar service waiters on board, have to wait 30 minutes for a drink! 5. on board prices are very high (although that is really a Euro/$ weakness) 6. SELL SELL SELL: there is a 24/7 seliing going on board. You can't walk down the hall without crew trying to sell spa packages, water, bingo tickets etc. 7. No excercise equipment! to use the gym you have to have a cabin on the Samsura deck: an additional $1000/week upgrade from a balcony deck! (or arond $2500 upgrade from cheapest fare!) 8. Food was mediocre.

Nice. New. Clean. Staff very friendly, welcoming.

My overall impression of the ship was very good. It was a clean ship with a polite staff. They had specific hosts/hostesses for each of the different languages, to keep you well informed of all the ship happenings of the day. Most of the ship's crew spoke multiple languages - so you could approach anyone with any of your questions/concerns.