Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

I would never recommend this cruise for numerous reasons. They treat English speaking people with disrespect. They have outdated décor including old pillows, towels, etc. Always late and they change times without notice of everything. Requested two things on this trip......twin beds and special meal....both took too much time to get finalized. Very unorganized, very............ Continental breakfast every morning as no meals were served fresh. Fruit was not ripe. Frozen most of time. Staff..........well so disappointed. Never smiled!! Announcements were in Italian always first then sometimes we never knew if English coming and never does. Cared only for themselves as never opened or held door open while trying to come thru at same time. Never said thanks for coming as left or gave any verbage last day at all. Charged enourmous fee for transportation when docking was too far to walk. Never free shuttle. So much more!!!!!

From start to finish all went well. Apart from schedule change for current political reasons within Turkey which we fully understood . The alternative ports were good and it turned our a bit of a mystery trip - Ship was great and will consider again sometime in the future.  

Overall experience was good because I was traveling with dear friends who are seasoned cruisers and had already been aboard for 12 days by the time I arrived.  They had had serious problems with their original suite, and as a result, I benefited since the hotel director and captain went out of their way to offer amenities and additional privileges - champagne, sweets, savories, flowers, Neptune Lounge access, complimentary dinner and drinks one evening in the Pinnacle Grill - that I would not have enjoyed otherwise.  We were very disappointed because the stops in Istanbul and Kusadasi were cancelled, as was the cruise through the Dardanelles - and those were the elements we were most looking forward to.  The best part was being at sea - and watching the full moon reflect on the water.  The worst part - the wildly out-of-control children running up and down the stateroom corridors and through the Lido Restaurant.  Avoid any sailing that might coincide with school holidays!

The excursions that DID go ahead rangers from outstanding to very good

Giving me a lower limit to write a review is not very user-friendly. The categories are also too broad... and inaccurate as we did not go near Turkey at all.

The cruise was great , everyone was wonderful had a great time. However was very disappointed with the photographers , on the last night of the cruise I wanted to go and view my pictures that we had taken thru the entire cruise and purchase them . We had forgotten to view them earlier and went to see the last show it had ended at 1130 and as I got to the place where they had the pictures , one of the photographers told me they just closed it was  11:35 when I got there.I told them ok can I view my pictures online and if I like them can I purchase them online . He said no and that if you don't order them before 11:30 that night they then throw them out! This vacation was my daughter sweet 16 th gift and we took some pictures on captain night  so we can have memories and it was very disappointed and very stressful to find out we had no memories at all!

The itinerary on this cruise was awesome. The food on the ship was really good; however, the service was way below average. Our room attendant was the worst we had ever had in 18 cruises. Overall rating for NCL is 2.5.

- Awesome itinerary with a variety of interesting ports

- Loved the quality of the shore excursions that included eating at authentic restaurants; great guides

- Jade is a clean and well maintained ship; excellent service 

- The buffet had a nice variety of food; menus in Grand Pacific were good

- Liked that promenade deck was not always crowded 

- The smoking was annoying.

A big disappointment.

Having recently been on cruises with Celebrity and Holland  America, MSC are a distant 3rd on accommodation, service and food!

Venice is a poor port to embark/disembark from.......will advise all friends to avoid.

The food is not of a high standard and the "smash and grab" buffet was a disaster.

I have to be honest and say "never again MSC".

This was a great experience for our very first cruise. The staff was awesome! We would like to especially thank Michelle for our housekeeping, Omar and Antonine for our great dining experience, Marius and Jalena for our magnificent time at the World Class Bar we spent many nights here, and Happy at the sunset bar. They all made our experience very special. We will definitely be cruising again with Celebrity.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CELEBRITY CRUISES.  THE SERVICE WAS IMPECCABLE, THE ENTERTAINMENT WAS AWESOME AND FOOD WAS DELICIOUS!  OUR CRUISE DIRECTOR, ALEJANDRO,WAS REALLY FUNNY AND VERY ENTERTAINING.  THE STAFF AT THE OCEAN VIEW CAFE ESP. DAVID MAGAN AND JESSICA WERE VERY ACCOMODATING AND FRIENDLY :) THE SHIP WAS IN REALLY GOOD CONDITION AND AREAS WERE ALWAYS KEPT CLEAN.

I was extremely impressed with Celebrity Cruise line.  Everything was top notch from the staff to the shows.  They were very attentive to my needs.  This was my second time on the Equinox yet they keep it looking fresh and new.  The room is a little tight but being in concierge class there were fresh flowers in my room everyday.  The balcony is almost as large as the room.  I highly recommend this cruise.  The ports were perfect.  I only purchased the overpriced excursion in Kusadasi Turkey because of the greater sense of security it gave me.  You can do much better in each port in Greece by just buying a ticket on one of the buses that go around the town for $15 Euro, etc...

Definitely recommend this cruise company/ship. From the moment one boards there's an array of activities, entertainment appropriate for any age group and gender, not to mention cultural cuisine. This itinerary channels a walk in early  civilization, either on your own or with the assured safety of tour. It's a historian dream! Once back from any excursion Equinox ship, recently dry docked appears to be renovated; its comfortable layout affords space suitable for every taste. And entertainment stands out from other cruise companies, superb quality! Cruise Director and staff exceeded expectations. Highly recommend this voyage where history, archeology merge with fun!

My favorite part of the cruise was dining in the Aquarius dining room.  The service was top notch with Juan Carlos and Neltina as our waiter and waitress for dinner.  The quality of the food was great.  My boys loved the activity center for the kids where you drop them off for a few hours and they get to play with kids their own age.  Oatmeal cookies at the buffet are a must.  All the chilled fruit soups were delicious. 

Nice ports! Trieste, Croatia and Montenegro are the best! Greece did not meet my expectations and much lower level than other countries! Trieste - take bus 6 or 36 to the palace - beautiful views - grab your bathing suit! Split - spent few hours on the beach right across from port and then walked around city - try their pita pastries - yum! Kotor, Montenegro - went up the mountain - definitely worth it even if you can only make it half way up the mountain! Kotokolon Olympia - took local tour bus - very dirty ride - garbage collectors had a strike so roads were covered with trash - went around Olympia, did not go inside as we didn't have enough time - if you take local tour bus, make sure you have at least 3-4 hours for the tour. Corfu, Greece - was way better than Katakolon - took open bus around the city - worth it for a quick ride - have lunch on the hill next to the airport, planes land few hundred feet from you! Dubrovnik, Croatia - go inside the fort - beautiful views! Venice - we stayed 1 day before at Una Hotel - $300 and 3 days after the Cruise at Friendly Venice Suites - same quality $140. For me Venice is only worth couple days unless you are fascinated with history of architecture - you get the feel of Venice in 1 night and 2 days - too many tourists during the day. If you stay closer to San Marco - you'll encounter more tourists, the further away - less. Everything starts to calm down after 7 pm and it becomes physible to walk the streets. we took gandola ride for 80 euros and split it half way with strangers - it was 3 of us and 2 of them. 80 euros is standard before 7pm, after 7 pm - its 100 euros. 

Ship provided very little information about ports, except in the form of the excursion descriptions, so definitely do your homework, which I didn't, so we had to find Tourist Info at every port and buy a map and we still had good time!

Definitely worth getting up an hour or two earlier and watching ship getting into the ports in Montenegro and Croatia. We had a balcony so it made it easier. I feel like Costa chooses to go between islands as an addition to the itinerary rater than going straight to the port. These views can only be see from the 11 story ship! We did all excursions on our own. 

Food was good (buffet had a limited selection) but i wasn't going there for the food. Service in the main restaurant was very quick - considering the amount of customers and dishes for each customer. We were finished with our 4-5 course dinner in 1-1.5 hours every night. I think 4th and 6th day had a great surprise performances from the waiters and we danced around the restaurant with our waiter.

The only complain was no ATM on the ship and request to register Credit Card on the Costa account, which I don't own, so we had to wait till the next day to even buy water until we got of the ship and got cash from ATM ashore to put on the Cruise account, only later to find out that Costa was able to use Bank of America debit card  as a credit card. Never been on the ship with no ATM...

Overall - great times.

My daughter participated in Voice of the Sea  competition and was finalist in Tu Que Vales (Italian version of Americas Got Talent)- we got to spend time backstage - great addition to the trip experience.

Don't forget your white clothes for the White night! And definitely attend White Night party - very fun! Same as any events with Animation Team.Great Animation Entertainment Team on the ship! 

Great Great Time!

The cruise was great, the tours while a little pricey were ok. Each tour was run by local tour subcontractors, some were excellent, and others were so-so.

The food started to become monotonous towards the last three days, and some of the main dishes were inedible to me, (Maybe I have bad taste?), and went down to the buffet to eat. The big problem was a monotonous menu.

You would think when traveling to a countries   port, they would have picked up on the obvious to serve a few local dishes from the country visiting.

However, I would give 5 stars to the crew, and staff. They were amazing.

All the stops were very beautiful and the itinerary was perfect, loved the service and the service was amazing.

santorini was the most beautiful place we ever saw followed by Mykonos and Crete.

This cruise was a cruise that stopped at some very lovely ports. The ship appears to be dated. Having gone on another cruise of the Mediterranean with RCI I can say that this ship should be retired. It does not have the activities of other cruise ships. What made the cruise very good was the crew. The crew member who took care of our state room was a friendly exceptional woman. She was there with whatever we asked for. Our waiter and assistant waiter were also exceptional serving us what we like without even requesting it. Without the crew this cruise would of been a 2 star cruise but as I said the crew made this a very good cruise. I would also have liked Santorini to be one of the stops, perhaps instead of Montenegro.

Cheryl, our travel agent, was fabulous and helped us with our upgrade to the penthouse - she was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and fun to talk to.  Cruising on Seabourn is akin to a floating Four Seasons - excellent service, terrific restaurants and just a 5 star experience overall.

The ports of call were very interesting and pleasant. Unfortunately thats where it ends. The food was very salty. The service desks always had long lines. The organization at each disembarkation was substandard, particularly at the end. They did not prioritize for guests who had flights to catch, did not provide for an orderly queueing at the exit, did not intervene when near riots occurred when some guests tried to cut the line. Overall not worth it.

We enjoyed each port and itinerary on the ship. As our first Royal Caribbean cruise, we found it is quite comparable to Carnival,  Princess cruises except there is no special services for special occasions. Such as my husband could not  buy me fresh flowers for our anniversary nor the ship acknowledge our special occasion.  All we got was a notice for jewelry sale.