Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

The ship, staff, tour guides, NCL excursions were great . The main dining rooms did not have enough variety of food (many repeat items every night) but we enjoyed the free style dining and relaxed atmosphere

All our meals were plentiful and delicious

The ship needed more staff in busy areas for bar service and the free beverage area was only in one area making it difficult to access

Overall the experience was wonderful

It was a fair cruise, not the best we have had with Royal Caribbean, definitely,

the ports were the highlight of our trip.

Not the best food, our cabin was the smallest we have ever had , fun activities and good shows.

I've been on more than 20 cruises and I would rate this as one of all-time worst cruises. The food was absolutely terrible. Luckily we have a sense of humor and our table-mates also had a good sense of humor. We sent our food back almost every night. It became a joke - which food will we send back tonight.

Getting off the ship where we tendered was so disorganized. We only had a few hours in the most beautiful ports in the world and we spent most of the time waiting for our tender number to be called. Costa really needs to improve on getting passengers off the ship in a timely fashion so that people can enjoy and explore the beautiful cities. What a shame that we spent most of our time waiting.

I don't know why we stopped at Bari, Italy. I think spending more time in Mykonos or Santorini would have been much more interesting.

We took a shore excursion in Santorini and I plan to ask for a refund. We tendered in and then took a bus ride to the beach. We spent 2 hours at the beach, with a drink ticket for juice or coffee. No soda, wine, or beer or even food for the price of the excursion. The bus took us back to the town (according to the excursion for shopping) where we waited in line for two hours for the cable car ride to catch the tender back to the ship. Total waste of time. We were the last ones back on the ship. I'm not sure that they would have left without us had we not made the cable car ride in time.

We had a good time with our friends and made the cruise the best experience possible. But it was not because of the ship or Costa's organization - it was friends and family.

I hope Costa listens to feedback from their customers. They have so much to improve on.

We have cruised on 4 different ships, including this one. This ship was the worst of the 4. The food was 

marginal at best, and the help was not the friendliest. Our cabin boy was very nice, and a couple of people on the Lido food area were also nice. The ship was very clean.

i ended up in the emergency room on the ship, and I must say, the nurses and the Dr. Were wonderful. 

Alice Nelson

We had a great lifetime experience by taking both of our adult kids 2 Grandchildren and our sons girlfriend on the Greek cruise form Venice. We enjoyed each day and every port that we visited. The ship was fantastic with free style dining and activities that all ages could enjoy. 

We were in a triple room. First night bathroom wouldn't flush, the fold out bed came to my knees and my legs hung off. And it was hard as a brick. All throughout the cruise we had to call 2-4 x a day for the toilet . After the 3rd day cplaining about the bed they had an extension and a "

duvet"! Happened once. Day 4 they gave me a mattress. Guest services was a nightmare. Food was poor and redundant. Entertainment was laughable..spa was good..

Our family had a wonderful cruise!  This is the second time on the NCL Jade...what a great ship!  The ship's staff were terrific.  We are already planning our next cruise.

The cruise was great, but the excursions were too short. Although we spent considerable time at each stop, we could have seen a bit more had the tours offered by NCL be more comprehensive. For example, our day in Mykonos included a morning tour (4 hours) without the option of an afternoon tour (extra 4 hours to spend in town). Had NCL combined tours, we would have been able to see or learn a lot more. The same can be said about our visit to Santorini. NCL crew members are always great, but the Art Show was not as pleasant as we had experienced on previous cruises (Art Staff, particularly the auctioneer) were too pushy and a bit condescending. Our first visit to the Blue Garden Cafe resulted in extended wait, only one person to serve all of us, and poorly prepared food. I would do it again, but NCL needs to look into these issues.

This cruise was several steps below a Carnival cruise.  The food was typically not good.  We looked forward to eating ashore.  The crew (other than a few crew members) were not friendly and seemed annoyed to be asked questions (especially at the customer service desk).  There were few fluent English speakers, and the excursions were sometimes cancelled for want of sufficient English-speaking passengers.  The ship itself was in great condition.  Oddly, the pools all shut down at 10 pm, and the slide was only open four hours per day, meaning it had long lines during those hours.  Unfortunately, the cost of the cruise was high, making our experience all the more disappointing.  Find another cruise line.

My family and I really enjoyed this cruise.  We have not been on a cruise in 10 years and were worried that it wouldn't be family friendly initially and that we'd sepnd 7 days in cramped state room.  Instead, our balcony suite was perfect and we were pleasantly surprised that there was something for everyone.  This ship's cabins were more spacious than others I've seen.  Additionally, there were plenty of dining choices for my daughter who has a peanut allergy, I enjoyed the spa and evening entertainment, and we all liked the liveliness of the ship.  As for the ports and itinerary, I highly recommend that you book the shore excursions instead of trying to wing it on your own so that you can really see and enjoy each of the destinations.  I wish that Norwegian would add Athens to their itinerary without removing any of the other destinations.   Venice, Olympia, Santorini, Mykenos, and Corfu were each beautiful in a different way.  We will definitely take another cruise.

I was very disappointed with the food in the dining room. I have cruised for over 100 days with Holland America and have always enjoyed the choice and quality of food in the dining rooms.  In fact, I cruised on the Nieuw Amsterdam in the Caribbean the first year it was put in service and the food was excellent.  I hope this experience will not be repeated on future Holland American cruises.  The dining room staff were excellent. The cabin stewards were also very good.  The shore excursions were good except for the night gondola ride in Venice.  We paid $129.00 for a 30 minute gondola ride, water bus ride and a long walk from the water bus to the gondola.  Extremely overpriced!!  The entertainment was not good in the theatre.  The ship is very nice and the staff were all pleasant and helpful. 

Too many people for my taste but nice cruise anyway.  Expected an upgrade with my "upgradable single room" for more than $2,000 but did not get a balcony.  Cannot understand why the crew puts loungers away so early - they should be available (at least some of them) all night.  Also, definitely do not understand the strict limitation on the times that the waterslide is open.  

Background: This was my 4th cruise, first time with NCL. It was my second time on a Mediterranean cruise and my third time to Greece. For my fiance, this was his first cruise ever & first time to Greece.

I personally liked NCL a lot. I loved the open dining plan and also felt they had a lot of great on-board activities. I enjoyed: Zumba, abs class, salsa dance class, and the Elements dance show. We also had a free dinner in the La Cucina Italian specialty restaurant and enjoyed this. We payed for the Jasmine Garden Asian restaurant but didn't love it--my food was way too spicy, even though I asked for otherwise.

Things I disliked were that many on-board things still have an extra charge, such as yoga. We are already paying a lot to go on the cruise! I also had a hard time with the food. I eat a primarily vegan diet and had a hard time finding things. Pretty much every veg option is smothered in cheese or cream sauce. The menu is not very explanatory either... expect to find random items not described on the menu in the dish.

For the ports, I love Greece! As I said, this was my third visit, and I still think it's one of the most gorgeous countries I've seen. My fiance loved it as well! We did the excursion in Olympia and thought our guide was great. At the other ports we just did our own thing & had a wonderful time.

If I did another European cruise though, I would go in May like I did the first time I went. It was just way too hot & we just couldn't escape the sun or sunburn. I would advise others to do the same!

Our last cruise was 16 years ago so I  don't really have anything to compare this cruise to.  We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, the ship and the activities and all the ports of call(maybe not so much Olympia). The ship was very clean and the staff was exceptional. We had a balcony room which I would highly recommend.  The stateroom was plenty big with enough storage for the 2 of us.  We did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants as we figured we could do that at home and we had already paid for food.  I would not recommend the buffet for dinner because it was not very good.  Breakfast and lunch were ok at the buffet but sometimes just so crowded.  We ate dinner every night at Alizar since you didn't have to dress up like you did for The Grand Pacific. The menu was basically the same except for the steak choice was different.  We both thought the food and service in Alizar were excellent.  The only excursion we purchased from the ship was the guided tour to Delos from Mykonos. We enjoyed that because we liked hearing about the history.  You can do it on your own for much cheaper but if you don't have a tour guide with you you are just looking at a bunch of rocks. I do wish we would have purchased the excursion to go to Oia in Santorini. The ship stops there at 1:30 and you have to tendor into shore.  If you purchased an excursion you get off first and that particular tour takes you to the other side of the island where you take the bus to the top.  Otherwise you tendor into shore and take the steps, ride the do keys or ride the cable car to the top.  Line was very long for the cable car so we purchased tickets at 25 euros to take us to the other side and rode the bus to the top  and over to Oia.  (Scarey ride to top). Once you reach Oia it is the most beautiful, picturesque place ever (white buildings with the blue domes like you see on the postcards) with the most spectacular view I've ever seen.  Sit at one of the cafes, have a beer or lunch and just take it all in. You will love it!

Overall, I would highly recommend this cruise. 

Everyone ate at seperate tables so there was not much of a chance to make new friends  The dinners in the included restaurants were not as great as the meals of past cruises.  For those great meals, you had to go to the pay restaurants. There was a $20 transaction fee each time to exchange dollars for euros  and the exchange rate was far above the actual exchange rate. Comparing  Norwegian to Princess, Royal Carribean or Celebrety, Norwegan comes in fourth. We were celebrating our 48th wedding anniversary and according to the tickets, we were supposed to get an anniversay cake which never materialized.  It just wasn't the Norwegian Cruise that we have had in the past. The itenerery was good as far as the ports were concerned but the tours were overpriced. We did our own thing at each stop and had a great time.

I had a great time on the cruise.  Unfortunately, I had a bout of gastrointestinal problems midway through the cruise, and it caused me to miss an excursion I paid for and several meals.  Despite this issue, I still had a great time visiting places I have never been.  I flet that I had enough time in the ports of call to explore the areas nearby.  The crew was excellent: friendly, helpful, and dedicated to making my experience an enjoyable one.

we like everything on theship speciality the indoor swiming pool but we missed the discotec on other ship like liberty of the sea.we like the stateroom.the dining room.we are very happy with our house keeping.and the weiter HOLENKA CUACO.KARANDEO CHUTTEEYA.SERGIO GUILLEN AND RG MENDOZA. for a customer service like them  we had the best experience ever.we recomended splendor of the seato anybody who wants to have the best cruise of their life.

This cruise was not my first time on a costa cruise. This one was not all what I remembered of Costa..

From the quality of food, to the service, a real nightmare. Our room was about the only thing that had not changed much . We talked to other guest, all had the same reaction, a very disappointing cruise.

It was way too big and difficult for English speaking guests.  Of the 4000 guests fewer than 300 were English speaking.  This made participating in the on board events difficult.  There was no advance preparation for any excursion.  No history or what to see was given.  The push was to take the excursions they offered which were very costly.  The food was attractively presented but  lacked taste.  The staff was generally helpful but were unable to give personal service.  My luggage was lost and they did provide me with some essentials but did not follow up on locating my luggage very well.  

This was a wonderful cruise which allowed us to visit Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, and Katalon. At every port we were greeted by the NCL crew and at the end of the day they were there also to welcome us back. There were plenty of acrtivities on board as well as well thoughtout excursions.