Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

The food was the same for breakfast and lunch every day. You can normally never find forks or knifes since they only put out limited supplies at a time. The dishes usually still had food on them and you had to look to find a clean one. It was difficult to find cups for coffee. The only juice they offered was orange juice and it becake more watererd down as the cruiuse continued. You had to pay for any beverage, even water with dinner. We purchased an extra water to take with us off the cruise and room service took it and we couldn't get the front desk to understand what we were talking about. The crew memebers spoke English, but if you had an issue, then they couldn't understand what you needed.

The places visited are fantastic but I consider instead of BARI ( in italy) it should include another place in Greece or similar such as an island.

Well laid out, organized and very clean. Service wasn't great but acceptable. The food in some of the specialty restaurants was very good, especially the French restaurant. It was nice to have a wide variety of restaurants and no assigned seating or seating time. The spa was wonderful.

The ship was nice and the service was adequate. However, we were not given the extra perks we agreed to when booking the cruise.

Overall I enjoyed my experience with Royal Carribean. The staff was friendly and helpful, the room was nice and clean, and the food was fantastic! Definitely American customer service that you wont find with other European cruise lines. The days at sea were kind of dull due to lack of activites planned. The evenings were alot better since dinner and shows begin and the casino opens up.

What is not to like about the Splendour of the Seas - I was in Europe and seeing sights that I thought I would never see. The staff was accommodating and helpful. I had an outside cabin and there was more than enough room for me and my friend.

Ship is old, but clean

Old ship, but clean. Staff was fantastic! Quality and quanity of food was terrible.

Where to begin........Bingo was canceled twice due to lack of participation. The slot tournament and black jack tournaments were canceled due to lack of participation. They do not have an adults only pool, so trying to relax at the pool was difficult at best. Don't even get me started about the food....horrible!!!!!! I have never been on a ship this small or this old, so I was shocked at the lack of stores, restaurants, bars, etc. The ports of call were wonderful - so that offset the fact that the ship was a total disappointment. We had a junior suite and it was much smaller than the last suite I was in. Overall, we hated this ship!

The ship was very clean, and the workers very nice

This was our first time taking a cruise. I was nervous because I read a review that was unflattering after I had booked the ship. I went in very open minded. I was pleasantly surprised. The ship is based in Europe and does attract a European clientele but there was sufficient English speaking clients as well and 98% of the staff spoke English. The staff was amazing. The treated us well from the get go. Our room was clean and was supplied throughout the day with fresh towels. The ship is big. I was amazed how many new people I would see each day. The activities on board were great. They had nice shows and did crazy dance activities by the pool. People just ate it up. The Cruise Director was very visible and very charming. He made you feel welcomed. The food was really good, contrary to the other reviewer's belief. You had the choice each morning of having a continental breakfast delivered to your room each morning, a sit down meal in the restaurant or buffet. No matter what your choice was it was delicious. Lunch was buffet or sit down as well. Dinner was always a surprise. You were treated to six - 7 course meals. Then there was an afternoon tea and midnight buffet. Plenty of food and plenty of choices, light side menu, vegetarian and regional. My only complaint, if you could call it that, is they don;t serve coffee at lunch or at dinner. You can go to the coffee bar and have it for a very small price. The ports of call were nice. I wish we could spend a few more hours in some of them. Mykinos is a party island and it doesn't get started until very late and we had to be on the boat. I felt we could have spent a few more hours there and arrived later to the next port. It was a very nice trip. I loved it all. The cruise as very reasonable in price and was some things we heard people discuss about it not being a 24 hour buffet was nonsense when there was plenty of food available and unfortunately we saw plenty of it wasted which all factors into cost. The ship should provide for some free beverages instead of buying tickets or at least offer an unlimited Ice tea/lemonade package to purchase. And another suggestion is to have an adult swim hour.Other than those few suggestions I thought it was perfect.

The ship itself is beautiful, the staff is nice but not very attentive. The food was good and the shows were spectacular for a cruise! Ship activities are few and this is a family cruise, do not expect to party! Biggest problem was that kids 17 and under are free, so the ship is chaos at all hours. Kids are great but need parents or rules and they are running around everywhere and it really ruins the ship due to the lack of control. It is impossible to get a seat at the pool or to even go in the pool or hottub because of the kids! Itinerary was good, but a few more hours at certain ports wouldn't of hurt!! Santorini and Mykonos are the 2 best ports and we had the shortest time there.

This was our first time on a Holland America ship. We were very happy with the staff, the itinerary, and the varied activities.

Service wasn't necessarily bad, just failed to be excellent in some important cases. Guest services was at times unresponsive and always over-crowded, and there were fairly consistent language barriers when trying to resolve issues such as room maintenance needs and onboard accounts. Some staff --bussing service in buffets as well as onboard photographers-- were too aggressive at times. Room maintenance staff disregarded our "do not disturb" sign repeatedly and at one time walked into the room while I was not fully dressed and calling out "no". Food was not as available as we've seen on other ships-- after 10 PM there was nothing available other than a few kinds of pizza; open breakfast closed too early; ice cream machines were not run very often, etc. Time allowed at some ports of call was much too short; cruise itinerary attempted too many sites and therefore limited time at each. Excursion options were limited, and for those accustomed to active excursions, --hiking, kayaking, etc.--unfulfilling.

Overall the ship was immaculately clean! You constantly saw people coming around and cleaning every inch of the ship. However, there were some downfalls as well. Generally, we felt as though we were being nickeled and dimed throughout the cruise. We would have rather paid a couple hundred euro more and had access to free bottled wate, coffee, tea, and room service at our leisure. Also, we wished there was more time spent at the ports of call. At one of the ports we spoke to a taxi driver that was talking quite negatively about MSC cruise lines and claims that they purposely spend less time at the ports than other cruise lines because they want their passengers on board spending money for as much of the time as possible. In relation to other American cruise lines that we have been on the entertainment and overall friendliness of the staff was poor. During dinner there was no entertainment provided by the waiters, which is a common theme of American cruises. There were no "themed" dinner nights to make dinner fun and interesting and DIFFERENT. Our waiter was very friendly at dinner however, it didn't seem that any of the others were. Also, if you miss your formal dinner each night there are no other FREE FOOD options other than the buffet. There is pizza and sushi available but you must pay extra for these services. The food overall on the boat WASN'T great or gourmet at all. The shows each night were mediocre....most of them were like bad Vegas shows. Overall, we were not particularly happy with our experience on MSC cruises. However, we enjoyed the port cities very much!

Ship was very clean, in good repair. They offer a wine package for dinner prior to boarding - it is excellent - the wines are great and rather economical. Having a balacony in the stateroom was wonderful. Every night around midnight we sat on the balcony experiencing the sea and the darkness. Food is very good.

Extremely clean. Service and personnel very professional. They took time with our smallest traveler and made us feel special.

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Had a wonderful time getting to know a lot about Greece and its Islands. Can recommend to anyone interested to see a lot in the Mediterranian in an pleasant way. Was specially impressed by the efficiency of the service staff to resolve a bad smell problem in the cabine by upgrading to a panoramic stateroom as soon as it became available and doing everthing to minimize the problem. Food was excellent, be it in the restaurants or the buffet. Guides, except one, on land tours (took them in spanish) restricted their action to comment what we saw with no or very little feedback on population, economy and other general topics of interest. Did not like on board entertainement - very amateur and mainly to fill in unused time. Musicians were not to bad.

I am European, but lived in US for a long time. I did not want to believe negative reviews, but I was wrong. The ship is great and clean, the locations are awesome, but the food, food service and entertainment - all definitely needs improvement. The assigned restaurant sitting was rarely on time and they kept us waiting by the closed doors for at least 1/2 hour every time. Then English speaking diners were served after Italian speaking were served, so we often ended up being served desert when others were leaving. It was sort of funny, and we thought that maybe we just feel that way, however other English speaking felt the same. And the food itself looked like it was just unfrozen. This is not what you expect of Italian cuisine! Entertainment - with all the bravado about being Italian ship - most of the songs performed were very old American songs. We would so much more enjoyed contemporary Italian music. It is time to update the repertoire. Another annoying thing was that a lot of kids were present in all the pools on all decks and that kind of limited my enjoyment of that part of cruising. I have nothing against kids, but usually they are allowed only in one pool where they can splash and jump and go nuts if they want to. Rules were not enforced there at all. But with all said, the trip was fun and we loved dance lessons on the deck and all of the well organized activities. The activities coordinators were great. And great organized ship unboarding/boarding effort helped tremendously to enjoy our stops at all locations. Yes, and people were dressed much nicer than you would see on other cruises. That was definitely pleasant.