Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

I have cruised 4 time in my life (not a lot) but all the cruises I have been on are On Norwegian Cruise Line. Unfortunately there were several things that did not go well on this last one.

*Once we got to our stateroom we noticed the AC was not working (we had to call 3 different times to get that fixed).

*The scheduled ports of call were on a highly tight  schedule (once there I felt super rushed).

*the entertainment (particularly the music...) I have to say thank God the 4 Stations was the part of this cruise. If not for them I would have pulled my hair out. We had a 70's "dance party" every single time future perfect was in charge of the music. We heard the same songs OVER and OVER again. The DJ...  well he was talented enough to break up the Grease soundtrack (once again) OVER and OVER. This was the first time I spent more time in my state room due to lack of good entertainment. It was beyond boring. I understand the fact that all ages and groups have to be catered to, but it seems like only one crowd was being catered to this time around and I was definitely not part of that crowd.

Aside form that: Santorini was breath taking. I will most likely be returning there soon (maybe a different month because it was really hot/sticky) .

The accommodations, food choices, and nightly shows were very good. The ship was comfortable and functioned without fail or error. The prices for excursions (through third parties, I believe) were affordable and worthwhile.

Unfortunately, the service at the pool bar was slow and sometimes without care for the customer. Also, the service at the wine bar was disgusting as one waitress got physically pushy with my wife and a barman refused to serve a member of our party "claiming the bar was closed" while proceeding to serve another group directly after. On the bright side, the management teams were quick to respond, offer apologies (once with an offer of a bottle of champagne, which we declined), and assure us that they would use the situations as a learning experience for all, in hopes of improving future service.

Additionally, the children's program was not at all what was advertised. The ship offered groups for different age groups, but the first day, we left our 8 & 11 year olds for almost 5 hours expecting them to be in the "Junior's Club" (7-11 year olds). Instead, they spent the entire evening in the "Mini-Club" with preschool aged children. We gave it another go on another night, where the kids got about an hour in the "Junior's Club" but were later moved back into the "Mini-Club" to finish out the night. The ladies that worked within the clubs (similar to childcare providers) were very patient and good with the children, we feel the failure was with the programs and maybe a lack of personnel to attend each club as advertised.

Overall, we had a good experience. We enjoyed our days at sea, the all-inclusive drink package and our excursions off the boat. We would like to say that the staff in the Il Tucano Lounge did an EXCELLENT job and truly put "service with a smile" to the test; specifically: Gleese, Bartender at Il Tucano , and the servers Mary (Bali), Kaiye (Philippines), and Olga (Romania).

I would say give MSC a try, but maybe look into other cruise ships beyond the "Musica". A few of the better ships were mentioned in the MSC Cruises 2016 Annual Report (you can expect to pay more, of course, for those).

My wife and I decided to sail on Seabourn’;s new ship, at the time, the Encore on June 24th, 2017 starting in Venice and ending in Piraeus, Greece on July 1st. We were very excited as we had previously cruised with Seabourn which had been excellent. We arrived, all the way from Vancouver, Canada and boarded the Encore. The cabin was as described and we settled in. Early the following morning we were awakened by a rumbling sound which steadily got worse becoming unbearable, we were docking at our first destination. Then in the afternoon as we were resting in our cabin, and due to leave port, the rumbling started again rising to an unbearable level. I have a hearing disability which accentuates the noise, resulting in my having to leave the cabin as soon as the rumbling starts albeit at some unearthly hour in the morning. We reported the situation to the guest relations on board who informed us that it was anchor noised and that our cabin was directly over the anchor. They could not move us to another cabin because the cruise was fully booked. On our return to Vancouver we have been in protracted correspondence with Seabourn whose response has been to credit us less than one fifth of the cruise cost, which is totally unacceptable for the experience that they put us through. Now, Seabourn has put a notice out to travel agents that the cabin is subject to anchor noise. Had we been informed ahead of time, we would never have booked the cruise. Seabourn needs to understand that when customers make a booking with them, we place a lot of trust in their reputation. Obviously they don’t feel the same way. So disappointing Seabourn….

They need to revamp customer service for excursions. Rude is all I can say. They need to give guides with microphones so we can hear if you are a little bit behind... everything was rushed.... I was very upset that so many things on the boat were not included. The cleaning charge was outrageous, I've never had that in all the cruises I have been on!

It was our first time cruising with Norwegian "Star" and it will not be our last. We were very impressed with the quality of food. Our cabin "junior suite" 4 people, 2 adults and 2 kids, 12 & 7 was big enough for the 7 days. My in laws were next door and were told our balcony separator could not open which we have done on Carnival and Disney, one small disappointment. The staff was very good on a whole. Most of our wait staff in all of the dining venues were extremely helpful. The waiter we had in Moderno, the Brazilian style steakhouse was not. Cagneys was outstanding for a steakhouse at sea. The one negative about the ship or staff was that they did not do enough around the pool area except on the one sea day. They could have and should have done more. The kids utilized the kids club as much as possible when we were on the ship as they had lots of fun. One negative about the kids club on this cruise is that they close the kids club from 5-7PM nightly except the first night so make sure you plan adult dinners outside of those times. The ports of call, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Katakalon"Olympia", Piraeus "Athens", and Split all had some beauty or history. Athens as a whole was disappointing as to how dirty, and unhappy the people were. The historic sites were great though. Overall we were very happy and will cruise with Norwegian again.

I had an amazing time on this cruise. I would do it again. The cruise staff was friendly and they did their jobs well. The food was delicious in the main dining hall and the extra restaurants. The activities added to our fun time. I would recommend this cruise highly to anyone.

Twas OK but...

Am not a first-time cruiser though this was my first time on an RC ship. 7 nights from Venice to Dubrovnik, Kotor, Santorini & Katakolon.

Positive aspects -

1. Enjoyable theatre entertainment that should appeal to most - the ships own singers/dancers were well-drilled and perfectly acceptable in their 3 appearances, a couple of gymnastic/comedy shows were pretty good and a Beatles tribute act were very good. The only show that didn't appeal was by some dizzy blonde pianist/singer who spent more time telling us all how wonderful she was than actually proving it - was so unimpressed that I cannot recall her name and cannot be bothered to look it up - she kept calling herself  "A Donny Lass" - while I assume this means she hails from South Yorkshire you can bet none of the non-UK patrons had a clue what she was on about - she was full of it unfortunately...

2. Great destinations - but only if you make your own way around - the shore excursion prices were horrendous. I accept that RC has to make a profit but, as an example,  $80 each for a Santorini Volcano/Cable Car trip that you could arrange yourself for $30 was by no means untypical - rip off... 

3. Solarium Pool - fabulous covered pool and nicely laid-out surrounds.

OK aspects -

1. Food - Windjammer Café had plenty of choice, but everything tasted quite samey and in one or two cases (e.g. undercooked gristly beef) was of poor quality. Desserts were reasonable albeit somewhat repetitive - crumble and custard for Days 1-3 was quite odd, followed on later days by bread & butter pudding and custard and the next day just bread pudding and custard. 

Negatives -

1. Haranguing! - as soon as you set foot on the ship you have to run a gauntlet of hawkers. This set the tone for much of the cruise - pay extra and you can have this that and the other, or don't pay extra and you can have just the ordinary. Sort of a Marks & Spencer situation versus Asda Basics range. No cruise is cheap so the starting point ought to be a better one than RC seem to provide - but no problem whatsoever if you bow to their hassling holding out of their hands out for more of your money - rip-off again...

2. Outrageous Queues! - I was staggered by the amount of time it took to get onboard and the constant lugging around of your own luggage. At the Airport you are shepherded on to a coach for the Port but then abandoned without direction. Get in the scrum to haul your own cases out of the underside of the coach and find your way to the badly-signed queue that you think is check-in, but in reality is only the queue to hand over your case. Then more trekking to another area where you espy a humongous queue to the actual check in. Must have stood in line for nearly an hour for a 2-minute process and was then packed off to yet another line for hand baggage examination before finally being allowed on the gangway. Airport to ship was around 2 hours, scuppering any chance of seeing Venice itself. But, guess what, if you were a "Crown and Anchor" (i.e. you've paid extra), you could skip through to another line where you wait barely a couple of minutes - rip-off yet again...

Overall then I say let the buyer beware. If you are a cruise-virgin then you may not be too disappointed because you have no comparison to make, but for me and the wife there will be no more RC cruising. They are not the least-expensive cruises, so why do we feel that we were given poor value-for-money versus other cruises we have taken...

Bottom line - be prepared to be ripped-off...

We sailed on MSC Poesia June 17-24,2017. Entertainment onboard was good, from all lounge bands to production shows. No comedy show was offered I'm guessing as there were many different languages onboard. 

Embarkation process was too long.  We had to stand in line to drop off luggage, another line to register, another line for security, another line for picture. We then had to get our card from room stewart then go wait in line to activate it.  In past experiences on other cruise lines we lines up once to do all this. 

Food. No wow factor even substandard selection and quality. Salads And pasta were not even good. If you wanted lobster on gala night 21 euros extra.

buffet lines were not organized and hand sanitizer was not endorsed and often empty. They were always sections closed which caused congestion and so many people.  We wanted to grab a cookie and we're told we had to wait until 5:00. It was 4:50.  Really?

Excursions- not impressed. Not alot of info was given on the description and itinerary was not really explained for the day. Getting off the boat was often kaotic and very congested. For one port where we were on our own we were told it was a 25 minute drive into the city so we paid msc for the bus ride 13.90eruos. It was 25 minutes there however it was only a 5 minute bus ride back to the ship- felt deceived. 

Customer service- nothing stands out. Wasn't bad, but wasn't great

I would never sail with MSC again and would not recommend them

It definitely wasn't as good on Rhapsody of the seas as it was on Vision of the seas just a few months before. The quality of the overall cruise experience this time - food, entertainment etc appeared cheap and mediocre, which wasn't the case on Vision of the seas. We chose Royal Caribbean as they promise more superior cruise experience, but judging by this cruise, we may as well have been on MSC or Costa as far as the quality goes (and we would have saved a lot of money too).

The staff's enthusiasm and ability to work with passengers.  There needs to be some training on recognition of errors in Ship card when status sliver card Aurea  and which does not agree with numerical code 601 or 609 when should be 431. Many staff persons assumed numerical code was correct but fortunately a few others did not although it took a while to get the coding error identified not by service desk but future reservation staff and then error was promptly corrected. Also need some training on forms for laundry and need for customer keeping one copy when submitting

The crew was very accommodating, Cabin was clean and Food was decent. The only downside was our Royal Carribean tour of Athens. Spent more time traveling to Athens than seeing it. It should have been 5 hours instead of 4. 

Do not buy the drink package service for drinks was in slow motion so you never get your money's worth plus you really have to be a big drinker to get your money's worth.

Going to club 6 every night although a bigger variety of music would have been better and also i think club 6 could do with more promotion and advertisement as it didnt seem like it was bigged up enough

The entertainment should have been better around the pool area, we had only two live shows, all the rest was music playing, and that was bad, Our room was good, some of the meals were cold when we got them. Breakfast was also cold, not warm. The ship was old, not the ship that I wanted. To many kids in the sauna, no body around to control them, they should have been in the kids pool are not in the adult area.

We would say it in german: 

Einige Kleinigkeiten waren nicht zufriedenstellend:

- der Duschvorhang klemmte

- wir bekamen trotz Nachfrage keine Badetücher für den Pool

Sehr Positiv: Die sehr freundlichen und netten Kellner beim Abendessen!!!!

We chose this cruise for the availabilty and itinery. About 5 years ago we did a Mediterranean Princess cruise (small ship) which was a wonderful experience. Excellent food and service and we did get a lot of excellent experience on the tours that we paid for. We were hoping to experience something similar.  I will say that all the employees were very nice and everyone was working hard and the balcony stateroom was roomy. Unfortunately, all the other amenities that we paid so much for were terrible. Some examples: I called pre-cruise to reserve a table at one of the pay extra restaurants (Moderno) and was told to reserve a table for four as you can't get a table for three. I did. I did not realize until the meal that they would charge me for four, along with all of the added additional gratuity, even though there were only three of us. I felt scammed. We paid for four meals and only got three. At the Cagney steakhouse (extra but a la carte), both our medium rare and medium steaks were served well done. Honestly like shoe leather. When the steaks came the second time both were raw throughout and filled with so much gristle that they were inedible. I actually took pictures. The cafeteria was a poor cafeteria and the dining room food was typical of mass produced food and very tasteless. Ginza served us completely cold potstickers twice after they had obviously forgotten about us for a full 30 minutes. We did get the drink packages and had no issues or trouble ever getting drinks and soda. Be aware that you get no water and will still be charged for any water. Also you will need to buy bottled water (once off the ship) for any excursions. We did the ship shore tours and while they were decent, they were short for the price. We were concerned about missing the boat with a teen along but really should have risked it as the excursions were not worth the price even though the guides were nice and seemed knowledgeable. The sound equipment was broken every single tour and we wasted a lot of time exchanging and trying several to find a working set. We had thought our teen would be safe participating in their teen program, however, the teen program was unable to let the adults know when the teen left the program and was possibly roaming the boat. So we worried much of the time whether our teen was even there. Ours was luckily, however, I was not comfortable with the very lax monitoring and there were few organized activities.

Great ship, great staff, great food, great route. We visited wonderful places. I've loved everything, and can't wait to do another cruise. I always recommend Royal Caribbean to everyone.

Ship food was not very good, both dining and windjammer. The cabin was way too small for 3 adults. Entertainment was amateurish. The staff was great in main dining Clarissa, and room attendant Rome were great. All the ports were very good. Would of liked to have spent more time in Kotor. The beaches were beautiful.

The superb treatment by the whole crew and the itinerary.  Great beautiful ship.  All 3 resturants great.      Best weather one could have, 75 degrees , clear skies and no rain.

Cabin and ship were both great. Restaurant and general staff great. However after paying top money got balcony cabin was most disappointed how MSC charges for Everything. (Plus a surcharge of 15 per cent on on drinks ) ships communication was bad, excursions and shuttles over priced, it was cheaper to hire a can for three hours between four than use ships rip off excursions. Food was ordinary in buffet, restaurant food was boring and too small. Management seems more interested in emoting your pocket than helping make your cruise enjoyable. Over 50 people we spoke to felt the same, and like us will never cruise with MSC again. Most unhappy. Cruising should be fun not stressful. Everything on the ship is an added cost to your cruise. Be prepared, we spent modestly and spent over 650 euros.

My favorite part of being on board the Norweigian star was definitely the cleaning staff.  They're always so happy and chipper and always make sure to greet you with the most upbeat attitude.  I admire that so much.  Although some of the service staff at the front counter would probably need a little more cross training.  I got a few different answers from different staff in regards to my on board account but overall everything was taken care of smoothly.

The food was amazing!  I cannot complain at all.. I seriously ate everything!  One thing I was missing though was some naan bread for Indian night.  But they had a wide variety of other breads to make up for it.  

I would definitely sail with Norwegian again!