Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

This was our first Celebrity cruise, and we were more than satisfied. Beautiful public areas. There were no lines for anything! Food was very good. Service was amazing. We had a balcony room on deck 12 with more than adequate storage. Toiletries were provided. The bathroom housed the largest cruise ship shower we had ever seen.

NCL Freestlye Cruising meets the needs of our family. The passenger capacity was perfect.

We recently sailed with Norwegian for the second time, and given the fact that my first experience with them (on the Norwegian Gem) was very good, I had very high expectations for the Epic. Unfortunately we were very dissapointed. All Norwegian did with the Epic was to add more rooms to be able to cramp more people into the ship. The size of the ammenities and the entertainment options remained basically the same, thus resulting in everything always being very crowded. The entertainment options were limited and you basically had to pay extra (and a lot of $) for almost everything. Service on the dining rooms was not the best, it was slow and the staff seemed to be really stessed out (I'm not blaming them, they probably had too many tables to attend to) thus sometimes resulting in not a very friendly service. We did like the stops that the ship made, and all the excursions, which we booked through the ship, were worth the money. Unfortunately our time on the ship was not as relaxing, fun or memorable as we were hoping (and paid) for. For this reason I would not recommend this ship, and after this experience this would probably be the last time I cruise with Norwegian.

On the positive side: great food at all hours, great service, extremely luxurious ship, efficient management.

On the negative side: Every cabin needs a ceiling fan, the exercise room needs better aid conditioning or floor fans, the volume of the speakers everywhere is ear-splitting, the activities are generally mediocre (and ear-splitting) at least for older people, the onshore trips vary between excellent and mediocre.

For a new cruise ship we expected more facilities related to activities, not just the standard pool and putting green.  We felt nickeled and dimed to death.  We felt that the attention we received from the staff was because they wanted to sell us something.  This is the first cruise ship that we have taken that we had to pay for steam and sauna after a work out.  The fitness facility was not adequate to work out for free weights or fitness equipment if three people wanted to work weights and machines, it was crowded.  The entertainment was lacking and inconsistent.  In 13 nights we were only offer two quality show productions.  The entertainment and activities offered in the first have of the cruise were not offered in the second half, with a diffenent reduction of entertainment and activites in the second half.  An outside movie was canceled without notification or without relocating to another venue.

We had two poor experiences with customer service.  We were told by the Cruise Director that if there was anything they can do to rectify a late departure from Santorini, please let them know.  We had a situation and the MIS staff told us they would not help us.  Furthermore, Guest Services told us to settle our account for the first half of the cruise, which we did, and they fail to inform us at the end of the cruise that the changed their mind and did not settle our account.  We were therefor very confused and wasted our time and their resolving the situation.

The food was a great disappointment.  We had the same menu almost every night in our assigned dining room, only a couple of changes to the menu.  We expected much more variety in food service.  We ended up eating in the buffet more often because there was a better selection.

My new bride and i are not experienced "cruise people", only 4 cruises, but because this was a new ship we were hoping for more.

In March 2013 we took our first cruise with MSC, had a great time, and purchased two vouchers from the MSC Musica Cruise Consultant on board before disembarking – to be used for €200 on-board credit on our next cruise. We also signed up as members and were told the vouchers were documented and the serial numbers of each were attached to our account.  We booked our next cruise for May 2014 soon after, and provided the serial numbers of the vouchers to our travel agent, who documented them and said that we needed to hang on to them to present when we embark on the cruise.

Upon check in at the Venice terminal, we were told by two separate MSC staff members that checked us in that we were to keep the vouchers until we get our invoices at the end of the cruise.  Once we got on the ship, we checked at Reception/Guest Services and were again told to wait until the end of the cruise when we received our invoices. 

On the second to last day of the cruise, I inquired at Reception/Guest Services to see a copy of our invoice thus far.  They had mistakenly charged us for 4 drink packages instead of 2, and they were able to immediately call and have the 2 extra charges removed.  I presented the vouchers for the fourth time, and was told to go upstairs to the Cruise Consultant, Maria Giovana Guarracino, as she was the only MSC Staff Member aboard the ship that could handle the vouchers.

We went to see Ms. Guarracino, and relayed to her the information that I had been given thus far and the four separate times I presented the vouchers to various MSC Staff Members.  Ms. Guarracino then told us that it was “TOO LATE” to apply the vouchers to our bill.  I of course protested, telling her again of all the different attempts that were made to apply the vouchers, as well as the fact that they were so easily able to call and remove the extra drink package charges.  She said that there was nothing she could do, as the main MSC offices were closed for the weekend and could not make that kind of adjustment to the bill until Monday. 

I was then instructed to call on Monday after we returned home from our cruise, and that the MSC Customer Service office would handle it and would be able to have both €200 vouchers credited back onto our card or issue us a check for the amount.

I called on Monday, and was told to go through my travel agency.  I called my travel agency, who tried contacting MSC but couldn’t get through. They left a message. This happened for three days. Finally on Thursday, customer service was able to get through to speak with someone at MSC, and she was told it would “NOT BE POSSIBLE” to apply the vouchers to our bill, because again it was “TOO LATE”. 

UNACCEPTABLE. My travel agency has filed a formal complaint to MSC on our behalf as of Thursday, and I will be continuing to call every day until this is rectified.

I would like to hear from anyone else that has had this happen to them as well. How long did it take for you to be appropriately reimbursed?

Our earlier cruises have been to the Carribean and "mainland" Europe, which I loved. Going to two ports in Croatia, a day in Athens,Greece and Ephesus, Turkey, though, was an exciting change, a bit off the beaten path, a touch exotic. In Dubrovnik we went with an oyster fisherman, a retired army officer, in his boat to pluck fresh oysters off of his lines in the sea. We ate the oysters on the half shell with just a squeeze of juice from a huge lemon from his garden followed by a glass of white wine made by his father-in-law while we bobbed around in the sparkling water. I'm not an oyster eater but these were delicious ! Also enjoyed walking through the Game of Thrones filming locations in old town Dubrovnik, too. Turkey had its own beauty with its fruit trees and olive trees growing up the sides of the mountain. Taste the turkish bakalava - different from the Greek version- turkish delight and fig cakes. And how can you top a morning visit to the Parthanon with that piercing, blue sky as a backdrop to the gleaming white marble ?  A wonderful cruise, with just enough sea days to rest up for our next adventure.   

Great ship, very good entertainment Lack of food hygiene and safety training for guests in the buffet area. Lots of hands in the food. Both the tv and Internet service did not work properly. Many repeated charges for lost time

Embarkation and disembarkation was poorly planned...if at all. Service people were rude. Meals were horrible. Imagine ordering coffee that turns grey when creamer is added....when the staff was questioned their reply was \"this is all we have\" pointed to a stainless carafe that obviously contained coffee brewed many hours ago.

Great destination cruise. The ship is aging, showing some wear, but generally well maintained. Stateroom (+balcony) is comfortable with some wear (notably bathroom). Buffet was very good, while dining was large hotel style, so average. Specialty restaurants, however, were excellent (at extra cost). Staff and service were nice and efficient. Onshore excursions are a must, with Norwegian groups large (and slower). Other onshore outfits with internet reservations have more active excursion itineraries, and were also easy to use (looking for you by name). Cruises check in and out are well organized and fast, which is a big plus. Selected this cruise with adult children for itinerary and were not disappointed.

Overall pretty good. It had some flaws, though. Some places were overcrowded. The excursions could have been better and were probably overpriced. However, the basic services like food and entertainment were great.

The relatively small size of the ship allows one more opportunity to make acquaintances both with the crew and the other passengerswe see one another repeatedly but not so often as to get bored with one another. The Fitness Center was quite adequate in size and selection of workout equipment.

The public areas are new and elegant, but the rooms were not remodeled. Old and dated.

My wife and I have been on 7 cruises before, all on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, or Carnival but this was our first MSC cruise.  We chose this cruise because it started in Venice and cruised the Eastern Med during early April and that's what we wanted.

Check-in was a 3-hour process of waiting in long lines with nothing provided by MSC to make passengers comfortable (uncomfortable waiting area, limited access to restrooms, no food/water provided, etc.).  After check-in, we had to wait in line another hour to "register" our credit card and another hour in line to "confirm" our excursion reservations.  All this in spite of having done all of this previously with the MSC Web Check-In two weeks prior.  As far as I can tell, the web check-in has no function and the check in process is a nightmare.

At first blush, the ship was very nice having recently been renovated.  Most cabins have large balconies and they all appear to have unobstructed views.  The rooms were larger and better furnished than any previous cruise that we have had.

There were, however, big problems here too.  The bed lacked sheets or a blanket the first night, just a mattress, and we were told that bed linens would be provided.  When they had not been by 10 or so PM, I went roaming the halls and stole some from an unattended cart on another deck.  There was an "interactive" TV but I never found useful information on it concerning our ports of call, the ship, or excursions.  It could not access our account.  We sent 4 articles of clothing to be cleaned in the laundry service -- it took a full 3 days for the clothing to be returned.  A minor but important point:  neither us nor anyone we talked to ever had a little "towel animal" as part of the cabin service -- apparently that's not done on this ship.

There were two places to eat on the boat not counting the pay restaurants (of which there were several).  One was the buffet which only had food a few hours of the day and during those brief times the place was badly overcrowded.  No table service and inadequate bussing staff so if you were lucky enough to find a vacant table, odds were that it would still have the plates from the previous set(s) of diners.  The buffet itself had a very limited set of choices and the food was not particularly appetizing.  No drinks were included with the buffet but you could find tap water in the ice machines.  One of the most infuriating aspects of the buffet was how the crew members would come and push their way in front of you to feed themselves.

The other place to eat was in one of the two assigned dinner restaurants.  We were assigned the L'Arabesque which also had breakfast for the ship.  The food here was WAY too salty in a fairly transparent ploy to sell more drinks.  No drinks were included with the meal without additional fee -- you even had to pay for water.  Americans received coupons for 6 "waters" at check-in so apparently there have been complaints about this in the past.

By the way, the breakfast offered in this restaurant was very nice and fully "cruise ship grade."  The food was good, staff attentive, the entire operation run efficiently.  Whoever runs that breakfast ought to be promoted to chief of dining services (and whoever is the current chief should be fired).

I think that we were most put off by the attitude of the crew toward the passengers.  You almost never received a smile or hello, they never offered to help, they were often confrontational or even cruel.  With the exception of the breakfast staff, our courteous cabin attendant and friendly (but badly overloaded) dinner waiter, every interaction with the crew members was neutral or negative, never positive.

The shows were very lame.  Each night was the same stage set, the same performers with essentially the same show:  singing, dancing, some acrobatics all to canned music.  The only thing that changed from night to night was the songs and the costumes (which were simple and crude).  The performers themselves were talented but were really just regular crew members and, during the day, you would see them bussing tables, waitressing in bars, etc.  I doubt that MSC spent more than $1,000 in all of the theater shows combined for the entire cruise.

The port calls were very short: 4 - 5 hours typically.  In spite of this, it took a full hour to disembark for an excursion and another hour to re-embark the ship.  So, if you had an excursion, nearly half of the time in port was spent simply getting off and then back onto the ship.  One of the reasons for this is that the ship uses very cheap hand-held scanners rather than the much faster autofeeding scanner machines used by the other cruise lines.  Because of the lost time, the excursions were all much shorter than advertised, did not go to all of the advertised sites, and were very rushed.   Truly, MSC's procedures made each port of call a chore and hardly worth the effort.

Even more maddening, at several of the ports of call, all of the ship excursions went to the same "demonstration" which were actually pressure sales jobs.  We experienced a leather company that pressured us to buy overpriced leather jackets and, on another excursion, a carpet-making company that tried to sell us $8,000 rugs.  Both of these trips were very disagreeable and, since all excursions went to the very same places, I have to assume they were required parts of the contract with MSC that the independent excursion company had to agree to do.  Presumably MSC gets a kick-back from this reprehensible practice.

The ship had far too many passengers for its modest amenities.  The "aqua-park" is sized for a ship with half as many passengers; the atrium area sized for a ship a third of this size.  As a result, there are long lines for everything, everything is overcrowded.  Imagine waiting in line for an hour so that you can get into an 6-foot wide jacuzzi with 8 other people.

Check-out was just as nightmarish as check-in -- it took us 4 hours even though we had no questions on our bill.

There are a lot of problems on this boat and we did not meet any fellow passengers who intended on taking another MSC cruise.  We did meet a few people who had had MSC cruises before and they all said that they were so disappointed in this one that they might not do another one.

I know that my wife and I won't be on another MSC cruise and, as a result of this one, I will never recommend them to anyone.  

New ship, but service was not good.

Even though Prestige was built in 2012 and is not one of the newer designs,,,we liked it. Plenty of room and lots of places to sit and read,view, chat, or drink!

Cabin was nice. Way too crowded. Crew didn't care (except for housekeepers who always smiled and spa employees who were professional). Frequently would have to move out of the way of employees as they walked around the ship.

Great cruise...great locations!

Ship was built in 2008, but appears new in every respect.

Cleanliness of bathrooms not up to usual RCC standards. It was disgusting. Ship needs to be sanitized as was done with Explorer.