Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

This was our second cruise on the Celebrity Soltsice. The service was probably the best we have ever had. The food was excellent. The captain closed every announcement with some words of wisdom that left us looking forward to his next comments. Very fun. Now for the thing that stood out the most. Alejandro our cruise director. He was fun, lively, vivacious, and funny. He made the entire cruise a complete pleasure. What ever it takes do not let him get away. Fantastic.

From the outside initially I was worried, but once inside and away from Citavecchia port/Rome - the ship was beautiful and more than I could have ever dreamed. Awesome!

Clean ship, attentive staff, entertainment just ok

Ship was great, staff were very good, lacking restaurant choices and charging for better variety was not very good idea. Excursions were booked most of the time and not enough variety. Kids activities not good. Overall the ship was great but some areas could be improved.

Overall rating is good, there are a few areas that could use improvement. We had a great time and did not let the small things bother us, after all we are there to relax. The check in staff needs organization, it was hard to understand the process of dropping off luggage and what documents they required, thankfully I understand italian alittle bit so I was able to manage. Once you step on the ship, it was hard to understand what to do next, some people were in line, others were just standing there, so again, organization and a helpfuil staff is what I was looking for.

The ship is nice and everything you would expect a cruise ship to be but we were traveling with young children. The website promised a kid's pool and kid's activities. These weren't really available.

The service from the crew of the Solstice was first class. Could not have asked for anything more from them.

The ship was very clean and well maintained. Our cabin was as it appeared in the pictures on the website and the balcony was large enough for two - three people to sit very comfortablly. There were plenty of options for entertainment and the options for food were almost limitless. We seemed to be eating all the time, but still didn't make it to all the restaurants.

Friendly people on ship

Great ship...new and clean, but a little confusing getting around. The theater, food and entertainment made it a great experience.

Thoroughly enjoyed this cruise! So much to do and see! Felt pampered. Would cruise with Celebrity again, even same itinerary.

The ship was very clean. The staff in charge of entertaining and the restaurants were very professional and took care that the we were satisfied. The entertainment was outstanding at the Stardust theater every night. The quality and taste of the food, even at the buffet, was great. Maps of each city were available, however the quality and visibility were sometimes terrible. A little more help about available transportation and directions to main attractions would have helped. The worst was that if you had a problem, no one cared. Our excursion was an hour late. We just wanted someone to call the local office to find out why. It was like we were asking them for an expensive out of the question request. Really? it shouldn't be hard for them to make equivalent of a 25 cents call for a passenger that has spent thousands of dollars on their ship. On the last day we needed a taxi to a hotel. They had these outrageously expensive taxis there. We were charged 60 euros for a twenty minute drive and had to share the taxi with another couple that paid 40 euros to go 10 minutes further. Its like we were no longer their problem. I was very disappointed. It put a sour note in an otherwise nice trip.

Great ship layout typical of Princess cruise lines.

The extreme friendliness of the personnell, the cleanliness in all parts of the ship, the availability to participate in a host of activities onboard.

After a four year hiatus, we choose to take the Norwegian Jade cruise from Venice. We chose NCL as we’d cruised once before with them so knew what we’d get and this cruise as it departed from Venice and had an interesting, varied itinerary a little off the ‘beat and track’ such as Split in Croatia and Ephesus in Turkey.

As we’d done before on prior cruise, we’d arrived in Venice a few days beforehand so had created a little mini-break holiday really getting to explore the city and area first. If you can find the time then you won’t be disappointed having at least a whole day in Venice, ideally 2 or 3.

As the Jade is one of NCL’s ‘Jewel class ships, we found our way around easily having been on the Gem last cruise. We did feel that the passengers on this cruise had fewer youngsters and teens than a prior cruise from Barcelona, but that may be just the dates we cruised.

The food and services on board were just as we’d experienced before on the Gem, so we were happy with the quality and overall value that NCL provides. That said, we did have one waiter one evening in the main dining room who was very curt and sloppy. Otherwise, we had great service from all other NCL crew, considering their workload in the dining areas their front of house team really work hard to serve.

The stops at Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia were real eye-openers. In the summer weather, what we saw of these cities and the surrounding Croatian countryside and coast was glorious. They’re very much on our ‘go-back-again’ list.

If you take a tour to Ephesus then you’ll most likely get some hawkers selling sweets and souvenirs as soon as you arrive before entering the archaeological site. Try to resist buying then as you’ll then be burdened with carrying it all the rest of you tour and especially that when you leave the site, you’re at another location where there’s a mini market area with plenty of stalls and more hawkers selling same merchandise for less!

When you disembark in Venice, if you have a late evening flight, then take advantage of a luggage service offered there. For about €15 you can leave your luggage right there, get water bus into central Venice for the day and then head to the airport where they will have already transported your cases to their pick up facility just outside the terminal.

The Food was horrible, many items undercooked or uncooked. They ran out of bannanas on day 2, chocolate milk on day 5, raisins on day 6 and oatmeal on day 7. The dining room manager refused to seat an 82 year old women as she was 3 hours late for her assigned seating time due to their excursion being late. Staff was every rude - EXCEPT the room steward and the entertainment staff. Disembarkation took hours

lThe Jade was smaller than the other NCL ships I've been on. My cabin steward was a lovely woman who tried to meet my every need. The food was bad news, good news. The bad news was that the food was not satisfying and not worthy of a cruise ship. The good news is that I didn't gain as much weight as on my previous cruises.

Lost my luggage for 4 days we had nothing to wear and the crew refused to do anything to help us get our luggage. We had to try to find our luggae on our own.

It was a memorable experience

We had a really great time. The ship was comfortable, friendly, exciting, and fun.