Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

The ship is nice, but the change to planned ports was not acceptable. Especially the last minute cancellation of the stop in Naples, Italy where we planned to see Pompeii and Sorrento. RCL substituted an alternate stop at Malta, however, this was scheduled for a Sunday when all of the town shops are closed in Malta. There was nothing open to see or do.

I have sailed on the "Epic" twice. First in the Caribbean and again the Mediterranean. Great rooms for singles and food were great. Unfortunately they had the same entertainment venues on both ships. The Blue Man group was very bad. "Legends" was okay on the first trip and greatly improved on the second cruise. Lounge entertainment was great on both cruises. I recommend the "Epic" for all single travelers.

Sailing is great on the Star Clippers - with destinations no other cruise can reach. However, don't go when school is out as irresponsible parents let their 7 to 10 year olds take over both pools splashing we middle aged folk and turning the decibells up as if the Dallas Cowboys had just scored a touch down. From the Captain on down, no effort is made to quell the youth madness. Also, mediochre and bland food add up to a mixed experience on this beautiful ship. Peter R.

p Seeing Europe on the Viking Pride was absolutely WONDERFUL. We were met at the airport and taken to our ship. We unpacked in a stateroom that was better than we had imagined. After unpacking we were set for u14/u days. Each day our program director, Michael, gave us an overview of what we would be experienceing and seeing. We would start the day with a walking tour of the city we were docked at. Each guest had a receiver so that we could always hear our guide. We were also given free time in each city to shop or go to museums, etc. We always had a map available of the area to find things and make our way back to the ship. Our guides were outstanding. The places we visited were beautiful and gave us a real feel for the country we were in. The food on board was excellent. There were about 150 guests and we had free seating. That way we got to know quite a few different people. When we were crusising, the views were spectacular. When we got to the Rhine Valley and there were castles at every turn, we had someone on the PA system to tell us what we were passing. My husband thoroughly enjoyed getting up a daybreak and watching the scenery go by. All in all this was one of the greatest trips we could have imained.

This looks like a great itinerary, but with close inspection you will note the ship leaves Venice at 8 AM on the second day of the trip. With the first day spent at the airport, getting bags, bus to dock, registration on the ship, and launch to the ship, day one is pretty well shot. Day two finds the ship departing at 8 AM and the day is spent at sea. Not bad, but its not a day enjoying the wonders of Venice. The third day is also spent at sea. Note, all other cruice lines that feature two days in Venice leave at 5 or 6 PM on the second day.

This was a great cruise! I've been on 4 and this was by far the best. I'm actually 16 so for all of you teens that like having fun, this is your cruise. The teen club is awesome! The food was average, but the ship made up for it. Overall, very good cruise and the stops are great!

The terminal for embarkation is very crowded, huge lines, not air conditioned, and overall very disorganized. The ship itself should be overhauled again, it is in serious need of work. There are water stains (huge) on the carpets in the hallways on all decks. We stayed on deck 7 in a Junior Suite and our bathroom toilet had a leak. I called the first day to maintenance to fix it, it stopped for about 6 hours, then leaked all throughout the cruise. Of course this is extremely unhealthy. I called several more times to be told that they would come and fix it again. To no avail, it leaked the entire cruise. My clothes got soaked with this unsanitary water and smelled terribly. I had to get a large plastic bag to put them in before packing them in my suitcase for the rest of our trip. Decks 4/5 smelled of a bilge pump malfunction. It was intolerable to be on Deck 4 (Promenade). The worst smell was on Deck 1, it was unbearable. We literally had to hold our breath as we disembarked from the gangway to the ports of call. This ship should be condemned. We came all the way to Venice, Italy to take this cruise from Los Angeles and this is what we got. Disgusting at best!

Norwegian had rave reviews and lent a hand in my selection although the reviews I read all said the food left a lot to be desired. I did not find this to be the case at all and in fact was more pleased with the free dining than the specialty restaurants. Gary, the cruise director was exceptional! All staff members (from the directors holding signs at the port, to check-in, to housekeeping, to cooks, to performers, to luggage holding after debarkation) were the friendliest and most plesant group of people imaginable. The casino options were fantastic and there was so much to do that no single part of the ship was overcrowded and almost no lines for anything. For travellers comfortable navigating in new places, I'd strongly recommend making your own adventure at ports; my boyfriend and I pre-booked an excursion for each stop and although 2 of them were exceptional, 2 were fairly poor. For the cost it wasn't worth it to us but the convenience and set up for excursions is rather nice, regardless of the itinerary. The staff made it very easy to be in the right place at the right time and the excursions promote a stress-free vacation since all you have to remember to do is wake up in the morning!

If you are in Italy this summer, you should extend your vacation and add this cruise to your itinerary. Inside cabins are a bargain. The ship has incredible facilities including an ice rink and movie theater. Despite the number of passengers it never seems crowded because there are so many options. I recommend skipping Ravenna and Bari; enjoy the ship's facilities those days and save your energy and money for Croatia, possibly Slovenia, and especially Venice. The departure out of Venice is a once in a life-time experience standing on the top deck 14 stories above the water and sailing through the canals of Venice.

Ship was well cared for but the service was lacking. Tours were great and price right. Service in areas were very good and other spots were very bad. We chicoe to tip the good and pass over the bad. First time we did not allow to pass out our tips.

Outstanding ship with numerous activites and events to keep you busy. Plenty of pool activites, entertainment at night was great which included comedian, magician and musical shows. Ice skating option was great too!

MSC- Magnifica OVERALL Terrrible and Unpleasant experience. I will never, ever cruise with MSC again. I would like to caution any family and fellows cruiser to NOT go on any MSC cruise. Here are some of the problems: 1. You have to pay for everything (including water and coffee - even in the dining room at lunch or dinner!!!). It feels like they're nickel-and-diming you to death. Then, on the last night, they actually REMOVE all the water bottles from your room and LOCK the minibar - for fear that you will leave the cruise ship without paying for it. So from 9:00 p.m. onwards, you don't have ANY water in your room. You have to call the reception desk and ask someone to deliver water to your room and sign for them. 2. Staff are exceedingly rude and unhelpful. They don't treat you like customers at all. Rather, it's like you're a bother to them. Not once did I hear the word 'please', 'excuse me,' or 'thank you' coming out of their mouths, and they are prepared to argue every little point, or just outright ignore you. In talking with some of them (not Italians) it was explained to me that there is a lot of internal fighting going on among them. Simply put these non-Italian waiters, pool attendants, bar attendants etc. are underpaid, overworked and mistreated by their Italian supervisors. I was told that the average pay for them is about $ 1,800/months while an Italian coworker in the same capacity makes 3,000 Euros!!!. This internal fighting is then reflected on us, CUSTOMERS!!!! 3. We complained to the guest relation manager about our unhappiness, a very young and inexperienced guy. Instead of listening to our complaints and apologizing, the guy actually started to argument with us and justifying our complaints saying things like: "Well we are overworked, the ship is simply overcrowded and is impossible to please everyone." ONBOARD ACTIVITIES: Poorly organized and too crowded. The ship was at full capacity (almost 4,000 cruisers) but many of the venues are held in areas that could not accommodate that many people. The two swimming pools were very crowded and it was impossible to find a chair to sit. So unpleasant!!! Again, it would be a cultural thing, but I found people generally to not care about personal space. They tend to push their way through and parents tend not to discipline (or even take care of) their kids so they're going wild all over the ship, and what I considered as common decency was missing among many of the cruisers (e.g.: pressing the 'door close' button while people are still stepping into or out of the elevator, spitting into the swimming pools, letter toddlers go into the swimming pool with diapers on even though there are signs that clearly prohibit that, cutting into lines, etc.). Entertainment In the main (royal theatre) area the shows were good but very short (about 30-35 minutes at the best) so to push you out towards activities were the company can take more money out of our pockets (bingo)

Very large ship with majority of staterooms having balconies. We are not major connoiseurs of food, we had constant access to hamburgers and pizza. We ate at Cagneys steak house and had filet mignon with shimp cocktail. The dinner at the Cirque de Soleil was also very good. We were more focused on seeing Pisa, Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, Spanish steps, and the Colosseum. It was pretty warm in late June so we made sure we had a lot of water since we were doing a lot of walking. Coming back to the clean comfort of this new ship was a great feeling. I gave Excellent reviews because it was exactly what we needed. I am aware of other more posh cruises but you have to pay more for those, they would probably get "the best" rating, but we hope to go again on this cruise, saving our money for another trip like this one.

The ship was clean and the staff excellent but similar to two of the previous cruises we have taken with Princess(we've taken about 18 with Princess), we feel the entertainment has gone down considerably. The other 7 people who travelled with us felt the same.(The Princess singers and dancers were excellent) We are talking about the featured entertainment now.

The best ship in the Mediterranean right now. Very nice decor. Rooms are huge compare to other cruises.

Room attendent was cheerful and friendly - popped up to say hello and remembered our likes and dislikes. Dining room staff O.K. They did remember allergy problems of one of our fellow diners. Felt like we were dumped off the ship at the end and that none of the staff were sure of how to handle things. I am handicapped and we had little help with luggage and arrived at Barcelona airport with no one there to assist us. The only reason we made our plane was because we were able to find airport staff who took an interest and were very helpful.

Our sixth cruise, amongst a variety of price and service providers. Regent is the best so far, and we look forward to another experience. Top notch across the board. From arrival to departure, they have it together. When weather blew us out of tendering in Taormina, Sicily, two hours or so later we were docked in Messina, the day continued as planned. No hassles, just results. My compliments to everyone on the ship.

p We recently returned from our 14 day cruise on the Mariner through the Holy Land itinerary. We were very pleased with our experience and have already recommended it to friends. Since it was only our second time as passengers on a cruise, we don#39;t have much to compare it to, however! p Definite plusses go to the amount and variety of activities onboard. There were days when we were looking at the Cruise Compass and asking ourselves, How are we going to get to everything we want to see?!?. I swear, we were wishing for one of those time-turner things that Hermione had in Harry Potterimg alt=laugh height=20 src=http://meetoncruise.com/ckeditorlugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.gif title=laugh width=20 /We especially had fun at the Name That Tune type of quiz activities, the nightly participation game-shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Weakest Link, and thought the production shows were very well done, (albeit perhaps somewhat outdated). The ice show is something special to see, being that it is on a cruise ship, but here is a word of warning: get there VERY, VERY early! We arrived 25 minutes before the start of the show and there were already people LITERALLY fighting for seats. Rediculous! Get there early and have everyone together because saving a row of seats when people are crying and pushing each other is not cool or fun. That is not a complaint about the ship, that is a complaint about the way people act when they are on vacation. p The weather was always a bit too cool for us to get in the pool or hottubs, but the pool deck was nice, especially the adults only area. If I had to complain about one aspect of the pool deck, I would have to say that at times the music in the main area was SO loud that it was almost painful, (and I am under 40... no offense). One day, it was impossible to sit there and read or have a conversation, but the (quiet) adult pool area was full, so we gave up and went to one of the lounges. p I had heard others complaining about the quality of the food, but it was pretty much what we expected. We do a lot of cooking at home and are kind of spoiled that way, so we found the food on the ship to be just average. There was nothing we thought was BAD, but there was a lot of nothing special. There certainly is a ton of variety, however, and only the pickiest of picky eaters would go hungry on the ship! We enjoyed our afternoon visits to the Promenade Cafe for coffee and cake/cookies. The midnight buffet was also awesome. We tried Portofino#39;s, which we also really enjoyed. The upcharge is $20, and what you get is a very nice, secluded, romantic atmosphere in a small restaurant type setting, great food, and AMAZING deserts. Soft drinks and wine are extra. We ordered 3 different desserts after dinner and literally ate until we were uncomfortable. Can definitely recommend it for a special occasion or a romantic encounter. Here#39;s a tip: pick a dinner time before sunset in order to get that extra romantic atmosphere as the sun is setting over the oceanimg alt=yes height=20 src=http://meetoncruise.com/ckeditorlugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.gif title=yes width=20 / p We also tried Johnny Rockets (on my Birthday) and enjoyed it. The upcharge is $4.95 and you get all you can eat fries, onion rings, burgers, and desserts. Soft drinks and milk shakes are extra. The food was like a normal Johnny Rockets, and it is a fun atmosphere with sing-a-longs, dancing waiters, and audience participation. I would recommend it as a fun way to break up the monotony of getting dressed up for the main dining room every night or pigging out at the buffet, especially with kids and especially if one of them has a birthday! p Our cabin was adequate and we were happy there was an actual shower door and not an annoying curtain like we had on RCI#39;s Mariner. We found the decor to be a little outdated, but that is really just being picky. I am curious as to when the rooms will be updated with flat-screen tv#39;s and more modern looking furniture? p i won#39;t go into the ports and excursions now, but can only recommend doing as much research as you can about the historic ports of call, and if you are going to Israel for the first time: BOOK A TOUR AND DO NOT TRY TO DO IT ON YOUR OWN! We ended up saving a lot of money and seeing a lot more than people on the RCI excursions by booking with a private tour company and splitting the cost 7 ways. We used http://www.beinharim.co.il/ and can recommend them! Really, there is so much important and impressive stuff to see in Israel that it is really worth paying for some kind of tour or guide. p

We have taken about 40 cruises, all the way from Disney to Princess. This cruise was our favorite. How nice to have a smaller ship that does not dwarf the port it pulls into. The crew was very friendly and always ready to help.

Service lacking. When tipping is automatically withdrawn before hand there is no incentive for better service.