Europe - Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

Our cruise departed Dec 27 and included New Year's Eve. For a holiday cruise, I guess I'd expect some sort of an extra air of "joy" (or something). Instead, the entire cruise was a bit depressing. The staff didn't really want to be there and were caught snipping at each other. The air of discontent of the staff spilled over to the guests, and various tables at dinner and people on tours took out their discontent in rather brutish ways on the staff and guides. It was like a spiral of whining, yelling, snipping (think pre-teens on a long car ride to visit relatives they don't like). Holiday discontent aside, service was utterly random. Our dinner server was awesome, but the folks we got when randomly seated at lunch were random, and ranged from the typical 5 star server who puts your napkin in your lap and notices the moment you glass of water is at 80%, to people who failed to notice anything. Our room was clean, accept they didn't like to take away empty plates - which was just weird. We got breakfast delivered to our room, which was the only way we found to get enough coffee, but it arrived randomly, anywhere from an hour early to an hour late. There also weren't enough plans for kids. We don't have kids, and aren't generally against kids, but when the kids start self organizing races through the bar and spinning contests on the barstools because they are bored... Other random things to note: Dress is not enforced: on gala night, jeans were to be seen. Fresh fruit is in abundance, juice and coffee are not. Expect complete disorder when it comes queueing. These are not American/UK lines. Infact, there really aren't lines. Just crowds of people with elbows moving forward (if you've taken rush our transport in Italy, you know what I mean). The Good? They fed us far too much at every meal, and everything was kept utterly clean. The Spa was as good as stressed on the websites. The boat was well equipped for the cold weather, with indoor pool areas. All in all, I'm really not certain I'd go on a MSC cruise again. I'm willing to brush a lot of it off as the staff being upset they were trapped on a cruise ship over the holidays, but... For the amount we paid, I'm not sure I want to deal with "Meh" again.

The ship itself was impressive. Clean and beautifully decorated.

Overall it was a great cruise but a few days before the cruise ended I was noticing bug bites all over my chest. They were red and itchy and they hurt. My husband was certain it was from riding camels. The very next day he found a bedbug on his chest and after that we tore the sheets back I found more. We alerted the staff who made us abandon all of our stuff in our room. They assured us they would wash and clean all of our laundry and get us a new room. By 6 pm we still did not have a room or proper attire to go to dinner. We had to go back to our original room and get some clothes for dinner. It was quite late when they reassigned us a room and the following day was the last day of the cruise and we needed to be packing but did not receive our clothing until evening. When it arrived it had not been laundered at all, only heat treated. My expensive gown had food on it and was now ruined with stains because of the heat setting. I tried going to guest services asking for a refund or a credit for the hassle and the only thing they would offer is 20% off another trip. This was an expensive trip, it was a 2 week cruise!!! I can get 20% off a cruise just by booking online!! I am not sure I will ever book another cruise with Royal Caribbean again. They did not even try to resolve the issue. The last 2 to 3 days of my cruise were absolutely ruined by having itchy bites, not having a room, not having access to our belongings, and not being able to pack on our timeline not to mention the expensive gown that was ruined. I kuch prefer Holland America and Celebrity even if it costs a little bit more! I have never had any issues!

We had been to the eastern Mediterranean once before on a cruise ship, including Greece and Turkey; we had also been on a 73 day circumnavigation of Africa during which we toured Egypt and transited the Suez Canal for the first time, south to north. But I had always wanted to see the Holy Land(s). For years I had been watching the HAL and Princess itineraries but neither offered anything remotely comprehensive.   Fortunately we had been on Regent's Seven Seas Navigator in May 2010 so we were receiving their colorful brochures regularly. Then one day this offering appeared for October 09, 2010, it was actually a back to back titled "Mediterranean Medley" beginning in Rome, then at Istanbul, "Passage of Antiquity" this 30 day cruise ended in Dubai, where we began our long flight journey back home to Anchorage.   A cruise of a lifetime on a very high end exploration size vessel for which the price was right. Ports involved: Florence/Pisa, Sardinia, Sorrento/Capri, Sicily, Tunisia, Malta, Santorini, Ephesus, Mykonos, Istanbul, Cyprus, Jerusalem (Sea of Galilee--Nazareth---Bethlehem--etc.), Tel Aviv, Cairo, Suez Canal transit (north to south), Luxor, Petra (Ancient City of Petra), Salalah Oman, Muscat Oman and Dubai.   There wasn't one blemish that sticks in my mind, close to a perfect voyage, it is most likely the finest cruise we will ever undertake.                

Had expected the whole ship to be done up in modern, gem colors, which we only found in the Spinikar lounge. Found it to be very stable during our one day of high winds.

The ship was beautiful and immaculate. Our concierge and suite butler and other staff for the COurtyard Vernada Suites was awesome!

Our Stateroom was very small compared with a regular balcony stateroom on Carnival!!! The shower overflowed and door to stateroom would not lock. This was fixed upon our request. Why didn't R.C. know about these problems?However, the biggest problem was that we were kept awake by the nightly activities of the honeymoon couple in the next stateroom. There is no sound insulation between the staterooms. I'm sure the young couple would have been completely humiliated had they known!!!

Good but not excellent food. Good clean rooms. Not a courteous staff.

This cruise is not for American cruisers who are used to ships with big spaces. Having to listen to every announcements in 5 differenct languages(at first it was interesting...) wears you out after a few days. They charge you on juices, coffees and teas plus 15% service charge other than the "tab water". They even charge a 15% service charge for the waters you purchase on ship to take along on an excursion, how is that even possible??? Almost always we could not find any available chairs or chaise lounges to sit and relax around the pools or decks, it was always full of people. By the way, there are only two pools that are 5' 7'' or 6' 3" deep all around, not for the children.

We booked a "Superior Balcony Stateroom" and this turned out to be very "inferior" to a regular balcony stateroom we had previously had on a Carnival cruise. (This is our 5th cruise, by the way). Our shower overflowed when we used it and the door to the stateroom would not lock. Both these problems were fixed upon our request. The main problem was, however, the lack of sound-insulation between staterooms. Each morning, about 1AM, we were awaken (and kept awake for quite a while) by the activities of the honeymoon couple in the next stateroom (#6348). We heard absolutely everything that went on! This is an invasion of our privacy and their privacy. The cruise was fully booked, so we were told there was no possibility of changing our stateroom. (a) If our shower had been cleaned prior to our occupancy, how was it that the stateroom attendant didn't know that the "overflow" was clogged? It was this that caused the flooding of our bathroom. (b) Free Room Service was offered on this cruise - there was no table in the stateroom, so where would we have put it? On the floor? (c) The food on board was very mediocre. Sometimes, part of the buffet was closed, so it was very difficult to find an empty table. The dining room staff were great, but, again, the food was not good. This is the first vacation where I have lost weight! Finally, the post-cruise hotel was a big disappointment. The Villa Carpagna in Rome had small rooms with a very hard bed and hard pillows. The R.C. representative who greeted us spoke excellent English but once she left, none of the hotel staff spoke any English, so communication was difficult.

both the ship an iterary were excellant

What a wonderful cruise. Excellent service and excellent food. We would definitely sail with Azamara again and recommend this cruise line for anyone looking for a really enjoyable multi-port cruise. The Azamara "All Inclusive" program should be the model program for all other cruise lines.

The ship should have been scrapped, it was built in 1968 and was "retrofitted" in 1992. I saw a Costa cruise boat prior to booking since we go to the Bahamas a lot and the Costa boats are usually the most run down boat in the harbor. This proved true when we saw the boat in Italy. Due to the schedule it was the only boat leaving on that day and we knew the boat would be substandard but hoped the excursions to the Greek isles would be worth it. The boat was indeed disappointing except for their excellent staff, the excursions were short, disorganized and rushed but the Greeks were VERY happy to see Americans coming and spending money since the Europeans didn't spend any money in port and ate on the ship. Economic conditions are tough in Europe right now. Costa's website is a mess and since we booked through orbits most features on the Costa web site did not work. Items that were ordered on the Costa web site never were ordered. Excursions that were ordered online were mysteriously canceled with no explanation. Since it was a honeymoon I ordered flowers which were a no show. On the boat the food was good but charged an exorbitant amount for water and beer. Unlike US cruise lines were you can get a soda card for your kids, you pay per drink and it adds up quickly for water, soda and coffee.

Ship was dirty, old, and full of rude European passengers.

I not recommend this ship.

The ship itself is great. It's large and well laid out. It's a little on the gaudy side, but I think that's typical of cruises (I don't go on many). There were too many children there for my taste, but again, that's probably typical for a cruise.

This was such an amazing cruise because of the itinerary especially! The ship itself though was also really nice. The theater was state of the art and really amazing, the pool deck was very nice and expansive, and the crew was really helpful and nice. The shows were really top quality, and as my first experience with freestyle cruising, this was a great introduction to NCL. he things lacking on this ship though are some of the newer things that NCL has, such as an entire water park (at the time this ship only had one water slide), a ropes course, and some other newer features. Having said that, this was an amazing experience on a truly beautiful ship!

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We were so excited to go on the inaugural cruise on this brand new ship for our 25th wedding anniversary. However, once on board, we continued to encounter problems throughout the 10-day cruise. It was obvious that the staff was still in training because service was poor in many areas (especially in the speciality restaurants and our room steward.) In one restuarant, we waited over an hour for our food (which had a set menu!) and when it never came, we left. Throughout the entire cruise, we had issues with our air conditioning in our room. The cruise was in July in the eastern Mediterranean so it was very hot and humid. We expected that a brand new ship would have good air conditioning but that was not the case!!! We continuously complained and all they gave us was a fan!!! At one point, it was 86 degrees in our room - pretty hard to sleep when it is that hot! Although the ship is new and beautiful, they still have very many kinks to work out before I would ever recommend them to anyone else!!!

Celebrity Cruise Equinox is the best cruise I have ever taken!! It was truly an amazing experience!! I would recommend this crusie to anyone and I would definitely do it over again.

We are well-seasoned travelers and know the value of good service. Our cruise was top-notch and we would recommend it to anyone! Food was good to excellent. Ship was beautiful and huge! Variety of activities was good to excellent. We LOVED our cruise and will definitely go again!