Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

We loved the service, the room, the structure in general. It's worth a lot. Everything was really well organized, the logistic was good, the music, food, activities, restaurants, staff really supportive.

the best part was the last day when we finally left the ship. no more bad food, no more bad service, no more bad maintenance issues. this was absolutely the worst cruise I have ever been on in my 60-plus years.

I assure you all I will never make this mistake again and book this cruiseline

Highly would recommend this cruise to all. Ports of call were excellent, staff and service were extremely accommodating. Cruise food and entertainment were average, specialty restaurant were very good.

We could not get change for our Euros anywhere aboard the ship.                           I was impressed with the Captain that showed authority at the right time and place .             

     Thank you CAPTAIN.

Food wasn't anything to write home about, but overall it was a good cruise. Fun parties when returning from port. Rooms were clean but a bit dusty and not as much attention to detail as others I have been on.

Favorite part of the cruise was being on a traveling hotel room. The convenience of waking up at different destinations was awesome. The ship was very nice and impressive, being on the newest ship in the world was pretty cool. The destinations were amazing and we had a great time while spending time in port. But overall I'd say we were disappointed with our experience. I don't know if it was because we had high expectations and it was our first cruise, but customer service was definitely lacking. We heard over and over that Princess was there "for your every need" , "staff available at anytime", and "we treat you like royalty". We did not find that.  Since it was our first cruise,we were expecting to be greeted by staff upon boarding to be explained how everything worked;food/drink options, timing,lay of ship, overall advice and recommendations.We never were. Also we were never given an option of where and what day or time our free specialty dining could be reserved, it was made for us the day we embarked. We also were suppose to have a special anniversary dinner on our Day at sea that our travel agent booked for us, and they had no record of it and staff were not helpful in figuring it out- a simple "you do not have a specialty dinner available" was the answer.  When we approached the front desk with questions and concerns, we did not find them to be "meeting our every need", they actually weren't very helpful or upbeat, and we never got a clear answer. We often felt like we were bothering staff with our lack of cruise experience. The times we did witness staff being overly friendly and talkative, it was them saying "open your wallets", " spend that money" , "youre on vacation" . Every day we heard staff on a microphone telling us to spend more money on the ship....and we probably would have if customer service was more helpful and attentive that it was our first cruise. Dining was also confusing for us because we were never explained our personal options. Again, this was our first cruise ever so we didn't know. Two different staff told us we could call ahead for a reservation -"even request a table by the window" since we were Anytime Dining. "Just call the dining line,you can even ask what the menu is for the next day".  Well we called and inquired about a reservation twice and were told we weren't allowed. And when we called asking about the menu, they did not know. Dinners in the dining rooms were very lengthy. We were given a buzzer upon entry, waited at least 10 minutes for a table, 45 minutes at the most. Then the time between courses was very drawn out,averaging 20 minutes between. Once we waited 40 minutes for our entree plates to be cleared and to be given the dessert menu. Excursions: we were advised to book as many excursions through Princess as possible since they were so "amazing".We booked 3 and were happy with 2. The Mykonos beach excursion was very disappointing and we're unsure what we paid for... which seemed to be an $80, 5 minute bus ride to an expensive beach where we were required to buy a $20 drink to use a sunbed and servers were rude. The excursion seemed to explain we were going to 2 famous beaches, with reserved sunbeds, and a guided tour and setup.Our guide never even "guided" us on the bus or provided information on the island.  Though he was kind and helpful before the excursion ended when I asked if there was another beach my husband and I could find. Little did we know we could have walked to many comparable beaches, for free, and experience more beautiful scenery and attractions along the way. We regretted not doing Mykonos on our own.  

Overall we expected better. We would plan to cruise again with our family for the convenience of traveling to multiple destinations, but not with Princess. 

The Haven experience was NOT worth the money.  We only saw our butler 2 x over a 7 day period.  Save your money...book a suite and call it a day :).  The shows were good...the food just average.  We ate in most of the speciality restaurants with Le Bistro being our favorite.

Sailing through the Bay of Kotor was spectacular. Really enjoyed the beauty of this bay. Enjoyed the ports of Dubrovnik, Athens, and Kotor. Was disappointed with the ports of Split and Katakolon (Olympia). Our initial itinerary included Santorini and Ravenna, Italy; however, NCL changed this approximately two months before sailing. We were not very happy about this change. Our balcony cabin and bathroom were small in comparison to others in other ships.  The ceiling paint in the balcony was peeling and paint chips were continuously on the furniture and floor. The specialty restaurants, Cagneys was good, but not impressive. The food at Moderno's Churrascaria was delicious. We did not enjoy the food at La Cuccina and the service was mediocre, sorry we selected this restaurant. Food in the regular restaurants was, for the most part, tasteless and service was slow.  We only saw 3 shows, one in particular, The Sea Sons, was very good. The show called Paradis was odd and I found this boring. Our cabin steward was wonderful, and most other service around the ship was good.

This was a trip we never thought we would be doing, and we are so glad we did.  Our cabin was our greatest disappointment.  We had just been on a cruise in the same category cabin with RC and it was wonderful.  This cabin was small.  Each time we wanted to go to the balcony we had to move the chair. The ship was a nice size to move around in, and being mid ship was great.  The service was outstanding.  Our favorite part was the entertainment provided.  Something to do any time you wanted to do it. The food was good. The staff was very efficient with all of our needs. Ports were difficult due to limited outings for people with limited mobility.

We very much enjoyed all aspects of the trip.  Probably our favorite was participating the "The Voice of the Ocean".  Performing on the stage in the Princess theater was a memory we will never forget.  The ship is beautiful and it took the entire 17 days to learn where everything was.  We were specially impressed by the silence in our cabin, no sounds of our neighbors or the nearby elevators.  We also liked the anytime dining and always chose to join others, thereby meeting many interesting and enjoyable people.

We look forward to our next Princess cruise.

Wide variety of daily activities are well organized. Very good food. Crew members are very cooperative. Itinerary was pretty interesting. I would gladly recommend this cruise to my family and my friends.

Suite accommodations were out of this world. Food was excellent. Attention to detail was great. Butler and housekeeping services excellent. In cruise shopping adequate. Main dining room was best, but Italian restaurant and French Restaurant also great. Casual on deck dining was always excellent. Spa services were OK but very expensive. Great to have all wine and drinks included. Tips also included.

This was our second cruise on the Norwegian Star.  The crew was very professional and went out of their way to make our rooms clean and tidy, our meals tasty, especially in the Versailles Dining Room, and our tours enjoyable.  We loved visiting every site.  The only concern we had was visiting Santorini.  This was the reason we took this tour but there were way too many people visiting this tiny island.  There were four cruise ships and a ferry boat at one time.  We were able to visit the charming town of Oia but ran out of time seeing our other tour site due to crowded streets filled with buses from the ships.  I would recommend to NCL to try to visit any of the island ports with only one or two ships.  Overall though it was a very relaxing trip because of the staff of NCL.

The places we visited were very beautiful, but getting off the ship, and back to the ship was very difficult, and there was not enough time to enjoy any of the places.

Particularly the last stop at Dubrovnik that landed at 7am before any place was open.  It was a little like a wine tasting - only enough time for a taste, but not enough time to relax and sip a glass anywhere.

Since my regular life is so scheduled, I prefer to go on vacation to relax and not have any time constraints and schedule demands to meet.  This was my first cruise and I thought it was very stressful always having to be somewhere on time.  I would not be inclined to take another one.

Also, we booked a balcony room, mini-suite, that was supposed to accommodate 4 people, but it was very cramped, not enough space for the luggage, and the the 2nd bed was a pull out sofa that was very hard!

Had wonderful dining room service (hats off to Eddie) and great cabin steward (DaDang was really good), Jewelry store staff was terrific (Mariana, Lavinia and Eric). Alex with the Shore Excursions desk was outstanding in helping us pick out meaningful and physically doable tours. Did not like some of the changes to cruising that Holland America and other cruise lines are making. Food was mediocre, and limited in its variety. Main stage entertainment was nothing special, although I did like the fact that they had different lounges for different types of music,

Favorite part and the reason for selecting this one was the cities it stopped at to visit.  Improvements on this itinerary would be (1) Notify early on that a Gondola Ride would be available on the first evening in Venice.  Had a frustrating time trying to find out how we could get one on our own.  And then when it was announced on the website, it was more frustrating making a reservation as it indicated space available but wouldn't accept the credit card.  Finally, after numerous tries, we were confirmed.  (2) Included excursions/tours were not very desirable.  When Florence is listed on the itinerary, one would expect an included tour there.  The included tour of Toulon was a waste of time.  We bought more excursions than anticipated.  It was a very good cruise but recommend not going over Easter weekend as the crowds are overwhelming; example, impossible to walk through the streets of Corfu on Good Friday.

We had a wonderful time on Oceana.  Beautiful elegant ship and the food was beyond incredible.  We loved that we were in a different port each day and we were able to see so many different places.  I believe this ship is geared towards an older crowd.  If I had to improve anything it would definitely be the entertainment.  Not much night life and the shows were below average.  

I have no  complains of the ports that we visited because they are spectacular, but the main complain was the cruiseship has this religious group that composed half of the ship ,I'm not a prejudice when it comes to nationality or religion but MSC catered more for these people with Indian food for the entire cruise and the services sucks because they got busy catering for these group. they should understand that we all paid  the same price so we should all get the same  exact treatment as them . Its not only me and my husband complaining but we spoke also to most  of the cruisers who were complaining  also of the services. The food really don't look appetizing in the buffet, first time I complain about cruise food, never touch the desserts either

This cruise from Venice to Barcelona was out fourth trip with Viking but our first sea cruise.  We are planning to take another one.  The ship has less than 1000 passengers but there are still plenty of things to do on board and great entertainment.  Several tours were offered at every port.  And the food on board was fantastic.  

We received top rated service from our cruise including the meals, excursions and staff. Loved the cruise. just wasn't long enough. We loved the south of France excursions and Rome. There were no bad locations just these were preferred.

Liked:  The room and layout of bath area.  We had a wonderful Steward who looked after our every want/need.  Once during the cruise, they offered laundry for 19.99, all the clothes you could fit into the bag provided.  Really liked the Freestyle dining...eat when you want to, where you want to.  Dress up if you want to...don't if you don't.  The restaurants for complimentary dining offered great food and the waitstaff were excellent.  We used the Card Room on "At Sea Days" to play games with our friends.  Liked the smaller ship.

Improvements:  We had dining vouchers for the Specialty dining, but the dining rooms for the 4 restaurants were small and options for dining times were limited.  NOTE:  Book first thing when you get on the ship.  The balconies are small;  but still glad we had one.  Older ship that showed some wear.