Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

everything was great expet the quality of food and the variety in the dining room. The service was excellent.  The staff and the the crew didn't know how to please us.  They were wonderful.  The ship was very clean.

14 cruises in 13 years

5 different lines

first time with celebrity

this may be the best crew, inside cabin, and total package yet

I can't think of any negatives , except that it ended

food , entertainment , crew attitude----the best

I have been dreaming and plotting this trip for years. It ended up being truly charmed, much better than I hoped. Each port was spectacular and my shore excursions went off without a hitch. I booked excursions with AA and saved a lot of money over the cruise line excursions.

Nice friendly service, well organized, good logistics. But there was a hugh bottleneck with just one guy on the internet desk to sell packages and resolve the many issues. Had to wait in line for over an hour several times.

We loved the intimacy, close attention to detail, comfortable state rooms with terraces, ports of call and delectable food choices on this cruise!

The only criticism is the poor scheduling of the White Night . Scheduling this fabulous party on the last night of the cruise did not allow us to stay for long and really enjoy this wonderful event since we had to get up early to catch our return flight the next morning.

It was a good cruise.  Recommendation for improvements:  Two days in Athens is too long, add another port.  Have comedian and/or magician to the entertainment.

The ship is awsome, eventhough not the greatest or modernest of all, but has everything, is modern, is clean, the staff excellent, the food great, everyrthing ok. The only thing that could be improved is interior stateroom. Probably a little bit dark and simple (I have been in other interiors in other ships and lines, and they were better). Destinations were great

My favorite part of the cruise was of course the tour.  Celebrity did a wonderful job of the routes of this tour.  Excellent. As for my stateroom, it was great.  I had a balcony all to myself, solo passenger, and the two gentlemen who cleaned my room daily did a very good job.

Everything was very good and better than expected.  Food was excellent,  staff was very nice and friendly.  I felt I got my money's worth and even more.  Cabin was nice and clean.  The only thing I was missing is more classical music since I'm a classic music fan.  There was two ladies that did a very nice classical music at night at the 5th floor but their show time schedule was not fixed so I missed them in a few occasions. 

Beautiful ship. Lots of Brits onboard. Loved all ports. All the entertainment was excellent. Check out the buffet in the Oceanview Café before you head to the dining room for dinner because they often have a lot of local food. The dining room must work from pre-planned fixed menu. My favorite experience was excursion down Amalfi Coat to Pompei.

our room guy Edwin was great. The excursion to Ephesus with George awesome. The food on the boat disappointing...buffet was often better than the dinning room. Desserts esp disappointing.

I really enjoyed the trip.  I traveled with my husband, daughter and four girlfriends and we had a blast.  I used Norwegian to book my flights and transfers from the airport to the cruise ship and everything was seamless.  The boat was great and the staff was amazing.  The excursions I booked through the cruise line were also well organized and fun.  The tour guides were knowledgeable and funny.  We learned a lot and we laughed a lot.  The only issue we had during our trip was the fact that a very large tour group was on our cruise.  They were rude, pushy and unpleasant.  If the group wasn't on our cruise it would have been perfection.  Unfortunately they were such a large group we could not get away from their bad behavior.  I have taken about 10 cruises and this is the first time I have had this type of experience.

If I were to use this cruise line again I would hope that we would not have the same experience.  Since this was our first time using this line, I might consider giving them another try.  But it would have to be a cruise closer to home.  

This was a fantastic cruise and itinerary.  The ship was gorgeous and the accommodations were very good.  The food was excellent, and the specialty dining spots were absolutely first rate.  We dined in the main dining room on about half of the evenings and in the various other dining opportunities about half of the nights.  There were comedy shows each night and we attended five or six of them over the course of the cruise.

Be prepared to walk...because there are a number of ports and you will want to see it all.  To do that, one has to be well prepared to walk : the acropolis in Athens, throughout Rome, and Pompeii, and along the marble streets of Ephesus.  This was an action packed vacation for the adventurous, or a relaxed one for those who saw no need to leave the ship on days in port.  Trust me there was no reason to leave the ship except to see the sites.  The ship is Grande with literally hundreds of activities and things to do for folks of all ages.

I highly recommend this vacation to anyone who wants to see a lot of Europe and feel European culture in two weeks. This was my sixth Med cruise in seven years.  It is by far the best and most economical way to see Europe on a budget.

Wonderful time, great tours/ports (except for Mykonos - see comments below).  Glad to see Princess has finally improved upon the quality of their entertainment/shows.  Great shopping on board ship.  Thanks to Vicki our cabin steward on Caribe deck and Paul in Facets for all their assistance.

My only disappointment was the tour guide we had in Mykonos (George) - had absolutely no knowledge of the ruins (Knossos) and had to keep referring to a book to tell us about it.  Also, he gave us the impression he was totally bored with the tour.  He never counted to make sure we were all still part of the group and many people in fact left the tour. When asked if we could have a little shopping time in Mykonos, we were told no that we could shop in Athens.  Also, the meal we received as part of the tour at the restaurant was disgusting....a hamburger (couldn't decipher the meat) and lump of rice with yogurt for dessert.  Not at all what we were told the meal would consist of.  I would suggest Princess find another restaurant as well as guide for this particular tour.  We and others on the tour immediately reported our experience to the on-board tour desk upon arrival back to the ship.

The cruise when to some great places, but Carnival didn't do anything to make it any better.  The lines were long and slow for everything.  They haven't figured out how to serve their customers.  The service was bad for anything outside of the dinners and the stateroom steward.  The combination of too few bartenders and slow preparation of drinks was a bad mix at the bars.  The premium internet service I paid for was slower than 3G.  Excursions were horrible unorganized.  Breakfast was not worth going for, so we switched to the 24 hour pizza for breakfast at the end.  Lunch was not good either.  Dinner food in the dining room was usually good, but sometimes the best offering was chicken fried steak.  It was easily the worst cruise ship experience we have had.

I have been on a lot of cruises - but this trip on the new Carnival Vista was spectacular! Both the ship and the itinerary were great - as our first time in Europe it gave us a taste of Spain, France, Italy, Turkey and Greece. We did shore excursions at each port of call - which was nearly everyday. That was probably the only down-side, we only had one day at sea to really enjoy the ship and catch our breath.

I would absolutely recommend this ship to anyone considering a Mediterranean cruise - I have watched prices and itineraries for 20 years, and this was the absolute best value with the most places to see....it truly was a dream come true!

The BEST part of the cruise was GETTING OFF when we got back to Southampton,this was the first time we cruised with Princess,and it will most certainly be the LAST.

Costa review is nice and we had a high expectation when we book our cruise.

English language should be the principal communication on board. Anouncement over the shipboard communication system sometimes never transmitted in english.

We are force to join the Italians, Spanish, French or Germans in our excursions because no English speaking groups.

My husband and I recently returned from a European cruise on the Vision of the Seas. It has been over a decade since we took our last cruise and, after this experience, it will take another decade to forget how bad it was. The food was awful, with the food in the main dining room being only a step above the garbage served at the Windjammer. I remember food from the college cafeteria more fondly than what was served at the Windjammer. After we took a bite of what we thought were fresh eggs, only to realize that we were eating powdered eggs. It was the same with mashed potatoes. It was downright repulsive. That forced us to eat at the ship's specialty restaurants for 5 out of the 7 nights. That food was also nothing to write home about, but at least was edible.

The selection of the activities was also pretty poor and mainly targeted towards the elderly (65+). We attended a few trivia sessions and one evening show and spent the rest of our time at port of call or in our room when we were trapped at sea. Unfortunately, the chilly weather did not help matters. 

The room itself was just as bad. We both woke up with back aches every morning and some nights had to resort to sleep aid to fall asleep as the music from the 60s and 70s played loudly throughout the entire ship (making me think, at first, we were right above or right next to the band). The bathroom, as well as the shower stall, were tiny (and that's coming from someone who is 5'1). I tried not to move much when showering to avoid contact with the filthy curtain and our room was an upgrade!! The towels and sheets were the lowest quality possible, way past their prime. The cheapest Best Western has higher quality linens.

All in all, we thought the cruise was a waste of money and our time and has sufficiently soured our opinion of cruising that we will not be considering this option in this future. 

The ports of call on this trip were amazing!  Very easy to navigate through the cities.  Be sure to taste the local food and wine.  Don't forget your camera or you may be saying more than cheese!!