Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

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!! 

the island of capri was the best shore excursion.  It had a boat ride arounfd the island and a tram that took you to the top of the island it had all kinds of little shops and places to eat.  Plenty of benches to sit on by the docks

very clean and friendly people

We celebrated in style for our wedding anniversary. Our friends decorated our cabin door, the cabin attendant dressed our bed with swans and heart, the staff in the windjammer sang to us with candles in the breakfast muffins and the best part of all was how Walter our waiter had dressed our table and was on hand to take photos, we also had chocolate dipped strawberries, a glass of bubbly each for our table, more deserts with candles and more singing - very enjoyable day

Cruising the Mediterranean at night and watching the moon over the water.  Loved the sunsets. Looked forward to dinner every night so I could get my favorite desert. The chocolate melting cake.

I would recommend this cruise to others.  I think a couple of bugs still get to be worked through on some of the upper deck fun area.  The sky bikes had their challenges with mechanical issues, winds and end of the line posting.  My favorite part was the enthusiasm of the cruise director Matt.  

The food, staff and ship were all wonderful.  A couple of exceptions but that is expected.  Had so much fun.  Ease off and on ship was amazing. Friendly staff made it a pleasure.  They are very experienced and well rehearsed.  I'll be back! 

Overall the cruise was good. This is my second cruise with NCL and definitely like their "freestyle" cruise. However, I found that their staff is less enthusiastic than other cruise lines. The complimentary dining food was so so. This is the first cruise where I spent less time at their buffet. 

Two full days in Barcelona, plus seeing the western Mediterranean islands, made for much nicer stops than our previous cruise in this area (on Celebrity, Rome and Florence are not really port cities). Some of the areas of the ship seemed nicer on Celebrity, but our stateroom was as nice; and we really liked having a balcony off the back of the ship. The food was good, but I was not crazy about " my time" dining. It took too long to eat in the dining room, and the Windjammer was usually packed. Specialty dining was nice, but I'm not sure it was worth the extra money (since I end up feeling stuffed). I felt foolish that I purchased the "premium" drink package. Over a thousand bucks for the cruise for my wife and I, and the wine selection was only fair at best. I would have been way better off buying a nicer bottle of wine and drinking less. Service at the bars was variable (with the exception of the Filipino gentleman at Vintages whose name I vowed to remember, but I don't). Service at dinner was good (the server we had most nights, Leau, was exceptional), our room steward was very good (Arietty).

The staff on the ship was very nice and polite.  

The food could have been better and more variety.

The Shore Excursions were great.

Could have had more dance classes at a variety of times.

Seemed like the theater entertainment was not as good as I have experienced before on Royal Caribbean or other ships.

This was our first cruise (a middle-aged US couple) and we didn't always know what to expect but definitely enjoyed the experience and we were 'sold' on cruising by this experience. The destinations were great -- Corfu for example is not the sort of place we would have gone to on our own, but we went because it was on the itinerary and absolutely loved it. The ship was wonderful, the food was excellent, and the experience of being at sea was amazing.

HOWEVER! There were two serious negatives to the cruise experience, both of which were entirely Costa's responsibility. The service in the main dining room was ridiculously slow (45 minutes to get our first course, and we were always offered bread but never butter, which was weird). The byzantine complexity of the beverage policy was constantly frustrating; we had a non-alcoholic package but the business of having to sign for each and every drink, and not being able to order water (!) was crazy. I know this is how cruising works but that doesn't make it any less stupid.

Worst of all was our experience with Costa's excursions department. We signed up for one excursion, the bus tour of Montenegro from Kotor, and it was a disaster. We were promised a four hour tour (giving us one hour to explore Kotor itself) which included the old capital of Cetinje. Those were the two things we went there to see -- Kotor and Cetinje. Instead, the tour took four hours and didn't include either Kotor or Cetinje. (Trying to prove us wrong, the tour desk got out their 'official' description of the tour, which confirmed at least that it was a four hour tour; the Costa website has a detailed video about this tour that really plays up Cetinje as a destination but they quietly dropped it from the excursion without telling us).

The employees at the travel desk were extremely rude and unkind, making no effort to apologize or compensate us for their mistakes. At Costa evidently they take very seriously any fine print that may say "We reserve the right to completely screw our customers for no reason." The single experience of this excursion -- which kept us from even seeing Kotor itself, the town the ship docked in -- has convinced us that we will never, ever travel with Costa Cruises again.

dining meus were too simple as budget cruise.

dancing programs were good.

no body lotions supplied.

formal dining room menu and service were not good.

cruise staffs seem to be in-experienced.

Overall we had a great experience. Entertainment needs some major improvement, more fun games/activities, variety of music needs to be updated, especially dance music. 

muy buen crucero excelentes sitios de destino el personal a bordo siempre dispuesto a colaborarte y que te sientas cómodo me gustaría tuvieran más actividad de música latina en la discoteca

First time on Royal Caribbean.  Totally enjoyed everything but the drink packages.  Very disappointed that not even a cappuccino is included in the classic package nor water.  Service staff is excellent, specialty restaurants are very good, enjoyed Chops and Giovanni's table.  Entertainment and Cruise Director were very good.  Celtic Tenors were amazing.  The ship's entertainment staff shows were high schoolish at best, but amazing costumes. All the outside professional entertainers were amazing. Must say the 70's interactive event was so much fun with staff dressed as The Village People in all their regalia.  HIghlight of the cruise.  Would recommend this ship and the itinerary.

The Oosterdam was recently refurbished and just beautiful.  The crew is all so fantastic.  I am a seasoned cruiser and can absolutely tell you this was one of the more memorable cruises I have been on.

Great itinerary. Best food on the seas and a beautiful ship. Still waiting to hear from Oceania about a terrible shore excursion (if they sell it they should warranty it )

NICE SHIP AND CREW. PORTS OF CALL WERE INTERESTING. KEEPS YOU VERY BUSY.. SHIP IS NOT SO BIG AS TO GET LOST.  GET "NO WAIT IN LINE" TICKETS TO SITES IN ADVANCE. 

The food on this ship was the best we've had on a cruise.  Make sure if you are given free on shore excursions for your cruise that you book them BEFORE you board. We found out from people on board, that if you didn't book the free tours before, you lost out. When we asked the destinations desk, we were told that it's a different company that books those and they can't do it on board. Also make sure you book your specialty restaurants before you board. We were told you could only book one night at each restaurant before but could make as many extra reservations as soon as you boarded. We sat the first day for lunch with a couple who were given a hard time with the man who booked the reservations. We had trouble ourselves but we told him we were advised on the phone prior to boarding that we could make additional reservations as soon as we boarded. He then gave in and gave us 2 more reservations. For a high end cruise we expected a well appointed room. The bathroom was a disappointment with a shower curtain instead of a glass door. We had an ocean view room with no balcony. The entertainment was also a disappointment. On Costa cruise line Mediterranean  cruises, they bring entertainment on board from each port: an opera singer from Italy; a flamenco dancer from Spain etc. On Nautica most  of the shows were 2 guys and 2 girls singing and dancing. I'm glad I tried Oceania once. However, I could have gone on several cruises for the money I paid for this one. I didn't feel met my expectations for what I paid. 

Overall it was a very pleasant cruise. The onboard activities were good, the only negative is they closed the hot tub early. They keep up with the timeline and most of the shore excursions had ample time to sight see. I think more island info could have been available and offer more excursions. On two islands we visited the excursion were not available. (FYI I also feel the excursions were overpriced). Room service was good, except for the laundry service took 4 days to get back.. The food, as on most cruises was good. Nice Cruise overall.

We found very little entertainment during the day. The concept of evening chic sucks. Keep the standards and once a year dress formal for one night. It is not going to kill you. Show movies at night around 8;ooPM. Arrange for folklore dancing of the places seen and bring them onboard. Prepare food according to the port visited. Arrange art tours of the decoration on the ship. Have more music that you can dance too. Eliminate the sad guitar and duo violins. It is depressing! Correct the steps leading to the pool in the solarium. My sister slip and got a huge bruise on the buttocks. The celebrity dancers need to prepare shows that are not conducive to journey with Morpheo. Songs too modern that we have never heard. No melody in them. Unable to understand the basic inspiration of this shows. No cohesiveness. The invited artist were very good.