Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

I took the cruise with my daughter since this was her graduation present. We had a great time and we now have great stories to tell.

The service on board was excellent, specially in the main dining area. The made us feel like family!

I would like to repeat the trip as many times as possible! I am very happy

We had a junior stateroom and it really helped being on the boat for 12 days. The only criticism I would give regarding the food was that the steak in the main dining room was really subpar. You had to go to one of their specialty dinning rooms and pay for the meal to get a good piece of steak. Otherwise the food was great. Cost for drinks were really high. Ship was clean. The captain was very visible and we heard from him everyday at each port. Headliner shows were mediocre at best. Some were better but most were just ok. The stateroom attendant and dinning room waiter were exceptional. They could not have done more.

There were eight of us traveling together on this cruise.  We arrived in Barcelona two days before the cruise and enjoyed the city very much.  When we arrived at the port via taxi, Royal Caribbean employees quickly took our luggage and we checked in within 20 minutes.  For the first two stops, Cannes and La Spezia, we explored on our own.  We wanted to catch a train to Nice for the day from Cannes, but by the time we got to the train station it would have been impossible to get to Nice and back in the allotted time.  Instead, we explored Cannes on foot which wasn't a problem.  From LaSpezia, we took the train to Cinque Terre.  We were misdirected and wasted an hour trying to find the right place to purchase our day passes.  For the rest of the cruise, we purchased excursions through Rome Connection, Royal Caribbean, and the link off of .  All of the side excursions were extremely enjoyable.  Everything was well organized and our guides were all informative.  I can't say anything bad about the excursions.  As for the ship and cruising portion, overall it was a great experience.  We enjoyed the trivia, bingo, entertainment, casino, fitness center and Zumba classes.  On ship, the eight of us did some activities individually and some together.  There was something for everyone.  We met up in the dining room for late dining.  I am gluten free, and I was able to order my meals the day before each dinner.  Overall, the food was average.  The gluten-free bread was horrible, but the gluten-free rolls in the cafe were good.  The gluten-free desserts in the dining room were horrible, and did not match their description.  Most were gelatinous molds that had little flavor.  Stick to the ice cream if you are gluten free, or go to the Windjammer buffet where they had gluten-free cookies.   They didn't have all of the wines that were listed on the menu, even only a few days into the cruise.  The accommodations were adequate.  We don't spend a lot of time in our room, so rooms aren't a big deal to us.  All of the staff members were friendly, professional, and courteous.  The gentleman running the Windjammer Cafe, and Elvis the Zumba instructor were exceptional.

We took this cruise as part of our honeymoon.  While we wished we'd had a longer amount of time in some of the ports, we were very happy with this cruise.  The ship is one of the smaller ships in the fleet so you are able to recognize other guests and the staff get to know you within a day or two.  We really liked that.  The specialty restaurants on the ship were fabulous.  We ate in one of them every night as we liked the food there significantly better than the main dining room food.  We also got to know the servers in the smaller restaurants which added to the overall experience.  There was a great variety of events on the ships from trivia to honeymooners mixer to theme nights.  We have told everyone that we are very glad we made this part of our honeymoon!

The itinerary was great and well-balanced

Ship was well sized and spotless.  The balcony stateroom on deck 7 was spacious with lots of storage, well laid out, comfortable and accessible to dining areas and pool deck.  Pool area was crowded and noisy.  Solarium area was too hot due to lack of open windows, and had heavy chlorine smell.  Neither area was appealing.

Shore excursions were decent and well organized, but not as good as those we purchased from Cruises only.

Dining room waiters and cabin attendant were bright, personable, efficient, helpful and eager to please.  Food in dining rooms was creative, tasty, attractively presented.  Decent variety of offerings most nights. Portions at times could be larger, especially appetizer salads.  Breakfast and lunch buffets at Windjammer offered a very good variety of offerings, and were of generally good quality.  Park cafe was adequate, but opening times were inconsistent and varied from day to day.  There were times of day when lemonade (my wife's go-to drink) was the only unavailable beverage.

Daily newsletter at times had incorrect operation times of the restaurants listed, and staff was misinformed as well.  Guest services staff ranged from clueless to highly helpful and competent.  Upper Management (hotel director), however, was very responsive when we came to them with legitimate concerns. The captain was a gem, and management personnel were approachable, helpful, and eager to please.

Gathering procedure for shore excursions on tender days was not as well organized as advertised, and importance of obtaining a tender ticket, even if an excursion was not planned, was underrepresented.

Culture of upselling, especially during first 3 days, was insulting and annoying. Subtlety was nonexistant.  We were constantly approached by staff pushing packages for the specialty restaurants.  Bottled drinks were offered for sale at the exits during departures at ports.  Placards were everywhere offering drink packages, specials and sales, etc.  We could not escape the concept that we were there simply to enhance the profitability of the cruise company.

Had it not been for the ports, the cabin, and the service people with whom we interacted daily, the experience would have been more negative than positive.  I would do it again because of the special itinerary, but would alter my approach and expectation.  I might look for a slightly more expensive and upscale line to avoid the annoyances which tarnished our experience. Had this been a Carribean cruise, it would have been more negative than positive.

If you want to relax and also enjoy some ancient historic and scenic locations, this is a great cruise.  Royal Caribbean does a great job with customer service and keeping the ship nice and tidy.  Our cabin steward was wonderful and so was the formal dining service. 

My only complaint was that the on board entertainment did not suit my tastes and I thought the shows needed improvement (lead singers were not in tune).  The TV content was very out dated (2012 copyrights) and the programming repeated over and over many times.  With 12 days on the ship, it got bothersome. 

The overall experience was delightful. The islands visited were unique for us and a joy to explore. I only had a problem with ordering my meat medium rare and getting medium instead. Also, the buffet was frequently not up to good temperature standards. I explained it to the managers, but they just did not get it. Oh, we will prepare it fresh and hot, not accepting the standard safe food practice that I was attempting to get across.

Excellent cruise and staff.  Everyone very attentive and always offering to help or provide with their services. Food was excellent and activities were very entertaining.

I had a wonderful time everyone was exceptional and very helpful!!

All of my needs were met!!  Did not like the constant SALE SALE of restaurants even shows onboard$$$$. I already had the drink package again SALE SALE. Other than that it was amazing.

My first time on an Oasis class ship and I was surprised in how organized the crews are in the ship. So many activities to attend to that it doesn't seem like the ship has more than 6k passengers. The venues aren't overcrowded and I like the my time dining where I can schedule anytime for dinner depending on the time I come back from all the excursions. It truly was an excellent cruise and me and my wife had an excellent time. I spent my 50th birthday there and I will never ever forget it. Thanks so much Royal Caribbean.

We just disembarked from the Norwegian Epic cruise and it was just an excellent experience!! The cruise was very clean, the service was fantastic, the food was super good and the ship itself has a lot of nice activities and things to do.  There are so many dinning alternatives, that we did not have enough time to try them all.  But the ones we did, were of excellent quality.  The water park is very nice and the ambiance was great!!  We went with our kids and they really enjoyed it.  The only thing we would have changed is the size of the stateroom. We had a balcony stateroom for a family of four (two adults and two kids) and we were a little tight  in there.  So, next time I rather stay in two separate rooms.  We had cruised before with other lines and this was our first time with Norwegian and it turned out that this is now our favorite cruise line.  I would definitely recommend the Norwegian Epic!

There as no problem with the security process in embarkation and disembarkation on the cruise.  Debarking at ports was very easy as long as you had your cruise card----it was used for everything debarking, food, beverage and using the room number for incidentals was very easy.  The fitness area on the cruise ship had every piece of exercise equipment you could think of----easy way to maintain your weight with this fitness room.  They had fitness activities going on every day, although my husband and I were touring every day so could only use once we boarded the ship after tour, if time was available.  We used it on one full day of sailing and when we returned early from one of the tours.  Our steward, Rafael, was superb!  He was friendly, knew our names as he greeted us, replenished everything in the room and make cute little creatures with our towel.  The specialty restaurants - Teppanyakki, Moderno, Le Bistro and Cagneys --- we had wonderful service and delicious food.  La Cucina was moderate.  I enjoyed the Dueling Piano Bar group----those three individuals were very talented---could sing, and all of them could play the drums and piano, plus Tobin could play in addition to those two instruments the bass guitar and violin.  They were fantastic and very interactive with the audience.  If there were songs they could only remember some of the words, they adlib the rest----amazing three guys---huge KUDOS to them!!!!!  I thoroughly enjoyed Scott singing just like Louis Armstrong and Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection.  The other show was the Supreme Dreamgirls - singing Motown songs and interacting with the audience.  All three had great voices!!!  My husband and I also visited the ICE BAR---10 degrees and had two drinks that kept us warm----lots of fun!   This ship had a lot to do on it and if you could not find something to do, then it is the person's fault.  The captain was on time to every port.  The tenders were waiting for you as long as you booked a tender in advance.  We had a cabin with a balcony and could not believe all the storage room we had.   I would definitely cruise on NCL again.   the only think I would like to have been able to print out an itinerary for the shows we booked.  It was indicated to me they were trying to save paper, however, for every drink and meal 2 or 3 sheets of paper had to be signed, which seemed a little ridiculous! Also, we paid for gratuities in advance and then found out from our steward that he never received anything so we left him a gratuity.  I probably would not pay for that in advance again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cruise.  I found the personnel on the cruise very informative and friendly.  The cruise was very mixed with several nationality and people of all ages.  We liked the mixture of language and people from other countries.  The ship has something for everyone.  We found the ship very clean and well kept.   We went on one excursion but found it easy to go on you own to most of the Greek islands.   The meals were very good and had a variety of food.

I can't say enough about my first cruise experience.   It was the best vacation I have ever had.   The crew were so wonderful and provided the best customer service I have ever experienced.   I am also grateful to the Skymile cruise folks that help me select the most cost effective cruise.    The only thing I wished for more was to spend a little more time in each location because I couldn't do all the things I wanted.  

The ship was VERY nice.  The food was mostly good with a great variety. The entertainment was basic to poor.  If you're not traveling with a group you need to make friends quickly as there is little to do but dance or watch poor entertainment.  The crew was mostly helpful, eager to get things right after making a mess of things several times. Meals were cooked to order but often served to the wrong people at the table. Service was either great or they forgot you were sitting at the table. Nothing in-between.  That's why you need friends on this cruise, to entertain yourselves and to laugh things off. Ports are very interesting and with friends a lot of fun.

I have been on 28 cruises and this by far has been the most enjoyable. The ports of call and the excursions were the best and the pricing was also in line. I found that the staff with very pleasant, kind and always ready to help and serve in a timely manner.  I can not say enough regarding our waiter Francisco Nido and Jr. waiter Mark Malimas.  I always felt like I was in a 5 star restaurant with all the attention and service we received.  Last but not least the head waiter manager Silviu has been most gracious and accommodating in the Botticelli Dining Room where we dined very night.  Thank You Annette Smith and Teofilo Useche.    

Ship staff could not have been nicer or more accommodating. Excellent entertainment.  Cabin steward was excellent, very clean room and friendly.  Selection of entries at dinner could have been better.  They provided an adult pool and hot tubs which was nice.  This was the first cruise I've been on that provided enough chaise lounges that there were not any problems with people saving them. 

The cruise was wonderful.  The staff on the ship were friendly and competent; cabin was great; food incredible.  We loved the excursions we chose.  We would happily go again!

Although the food was not was good as I expected, in a couple of dining rooms the food was what you would expect of a mid to high priced restaurant. Again, a couple of the singing entertainment was very good, but most was mediocre to not the kind of music to lighten up a party.

The stage entertainment was very good.

I still would recommend the cruise to friends. 

This ship is the largest passenger vessel on the ocean today.  This is obvious as since there were so many stops on this 7-day trip (only 1 day at sea), that we did not see 1/2 of the ships amenities. Ship is truly beautiful with many venues that keep even the most active person busy for 7 full days.   Shore excursions were overpriced but you don't have much choice as ports in the Med are far from anything you might want to see.

Rome is amazing - even if you are not Catholic, the mosaic's and statues in the Basilica are not to be missed.  Florence is the place to go for leather bags and Naples for the food......  everywhere has great table wine as well as some noteworthy bottles.  This is a definite for cruisers, foodies, or wine connoisseurs.