Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

everithing was so grate that I will like to live there, the food in the privet restaurants excelent the food in the complementary restaurants, very good, the breakfast so good, the service on the room, the shows so good, is people the have the big  Spirit to give us the best that have inside and make us live a excelent best happy time, the true I didin't want to live , but everithing have one star and one end, my Inglish is no good but I try to raight what I feel.....If I can put all the persons that work in that cruise infront of me,  I let them now that make my vacations the best of the best... thank you with all my Spirit.

This is a fantastic cruise.  Not only do you see the greatest cities of the ancient world, walk where Aristotle and Caesar walked...you can see, taste, touch, and smell the places they lived.  The ship is awesome in its own right.  Not so big and so many people that every day off the gangway seems like a cattle call, yet big enough to offer something special and to the liking of everyone aboard this small town afloat.  The crew is courteous and spirited and they aim to please...to make your journey relaxed and compfortable.  You will work harder on this vacation than you are accustomed to at home unless you are a gym rat.  There is so much to see you will not want to miss anything, so get out the walking shoes and do a couple of miles a day in preparation for this journey through time. The food on the ship is outstanding and the variety incredible...you will gain weight even with all the walking.

I have done 6 Med cruises, and for itenerary, amenities,ships cleanliness, ship size, time in port, and staff friendliness...this trip is the best by a significant margin! You get to see St Mark's Square and the canals of Venice and even take a water taxi or a Gondola ride.  You get to stand atop the Acropolis and see the Parthenon and the Temple of Nike. Walk where Paul the apostle preached and Aristotle taught philosophy to Plato. See the last reputed residence and home of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.  Walk the Marble streets of Ephesus and touch the facade of the ancient library of Ephesus. Stroll the exact same street on which Cleopatra and Marc Antony walked in procession into the great port of Ephesus and stand in the Ampitheatre where Paul was arrested for preaching the gospel. It is reputed that he penned his first letter to the Corinthians while imprisoned in Ephesus.

Your boat will take you on a passage through the Dardenell straits and the Gallipoli battlefield where the allies fought Turkish forces at the end of World War I, a struggle bourne out in a movie of the 80's bearing the name of that strategic penninsula of land.  See the city of Istanbul and the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sophia.  Take a boat ride up the Golden Horn or up the Bosphorus to the gateway to the Black Sea.  See the Grande Bazzar and the Egyptian Spice Market.  The tastes and smells are amazing alone.  Istanbul is an experience in and of itself and yet just another of the incredible and vibrant cities you will see on the cruise.

You will see Naples and if you want the Isle of Capri, or Pompeii and Herculaneum.  If that is not enough adventure, take an afternoon ride along the Amalfi coast, lunch in Sorento and take a quick swim in the sea to cool off after your trek through the ancient city in the wee hours of the morning. Oh, did I forget to tell you how beautiful it was to cruise through the Greek Isles and the straits of Messina on the way to Naples?  My heavens, the view of Mount Aetna and the trip past the island of Sicily and the tip of the boot of the Italian mainland...beauty on both sides. And by the way, just out of the Straits you cruise just pass the Island of Stromboli and its active volcano.  It will sometimes provide a fireworks experience rivaled only by a 4th of July spectacular.The rear deck of the ship behind Raffles provides excellent viewing.

Your day in Rome will be what you make it.  The Vatican and the Sistene Chapel, and the Pantheon, it simply is not to be missed.   I wept when I saw it the first time.  Not an overly dramatic person, but to see such beauty and brillance over 2000 years old and still an active catholic church...the open roof, the frescos, the tomb of Raphael....Did I mention the Colliseum, the house of Ceasar, the old ruins of Rome, the Circus Maximus, The Cathedral of St. John and the Escalara de los Santos( the steps Christ allegedly ascended on his climb up Calvary to the cross on the day of his crucifiction).  Rome is truely " The Eternal City ".

Florence, the home of the Rennasiance.  See Tuscany and Pisa's leaning tower.... that is much more amazing in person than could ever be revealed in a photograph. See Florence and the Duomo and its dome that architects can only speculate still as to how it was made and created.  See the Palaca Vecchia the home of the Medicci family and frequented by Machivelli, Davinci and Michaelangelo. Go see the jewelry on the Punta Vecchia Bridge.

See the sites and taste the wine of Provence in Toulon, or do a day at the beach. Then there is Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia Cathedral by Gaudi, the Picasso Museum, Salvadore Dali, La Rambla.  The nite life begins at midnight and concludes with breakfast.  The Art and vibrance of the city are palpable.

This is the cruise of a lifetimes worth of travel adventure in one cruise sailing.  You will not replicate this itenerary, this luxury travel, this level of entertainment, and this much exposure to the culture of the Med anywhere for three times the price.  This is a travel value!  I am going back and see it all again next summer.  Hope that I see you there, I will be the crazy American with a camera in one hand, a map in the other and a check list of places to see and things to do today. 

Service spectacular. Ship new and beautifully decorated. Excursions very interesting. Excellent choice of ports of call. Food very good. Entertainment very good. Always plenty of activities to do onboard.

Loved the ship, staff and experience.  Most of all, I appreciated not being "sold" the entire time we were on board.  We recieved an invitation each night (printed) to a sales event for the next day...that was it!  No loudspeakers inviting us, no huge pitch at the performaces, nothing - nada.  After last years experience on another cruise line, I was really dreading that aspect of the trip.  This was a very laid back, pleasant, relaxing vacation.  The performaces were family friendly (with one exception) and that made it very nice for our family to enjoy those performances as a whole.  The armrest on my mothers wheelchair broke. I asked our stateroom attendent for some tape to hold it till we docked.  His solution...to take the wheelchair and fix it properly with new screws and a velcro wrap.  Most definately exceeded our expectataions.  Attention to this type of detail is never overlooked and always appreciated when we travel.   Will we book a Celebrity cruise again?  Most definately!

The food was outstanding, the rooms fantastic, staff beyound expectations, entertainment top notch. We had the best time on this cruise...the boat was fantastic...could not ask for more.

Really great cruise, great ports of call... I would recommend coming to Europe a few days early for your cruise and staying a few days after. We started in Rome (4 nights), train to Venice (3 nights), then boarded the ship... ended up in Barcelona, disembarced, stayed in Barcelona for 4 days, then home. A cruise gives you a great overview of the places that you want to see... you really have to be portside for a few days if you want to experience your destinations. That being said, the cruise was GREAT and I would recommend it - and this ship - to everyone.

By far our joy on this cruise was the crew... Irish, Jha Jha, Nathan, our steward Sandy... these people were a great joy for us, made our day every time we spent any time with them. These people are soooo upbeat, so pleased to make you happy... really, truly, these crew members made our journey! EVERYONE on the crew, to the person, was fantastic, accommodating, cheerful... we couldn't ask for more! For that reason alone - that, and the great ports of call - we look forward to returning to Norwegian Cruise Lines for future voyages.

Loved the experience. Stateroom was great, with the sunset veranda. Beautiful views, wonderful sunsets. Great food in the main and specialty dining rooms. Pleasure for sight and taste. Destinations were finally what we chose this cruise for and it surpassed our expectations. Istanbul and Ephesus were definitely the highlights. The greek islands were etherreal with the blue skies and waters and the white buildings and the weaving streets. Loved Santorini and Mykonos. Pompeii and Amalfi were another great experience out of Naples. We did priviate tours on most locations, expect Naples and Mikonos. Bothe priviate and Celebrity araanged excursions were excellent. 

Our family of 11 (with 4 children 8=14) really enjoyed this cruise.  For a first trip to Europe for many of us, we saw a lot.  We did go early and spent 2 nights in Rome and 2 in Venice before the cruise.  I highly recommend doing this, especially with children.  There is no way we could have seen what we did in Rome (comfortably) in one day.  The younger ones loved the kids club and the 14 yr old LOVED the teen area and activities.  We seldom saw her when we were on the ship.  Several of my family have serious dietary challenges and NCL was extremely accomodating for them.  They didn't have to worry if there were unacceptable items in their food.  This was WONDERFUL!  I wasn't too impressed with the rest of the food, but it was OK.  A few items were really enjoyable both in the dining room and buffet.  I can't say enough about the staff.  Everyone I came in contact with was smiling, happy and HELPFUL.  I did have a small complaint about the balcony cabins with 3 people.  The fold out couch took up all the space from the wall to the desk.  It was impossible to get to the balcony or use the desk without climbing over the bed if it was open-and it was usually open when we were in the room (it was closed when they made up the room after we went out for the day and opened up again when we were at dinner).  Another foot or two to allow passage at all times would have been very nice.  For children and first time travelers to Europe, the ports were a nice selection.  Do your homework and you can find just as nice and less expensive ways to see the ports than on an NCL shore excursion.  An example is in Istanbul there is a 1.4TL tram from near the ship directly to the Blue Mosque, Sophia Haggia, and the Topkapi Museum.  It is only a short 10 minute walk from the Blue Mosque to THE BAZAAR.  There is also easy public transportation to Piza where you can spend as long as you want holding up the leaning tower.  I can't imagine using a tour on Mykonos.  The charming downtown area with its narrow winding streets, tiny churches at every turn, small restaurants and the windmills is just a short walk from the shuttle busses.  I enjoyed being on a smaller ship.  Getting on and off the ship in port was never crowded and seldom had any line.  There was usually room wherever I went, and the buffet, while often full of people, was easy to manage.  Best of all, this senior citizen didn't have to walk too far for anything on the ship.  While the entertainment wasn't top notch, it was still entertaining and the dancers had so much energy.  We enjoyed our cruise!    

I will not be sailing Norwegian again. The staff was not friendly and they always acted like you were bothering them. Poor service! The only good thing I have to say about the boat was that the spa was nice and the rooms were done well. Other than that, it was no better than a Carnival cruise.

I have been on several cruises and this one definitely tops them all! The food was amazing, the shows were great, prices weren't too extreme compared to other cruiseliners...All of the staff was always in an upbeat and positive mood and always ready to assist. Overall the best cruise I have ever been on.

Too many people for my taste but nice cruise anyway.  Expected an upgrade with my "upgradable single room" for more than $2,000 but did not get a balcony.  Cannot understand why the crew puts loungers away so early - they should be available (at least some of them) all night.  Also, definitely do not understand the strict limitation on the times that the waterslide is open.  

Background: This was my 4th cruise, first time with NCL. It was my second time on a Mediterranean cruise and my third time to Greece. For my fiance, this was his first cruise ever & first time to Greece.

I personally liked NCL a lot. I loved the open dining plan and also felt they had a lot of great on-board activities. I enjoyed: Zumba, abs class, salsa dance class, and the Elements dance show. We also had a free dinner in the La Cucina Italian specialty restaurant and enjoyed this. We payed for the Jasmine Garden Asian restaurant but didn't love it--my food was way too spicy, even though I asked for otherwise.

Things I disliked were that many on-board things still have an extra charge, such as yoga. We are already paying a lot to go on the cruise! I also had a hard time with the food. I eat a primarily vegan diet and had a hard time finding things. Pretty much every veg option is smothered in cheese or cream sauce. The menu is not very explanatory either... expect to find random items not described on the menu in the dish.

For the ports, I love Greece! As I said, this was my third visit, and I still think it's one of the most gorgeous countries I've seen. My fiance loved it as well! We did the excursion in Olympia and thought our guide was great. At the other ports we just did our own thing & had a wonderful time.

If I did another European cruise though, I would go in May like I did the first time I went. It was just way too hot & we just couldn't escape the sun or sunburn. I would advise others to do the same!

Had a wonderful time!!! first time on a Celebrity cruise ship! Love the staff, food and excursions. Will definitely go with Celebrity again in the future! My husband and I highly recommend the cruise line. We went with our friends, Pat and Ann. They recommended this cruise and we are thrilled they did!!!  We had a wonderful room with veranda. Nice size room!!!! Impressed with cleaning staff and cafeteria waiters! Better than Costa cruise lines!!!! Good as Holland America which was the last cruise line we were on. Excursions were fun and guides were knowledgeable. Worth the money to go on them. I had a wonderful spa experience with a nice chiroprator, a nice young lady from Johasnesburg,South Africa. She was very gentle with me, especially since I have Rheumatoid Arthritis  and Fibromyalgia.

Roberto, waiter assistant manager  Ocean View Cafe

Gonzalez, coffee waiter Ocean View Cafe

 Tatania, wine expert    Silhouette

Willie De la costa, Cleaning room manager

Pedro, the singing waiter in Ocean View Cafe

Our last cruise was 16 years ago so I  don't really have anything to compare this cruise to.  We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, the ship and the activities and all the ports of call(maybe not so much Olympia). The ship was very clean and the staff was exceptional. We had a balcony room which I would highly recommend.  The stateroom was plenty big with enough storage for the 2 of us.  We did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants as we figured we could do that at home and we had already paid for food.  I would not recommend the buffet for dinner because it was not very good.  Breakfast and lunch were ok at the buffet but sometimes just so crowded.  We ate dinner every night at Alizar since you didn't have to dress up like you did for The Grand Pacific. The menu was basically the same except for the steak choice was different.  We both thought the food and service in Alizar were excellent.  The only excursion we purchased from the ship was the guided tour to Delos from Mykonos. We enjoyed that because we liked hearing about the history.  You can do it on your own for much cheaper but if you don't have a tour guide with you you are just looking at a bunch of rocks. I do wish we would have purchased the excursion to go to Oia in Santorini. The ship stops there at 1:30 and you have to tendor into shore.  If you purchased an excursion you get off first and that particular tour takes you to the other side of the island where you take the bus to the top.  Otherwise you tendor into shore and take the steps, ride the do keys or ride the cable car to the top.  Line was very long for the cable car so we purchased tickets at 25 euros to take us to the other side and rode the bus to the top  and over to Oia.  (Scarey ride to top). Once you reach Oia it is the most beautiful, picturesque place ever (white buildings with the blue domes like you see on the postcards) with the most spectacular view I've ever seen.  Sit at one of the cafes, have a beer or lunch and just take it all in. You will love it!

Overall, I would highly recommend this cruise. 

Everyone ate at seperate tables so there was not much of a chance to make new friends  The dinners in the included restaurants were not as great as the meals of past cruises.  For those great meals, you had to go to the pay restaurants. There was a $20 transaction fee each time to exchange dollars for euros  and the exchange rate was far above the actual exchange rate. Comparing  Norwegian to Princess, Royal Carribean or Celebrety, Norwegan comes in fourth. We were celebrating our 48th wedding anniversary and according to the tickets, we were supposed to get an anniversay cake which never materialized.  It just wasn't the Norwegian Cruise that we have had in the past. The itenerery was good as far as the ports were concerned but the tours were overpriced. We did our own thing at each stop and had a great time.

I had a great time on the cruise.  Unfortunately, I had a bout of gastrointestinal problems midway through the cruise, and it caused me to miss an excursion I paid for and several meals.  Despite this issue, I still had a great time visiting places I have never been.  I flet that I had enough time in the ports of call to explore the areas nearby.  The crew was excellent: friendly, helpful, and dedicated to making my experience an enjoyable one.

we like everything on theship speciality the indoor swiming pool but we missed the discotec on other ship like liberty of the sea.we like the stateroom.the dining room.we are very happy with our house keeping.and the weiter HOLENKA CUACO.KARANDEO CHUTTEEYA.SERGIO GUILLEN AND RG MENDOZA. for a customer service like them  we had the best experience ever.we recomended splendor of the seato anybody who wants to have the best cruise of their life.

Wonderful way to take a first trip to europe. Would do it again. I enjoyed all the shows on the cruise and the dinners as well. I was a little disappointed with the other activities on the ship. They seemed a little too focus'd on trying to generate additional profit on every turn.

First let me start by saying my wife and I are some what snobby when it comes to food, we consider ourselves to be "foodies".  We boarded the cruise and went straight to the main buffet and found had one look at the meat which they served and knew we were in trouble.  The hamburgers looked like it was basically a "Bubba Burger" or something close to that low quality, the deli meats looked to be lower quality than those meats used at Subway or Oscar Myers and the chicken and beef used for the chinese food was worse than your low-end neighborhood chinese restaurant.  So upon seeing this we went straight to the front desk and upgraded to the "Ultimate Dining Package", thinking that the speciality restaurants served different food, higher quality, since they are charging you extra for it.  To our suprise this was not the case, the food at these restaurants were not of higher quality, only provided a set menu for the cruise whereas the main dining halls offered revolving menu's each day.  We did find however one good meal during our time on the cruise which was at Le Bistro, the french restaurant on board.  The whole dining experience there was good except for the cirque du soleil going on above us during our meal.  You could hear everytime anyone jumped, the music, everything.  So overall, the food was a major disappointment and not at all worth the upgrade to the "Ultimate Dining Package".  If we would have known the food was going to be this low quality when we spent this much money for the cruise we would have definately made an effort to find the closest Disney Cruise in the area!! 

The ship overall was modern, had many ammenities, and was acceptable.  The thing which caught us off guard was the missing pool.  The ship had about 3 to 5 pools on the entire ship (which is fine, but the size of these were ridicolous).  The pools were the size of most kiddie pools you would find anywhere.  The layout was not very accomodating, I have been on many smaller cruise ships which had much better layouts with a much better pool set up.  This was disappointing as we were on the ship a good time going port to port.  

The shows, were a bright spot for us on the cruise.  We elected to purchase the dinner show for Cirque du Soleil and found it to be very good.  You could definately tell that you were in Europe in regards to the show as it was a little risque, but overall was very well done.  The dinner on the otherhand, I will not discuss as I have talked about the overall food earlier (Lets just say it was not the best).  The Blue Man Group was good, same show as it is in Orlando, Florida or I suppose anywhere else.  The other entertainment was good, the casino was large and seemed to pretty well set up.  

The duty free shop on board due to it being a cruise within the EU was a joke due to the issue of having a VAT tax of 20% on all goods.  So these shops did not make any since unless you were spending large sums of money on overpriced goods that you could get back home or at the airport without the tax.  

The room, was good but not great.  Let me explain, we elected to upgrade to a balcony which we found the balcony to be nice and accomodating.  The interior of the room left somethings to be desired though.  The room was very narrow due to the TV and bathroom sink to be about a foot to the end of our bed not allowing much room to pass by to get to your closets as well as balcony.  Overall the room was good, much better than any Carnival or older Royal Carribean Ship I have been on but not to the standards of a Disney or one of the New Royal Carribean ships. 

This last thing really got me, this cruise elected to charge passengers $5 for 24 hour dinning per order.  This was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing, the next thing was that most to almost all cruises I had been on before had a large, expansive room service menu which you were allowed to order the entire night.  This cruise did not have any of that.  They really did not offer any late night dinning options (anything past 12 am) which I found very odd, as all other cruises had plenty.  Also, they did not offer breakfast in the dining halls for an actual sitdown breakfast, the only offering was for you to eat the breakfast buffett (which was not an option by the end of the 3rd day, we ended up electing to eat breakfast as soon as we got off the ship at each port).

Overall, we were pretty unsatisfied of our experience on the Norwegian Epic.  I would go as far as that we will not be embarking on anymore "Freestyle Crusing" most likely ever again.  

I will say that one bright spot on the cruise was Norwegians staff and customer service was definately the best part of the cruise.  All staff were very friendly, easy to find and took notice of all guests problems that we encountered.  

 There are many words that could be used to describe the Riviera but "elegant" captures it best. Not an intimidating elegance but rather a quiet 5 star hotel elegance. Right from the start my wife and I knew this cruise would be different from anything we had experienced in the past. After being on board for only an hour I wondered if everything I was experiencing was as it appeared. I began looking for flaws; there had to be flaws. Sorry, I'm a sceptic by nature. I wondered, was the entire staff as friendly as the members we met when we boarded the ship? Was the entire ship as clean as it appeared on the surface? Would the food on the entire cruise be as good as what we were served at the Welcome Lunch? By the end of the cruise I had my answers. Yes! Yes! and Yes! The staff, the cleanliness and the food all combined to bring back memories of my early days of cruising when cruise ships were more than floating motels serving cafeteria style food to passengers whose main goal was to consume voluminous amounts of alcohol.