Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

It was my very first cruise and it was so wonderful. It has set the bar very high for my future vacations. The staff was very accomodating and the rooms were kept clean and we always were greeted with smiles. the food in the specialty restaurants were delicious!

Our cruise on Serenade of the Seas was a wonderful experience. Our room, a 2 bedroom suite, was spacious and the staff was gracious and very helpful. We were greeted with a bottle of wine and fruit bowl. Use of the Concierge lounge was fabulous. Everyone was looking out for our best interests while on the ship. The ports we visited were fun and enlightening. The Serenade was the perfect size ship for our group. There were plenty of activities all day and night! Cruising the Mediterranean in October also proved beneficial. The crowds were a bit smaller and the weather not too hot. The food was good and I highly recommend the "Chef's Table."

Bar was very nice and help full while attention from restaurant personnel was fair/nice as expected. All entertainment shows were very nice and truly like them.

Unfortunately some of the on shore excursion personnel on board were not as polite and courteous as rest of the crew. There was a particular person in the on shore team seems always “quite rude” in her way how she frequently talk to other passengers. Onshore tours were OK; too much rush/fast track visiting historical site and too much emphasis encouraging shopping in pre-designated store rather than tourist sighting. Actually it was quite disgusting having such pushing to purchase local souvenirs; which by the way, they were more expensive compare to other others without the tour. They usually claimed that buying from those store we have the “warranty from Royal Caribbean” about price and quality. Reality is that prices were higher and quality were not much different than any other store…

I was extremely disappointed with food serve in main buffet area. Boring, low quality and same breakfast options for 12 consecutive days! I personally felt that food option during lunch and dinner in buffet area was low quality. Similar comment applies to regular dining table where food was not exceptional. I would rate it as average to low; especially when I compare Royal Caribbean with other cruise lines like Carnival where most of the “star rating” show Royal Caribbean cruise higher compared with Carnival. I did not purchase upgrade to specialty restaurant because I don’t see value paying more for something should be in standard fare.

It was our second time on the Equinox and I don't think it could have been any better. We are Elite with Celebrity and were treated extremely well and we ended up taking a suite guarantee that was a steal for a little over $600. The suite benefits were excellent. The Captains Club host Roosy was a shining star of the trip. We were asked to sit at the Captains table one night and we eventually accepted. We didn't have dinner with the Captain but had dinner with the Chief Engineer. We almost didn't accept because I didn't bring a suit or jacket on this cruise. I told Roosy of my dilema and she arranged for me to borrow a complementary tux jacket for the dinner. As i said before she was great. As for the cruise itself it was also great. A 12 night cruise with an overnight in Venice. I highly recommend the itinerary many great ports. We did ship tours as we had a $1000 of onboard credit to use up and we were not disappointed with any of them and the tour guides were all very nice people and very knowledgeable and happy to tell about thier countries. We have done almost 50 cruises now and this is one of the best. We were very happy.

 HAPPY WITH ALL EXCEPT, THE ONBOARD ENTERTAINMENT A LET DOWN. WE. PREFER PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE NOT WORKERS ABOARD THE SHIP.ONE EXCURSION WAS A NUSSIANCE DUE TO THE BUS BEING IN POOR CONDUITION.

Good cruise, good food, friendly staff - but unfortenately, smoking is aloud in serveral restaurants, bars, on the main deck etc. This was very disturbing, since the entire ship smells of smoke!!!

The animation on the sun deck with super-intelligent games (???) is just way too loud and unnecessary. You may hardly conversate.

A cruise also is for relaxation and enjoying the beauty of the sea - and not just party alone.

It was very nice ship the Epic.

I do like insid of intrio as most place, especial the mini suite as we staid

with my two of niecs they real like it. 

I am cruises most 2 times a year of  noewegian and royal caribbiean,celebrity

most ship is very friendly but not Epic .... little  disappoint to say.

 I love EPIC,,  I hope I can see nice a smiling face next time.   KS

Having a living room meeting place for solos was so helpful. Our expert leader made dining together easy.  I also had great assistance from the service desk. A nice young lady (sorry not to have gotten her name) when above and beyong to call Delta to insure I had assistance thru the airport.  Instructions were clear and disembarking went smoothly.

The state rooms were nice and clean. The service and food in the dining hall was great. Our cabin stewart was great but... If you are a smoker don't sail with Royal Carribean. There is only a small area by the pool to smoke and it is always packed like a sardine can. One bar (besides the casino) and you can never get a seat it is over crowded while other non skmoking bars were half full. Also, there is a service charge on everything, drinks from the bars, drinks and wine from the dining room even on bottled water in the in room refrigerator ($4.25 for a liter and 1.00 service charge). In addition, if you are a non Europeon traveler they take your passport for the duration of the trip. Over all I have had much better experiences on Carnival an every other line I have sailed on.

Although there were one or two "glitches", we were extemely pleased with our cruising experience aboard the Holland America Ryndam.  The fact that the Ryndam is smaller than many of the ships currently cruising the seas and oceans was a major plus for us.  Very good food, terrific stateroom service and an enjoyable itinerary made our seven days truly enjoyable.  We would not hesitate to take another cruise with HAL.

Mi wife and me take the Divina Cruise and it was the best cruise that we taked, the quality of the service, the cruise decoration, the balcony stateroom, the service  and the attentions of all the crew, the meals and the shore excursions were fabulous.

Almost all the staff was very hospitable, the only ones arent were the international buffet on deck 14. They don't like to clear the plates and they seem to look very grumpy most the time. My best experience was at Muranos and Q-sine. Aside from that, all the other staff were very nice and my family and i enjoyed ourselves very much!

Overall, I had a very positive cruise with Sunshine.  I cannot say enough good things about the staff and crew on board.  They were extremely helpful and attentive and always made us feel important and welcome.

I really did not like the buffet because of the crowds of people and quality of the food, but loved having choices.  I loved Guys Burgers for lunch and the smaller selection of breakfasts that you had on the 5th bar area.  Such a good idea. The restaurant food had great choices and the staff was great also.

Our rooms were very nice.  I had a ocean view room and the room was quite spacious and the closet space was great.

With 3000 persons on board, I never waited.  Ports were on time, embarktation and debarktation process was flawless.

My only complaint was the leaks on the ship.  It made me a bit uneasy.  Also, on "sea days" it would have been nice to have an extra show added midday.  I did get a little bored.

All and all you did a great job.  I was only of the passengers that was orginally on the April cruise that was canceled, so my expectations were pretty high.  You did a great job on the customer service end.

In April, I said I would never go on Carnival again, but you are winning me over.

Thanks.

Everything went smoothly.  Organized from checking in to checking out.   Super cool  crew, great food.      The only complain is there's a bar that they have somebody playing music everynight where customers can dance with the music,   unfortunately they let children on the dance floor near the bar.   It  would have been 5 star without this issue.

GOOD LAYOUT, GOOD DECOR, GREAT RESTAURANTS/FOOD, GREAT STAFF, NICE SHOWS, ENOUGH ACTIVITIES TO KEEP ONE BUSY. NICE STATEROOMS, COULD USE A LITTLE UPDATING. LIKED IT, OVERALL.

WOULD BOOK IT AGAIN.

A typical cruise, bUt excursions were challenging.  You just can't see much with your time.  Too much time spent on the bus to get from point a to b.  They shouldn't  really book multiple city tours on one excursion.  Too much traffic and not enough bathroom to accommodate all the tourists.  The cities are flooded with thousands dog people at once with the big ships!

My husband and I just got back from the Western Carribean on the Epic. Amazing trip.first, let me say you never felt that there were almost 7,000 passengers and crew on board. The staff was professional, accomendating, and very friendly thruout the trip. The excursions were amazing thru Cruises only. They were organized and very prompt. We were always brought back to the ship in a timely fashion with no worries of missing the boat. Our balcony room 9181 was great and had so many beautiful views. From the entertainment to the socializing we never felt bored. So many things to do... The food was good but, to be honest have had better on other ships. Embarkation and disembarkation went very smoothly. The crew was always very organized and visible if you had any questions. Again, had an amazing time. We sailed from Barcelona round trip and would definitely consider this trip again..

Look, the cruise was great, the ports were wonderful, the excursions were ridiculously expensive, as usual, and the food was great.  Just AVOID THIS BOAT. Carnival Sunshine supposedly came out of dry-dock a completely revamped "just like new" ship in May, 2013.  It is not "just like new" and I went on the Carnival Spirit when it was pretty new, so I have some camparison. We had an inside spa cabin.  I HIGHLY recommend the spa cabins, the additional pampering you get and the access to the thermal suite is 100% worth it. However, our a/c never worked and we complained about it a couple times, but they kept saying that it was normal when they tested it.  Well, if normal is 75 degrees at 8am, then yes, but it only got hotter from there.  FINALLY they gave us a fan, but there was no apologies, no explanation, just "there's nothing we can do." The movies started late several times, and the sound was too low, so you couldn't watch from the hot tub, then a couple days it was too low to hear the dialog at all. Speaking of the hot tubs, they were not hot.  At all.  And staff passed the buck, on-deck staff said to contact customer service, customer service said to contact on-deck staff. There is certainly not enough deck space, and the "no saving chairs" policy is not enforced.  I saw a group almost come to blows over 4 folks trying to reserve chairs all day, even though they left for an hour and a half for breakfast!  I wanted to rumble with another group, but my husband's cooler head prevailed and we were eventually able to find two chairs together in the sun. The water slides were super fun, I could have gone on them all day! I'm not sure why the ropes course always seemed to be closed while we were in port and then closed due to wind while we were sailing.  They're on deck 12 or so, it's gonna be windy up there!  Either open up in port or remove it so there's more deck space. Overall, cruising the med is a fabulous vacation, just find a difference ship!

Had a wonderful time. Loved our stateroom and the ship- lots of areas to spread out. We felt like the areas you had to pay extra for were used by very few people and a waste of space (pay extra hot tub and verandas)-poor idea!  We had 12 of us and we enjoyed so much  other than at dinner we had to split up as they only had tables as large as 10. We really wanted to stay together. The shore excursions were good but not as good as booking through private excursions.The food was delicious especially breakfast and dinner choices. We came in late from shore excursions and several times found all food stations closed down. It would be nice to have alittle available (soups, salad). All in all a great trip!

As a lot of cruisers are seniors or nearly seniors, I highly recommend that you reinstate the trays in the lido.  I'm talking smaller trays that would accompany a plate and a beverage with a well for the beverage.  As people age, the tendency is to becomes less balanced and also the wrists become weaker making it more difficult to carry heavy plates.  Also, there is a severe problems with going back and forth for food, beverages and water, therefore, making the hot itmes cold.  I know your reasoning and I wholly agree about rhe food waste which is prohibitive. However, on this cruise there were many instances when the food bins were not refilled and many times when there was no bread at all.  The people serving as so busy and there are so few of them that they just don't have time to refill items in a timely fashion.  

If you consider yourselves on the luxury side of cruising, you certainly are not living up to thata reputation.   So many things have been eliminated and cut entirely that you are certainly not the once proud line you used to be.  The dining service was etremely slow in that it took over 2 hours to finish a meal.  The portions are much smaller and not as tasty as they used to be.  In one year, I've seen very dramatic changes.  I know that change is inevitable but there are some places that your cuts are way too extreme.

Please rethink some of the changes especially the tray situation in the lido.  This would make idining there more pleasurable and creating less havoc and congestion.  You have very fine vessels so please reconsider some of the cuts and make changes that would make sailing with Holland a  much more  pleasurable experience.