Europe - Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

The efficiency of the staff and the friendliness of everyone who attended to us was superb. Food was moderately good. Not exceptional except for Murano where the cuisine was cooked to order often table side and the service was elegant. Activities aboard appealed to a wide range of people and whatever your interest from sports to art it could be found. Considering the number of people (3,000) accommodation was amazing. I would recommend this cruise and especially the ports of call. Te eastern Mediterranean is fantastic!

We got a wonderful first taste of the countries that we visited. We had excellent excursions and learned a lot about each place that we visited. This will give us a base line that will help us to know which countries to come back to visit for a longer visit in the future.

Good Cruise but did not exceed my expectations nor even match them. Not the right cruise for a 19-35 yr old age group. Ship layout needs to be reconfigured. It does not work. Staff was friendly and attentive but not great.

Port stops were breath taking. Ship was OK - the refurb was way over hyped, service was poor / fair at best. There is a reason Carnival is the most popular cruise line, it caters to the masses. The food / service reflect a laisse faire attitude. In my eyes, they have mass merchandised cruising to the point of hum drum. If you are going to Europe and spending the money, make it special and take a smaller, higher end cruise line. Otherwise, be prepared to join the masses and be part of the cattle call.

As newly weds, we had a lovely experience. The only 2 things that I was annoyed with was I had to get up at 5am to secure a cabana in the upper(adults only) area. There should be a revolving system where all passengers wanting to use the area, have turns using it. As a newly wed, it would have been nice to be able to have it for more than just a day. Also, I noticed that the spa specials were not offered at convenient times. Sign up times usually opened when 90% of the passengers were out on excursions. Otherwise the food and other services were highly recommendable.

We have taken one cruise with Princess before, which was a brand new ship Diamond Princess, and our expectations for this older ship were low. But the service, food and entertainment were awesome. The only issue was that the drinks were too expensive, and there was no laundromat. But we drank wine on shore excursions and washed a few clothes in the room. Being vegetarians we thought food would be an issue but we found plenty of options. The shore excursions wih the Shire Excursion Group were great, a tad expensive but really convenient and well done. A little more time in Crete would have Ben nice, but all in all, it was awesome. We took two adjacent rooms, one for us and one for the kids, right in front of the ship with views te captain saw. Rooms were big and more spacious than in Princess. Would use royal Caribbean again.

I gave this cruise a four star rating! We sailed 7/21 thru 7/28/13. Ship was nice but since our last cruise was on the Allure of the Seas, it reminded me of a much scaled down version. The food was great! Chops Grill was the best! The crew was nice and pleasant! The Spa really needed a renovation! We are Spa babies and missed the more expanded facilities! Our favorite destinations were Messina. We took the tour that went to Taromina, the vineyard and the jewelry factory!! We loved this location. Athens was a big disappointment! Lots of graffiti on the buildings! We took the taste of Athens excursion. The jewelry shopping was great! Turkey was the best Ephesus was fantastic! Seeing all the biblical ruins and hearing the stories put everything in perspective. We did not get off in Crete as we were worn out from spending the previous week in Rome. Would recommend this trip!

J'ai fait une croisière sur ce bateau 19 - 28 juillet 2013. La cabine a été très propre, la nourriture très bonne, le service aussi bon. J’ai moins aimé le service à la clientèle; il était mal organisé. Il y avait toujours de longues files d’attentes. C’est normal : pour 3000 passagers il y avait seulement trois personnes pour répondre aux questions ou aux demandes donc on pourrait passer facilement 2-3 heures à attendre. En plus les annonces faites par M. Mirel on les attendait presque pas si on était à l’extérieur. Même pendant les annonces la musique continuait assez fort, donc je n’ai pas pu être informée quand il y a eu des changements d’horaire. C’est sure que, quand tu te dépêches pour ne pas être en retard sur le bateau et après une course presque folle, tu apprends que l’horaire a été modifié (le départ retardé d’une heure et demie) tu ne peux pas trouver ça drôle. La communication a été très mal organisée.

great ship but not great service.The excursions are very bad and expencive.The food is based on italian kitchen.In venice they forced us to buy very expencive shutlle without any other choice with minimum tfree time.It was a big disappointment. VERY UGLY BEHAVE IN THIS SERVICE.

Great itinerary and service; however, lack of security as for belongings. My camera was stolen under the watchful eye of the Photo Gallery attendant who saw the camera untended, but did not put it aside, and as a result it was stolen.

From the moment I arrived at the cruise terminal there were friendly, knowledgeable and upbeat crew members to meet every need. I was on board within 35 min. With no long lines and waiting. Luggage was delivered to my balcony stateroom by mid-afternoon. This is a very large cruise ship but cleanliness was everywhere. Meals in the dining room were very good and after the first evening the staff knew all of us by name. I was part of a table of nine and we were friendly from the beginning with no awarkwardness. The shore excursions were the only experiences I found uncomfortable - and that was due to the heat and massive crowds. Ephesus was the best with the Turkish tour company very friendly and knowledgeable. Guest Relations Desk crew were very helpful and pursued my requests until a very satisfactory solution was found. I will definitely cruise with Royal Caribbean again, but on another itinerary. Michael from Wisconsin (age-75)

We had a great time...the people were attentive to our needs, very curious and thoughtful....the food: excellent, but what we enjoyed most was the option of having three pools. We spent most of our time in the adult pool area being that we did not bring our children with us. They would have enjoyed all the activities available and we are seriously considering having them come with us on the next one. The itinerary was just perfect for us and it allowed us to visit the places we wanted to see most, or relax on the ship since that is a vacation in itself. I am recommending cruising to all my friends.

I always thought a cruise wouldn't be for me, too staid, too boring. Well, I have to eat my words, It was great fun. Excellent lovely and "I'll be back". Can't wait to book next years cruise. John Carabini

Wonderful family vacation. Weather was great, ports were fun, educational. This was our fourth cruise on the Magic and unfortunately the Disney Magic is looking tired. I understand they are going into dry dock in September so hopefully the Magic will return to previous status.We booked two additional cruises for 2014 before we left the ship. Wish they had more west coast cruises.

I gave this cruise a 4 out of 5 because the size of the bathroom in the balcony room was smaller than expected; it was hard to shave your legs without bumping into a surrounding wall (& I'm a small person); and while the variety of the food in the dining rooms suited my tastes, my husband found it lacking & needed to use the 'standard' choices more than the menu of the night. Unfortunately, the beef choices tended to be tough. The staff was very friendly and service-oriented. The entertainment team offered lots of fun activities throughout the day, and the buffet dining room always had food for every taste.

excellent cruise, nice experience,excellent team on bord. I love it, I will recommend for everyone.excellent experience,highly recpmmend cruise.i just love everything start from the cleaners people until the captan.they are very clean cruise ,beautifull and make me fillin home.

Great service, very clean, great shows, great places to visit, we love it We fill at home, my kids loves the teens club, great food special salmon and beef great wine selection, nice people,

Celebrity treats you like a person and not like "cattle".  They truly make you feel that the trip is their maiden voyage even though they do this week in and week out.  The specialty restaurants are amazing.  My wife and I felt like royalty when eating in the speciality restaurants.

Our family of four recently returned from our 11 night cruise of the Mediterranean aboard the Celebrity Reflection. It was a phenomenal experience overall. This was only the second time we had cruised as a family. We were looking for a way to celebrate our 25th anniversary with our sons, ages 17 and 19, and this cruise fit the bill perfectly, even though we only booked the cruise less than six weeks before sailing. Wendi at made me aware of a special pricing promotion which allowed us to sail on Celebrity in a verandah stateroom for the kids and an Aqua Class Suite for my husband and I. While the rooms weren't adjacent or even on the same deck, it wasn't an issue as I trusted our sons could manage themselves (which they did). In many ways, we had bargain pricing and luxury accommodations. The kids' stateroom was on Deck 9 (not far from the Game Room), had an ample balcony, a fridge, two twin beds and a sofa. The sofa was a bonus in my mind (although it was covered with teen boy clothing the entire trip), and had they been more neat and organized, certainly allowed them separate spaces to hang out in the stateroom. The bathroom had a stall shower and a good amount of shelf and drawer space. I'm not sure of the closet space was not adequate, if they didn't bother to request more hangers, or if they were just slobs, but a lot of their clothing didn't make it into drawers or the closet. They never complained of noise from the hallways or game area which was constantly populated by tweens and teens. My husband and I loved our very spacious Deck 12 suite which was larger than many hotel rooms we've stayed it! Closet and drawer space was more than ample and we had storage room to spare. The bathroom had a tub/shower combo and plenty of shelves and drawers. My only complaint with the bathroom was the inadequate space to hang towels, and no where to hang a wet bathing suit or some hand washed laundry. The bed was cushy and extremely comfortable - we slept soundly the entire cruise despite being located just off of the main corridor to the elevators. We enjoyed the large sofa and coffee table (with snacks provided each afternoon by our butler the kids would actually come out and hang there with us occasionally) and large verandah. The size and storage space allowed us to stow our luggage and keep the room neat and organized which only added to the sense of relaxation during our time at sea. The Celebrity Crew was across the board amazing with an 'aim to please' attitude and always a smile on their faces, from our butler and stateroom attendant, to the dining and wait staff, pool staff, even the crew members who were polishing the bannisters always greeted us with a smile and a "good morning" or "have a wonderful day." While we weren't exactly demanding passengers, the few things we needed they provided easily: tender tickets for our kids, toothpaste when we ran out, a ziplock bag of ice for my knee after a stumble on the uneven Istanbul pavement. The food was incredible. Other than two dinners at specialty restaurants (Qzine and Tuscan Grille), we ate as a family in Opus every night. Because we booked at the last minute, the late seating was unavailable, so we opted for Celebrity Select dining and booked individual reservations in advance for each night of the cruise, allowing us to eat between 8:30 and 9:00 as we had wanted. At most, our wait for a table was 15 minutes, and we enjoyed being seated in different areas of the upper level of Opus, surrounded by different diners and (mostly) different servers every night. The food was beautifully presented with plenty of choices for vegetarian and non-red meat eaters. Again, the staff was accommodating and always encouraged us to order both if we were debating on which dish we wanted!!! This was also true at Qzine and Tuscan Grille, particularly at Qzine where the unique nature of their menu had us completely over ordering and we ultimately cancelled some of our orders because we all were just too full!!! Opus did enforce the 'no shorts' rule for men for all nights other than the first night of the cruise (as some passengers had late delivery of their luggage). There were two formal nights, and in retrospect, we sould have passed on dining in Opus those nights (it meant for extra weight in our suitcases for mens's suits and dress shoes) and just scheduled our dinners in the specialty restaurants instead. No tacky standing in line to meet the captain on formal night - from what I could tell, "Formal Night" was just a higher standard for the dress code and a slightly fancier (lobster) menu on those nights, and a 'stand up and cheer thank you' to the dining staff on the second formal night. Not worth the extra weight and bulk in our suitcases!!! Breakfast and lunch at Oceanview Cafe gave us plenty of fresh, healthy choices in a wide variety of cuisines. The cooked to order omelets were great, although it did seem like they could use an additional chef as it took a bit longer than it should have for them to prepare our omelets and scrambles to order. We also really enjoyed the on-board made ice cream - at least 6 flavors every day available throughout most of the day. While it was very popular, the only 'less than great' food was the sushi which was served every early evening. The food was much more interesting and international than I remember from our last cruise five years ago on Royal Caribbean. We spent a good amount of our at-sea time near the pool and appreciated that we always could find a lounge chair. The pool staff seems to do a pretty good job of clearing away used towels and freeing up chairs, although we did spend some time in lounge chairs on Deck 14 overlooking the pool. I remember from my previous cruises that finding a chair could be a challenge, so this was appreciated. The shows in the main theater were OK - we only went to a couple of them with the standout being the acrobatic show on one of the final nights of the cruise. Our favorite entertainment was the jazz combo (we felt bad that they didn't have more of an audience on any of the nights we were there to listen), and the comedy show. The main comedian (whose name I now forget) was hysterical and while it was essentially the same show for three nights, he managed to mix it up and make each performance very funny in its own way. The port cities were great: Istanbul, Kusadasi, Santorini, Mykonos, Athens and Naples. We wisely chose to book our three shore excursions with an outside company instead of Celebrity's excursions and had private tours for two of the three excursions for a fraction of the cost. One of our guides was outstanding and the other two were adequate. Celebrity did a good job of distributing maps and general information about each port city. Our kids used the gym a lot and liked the variety of equipment. When I used the gym, there was not a wait for treadmills. The gym seemed clean and well maintained. We liked the international mix of passengers: lots of Americans, British, Australians, and a large contingent of South Americans (I'd guess Spanish was the second most spoken language behind English among the passengers). The vibe aboard ship was casual but not sloppy. This did not seem like a cruise where people came just to party. Lots of families, newlyweds, people of all ages. There were plenty of activities and you could be as busy or relaxed as you chose. We chose for relaxed and spent a lot of time on our balcony reading and enjoying staring out at sea and at the beautiful coastline views. Over all a great experience, fantastic itinerary and great service aboard the Celebrity Reflection. I'd love to sail on this ship again! A note: If you cruise in or out of Civitaveccia, Celebrity charges $93/person to shuttle you one way to or from Rome. We took a train from Rome Termini Station for 5 Euro/person (about $7.50 USD - purchase tickets at the train station, not in advance), then it is a 10-15 minute walk to a free port shuttle which takes you directly to the ship.

Not enough entertainment Service in main dining rooms was poor Ship was very clean Stateroom person was excellent Overall, just not enough to do while on board