Europe - Northern Europe Cruise Reviews

hello again

at first: world class itineraries. very remote locations, we europeans would not see in 14 days....

besides the perfect crew, the captain,, mathias anderson, was the best lecture you can imagine...

his knowledge about scandinaviens and vikings is exceptional.

The ports were amazing and that is what I will focus on remembering when I think about this trip. Unfortunately, I have lost interest in wanting to travel with MSC in the future. We experienced poor service throughout the ship, even when we tried to seek help about a major housekeeping issue in our room. It's no wonder the service is bad when MSC directly encourages you Not to tip individual employees, there is no incentive to work hard. I was a bit surprised that you were not allowed to have water at dinner without paying for a bottle, and they were unable to serve coffee after dinner! I thought it was supposed to be a European cruise. On that note, they did not have a Craps table in the casino because it "isn't European". What a huge mistake! Not only is that the biggest game to create excitement in the casino, it can make the ship the most money. Fools. Sadly the food was also very subpar with the least amount of selections that I've seen on a cruise. Also, no lobster night : ( There were almost no activities offered and the few they had were the exact same every day. The entertainment was alright with a few good shows, but I was very bummed that they had no comedy shows due to the language barrier. We consistently heard other cruisers sharing similar feedback. Particularly because of the continual lack of poor service (except from a few hard workers that MSC can't bring down) I now call MSC the Minimum Service Cruiseline.

I should begin by saying we have cruised on the various upscale lines.  This was our fouth in a row with Oceania and second time on Nautica.  We are sold on Oceania because we like the size and feeling of their ships.  No mega cruises with thousands of passengers.  Oceania must do a great job in hiring their staff because once again they were exceptional in friendliness and service throughout the ship.  Our penthouse suite gave us plenty of extra room and we had a great time interacting with our Butler and cabin stewards.  Dining on Oceania is like going to a fine restaurant at whatever time suited us.  I am not going to write abook here -- we again had a great time on Oceania & Nautica as did many of our 672 fellow travelers -- most of whom have the same loyal feeling for Oceania and are repeat cruisers.  On-board, we booked a Caribbean cruise for February to escape our midwest winter.

Oceania had good entertainment in the evenings.  On a mid-size ship, you do not get the big Broadway productions of some of the mega cruises we have been on. I  am happy to make this trade-off.  The singers on Nautica were far and away the best of our 4 cruises.  We'd been to England many times and London; still, we did 5 days on our own in London and I am kicking myself for not doing 3-4 more.

This was so enjoyable for a lot of reasons.

first the weather was perfect.

second we didn't even know we were on a ship as the waters were so calm

third As always the people were great, helpful and friendly on the tours and ship

Our Baltic cruise was perfect!  The weather was unusually warm and sunny the entire 9 days. Our 2 days is St. Petersburg were our favorites because we got to spend the most time there, although a 3rd day would have been even better.  We didn't have enough time to truly explore Helsinki or Stockholm but thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  The food on the ship was, of course, outstanding with plenty of variety.  We love being able to eat any time we want without having to dress up. The staff were all extremely friendly and helpful, the stateroom small but ample and cleaned every day. (I wish I could bring Lobo home with me!)  I definitely recommend this tour.  We took local transportation most of the places without any difficulty with the exception of St. Petersburg, where we used a local travel agency instead of the more expensive cruise lines' tour.  We thoroughly enjoy interacting with the locals, who usually speak excellent English and are very helpful.  I was in a wheelchair and was able to travel with ease.

Our trip to the Baltic countries with Oceania just right!  The itinerary let us get a glimpse of several countries, but the highlight was the fact that we were able to spend 3 days exploring St. Petersburg.  The cruise was well staffed. We enjoyed both the grand dining room and the specialty themed restaurants. Both offered excellent service, and diverse menus.  

Loved every city we visited. St. Petersburg was amazing & 3 days there wonderful! Used SPB excursions in St. Petersburg, Berlin &Oslo. Would definitely recommend them to everyone! 

Every port was fantastic with ST.PETERSBerg at the top. We had sunshine in every port which I understand was in itself amazing for that part of the world. Check in and disembarking was better than any cruise I have taken in the past. The crew of Regal Princess was also the best crew and the most friendly I have ever had the pleasure of coming in contact with. I would without a doubt recommend this cruise to all.

It is a place to unpack your stuff and visit many ports; places you might otherwise have not visited.  Food was good, not great or exceptional, but they feed 5000 people per day. You can always find something. Cooked meat preparation might be better than even Oceania Cruises.  Boat design lacking in that there is no deck level that you can walk all the way around the ship.  To get to the front of the ship, to see what is in front of you (or where you are heading) is not possible unless you pay an extra daily fee of $70 to $130 per couple to get into the 'The Sanctuary'. Stuffy air in elevators. We were upgraded to a suite amenities balcony which included dingy grey towels with no fluff, tiny bathroom, shower that poorly drained, heating and ventilation system which did not work but had a comfortable bed.  Cruise director Martin was wonderful.  They are constantly selling something on the ship and if employees do a poor job upselling you, their contracts are not renewed. They cater well to repeat customers.  We never met anyone who liked the free coffee....... but you can buy coffee for $3 and up at the international Café. 

An extensive itinerary from the Baltic Sea to Northern Europe, Regal Princess made this cruise special.  Food and dining room service was better than previous cruises with Princess.  Ship is beautiful, new, and offers some very unique features, like the sky walk.  Production shows in the theater were super.

I was not pleased with the cabin maintenance.  Room steward was not thorough in cleaning bathroom and odors lingered from mildew shower curtain to unclean toilet.  The bed was particularly uncomfortable until I asked steward to change mattress. He sail we had a "pillow top", but in fact, it did not.  The mattress was changed and that center bar that stood above the mattress to make our double bed was removed.  After the adjustments were made the bed was a bit more comfortable.  I regret that I did not say something about it sooner in the cruise.

Kiel Germany --- Gdynia, Poland you can spend a whole day at the Malbork Castle. Klaipeda, Lithuania  was a fantastic site to see and interesting history of the Curonian Split Island. Riga, Latvia also fantastic sites of the old city and St. Peter and John's churches. Tallinn, Estonia.  Great sit of old town. St. Petersburg, Russia was the best. Fineland , Helsinki  great sites. Sweden, Stockolm great sites. I will hope everyone can get a chance to see these sites.

Dining service and selection was the best part of the cruise.  We chose MyTime dining and enjoyed the flexibility it provided. Our waiter, Ivo, and his assistant, Jakob, were pleasant and efficient. 

Our cabin steward, Miguel, was helpful.

The internet connection, sold by day rather than minutes as with other cruise lines, worked well.

In Bergan we chose the RC Bergan On Your Own tour.  Materials were passed out last minute.  The map had no street names.  I was under the impression, obviously wrong, that there would be some way to ask questions about Bergan (like where are the shops?) before we left the ship.  We went to the tour director's presentation the day before, but he didn't say anything about the specifics of the city.  He just repeated the online shore excursion info.

Departure of shore excursions in the theater was confusing at the beginning of the week and improved over time.  However, having only one person checking out (clicking the bar code on our Sea Passes) at the stop in Flam was ridiculous. 

Also, in Skjolden there was only one door open for returns.  People stood in line in the rain for anywhere from half an hour to a full hour.  Pitiful. When the buses dropped off those of us who booked shore excursions at the front of the line, those standing there got nasty and made ugly comments as we merged into the lines. I blame RC for not providing more entries into the ship and for having no personnel there to direct the returning bus traffic.  This failure in returning to the ship is the prime reason I only rated the cruise as good.

We enjoyed the "16 feet, 4 fiddles" show immensely. 

The last day's production number was a disappointment.  You could see that the cast was prepared and talented, but the choice of music was deficient...loud...no subtlety, no sweet melodies, just loud. "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" distorted the original version in a weird way. Even with the Momma Mia selection it was hard to hear familiar refrains; loud and flashy.  No class.  Costuming was strange and tacky.  It was a loud and gross show.  Yuk. 

Nice destination, ship okay. Very good service at Blue Moon Restaurant. Not enough information about privileges for suite category. We had to request all special services that we had included. We requested to remove automatic added gratuity charge and we were told it was mandatory.

We enjoyed nightly cocktails in the Pacific Lounge.  Panoramic views were wonderful.  We also like our minisuit, but thought the tub was quite dangerous to use.  Very difficult to get in and out of the tub.  Walk in shower would be preferred.

Everything about our Splendid Scandinavian cruise on Oceania's Nautica cruise was excellent! The tours were very informative, the lectures & lecturers were very interesting, the room & bedding were very comfortable, the food great, staff super especially in the restaurants, decor nice, although I wasn't particularly crazy about the red carpeting in the main areas, it grew on me.

I would give the cruise itself 3 stars, but rated it higher because of the ship, Koningsdam, which is new this year. Even smells new! Food is wonderful and service is even better.

Mostly older people on board and the activities caters to that age group. (Good fit for us)

Not many excursions to choose from on this itinerary, but enjoyed the ones we chose--Train ride and hike in Flam, and fjord cruise in Stavanger were the best. Could have skipped Kristiansand and Oslo. 

Stunning.

Britannia 6 out of 10;

Dining:

food and service was superb 100% recommend the limelight club well worth the supplement. Buffet  worst culprits people  for not washing their hands

Entertainment:

Theatre too smal.

This cruise provided the right amount of time and excursions to see this amazing part of the world.     Aside from a temp shift at the last minutes, it was all I expected.    The crew on the NCL Star were fabulous, the entertainment was good ( could us a bit of updating) and the food options were plentiful.  I love my mini suite and balcony...which enabled me to get up early each morning to see the sun rise and watch as we pulled into each Port.  I will say one very important thing...do NOT skimp on excursions.   Many on the cruise did a HOP on/off and were not able to get tickets into some of the main attractions (VASA, St Petersburg Palaces and the Hermitage)  in the port cities and were very disappointed. 2 groups were late coming back to the ship from alternate tours or on their own in St Petersburg, but thankfully it was day 1, but if it was Day 2, the ship would have left them.      Thank you Elise Mahaney for all your help in planning this fabulous trip!

We booked an ocean view room, which for this cruise was adequate.  We normally do a balcony room, but there was little to see outside of the ports, so it was not necessary.  The dining experience in the Aqua Dining Room was very good.  The chef and maitre d discovered my fondness for Indian food, and we were invited every night to the "extended" dining room which featured Indian families who also enjoyed "off menu" items.  Food was delicious and plentiful.

I did not like the Norwegian Star's general buffet set up - it was like the old fashioned cafeteria style rather than having separate stations for salads, meats, vegetables like every other ship we've been on.  The water and ice dispensers were electronic (no touch) and were inconsistent in delivery.

The shows were probably the best we've experienced lately.  The ship's entertainment crew (about 16 singers/dancers plus band) were excellent and the shows were very well done and choreographed with excellence.  The Russian acrobats Dimitri and Maria were also excellent.  

Since this was a cruise in Scandinavia, I would would have loved to see an ABBA show - I'm surprised they did not feature on since this is where the group comes from!

Our room was directly under part of the kitchen and working areas of the Aqua lounge - very noisy late at night for several nights until we realized where the noise was coming from; we went to Guest Services about the matter, and we had no further issues.

We did not experience the gym, spa area or pools, so I have no review other than it seemed everyone enjoyed themselves.

The music featured in the main lounge (a trio from Manila) was very low-key and low-energy for such a bustling part of the ship.  On the other hand, the piano man who played the Spinnaker lounge was much to loud and "busy" for such a small venue which also shared space with the sushi restaurant.

We loved the Irish pub - great menu and good food, although service was sketchy from time to time.

Overall - we loved this cruise, would recommend it to friends.  One of the best features was the 2-day stay in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Great itinerary that could be a little better. You need 2 days in Germany. Too rushed to go to Berlin (or in our case Hamburg) in one day.

The waterslides are poorly designed-you get stuck on the way down (not steep enough).

Food was a little salty at Versailles.

Other than that we had great time!