Europe - Northern Europe Cruise Reviews

This cruise was the perfect way for us to explore a part of the world we'd never visited before.  Loved it.  Very active days and peaceful nights (with sunsets occurring close to midnight!).  We did some shore visits on our own and booked with TJ Travel for St. Petersburg and Stockholm -- we highly recommend them. Traveled in a very small group (10 or fewer) and it was less costly than NCL's excursions.  We DID book NCL's night at the Russian ballet, but learned in advance that we'd see student dancers and only pieces and parts of Swan Lake.  (Happy that we canceled.)  Advice: Do your homework in advance to learn what each city has to offer and you'll have an enriching experience you won't forget.

While not as luxurious as the larger ship I was on last year with Royal Caribbean, it was a very good experience overall. This is my first cruise with Norwegian so I have no larger ships of their line with which to draw a more even comparison with RCL's which was nearly twice as large. I would definitely recommend the Norwegian line with one proviso for travelers without children. Neither line seemed inclined to say anything to parents with unruly children, probably out of the desire not to stir up calm waters. However in both cases they both exposed themselves to serious repercussions from actions of small children which could  have exposed other cruisers to very real dangerous situations. Especially in the case of Norwegian where parents allowed their small children to sit on the steps in a darkened theater during a performance. NCL's case while not dangerous to other passengers was EXTREMELY distracting to diners in the area of the formal dining room where a small child was allowed to play with with a dinner knife continously beating it on a wine glass. That being said that seems to be the norm with all cruise ships as I have heard other horror stories from people who cruise frequently.

This was a fabulous cruise and a great ship. Food was very good and staff extremely enjoyable to interact with. If Norwegian reads these posts I suggest three things: avoid having the trivia games (which are well attended) in a bar area where they make drinks using a blender, change the brand of soy milk to one that has vanilla added or is sweetened, offer some accommodation for dairy free diets like a dessert or coconut ice cream selection.

If you want to visit these countries, this is the way to go!  The convenience of the cruise while experiencing the great ports.  The cruise is family oriented with clubs by individual age groups.  Everything from babies to teenagers is split up with plenty of activities.  I wouldn't recommend for the party goers, this is more for families and the older generation.  The food was good and the shows were great!

Excellent cruise: impressive cities, high standard cuisine, very good services, very good entertainment. The only problem we found was that when booking the cruise we tried to make reservations at restaurants, but the system did not allow it. In addition, at the beginning of the cruise we were informed that reservations could be made every day, but this was not, as in trying to get them all restaurants were booked. We suggest improving restaurant booking system. There were two people who were not friendly to our requests: Ann Areval and Alexander, the Philippine person, who was in the front desk.

We sailed to some great ports on this Baltic cruise.  Better than I was anticipating as far as ship itself.  Ultimate dining and beverage packages are a must.  Only minor issue was being on 10th deck just below Market Cafe buffet.  Would not stay under restaurant again!

The internet was terrible.  The staff was wonderful.  The prizes for Trivia were useless.

Celebrity seems a touch above most of the other cruise lines - Princess, Holland America, NCL. They give you service with a smile in a very personal way. Their excursions are well organized.

Wonderful cruise.  The only negative experience was Russian Immigration process - completely out of NCL's hands.  If there is some way to add a at sea day between ports.  We got worn out with five days in a row for port-calls. 

This cruise was a great choice for my family. We enjoyed the majority of the ports and Holland America really wants you to feel at home on the ship. They treat all their customers with respect and we enjoyed the journey. Scotland was breathtakingly gorgeous and would go back in a second!

Overall, this cruise was great - great ports, great tour guides, great ship and mostly good staff.

After speaking with a friend that had just come off a Celebrity Cruise with mostly the same itinerary we were a little skeptical about some of the same ports, but much to our delight they were all quite good.

The Brilliance of the Seas is a really nice ship, but is getting a little tired and is in need of some cosmetic upgrades.  The service is mostly very good and we only ran into a very few staff that wished they were somewhere else. 

As a Crown and Anchor Platinum member the only problem I had was that some of the shipboard credits I was due were not applied to our account and when I went to speak with the shipboard ambassador he pretty much blew me off saying there was nothing he could do about it.  A couple of days later I spoke with him and he said he sent an email to the office and would let me know.  After not hearing from him I went to see him again and he said he had heard from them and they had no record of any request for shipboard credit.  When I asked him to see the email, he could not find it.  It is my opinion that he never sent an email and never received a reply, but provided an easy way out for himself rather than assist a repeat cruiser.

Thee only other complaint (and it is a minor one) is that Royal Caribbean needs to work on mastering the details as it was only little things that would have made our cruise perfect.

Other than that it was a great cruise and the friends that traveled with us also enjoyed it.

Our travel agent Joan Cohen, was outstanding - very knowledgeable and experienced and we will definitely will use her services again for our next cruise!  

SHIP, ROOM, STAFF, FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT WERE ALL EXCELLENT. SHIP'S INTERNET LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED. IT'S SLOW AND COSTLY. WE BOOKED SHORE EXCURSIONS ONLINE PRIOR TO CRUISE AND SAVED OVER ONBOARD BOOKINGS. ALL EXCURSIONS WERE EXCELLENT WITH FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS: BERLIN PHOTO STOPS WERE TOO RUSHED (POSSIBLY DUE TO LONG DRIVE TIME) AND ITS SPREE RIVER TOUR WAS A WASTE OF TIME. COPENHAGEN'S DRAGOR VILLAGE TOUR'S TRADITIONAL DANISH LUNCH OF PICKLED HERRING, RAW SALMON AND LIVER PATE WAS MOSTLY LEFT UNEATEN BY EVERYONE ON OUR BUS. ALL OTHER TOURS WERE OUTSTANDING.

This was an awesome cruise.  The Celebrity staff is one of the most hard working that I have seen.  They are always ready to do their best to make sure you have a fantastic experience onboard.  The extra touch they offer when returning from an excursion really made our day.  I just love the hot chocolate they give you as you are waiting to board the ship after a fun filled day.  The dining room staff was great. Pero was our waiter and did a great job to make our dinner an "experience".  Randy our bar waiter kept our drinks flowing and Armand also provided us with great service.

Customer relations was always available to help.  The cabin stewards did a wonderful job keeping our cabin in great shape.  I have cruised on several cruise lines and the staff on Celebrity really takes it up a notch to provide great service.  The staff work long hours.  I am an early riser and see them working in the morning and then after leaving the bar in the evening they are still working but always with a smile on their face and a friendly word.

Hands Down Celebrity is the Best Cruise Line!  Wonderful Staff, Great Entertainment and the Meals, Extraordinary.  The travel Itinerary was expertly planned!  Enjoyed every minute, already planning our next cruise!  

The ship is very big and new. The problem with a big ship like this one is that the ship can not dock in all of the ports and have to use the boats and than take a bus or a train to take you to Stockholm. We had a good experience with the dining our waiters were Ronaldo and Maggi and then Dan Lee and Rudymel. The photo team was very good, our waiteres in the breakfast were very good Zainal Arifin and Dragan. Our room steward is very good Isidro Pinos.

I dont like taht we have to pay for extras as the Sanctuary and the speciality dining restaurants.

This is our 11th cruise, the mayority with Princess and Celebrity.

The ports were awesome.  I used an outside tour company and was very pleased with the small tours with the maximum of 12 people, rather than the large buses used by the tour company.  The ship was very easy to navigate.  In Berlin and one day in St. Petersburg the line to get back on to the ship was taking a half an hour.  

Beautiful ship, staterooms roomy and well appointed. Great service and food. Excellent itinerary. Entertainment better than expected. Everything well organized.

Excursions expensive but worth it if you choose the ones that matter like St.Petersburg and Berlin-which would be challenging to do on your own. Smaller ports are fine to do without the excursions if you can read a map. We enjoyed doing the other ports on our own. 

This is a high end luxurious ship if that is what you are looking for. 

very poor communication procedures with customer service and  headquarter financial polices

department causing unnecessary stress for customers... at the end things were fine. Training the staff is poor and left to each individual to make up for corporate polices to save money on that, which is not fare to customers and employees. I felt than Wall Street is running the company and cuts were on everything including on the quality of shows, too!

I highly recommend visiting/cruising Norway, particularly the fjords, but not necessarily with Holland America. This was our 3d. cruise with HA and the service, accommodations, food and particularly the excursions were very pricey and or disappointing.

The fjords, the snow capped mountains, the frequent waterfalls are incredible and their beauty can hardly be captured with the camera - unfortunately I don't have the words to properly describe them, so you just have to see it for yourselves. The 24hr. sunlight in the arctic circle is somewhat disconcerting, but luckily it only last part of the cruise. 

Overall, my 11 day scandinavia and russia cruise was very enjoyable.  Mostly, the service was outstanding.  For the purpose of eating, the food had very high quality.  Every time the head waiter was very understanding about my daughter with allergies.  Very friendly and nice to my daughter.  Razvan was the head waiter's name, and out of ten stars, I have to say he was a very definite 11 star rating.  Our other waiters also had very nice service to offer.  Always were right there when we needed them, and we did not have to wait very often.  Simona and Dragana were their names.  I do believe personally that Dragana had a better service toward us but Simona was also very magnificent.  In my opinion, she should not be a waitress in waiting.   With the topic of food and dining, service was very nice.