Europe - Western Europe Cruise Reviews

This was our second time on the Marina.  We love Oceania for the service and food.  Unfortunately their entertainment is pretty bad.  They had 2 different pianists play and 3 different singers, snooze fest.  The ports were great except Casablanca which I thought was a disguisting cesspool.  Oceania needs to drop this port, I didn't speak with anyone who liked the port.  Spain was beautiful and was Lisbon.  We would go back to Spain and Lisbon in a heartbeat.

Exploring Barcelona, the Costa Del Sol, Gibraltar and Lisbon from the luxury base of the Equinox was both a culturally stimulating yet relaxing vacation. Enjoyed every day!

My wife and I were very pleased with our trip, its itinerary and especially the food and staff. I could not believe previous reviews about the staff, because it was the best on all 4 of my Oceania voyages. Food was superior once again especially in the GDR and Red Ginger, and the Terrace Cafe had a large variety of choices at all meals. The ship has most of the same amenities as Marina and Riviera , though it has fewer specialty restaurants and the boutiques are smaller. The entertainment was varied and very enjoyable, and we experienced all of them- nightly production shows and guest performers, The Quadruvian String Quartet, the Sirena Show band, dancing at night in Horizons, etc.

enjoyed all of it my only complaint was I have always used the gym in the mornings for some exercise classes but was very surprised to be told there would be a nominal charge for this but did not expect to pay £7 per session ,which I thought was a bit steep .

We enjoyed our Cruise,very comfortable stateroom,whilst on board we celebrated our Golden Wedding,we had a wonderful time on our day in the Grill,and were made to feel very special.

we were ashore on the day in Madeira.

very enjoyable cruise,staff were all excellent.

The cruise was realy good but the part we liked most was the stopover in Lisbon.The birth that we docked in was in a perfect place for sight seeing and near resteraunts and shops 

We had a fabulous trip all  the way around.  The Islands were beautiful and Lisbon was a bustling city with many things to see and do.  The Eclipse was a great ship with a wonderful crew with non stop, top notch food.  Our at sea days were fun filled with many activities to choose from and in the evenings there were always great shows and entertainment available.    

EXCELLENT HAD A GREAT TIME 1ST CRUISE BUT NOT THE LAST

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The service from cabin cleaning, room service and the resturants was very good.  The standard of food was excellent although one of us got an upset stomach - i believe either the Mexican lunch in Oceanview or Quisine was the cause and normally I am cast iron!  In case you are wondering, I had no food or drink ashore at all.

Still in spite of that it was very, very good.  For first timers, no need for books or games.  A library and games room take care of that providing cards, scrabble, checkers, chess etc.  Some free films in cabin and good bands around the ship.  Some of the entertainment was not to our taste, whilst some was very good, but that is to be expected, I guess.

The best part of this cruise was tours with one or two other couples.  No big buses, time to enjoy and see everything.  

The cruise ship was fine except they could use more storage for clothes.

Best was the perks from and Celebrity!  They made this trip extra special.

overall the cruise was great, Since my last cruise, drinks have increased substantially.  much to my dismay. The entertainment was OK. On days at sea it is a bun fight to get a table for breakfast and lunch. And you see people wandering around looking for a table. The cabin was very comfortable in fact top marks.

Wonderful cruise fantastic music as it was a musical festival with really great performers also we had the headliners & other artists for our entertainment we had solo groups I met some really nice people 

This was our first time with Royal Caribbean and it will not be our last.  We had a brilliant time.  The entertainment and food on ship was absolutely out of this world.  We were spoilt rotten. The staff in the restaurant couldn't do enough for you. We loved the Dog & Badger and so did everyone else as it got very busy.  That is the only gripe we have as it could have been a little bigger. The staff where pleasant and helpful no matter which venue, bar, gym spa or food hall you where in. The ports of call we visited were stunning.  We have booked again for next year. Gan't wait

Love the Oceania ships, and the itinerary was very good. One thing I was disappointed with were the tours, way too crowded and not very well planned. There were places we would have like to spend more time and some of the places we were at too long.  I would have liked more of the smaller group tours, there were not enough of them available. 

Ship is beautifully understated and very  comfortable!  Staff extremely friendly and always available.  Getting additional reservations before 8 in the specialty restaurants was difficult and the menu in the dining room on several evenings was not very appealing.

The Burgundian Explorer cruise (despite its somewhat perplexing name, as it went nowhere near contemporary Burgundy) was a lovely experience except for the unexplained elimination of a call at Porto in Portugal, which was one of our original motivations for scheduling the cruise, and a rather disappointing excursion to Valencia, which was more of a blow-by than a visit.

We had a wonderful vacation on board the Celebrity Silhouette. We chose the cruise because we liked the itinerary and the price. We also chose it because Celebrity is our chosen cruise line. 

The cabin, service, food and their professional personable staff was once again the key to keeping us loyal. We'll be back!

Family and friends were great travel companions

Activities for disabled and Internet service - unacceptably poor

would not recommend to others w similar needs

Ocean view room had no fold out couch like all the other cruises i have been on.

with 3 in the room that was a disappointment since I could not at 78 climb onto the upper  bunk so I slept on the flour the first night until they got me a roll away bed which was far from adequate but worked better than the flour for the cruise.

For the most part the food at the buffet lacked the variety that I was used to on other cruises. The best part of the cruise were the tours.

My wife and I have taken 3 cruises on Princess prior to this cruise including another on 8 other cruise lines to a total of 31 cruises.  In our opinion the merger with Carnival have left Princess as not a jewel but now a rough stone.  We booked this cruise for the locations to visit and an additional on the Regal Princess for a back to back vacation.  I wanted to establish my comments with the knowledge that we have in cruising. 

Embarkation was a treat, the terminal building did not have WiFi to waste the time away waiting for boarding.  The Princess Staff made the process easy, after that we waited 1.5 hours to board.  Instead of allowing the disabled to board first they were put in with all the guests, causing long lines and problems.  We then headed for our room dropped off our carry on, our room was actually larger than the Regal, a Balcony room.  The Room Stewart greet us and we asked that the extra chair and small table be removed to give us more room to move around.  Plenty of open closet for our clothes and floor storage with a shelving unit where the safe was, this is when we noted how old the ship was.  It is a 13 year old ship that hasn't had much renovation, in fact it is due to drydock in the spring.

We left the room headed toward the Horizon Court (Buffet), age showed up again, when we walked on the floors, in our room, and in the elevators there were soft spots under the carpets.  The Court had 3 separate locations and the older pattern.  In the food line we noticed that meats were available but the sauces such as horseradish were set up before you got the meet some 10 feet away.  As the time went along, menus in this area were repeated several times, locations were shut down leaving just one area to gain your food.  We were stopped at the beginning to make sure we sanitize our hands, but as the cruise continued, guests would enter the exit or just pass the personnel and no one cared. 

We tried to use the Dining Rooms, it started out good but dropped into bad habits.  Seated and provided  a menu, in the beginning the servers would get your order immediately, but as the cruise went along, the servers would wait until their area was filled before taking our order.  The Formal nights are an old tradition that needs to be stopped, as the Chocolate Fountains/Midnight Buffets have been.  There were double amount of people in the Buffet those nights, plus it would be less clothes to pack.

Shore Excursions were way over priced and offered things that stretched the truth at times.  We signed up to kiss the Blarney Stone, the night before the tour, we were provided a letter telling us that to get to this we would have a physical and time limitations to get to this location.  Interestingly, you can't cancel the tour within 24 hours of the trip.  We went on the trip and were provided some side trips along the way, which caused us to get behind the 8 buses in front of us, allowing 1.5 hours to get in line for the STONE and walk the site.  As would have it, we arrived finding that it was a 2 hour wait to get to the STONE.  I confronted the Princess Shore Excursion Manager, he advised me that they are only the AGENT and I would have to take my concern up with the Contracted Tour Company.  He also advised me that it is policy that they have this relationship, I asked to see this policy, he advised me to call Princess.

Problem with the Boutiques, Customer, Security  and Fiscal Services regarding false advertising, butting every charge on hold against my card instead of waiting till the end of the Cruise.  We had to change our room/ID Cards 5 times due to these problems and it was also summed up with, "Call the 800 number if you don't like it."  We reported a small inflatable boat with in 20 feet of our hull with a Man in the Boat and a Yellow Bag, took pictures, reported to Security to have them tell me that I shouldn't concerned, that the ship has video cameras to record this!

This is just a taste of experience on this ship and PRINCESS Service.