Europe - Western Europe Cruise Reviews

I enjoy the gym, the healthful food options, and the enrichment lectures.  Nice as Diamond member to get free drinks between 5-8:30 pm.

lectures are important.  they are a major draw for me on a cruise.  would never take a repositioning cruise if no lectures.

noticed your cutting back on some things, eg chocolate on pillows.  that's not crucial.  the things above are.

would recommend the cruise to others.

I booked the Cunard Victoria for my fathers 80th birthday with my mother and a total of 13 family members.

We cruise frequently as a group for any occasion ie my 50th my fathers 75th my brothers 50th etc and have been on many very nice ships before and this time decided to travel on the Victoria and I booked penthouses for everyone so we were all in the Queens Grill.

We had a fantastic time and were looked after incredibly well by all the staff on the ship from embarkation to disembarkation.

The suites were lovely but the Queens Grill Restaurant and Bar Lounge were exceptional and everyone commented on how they felt that nothing was too much trouble.

We will definitely consider Cunard again for our family group holidays

Pro: Speedy check in!

Cons:

-Photo booths were mediocre at best, just plain black or white background mostly, no exciting set up. Photo screens show pictures with words all across so it's impossible to clearly see to dole out money for them, also the color should be softer not too harsh to show every single flaws on the face ! I only bought 3 instead of the whole package as usual !! Carnival  has attractive booth set ups with romantic benches, hay stack cubes to sit on with different poses etc so it's irresistible not to buy them!

- We had an ocean view cabin and there was no shampoo, hair conditioning, and body lotion provided, a huge dissapointment  !

we loved our Cunard cruise.  The ports were beautiful and so easy to get around.  The staff on the ship were amazing.  We loved every minute.  I have food allergies and for the first time could go to a meal without my epie pen.  The staff was so diligent to make sure everything was safe for me

The main dining lacks better, more elegant cuisine choices. Windjammer seems to offer even better varieties, although it is always crowded and hard to find a space. Service is good in both places; staff seem to work hard to please. Housekeeping was done efficiently. Overall the cruise needs more activities like exercise classes, lectures, etc. while on sea days. We were on the Allure and were more impressed with it than the Harmony.

Had a lovely time onboard. The ports were not that great. The independance of the seas was fantastic.   Lovely food in the dining room.  Choice of desert was not that much in windjammer.  Ice skating and violin player was fabulous. Royal  Promenade parties were great too. Love and marriage show hilarious. Bars with live music were very good.  Cherbourg was the worst port to visit.  Absolutely nothing to do.  Most passengers got off ship and returned within a few hours. Bilbao was nice and Gijon was ok.  Would definitely recommend Independence of the seas and Royal Caribbean.

The excursions during the cruise were informative, enjoyable and will be remembered for a long, long time. Cruising AQUACLASS, the food at the BLU restaurant was delicious. The additional cost to eat at other specialty restaurants was not worth the additional upcharge. Cabin service was excellent. The basic beverage package should be more inclusive, i.e. typical sized martinis at all bars and lounges. Being repeatedly asked to upgrade the beverage package seems "nickel and diming." The onboard entertainment was not on par with what we had come to expect on a Celebrity cruise. It seemed amateurish rather than polished and coordinated. The BEATLES tribute was most enjoyable and one female singer (name forgotten) was good. 

The itinerary was great except for Waterford.

I would definitely recommend both the itinerary and Celebrity to my friends.

The food in the Main Dining Room could use improvement both in the variety and the quality of the food.

Cruise was as expected with some wonderful excursions. Biggest disappointed was the quality of food offered inthe main dining room. We had been on 4 previous cruises with fond memories of dinners. This cruise has greatly changed our opinion for the worse regarding Celebrity.

The service provided by the stateroom attendants was very good. The room was clean on a timely base. The main dining room service was excellent, provided by our waiter. He did an excellent job, was knowledgeable of the daily menu and provided excellent information. The menu selection was changed almost daily; the quality of food was unsurpassed.

Our only complaint was on a three excursion. The first problem was the Guernsey Military Occupation. The young guide either didn't get the proper information or was not planned very well by the excursion staff. We arrived early an hour before the scheduled museum opening. So we loaded back on the bus and proceeded to the next attraction. That was closed as well, so time had passed with all the driving, the driver decided to return to the first museum.

The second excursion was Blarney Castle & Woolen Mill Shop. Once we arrived at Blarney Castle we walked over to the Castle. There was such a long queue line to climb the steps to the stone; it would have taken two (2) hours. Our guide said we did not have enough time. So we never had a chance to go into the Castle or to kiss the Blarney Stone.

The third excursion we had a problem was Leeds Castle, Canterbury & Kent Scenic Drive. We spent so much time on the scenic drive we only had fifteen (15) minutes to tour Leeds Castle. There were at least six or seven buses leaving from the ship at the same time, plus school kids and other visitors. There just were too many people arriving at the same time in addition to spending too much time getting to the Castle. I will say the Celebrity did refunded 30% of the excursion cost. I thought the refund should have been more. .

The excursions mentioned above were not very well planned and there was not sufficient time given to see all of the attractions. All in the entire cruise on Celebrity Silhouette was very good and we would cruise Celebrity again.

The food, our room, the staff were all top rated. The ten stops were very good and the tours were fantastic. We were disappointed that we could not take the river cruise in Paris due to the rain and high water but this was not caused by the ship. We would recommend this cruise to anyone.

We enjoyed the ports and itinerary. Ship is attractive and easy to navigate. Entertainment was very good. The two tours we booked through ship was very good. Had problems with embarkation and room location was not good. Very noisy and far away from everything. We would recommend the cruise. Biggest problem is that you never have enough time in port! 

All the ports were interesting . I loved the Waterford crystal tour and of course Liverpool . 

The ship was clean , the food and drinks were fabulous . They go out of their way to do the little extras.

Everything on board the ship was excellent. We would have liked to see new items added to the shops during the cruise. All of the shops had the same inventory at the end of the cruise that was there at the beginning. We were happy with everything except the excursions. 

Unpacking all my stuff and enjoying the rest of my 12 day trip!  That is one of the most relaxing aspects of a cruise.  Get settled so you can have fun!

The Navigator of the Seas needs to improve in many ways if it wants to compete with other ships/lines.

The hallway carpets by the cabins (at least on Deck 6, where we stayed), are very stained.  The cabin on the other hand, was very nice, clean and spacious.

Food is a major, disappointing area.  The buffet at the Windjammer is the same food, day in, day out.

Service in the dining room is spotty...sometimes waiting for a tea can take a long time.  The dinner and lunch menus were o.k....nothing special.

It wasn't until we complained about the slow service, that things improved, at least for us.  We still heard many people complaining.

On this cruise, everything in the shops was taxed 20%, even though we were in international waters.  When we questioned them, we really didn't get a complete answer.  They said it was because the ship didn't go to a non-EU country.

Prices of goods and drinks were outrageous.

Smoking in the casino is an issue as well; the entire casino will smell of smoke, and you have to go through it to get to some other areas.  Very annoying.

Our previous cruise on the Independence of the Seas was not fantastic, but compared to the Navigator, it turned out to be a lot better.

The Navigator is just not a great ship at all.

We were mostly in cold weather, and even though it has several swimming pools, not one has a (retractable) cover on it, so people were inside most of the time, which made it very crowded.  Bar service or even finding a seat somewhere became a challenge.

The daily schedule, just like the food, was always the same.  Many activities would cost you additional $$.

One very annoying thing, to try to get more $$ from the passengers, was the sale for the extra dining packages.  You couldn't get away from it...even in the dining room, they would come and try to sell you the packages.  Also, in the dining room, if you wanted better food, it would cost you.....you want a better steak...pay up...you want a lobster tail...sure...it'll cost you.

Mexican food would cost you $25.00 p.p.  You want sushi....same thing.

RCL gets people on board with lower up front prices, but one there...watch out.

Chocolate on your pillow at night...forget it.

I could go on...but you get the picture....

My favorite stop for the cruise would have been LeHavre, France and a tour of the D-Day beaches but this was cancelled because of a French dock workers strike. As a result, I feel like we spent too many days at sea. Ship provided plenty to do but still too many days at sea for me. I saw little too do in Gijon, Spain - a different stop might be considered in the future. Other stops were nice.

Five years ago cruised Nautica Barcelona to Athens.  Without getting into details we were not pleased.  However, we were attracted by this Itinerary five years later and I have to say "What A Difference."  

The food and service were great.  The excursions were overpriced and did not provide the in depth views we would have liked. The evening entertainment was outstanding. The ship did not have as much common space as others we have traveled with.

Liverpool, Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands best excursions,