Europe - Western Europe Cruise Reviews

We enjoyed the Splendor so much that we booked three more Regent Seven Seas cruises while on board. This was our third cruise with Regent Seven Seas. It has become our favorite overall cruise line.

This was wonderful cruise and itinerary! We LOVE Norwegian’s “freestyle” cruising. So much freedom, no limitations. NCL is definitely our favorite cruise line by far! Can’t wait to choose another great itinerary!

We have cruised over 34 years and while the new ships are great, the experience is not. The cruise lines continue to diminish the experience and cash in. Celebrity cannot get the entertainment since Covid. Whether it be Visa problems or the entertainers do not want to go on cruise ships it doesn't matter. Celebrity does not have their own production operations working to make it happen, so don't expect much. Crew shortages will impact you. The crew that is there is worn and under too much pressure. Time to find alternative. We had four cruises in last year about 4 months apart and things not improving other than not wearing masks.

We enjoyed the ports and the meals we had in the ports. The ship and cabin are beautiful since it is new.

We really enjoyed the cruise. I have never had a bad cruise in the 20 that I have taken. Saying that, for the cost I had higher expectations of the food. We were expecting to have the same experience that we had on the Edge prior to covid. The magic we felt on the Edge did not translate back to the Apex. Everything was totally fine but when you are paying a lot more to be on Celebrity you don't expect to have Carnival level food. We love both Carnival and Celebrity but if both seem to have the same quality, why pay that much more. Our group was much younger than the average age of passengers on board. We are below 50 and felt the cruise overall on board was dry. We loved the fact that there were almost no kids, and we didn't have to worry about people having too many drinks. We like the livelier feel on Carnival and Royal where you have the music playing around the pool that's more current then was constantly being played. One thing we would do different is we would have done more excursions. When you are walking around old town after old town you really need to have guide to explain the importance of what you are looking at. Since we had not been to most of these ports, we thought we would do our research ahead of time and go from there.

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and although we didn't enjoy the food that much we always found something to eat. The room service was excellent and every time we placed an order it arrived at our cabin within 15 minutes. We found by booking our own tours we saved a lot of money and would do this if we cruised again. Just make sure you look for tours that pick you up at the port as they wait for you if disembarkation is later than anticipated.

Worth a try but just be prepared to queue and you will

The Good : the ship is nice and the ports are interesting. Manfredi’s is a great place and the man who manages it is a very accommodating fellow. Our room Steward was very good. The not-so-good: The silver liquor package is not worth it anymore. When we traveled with Viking on the Budapest to Amsterdam river cruise the higher-end wine and liquor were worth the extra money – on this cruise the wine/liquor that was EXCLUDED from the silver package is the higher quality. Definitely a downgrade since 2019. The Music on the ship was fine the first day – But became very repetitive and tedious. The group that traveled with us averaged around 70 and we all felt the music was way too sedate for an “every night” entertainment package. The Viking band was good – when they played. Everyone else was average or below. Booking air through Viking: Avoid at all costs. They are interested in the most low-cost solution and really don’t care how many legs of the trip you have to travel and for how long as long as it's cheap. If your luggage is lost – you are basically on your own. Both our bags were late making it to Bergen – when they did arrive the Viking agent found one but “missed” the other. We spend the rest of the cruise missing that bag and spent about 9 hours with the Viking explorer desk or on the phone with Delta/Air France trying to get it to us. The common theme from the Viking folks was…it’s the airline's fault…there is nothing we can do. I heard that about 10-12 times. The ship manager – who has the aura of self-importance – was interested in talking to me – only until he realized how messed up our situation was…then he could not wait to pass me off to one of the front-line people (who were very nice – but undertrained and not real effective) and then basically spend the rest of the cruise hiding in his office or avoiding me when I was talking to his underlings – clearly problem solving was beneath him. For the inconvenience of missing ½ of our luggage and clothes for the 14 days (plus the 3 we spent in London after) Viking gave us $150. Shore excursions – be prepared to sit in front of your computer and be ready for the excursion booking window to open up – whenever that is – if you don’t all the interesting excursions were booked within the first two hours of the booking window being open. Side Note: I felt bad for our tour guide in Greenwich - there we two (quite entitled) couples from our ship that were incredibly rude to the poor guy - because he was requested to wait a few minutes before starting the tour - I was embarrassed for them and us...it was an "ugly American" event. This was no fault of Viking. Overall, Dinning – Food was okay – be prepared though – in the world restaurant – if it says they close at 9:30 am – that actually means 9:15. The staff will start to close up and hurry you out at 9:15. The cruise director – I only heard – never actually saw him – not sure he was on the ship – I think he must have phoned in his announcement from a remote location. The assistant Cruise director was a very good singer. We have been on 7 ocean cruises and 1 river cruise before this. I doubt I would take an ocean cruise with Viking again. Surprising given how much we enjoyed the River cruise with Viking – Maybe my expectations were too high. Either way, it was a disappointing 2 weeks. Oh yes and 22 days later we still don’t have our luggage. But that's not Viking's fault

We enjoyed the ports of call, but more complimentary shuttle buses were needed. We had not purchased any drinks package as we do not drink, but saw very few people actually drinking as drinks were very expensive. Food was not very good in the casual dining or main dining rooms, especially for people with dietary requirements. Entertainment was ok, quizzes geared for American passengers, only one decent special guest artist (instrumentalist). Production Team shows were good.

Overall it was a great experience. Unfortunately many on board had Covid & all were forced to wear masks the last 5 days. We were told it was a problem on the cruise prior to ours as well. Celebrity needs to find a way to get on top of this problem. They shouldn’t demand customers show up with a negative Covid test when their ship is already full of Covid.

Everything was great ( except the bed ), when we arrived in Amsterdam there was no one there to pick us up. We had to take a cab which took an hour and half ( the cab system was very efficient), just had a lot of people waiting. The ship did give us a credit to pay us back for no one showing up.

Loved the cruise but do your research! It’s important to know what to do and expect at each port.

From arrival at Southampton cruise port, the staff of princess cruises made my 89 year old Mums cruise a dream. We were zipped through embarkation and onto the ship. We were taken directly to our adapted cabin and our luggage was delivered almost instantly. The cabin was fabulous with a big bathroom with a huge shower. The food was great and the entertainment in the bar of an evening was really good. The staff everywhere in the ship couldn’t do enough for us. Had a fantastic cruise, would definitely recommend princess cruises and this ship

This review should be prefaced by the fact that we started our cruise a day late due to a person overboard incident on the previous sailing. This meant that instead of embarking on Friday April 1st, weren't able to board until early morning on Saturday April 2nd. As such, we lost one night of our cruise and had one full day in Zeebrugge instead of an overnight stay. We were allowed to stay on the ship late (until 2pm) on debarkation day which we appreciated. We also received $200 per person onboard spending money and £300 per person future cruise credit (to be used within 60 days) which we feel is sufficient compensation. However, we did have to pay ourselves for a hotel in Portsmouth the night before the revised boarding date. We completely understand that these circumstances are out of Virgin Voyages' control and it is not in any way their fault that our cruise started late. However, what was unacceptable was that we received no communication whatsoever about the delay. We only heard late the night before we were supposed to be boarding that something might be wrong from social media, and Virgin's twitter said we had received an email - we had not. Furthermore, there is no way to contact them in UK business hours as their call centre only operates from the US. Having not heard anything official instructing us to the contrary, we proceeded to the terminal as planned on the Friday (albeit expecting some form of delay, just completely in the dark as to the details). In the terminal, there were Virgin representatives who sufficiently explained the situation and gave us all the information we needed/had been missing. From there, Virgin's handling of the unfortunate situation was fine, it is just outrageous that we received no communication before arriving at the terminal. Once onboard, we had a great cruise. Virgin are very different in many ways to other cruise lines, however the fundamental concept of cruising remains the same. The ship is really nice, the food was great (and we liked the alternative dining concept), the entertainment was certainly unique but very good and the crew are fantastic.

The shore excursions advertised were generally not available. I paid for the trip with the belief the score excursions that are advertised were all available. That is absolutely not the case. I really believe Viking is playing a game of "bait and switch". This may be OK with many people. Lots of the passangers were more interested in the ship, food, drink, and entertainment. For many people the ship is the destination. We wanted the shore experience and we were very disappointed. Do not let Viking book air. For some reason the last leg of the flight was cancaled and we had to stay an extra night in a hotel. Viking did NOTHING to help us. They washed their hands of the problem. This is truthful although it is hard to believe. They changed our reservation to where we arrived in Newark and left from Laguardia with no plan of how we get from Newark to Laguardia. A number of the passangers had awful experiences with the air reservations. book your own.

Virgin have admitted their standards on this 11.day cruise were not.met. a free.cruise has been offered ( to be booked in the next few.weeks - codes yet to be sent) for Europe. I will not be taking this offer. .i would prefer compensation back in cash value. The current set up ( entertainment and lack of menu changes) remains the same and noted similar on other ships. There should always be scope to chill/read on a ship but have access to a full.programme of activities for every taste. Regardless.of this cruise line advertising itself as wanting to do cruising different, and I was prepared for excitement and difference with this major brand - I got nothing from it. I cannot hand on heart recommend this ship on a long haul trip. A number of passengers have genuine reasons to complain in the main. There is no clarity what virgins demographic is. .I am not an older person and enjoyed some of the energy but overall this experience was poor and I will not be recommending Virgin as it stands now

We really enjoyed the entire experience, both on the ship and off.

Having lost 5 cruises in the last 16 months we could not wait to get back onboard and despite the fact i was a little apprehensive the experience was amazing , we had such a great time we booked again to go 10 days later

This was a fantastic cruise. The itinerary was excellent - we visited Inverness, Scotland, Kirkwall, Scotland, Liverpool, England and Greenock, Scotland. (Ignore the itinerary listed - we cruised on August 15th, for 8 days). These ports of call were very interesting and pleasant, with the highlight being Kirkwall (in the Orkney isles). The ship was amazing and the crew great, all making for a fun holiday.

Apart from the fact that you have to down as a family, the slightly restricted activities and the extra hygiene the lower amounts of guests meant that the experience was one like no other. The only negative that I have to say about the ship is that the shops were lacking. I struggled to get some basics as the shop was more geared to selling logo goods or expensive things with just a small cabinet for everyday items.