Europe - Western Europe Cruise Reviews

It was a fabulous experience. Everything was so well organized and the crew worked so hard to give us a great experience. Service on board was excellent and rooms were comfortable.

Overall, the cruise was great - it was an excellent adventure. It's just that the food was disappointing in each area, because we had done 2 other NCL cruises with the food being exceptional in every area, buffet, dining room and specialty restaurants.

The major criticism is the lack of excursions offered by NCL. The ones that they offered were sold out months before the cruise.

Overall I would rate Azamara as above average. Azamara was transitioning to new ownership. Their website was a disaster and unusable. Pre-cruise communications were apologies. I had to call to get cruise documents. Not available on the website. I tried to book excursions a couple of weeks before the cruise only to discover most were not available but suddenly became available a few days before the cruise. Excursions were very expensive through Azamara. On board the crew was well trained and above average. Rooms were comfortable, clean and room steward was very helpful. Daily communications were very good. Negatives would be some of on board entertainment.

Have sailed Azamara multiple times. Once on-board this were fine. The HORRIBLE experiences prepping for the trip (especially excursions) was so bad we are looking at competitors for future travels.

I am not very happy with their ocean cruises and food was marginal . We paid good amount for room and the laughing and music was too loud and could here it in lounge until 1130pm

glad we saw Iceland & Greenland, overall cruise cost on the very high side.

The cruise met our expectations for a NCL cruise. Staff was helpful, friendly. Embarkation and disembarkation at ports was not as well organized as could be. Buffet was always crowded and had to share tables most times. The complimentary dining food was very good, but wait times were a bit long, if you did not arrive early. Overall, it was worth the money for the experience.

Disappointed for a once in a lifetime trip to Iceland and Greenland. We have been long time NCL customers, and we will not be using them on our next cruise. We paid extra gratuity fees having a suite, but we got the same service that a regular stateroom received.

What was most disappointing was that when I signed up, the cruise was described as having only one tender port. In fact 5 of the 9 ports utilized tender boats. A cruise that was supposed to have only one sea day, in fact had four. This was upsetting to my wife who hates sea days and can’t wait to get off the ship in port.

When I booked my cruise in March, I was told there were eight ports of call: Edinburgh, Invergordon, and Kirkwall in Scotland; Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis; Dublin, Ireland; Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Falmouth and Portland in England. My reservation stated that the only tendered port was Edinburgh and that the NCL Dawn would dock at the other 7 port of call. This itinerary and number of docked vs tendered ports were confirmed in my cruise documents and cruise contract. I booked this itinerary specifically was because there was only one tendered port. When boarding the Dawn on July 2nd we received a letter stating that an error in the NCL reservation system did not accurately portray a number of ports as tender. Instead of 1, we now had 5 tendered ports. As a result of these errors in the NCL reservation system, we picked the wrong cruise and were unable to go ashore because of rough weather at the ports of Dublin (the reason I took the cruise), Stornway, and Falmouth. NCL refunded $100 dollars to our cabin and offered us a 25% off the next cruise. I doubt I can trust NCL enough to cruise again.

This cruise could be great on a different ship and if we made it to all ports. Missing three ports is really unacceptable and they gave us $100 onboard credit after the shops closed. It seemed insulting. The places we visited were beautiful. They need more onboard activities in the event of sea days/ missing ports.

Very disappointed that we had 3 unscheduled sea days including Dublin ( Dublin was on our bucket list).

Norwegian let down a lot of previously loyal customers. The published itinerary showed one tender port, and the remainder to be docks. It turned out that all ports were tender ports except for two. Tendering was a big hassle, and Priority guests did not get priority for the return tender. It may sound petty, but for the price of a Suite and promises for priority tendering - what are we getting for the extra cost? They never provided priority for return tendering. They canceled three of the eight ports, including Dublin which is a huge port to miss, and communication about the cancellations was poor. The first two ports that the captain decided to scrap, I saw it on the navigation channel and called the Concierge to ask him why we weren't stopping - the second one he wasn't even aware of - but they didn't make an announcement until an hour later. For the third one, they disabled the navigation channel so nobody would see that they blew past the port. They claimed it was because of rough seas for tendering - well, they were on the itinerary as docking ports, so tendering shouldn't have been an issue, and also Dublin was sunny and had calm seas all day. To "compensate" the guests for the inconvenience of missing 3 out of 8 ports, they gave a $100 nonrefundable stateroom credit to each cabin... then closed the ship store permanently when they went into Portland even though there was a full night at sea left, so guests could not use any remaining nonrefundable credit at the ship's store. This is my first trip on Norwegian, but I was also surprised at the "Service Charge" they automatically add on $25/person/day - $500 for a 10 day cruise - does not cover tips for the people actually waiting on us, and none of it is discretionary. They state it is for the "behind the scenes" crew. So we were still expected to tip our butlers and concierge on top of that. I am used to "mandatory" tips being collected and distributed to those who served the guests, but it that is not what the "Service Charge" really is. I have doubts as to where it even goes. They also offered a laundry special - $30 for a bag of laundry which is a great deal. But it would have been nice to know that before we packed enough for a full 10 day cruise - we could have probably packed half as much, but by the time you are on the ship it's a little late to pack lighter. I'd say to chalk it up to remember for the next cruise, but there won't be a next cruise for us on Norwegian. I am also done with the nickel and diming of customers at every turn - pay extra to get a decent meal (that wasn't even that good); the included wifi is 150 minutes, so you can't leave it on and use it when you need to because the minutes run out even when it is idle - but that is to get you to upgrade to unlimited service, but even that service wouldn't allow streaming of any sort, including facetime. For that you have to upgrade to the unlimited premium wifi. And even that is not any faster - it just unlocks streaming. Our plan offered "free" unlimited bar, but you have to pay gratuities on its value that would add $500 to the bill - so you have to decline the free unlimited bar to avoid that service fee. I guess I can see why they do this petty stuff for the guests paying under $1000 for an inside stateroom, but it's tough to justify for guests paying ten times that on an owner's suite.

The cruise itself was outstanding. The staff take great pride in their jobs and it shows! I would encourage everyone to consider booking your own airfare however. Traveling with flights reserved by Oceania, leaves you at their mercy. Our flight was canceled on the way home and we were stuck in New York for 2 additional days.

This cruise is very port intensive and it wore us out. But I would not trade anything for the experience a fine cruise.

Great cruise, great staff, interesting stops and people aboard. Booked two more Azamara cruises.

12 days - no packing/unpacking Good excursion options Main dining rooms food quality has improved Disappointed in both specialty restaurants. Any beef dish on the ship is tough & gristlely - disappointing. Breads are excellent

Ponant has beautiful ships. The service was excellent EXCEPT for the front desk and management as no one went out of their way to be friendly or help do anything. Be careful of the excursions as some are good and some are a waste of money as some of the places are free to get inside anyway. If you speak French you will receive much better service than if you speak English only.

Very uneven performance by Norwegian Dawn. Much better than expected entertainment, but forget the main dining rooms. Freestyle there meant no style.