Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

This ship impresses for the external magnificence, but in the inside, it seems like a busy  and claustrophobic shopping center. People are everywhere. Busy, very busy...

It's the first day? Well, lets party... or not... Where is the departure unforgettable party?

Want to see the Sea and relax? Good luck. Small and rare windows to the outside.  If you are not above 14 deck you will never see the sea. I'm feel like a visitor of a big and busy flea market / shopping center. Even on the rescue boats deck you can't see the Sea. It seams that all that matter are inside the boat. Really guys? 

Windjammer: Why not only "Jammer"? Finding a table is a useless experience. Full. Always full. It's frustrating experience.The other options always close when you need it. 

Dynamic dinning / traditional dinning: Well... full of options for all tastes. It sounds great, wright? The practical result, guess what: hours waiting for the dinner... and when you have your table... the service are under acceptable: Amateur and depersonalized service. Of course you can enjoy the unsupportable cigarette smoke smell from the casino when you wait for your table near the "the grande" door on deck 4...

Guest services? Good luck... 1 hour at least... Forget it. Always full. 

Staff are exhausted. Committed, but exhausted. 

We do not feel a good vibe on board. Unfortunately we are only a part of the workflow. Put your eyes on disney cruise lines. Customers should be delighted, not frustrated. 

Pros: 1. Check in, embarkation and disembarkation very fast and easy. 2. Entertainments and activities.  3. The day I saw the Disney Magic in Civitavecchia port and think: "What I'm doing on this busy desharmony shopping center of the seas?" Please take me to the Disney Magic...

Resume: Customer delight? Forget it and take another ship. You will feel like a process on their workflow. 

This is my 4st cruise. If it is the first one, maybe will be the last one...  

I am writing to you because I feel that you should know of recent events that have taken place, as well as the complete lack of service or empathy from their staff.  Unfortunately, I’m on the receiving end of a horrendous situation, and after 10 recent cruises, I would hope that I would have received more than a standard form letter with generalized responses. It was quite obvious that your staff did not care to understand or rectify the situation, and therefore, I am taking the time to write to you today. I have tried to speak with someone at your organization to no avail.   With that said, I have NEVER experienced such poor quality of service and  rudeness from staff members on both the service end as well as the excursion staff. Rather than relax, it was nothing short of stressful and unrelaxing.   Some of the issues were as follows: Excursions: a. Almost all were overbooked. Due to this, the tours were delayed while they asked for volunteers to go on another tour "if they spoke the language". b. Other than Morocco, all tours were performed in 2 languages. A huge issue was that the tour guides would speak  in length in Italian, and when it came to the English translation, it was limited to a few sentences. It was very obvious that they catered only to Italian customers. I paid the same as the Italians and should have received the same courtesy and service of which I did not. c. The Port of Tangier was cancelled without offering an explanation. When I inquired in Casablanca, I was informed that this was a "common practice" of the cruise line and that it had NOTHING to do with the weather as they later claimed. The weather was also perfect. d. In Rome, I had no alternative but to take a tour in French as there were no other tours available in English, other than the Vatican (which I had visited several times already and was in no interest to me). e. False Advertisements- One example was interior visits to churches in both Lisbon and Alicante. This was not true.  It turned into outside visits only. f. Tours were cancelled because they didn’t have enough "English speaking” customers Accommodations: Although I now travel alone, I explicitly requested a large bed. (Due to health reasons, it is preferred). I was advised that is was not possible to accommodate my request since I am alone, yet, I met several other single passengers that were accommodated with a large bed. Had the staff told me that they didn’t have any available, I would have understood, but instead, I was outright lied to when told they don’t offer it to single passengers!   I have never been on a cruise where even water was an upcharge. (as well as tea, coffee etc.) Generally, alcohol and soda is extra, but not water and coffee. The food itself was not the quality that I have experienced in the past and was sub- par to say the least.   As you can see from the above, this was totally unacceptable. I am sure you can understand my frustration. When services are paid for, one expects to receive them, and in this case, I did not. I am both angry and disappointed in the treatment I incurred, the lack of caring by your staff and how the entire situation on all levels have been handled. I even attempted to post a comment on your website; however it did not allow it.

Normally we cruise with Celebrity and got thise 3 days cruise to try Azamara. We find the ship to small with very limited choises for entertaintment. However food and service was a bit better than Celebrity. Bottum line: For the same money we would choise Celebrity

I was reading all the negative reviews and couldn't believe it. I almost didn't select  this company based on the reviews and I am glad I did. Everything was great, the food was amazing, I can't believe someone would complain about that.. Itinerary was good as well. If I can fit anything negative, I would not select Palermo and Genoa as my next destinations, very poor.  Overall the ship was very clean, very new and very modern.  There were very few Americans,  99% European. All the crew speaks english as well as few other European languages. We took this trip as a present for my parent's wedding anniversary and no one had any complains.  We've been to a few cruises and never had the fastest and easiest disembarkation. I am shocked how many bad reviews this ship got and just needed to fit one good one for these who is considering taking it.

Let's do the good to bad game.

EXCELLENT: the ship is an engineering marvel, and your jaws will drop the moment you set foot at the ship. It's like stepping into a DreamWorks movie. Choice of food in the main dining rooms is extensive. The evening shows are the best we have ever seen. The rooms were clean.

GOOD: most staff is friendly, the guest service is doing everything to help you, the food in the main dining areas is ok. The Royal IQ app is handy to have the only overview of all activities and excursions.

BAD: 1) Queues, queues, queues. On average we spent one to two hours (!) a day queuing. 30 minutes for the water slides. 30 minutes for the wave rider, 10 minutes for the breakfast, 30 minutes for diner (although we have MyTime, which is free dining moments), 1 hour (!) twice for guest services... and the list goes on. Sorry, we don't book holidays to queue.

2) Prices: The extras on the boat are just way overpriced. Half a glass of (not very good) red wine: 14 dollars. Really? Come on. That feels like a rip off, no matter if you can afford it or not. For that money we expect a very good wine. And the beverage packages don't make up for it. Internet: when you are three people, it comes to more than 300 dollars for 7 days. Excursions: you easily look at minimum 200 dollars per person, for sometimes not more than a (guided) city visit with a cheap lunch.

3) Quality of the food in the specialty restaurants. OK, we admit, we are foodies. We travel a lot and we love wining and dining. We don't expect three star menus on a ship, but if you ask ridiculous prices you should offer ridiculously great quality. And that's absolutely not the case. Far from it. Rather very average.

OVERALL: We are a bit disappointed considering the criteria that we rate as important being on holiday: value for money, ease of mind, entertainment and wining & dining.

Let's do the good to bad game.

EXCELLENT: the ship is an engineering marvel, and your jaws will drop the moment you set foot at the ship. It's like stepping into a DreamWorks movie. Choice of food in the main dining rooms is extensive. The evening shows are the best we have ever seen. The rooms were clean.

GOOD: most staff is friendly, the guest service is doing everything to help you, the food in the main dining areas is ok. The Royal IQ app is handy to have the only overview of all activities and excursions.

BAD: 1) Queues, queues, queues. On average we spent one to two hours (!) a day queuing. 30 minutes for the water slides. 30 minutes for the wave rider, 10 minutes for the breakfast, 30 minutes for diner (although we have MyTime, which is free dining moments), 1 hour (!) twice for guest services... and the list goes on. Sorry, we don't book holidays to queue.

2) Prices: The extras on the boat are just way overpriced. Half a glass of (not very good) red wine: 14 dollars. Really? Come on. That feels like a rip off, no matter if you can afford it or not. For that money we expect a very good wine. And the beverage packages don't make up for it. Internet: when you are three people, it comes to more than 300 dollars for 7 days. Excursions: you easily look at minimum 200 dollars per person, for sometimes not more than a (guided) city visit with a cheap lunch.

3) Quality of the food in the specialty restaurants. OK, we admit, we are foodies. We travel a lot and we love wining and dining. We don't expect three star menus on a ship, but if you ask ridiculous prices you should offer ridiculously great quality. And that's absolutely not the case. Far from it. Rather very average.

OVERALL: We are a bit disappointed considering the criteria that we rate as important being on holiday: value for money, ease of mind, entertainment and wining & dining.

What a frustrating week while we try to respond to email offers from Celebrity to add excursions and other packages to our cruise vacation.  We booked through a charter partner of Celebrity, and have received several offers directly from Celebrity regarding ways to spend more money on their ship.  When we tried to add a package, we were directed to an error website that said, "site can't be reached."  When I called Celebrity, they said the charter partner made the decision to not offer the packages.  When I called the partner, they said they had nothing to do with it, and Celebrity - AS A POLICY - does not offer these packages to charters.  So why, Celebrity, TELL ME WHY, you are spamming me with offers of packages that I cannot take advantage of??  We have lots of cruising experience on other lines that have never outright lied to us about what is available, and then blamed their partners.  Well, the result is we will spend less money on the Celebrity ship.  And next time, we will not sign up for a Celebrity ship.

That's false advertising, Celebrity.  And, ethically questionable.  

The best things were the large cabins,every place was clean and fine details .Staff very friendly and food very good and healthy.

Drinks very good too.No engine sounds at all .very smooth moving even in a bit rough sea.

Norwegian Cruise Line is NOT an all-inclusive vacation!  Vacationers beware!   Norwegian is like a low cost airline trying to charge you for carry on bags and water wherever they can.  Here are some examples: 1. Room service is a $10 charge (approx.). 2. No laundry machines are provided, and they extort you with outrageous cleaning prices per item.  T-shirts and underwear (even for small children) were approximately $4 per piece! 3. What happens if you happen to bring a bottle of water onto the ship (opened or unopened)?  You have to throw it away before you enter so they can sell you bottled water while you are on the ship. 4. Even the "complimentary" restaurants have many items which you have to pay for.  This is frustrating if your family member finds a pay item enticing.   The list goes on!!   As an aside, my family and I did enjoy the ports and had a great time on the vacation... DESPITE Norwegian Cruise Line.  Being nickeled and dimed at every turn is incredibly frustrating.   Never again!

The ship is beautiful and we had a wonderful time.  That being said, this was our 4th cruise in three years and we have noticed a decline in some aspects of our experiences.  We had three rooms between the six of us.  We had a wonderful room attendant, Bernadette from Jamaica.  She was truly a joy! Our son and fiance also had a very nice attendant, but our other sons never met or saw their attendant during the entire stay.  Definitely not what we are used to.  Something that was new to us was the lack of poolside drink waiters.  We weren't given receipts to sign this time and therefore there was nowhere to give them additional tips.  I think that the lack of extra gratuities made for longer waits on ordering drinks and receiving them.  What was the biggest minus I would give would be the fact that we only ordered the drink packages because my husband and I enjoy having our pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris by the pool.  We got on the ship on Sunday and by Monday evening they were out of pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, and mango daiquiri mix everywhere on the ship except the schooner bar.  They kept assuring us that they would have some by Thursday  in Rome(2/3 of the way thru our cruise) because all of the children on board had drained their stock in a day and a half.  I would think that the Beverage manager of the ship, would know how many children would be on board and would, from experience, know that children with drink packages would drink virgin frozen drinks.  That was our biggest complaint because the drink package was a lot of money and did not afford us the drinks we enjoy.  We have also noticed a lesser selection of items in the Windjammer.  The kids usually like eating there, but were actually getting food at the other food locations on the ship this time.

We decided to try my time dining this time, we were glad we did.  The service was great when we had Fabian from India as our waiter and it was just ok with the others we had.  We noticed that service was a bit slower all around the ship this time, compared to our trip on the Oasis this past January, perhaps since it's a new ship they haven't all gotten into the groove yet.

All in all, even with these minor inconveniences, we had a wonderful time and took some wonderful tours.  It was definitely a whirlwind trip with so many things to see in very little time.

This cruise was stepping out of our comfort zone for my wife and I, we have traveled all over the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, Panama Canal, but going to Europe was completely different, but at a minimum we knew in the end we always had our comfortable Royal Caribbean ship to call home for a week. This was going to be Harmony's 4-5 full time cruise after being launched, so we knew going in that we were going to be a form of testing the ship. We had already been on Oasis and Allure so we knew what to expect from an Oasis class ship, Harmony did not disappoint, she is a beautiful ship, she had her problems throughout the week, but they were small and from my stand point did not disrupt the flow of the passengers. Going to Europe was completely different, but I read the reviews and post of many different people that had been on this same cruise before and felt like I knew what to expect. I meet some wonderful people on the forums and Roll Calls and we meet and went places as a group, on the same tours. Our favorite part was the stop at Naples, specifically Sorrento, Amalfi coast, my wife doesn’t say this very often but she said she thought she could live there. I would recommend this cruise to anyone that wants to experience the Mediterranean as a first time Mediterranean cruise, going on one of the mega ships meant that we didn’t go in to any of the smaller ports, but the ports we went to were great.   

My Fiancé and I decided to take this cruise last minute while we were travelling to Rome.  We were on this ship from June 19-26.  Got on the Civitavecchia port in Rome.  We booked this cruise for our Birthdays, and boy were in for a surprise.  After paying an arm and a leg to be on this cruise, you would think to get treated like royalty.  If you wanted a vacation filled with excitement, fun and relaxation, this is not the cruise ship for you.  The food was mediocre, Service was horrible, Ports were not the best and the activities on the ship lacked fun.  Let me start off with the food, as eating is one of my favourite things to do on vacation.  Each bite I took off my plate felt like I was eating a spoon full of salt.  The food was tasteless and way to salty for my taste buds. Even the cakes were so salty.  Service on the other hand was even more terrible than the food.  All the workers had a frown on their face.  It was just so depressing to look at.  Every worker on the ship tried to sell a package to us.  This was getting so irritating because we already had an all-inclusive drink package.  When we sat down at the bar, the bartender would not serve us because he had too many drinks to make.  It took thirty minutes to get a drink.  When I went to guest services to see what could be done about this, the answer they gave me was that the ship had too many people (4500) therefore, I could not receive the service I am looking for.  Seriously, I did not pay so much to be on a ship and get treated so badly.  They should not be boarding that many people, when they cannot accommodate their guests. The ports we docked on had extra cost to get to land.  Shuttles were not included.  If you had excursions booked, shuttles were not included in with the prices for the excursion, which was definitely a rip off.  There were a few activities on the ship, and I felt like I was being harassed to participate.  I wanted to sit down enjoy a drink, read my book and relax.  Instead, I was being harassed/forced to join the group of people who wanted to participate.  It should be up to the person to join or not.  Finally, on our last day, we requested to have our luggages picked up early, due to having an early flight.  After guest services promised us that we were on the first priority list, come the day when we received our tickets for disembarkation, we were the last to be out.  I had lost all hope on this ship, and decided that this will be the last MSC cruise we ever take.  By the end of the cruise, I was so stressed out, irritated and just really wanted to get out of the ship.

Oceania pulled the bait and switch with our cabin choice. We booked the cruise seven months in advance. Oceania did not inform us before we left for Rome that they had overbooked the cruise. After we had traveled to Europe from Texas, we found out that Oceania was not going to honor our cabin assignment, and was downgrading us to a cabin almost half the size. Once we arrived in the port city it was time to start negotiating for the cabin we had paid for by credit card months in advance. The fact that Oceania charges your credit card months in advance does not mean your cabin assignment is a guarantee. This is their policy and they do not apologize for the inconvenience. We threatened and negotiated to keep the cabin we had already paid for. It was too stressful to fight and negotiate for a cabin assignment to ever consider booking another cruise with Oceania. Gregory L Howard,MD Michelle Howard,MD Houston, Texas   

We were on this cruise for the first week and enjoyed it very much.  At first we were disappointed that Tunis & Sicily were changed to Cartegena & Gibraltar but were very impressed with Gibraltar. 

Loved all the Ports of Call and enjoyed the Royal Princess,  I don't believe it was full because it never seemed to be line ups which was great.  Disappointed that our table for 8 only had 4 at it as were most of the tables.  Too bad they couldn't put some of them together so we could have got to know others like we wanted. 

We were a little disappointed in the menu in the dining room as some nights there was not much "normal" choices.  Other ships we have been on, if you didn't care for menu items you could always order a steak but this wasn't the case on this ship.   There was better selection on the buffet some nightsl 

Worst cruise line I have ever sailed with. Terrible service, stained bed linen, cold food in dining room.

When complaining to reception just ignored or lied to.

Booked a Fantastica cabin on a three week cruise and were given basic cabin on the lowest deck A total rip off, and when I wrote to complain was not given an adequate answer and no offer of a refund for the wrong cabin class.

I would not recommend this cruise line to any one.

We had high hopes for our 7 day Western Med cruise.  First impression:  What is that huge stain on the sofa in the cabin and what will I catch when I sit there? For being only 6 years in service, the ship itself seemed tired and worn and in need of refurbishing.

Excursions were mostly good, given the prices we paid.  One bad excursion (Aix & Avignon) due to a terrible tour guide and passengers that ignored return times. Biggest issue with excursions was in-port times of this cruise. We usually had to leave the ship at 7:15 and would return before sailing to next destination by 6-7PM. That meant getting up at 6AM each day to shower, find breakfast, and meet our tour group. Not my idea of a relaxing vacation.  Would have been ecstatic if NCL would have just staggered their arrival/departure times by 2 hours.  An 8 or 9 AM start would have been much nicer for a tour. 

Food and shipboard entertainment was fine.  Nothing remarkable, but its a cruise and they have to prepare thousands of meals. 

On board internet systems are a joke - don't count on it. Their system kept deleting our account information almost daily, which meant a trip to stand in line (along with everyone else) for the one guy able to reset internet access for the whole ship. 

It was a nice trip - saw amazing sights, but didn't really live up to the "vacation of a lifetime" experience we expected. 

Bed Mattress where lumpy and should be replaced in this cabin. We were on the Oosterdam 2 yrs ago in the same cabin. and bed was much softer.

Food in Vista was excellent but not impressed with Lido food

Newly weds or nearly dead.

This is an old slogan that should be advertised.  The ship completely shuts down at 11:30 pm.  This is except for the casino because it is making money for the cruise line.  And, that's only for another hour.   

The entertainment from the crew that was hired for that purpose was very good, when they were playing.  The individual entertainment, one night stands, were average.  

The food:  that's another story.  The menu was unexciting, the entries were very unimaginative, the food was nothing to write home about.  Naturally, the wine selections were not cheap.   The best meal was in the Pinnacle grill.  It cost an additional $50 each.  

The hotel services were very good at $12.50 a day per person.  

The excursions were not advertised well enough.  If you didn't attend the seminar at the crack of dawn, you didn't know what was going on.  The excursions were, again, not cheap.   The worst was the Monte Carlo shuttle service back and forth to the ship.    Because of the Auto Racing, we were not allowed to dock close to shore.  This was reserved for the yachts who pay more for docking than a ship that docks almost every week.  The water was full of white caps.  The shuttles should have been cancelled.  One of the shuttles broke down in the water.  A repair man had to be transferred via another shuttle to get it close to the ship.  Four crew members had to practically lift the passengers onto the ship.  

The ports were expected and were quite interesting having never been here before.  It seems that the ship added two new ports (?).  No one seemed too excited about them.  

The daily events calendar was just that.  Nothing about the world, excursions (yesterday's, today's or tomorrow's), food, etc..  No ship wide interest (distance, experiences, etc.).  Unless you ate, drank, went on an excursion, etc., there was no intra-communication between passengers.

One rather important fact is that the ports of most of these stops are quite a distance from towns, shopping, sight seeing, etc..  In most cases you have to take a shuttle which the cruise ship company CHARGES you for.   

I will discuss this and the flight with my agent personally.  

Cruise destinations were great.  Only thing that I wish Princess did a better job with was the specialty dinners.  We had the same menu that we had on our last cruise.  We were hoping to see dinners that would have coordinated with our destinations. 

Now the Royal Princess is a beautiful ship but a way too large for my taste.  The elevators are overcrowded; which could be caused because there isn’t a staircase between floors in some areas.

The public areas are very small for a ship this size – good luck finding a seat midday when the ships at sea.

However our accessible stateroom was large, well-appointed and even the balcony was wheelchair accessible. Our steward was genuinely friendly and kept the stateroom spotless, but that is pretty much the last thing I have good to say about our cruise.

The food in the dining rooms was disgusting – poor quality ingredients that were badly prepared. The menu was very limited. I actually lost weight during my 7 days on the Royal Princess since the food was so uneatable!

I provided feedback to Princess Cruises and their respond was; we value your opinion. When I spoke with a Customer Relations Post Cruise Specialist I was told that taste in food was subjective - so I pretty sure my feedback will not be acted on.  

We tried to eat at one of the specialty restaurants but the wait staff were chatting and after 30 minutes are of being ignore so we left.

The theater is very small for a ship that carriers about 3500+ guests and in my opinion the entertainment was substandard.  I feel that Princess Cruise does not understand they not only compete with other cruise lines but on shore venues as well for our vacation dollars. In Vancouver, we have street performers that offer better free entertainment.

Most of the staff (with a few notable exceptions) could not care less about the customer. I’m not saying they were rude – just disinterested. Plus they were always hawking something – coffee card, wine tastings or bottled water. I felt like I was somewhere the peddlers just wouldn’t take NO for an answer! We had breakfast in the Liddo most morning and I personally think that being interrupted 10 or 12 times during breakfast is excessive.

My suggestion, avoid the free lectures – they are just staff selling something you can buy cheaper on shore, without the pressure.

In fact, if you want to be treated as a valued customer; think twice before selecting Princess Cruise lines for your vacation.

Never again in NCL epic 1st if you are trying to celebrate your birthday or anything that you need to blow a candle, you better choose another ship... Its very strange that you cannot blow candle because they are afraid of fire etc, ok fine u the  have point!! but what about those who smoke in the casino?? In the kitchen?? etc.. They even cut the candle wick   without informing us,  we got shock couz we are used to celebrate my son's birthday in a ship this time  we our sooo sooo upset!! Our main purpose for this vacation is to celebrate my son 4rt birtday but at the end we are not happy. Unlike in other ships we've been// our son have always blowed the  candle happily. During his birthday he was sad a bit, but he understood the policy but we parents we're more sad than him.. In this ship we are very very disappointed, the ship is big yes!!! But its very boring! if you just to stay inside the ship.. well Nothing is elegant inside!!! There are lot of staterooms but few public place to hang on.. Some are friendly but some of theme are inpolite. If you want to watch something something special you need to pay too! there are also free but its not really nice. 1 liter of water cost u 7dollars... We also went to restaurants where you pay your food but its also a big disappointment, the foods are not good, Service is very slow worse than a turtle, the girl who took our order is very impolite....its not worthy at all. . i suggest u guys to eat in the buffet or in the free restaurant... I promise u guys the room with balcony is too small, you dont even have a privacy when going to toilet couz u have only a curtains separating bed and shower and toilet.. Well we've been to other norwegian ship (a smaller one) before and its was all perfect, but this ship is nothing compare to other NCL, this Epic is my 9th cruise and im 28 of age and i say its the worst .. i said i will never never go to a big ship like this.!! well guys im sorry if i disppoint some of u , if u already booked and cannot cancel.. well there is no choice but only to ENJOY.