Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

Our steward was great as was our waiter. The food was wonderful. We enjoyed the entertainment and the staff was young and fun. The cruise director was wonderful. We were first time cruisers and have been won over! We will do this again and the sooner the better. Mr Boles in the piano bar was wonderful and blessed our group greatly. He is so talented and fun we went to see him every night.

Overall impression was very good, although being a Structural Engineer with a lifetime of association with some excellent Architects, I felt that the Decor was over the top verging on the vulgar.

p Every inch of the ship was immaculate, the service was outstanding for the most part. I think that for the price a glass of wine should be included with meals...you do wind up spending quite a bit if you like to drink. There is a lot of impetus to buy...we laughed and decided that cruises are for people with problems: eating, drinking, gambling, shopping, tanning.... And yes, we were guilty of indulging in all those obsessions. :)

We boarded the ship and they couldn't find us so we had to wait until someone could figure it out. We got to our room and it was made up for 2 adults and 2 children with the bunks pulled down and 2 tiny life jackets. Cute but didn't need them, we were two adults only. The safety drill was a joke. It didn't happen until the day before the cruise ended. We stood at the safety stations watching the staff demonstrate how to put on a life jacket, not once, not twice but like 10 ten times. I thought this was laughable because everyone there had their life jackets ON ALREADY, DUH!! The TV programs did not have subtitles so we couldn't understand the programs. The ports that we visited Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Marseilles and Savonna were interesting but other than pushing their tours, they didn't provide any information on the ports. I got the impression that they didn't want to help you unless you bought a tour. My Magica card expired the day before the cruise ended so I had trouble getting on and off the ship the last day. They eventually overrode the system, but that was an inconvenience I shouldn't have had to experience. Bingo was always during dinner time and the rest of the entertainment well let's just say the dancing waiters imitating Michael Jackson were the highlights of keeping us entertained. The fare was inexpensive but everything else on the ship was overpriced including the tours. But then again, you get what you pay for.

Size And Crew

we stayed in a grand suite and enjoyed amenities we never expected. The consierge lounge and the consierge couldn't have been better and the special perks of a gold card were unbelievable

I used to cruise with Norwegian about 10 years ago and sort of liked it. Despite this being a new ship, this experience was very poor. I will repeat someone elses comment there is nothing free about this freestyle cruising. There are hidden changes everywhere and mandatory gratuity (oxymoron!!!) added daily to your account. The regular dining rooms were excellent in the past with only few specialty restaurants. Now there are about 10 special restaurants that charge you cover charge per person, extra charge for chefs special, drinks and gratuity. The regular restaurants are almost discouraged, with very lame meal selection and mediocre service. The staff does not need to work hard these days, because they will get their tips anyway! Therefore they are slow, inefficient and not experienced. Ship looks like unfinished huge building, with very poor cabins design. Entertainment is awful, tasteless and required advanced reservation!

It was beautiful without being too "Tuscany." By that I mean the marble etc that really seems over the top on a ship. I loved that the dining rooms had windows so I never felt, no matter how well-appointed, that I was in steerage. We spent our afternoon sea days lounging outdoors next to the cafe with our bottle of wine and noshed for a few hours. Incredibly relaxing!

The decor was beautiful. Very clean and staff was friendly.

My husband and I were on a 7 day cruise across the Mediterranean. Overall the ship was impressive.

We have sailed on Holland America in the past and The Noordam was just the right sized ship for us.(about 2000 passengers) Plenty big enough to have all the amenities but not so big as to have to wait in long lines to do things.

4th trip on Carnival. The new ship was well appointed & comfortable. I was pleased with the family friendliness, out door movies & camp Carnival. We had one of the new low balcony rooms which was quite an enjoyable change.

Very disappointing cruise. Upon arrival on the ship we were not greeted or directed which should have been an early indication of how we would be treated the entire trip. Food quality was very average. Dishes were oversalted, especially the soups. Some of the pastas tasted as though they were heated up from a can. Breakfast service was the same menu for 7 days without the slightest variation. Staff throughout the ship was unsmiling and rarely greeted us as we traveled about. Customer service desk was defensive and indifferent to any issues. We had a problem with out television/remote that took three days to resolve because the desk staff were sure the problem was simply that we didnt know how to properly use a remote when actually the problem was an electrical connection. Staff seemed to be very poorly trained. We would get different information from various staff and when we questioned what the actual procedures might be at the Customer Service desk they just told us that we were wrong and too bad for us without admitting that we may have been misinformed. There seemed to be an extra charge for everything and excursions were over-priced and overcrowded.

The rooms were very good andthe service from the attendents was very good. Eating on the Lido deck was a big mess as there was not enough people working to allow the lines to flow and we stood around wasting time and becoming irritable and the worst was trying to get breakfast early in order to leave on time to go on the tours. Some of the tours were very badly organized whilst other went like clock-work and were very enjoyable. The food was boring in the Deli- Lido deck but the service and the quality of the food in the dining rooms were excellent. Wi-fi connection is terrible. The entertainemnt was not good- there were only two shows that were of a decent calibre. The stand-up artists were poor. The Piano bar was excellent as was the service in the Red Frog Bar. We unfortunately left the cruise very unhappy overall. The elegant nights were basically pointless - where was the capatin and crew and why did we have to pay for drinks? Other cruises that we have been on have had a complimtary drink(s) and snacks. I am not looking for anything free but the principle of the fact of meeting the captain and having to dress up - for what? The sports section and the pools and all the activity areas are beautiful as are the slides. The Serenity deck is fanatstic - a wonderful idea. Unfortunately we did not come away very happy as we had on previous cruises.

This is a BIG ship--shiny and relatively new. Over 4000 pax, yet never felt crowded.

1st Time Carnival Cruiser and Last, Was Hoping for a Roamntic Med Cruise.Bought into New ship idea.Decor Somwhere between Kindergarten and Macdonalds.Buffet Food Average,dining room a bit better.No Service,Good Cabin. I,m sure the Carnival Regulars will like the ship Just looked Cheap.3700 Passengers is too much for this ship !Entertainment except for 2 Good Shows was awful New Theater design is horrible. Seats Do not rise towards the rear of the theater.The Ocean Plaza Ok everything else crammed into the rear of deck 5, Very Low ceilings.Too much of the Loud Wo Wo Wo Wo crowd.I am a Celebrity, Royal Carribean Cruiser and will never return to Carnival. Quite a few dissappointed other passengers looking for that flair or something special which Carnival lacks ! Formal nites were virtually non existent,I think if they allowed bare feet in the dining room some folks would have come that way.Anyway The ship itself had some nice bright spots so good luck to any booking the Carnival Magic.

The services and the personnel, everything well organized, food was excellent, took us less than 45 minutes to get in. Very profesional people.

In general we have had a great time onboard, I was dissapointed by the staff. Some guys onboard where rude and unpolite. We are easy people to handle, not complaining, just in extreme cases. But in the casino we have called the manager as one staff member from Romania was extremly rude and was not able to explain in which direction is the main dinning room (it was our first day onboard). Our cabin attendant was fabulous, he was a bright spot for us.

Food - Did not receive one hot meal. Serve a RAW Lamb Shank one night and I do not mean undercooked. After bring it to the attention of the Head Waiter and Chef. The next night I received raw shrimp, I was joking with a table mate and ingested half of it. When one of other individual table expressed that their shrimp was raw. I was very ill for the next 12 hours. This is definitely the worst cruise I have ever had and this is my 26th. To tell had bad the food was, I came home 1 lb. lighter than I left when usually I gain 8 to 12 lbs.

The food was a disappointment. Quality varied all over the place from unacceptable to very good. Portions were sometimes ridiculously small. Scallops served for a starter were about the size of a pea and there were maybe five of them. Being charged for a glass of juice at dinner seemed out of line when it was being provided to children for free. The water slide was useless, not enough water to keep even children moving. The wait staff in the dining rooms was not formal at all. They were intrusively gabby, didnt know even basics of formal service (such as serve from the left and remove from the right.) Even place settings were inconsistent in places, sometimes you got a bread plate, sometimes not etc. (In the same restaurant.) Room service was prompt at delivering our breakfast tray to our room except totally forgetting us one morning and then taking a half an hour to bring a carafe of coffee. Our in room coffee maker was not working that day. I spilled coffee on the provided robe and ask that it be washed. It was taken away and never returned.