Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

4th celebrity cruise this year and everything was terrific as expected 😄😄😄😄staff, shows And activities were terrific and kept us as busy as we wanted to be. Melissa, captains club conceriage was absolutely amazing.

The cruise was excellent and besides my complaint about low temperatures on deck 5 and 6 I really don't have anything else to say than that the ship is really amazing. I would go on that ship again. I loved it and I really enjoyed my cruise. I loved the ship, I loved the shops, pools, waterslides, everything! I recommend this ship to everyone!

Our first time in Europe was everything we could have wished for.

Ship is nice. Staff ok. All European passengers stick only with people of same countries. Food is not barely edible if you eat at the top deck restaurant. Ok in main restaurant. Cruise line did not honor the promotion I received at time of booking. Very disappointed. 

The ship and crew were 5 star. 

  The greatest  downfalls were: 

 Lack of nightly entertainment as expected on all prior HAL and other lines

  Nickel and diming (2$coffee at dinner-formerly free/$40 photos!/canalletto/tamarind $20 add on pp+ ,etc) and;

  improper disembarkation for those who didn't pay for xfer to the airport with Holland. We lived in Italy for years and easily know how to take public transport ,but the shuttle from the pier to the port entry was a disaster. Bedlum. No service support and people were separated from their family and luggage on differing buses and no staff was dedicated to the process causing all great stress -opposite of unwinding on vacation. Then, the shuttle drop off was 3 or 4 blocks from the train station anyway!

Food-very good, not great. Prior cruises had more tasty meals albeit the selections were broad.

The promised $350 coupon booklet on our reservation never came and when looked into during and afterward, was told didn't exist??? We feel it should have been honored as per our reservation.

Put this all together, and my husband and I feel we will not return on HAL after 4 prior lovely experiences.

Over-all, I thought the ports of call were excellent.  The food I would rate as good (not excellent).  The employees on the boat were friendly and helpful.  The entertainment was good with the acrobats from Poland standing out over the group.

What impressed me the most was the entrance and exit from the boat which I thought was very well organized.

A first experience for us on this cruise from Marseille - beautiful sunny day to start our journey, and the first view of this huge ship was amazing.   It's a good 8+ Km from the town to the port, so you need transport, we arranged a taxi through the Ibis hotel.   Our cabin was lovely - up on the 13th deck with a decent balcony, and no problem with noise either from above, corridors, adjacent cabins.   Although the ship can take over 4,000 guests, it only had about 3,200 for our cruise round the Med, and very few children - most of which were under 5, and kept very busy with the Club Staff.  Our first stop was Barcelona where we had a walking tour (I'd organized with Runner Bean Tours) which was excellent. Then we had a day at sea - on reflection wish this had been day 4 or 5 rather than day 3 as the schedule is quite full-on and if you're going on the cruise-arranged trips you have to be up, washed, dressed, breakfasted and ready in the meeting area soon after 8.00 a.m. each morning.   Day 4 we arrived at La Goulette for Tunis and saw our only heavy rain.  We were all given blue plastic ponchos (made us look like a parade of Smurfs) to get from the boat to the coach.   Lots of street sellers, very pushy - not my scene round the souks, but the buildings and decoration were beautiful.  Only a very cursory visit to Carthage, which was a disappointment.   Day 5 saw us arrive at Palermo, Sicily.  Lovely sunny, cold morning, but unfortuately for me, I started to experience vertigo, though I wouldn't have said we'd had rough seas.   Didn't help that we wound our way up the mountain for better views, and that the visit to the beach was curtailed as the access was closed.   My husband made the trip to Rome alone, as I didn't feel able to make the 1+1/2 hour trip each way from the boat.    Don't think he was that impressed, but took lots of photos/video!

I was feeling a bit better by day 7 when we reached Genoa - a lovely city and accessible easily from the port.   Our walking tour was very good and was timed so that we could go into the cathedral.   On the boat, all the staff were friendly, polite, smiling and helpful.   Food was plentiful (though there were some amazingly greedy passengers) and the amount of waste was astounding.   The choice of food available at evening dinner in the restaurant was amazing, with up to seven courses offered.   We opted for 3 most nights, and had also taken the drinks package, which proved good value, even though I didn't have any alcohol for 2 days.   The buffet was well organized, and there was generally enough space for everyone, though I imagine it could be a bit hectic when the boat is at full capacity with a lot of children.    Piano bars/lounges were comfortable with music to suit all tastes and always somewhere to sit - only slight disappointment was the lack of talks, and rather uninspiring "shows".    All in all, very good value for money.