Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

The room attendant was exceptional.  He kept fresh towels and our room clean throughout the day.  Dinner options were fantastic.  We enjoyed foods from each place we visited.  The waiters/waitresses could have done a better job in serving us.  We always had to ask for more water and several of them made it obvious they did not want be there.  One exception was Nengah Sudana who went out of his way to keep our glasses full and even talk to us. There was plenty of activities for us to do.  We would go again

We chose this cruise for the ports, we were sad to miss a couple of them due to the weather.  

The food was not very good in the buffets for breakfast.  There was very little selection and the same food items were served throughout the entire cruise.  Dinner was hit or miss, I wish there would have been selections for more picky eaters.  No one wants to eat a plain chicken breast every time they don't want the evening's offering.

The evening entertainment was sparse and the production value was low.  The pools and hot tubs closed early and we didn't have much chance to use them due to excursions and dinner times.  

We really struggled with our expectations during the cruise wondering if we were being nit picky, we have come to the conclusion after some discussion that there were no large problems but the small issues took away from our overall experience.  

This was my first cruise, and I had an amazing time. I knew ahead of time via guest reviews that the Norwegian Spirit ship was in need of some updating in the staterooms; that is true, but it was no surprise to me. I am vegetarian, and though dining services had vegetarian options, it could have been better planned and more diverse. The service was great - especially for the staterooms; staff took time to learn names, and they were very friendly. We appreciated the captain's safety call to change the location of our first stop; Corsica ended up being a lovely place to spend time before the rain came; it was easy to come and go on the ship, and there were plenty of activities to keep us happy on board. The rest of our vacation was perfect. The entertainment was great: "Graffiti Classics" was amazing, and the "Elementals" was so incredible - a beautiful act, very impressive. The child care was also exceptional - the staff was very creative with activities, and our 6 & 10 year old looked forward to going to the Kids Club. Overall, a fantastic time, and we would be interested in cruising with NCL again.  

[PS: a side note: the doctor on board was a quack. My mom had some strange symptoms, so she went down to see the doc, and he kept her for 1 hr and basically said she had a brain tumor. On the way out, two nurses at the front desk asked if she was wearing the seasickness patch - she was. They told her to take it off and the symptoms would subside within 72 hrs. She was just experiencing common side effects of the medication! He should have known that, and my mom even mentioned the patch during the exam and he glossed right over it. He should have known that; the doctor was clearly not qualified to treat cruise passengers. He charged $150 for his unhelpful exam.]

Favorites - it was like a floating hotel. Great, fast hot water in bathroom.  Fantastic beds and pillows! Was glad to find an TV English movie channel. Great temperature control. Ruffles open 24 hours was great. Luggage was easily found the morning of disembarkment.

Needs improvement - very disappointed that I had to pay for bottled water. Lack of written instructions in the room on how things work or what to expect. The inconsistency of servicing and furnishing 2 similar rooms. A guest told me my ice bucket would be filled ea day, it wasn't. A moved event had no sign or info posted at original event site. The washy-washy workers were obnoxious. The insolent way Norwegian employees acted toward those who booked excursions not thru the norwegian site. There were wash cloths in the bathroom only on the first day.  Couldn't  hear ship announcements. Would be helpful if the room safe was mounted higher, I can't imagine an elderly person being able to use one so low. On board internet fees were atrocious, free wifi should be included with our cruise payment. 

From check in to out, overall crew and staff are not very friendly.  Blonde haired check in lady at cruise terminal never looked at is or smiled, acted upset about our passport vis, did not tell us where to go next, when asked about giving our credit card for expenses, said to go to Guest Relations.  We went there first, Larissa was also not friendly, even rude at times, we were bothering her with our questions, so when we told her we booked the drink package online and she said eas not in their system, that we should book it again, we asked if we wouls end up paying twice, she said it was possible.  We waited, returned twice, finally, asked if we could give our credit card, she too it, but was weird she did not mention first two times we were there, I tried to ask her why, she ignored, awful service.

Bar on deck 3 service was the worse, very unfriendly bar staff, we made bets on how many mistakes they would make on our order, every single time, really makes you appreciate other cruise lines and their more friendly and smiling staff.  The lady at deck 3 bar who appears to be the head server was the worse, she would actually roll her eyes as if we could not see her, and we overheard her complain about other guests in front of us.

Our favorite, Samsara Spa, we had the best young lady give us a tour and explain the program, she was from Romania, wish I could remember her name, she was so nice, made our week special.  We booked the week spa, added facials and purchased products because of her professionalism.  .she gives the best facials, too!

Demi, our cabin steward was so nice, smiled every time we saw him, was friendly and kept our cabin clean.  We could tell that he genuinely enjoyed serving others.

Overall, seems staff are unhappy, ready to go on strike, and do not enjoy their work.  First cruise we have had this type of apathy by staff.

But, we still return to France, and we will still cruise Costa in the future.

This cruise is port intensive allowing us to visit 9 great ports (including Barcelona) in a short time. Also it is a bonus that, due to bad weather in Marseille, NCL Spirit chose to stop at Monte Carlo instead of Marseille. The weather was great every day and we had a great time in every city even though that we had been many of these cities before. For such a port intensive cruise, it did not bother us that the on board activities (not the parties) are lacking. The service on board of the ship is excellent and the crew bent over backward to accommodate passengers consisting mostly seasoned travelers. There were only a handful of kids and one hardly noticed their existence. We had no problem getting into any restaurant without reservation. The gym is small but adequate since most passengers did not use it. The complimentary steam and sauna are also a bonus. Overall, we and our friends had a wonderful time both on and off the ship. We are frequent cruisers and can only hope that every cruise is like this one.      

If you have traveled on other cruise ships, my suggestion is minimize your expectations.  Let me explain:  The itinerary itself was absolutely amazing and I could not have asked for a better itinerary, even when we had to re-route and miss Marseille, the alternative was event better - Monte Carlo. As far as the ship itself, there was much to be left desired since it was quite old.  My cabin stunk like sewage on most port days.  Even though I complained, they assured me  that it was not the cabin but me being sensitive to smells.  I have been on at least 10 cruises and I know when a room stinks! If you are used to traveling on other ships with great entertainment, you will be sorely disappointed.  There were nights were I just had to walk out because it was not worth sitting through it.  Surprisingly, the food was better than expected, although there was one or two nights when I had to send the food back.

This cruise on the new ship Viking Sea had the benefit of beautiful weather (in contrast to the immediately preceding ones which had bad problems)...so we were lucky. The cruise went to some fairly untypical ports which were all interesting. Viking had free excursions at all ports - some were good others not so much. The food was above average although we had a disappointing meal at the specialty restaurant Chef's Table. The best part of the cruise was the crew who were all extremely gracious. I would certainly recommend this trip to others.

Food and service excellent.  The best employee the have is Heather Clancy.

The ship is beautiful, clean and has a lovely group of entertainers.  Loved the full screen movies  at the pool.

Excellent route and time at the ports. The ship is well, elegant decorated and very clean. My firts time experience with a full european ship, I have to said that everything is super, except when eating at the buffet, people act like the food is going to end, not Costa fault, but at the restaurant everything great. Nice cruise, I trully recommend it. 

We were very satisfied with our experience on Costa Diadema . We had 2 rooms and traveled with our adult and two teenage children. The food was excellent, especially the Fiorentino evening dining, if you love Italian food this is your cruise. Even more so If you love Nutella. The guests were overwhelmingly European (probably 30% Italian, 25% French, 25% Spanish, 10% German, and 10% Other British, American and Asian). Not many English speaking guests but no problem. Nightly entertainment shows were very good, especially the Romanian acrobat/dance couple. Only complainant was the ports of Savona, Italy and Marceilles, France, not much to see. Also a change of port, stopping at Sardinia instead of Palma De Mallarca as advertised.

Ship was beautiful with very friendly staff and lots of things to do. It was clean, small, and very easy to navigate.

We were surprised by changed of itinerary that happened at the last minute as we were about to depart Barcelona. The captain informed us we will be reversing the order of our destinations to avoid bad weather. This caused shocked and concern for many as shore excursions were dependent of the schedule. Luckily, booking through helped us as they were able to maintain the original excursions even though they were on Christmas when many others were cancelled. 

Overall, we will cruise again NCL and will use to book it! 

Diadema was a large, newer ship so rooms were comfortable and very nice condition.    Shows were limited in variety, food was okay but not a lot of variety either.   Fortunately, the weather was only rough the first night and was smooth the rest of our trip.

Let me first single out our Cabin Steward (Derma) and the Asst Maitre'd (Antonio).  They both went above and beyond what was expected and MSC is fortunate to have them in their employ.

The best part of the cruise was visiting Malta, the Flamenco Dance show and the finale Italian Music show.  Other than that it was ordinary and boring.  The constant pressure to sell you a "drink package" (everything from hard liquor to what they a "coffee cuddle") at every single port was annoying and intrusive.  In other words, if you did not want to drink filtered water in the buffet, make your own tea or try to stomach their horrible self serve coffee, it was going to cost you money.

In addition to the pressure to sell you a drink package, there was constant pressure throughout every public area of the ship to sell you a photo package (at lest 5-times what each picture is worth but they will give you a discount "buy 1 and get 1 free" - so you will only pay 2-1/2 times its value).

The buffet was the same almost every day (except for the "feature meat of the day at dinner").  The formal restaurant had a better selection but with extremely small potions.  And we are a part of 8 adults and 1 baby, all but 2 of us got sick from the food (bad enough to have to stay in the cabin almost a full day - lucky for me it was the day completely at sea so I did not miss anything, not so lucky for my step-daughter and her husband missing the bicycle tour of Genova).

I have traveled on other cruise lines and never was there this much pressure to upsell, or just being cheap (not even ice tea or lemonade in the buffet without a charge per serving or refill).

One more point I need to bring up, I have a disability (spinal problems).  As such I cannot stand for very long in a line.  Getting back on the ship in Barcelona, I showed my government issued photo disability ID card to the first "security guard" just before he directed you to the lines for the metal detector and xray scanners.  I told him I had a disability and asked to use the handicap entrance.  His response "no way - impossible."  After standing in the very long line, clearing the scans and having to rest 2 hours in my cabin, I went to Guest Services to file a complaint.  As of this writing 1-week later, I have still not had a response from MSC regarding the incident.

Highly doubtful I will ever cruise with MSC again anywhere in the world.

Everything was perfect from the correct manner of the Restaurant waiters and stateroom  attendant to the overall cleanliness of the ship. I have to follow a strict Gluten free diet and the only gripe against Cunard was that on day 6 of a 12 day cruise all the bars on the ship had run out of Gluten free beer (St Peters) I visited the Pursers desk and complained and to Cunard`s credit they restocked the bars with a Spanish Gluten free beer on day 9.

we enjoyed the cruise a lot even though the weather conditions were not ideal many times. The shore excursions arranged were limited, but since weather conditions were bad, they continued with the programs. As the cruise was docked for the day, perhaps a later start for the excursion could have improved the sightseeing.

as it was a late cruise time (winter time) many of the follow passengers paid a great deal less than the early birds, those who booked earlier in the year. We found many had paid close to 50% less!

Spent a most enjoyable 12 nights aboard this beautiful ship.  Could not fault the cabins, service or food.  However we were very disappointed with the daytime activities offered.  Unless you like constant quizes or your body is falling apart and require costly treatment for such things as puffy legs, constipation, sore backs, wrinkles, poor indigestion, acupuncture, fluid retention and poor circulation, brittle nails or cracked heels etc there is not much else to do.  There were dance lessons which were free and fabulous, but unfortunately there were only a few.  These classes were full to bursting so were obviously really popular so more should have been organised as this is a very good way of exercising. Shops onboard expensive and not great. Photos are also extortionate.

The entire Yacht Club experience was wonderful.  The lounge and perks and overall service was better than any expectations  We appreciate everyone involved.

Great Itinerary.  Very clean ship.  Upgrading to the Yacht Club is worth the money.  

We will take a future MSC Cruise to Greece.  Not a whole of kids on this trip.  The quality of the food was fresh each day.  

The good part of this cruise was the schedule of port arrivals--always in the morning, which allowed enough time for on shore outings.

Improvements are needed for:

1. Music, base noise in cabins goes on until early hours of the morning, making sleeping very difficult.

2. Entertainment mediocre only.  The seats in the Strand theater were very uncomfortable--seats themselves leaned downward; no legroom; no support

3. Computer connections very slow and expensive

4.Food offerings generally were mediocre at best-almost everything tasted the same; salad dressings too vinegary and again it all tasted the same. Pizzas  were runny and soggy.

5.The gym had only one elliptical

6.Library hours and content very poor.

7. Hair dryer location in staterooms is stupid.