Europe - Western Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

We found very little entertainment during the day. The concept of evening chic sucks. Keep the standards and once a year dress formal for one night. It is not going to kill you. Show movies at night around 8;ooPM. Arrange for folklore dancing of the places seen and bring them onboard. Prepare food according to the port visited. Arrange art tours of the decoration on the ship. Have more music that you can dance too. Eliminate the sad guitar and duo violins. It is depressing! Correct the steps leading to the pool in the solarium. My sister slip and got a huge bruise on the buttocks. The celebrity dancers need to prepare shows that are not conducive to journey with Morpheo. Songs too modern that we have never heard. No melody in them. Unable to understand the basic inspiration of this shows. No cohesiveness. The invited artist were very good.

We really enjoyed this cruise. The ports of call were delightful. The food and entertainment on the ship was first class.  Plenty of space by the pool for the times we just wanted to be lazy

FABULOUS! FABULOUS! FABULOUS! I celebrated my 50th birthday (along with 5 of my friends) and it was nothing short of spectacular. Our waiter, Deekshith Shetty went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that each of us was happy and satisfied with our dining experiences. The crew sang happy birthday to me and gave me hugs and kisses (not done in America). Our cabin was cleaned to perfection, crew members knew me by name, the shows were great and the coffee was PHENOMENAL! The ship was beautiful and the staff was very polite. I have already started recommending this cruise to other friends. LOVED IT! Thanks Costa. 

This was our second time sailing with NCL and the first time sailing the Mediterranean.  We booked our cabin within the Haven and could not be happier that we did.  The only way to cruise.

Me and my husband loved the cruise. The food and service was amazing.  The biggest complain we have is your internet service. We are both professionals and rely on communicate to our companies. Considering most companies rely on internet, there needs to be major improvement to your internet for us to consider another cruise. Most people our age are at the pinnacle of the careers need this service to travel. Everything was wonderful. 

This is our third time on the Royal & we loved it. I believe it is getting better, food was good, ship clean, staff great. I will cruise on this ship again!!!

We had a blast and created memories for a lifetime!  Can't wait to go back:)  We had two mini-suites with an adjoining balcony for a party of 6.  Plenty of room and fun for all.  This was truly a once in a lifetime event with 3 generations.  Very busy week running from one location to another in an attempt to see and experience as much as possible in the short time in each port.

Overall the cruise was okay, but not spectacular.  Food offerings in main dining rooms was mediocre and lacked variety.  We will note, however, that the service was great and for the most part the wait staff was congenial and attentive. Our experience with Sasha, manager in the Manhattan Dining Room, was especially accommodating. 

With the exception of the piano bar and Poalo, the guitarist, the entertainment was extremely disappointing.  It lacked variety and was often distasteful and offensive.  Wise up Norwegian.  Think about more family oriented fare.

Thanks to our very competent and friendly cabin steward our room was always clean, suitable for sleeping and showering.  The cabin was adequate but not a place to spend much time.  That is understandable, but we would have preferred more areas on board for quite time and simply enjoying the ocean views.

For those relying on wifi, forget it!  Ours was included as a "feebie" and was never fully functional.  Had we paid for this service, we would have demanded a refund.  If one has other choices, don't go for the wifi.

We shared our cruise with a very large contingent of passengers from a large cosmetics company (about 3000 of the 4100 guest capacity on board were members of this group).  We believe this contributed to extreme overcrowding at the buffet dining and we often found ourselves being trapped in large groups of these passengers self-involved in their own pursuits and allowing little common courtesy to other guests.

We would probably not sail on a ship of this size in the future. 

The ship was dated  Rooms were nice and the restaurants were very good

Excursions were very average and tour guides also

Entertainment middle of the road and the staff was a little off their game

quite a few things  got mixed up

Customer service at sea and on land needs a lot of work.  For a high end cruise one would expect better.  Thought it strange that the Officer in charge of excursion hosted a birthday dinner for one of our group since we have an ongoing issue regarding there complimentary excursion program.  Mix up with anniversary celebration for another couple in our group as well as confusion regarding dinner reservations.  Food was good, ports were interesting but the lack of good customer service ruined the cruise experience for me therefore I would never cruise with them again.

Luxury Only and Silversea need better communication.  One in our group was celebrating an anniversary.  Their "gift" was delivered to the wrong room on the wrong day.  Birthday of another in our group was noted on the wrong day.  My butler said Happy Birthday to me one day - it was not my birthday and Luxury Only knew that. My profile was clear that my birthday is still to come. When 2 of us arrived on ship no one informed us we needed to check in at reception.  We found out from others.  On the last day the return passports were given early to some and not allowed to be given to others - some had to sign for them - others did not.  Printed information from ship had required departure times different on different printed sheets.  Did not get weather information as stated we would in morning notices for 3 days.  Never saw the captain.  I just felt no one was on the same page and it depended on who you talked to if you received the correct information.  Also, very offended over the prebilled Silversea charity donation without warning.  Yes you were able to deny it but that made one look cheap.  I think this was tacky of Silversea to even do it.  Huge debacle over excursions that has yet to be resolved.  Cannot believe Silversea dragged their feet and the blame was batted back and forth between Luxury Only and themselves.  The poorest customer service I have ever seen.  

Excellent new ship with very professional crew. fantastic itinerary. Everything was fine. including weather. Our restaurant and cabin attendant been very fine and immediately meet any our wish. Clean everywhere. All necessary information been given in several languages.  Newspaper digest in English, Russian, French, Spanish, etc. Great selection of meals.

I was disappointed with this cruise because I had high expectations since my friends who have cruised over 10 times, including 3 times in the Mediterranean, highly recommended Celebrity for its food. I went on this cruise with my husband and my father. My friends who recommended Celebrity also went on this cruise (they had 4 adults in their party). We were celebrating my father's retirement and I was taking my father on his first cruise and his first time in Europe. My friends, family, and I were all highly disappointed in the quality of the food in both the main dining room and in the buffet. My friends dined at all 3 specialty restaurants and the only one they enjoyed was Silk Harvest. My family and I also ate at Silk Harvest and that was the best meal we had on the trip. Barcelona was just an okay city and the food there was just okay as well. We were disappointed in Mallorca because no one explained to us that we would have to walk for about 30 minutes to get to the end of the pier to get a taxi into town, and when we finally got a taxi, he ripped us off by charging my family $10 Euro more than my friends' taxi to get to/from the same locations. Instead of taking a taxi, you should stand in line off the ship and pay the $5 Euro roundtrip fee to use the special bus that picks up and drops you off right in front of the ship. When we tried to pay to take the special bus one-way back to the cruise ship, they refused to allow us onto the bus and said we had to pay for the roundtrip ticket from the cruise ship. No one told us this in advance and this was not explicitly written in the cruise ship newsletter that you could not purchase a one-way bus ticket. Since we refused to spend any more money in Mallorca after getting ripped off by the taxi driver, my family walked a little over an hour back to the ship. Since Mallorca was our first port, this was an awful beginning to my father's first cruise experience. Fortunately, Malta was an interesting port to cruise into, so be sure to wake up to watch the ship enter the city or stand outside on the top decks to watch the ship sail out of the city. The main negative experience we had in Malta was that it was freezing cold on our Three Cities Harbor Boat Excursion and our excursion lasted an extra hour because the wind was blowing so hard that our boat could not dock, so we had to return to a different location and board a different boat in order to dock in our final destination. Since our excursion lasted an extra hour, we didn't get to spend as much time as we had wanted in Valleta. We enjoyed Taormina and the Ancient Greek Theatre. We paid for the cruise's bus to get to/from Taormina On Your Own and then paid for our own tickets for the Greek Theatre -- we were lucky there was no line at the ticket window. We did not appreciate how one of the public bathrooms at Taormina said that donations to use the bathrooms were optional and then after you climb the stairs down to the bathrooms, a woman was sitting there demanding $1 Euro per person in order to use the bathrooms. Also, the public bathrooms in many locations do not have seats, so you have to be prepared to squat. The bathrooms at the Greek Theatre did not have toilet paper, so be sure to bring your own toilet paper at all times since this came in handy at many locations throughout our trip. In Naples, we visited Pompeii via the cruise ship's excursion. We loved our tour guide, Vito, but we were disappointed at the end of the tour to see that we had only covered about less than 1/4 of the entire Pompeii city on the map. So, if you are in good shape to walk the entire city yourself, you may want to look into purchasing your own tickets and going through Pompeii on your own. Rome was the highlight of our tour and we loved every minute of it since we booked a private van service (Rome Private Guides) that picked us up right outside of our ship and brought us back to the same location, and it included our own private guide. Five of us shared the van and it cost us the same amount per person if we had purchased a full day excursion from the ship. The benefits of having your own private guide is that the van can drop you off and pick you up closer to the various sites than a bus can, and you can customize your trip. So, we went to Vatican City and saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, and then we went into the Colisseum, walked through the Forum, and stopped by the Trevi Fountain. We also stopped at a nice restaurant for lunch that was recommended by our driver (I can't remember the restaurant's name). Another added benefit is that our driver knew where all the nice restrooms were in Rome such as letting us use the restrooms at his friend's hotel that was right across the street from the Vatican. Corsica was disappointing unless you are a Napoleon fan, and the various maps we had were useless since most streets didn't have names written on them and the names of the important places that the ship recommended you visit did not have the same names as the actual locations or as the maps. So we got lost in a small area and ended up walking around in circles. The cruise ship also doesn't tell you that the little outdoor market closes up around 1 pm, so be sure to check that out in the morning since that is the main highlight of Corsica. If you like beaches, there is a small little beach you can lay out at and/or swin in (walk all the way to the left side when you disembark the ship), and it's a great photo spot. Our final stop was Florence/Pisa, where we took the cruise's excursion to Pisa. We enjoyed Pisa and were especially pleased that even though our excursion warned us that we would not be able to walk up the tower, our guide surprised us by saying that he had limited tickets we could purchase to walk up the tower, so we purchased those tickets for $29 US per person and walked up the 250+ steps, which we thought was totally worth it. We also learned that Pisa is Pinocchio's hometown, so be sure to buy some Pinocchio souvenirs for family/friends. I had the best gelato in my life (coconut and chocolate flavors) at a little hole in the wall gelato place to the left of the Il Turista restaurant that was our group's meeting place in Pisa. Besides the food on the cruise ship, another disappointment was that I purchased some items from the spa and I was not informed that I would be charged Spain's 21% VAT because our cruise ship sailed out of a port in Spain (we sailed to/from Barcelona). So, be aware of this extra charge for your purchases! I would not recommend cruising in/out of any Spain ports because of this crazy tax. The ship missed out on sales because I would have bought more things on the ship if I wasn't charged the 21% VAT. The cruise ship tried to make it up to me by adding some money to my cruise ship account, which was a nice gesture, but they did not give me back the full 21% that I was charged -- I took photos of the receipts they gave me for my purchases that did not include the 21% VAT and my dad kept every single cruise ship newsletter that never mentioned the 21% VAT, but my cruise ship bill added the 21% VAT to my purchases. They said that I could get my 21% VAT back at the airport, which I did, but be aware that you have to stand in line for at least half an hour to an hour or more at the airport, and they charge you an administration fee so you do not receive the full 21% back. Also, if you want to receive your refund in cash, they will only give it to you in Euros. If you have children, I would not recommend this cruise ship since I barely saw any children on the ship and when I walked past both the children's and teens' centers, they were completely empty. The entertainment on the ship was mixed and included a very insulting activities director and a very insulting comedian, so if you do not like crude insulting humor, which my family and I do not, then you will be offended. The cruise ship's band at the Equinox Theatre was the best entertainment highlight. If this is going to be your first time in Europe, I recommend that you consider a land tour instead that takes you to more recognizable cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Florence/Pisa, and Rome. To end on a positive note, the majority of the cruise ship's staff were friendly such as our room attendant (I forgot his name, but he was super fast and great), our main dining room servers Orville Anthony and Aleksie, Sam the head of the main dining room who took my friend's dinner order every evening for the next day's meal because she has severe food allergies, the fitness director Bayonaro (?), and the spa director and spa staff. I had massages with both Mary Jane and ChiChi, who were both great, and I also did an acupuncture session on my first day on the ship with Dr. Harry Yu for my TMJ (jaw pain), and the session worked so that I did not have any pain for the rest of the cruise.

The cruise itinerary was wonderful. The boarding and disembarkarion processes were easy and hassle free. The staff could have been friendly and the service in dining room and restaurants could have been more speedy. The cruise did not have many options for activities or entertainment. 

Our adult sons had been to Europe recently and insisted this was the time to go while we were still physically able to enjoy all of the sites and sights. The itinerary looked appealing ( and it was FANTASTIC!) and they had never cruised. We have cruised a few times on Norwegian and remembered our first Free Style cruise and loved it. Disappointments - 1. Room - we had a balcony and layout is "nested" with next room so there is a wider and narrower portion and we always felt congested. Loved the balcony and storage/hated the toilet and shower right inside the door. Sons had inside room across hall. It was ok but they mentioned when they knocked on the door that someone had reversed our "peephole" so it was a telescope into the room. 2. Bar- had all inclusive package but it wasn't applicable in The Bistro and Garden Café. Paid for 4 drinks and tips - $54 excessive "extra" that wasn't necessary - way under our 15 "drink" per day limit (includes pop-virgin cocktails). Bar staff was terrible on every deck. Maybe it was their awareness that the tip was prepaid, but hard to find service and long waits, understaffed. 3. With the exception of Priscillia Queen of the Desert rest of entertainment was blah. Bravo to the specialty restaurants (great service and delicious food), large supply of deck chairs, variety at Garden Buffet, fluid embarking and disembarking. Best way to see a large part of Europe in a week. Loved every port and even reasonable ship tours at Cannes (to Monaco) and Marseille/Avignon. Will most likely do it again in coming years.

1.  Cruise is not designed for those who don't speak Italian.  We only met one other person from English-speaking country.

2.  Karaoke was terrific.

3.  I love history so the stop in Corsica to see Napoleon's birthplace and Malta were very interesting. 

4.  Stops in Savona and La Marseille were disappointing.

5.  Easy to get to ship from Rome.  Train costs 5 Euros.

Beautiful ship, friendly service, great food and drinks, and our room was quiet and comfortable. Excursions were fantastic! The Entire trip was smooth and very enjoyable. Definitely will choose Norwegian again over all! 

We had a fabulous time on this cruise! Each port was perfectly planned and we loved the complimentary dining options. The service was perfect-especially keeping tables cleaned promptly. We really like the "free style" way of cruising.

Great vacation. Service on the Eurodam was excellent. Good food. Great ports of call. Lots to see and do. Only wish there was a little more time at Gibraltar. 

our cabin was changed without letting us know. the cabin did not have a table and chairs to sit and enjoy the in room service. the night shows were most disappointing(compared to other cruises we have ben to),The food did not have much variety.