Europe Cruise Reviews

My fiancé and I realized that, after this first cruise for each of us in over 20 years (our first together), we'll never be that typical Caribbean cruiser. Going from beach port to beach port isn't really our thing. So with that, this was a great cruise. A good amount of planning on our part is what made it really good. The experience on the Epic made it great. Our cabin (8219) was amazing for the price. An aft-balcony room that was handicap accessible (we're not disabled) gave us a room that felt the size of something even larger than a mini-suite. The huge balcony that easily fit two chaises, two chairs and a small table made "outdoor" time truly wonderful.

The entertainment on board was stellar. Priscilla-Queen of the Desert was phenomenal. We had seen the play on Broadway and were quite flabbergasted at the ability of this production to be put on so well on a ship. A must see. (Admittedly, a small part of the entertainment of the show was watching ignorant buffoons who were told multiple times of the show's content walk out in disgust. Apparently ignorance is not always bliss.)

The service was terrific. Everyone (with one glaring exception) was always ready with a "good morning," a "hello," and a smile on their faces. Our cabin steward Ryan was great and always helped out with our silly requests (Tony takes a lot of sugar in his coffee, I use extra pillows while sleeping, etc.).

The only "complaint' that I have to say would be the food. It wasn't horrid, but the

complimentary dining areas were okay.... nothing special. The Garden Cafe was usually a zoo and I literally avoided going there. Taste for breakfast was good, and the dinner we had in the Manhattan Room was good as well.  The specialty dining (we did all of them except for Le Bistro) were a step above the regular dining with La Cucina, Teppanyakia, Cagney's, and Moderno being preferred in that order. Embarkation and debarkation were a breeze. Barcelona and NCL have their act together with regard to this. It was a simple process even for us relative first-timers.  The ports (especially the Italian cities) were amazing. It's unfortunate we didn't get to spend enough time in each location.  Our next adventure will be on Norwegian (we were so impressed, we put deposits down on two more cruises with them). We just have to figure out where to go.  

This itinerary was wonderful and the views splendid. Our all time favorite will always be the Geiranger Fjord with its steep sides and hundreds of waterfalls. While there, we also visited a self sufficient goat farm which produces delectable cheeses and traveled through beautiful countryside. Stavanger and Bergen were nice towns but the fjords, mountains, pastures, waterfalls, and nature in general were amazing.

the scenery was unbelievable and the food was excellent. Unfortunately our room had no heat for 4 of the 8 days.  

We enjoyed the on board trivia daily, the easy walk into the towns, the ease of the sign up, the friendly washy-washy lady, and our room gentleman that tried to make us okay with no heat.

The haven is the best part of the Epic.  I love the staff, the details, the gym, the food everything!  This was my first trip on a large ship.  I was afraid that I was not going to like it.  I loved it.   It is so well laid out and organized!  Everything was perfect.  Even the weather.

From start to finish absolutely awesome  cruise this is must cruise i gave this cruise as Mothers Day Gift to my wife and she can not stop talking about it to all her friends the views the stops the food the people the ship and crew. we are already planning next years trip

Santorini.  Mykonos.  Entertainment. Food was very good.  Family mini suite with balcony was very spacious and comfortable. Service was superb      Drink package was really a nice perk. 

We like the itinerary. The IT person was helpful in getting my onboard wifi minutes. 

We love the French Specialty Restaurant with good food and great services. The Shehannon Restaurant has a good menu for comfort food. 

The desserts are fair at best at all the restaurants. The Brazilian Specialty Restaurant has the worst desserts. Selection was poor and dessert we chose was

poor. 

The cooking demonstrations need need to improve. Not impressive at all. 

Camera/photo department provides good services and Mr Kumar is friendly and helpful. 

Staff at the the reception desk needs more training. They are helpful but give out wrong info at times. I have to ask two or more people to make sure I got the right info. 

The excursions were pricey (which I didn't mind paying the price), but my daughter and I were in the very last row seat on the bus with an elderly couple sitting next to us who talked on their cell phones and then yelled at the tour guide.  We spent most of the bus tour listening to this couple.  I really don't think we should have paid the same amount as everyone else when we were packed in the last seat with two other people.  They shouldn't sell those back row seats -- couldn't get any pictures and couldn't hear the tour guide. 

The food was very good with a great variety of dishes to choose from.  The waitstaff was very friendly in the restaurants however I thought the bartenders seemed stressed and never smiled.  Not sure if that was because their tips were prepaid.  ??? 

I think Royal Carribean is a better cruise line than Norwegian but we did enjoy the week and would probably go on another Norwegian cruise again.

NCL's food and entertainment were first class.  Norway's fjords were extremely scenic.  The ports were excellent, especially Geiranger.  Would definitely recommend this cruise and NCL.

The night entertainment was good. Food was good as well, except the service at the Manhattan room was unbearably slow. The cabin was good. The guppies program for 6-36 months old was just okay. The shore excursion was too expensive. 

My favourite part was the scenery -- so worthwhile. I learned so much about Norway, and I really loved it. The Jade is well appointed with a great staff! The shows are some of the best in the cruising world. I have sailed on 5 of the best lines including Cunard and Celebrity.

The one thing that prevents me from a 5 star review is that besides the daily service charge, 18% is added to every drink served. There are no washing machines onboard though they will do it for another charge. 

The destinations were fabulous. The ship was nice but the design was not great. Could not access one end of the ship from the other without going through the casino which reeked of cigarette smoke, even when it was not open..

This was by far the worst cruise that my wife and I have ever been on.  When we booked this cruise we were excited since we were going to use this cruise to celebrate both of our recent graduations as well as our 5th wedding anniversary.  The excitement was short lived.  As soon as we got on the cruise ship we were able to see that the staff were not happy to be there.  If this weren't enough, we experienced rude behavior from the staff on many occasions.  

There were times when we would try to engage with the staff by offering a kind word, but it had no effect on them and they would just pretend like we weren't even there.  The security team as a whole were some of the biggest culprits.  When we would go or come back from our time off the ship, they would be conversing amongst themselves.  It wasn't as though they weren't able to speak English, because they were doing it openly.  When communicating with us they used hand motions more than anything to communicate with us and when they would use words they opted to use short and harsh words to get us to do what they wanted.  

The food was terrible.  Often times my wife and I found dishes that still had food stuck on them.  Passengers from the ship would eat in the buffet line and the staff wouldn't say anything.  My wife witnessed two elderly individuals eating watermelon in line and when she expressed the health concern she was encouraged by the individual to say something even though the worker was able to see everything that was going on.  This is one of the most ridiculous things that I have ever experienced.  Why would a worker ever ask a passenger that is on vacation to do something that they are supposed to be doing?  It's not my wife's job to do the staff's job.  This was more ridiculous than when one of the cooks in the buffet line walked away from my wife and another passenger as they were asking him a question about the food.  I could go on and on about my horrible experience on this cruise.  I really wish that we could have had a better experience.  We really expected more.  What was supposed to be a special celebration turned out to be our great disappointment.

Norway is a beautiful country. Most of the ports we visited were small and we were the only ship in port so there weren't the usual crowds in town. One shore excursion was cancelled because not enough people signed up and one was changed due to snow on the mountain. It was a very relaxing, no rush trip. The entertainment on HAL was not up to their usual standards but the scenery made up for it. We had booked 2 shore excursions from , supposedly at a discount, for the hop on/hop off busses. When we got to the bus we found that we could have saved $10 each if we booked directly with them on shore.

The ports of call for this cruise were the main attraction.  There are not many cruises that visit Norway.  May is just the beginning of Spring and the weather illustrated that fact.  At one of the ports many excursions had to be cancelled or modified because the roads were still closed due to snow fall.  We had two spectacularly beautiful days and two cold rainy days.  My only complaint concerns the excursions.  The excursions, in general, seemed to be much more confused for this cruise than or any of the others I've been on.  We signed up for three excursions in advance of departure, at least a month before.  We were notified about a week before departure that one of the excursions had been cancelled and an alternative was suggested.  When I went online to book the suggested alternative, it did not show up as a possible selection.  For this port we waited to board and then went to the excursion desk onboard to choose an alternative.  The person who was manning the excursion desk was positively rude to us.  She ignored our presence for about five minutes and when she finally acknowledged us she was less than helpful.  We did choose an alternative excursion.  Upon boarding the ship we received information that another cruise had been cancelled because of road closure.  We did not choose an alternative for this one.  The night before the third excursion was scheduled we received a voice mail message on our cabin telephone informing us that excursion had also been cancelled.  We ended up with only one excursion for the four ports of call.  That was disappointing.

My husband and I thought the entertainment, which includes the cast shows, were excellent. We felt the food was only fair, especially since my fish usually was overcooked. The stateroom was a nice size, plenty of storage space and kept clean. We did not do any Princess tours.

We truly loved this cruise.  The ship was just the right size.  Plenty of activities and choices, but not too huge.  I really enjoyed having a balcony so I could sit quietly, when I wanted, and watch the beautiful sea.  The food was fabulous and we also took advantage of a massage, haircut, and acupuncture!  So, it felt like we had some spa time too!  The ports were amazing....saw beautiful places.

All of the ports were great but Geiranger was absolutely wonderful. We rented a "TWIZER" small tandem electric car and drove almost to the glacier. Had to turn around almost to the top because it was so windy.

We cruised from Barcelona to Venice with stops in France and Italy. The cruise was enjoyable. The ship was nice, clean, and comfortable temperature. Our stateroom was always clean, and the employees on the ship were extremely nice and always shared a smile. The food was great. We ate mostly at the Windjammer which was a buffet style. We also ate at the main dining room which was really nice, as well as two specialty restaurants.  The service and food was fantastic. Shore excursions were wonderful. Our last one in Venice was cancelled, not because of the ship but other reasons. We had a last minute booking for a late transfer, which then, the ship apparently overbooked and had to cancel ours. We were left last minute trying to figure out what to do in Venice as the boat docked at 7am and our flight was not until 5:30pm. We ended up leaving the ship at 9am and took the people mover into Venice, which was not far from the dock. In Venice, we were able to store our luggage at a luggage storage place for 5 euros per bag. We then explored Venice and took a bus to the airport. Overall, it wasn't bad and cheaper than doing the shore excursion, which included transportation to the airport. There was also some confusion on events and activities onboard the ship. We were never notified of the special events that would be occurring such as a 70s night and two formal nights. We knew there would be at least one formal night (as we've been on other cruises) but had not idea about the other or the 70s party. So we did not participate in those. Oh, and when signing up for the cruise, I signed up for the Café Select card which I thought would be on my ship identity card used to leave and board the ship. However, this card was different and was supposed to arrive in my stateroom. It never did. The ship left on a Saturday, and I didn't receive my card until Monday evening, after I told the café my situation several times they finally gave me one. So I had two days of not being able to enjoy my premium coffee that I already paid for.

Overall, I would recommend the ship and this cruise destination.

Rhapsody is a small ship, entertainment is not very entertaining; but the friendliness of the crew is outstanding.  DanDan is a little over the top, as is Give me Money Grace.... you can count on Royal Caribbean to provide a consistently nice clean ship.