Other (Asia/Africa/Middle East) Cruise Reviews

Nice cruise but need more time in the short excursions in Israel, and next cruise must be program diferent dates than Holy  thursday and Friday in Israel , because all chourches were closed.

Second time on Symphony and can't wait to get back.  First class service all the time, never a let up.

Great ports of call in Beijing and all over Japan.  They took the entire ship to Beijing for a three day, two night excursion, all part of the cruise fee, nothing additional.  On top of that, the accommodations and food were first class and the sightseeing just incredible.  We had an amazing tour guide the entire three days, Oscar on Bus #22, and his contributions were essential in making Beijing a memorable stop.

Japan is in full bloom with cherry blossoms so every stop was beautiful. All the stops were exciting.  The ship made the decision to miss a port to avoid possibly being stranded in the strait for a couple of days, courageous and correct decision and one that was well communicated to the entire ship.

We had one problem on an excursion and Crystal immediately refunded our cost to us.

Food was incredible.  Just cruised on Celebrity Solstice around New Zealand two months ago and they are about five levels below Crystal.  Nice having all inclusive cruising as well, even though we don't drink.

We loved the destinations, all were up to our expectations and Crystal really know how to treat a guest.

The entertainment far exceeded my expectations! There were some real class acts and top notch entertainment acts, knowledgeable lecturers, varied decent musicians, especially since ship is dated and could use some updating.  The majority of staff were phenomenal,  courteous, kind, happy, energetic, and always willing to go the extra mile.  Accommadations while sufficient, lacked luxury and refinement, overal decor felt very dated.--borderline tacky. The food was hit and miss.  Fortunately there were a variety of dining options; some inclusive of stay and others at a premium upcharge. 

Not a good cruise. The room Have extra bed took much of the small space. TV need repair 3 times, Towalet did not flush, Phone did not work ,Very noicey room. The food very Salty. The Excurion over price.

My favorite part was not having to cook or clean!  Love mostly all of the ports.

Entertainments, band, evening shows, dancers were all excellent.  Cruise Entertainer Director Richard was the best ever.  

I have cruised with Celebrity Cruises on many occasions and they are how I gauge other cruise lines by their standard.  This trip proves that they are still at their game of providing a great itinerary, excellent food and expectacular customer experience.  Each and every member of the crew works hard to earn your loyalty and provide you a truly exceptional travel experience.   I have sailed with Millennium when it was brand new and now that it has aged, they have kept it well maintained.

I love the itinerary and all the countries visited. Enjoyed the glorious history of China, love the nature of Jeju Island, the lifestyle in Nagasaki, the picturesque island of Taiwan and the sights and sound of Homgkong.  The foodie in me was truly satisfied!  Highly recommend this itinerary and this cruise line. Thanks. 

It would be too easy to say it was the Taj Mahal.  The fact is that the overall experience was phenomenal.  The itinerary was what caught my attention and it did live up to expectations.  Every port had something to offer, from the culture to the food to the friendliness of the people.  The ship shows its age, but the crew more than made up for it.  The specialty restaurants were well worth the money with high quality food with terrific ambiance. The entertainment was varied and well presented and I couldn't finish this review without mentioning Richard the Cruise Director; he was wonderful!

  We took two cruises in a row, for 37 days in succession on the Norwegian Star cruise ship, from Auckland to Dubai. Daily life aboard was enjoyable. We felt free to be as busy or as lazy as we pleased. The variety of dining options suited us, as some days we wanted to be served in the fine big dining rooms, some meals we just wanted to hang out by the pool, and we knew that the market buffet offered great choices all the time, breakfast, lunch and supper. Only once did we take the big splurge at an extra-cost specialty restaurant on board, because the free options were so good. Celebrating my birthday was a treat, because the wait staff in the big restaurant gathered to sing to me.

  The crew members were generally friendly and competent. NCL should offer courses in English pronunciation to their employees who deal directly with passengers. Misunderstandings occur when service staff are not articulate.

  The handling of shore excursions needs improvement. The young lady who offered commentary on each port was difficult to understand and she didn't have first-hand knowledge of some of the destinations. She was sloppy about mis-pronouncing and mis-spelling names of port cities. Even the printed material posted about Khasab, Oman, for example, said "Kashab" erroneously.

 Handling passports appeared to be slipshod, with no assurance that strict security measures were being employed.

  The itinerary was attractive, providing varied experiences for seasoned travelers. We especially appreciated the arrangements NCL made to provide group visas for shore excursions in India, a country with notoriously bureaucratic practices.

  Tendering was a pain in the neck. We were unaware in advance that so few of the ports in this part of the world would accommodate docking for such a big ship. We suspect that NCL takes the cheaper option and uses industrial ports to avoid port charges. There's no substitute for tying up to a dock with a nice passenger terminal to welcome us. We'll be more wary next time about anchoring offshore. On the earlier cruise, we even had to tender into one of the greatest, best-developed harbors in the world, Sydney! And we missed Brisbane altogether!

It would be too easy to say it was the Taj Mahal.  The fact is that the overall experience was phenomenal.  The itinerary was what caught my attention and it did live up to expectations.  Every port had something to offer, from the culture to the food to the friendliness of the people.  The ship shows its age, but the crew more than made up for it.  The specialty restaurants were well worth the money with high quality food with terrific ambiance. The entertainment was varied and well presented and I couldn't finish this review without mentioning Richard the Cruise Director; he was wonderful!

It would be too easy to say it was the Taj Mahal.  The fact is that the overall experience was phenomenal.  The itinerary was what caught my attention and it did live up to expectations.  Every port had something to offer, from the culture to the food to the friendliness of the people.  The ship shows its age, but the crew more than made up for it.  The specialty restaurants were well worth the money with high quality food with terrific ambiance. The entertainment was varied and well presented and I couldn't finish this review without mentioning Richard the Cruise Director; he was wonderful!

My favorite paret of the cruise was the private shore excursions by Abercrombie and Kent.

The sercice in the Compass Rose needs serious improvement. It did not improive despite daily complaints

would recommend this to experience many places without unpacking/packing and flying constantly.  great itinerary   Our cruise specialist, Trisha Kirkbride (luxury cruise agent)was great and always took care of every detail    Would highly recommend her.

We enjoyed this cruise and would recommend it.  The ports were very interesting.

We sailed on the Diamond Princess a year ago but we felt the condition of the ship was not as good this time.  The ship was going into dry dock for a facelift a couple weeks after we sailed so we surmised that our timing was bad.

The only thing we did not like was the description of this as a 12 day cruise.  It was not.  It was a seven day cruise followed by a five day cruise.  Apparently, Princess combines shorter cruises in SE Asia to create longer cruises.  This results in a bit of confusion as other people on the ship are not doing the same cruise as you and quite a few onboard activities are repeated for the people who came on board after the first week.   Not optimal.

The "Vision of the Sea" Friendly, Pleasant, Medium Category Ship,

WELL maintained, highly recommended, excellent, safe and lovely Crue including

the Captain of the Ship !!!!

The ports was very good but the ship was the worst I've ever been on. Most of the staff was rude like the had no customer service experience. My daughter fell while dancing with the cruise director and staff and not one of them came to see if she was okay or anything. This young man that worked in the bar storage area came to assist us and since he could not get anyone on the phone He went down stairs to get a wheel chair to get her to the doctor. The ship is very old and was not that clean as I am accustom to with exception of our cabin linen. The food was not good and in the windjammer restaurant the menu changed very little. I was very disappointed with Royal Caribbean.

the different ports, the choice of restaurants on the excursions, the guides mastering the english language, not too happy with length of shopping time in all the excursions! wish there was more time allocated for shopping.

Had a great time on the Seabourn Encore.  The ship was only a few months old and very well laid out.  The food was terrific although we found ourselves in a food coma by the end.  All meals were very heavy making it difficult to snack.  The entertainment was exceptional for a ship of this size.  Part of the expectations of the entertainers was to get to know the passengers so you saw them everywhere, taking passengers to dinner, etc.  Given the cost of the cruise and time of the year, the passengers were heavily weighted toward US retirees so activities shut down pretty early.  We were very fortunate to have great weather, which was especially rare in the Fjords.  The Seabourn excursions need some work...

This was a wonderful itinerary at a very reasonable price. We covered 7 countries in 28 days and were able to walk on the Great Wall of China which was the original objective.  I was continually amazed by the beauty of  these countries and the large population of most of the ports. We made a lot of new friends from all over the world.

Seeing the countries and people of Asia for the 1st time showed the great diversity of the people in the world. The most difficult part of the trip was traveling half way around the world.

This was a great itinerary.  The multi day excursions in Hanoi and Bangkok were excellent.  

The public areas of the Millennium are in good condition but the condition of our stateroom was poor.  The sofa was broken, some of the bed linen was torn and seemed very old.  The sink and counter in the bathroom was chipped.  The toilet failed to flush on many occasions The cabin steward did an excellent job.

I will likely not sail on this ship again unless I am convinced it has had a complete major cabin overhaul.