After travelling in the UK for a few weeks we were expecting to enjoy the last week of our trip onboard what we had been told was a great cruise ship experience. Embarking at Cittivachia was a very easy process although a bit impersonal. Our bags were taken off us and we didn't see them until they got to our cabin a couple of hours or so later. The actual boarding formalities were straightforward with not much in the way of any explanation about the paperwork provided and the cruise representative appeared slightly inconvenienced when I asked her a couple of basic questions. I found this strange as there was nobody else in our line waiting so it wasn't as if she was busy. Maybe she was just having a bad day I thought. I was about to find out how wrong I was in that assumption. Apart from people in the various "piazza's" trying to sell stuff most of the crew appeared very miserable and disengaged. The service level was very low and it appeared that the bar and restaurant staff in particular had been discouraged in making conversation with passengers. Most of them wouldn't even smile. A couple of the barcrew members who did confide in us told us that they would not sign another contract for any further cruises after their current ones finished. The nightly entertainment was very professional with 2 shows per night. Each show lasted between 30 to 40 minutes. Get there early for a seat. One night we got there and a female was sitting at the end of a row of seats and refused to let us in saying that her family would be here soon. This was at the same time as she was videoing the show. The family never appeared so they obviously decided to wait for the release of her home movie!

Everything on board was very expensive particularly the drinks! Two free choices for dining, either your allotted restaurant or the "free for all" they comically describe as a buffet. The only time you can get a "free" coffee, tea or juice is in the "Buffet" at breakfasts only. Each other meal time the machines were either out of order or being maintained. It was a busy ship with mostly Italian crew and passengers and the concept of queing in a polite, patient and orderly fashion has obviously not yet been explained to most crew or passengers onboard. They didn't appear to follow any logic in terms of how or were they joined the line. They sort of josstled/shoved in whenever they felt there maybe something of interest to them on the hotplate.

One day at lunch, I asked two seperate waiters for a drink for my daughter. Neither could speak English and vaguely pointed me towards the centre of the "Buffet" where the main bar was situated. I asked the barman for a softdrink, he directed me to a waiter, who direced me to another waiter, who took my order, who gave the order to the same barman that I had already asked, who gave him the dink, he then couldn't get the till to work and wanted me to wait whilst he fixed it. All this time my mediocre spaghetti bolognase was getting cooler and cooler. In the end I left my card with him and asked him to bring it over when he had time. For this I was still charged almost four euro and 15% SERVICE CHARGE! Yes thats what I said SERVICE CHARGE! Read more