Worldcruise Amsterdam-Amsterdam early Jan.-early May 2018. What went right is too much to mention. What went wrong is too much to mention. This is sad for the staff that did their work the right way, e.g. my cabin-steward S HTIN LIN MYA from Myamar. Under the same conditions again? Hmmmmmmm. Special mentioning deserves the australian border-control. Substandard, disorganized , incompetent. On my question to this peculiar woman that this (ill)-treatment seamed inhospitable to me her initial answer was "how to they do it in you country" (sic).All passengers going ashore were kept waiting a long time for no good reason, all passengers returning were kept waiting a long time for no good reason. Clearly because i asked. Two passengers had not reported the way they wanted.... Files a complaint 12/06/18 (so 12th. of June) with the australian government/department of home affairs. In several places the border-control was ridiculous. On my question why this way, you can guess the answer: safety pfffff, the easy way out, creating anoyment. On request some additional information. The food was quite good, in seating-restaurant and buffet=restaurant. Activities were plenty, quizzes, dancing, cooking-lessons/-demonstrations, etc., presented as should be. Service in order ( at the front desk staff always smiling, confronted with an error the answer was blurry and the smile turned vague - oh well). Entertainment high level, certainly taken into account the Columbus is a small ship to today's standard, so limited possibilities on the small stage. Ship's performers were excellent, visiting performers too in most cases. Staff were attentive and suited for the job. Excursions ware sometimes very unorganized, e.g. long waiting (about 20 minutes) on the stairways, some were not to standard so money was for half returned. What bothered me was maintenance/cleaning all the time, with staircases and parts of deck closed. Avoid the easy mistakes and the "hmmmmm" will turn into "yes". So i am curieus for the upcoming reviews. Read Less

We travelled before with CMV on the Marco Polo and now we did make the trip for 75 days from Amsterdam to Hong Kong and where very satisfied over all again. The cleaning was excellent. Also the food was good most of the time. The main dishes were unfortunately often very fat. The buffet was a good alternative. There was a good choice of drinks. The information about the packages could be better. Only the all include drinking package was offered. I did find out that there were also wine beer and coffee packages. Most of the staff was very kind and help full . Also the girls at reception were very kind but they were not helpful at all. One day I asked them to find a dentist for me in the next harbour, because the internet was out again. There answer was that I had to make the phone call myself from the cabin for £7 a minute. But who should I call? A lady from the tourist office in Auckland was very helpful to find it out for me. Me be CMV can hire here. Also to other questions they were friendly and smiled all the time but did not anything to solve the problem. And this was confirmed be other passengers as well. The excursions were far overpriced. But most of them were ok. If you did complain about an excursion they tried to tell you that you were the only one who had complained, but if one insists and could prove that the whole bus was not satisfied and even the host wrote a negative report, one gets a small reduction. So look very carefully if you can make the tour on your own before booking, because cancelling is no option. The two pools are very nice to swim, and one could always find an place to sit. The gym was open very early. Most of the passengers were over 65 , but the choice of music was for teenagers and far too loud . Also in the bars in the evening the life music was too loud also , so one could not make any conversation. The cabin was ok and the service from the cabin boy was excellent. Also the air condition in the cabin was adjustable. Unfortunately the air condition in the rest of the ship was very bad. In the gym far too hot. In the theatre also too hot. In Capucino’s and the atrium freezing cold ! Disembarkation was not always very efficient. Normally excursions go first by call on a tender number, but at some places everybody was cueing to go on shore at the same time. A bloody shame was the medical centre. People were forced to have an infusion for a simple cold. If one refused to take it, they threatened that you have to leave the ship. They charged more than £ 1000 for such in infusion. Some passengers got a bill for over £ 10.000 and to pay it immediately by credit card . CMV should change this service. It looks like mafia. Never the less we go again on a long cruise with CMV next year Read Less

I and my wife and 9 other friends took a cruise aboard the Oceania Marina around the Bay of Biscay. The ship’s itinerary started in Amsterdam, then to Dover in England, then Honfleur in France, then down the west coast of France, then the north coast of Spain, ending in Lisbon. This route is not often offered by the cruise lines, but turned out to be quite good and enjoyable. We learnt many new things. For instance, the west coast of France is mostly flat marsh land. We enjoyed the fresh mussels in the smaller ports. In the city of LaRochelle, they had created many canals to controls the marshes, so the city looks like Venice, but the scenery is all green. We took a punted boat ride in these green canals. The Bordeaux region is home to the Bordeaux wine. We visited several major wineries, including the Margaux. We saw the grapes for the cabernet sauvignon are actually quite small. We learnt that the vine tree is quite small and short, and that the older the tree the sweeter the grapes, with some of them 50 years old. We also learnt that the vineyards in the Bordeaux region in France, are never artificially irrigated. They depend purely on natural rainfall. The region is huge and flat with thousands of vineyards. The cost of the average bottle is 80 Euros, one third of the price in the USA. The ship could not dock at Biarritz because of rough seas, which is common in this region, and had to by-pass it. This was unfortunate, because the nearby town of San Sebastian is said to be very beautiful. This route is noted for having several Michelin 3-star restaurants in its path, offering lunch with 14 course tasting menus for 200 Euros per person. We tried 4 of them. We learnt that most of these 3-star restaurants are never located in the city center, but in the countryside, since they usually have a very large foot print. Some of them have their own vegetable farm, or even their own vineyard attached to the restaurant, and they make their own wine and their own herbs. In Paris, we had lunch at the Gay Savoy. In Bordeaux, we had lunch at the Pierre Ganaire. In Bilbao, Spain, we had lunch at the Azurmenti restaurant. I counted 25 chefs in the huge kitchen. In Lisbon, we had dinner at the Belconte. So, what started as a simple cruise turned into a Gastronomic Cruise. In some ways, this was unnecessary because the food on the ship was already quite good. In Porto, at the northern end of Portugal, we learnt of heavy British influence, because of the British interest in Port wine and Sherry. Some of the current owners of the large wineries are still British. We learnt that in the manufacture of Port, after the usual brewing for a few years, the brewing process is artificially stopped, killing all the yeast, and then sugar is added to give the sweet taste. Port comes in 3 types, standard red (claret), tawny (light brown), and white. Some of the barrels are enormous, bigger than a room. Exposure to air is important, with the bigger the barrel, the less the exposure. The exposure is provided through the wood of the barrel. In Lisbon, the taxis are very cheap, and the most notable is the custard cake with flaking pastry dough. Read Less

The ship is not well mainatined and not well furnished. The German cruise directrice wa not well organized ad the whole ship was and not very empathic to us Germans. So we did not feel well. No rules and regulations are visible or exercised probably for the regular passenger. The bistro restaurant was very unhygenic, the food not very tasty. The menue in the main restaurants, regardless if breakfast, lunch or diner did not change over 4 weeks time. Some of the food was found to be not eatable. The outboard excursions were not well organized. The embarkation was extremely dangerous especially for the elderlies because all people have to queue up over several levels of the ship and there was a constant boxing and tumbling on the (slippery) stairs. Our cabin stuart was always nice, fiendly and helpful.. Coffee, tea, water and bisquits have been free of charge 24h per day. I really appreciate this. Same with sauna and steam bath. This was excellent. The general routing of the ship has alo been faboulus and very well selected. Read Less