Cruising is a game of expectations as with most things in life. Having previously sailed on freestyle ships, that are often looked down on, we expected a little more from our first Holland America experience. So this review is more related to how we were disillusioned with “traditional old school” cruising.
Embarkation in Hong Kong. Not a drop of water or morsel of a snack for guests waiting ...
We cruise a lot and travelled on the Holland America line before covid and it was fine. However this most recent trip was disappointing and an exercise in money-grabbing. The menu did not change the entire trip, that is to say French onion soup was the ONLY soup on offer for the duration - how difficult is it to make another type of soup? On the first day I asked for the herring but was told it ...
We booked the cruise because of the great itinerary (as advertised), which included port calls at the 3 Japanese islands. NCL had then decided to consolidate the 3 stops to 2 - only in Okinawa. The extra day was turned into a sea day!
About 1 week before sailing, NCL elected to move the disembarkation port from Yokohama to Koto City in Tokyo. Despite of complaints, NCL's position was "too ...
My first time sailing with Cunard having sailed mainly with Royal Caribbean (14 cruises) and I was so disappointed.
1, the stateroom was nice but the balcony was stained and rusty.
2, the ship felt old and tired.
3, the shops on board catered for people who wanted expensive watches and jewellery, ladies clothes, booze and the normal Cunard material.
4, I didn’t purchase the $400+ ...
The ship is magnificent, although the recent refurbishment in 2023 didn't reach all the staterooms( not allowed to call them cabins), the carpet in our room was badly stained. When contemplating a cruise with Cunard get everything in writing, we spent 3 hours on the phone between NZ and Australia with the Cunard agent and decided to upgrade our stateroom to a room with an un-interrupted view, on ...
The Good -
This is a smaller ship so slightly more personal touch than the larger ships and you will meet the same people and recognize faces fairly quickly. The facilities on board are fairly limited compared to the more modern larger ships but none the less still very good.
The restaurants in particular Luminae for suite guests were very good - slightly limited standard menu but the food ...
I am amazed to see some of the negative reviews written regarding this cruise! I can hardly comprehend we were on the same ship at the same time. I therefore had to write a review even though I don’t usually do so. We had the most incredible cruise. We have been cruising over 20 years with a variety of different cruise lines and Celebrity are by far our favourite. We ate at Blu. The staff were ...
Second time on Norwegian Jewel. Previous time was nice but not amazing. We chose it again because of the itinerary.
What we did not like this time:
- lack of sufficient and clear information prior to embarkation. the website is not working properly, no responses on email or phone. Problems with booking excursions.
- the ship's entertainment pretty much resembled last year's programme - ...
This was our 14 th cruise with various lines but our first with celebrity. We did 3 nights in Singapore at the beginning of our cruise and added 3nights in Hongkong after the cruise.
Certainly Hongkong is a must see city worthy of anyone’s wish list.Having said that so is Singapore.
The cruise was everything we could have hoped for .Cabin was concierge deck 9 with good size balcony.Solstice ...
For the first time we were in a suite . Corfu midship. Beautiful stateroom ….great big bathroom! We loved it! Business class at sea! Breakfast in Sabatinis was a treat . The staff there were fantastic. Even sang Happy Birthday to my husband with a candle in a muffin!
Dinners at night were very good …the lamb dishes especially.
There were not enough sea days to enjoy the ship! Ports were ...