TUI Cruises

Family Cruises

Gay & Lesbian Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Singles Cruises

Cruises for the Disabled

Senior Cruises

Malta (Valletta)

Dubai

Las Palmas (Gran Canaria)

Barbados

Hamburg

Kiel

Palma de Mallorca (Majorca)

Athens (Piraeus)

Singapore

Corfu

Naples

Europe - All

Mediterranean

Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Canary Islands

Middle East

Caribbean - All

Transatlantic

Caribbean - Eastern

Europe - Western Mediterranean

Baltic Sea

Norwegian Fjords

Asia

Caribbean - Western

Italy

Greece

Africa

Mexico - All

Excellent

Very Good

Average

Poor

Terrible

Mein Schiff

Skagway

No problems with it being a German speaking ship. 

Despite a good hard product with comfortable cabins (including Nespresso machines), a 25 metre pool, expansive included sauna facilities, a choice of restaurants and a broadly inclusive package, unfortunately the soft product means it will be a no go line in the future.

1. The included wines are undrinkable and the ones for purchase are frequently not available. 

2. Food quality is bad. Really not up to scratch e.g. gone off salad, poor cuts of meat, 

3. Entertainment is terrible. Samey and poor quality.

4. Staff seem unhappy....seemingly a change in cruise director changed the ship vibe.

5. lengthy announcements during dinner and in the cabins. No one wants to be sold an excursion at 100 decibels while eating their dinner. 

6. Service standards are really inconsistent - sometimes friendly, sometime surly.

A positive is that time in port is long, but as a big ship there are plenty of views of container ships...

Overall the cruise ship felt like being sent to a summer camp. Had sailed with them previously but felt that everything that was previously positive had gone downhill.

Nice ship but everything else is bad

Freeport

Perhaps one thing in advance. This is not the first time we have travelled with TUI, and so far we have spent about 150 days on board various ships and shipping companies - but we do not belong to the TUI fan club that lives on Artisan Bread and cannot live without the departure anthem and makes this known in the evenings at the bar by slandering Aida - so much for parts of the crowd.

But from the beginning: We booked a 7-day Norway 1G cruise Kiel/Kiel. Booked through our travel agency without any problems. Why TUI subsequently charges for the tests even though you sign up for the free citizen test - so be it. 

But the fact that TUI is not available by phone (not at all, never) when the website does not accept bookings for the test one day before arrival due to overload, without which you cannot check in - that is an - excuse me - impertinence. I am not booking a week of AI for €199, but a premium product. Without our travel agency we would not have got on board. And TUI? Silent to this day.

But on the positive side: TUI's Corona concept is convincing, the check-in hassle-free, the staff in Kiel very nice. On board, too, everyone adheres to the mask requirement. Everything is very clean, there are hand basins in front of every restaurant. 

The size and design of the cabins are also positive. Perfect use of space, good spatial effect, perfect cleanliness.

Why then only 3 stars? The AI concept does not fit. It is designed in such a way that you still have to pay for reasonable services in the right place. Examples? 

In the bars there are three types of drinkable white, red and rose wine, including a French wine that is really not bad. In the main restaurants, only Spanish wine from the carafe (canister) or from the tap of the lowest quality is included. The only drinkable one is rosé - which is ubiquitously consumed.

If you go to an "exclusive" restaurant, you will also have to pay for otherwise included services such as soft drinks or juices, even though the service is exactly the same. This is not "premium all inclusive" - it is annoying.

The culinary service is not good except for exceptional cases (wok in Anckelmannsplatz, burgers (unfortunately not the fries) in Tag und Nacht  and especially the Fischmarkt). 

How TUI comes up with "an incomparable taste experience" remains a mystery. If you prefer a fresh burger to the bad 5 course menu (often cold, often just bad), you know something is going very wrong. Exceptions, as I said, the jacket potato with North Sea prawns in the Fischmarkt - and (completely surprisingly - so it could work) the fillet steak on the last evening in the Atlantic. In contrast, the Wagyo steak at Surf & Turf was a disappointment.

The service is nice and helpful - but obviously completely overwhelmed by language problems on this German speaking ship. In English - which always conjured up a smile behind the mask - many things could be achieved- in German, not even the term "pommes frites" or "frites" was understood in the Bosporus - Grill - as the menu says "Belgian potatoes". 

Problem recognised: "French fries? - no problem, sir" - with a smile. TUI would have to invest a little more here (or simply change the language to English) - as I said: the will of the crew is there - the service willingness too - but the language skills are missing.

The TUI app, which is absolutely necessary, should be loaded onto the smartphone beforehand.  Activities on board have to be booked on it, but the (not many) offers are sold out immediately. We did not manage to book the shuffleboard. There are relatively few activities on board. 

What remains as a conclusion: 7 days on a very large ship with a perfect hygiene concept and nice cabins - mediocre culinary and above all an AI concept that is not relaxing but annoying.

Would we sail again - at the paid rate and 1G concept probably yes.

Very good Corona concept - poor AI concept.

Tortola

Hi folks,

two weeks ago i went for my first cruise after the corona-break. The german-market-focussed cruise line TUI cruises offers 7-night cruises from Heraklion(Crete) to Piraeus and Corfu. As the price for these cruises are very attractive for solo travellers i could not resist.

Due to the current Covid-19 situation there were some changes in the usual processes. First of all it was mandatory to use the flights offered by the shipping line.these flight were included in the price and were full-charter flights( TUI also has an own airline,called TUIfly). Secondly only excursions offered by the cruise line were allowed. It was not allowed to leave the ship individually.

After the flight arrived at Heraklion airport and before entering the terminal building some officers checked the QR code of each passenger.

To enter greece it is currently necessary to fill out a registration form latest 24 hours before arrival in greece. You have to answer a lot of questions and once you did it you send the registration application to the greek authorities. In the night before the arrival day in greece a mail with a QR code is sent to the registered person. This QR code needs to be presented at the arrival before entering the terminal building.

After getting the luggage the next step was to board one of the many busses that brings you to the ship. After arrival at the cruise terminal there was a short waiting time inside the bus cause the number of people inside the terminal "building"(it can hardly be called building) was restricted. Inside the terminal building there was the usual security checkpoint with metal scanners and a body temperature check area.the whole thing only took approx. 5 Minutes.

During the whole process (flight, shuttle to the port,security check) it was mandatory to wear a mask.

To get on board of the ship you only needed the printed boarding pass(which you recieved after completing the online check-in latest 3 days before embarkation). You showed the boarding pass, a icture was taken and then you could enter the ship. The cabin card was placed at your cabin door. So the whole embarktion process was done almost completely contactless.

On board almost all facilities were opened as usual.(except the disco and the teens club(which was closed due to no teenagers on board)). It was mandatory to wear a mask on the cabin hallways, in the elevators and at all "places,where the minimum distance of 1,5 meters is impossible". In practice almost all passengers wore a mask anytime they were inside the ship. When sitting at the table in the bars or restaurants or at your seat in the entertainment spots it was allowed to remove the mask. The buffet restaurant was opened but without self serice. Behind every buffet there was a crew member,you just told the crew member what you want to eat and they put it on a plate for you anf handed over the plate to you.

Masks were also mandatory when ordering a drink at the outside bars.

Of course it was mandatory t keep a distance of 1,5 meters at all times. But this was not too difficult cause the ship was not fully booked. the regular capacity of the Mein Schiff 6 lies between 2550 passengers(double occupancy) and 2810 passengers(max. capacity). But on my trip there were only 934 passengers on board. ;)

The crew was fantastic and absolutely professional. All crew members were wearing masks at all times and no matter at whiich bar, in which restaurant or which entertainment area you sat down, there was almost always immediately a crew member asking for your cabin number. so the cruise line knew exactly where i have been at which time of the day. This has the very big advantage that in the unlikely case of one infection on board they don`t need to put all guests in qurantine but only the guests which were near the infected person for long enough.

After starting from Heraklion port on sunday at 10 pm it was planned to have a sea day and be in Piraeus on tuesday early morning. On the sea day the captain made a trip into the bay of the island of Milos.It wasn`t that spectacular but a nice bonus. In the afternoon of that day the captain informed all passengers that the laboratory in greece found 12 crew members to be tested positive. these crew members were put in quarantine immediately and re-tested by the ships doctor again.

 The captain mentioned almost right from the beginning that they assume these positive results are a mistake. Cause the 12 crew members are working in 12 different departments throughout the complete ships and haven`t met during the last weeks. And only one person per department was tested positive,all other crew members of the same department were negative. So this was very likely a mistake. 

they checked it with the greek authorities and they gave the order to come to Pireaus as planned and then these 12 crew members would be tested again by the greek authorities. At the end it turned out that all 12 crew members were not infected and everybody was allowed to leave the ship. At that time it was already noon and so it was clear that none of the originally planned excursions by the shipping line could be organized. Thats why the captain decided to stay in Piraeus port one day longer and on the next day all the planned excursions could be offered. 

So all passengers could see what they have planned to see. For me personally this was a nice move by the captain.

I decided to make an excursion to the corinth canal.It is approx. 75 Minutes drive from the port. Then we boarded a small boat and went through the canal in both directions. the whole trip took approx. one hour and was really impressive ! 

After that the bus made a short stop near one of the bridges over the canal and we could jump out of the bus and make a picture from above.

Then we went back to the ship.

The next day was another sea day to Corfu. We reached Corfu in time.On that day i made an excursions to the palace of the austrian empress Sissi and the city of Corfu itself. Although it was mandatory to wear the mask in the bus, in the palace and even outside in the gardens It was still nice.

On all the excursions the number of guests per bus was between 23 and 26. 

Based on the original itinerary we had two sea days to get from Corfu back to Crete. But due to the additional day in Piraeus we only had one sea day. So there wasn`t any more time for some additional panoramic views of some greek islands...at least thats what we thought ! But the captain showed us what his ship could do and directly after leaving Corfu raced with 19 knots to show us the island of santorin. So on Saturday around 6:15 pm we reach the caldera of santorin in perfect light of the sunset. 

The ship entered the caldera,stayed there for approx. 20 Minutes, made a 20-minute-long 360-degree rotation and then moved on to Crete where we arrived on Sunday morning at 6:00 am well in time.

All passengers were really happy that the captain decided to stay longer in Piraeus and still to go to Santorin.

On disembarkation day you could stay on board until the shuttle bus for your flight brought you to the airport. Unfortunately the latest shuttle bus leaft at 11:30 am.This was necessary so that the ship could be cleanded completely and prepared intensely for the next passengers. As my flight to Frankfurt only departed at 5:40 pm and the airport of Heraklion is VERY small i decided to take another excursion to the excavation site of Knossos and the city of Heraklion.

This excursion ended at the airport roughly 3,5 hours before the departure at the airport. After a stressful check-in (the airport was really crwded, and currently they only have 40% of the usual amount of guests.I don`t wanna know how crowded the airport will be at 100% ) i finally reached frankfurt airport at 8:15 pm.

I was really happy to have done this cruise. It was the most relaxed cruise i ever did and i would do it again right away. The crew was fantastic and did EVERYTHING to make the guests happy. But i also have to say that the passengers were also fantastic. I never had so many disciplined passengers on board of a cruise ship. EVERYBODY followed the rules to 100%.

To be honest i do have heavy doubts if the passengers of a 5-day cruise out of Miami on a US-based cruise ship would be that disciplined as well.

Attached you will find some pictures of Santorin, Knossos and the corinth canal

Fantastic Re-Start in Greece - Mein Schiff 6

Right now, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic there isn't much of a choice. I live in Dusseldorf, Germany. Started cruising in 2013 and just celebrating my 50th cruise. The well-known cruise line AIDA failed due to lack of permission of its registry country Italy and Corona positive crew members. It seemed that TUI Cruises was doing better.

The planned itinerary - from Hamburg (Mein Schiff 2) and Kiel (Mein Schiff 1) towards the Norwegian Fjords needed to be changed, because Norway did not open its fjords in time. Therefore the cruise went to Stockholm / Sweden and Turku / Finland, with no opportunity for shore excursions.

The cruise is part of the restart-programme after the complete shutdown. The ship is designed to carry up to 2,894 passengers, only 730 were on board.  Sometimes it was like a "ghost ship", you could walk from stern to bow without seeing another person. All facilities were open, and social distancing was easy. Germany love to swim, the new Mein Schiff fleet has 25 meter pools (80 feet long. 

Although we could not get off the ship in Stockholm and Turku, they did everything to make this cruise most entertaining. Mein Schiff 2 from hamburg and Number 1 from Kiel were departing on the same day. There was a come-together in the port of Stockholm, which attracted a lot of attention, especially currently, when no other passenger ships are sailing. Both ships come together side by side, some enthusiastic crew members were very cheerfull spotting some of their friends on the other shop,. waving, yelling, dancing.

Usually cruise ships arrive in Stockholm very early in the morning, so passengers won't have a chance to see the breathtaking skerries (rocky islands shore landscape) which takes about 5 hours to sail through, a pure childhood dream from an Astrid Lindgren book. A true Pippi Longstocking experience! We were crossing the Skerries at daytime, and it was wonderful.

The same lovely landscape awaited us at the Turku shoreline. Both ships stopped not far from the Meyer Turku ship yard, where both ships had been built. From there, we could see a rather sad display: the brand-new Carnival Mardi Gras, waiting to go into service - not yet delivered due to the crusis. Behind it in the dry dock: Costa Toscana, construction in progress. It doesn't happen too often that cruise ships return to their birthplaces, this time it was special!

Both in Stockholm and Turku these events get a lot of response in the local press, and lots of smaller ships and boats came by, people waving, cheering and everybody wanted to get a glance of what was going on there. And we were so lucky, weatherwise, too! We had blue skies and magnificent sunshine every day.

I can only recommend this "anticyclic" way of travelling. As an employee of the travel industry I noticed, that due to pretty empty trains, ships, aeroplanes travelling can now be a tranquil experience, places aren't crowded - this is like travelling before WWII, when only the rich and famous could afford these trips! If you maintain social distancing, you will be safe. I went on 2 river cruises and 2 seagoing cruises in August/September 2020 and I'm still corona-negative!

Another perk: very low fares! So, when ever air travel between Northern America and Europe opens again, don't hesitate. This is the unique chance to see world-famous places at a relax mode, never seen before.

TUI Cruises is a German line. The language is German, but: everybody speaks english, and all the service crew from Asia etc. speaks much better English than German. I think American guests would feel very much at home here. The cozy homing style on the ships appeared very comfortable. Most beverages (except very expensive Cognacs, Champagnes etc.) were included, there is no extra service charge. Dining was at a very high standard. The restaurant "fish market" offered some really tasty meals from rivers and sea - included!

The buffet was open, but no self-service. Lots of helpful souls were waiting for us, helping us to fill our dishes and bowls. The serviced restaurant "Atlantik" was a lovely place with nice decoration, excellent service, surprisingly delicious meals.

There was a small, but fine entertainment, on board. Comedy, of course in German, also a talented and unusually inventive piano player, musician who could imitate almost every artist: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Neil Diamond, Beatles - amazing. The audience went wild (as wild as safety precautions allowed us to be...). Bars, music in bars, open decks, the Mein Schiff fleet really offers a very special kind of "Feel-Good-Cruising". I have always been a fan of international cruise lines, but this cruise allowed me to discover another facet of what cruising can be. Will definitely do it again :-)

Mein Schiff 1 - a German "feel good ship" - all inclusive concept with homing style

Progreso

TUI Mein Schiff Cruises is a nice cruise line, but not for everyone. 

I had the pleasure of participating in a historic event. The July 24 2020 cruise aboard the Mein Schiff 2 was the first large ship cruise after the coronavirus lockdown in the world. Here I must admit that the TUI did a great job with the new safety measures. Muster Drill was conducted in small groups, the crew checked the temperature regularly. Passengers and crew were wearing masks and paying attention to keep an appropriate distance at all times. Hand sanitizers and temperature scanners were everywhere throughout the ship. I felt much safer aboard than in public places on land.

Mein Schiff 2 is new and fresh. The decor is pretty nice, although it's a rather simple Scandinavian style. The ship has many nice places to admire the views, a very large swimming pool ( as for a ship) and a very wide Spa and Fitness offer.The atmosphere was very calm and relaxed, there was plenty of space everywhere, especially since there were only about 1,200 passengers out of a possible 3,000 passengers on board due to the virus and capacity limitation. Nevertheless, I think that even with normal occupancy, Mein Schiff ships have a good space-passenger ratio and are never overcrowded.

The service is good and most of the crew members are very friendly. One exception is the X-Lounge (a panoramic premium lounge for Suite guests). In such a place you would expect exceptional service, but we felt there as if we were invisible and the crew was completely out of control over the situation. Considering the situation, the fact that this was the first cruise, maybe there were shortages of the crew or something, but TUI should look at the matter and solve the problem because it is not KFC, but a premium lounge on a premium ship.

The food is not bad, but very geared towards German customers which may not suit everyone.The food is especially delicious at the specialty restaurants, however those are extra paid and very expensive.

I have to say that Captain Thomas Roth did a great job. He tried to compensate for the lack of the port by giving the best views both during the sailaway from Hamburg and during the panoramic stop in Kristiansand where he circled the port for a long time to give everyone a chance for great views. There were two very magical moments on this voyage. The first was the horn battle with AidaPerla while departing from Hamburg, and the second was the family meeting with Mein Schiff 4 and 6 in the middle of the sea on the return to Hamburg during which all 3 sister ships sailed right next to each other in formation. Thank you to TUI Cruises for organizing this and for great memories that will stay forever.

As I mentioned, this is not a line for everyone because if you don't know German you can feel lost, The whole entertainment, but also the announcements (including Muster Drill) were only in German. Another thing is that the whole concept of TUI Cruises is aimed at Germans (which is understandable), but I do not recommend this line to people looking for American-style cruises with entertainment, parties, discos, fun etc.However, from my own experience, despite minor shortcomings caused by the human factor, I generally rate Tui Cruises very well.

On this very special cruise we did not get off at any port because there was only a panoramic stop in Kristiansand in Norway so I cannot evaluate the shore excursions.

Mein Schiff 2- world's first cruise after the pandemic

Nice

Just came back from our first ever Mein Schiff cruise, and my first German speaking ship experience (my partner has been once on the AIDA). This was our 28th cruise. 

I, a non-german, but German speaking person, give this ship a 3 out of 5. My partner, German born and raised, gives it a 4. Both of us liked a few things, and disliked a few others. All in all, we found the "Premium All Inclusive" to be a misleading moto. Basically it means you can have (almost) all the drinks you want, at (almost) every venue. Yes, there are more limitations to their "all inclusive" drink policy that one would care for. 

Drinks: in most bars there are a wide variety of all inclusive drinks one can order. There are also many "extra charge" drinks, but at the bars the choices of inclusive ones are decent. However, at the Main Restaurants (Klassik and Mediterran) the alcoholic drink choices are very limited, including just one choice for red, white and rosé, and all 3 are bad, really bad. During dinner bar personal will walk around and offer you "additional charge" drinks, many of which are the same that are inclusive at the bars. Just a nickeling and dimming play, one that one would not expect when booking a "Premium All Inclusive" cruise. At the buffet restaurant, the drink choices are even more limited than in the main dining rooms. So one better get a drink at a bar, then walk into the restaurant or buffet. 

And if you decide to try the specialty restaurants, there are no included drinks whatsoever, not even water. So, wow! 

Restaurants: Dinner at Main Dining Rooms (Klassik and Mediterran) was good. Food choices were somewhat limited, but they tasted good. Nothing was exotic or expensive (no lobster, no escargots). Many staples of other cruise lines did not find their way into Mein Schiff. Desserts were limited and not too interesting. Service is disconnected, and mostly very slow. Most of the times we had to wait 10 to 15 minutes between courses. 

Breakfast choices are limited and repetitive everywhere. Not the best (or expensive) selections. Even for the German taste the selection was not impressive. 

We had breakfast in 4 different venues, and did not care for it in any of them. One can only have ala carte at the Mediterran, but they do it in a very weird and hurried way. Basically a cart is driven to your table and right there and then you need to make all your selections (not many) at once. Best location we found for breakfast was at the "Tag und Nacht" 24 hour eatery. Here the choices were even more reduced, but the place is quieter and cozier. 

Lunch was good at the buffet. Again, nothing like better or more expensive meats, more like German comfort food, but it was good. 

Pluses: 

The cabin is quite nice and bright, clean and comfortable. Bathroom works well. Balcony nice and deep unlike the newer larger ships nowadays (I'm thinking of you Norwegian Breakaway class). However, in line with German philosophy (less choices, less service, cheaper), there is no minibar/no fridge, and no room service. Bedding is not so good like on the other cruiselines, and there is just 1 pillow per passenger. 

Ship is pretty, very clean, streamlined. It reminds one of the Celebrity Solstice class. Keeping up with the simpler/cheaper German mantra, there is nothing too exciting or too out of the ordinary with the decor; almost no artwork, no paintings anywhere. The ship has no art gallery, and the Casino is more of a joke than anything else. It is a tiny room, probably smaller than a simple cabin, with 6 slot machines and one computer operated roulette. That is it. 

The Pool Deck: This ship has two pools, one being a great 25meter long pool, great for actual swimming on a cruise ship, and one smaller covered pool. The deck area around the pools are nice and mostly quiet. Remember, no entertainment on this ship (which around the pool we found quite good - a lot more relaxing). 

Gym is smaller but nice. One of the pluses on this ship is the wellness area, or spa. It is a large area, with many different saunas (maybe not a big thing for Americans, but very high on the list for Germans and other Europeans) and nice relaxing rooms. This is at no additional cost.

Negative: 

Entertaining: If you know other non-german ships, you know the entertaining that it is offered. At Mein Schiff (3), the shows were few, and lousy. In a 7 night tour we had one "real show", it lasted 40 minutes, of which half of it was the Capitan and the cruise director addressing the guests. Show #2 was quartet of singers who were quite bad, show #3 was a "crew show", and show #4 was a "thank you" show, which is basically no show. 

The ship has no musicians anywhere, and the few entertainers who also sing, are very bad singers. No pianist at this bar, no violin player at a lounge, or a rock band somewhere. No live music. 

Additional cost for almost anything offered. Any time that something was announced on the PA system or printed on the daily program, this something was at an additional cost. 

At one of the stops, Funchal, we had a 13:30 all aboard. We arrived at the ship at 12:30, and had the longest line we have ever experienced to reenter a ship in our 28 cruises. It look us 38 minutes in line to get thru the ships security, all of it because they would not open a second check-in/security line. UN-flexibility at it's best. 

Service: Not as good as one knows in the US or on major cruiselines. Even though most service employees (waiters, bar personal, cabin stewards) are from South Asia and Eastern Europe (like in most cruises), they are trained with the German crowed in mind, which means, less service, less friendliness, less politeness than one is accustomed to. 

Service by the German Personal (like Front Desk) is very unfriendly and cold, very unapologetic, as one knows in most of Germany. 

Language: German is the language spoken here. This is expected but just as a warning for non German speakers. If you don't speak it, or have a German speaking person in your party, this might not be the ship for you. There are signs in English and (most of) the crew speaks English, but just about anything is in German, all the instructions, all the excursions, all the (what they call) entertainment. 

One very negative thing: on the last morning we received our bill, which included 25Euro per passenger for an "early check-in". So we went to the passenger desk and asked why the charge. The German lady said "because you boarded early, and there is a 25Euro charge for that service". We said we were not aware nor signed up for it. She then told us we should have known it. We said we didn't and would very much appreciate the removal of the charges. The lady repeated herself, and said if I were not happy, to call my travel agent. At my request, she looked into the system and saw we boarded the ship at 12:25pm, and because of 35minutes we were being charged for a service they offer for people with early incoming flights who can check-in as early as 9am. Their regular check-in time is at 1pm. I told her that upon check-in there were no signs and no personal whatsoever to tell us "if you board now, instead of waiting 35 minutes you will be charged 25Euro for an early check-in." She did not remove it, did not apologize, just stood there, and called "next". 

Ugly. Bad system, horrible customer service.

Good, but not a "Premium All-Inclusive" as Mein Schiff advertises... 

We are loyal Celebrity cruisers (8 cruises sind 2013,  mostly Aqua Class), but with the newly introduced price increases we wanted to try something new. As German natives it was logic to try a German cruiseline. As we love being serviced at the table, TUI was the only option for us.

Unfortunately we were not as happy as with Celebrity (although we did enjoy the cruises of course):

- In General the Service/Staff on the ship was not 100% attentive/ interested. e.g. Room Steward did not introduce himself. Most of staff on did not greet when we passed them

- (cabin) services and procedures , etc, were not explained. 

- The service in the restaurant was not well coordinated, though enough waiters were available. Sometimes we had to wait about 10 min, before we even received the menus

- No room service or mini bar available. Only water stations near the elevators were available.

- Food in the MDR was hit and miss. The speciality restaurants were very good (but here you have to pay for ALL drinks, even water)

- Staff did rarely check if sanitization was used by the passengers, luckily no outbreak of NORO happened  :-)

- No bottled or canned drinks available. On Port days small bottle soft water only for purchase.

- Limited selection of inclusive  wines in the MDR/Buffet, only 1 red, white and rosé.

-Smoking permitted on the balconies

Just small things for itself but in summary, we won't take a second cruise with mein schiff. We will give MSC for our next cruise a try.

Expectations not met - Mein Schiff 3

Mykonos

The boat itself is very nice. The decor and surroundings are tastefully done. 

Cabin is a good size. 

Food is good although there is not much variety among the different restaurants. 

Excursions are pricey and better deals can be found elsewhere online. 

Working level staff (i.e. not Germans) are friendly and nice and do their jobs well. 

German management staff are all young (20s) and don't seem very knowledgeable. If I asked one question to three people, I would get three answers. They seem to be enjoying their 20s and also on holiday. Their knowledge of visas and other key issues was lacking. 

Always trying to up sell on items not included in all inclusive price, yet poor communication on disembarking and do not provide shuttle services at some ports - with no prior advance notice.

On board language is German, although working level staff are better with English. All activities are in German, so best to avoid Tui if you don't speak German.

German staff useless

Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo

Before the cruise on Mein Schiff 6 we sailed Celebrity (2x), NCL and Royal Caribbean. As we are German, we decided that it's time to try a German cruise line. 

The Mein Schiff 6 is one of the newest ships in the fleet and was in a great shape. The public spaces were designed well and very spacious, it was never a problem to find a spot in the bars and restaurants. The food was average at best and even the food at the speciality dining venues was nothing to wow about. The dinnerware was scruffy, the service staff didn't seem to like their jobs. The reason for that might have been that they were treated poorly by their supervisors. Not only once did we see supervisors shouting at crew members.

Almost all drinks at the bars are included, but the selection left much to be desired and cocktails were poorly prepared. No frozen daiquiris were available throughout the ship, not even at the pool bar. There is no music at the pool at all, we really missed the great atmosphere on sea days we experienced on American ships. 

For the price of a celebrity cruise we got an extremely poor experience which was far below the experience we had with Royal Caribbean. We would not recommend a Royal Caribbean cruise to anyone who is used to American cruise lines.

Below average Experience for the Price of a Premium Cruise

We are a family of 4, been cruising for several years now. Was our first time on mein schiff 6 and definetely the last. The advertisments for this cruise show smiling people having a good time but none such person was in sight on this cruise. In all our travel we have never experienced anything like that. During the whole week we were treated like rubbish by other passengers. Our son was even physically abused by an old man in the pool. He pushed him under the water and smashed him to the wall of the pool. All of this happened because a 10yr old boy splashed some water while swimming. By the way the man was over 1m away. When reported we were told that the man was pissed off. As if it is acceptable to physically and verbally abuse children. 

Cruise personnel were helpful and polite. 

Food choice was good. Hygiene excellent.

Balcony cabin was small for 4 persons. Was always clean and ready.

No entertainment during the day which made days at sea boring.

Shore excursions were taken with maltese rep. 

Most passengers we met were selfless and arrogant, so to all people who would like a nice relaxing holiday for the family don't even try to consider going on a Mein schiff. Mein schiff is catered for german people only and not for any other nationality.

Worst experience ever

Filters

1-10 of 36