We have been on all 3 Cunard ships which are all beautiful and very well presented. The staff are second to none and very helpful. We chose this cruise and had booked a year in advance whilst still on board in 2018. It was our wedding anniversary on the 24th June so we like to go away the same time every year. We don't mind where to as long as it falls on our anniversary date and as long as we are on board a Cunard ship! Our stateroom was serviced twice daily and a turn down service for the evening with chocolates provided, just before bed time (as if we hadn't already eaten enough) and tomorrow's programme of events to browse through and plan tomorrow, before some very much needed zzzzzz's after such a fabulous day/evening. We usually chose a large table of 6 for dinner as we enjoy meeting like minded cruise buddies. Two of our 'tablemates' we'd met on a previous cruise the year before (we had arranged this with them and are certainly now lifelong friends). We met two other guests who were delightful. We all had a lot in common particularly when it comes to cruising! The food was very well presented and tasty. The Lido buffet on board is fabulous. The food is fresh and plentiful in choice. Despite being in the Grills, we still love a wander through and maybe a little nibble here and there ;) The entertainment on board is amazing. I particularly enjoy the Cunard singers and dancers and all the other shows and guests appearances/entertainers. Also during the day on sea days, we love going to the on board speakers insights/enrichment talks. They are very interesting and have met some really lovely speakers from famous sports people to pilots to ex-policemen/detectives. There is always plenty to do around the ship on sea days and of course there's the swimming pools and hot tubs and the gym if you feel you need to burn off a few gained pounds! The service on board from the stateroom steward to the waiters and sommeliers to the cleaning staff and pursers desk are always so helpful and nothing is too much trouble. They are always welcoming and are very polite and say 'good morning' or 'have a good evening'. The shore excursions are varied and interesting. The coaches are clean and comfortable and the guides are very knowledgable. I love the fact that we can book an excursion and know the ship will be waiting for us whether we are late or not. We have travelled with our grown up children who equally love the Cunard ships. We haven't got grandchildren yet but I'm sure they would love it with their very own special area and staff to entertain them on sea days. We will certainly book again soon. We just have to save up the pennies first :) Read Less

Husband's Big 80 birthday - chose Oceania as previous experience on Riviera was very good. Love our food. Very nice itinerary, so we thought, out of Southampton finishing up in Barcelona. Ship - very similar to Riviera. Beautifully decorated and spotlessly clean. We had Penthouse Suite which was excellent. Very good design. Everything worked except WiFi which was dreadful and you could only have one device working (if it did!) at any one time. Cabin staff were excellent - always cleaned and ready for when we returned. Butler was helpful but we don't really use the Butler. Concierge was awful, rude, arrogant, ignorant both to me and about other guests. Overall the food was good as you would expect from the Cruise line that advertises "The best food at sea..." However........service was slow and seemed disorganised in the Grand Dining Room, the buffet area you had to have everything served to you, often not what you really wanted, which slowed down the process. Often plates were taken away before you finished your last mouthful which I hate! It was over busy at times - I think because the Grand Dining Room was certainly not up to standard. When we did go to the GDR for breakfast there were issues. The worst kipper and smoked haddock I have ever seen - so awful we walked out! Speciality restaurants were good but we were not keen on the Italian Restaurant. Polo Grill, Red Ginger and the French restaurant were all good. There was little coordination between the booking systems and the actual restaurants. Wine was very expensive. The added on gratuities plus another Spanish tax made it a ridiculous price. Entertainment was mixed - some excellent and some awful. Art loft..... well I've never seen such awful examples of a tutors work. The sessions were ok but overcrowded and chaotic. The Culinary Centre was good. Fun and informative . The Special Dining in Prive was an experience, interesting and the food delicious. There were some booking issues for other guests though - they were not happy! Gym was good, classes limited. Front Spa area not serviced, loungers uncomfortable, jacuzzi far too hot on one occasion and outside shower not working. Ports were very interesting - we do not do Ships excursions as we prefer to be independent. Transfers to the ship however were poor in a number of the ports and trying to get accurate info difficult. This did cause us issues as often long waits for buses without any seated waiting areas - my husband cannot stand for long. Some very long unnecessary walks off the ship into the port - little consideration for anyone with any disability. Other Cruise lines seem to have far better in port service. We had a number of Public Holiday days in ports which meant access to attractions was limited and shops closed. The 2 nights in Bordeaux was not 2 nights as they moved the ship on the second day making any independent excursions very difficult especially as it was a public holiday. We saw the Captain once during the whole cruise. He did not attend his drinks party nor did he attend the Thank you parade for the staff. Poor! Would we travel with Oceania again?. Sadly I very much doubt it. I think if we go 6 star again we will try another company. The rudeness of the Concierge was unacceptable. Oh and they got our final account wrong... so beware - we have never had that on a cruise before they are normally spot on! Read Less

Selected this cruise for itinerary, perceived cost, and I’ve never sailed princess so I thought I give it a try. Room was fine. Entertainment was fine. Food was severely lacking. I had higher expectations reading other reviews. Variety was fine, but please season the food!!! I understand keeping buffets vanilla to appease the other 3799 passengers, but in the steak house and Italian restaurants ($30/person...) season the food. Don’t make salt a garnish!!! Celebrated an anniversary and were surprised with balloons and a note. We presented the note at dinner hoping for a glass of champagne. Nope. They brought us a second dessert after we already had our dessert on the table. Seriously?! Way to make us feel special! This was after a $15 corkage fee for wine at dinner. To cap it all off, they sang- off key- a la TGIFridays! Uggghh Pre booked a reso for the lotus spa. 2x 50 min massages. After buying a bottle of oil, 2 massages and gratuities we spent $410. When I presented the $50 off coupon they gave us, they told me it was only good for a 75 min massage. I told them I just spent $400 and they said there was nothing they could do. I got the wrong massage. Recommend get a single 75 min massage for a little more in order to get the $50 off for less than the 50 min massage. Since princess nickles and dimes it’s guests, nickle and dime them back. This ship is too big. Cattle call for dinner- especially at sea days. Cattle call for excursions. Cattle call getting back on the boat after excursions. Normally it was ok getting back on, but we did stand in the blazing sun at St. Peter Port for over an hour. Overall, the trip was just ok. Boat was nice and clean. Embarkation in Southampton was super streamlined. Nice job! Staff was mostly just ok. I don’t think I’d recommend princess. They seem to just want to charge for this and charge for that all the time. I recommend paying a little more for a more inclusive cruise. You’ll save more in the long run. Read Less

Ship was in generally good shape. Some wear but upkept well. Clean roomy ship, bright and cheery. Easy on, easy off. Well organized and pleasant staff. We traveled with mostly folks from Great Britain (we’re from Chicago, USA) and they were terrific. Courteous and friendly. Main Dining. Generally, I enjoy eating at the dining room. I like the formality of dressing for dinner, accompanied by good food and service. However, the quality of the food in the main dining room has deteriorated in all cruise ships. Food is hit or miss. Had oso buco and instead of a full, meaty oxtail, braised if a rich sauce, was served a curled piece of thin cut of beef, curled and brown. Our main waiter was below average. Still learning his job. World disappear for long stretches and could not be found. Assistant server, top notch and attentive. Our steak and shrimp combo dinner came without the shrimp. Our waiter didn’t notice or didn’t care. We had to bring to his attention at which point he would try to correct. I’m sure good help is hard to find, and it shows. Our waiter gave us the feeling that he was hoping we would just leave him alone. Buffet: Better than average. I detest most buffetts but this one was good. Good abundant selection, good variety. Ate here often for quick satisfying meal, mostly breakfast but also lunch an dinner a few times. Clean and well presented choices. Specialty dining, very good. Chops food and service fantastic. Great appetizers, bacon, shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, bone in rib eye, filet and desert. Top notch food, good wine selection and great professional service. Ate at Giovanni’s table. Also very good but not great. Kids really liked Johnny Rockets. Entertainment was world class. Great shows, talented staff, enjoyed main theater almost every night. Comedians, hypnotists and the ever-talented singers and dancers very enjoyable. Ice show was fun. Enjoyed casino, every night. Not enough poker. Went to yoga class, used steam room, sauna. Kids hung out at teen club, nice athletic activity center, rock climbing wall, plenty to do. Pools nice but never enough chairs. Went to cigar lounge, enjoyed a quality cigar. We played bingo, lost. My son won the Star Wars trivia contest. Also, won 2nd place in archery contest. The itinerary was out of this world. Gibraltar (wife attacked by apes—she’s ok) , Alicante, Spain (beach, reat tapas and gelato winding through narrow city streets), Mallorca overnight (beach, party like a Mediterranean), Sardinia (great coffee in historic villa) Cadiz (walled city, beach and cathedral) Lisbon’s, city tour on foot) Good value trip in exotic, less traveled western Mediterranean beach cities. Read Less

Mostly smooth sailing except in North Atlantic. Ship clean & maintained. Excellent, quick service. Cabin & shower small as usual. Virtual Balcony was very nice. Excellent entertainment (although focused toward Brits-some humor not understood). Some problems with shore excursions - late tram in Lisbon, poor audio equipment, hard to understand guides, long walk from/to bus in Pisa. Fun trivia games, especially with Canadian Emily who spoke very clearly. Wish we had an extra day in Rome. Some coordination problems with disembarkation at Vigo-long wait. Transfer bus to airport was stuffy-no air while waiting to leave. Some issues with ship design - only one women’s toilet in gym; automatic door difficult to close. Some lockers too high to reach. Jacuzzi in gym sometimes closed; no jets, not hot enough. Jacuzzi in Solarium no jets only bubbles. Need more variety and more healthy options in Promenade Cafe. Corner of Schooner Bar was stinky but better after notifying Guest Services. Trivia/quizzes need to be in larger venue, especially on sea days. Read Less

Embarkation was fast and easy. Had a great time on a wonderful ship. Dining was great as always and the Diamond Lounge staff were fantastic. Ports were beautiful. we only did 4 shore excursions, Santiago de Compostela, Fatima, sailed the Santa Maria and Windsor Castle. Ice shows were great, and the few entertainment shows we went to were also great. We spent a lot of time in the gym and it was always clean and easy to use. Good equipment and way better than Anthem's. We also rarely used the elevators and it was a great help when you are trying to keep the weight off with all that good food! Disembarking was easy as pie, but it was a nightmare when it came to the crew doing there job getting us to the right bus for our excursion transfer to the airport. There was only one guy trying to give directions in the Alhambra Lounge. He finally said just go, and look for your bus, there should be someone outside with a sign, there was not, but we made it. Read Less

Cunard Queen Elizabeth 7 Day Iberia cruise October 2016 We are experienced cruisers, but have been ‘resting’ since 2012. It a bit long and rambling I’m afraid. This was our second Cunard cruise, but were classed as first timers as there are no records of our first cruise on QE2 in 1991, a 2-day voyage to nowhere, a prize in a competition. Been lucky in competitions, Paris and Vienna and 2 luxury hotel breaks in the UK as well! As always we travelled down the day before and stay in a hotel near Southampton, in this case the Holiday Inn near Winchester, a modern clean hotel with good service we have used before. As we had a 12.30 check in, so we had a little retail therapy at M&S at Hedge End, which we managed to squeeze in the cases, before we set off for the Mayflower terminal. We arrived around 11.20, the car was quickly unloaded and we made our way to check in. We were in a Princess Grill suite, and were directed to the Suite check where we were quickly checked in, and directed straight on board, passing through security on the way. Up to our suite on deck 6, no cases, but I wasn’t surprised considering how fast we boarded. Loved the room, we had seen one on a ship visit, and viewed some videos online, And it was just right for us, doubt we will ever bother to go up to Queens Grill grade one. The dreaded Pol Acker was there, and put in the fridge for safety. We bought it home to use when we have unwanted guests! Lunch was at one o’clock, so we went to the Queens Lounge for a soft drink (my wife cannot tolerate alcohol), and started wondering what sort of table we would be getting, we had requested a ‘quite’ table for two, and had suggested one we had seen in photo’s of the restaurant. The Princess grill opened, the Maitre' d greeted us and showed us to the table we had asked for, what a result! We soon met the rest of the team, and we were ready to enjoy the service! All I can say that the food and service we received that week for far superior to any we have received on our other cruises. As new comers to Cunard, we did not notice the menu cuts, and always found some thing to please us, although the menus in the suite sometimes did not coincide with the restaurant! Although I tend to go for vegetarian options, I do appreciate a well-cooked meal, and the tenderloin beef was the best I have ever had, the vegetarian scotches egg and stuffed pepper were also excellent. The whole team in the restaurant were excellent, the only problem I had was a vegetarian spring roll that nearly set my mouth on fire, and it was so hot, a change was quickly offered, but I carried on! My wife prefers small portions of food and Tio our waiter and the chefs really catered for her requests. As for the entertainment, the dance show was OK, but not really our scene, on the other hand Allan Stewart was fantastic, we had seen him before, but it was either new material, or we had forgotten his act! Seeing comments on some reviews about the condition of QE, she looked OK to us, yes, there is rust in places, but it must be a nightmare to keep her ship shape. The bay was a bit bumpy, so we took a Sturgeon when we got up, and it was no problem. And so to the ports, we have done all the tours we want to do, so it’s just DIY these days. First port was Vigo, on a Sunday! A quick walk round, a few shops were open and a few Euros spent on presents for our grand children, then back to the ship. Lisbon the next day, and although we were fairly close, it was to far for us to walk as we both have slight mobility problems, so as we had been before, decided to enjoy the ship instead. Lunch in the Courtyard was memorable that day. Then Porto, a shuttle in, but it dropped us in a completely different area from where we had been before, so we did a little exploring and shopping, then back to the ship for lunch. We often used to dine ashore for lunch, but no way were we going to miss the PG for lunch! Back across the bay and on to our last port, Cherbourg, which was new to us. Again a shuttle in, and it was market day which we found quite interesting, and we had made quite a few purchases there, its somewhere we would like to go to again sometime. The shuttle bus also called at a shopping centre, which we had a look in. There was a Carrefour there, so a few food purchase were made there as well. Disembarkation like boarding was a dream. We had an 8.15 time, and had to assemble in the Britannia restaurant deck 3. A full breakfast was served in PG, our waiter would not believe that on our last cruise on Celebrity we were given paper plates and cups in the disembarkation lounge. We docked exactly on time, self disembark was scheduled for 7.15, but I saw people walking off at 7.05. We went to the Britannia about 7.45 and newspapers, snacks and drinks were available, we were called at 8.05 and soon located our cases and collected our car, and were well on our way home by 8.30. Children, dress code and smoking, those emotive subjects! We only saw 2 children on board, both under fives I would guess. Smoking, never saw it or smelt it. The dress code was well followed, just the odd person who think the rules don’t apply to them, but that goes on any line or ship! After 2 disappointing trips on Celebrity, this cruise really restored our faith in cruising. One or two small niggles, but they can’t have been that bad, as I can’t remember what they were! Read Less

Good way to get home after touring in England, Good length of cruise. Really enjoyed the cruise in general, the only negative was the Indian visa requirement, don't know why Princes continue to include India, when it is such a pain to acquire visa and it costs so much for a single day. On the up side: 1/ The inclusion of the Share Restaurant was a real bonus, initially thought the $39 a head charge was a bit high, but after visiting quite happy to go again, the food was superb, and service was excellent. 2/ The gym size was the best I've seen on Princess, never had a problem getting access to equipment. At first staff seemed new, but quickly got into the swing of it and made the trip a pleasure to self indulge in to many drinks and nibbles.Thankfully the gym work limited it to only 2 or 3 kg over when I got home. Read Less

Oceania's Marina has the best quality food of the 8 cruise lines we traveled on, but there are major problems in entertainment and excursion policies. We were booked in a Concierge cabin and dined 6 times in specialty restaurants. All served superb food, especially Jacques. All pax get 4 free reservations and our Concierge was able to arrange two extra dinings. The 4pm tea service and violin concertos were excellent. The service quality in all areas and room were outstanding -- no complaints about the ship or its personnel. It was my 2nd cruise on the Marina. However, Miami HQ has major policy flaws. Passengers (pax) are given a choice of on-board-credits or free excursions; however, the OBC can only be used after departure. All of our excursion requests were fully booked by other pre-cruise pax and the prices are about 25% more expensive than other cruise lines. If you book five pre-cruise excursions, the price is reasonable. HQ simply doesn't arrange enough excursions to meet demand. To use our OBC we booked two $193 massages and paid for tips. Other OBC pax bought liquor or items in the boutiques. You should not select the OBC option. There is only one show at 9:45 pm every night and that is past our bed-time for early next day events. The reason is dining only starts at 6:30 pm and specialty restaurants also offer 7:30 and 8:30 options. On average dining took 2 hours 45 minutes, so there can only be one late show. All but one other cruise line we traveled on had an early show that Oceania refuses to offer. This voyage started in Southampton thru Copenhagen. Since we couldn't book excursions, we arranged our own thru cruise critic blog or per trip advisor recommenda-tions. We visited most ports before and enjoyed all of them. The lectures by a Professor were academic, but didn't help much for independent travelers. We never knew what berth we were docked in or that free shuttles were provided to city centers in Zeebrugge, Goteberg, and Copenhagen. There were continual problems with accessing online wifi especially in late afternoon. I used the fitness center and group lessons. On my prior Marina trip the fitness classes were too crowded, but not this time. Read Less

Had never been on Regent before wanted to try it for the first time. We Cruise a lot on Silver seas , yachts of seaborn and Oceania. Typically I prefer a smaller ship of under 1000 psgrs or close to 600 to 400 passengers. There were many areas of concern and disappointment for us while we were on this cruise for over three weeks. In summary we had issues with the main dining room seating as well as consistent service. There were concerns in the fitness center and spa. The men's hot sauna was not functioning most the time unless you went to the front desk and ask them to reset the device in the sauna. The cardio equipment in the fitness center is quite dated old and on several days was not clean. The gym is configured in a way that makes it feel very crowded although there is a group exercise room nearby that could easily accommodate additional equipment. At the beginning of the three-week cruise I asked the fitness center if they had music that plays in the fitness center and they told me it was not working. I asked if it would be possible to have it repaired and they said they were looking into it. They did have some music working in the fitness center and spa the last few days of the cruise. The pool for many days iwas basically not usable because the quality of the water in the pool was visibly poor and dirty (dark green color with dirt covering the pool bottom) which looked as though they were not maintaining the swimming pool for their guest Even the two whirlpools they had by the pool were Set with temperatures that were excessively hot and the Jets were inoperative making a hot tub experience less than average . Room service was inconsistent sometimes it would take close to an hour to receive a room service order and once we did not even receive our requested order . One breakfast was delivered through room service and the server did not even offered to set the table other than just place a tray in our room . We found it challenging the first part of our cruise to get a table for two around 8 o'clock in the evening in compass Rose without there being a long waiting list even though we visibly could see tables for four or six standing open but we were not offered those tables when we walked in. On the others cruise ships that are accustomed to, we've never had a problem being seated immediately in the main dining room for table of two. The first 10 days of our cruise we were on the concierge level and our room was nice a refrigerator did not work initially until we brought it to their attention. The next 13 days were spent in a deluxe balcony room on the seventh deck, we could hear our neighbors talk clearly when we were seated in our room we could hear their TV playing, which appears that the walls to these rooms are very thin. You need to bring earplugs ! I found it quite strange and towards the end annoying, that whenever you would sit down in the veranda for breakfast or lunch you would have often times 3 ,4 or 5 waiters coming and asking you what you would like to drink before you received anything. Another very odd thing about the cruise is when you would go to the afternoon tea they combined trivia with the tea, so it was not a very quiet inviting atmosphere unless you We're participating in the trivia games . Our cabin attendance were great and we always had very clean state rooms The specialty restaurants serve delicious food and the ambience is quite good with great service the only drawback is your limit it to two times during your cruise . I suggest if you change rooms during your voyage to coordinate carefully with hotel manager. We received a letter the night before we changed rooms clearly stating the procedure but what happened the next day was contary to what they told us they were going to do for us, which ended up making us frustrated. I asked if I could review this procedure with management and reception desk never followed up with me. I left the ship disappointed! Read Less

We wanted to do the German Rivers Cruise and this lived up to our expectations with the towns visited. We have now cruised on Braema twice and find this ship is 'homely' and has a good atmosphere. As always the crew are brilliant, the food good. Our frustration surrounds the fact that the ship was extended and more cabins added, which was clearly a commercial decision to improve the cost effectiveness of running this ship. The fact that the Neptune Lounge was not redesigned/ extended is a major weakness. Port Talks on sea days are a nightmare as you have to be up very early to get a seat in the lounge. Watching these in the cabin on the television is a VERY POOR substitute. We are not saying NEVER AGAIN - but we will be considering it very carefully and the itinerary will have to be very good. Over and Out Read Less

We have been on all of Regent's ships and had wanted to do this itinerary in the past, but dates and pricing never lined up. We were very pleased to be able to do back-to-back 10 day cruises through the British Isles and over to France and Spain. The ship is very comfortable, but the staff is the best reason to sail with Regent. Every member of the crew is just as hospitable and friendly as possible. They couldn't be better. We really enjoyed this itinerary and particularly Mont St. Michel, Cork, Bordeaux. Every stop had something memorable, though. We went on excursions most days, but sometimes just took the ship-provided shuttle into town and wandered. Some excursions were much more than we expected. In Belfast, for example, we went on a tour that included the Titanic Museum. That wasn't very impressive. However, a tour of the dry dock was fantastic - largely due to a guide who was part historian, part actress and totally enthusiastic. The Blarney Castle was interesting, but you really should be prepared. The Blarney Stone is at the top of the castle and to kiss it you have to be on your back and leaning over the edge - not a good plan for older folks. The stairway up is quite a challenge. It's steep and, in several places, both of my shoulders touched the walls and I'm not overly large. It was quite strenuous for anyone with mobility issues. In Torre Lorizags, we saw an incredible collection of mint-condition Rolls Royces. You have to see to believe. Really fantastic. While in Southhampton for a day at the mid-point of the cruise, we took a personal tour to Winchester. Winchester College and Winchester Cathedral are both incredible. Finally, our favorite stop was Alnwick Castle. Parts of Harry Potter were filmed there and two Christmas specials of Downton Abbey were filmed in this castle, which remains an active home for the Lord and Lady. It is truly spectacular. Lecturers from the Smithsonian Institute really enhanced all of the ports. Food and service were superb, as always. You just can't go wrong on a Regent Cruise. Read Less

Boarding was excellent. Great service, staff were amazing. Really great shows and entertainment. Lots to do for children. The only thing I would recommend is a ocean view balcony as not a really nice bar were you can sit and watch the sea go by. Most things on this ship are internal. The ship was kept very clean. The cabins are really nice with lots of storage, the safe is small. American and European sockets. We eat in the American icon grill every night prebooked late dining, the food was very good and the menu change every night. There was also a set menu that didn't change. The ship was easy to get around with everything being internal you could see where you were from the lifts. You just have to remember boardwalk is deck six back of ship. The gym was fab, lots of machines, the spa area very nice and the solarium lovely with lots and lots of beds and chairs. Loved the rising tide bar was very nice to go up and down while having drinks with friends. Read Less