My thoughts about my cruise after being back for around 10 days.
Summary of my Mediterranean cruise.
I enjoyed the cruise apart from the fact that I was ill for part of it. It made me realise how many medical staff there are aboard a large cruise ship & it made me feel safer for any cruises I go on in the future.
Organised & pre-booked tours ashore.
This was possibly the one thing that pissed me off about this trip. I had researched the cruise & the places it called before booking the cruise. The only reason I took the cruise was to see the places it called & to take the trips ashore that it offered, I had paid a lot of extra money to take them.
On this cruise, 75% of the shore trips that I booked were cancelled due to not enough people wanting to do them. I was offered different tours in a different language but these pre-booked tours were the reason for this trip. I felt as if I'd been conned into doing this cruise, I certainly wouldn't have booked it if I had known the trips wouldn't take place.
I also question the reason for the trips being cancelled. I was told it was because there were too few English-speaking people but on every trip I did, there were English speakers. Passengers from countries like Germany & Spain were also complaining & asking for the trips in English as they all spoke English as well as their native language. The guides that I had on my trips all spoke perfect English but apart from one trip, the one to Noli & Finalborgo, they would not relay any information in anything but French or Italian.
The tour I did to Civita de Bagnoregio was sold to me as a moderate walking tour. It was not & it was too much for me to do. This should not have been sold to anyone with walking difficulties. I had to be assisted by a kind lady walking past me to get back to the coach as the tour guides had no interest in helping me.
In general, the tours were good apart from this & I would have enjoyed them very much if they had been in English.
Food on board ship.
Breakfast & lunch.
I hate & find it difficult to go to a buffet style restaurant. Walking with a stick whilst trying to carry a tray of food & a drink is hard enough without having to avoid people clamouring to get to the buffet. Finding a table is really hard work & the buffet is so spread out that you have to walk a long way, carrying your tray to get your food, drink & a seat.
I found the quality of the food in the buffets on this trip was very poor, on previous trips it was good. I was told that there was disabled seating & that the staff in the restaurant would help me to get my food & drink. I didn't see any disabled seating & the staff at the buffets, on this cruise, were terrible. Most ignored me & anyone else & most of them looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but at the buffet serving people. On several occasions, I asked for food to be told they couldn't get it or it was not available. I was even told by the person making omelettes I could have cheese & ham but nothing else even though there was a selection of ingredients in front of him to make an omelette with.
Dinner.
The staff in the restaurant that I had dinner in were very good, they were pleasant helpful & couldn't do enough for me or other people dining there. The food itself I thought was very ordinary & the choices limited, it seemed that every day there were several pasta & fish options but limited meat options. There were very few vegetables served with any of the meals & I thought that the majority of the food, whilst looking good, tasted quite bland. That as they say, is down to personal preference, but of the three cruises I have been on in the last eight months the food on this one was well below the standard of the previous ones.
Entertainment.
I quite enjoyed the majority of the entertainment onboard this cruise but I do wonder why there is so little of it during the day. I do feel, & this has been the case on the last three cruises that a lot of the entertainment was quite childish with too many TV-style game shows being held to entertain the passengers. On my cruise across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, the entertainment was fantastic & there was always something going on.
Shops.
The shops onboard are just a nuisance. The ships are designed in such a way that to get anywhere you have to walk through the shopping area. The shops sell brand-name goods at discount prices but you can buy all these goods cheaper ashore. Because of the laws on selling things in different countries, the shops are always shut whilst docked anyway, as are the casinos because of gambling laws.
Staff.
In general, the staff on this trip were quite good. Some of them were very good & couldn't do enough for the passengers. Some of the staff, however, were lazy, didn't want to be there, were very poorly trained & probably shouldn't be employed in any sort of service industry.
The guides on this trip & the people selling shore trips were very poor, apart from one. This was the worst cruise I have taken as far as guides were concerned. I normally tip all of the guides on my tours very well, on this tour only one of them received a tip & some of them should have received a written complaint about the way they looked after or organised the trips.
Why do Cruise Lines Keep Your Passport?
On returning I decided to investigate why on the cruises I have been on, the ship's crew took my passport. Now I know it seems like a good idea & at least it stopped me from losing it or having it stolen. I didn't need it to go ashore at any of the places I went to.
A cruise line may keep your passport for the duration of your cruise or certain segments to make it easier for immigration to check passports when travelling between different countries. Immigration officials will often come onboard cruise ships to check documentation & the process of keeping the passports centrally makes it much easier & faster for the cruise line & passengers.
Would I take another cruise?
Yes, I would take another cruise, probably sooner rather than later. I will however now start to be able to decide which cruises are better for me.
I had already worked out how to avoid many of the cruises that are overcrowded with children. Take a cruise outside school holiday times, & look for adult-only cruises or ones that children do not travel free on.
Entertainment is always down to personal choice but I have found that the bigger the ship the better the entertainment. Bigger ships mean more passengers which means bigger acts can be booked.
The food on cruises in general has been excellent, this cruise was an exception, but I hate buffet-style restaurants. I will look for cruises that offer table service for all meals. I only eat in the included restaurants so I can not say what the quality of food in the restaurants you have to pay extra for is like, but I have looked & many of them seem expensive for what they are. I have also been surprised that on some ships snack-type food or pizzas & burgers are included in the price whilst on others they are not. Check what is included before you book.