Atlas Ocean Voyages Reviews

The ship, crew, and itinerary for the cruise were spectacular. It was the perfect way to see Greece and we could not have been more pleased with Atlas Ocean Voyages, our ship, and the beyond friendly crew. We will be back.

The Mediterrean was beautiful. The ship was great. Two things about ship; firstly, the WiFi was problematic. Secondly, no self serve launderette. Those two issues weren’t major. Food was very good- but not over the top. It’s quite nice to have all meals alfresco on aft deck. Service was exceptional; both ding room and room attendants. Any and all questions/ were dealt with quickly by staff. Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, very crowded, but it’s summer travel season on the Med. Turkey was astounding. Food adore at all ports, was terrific. Shire tours were educational and informative all ports. Hotel accommodations pre and pist were great, but watch out for sone cabbies. Sone “work off their meter.” Not particularly a good deal for tourists! Trip exceeded most expectations.

The ship and stateroom were spacious and very well appointed. The crew and food and drink were outstanding. At times the service felt a little too solicitous however that's not a criticism as that's likely just a personal level of discomfort with being waiting on with such constant attention. By and large the excursions were strong, with excellent guides, at least on the tours we took as some other folks had issues with less than professional guides. The evening concert in Ephesus was a true highlight not to be missed. Just a couple of issues...our itinerary was changed due to "high winds" resulting in changed ports and an excursion originally scheduled for 7.5 hours to turn into a 12 hour day. Given that this ship navigates the waters to Antarctica, there was some question as to whether this change was really necessary. Secondly, the company's owner invited 50 or so close friends and relatives who appeared to have special excursions and events just for themselves. This led some of us to feel a bit like 2nd class passengers.

Some great aspects and some highly disappointing aspects. Ship and crew were impressive. Tours and port changes, communication, and corp group overshadowing were disappointing and problematic.

It was an amazing and wonderful experience!

My husband and I had never been on a cruise because we worried about crowds and impersonal service. Atlas Ocean Voyages World Navigator was perfect for us. The ship was small, cabins spacious and service high quality and highly personalized. We thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the trip including food and beverage service, excursion options and staff and guests. We will do it again.

Wonderful destinations, staff polite and very helpful, the ship size, facilities, food and beverage and presentation was exceptional. The included ATLAS guests only personal excursion to enjoy a night experience of an orchestral performance at the ancient Library of Celsus, Ephesus was breathtaking. Highly recommended.

The staff was absolutely wonderful! Boat new, modern, and beautiful. Rooms are a little larger than most cruise lines and comfortable. will definitely be going back.

First and foremost - our Avoya travel agent, Julie, was excellent. Top notch service and responsiveness. Even post-cruise as she chases some cancelled excursion refunds for us - she's always been there. The good: • Embarking and disembarking – easy, quick, and no issues with luggage. Only 98 passengers on board so I think that helps, but we had no waits, no lines, nothing for the entire 12 nights. • The stateroom – incredible. Horizon cabin and having the extra balcony space inside the cabin was awesome. The bathroom and shower – top tier! Cabin steward was awesome and we got into a great rhythm with him after a day or so. Water bottles were always filled and mini-fridge was always stocked. • Dining was also excellent. Our first two nights of dining room service were a bit rocky (walked out at one point, but were roped back in by the dining manager), but we moved to Ruben for the remainder of the journey and were never disappointed. Eddison at 7Aft was also excellent as well as Sanjay at Paula’s Pantry. Dinner menus changed nightly and the overwhelming majority of the food was excellent. A few misses, but always corrected. Breakfast and lunch are buffets, but on a much smaller scale than large cruise lines. Food was consistently fresh and at the right temperature. They had some awesome soups and the live cooking station had some excellent dishes, too. Burgers at 7Aft – excellent! Dinner at 7Aft was equally impressive. Note that I was unable to come close to finishing that 35oz Tomahawk steak (that they added a lobster tail to…)! The desserts may have actually been the highlight though. On the galley tour we met the pastry chef – he does an amazing job. • The excursions were very well-planned and excellent. Whether they were walking, via bus, or boat – always excellent guides and facilities. Most ports were tender ports and the process was extremely efficient. We did do many ports on our own though, too. With that being said – the ports of call were incredible. So many unique islands mixed in with the big stops (e.g. Rome, Florence). • Alone time! At 50% capacity we felt like we had the ship almost to ourselves at times. We may have been the only ones using the fitness studio! The pool – virtually there alone. Dining room felt like it was just ours at times. • Hugo’s “Tequila” performance!! The crew talent show was a highlight - that’s all I’m saying! We weren’t on this cruise for entertainment so if that’s your thing you might be disappointed. I think Atlas is fairly clear on the entertainment options, but I have seen other reviews with complaints. • The crew! They all know your name within a day or so. Friendly and helpful – even when things went wrong. The bad: • Atlas shoreside operations and overall organizational issues. Pre-cruise issues with paperwork gone “missing” (seen other reviews on that)…. Credit card info “missing”… cancelled excursion refunds. There were times I was just left shaking my head in disbelief, but they always were very apologetic and worked to make things right. And that mostly had to do with the fact that they royally screwed up our anniversary celebration. Travel agent had it noted what day we were celebration, but ended up getting another note in our cabin because they stated that information was not on file. So after arranging everything through Reception – they blew it. It never happened and I was pissed – it was going to be a surprise for my wife so I didn’t even mention it to her until…. The phone rings in our stateroom around 10PM asking we “we didn’t show up in the dining room” for our celebration?! I hate when things get screwed up and they try to pin it on the customer. They asked to bring it to our stateroom right then and there and I politely declined. Sure as shit there’s knocking on our door a bit later and that only got me going more. The Reception agent ended up finding us the next day and owned his error by putting the wrong location in the system (we were at 7Aft). But it’s small ship with a handful of passengers… we had reservations for 7Aft so they could have easily found us…. • Along with that 50% capacity came cancelled excursions that were pre-booked. They also won’t refund you until after the end of the cruise. We were only partially refunded and after contacting Atlas were advised that “only your travel agent can contact Customer Relations to fix…”. • TV & wi-fi had spotty service at times. I think the longest lines I saw the entire time were people at reception dealing with wi-fi issues! Other things that were offline – the pool for a day and the hot tubs for more than one day. The wall unit in the gym was also broke at one point. • If onboard shopping is your thing you will be disappointed. That’s not our thing either (we did enough damage in port), but the ship store basically has limited inventory. Since the ship is in port most of the time the store is also not open due to maritime regs, etc. Wasn’t a big deal for us, but I wonder if Atlas is missing a revenue opportunity there? Note also that if you have any onboard credit that it can’t be used for merchandise. Overall may have been rated a 5 star experience, but the issues with having to resend documents over and over, the anniversary debacle, and now chasing refunds post-cruise definitely brings the review down a notch.

The cruise was great. All the crew were friendly and always had a smile. The ports of call were very nice and the excursions were interesting.

We enjoyed every aspect of this trip. The food was varied, well prepared, and plentiful. The ship was beautiful and everything was conveniently near by. The staterooms were well appointed, had enough space, a very comfortable bed with nice sitting areas in room and on the balcony. The staff were unfailingly courteous and helpful. Destinations were well chosen and the excursions that we went on had great guides. Really, everything was first class and we are considering future trips with AOV. The only issue we had was involved the Wi Fi constraints.

I still have a smile on my face.

We have traveled a lot over the past 10 years. Atlas exceeded all of our expectations: coordination of travel plans and hotels, outings, food, atmosphere and above all else, the staff (from top to bottom). Oh, and did I say, " 16 straight days of sunshine." We can not say enough but actions are better than words: we have already booked 2 more cruises.

Really enjoyed this cruise ... visited Ireland, Scotland and Norwegian Fjords. Lovely memories

The ship and its crew were fabulous.

Check-in in Nice was quick and efficient, and the cabin upgrade were a nice surprise for me. The Wi-Fi situation was horrible. Not only was I charged for 3 G of usage practically every other day, but it was spotty and since I work as an online education consultant, having little or no Wi-Fi was not acceptable. Since this was an "epicurean" cruise, I had high hopes for the food but I was really disappointed. You would think that Atlas Cruises would hire Cordon Bleu or James Beard graduates to staff their galleys, but I suppose it was asking too much. Some of the "theme" nights (French, Italian, Iberian, Greek et al) were OK, but I had better food on my onshore excursions. Finally, I was VERY pissed off with the front desk at Atlas Cruises on board the ship. I had told them 48 hours previously that I had to disembark in Civitavecchia and fly home for a family emergency - my 94-year-old mother was seriously ill and this was probably it. No problem, they said. We will have a car for you. I checked again the day before we docked. Again, they said it was handled. Guess what? The day we dock, there was no car waiting for me, and the travel/tour organizer said she never received any word about it because - get this - I didn't fill out the necessary form for an airport transfer!! Not only that, but they had the gall to charge me $150 (in euros) for the last minute airport transfer! I had to pay out of pocket, got no receipt so I probably won't be able to claim it when I file my travel insurance reimbursement. At least I got home in time to see Mom before she died; otherwise, I probably would not be able to stand it. Given all of the above, I will probably not use Atlas Cruises again. This was unacceptable to me.

Excellent: cabin, staff, ports, excursions, tendering, zodiac explorations, restaurant appearance, front desk helpfulness. Very Good: breakfasts and lunches, menu, wait staff, upper deck grill. Food was not always hot when it was served. Meat sometimes overcooked. Improve: entertainment, piano player/singer.

The food and drink are so good they should make the fitness center bigger. It is hard to fit four people in it at the same time. The crew, from deck hands to officers, were fantastic.

We enjoyed our tour -- the staff was friendly and caring, including for dietary requirements (Gluten-free). Food was generally very good, but breakfast and lunch never seemed to vary, and that got monotonous. There was a lack of communication between the cruise director/captain/excursion director and the passengers -- it was frustrating when times changed w/o warning, excursions changed w/o announcement, etc. Some of the serving staff needed add'l training; incorrect food and beverages happened with some frequency. Cabin was clean and well-maintained, as were the public areas.

Beautiful new ship with only 119 passengers (200max). Upgraded to Journey Suite, great & pleasant staff, & nice fellow passengers. This was the most relaxing cruise ever. A change from our usual Viking cruises. Both are excellent, different with each having benefits .

Experienced a very peaceful cruise from Nice to Lisbon. Yacht was not at capacity and was very quiet. Very little to do on board the ship - which we liked. Days in port were typically long. Ship excursions had good value for cost. Was it perfect? No….Atlas is a young company and can improve in areas. Would we sail with them again? Yes?

This was a lovely itinerary and as usual the exceptional staff on an Atlas ship was exceptional. They always go above and beyond and asssure all of your needs are met! The highlight was being able to attend the Monaco Grand Prix as our ship provided transportation.