Atlas Ocean Voyages - World Navigator Reviews

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.

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.

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.

Outstanding cruise line and ship. Everything was beyond expectations. There is only one suggestion; a cruise line of this quality should offer full internet at no charge especially in this digital age when so many times access is necessary, sometimes even critical. Otherwise can't say enough good things - 4.75 stars, 5 if unlimited internet included.

We got what we expected. It was our second cruise and the staff and service were excellent. Only drawback was the bus to port Tarragona. The first bus was too small and we had to wait 1 1/2 hrs. for the next one. We enjoyed that it was a cuisine based cruise. Bobbie and Peter were very good and entertaining.

Once aboard the ship, the staterooms were lovely and the team members were exceptional. The level of service was top notch. The registration process was arduous and inefficient, requiring multiple copies of information be submitted on paper and online. Shore excursions were not appropriately described. They were wonderful but did not match the descriptions provided.

The ship is very classy, food excellent and service very good. We complained about the treacherous on/off ramp and it was changed. Fellow passengers were easy to talk with and friendly. Yes, I would cruise with this company again given a deal.

Everything good the crew’s and their managers take care passengers very details make sure we have what we need