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Renaissance Cruises

MS R Seven

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:John Pappenheim
# previous cruises: 4
Date of Trip: April 11, 2001
Itinerary: Mediterranean

Renaissance cruise lines does it first rate. We have sailed on RCCL 3 times and Renaissance is Superior. Medium ship by todays standards (680 pass) We had a room with a balcony that was very spacious. The ship was EXTREMELY clean. The food was better than on RCCL. Nice cozy casino. Open dining is the way to go. You will soon see many other cruise lines going this way. DRAWBACKS-What entertainment there was, was terrible. The singers and dancers were good. Magician was boring. An accomplished harmonica player (not our style). And the duo who played in the dining room and lounge only knew about 25 songs. It is like traveling with only 2 CD's in your car! DO NOT get the charter air package. OMNI air was the worst flight(s) of our lives. No service, food was terrible, and the staff was rude.

The public areas were all very nice. Very large library. An internet room with 6 computers open 24 hours. The spa was very nice sized. The Dining room(s) were all very nice. 2 of the dining rooms require reservations (no extra charge). The main dining room was very large and getting seated was very quick. The lounge on the 10th floor was never too crowded. We always were able to get a seat right at the front window when sailing out of port.

Food was very good to excellent. They only serve US beef which is very calming with all of the Mad cow going on. The buffet was quite good as well. We had breakfast and lunch there often. They had a BBQ which served Burgers, Dogs, and a specialty everyday. Quite good! The pizza parlor was also quite good. They do cook a very good pizza. 2 restaurants/dining rooms required reservations. Italian and The Grill. Both were very good, but the menu only changed once during the cruise. The main dining room is very large and the menu changed nightly. All of the food was very good. The also served canapes between 5-6 and 10-11PM. All were very good also.

The cabin was very nice. We had and outside with a balcony. I recommend the balcony if you are on a long trip and have some sea days. Very nice to sit out there and enjoy a glass of wine with your significant other. Plenty of closet space. I am a good size person, 5'10", 230 lbs, and had no troubles with the size of the shower. The rooms were VERY quite. We never heard another passenger when our door was closed. The only drawback.....the bed was very hard.

This is where Renaissance lacks big time. The entertainment was horrible. A magician who had no presence on stage what-so-ever. The top act was an accomplished harmonica player from Great Britain. The singers and dancers were good. They had a piano player who played quite well. He was mostly in the main shopping area. Although he really shouldn't sing!! Also there was a duo who played at various locations including the dining room. They were good but only knew about 25 songs....over and over and over again.

We liked the casino. Small but enough for the amount of players. The pool side was very nice. Lots of room. While ashore, we NEVER took a ships tour, VERY expensive. there were 4 of us and we usually hired a cab for the day of took the train. MUCH cheaper over all. Example- in Palma de Malloca, we hire a cab for the day. Went to the glass factory, pearl factory, Caves del Drac and then to the complete other side of the island for lunch in Valldemosa. Total cost was $100 for all 4. Just to tour half day to the caves was $40 per person! The train to Rome was $15/person round trip in a first class cabin. This also included free use of the metro and buses in Rome for the day. You really have to ride the Metro to get around Rome efficiently. To have a tour bus drop you off in Rome for the day was $80/person!! Ports of call were Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Villefranche, Livorno (We took a train to Florence and Pisa $8 R/T), Civitavecchia (We took the above train to Rome both days), Naples (we took a hydrofoil to Capri, $10 each. The ships tour was over $100 each for the same), Palermo Sicily, Malta (Very nice island and friendly people), Millatzo Sicily (We were headed to Tunisia but hit one hell of a storm and got turned back), Mahon (a Baleric island very near to Palma de Mallorca. Our favorite island, and a beautiful port as well), and finally back to Barcelona.

I would have to say that the average age was 50-65 years. My wife and I are 30 somethings but still managed to meet some wonderful people. The ship is small enough to make friends but not so small that you see the same people everywhere. It is non-smoking which is very nice and no kids.