Our friend selected this cruise for his first cruise and first trip to Europe. We are faithful Celebrity cruisers so I use that cruise line as my baseline. The price of this cruise included the cruise cost, airfare, and hotels on arrival day and day of disembarkation. The Diadema is a fairly new ship that accommodates about 5000 people. People are able to embark and disembark at any of the ports, I believe. For Europeans with families this probably makes it a fairly cost effective cruise. That being said, there were way more people on this ship than on Celebrity. And there were way too many kids. The atmosphere just seemed chaotic. Kids on the dance floor at 11 pm is not my idea of a good time, for example. There are no adult only activities on this ship.

The ship is very nice and clean. Cabins are only cleaned once a day. The food was mediocre at best and the choices at the buffet were rather limited compared to other ships. The staff did their jobs competently, but were not the friendliest. We are used to the “welcome back” and smiles that the Celebrity crew provides at all times. Our waiter in the dining room was great, however.

A bit of advice if you are booking on the Diadema: beware of the 9th deck. The buffet and pool are over some of the cabins and the noise from these areas is unbearable at times. Chairs were scraping the deck above at all hours. Better to book on a lower deck unless you enjoy being awake half the night. Read more