I'm interested in a cruise on the M/S Gemini that leaves Venice and visits both Turkey and the Greek Isles before ending in Athens (7-day). The price is decent and it appears the ship is a rather small, refurbished vessel (800 passengers). It appears the line only has been in operation for maybe two years.

I have not found any online reviews from past customers. Although it is a Spanish line (also known as Quail) much of their marketing material is in German. So I even searched Google Spain and Google Germany for customer reviews--found nothing.

Nothing comes up on CruiseCritic.com for either Quail or Happy Cruises.

Has anyone had any experience with this line? Any useful information?

The M/S Gemini appears to be a Star Cruises ship that has been chartered to Quail Cruises. You can find a link to the Spanish web site on cybercruises.com. Because the website has no English link, I would be concerned about ship's announcements and staff being exclusively Spanish as I am barely conversant in South American Spanish and have found that Iberian Spanish is not always the same.

Here's your ship. I've sailed on her when she was Star Cruises.

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpa.../sr_gemini.asp

Actually, the ship was sold to the Spaniards in Dec 2008.

So, you can check out the SHIP, but there's no info on the new company's service ON the ship. The ship is perfectly fine. No issues. The rest of it - mmm, I dunno.

Bottom line - you will get what you paid for. Pay peanuts - get monkeys.

Thanks for the replies.

Since no one has first-hand knowledge, I'm becoming concerned that this might not be the best option.

I have been told most European cruiselines will do on baord annoucments in multiple languages. I would hope that the language is not an issue. As to the Spansih only web pages, try using Google tranlate.

If you do not speak any Spanish, it would be an interesting adevnture. No different than going to Mexico or Asia where the majority of the people don't speak English. However, at the tourist area, they all have people who speaks a little bit of English. Unless the ship is catering to 100% local business, then you may run into language problem.

My wife and I have been on a cruise with Quail/Happy Cruises. There's usually a handful of English-speakers (we were 12 out of 499 passengers), but all anouncements are done in both Spanish and English. 99% of the staff speaks English, there's an English-language menu and even the daily newsletter is available in English. There's even an English website: http://www.happycruises.eu/en/index.html

Both Gemini and Ocean Pearl are actually owned by Danish Clipper Group and chartered to Quail. Quail Travel was set up in 2008 by the same guys that ran Spain's Number One cruise line Pullmantur Cruises, after Pullmantur was bought by RCI.

I'm not overly concerned about the language issue. They have a web site in English and as long as major announcements are made in English, it wouldn't bother me if everyone around me is some language other than my own. That's part of traveling!

My larger concern was no track record of reviews by passengers. Soedergren, did you find the ship clean and the service decent? I'm not concerned with wine lists and food presentation.

I do love the itinerary (Venice-Dubrovnik-Santorini-Kusadasi-Rhodes-Athens). I have since located a review in Berlitz that says service and cleanliness are quite good.