My husband and I are both 24 and neither of us had been to Europe before. We chose this trip based on the itinerary. I had done a ton of research prior to picking an itinerary, including but not limited to the attractions each of the port cities had to offer, the distance between the port and the destination city, and the DIY-ability of each port. I will say that I bought Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide book several months before our cruise and researched all our ports excessively before we left so that I knew exactly what to expect, how much money to budget for each port, and how to utilize public transportation; in addition, Steves gives great background and history for all of the sites in each location.

We embarked from Venice and decided to stay overnight the night before our cruise and the night after our cruise. We took the ACTV aerobus to/from Marco Polo/P. Roma (6 Euro/person each way). Both nights we stayed at Casa di Sara, which is a four room bed and breakfast in the Dorsoduro district; the owner (Nello) was amazing, he totally accommodated our early check-in after debarkation, held our luggage, gave us our room keys, and had our room ready early. In addition, on the morning of our embarkation, we checked out, then they gave us a gate key and a front door key so that we come back and get our luggage before boarding the ship (someone is not always at the desk). If we ever go back to Venice, we will stay at Casa di Sara! It was nice having two extra nights for Venice -- it gave us time to see all the sights and take a gondola ride (which I booked ahead of time through City Discovery, but be aware that the meeting point is not in the Hotel Danieli as advertised, it is across the bridge next to the Hotel Danieli in the tourist office); we saved a lot of money by pre-booking a gondola ride.

The Ship: The NCL Jade was a beautiful ship -- we really enjoyed the Hawaiian-themed decor and didn't think it was cheesy like so many others have said in their reviews, but maybe we like cheesy now and again. The pool area was nice, but I wish it would have been bigger...in the mornings, there was a deck attendant marking the backs of saved deck chairs with a time sticker and they were upholding the "30 minute save rule" to the best of their abilities, but as the days went on, this seemed to get harder and harder to police. Read more