Overall the cruise was very good and a good value for the money. There were a lot of highlights: Venice where we started, the Akropolis in Athens, going through the Suez Canal, Petra in Jordan, and finishing in Dubai. We also stopped at a couple of places in Oman which was really nothing special.

This was our fifth year in a row that we went on a November cruise. Since it is off-season the average age was about 75 or so. The European retirees can be a bit aggressive. There were mainly Germans, Italians, Austrians, Swiss, and people from the UK on board. We didn't meet any Canadians or Americans during the cruise but there may have been a couple of them there.

The food in the buffet was great and super pizza was available every day. It would have been nice for breakfast if there was an omelet grill in the buffet. Dinner in the restaurant was a bit bland after the first couple of days. We were traveling with a couple from Munich so always went to dinner with them. The service was very good and fast. We did end up getting stuck with the 2nd seating, which only started at 20:30 so that wasn't so nice. We always finished dinner between 22:00 to 22:30. Read more