Mediterranean cruise, Brilliance of the Seas. First of all, this was our honeymoon. We saved and planned for months, and were so excited! Initially, we had some travel difficulties (lay-overs, etc.), so we were anxious to get on the boat in Barcelona. En route, somehow our luggage was misplaced by US Airways (traveling from Philadelphia to Barcelona), so we began our trip without clothes, toiletries, shoes, etc. As far as cruise ships go, this is the TOP OF THE LINE! I am very susceptible to sea sickness, and I did not ONCE feel the boat move. WOW! When you are in the theater at night, you have no idea you are on a ship!! Day 1- Arrived in Barcelona and walked (sans luggage) around the busy Las Ramblas. Enjoyed very warm weather, however, we noted many businesses and restaurants were closed in August during the day. Boarded the magnificent ship around 2pm. By the evening, we were well settled into our spacious balcony room. NOTE: We booked through Expedia.com, and upgraded to this balcony room after initially booking. I do not recommend changing like this, because, although expedia assured us this would not happen, we ended up with a partially-obstructed view balcony. This means that about 30% of our balcony was covered by the ship. In fact, Royal Caribbean told us that there were NO obstructed views from their balconies...simply not true. This is the ONLY bad thing I have to say about Royal Caribbean. Day 2- Arrived in Villefranche, France, while having room service breakfast on our balcony :). We chose to take the Nice/Cannes tour on your own. Highly recommend this. We had a couple of hours in both beautiful French Riviera towns to explore, shop, and just sit and watch the surroundings. Unfortunately, we spent the majority of our time frantically shopping for underwear, socks, swimsuits, etc., since our luggage was no where to be found. I want to point out that US Airways apparently has a bad reputation for luggage handling. At no point in our trip did the airline attempt to contact us to update us on our luggage. Anyway, Nice/Cannes were incredibly beautiful with wonderful food. After returning to our ship, we were greatly impressed by the main dining room, where we requested a private table (since it was our honeymoon), and were graciously ushered to a table with an amazing view of the ocean. The service is outstanding, and the food was absolutely delectable! We were very happy. Not to mention, the onboard evening entertainment ranged from a Broadway review to Cirque du Soliel mini-show. We were impressed nightly by the inventive and expert entertainment. Day 3- Florence/Pisa on your own. We traveled via bus to Pisa and of course ogled at the Leaning Tower. Then on to Florence, where unfortunately again, we were forced to do more shopping than sight-seeing. We decided emphatically that we would be returning to Florence, since it's rich history and architecture were mesmerizing. We ate at a little sidewalk cafe (not impressed), and looked into different churches (duomos) for a few hours before returning to our ship. Dinner in the Portofino restaurant was a wonderful experience, despite the $20 cover charge. Then, we enjoyed a Beatles-mania coverband afterwards. Great! Day 4- Naples/Isle of Capri. We visited the Isle of Capri, via launchboat (absolutely awful, haha), but upon arrival, we were happy we came. The island was lush with plants, flowers. The cafes and houses were picturesque. We loaded into a bus for the most terrifying drive of my life, rounding cliffs and bridges at top speed to arrive at the town, Anacapri. From there, my husband took a chair-lift to the top of the island, where as I was scared stiff, trying to look unshaken, and VERY happy to be on solid ground for awhile. His pictures from the top were incredible, and made me wish for a short second that I had gone. We shopped in the local markets and had a quick lunch at a small restaurant, again disappointing. The gelato was a different story! On board the ship, we tried the small pasta cafe at the front of the ship. Incredibly good food. I have to say, the food we had onboard far surpassed anything we ate offshore. Day 5- Sailing. Whew, what a relief. We slept in and enjoyed a relaxing day on ship, exploring all the activities. We visited the Ship-shape fitness center. Very nice. My husband also discovered the cafeteria-style Windjammer Cafe, where he decided was the best food he had ever tasted! He seriously enjoyed the variety, and was never disappointed, except maybe by the desserts! Drinking onboard is tricky, too. You cannot get coffee/water just anywhere. Just a reminder to those planning to travel on this ship. Day 6 & 7- Venice. STILL NO LUGGAGE. So, wearing the same (laundered) clothes as the day before, we explored our afternoon in Venice alone. We saw the famous square at St. Marks (although we did not have time to go inside...the line was atrocious) and Rialto bridge. We walked all over the islands, and had dinner at a sidewalk cafe. Afterwards, we made an executive decision: food off of the ship was VERY overpriced, and not worth the time it took to sit and eat. We decided to grab sandwiches, etc. at delis, and enjoy a fabulous meal on board. Overnight in Venice. The next morning, we took a tour of a Vatican cathedral, then a perfect gondola ride. :) Day 8- Dubrovnik, Croatia. We took the Village home tour. We were NOT disappointed at all. This amazing country was untouched by all the tourism. We LOVED the gorgeous drive to the little home of the Glavich family, where we were serenaded, given food and drink, and tour of the home. We had an amazing time. Then off to the city-center to explore the walls and the harbor on our own. The gated city was like a trip back in time. Day 9- Corfu, Greece. This was the only Greek Isle we visited, and boy, we regret that. We are definitely planning a cruise just of the Greek Isles. We toured Achilles Palace, which was very pretty. Then headed down to "Old Towne" where we had a quick snack at Cafe Chocolate (my kind of place!). Then we decided to climb to the top of the highest fortress overlooking the ocean. The climb and the top were breath-taking. We felt very happy and inspired as we headed back to the ship. Day 10- Cruising. We have acclimated to having no luggage...we did laundry (thanks to R.C.) everyday. haha. That evening we ate at the specialty steak house, Chops. My husband LOVES meat, and thought this was an amazing restaurant. We both enjoyed our entrees. The major disruption of our trip occurred in this restaurant. Around 9pm, the ship alarm sounded and the captain came over the loud-speaker stating "Oscar, starboard side!" Evidently this is code for man-overboard, because the next few hours we were stopped in the middle of the ocean with search boats, coast guard, helicopters, etc. circling around our ship. We were ordered back to our rooms for a headcount. Around 3am, the captain announces, "All are accounted for, we will now proceed to the next port of call." Um, EVENTFUL. Day 11- Rome on your own. WOW is all that I can say about Ancient Rome. We were awed by the Vatican and the ruins, to the point where, we did NOT want to go back to the ship. What an overwhelming feeling it was to be standing in the midst of such history. We felt so blessed to have the very short time in Rome, and WILL go back (we threw coins in the fountain...:) We did not get to tour the Vatican museums, due to the NORMAL high volumes of people in line. If you want to go, make reservations through a tour company in advance! Day 12- Cruising. Our send-off dinner and show were amazing. We were so sad to leave our ship. Day 13- Barcelona. Disembark, without our luggage, and headed to the airport where my husband inquired about the whereabouts of our luggage. US Airways claimed not to know where our luggage was. My husband insisted on searching the storage rooms, where upon opening the door, found one of our bags. Needless to say, the personnel were embarrassed that this had been under their noses, but offered no apologies or help to find the second bag. My husband spent 4 hours searching through lost luggage storage rooms in Barcelona. Finally, he gave up, and we went back to our hotel, Royal Ramblas for the evening. We do not recommend this hotel. It was very expensive, extremely ill-kept, and right on Las Ramblas. Not sure if the location was a plus or not, since the general area near the harbor is not that large. I think a more modestly priced hotel a street off would be a MUCH better option. Barcelona is an amazing city. We took a double-decker tour bus for awhile, just to get our bearings, then we set off on our own. We found the cathedrals to be incredible, and Gaudi's many architectural wonders amazing. We also thought the shopping was better than anywhere else we had visited on the trip. (We are frugal shoppers, so we were not interested in GUCCI, Dolci, etc.) We went to Table of Cordobes Flamenco show that night, and had a mesmerizing show. No trip to Spain is complete without seeing this captivating show. Day 14- Home...this time with one bag. If you wonder if we ever received our other bag...yes, 2 months later. Have we received any compensation for our time and trouble. No. Only heard from the airline to inform us of our bag's arrival. HMMM. Definitely GO ON THIS CRUISE!!! Our ship was clean and inviting the entire trip. The staff was courteous and took very good care of us. Our attendant gave us robes to wear, the customer service desk provided us with clothes to wear on formal nights for free, did our laundry for free, and made regular calls to inquire about our luggage. We loved the cruiseline and will absolutely cruise with no one else now!