We booked our cruise with our local travel agent a year in advance. We picked this cruise because it was with RCL, the ports and the dates. We are in our 50's and have cruise 8 other times. We decided to fly to Barcelona two days early to get over jet lag and tour the city. It turned out to be a perfect time of year with good weather; sunny and in the 70's and 80's for the whole time. We joined a roll call with this site, and it was the best thing! We met for a pre-cruise dinner at El Chipiron the night before we left and finally met 36 other travelers. We clicked instantly! A wonderful group of cruisers! We arrived in Barcelona late AM, checked into the Hotel Caledonian, Gran Via les Cortis Catalanes 574. I found this hotel myself on the internet, but did have my travel agent book it. A wonderful location, 5 blocks from La Rambla, and breakfast was included. We did the HOHO two day pass, getting on immediately after checking in, riding two of the lines to get the lay of the land. We had an early dinner at the HRC (I collect pins), joined fellow cruisers at Hotel Continental, walked the Rambla and off to bed. Late start the next day and got back on the bus after walking to Sagrada Familia. Went to Guell Park and walked around there, both places are a must see. Day of the cruise, we slept late again and missed breakfast and took a taxi to the ship, around noon, it took half and hour and we were eating at the Windjammer. All of our luggage arrived, unpacked and went to the drill and then sail off drinks. First night was ROUGH, but didn't get sick! Villefranche sur-Mer was our first stop, after tendering, we walked the harbor until we reached the stairs for the train, deciding to go to Nice first (train to Monaco was 1 hr late). Had a pastry and walked to the beach, we were there about two hours and took the train directly to Monaco. Walked to the casino, didn't gamble, we had a wonderful lunch at Le Botticelli right on the race trail at the harbor. The special was mussels and fries, my husband and I split it, delicious. We took the bus back to the port. The show that night was Classic Sixties Sounds, Motown songs, very good. Day 3 was Livorno, we had signed up for a ship tour to Cinque Terre, and we traveled by bus, boat (3) and walked, between 4 of the towns, beautiful scenery and well worth it. But we would like to go back and spend more time there, staying at least in of 2 of the towns and walking the trails. Next day was Civitavecchia where we followed advise of others on this web site and took the train in to Rome. No problems! We took the free shuttle to town and one of the waiters took us to the train station. We were in Rome by 9:30. We have been there before and just wanted to do a self tour (with Rick Steves) of the Forum, and visit the Musei Capitolini afterwards; we did throw our coins in Trevi fountain again and enjoyed a lunch at Plazza Navano. Hopped on metro and back to the train station, getting back to the port by 3PM. The show that night was the Royal Caribbean Singers and dancers, not that good. Day 5 was at Sea, and we relaxed, attended our Meet and Mingle cruise critic party. Our room was on deck 7 with a balcony, Ronnie kept it clean and we had plenty of room for the two of us. Closet space was more than enough and the suitcases went under the bed. Day 6 was to have been Mykonos, but the ship couldn't dock, too windy (we snapped a line) so it was on to Turkey early. We spent the day at sea, but arrived around 8PM, after dinner we got off and walked around the Grand Bazaar, the shops stayed open late for us. Day 7 we joined fellow cruise critics for a private tour to Ephesus, one of the highlights of our trip. Amazing place, we paid the extra to see the Terrance houses, one should not miss these. Lunch was included and we asked to stop at the pottery factory (where a few of us bought some beautiful items), we didn't want to stop at a rug factory, but wanted more time to shop in town. Here is a great place to buy shawls. Back on ship was our second formal night (first was the first sea day), but before that we played a trivia game (and won, no one did very well) Santorini was Day 8, which we did on our own again. Bought cable car tickets on the boat (no way did I want to ride a Donkey or walk among them), took the tender and then we found the bus station and bought a ticket to Oia, a beautiful town were we took plenty of pictures, walked around for two hours and took the bus back to Santorini. We ate at Niki's overlooking the ship and shopped before taking the cable car back. We participated the the Murder Mystery Dinner that night (only need to do this once) at Portofino. The food was good as was the wine and company, but the show was lacking. Day 9, Piraeus, where we again went on our own, by train (a long walk around the port, but not too bad), headed first to the Acropolis (do this as early as possible because of the crowds) and then found the HRC for a beer, shopped the Plaka and had lunch there. We caught the train back, bought ice cream and walked back to the ship. There were 8 other ships in port that day, lots of people walking around! Day 10 was another relaxing day at Sea and the last formal night. A lot of tux's and suits for men and women wore both long and short cocktail dresses. Day 11was Naples, we again had a private tour with fellow cruise critic friends. Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast was an all day visit. We had lunch in Sorrento and I did mange to buy 3 leather pursers for myself and two daughters! Again pastry and ice cream before we headed back to the ship (yes, we put on 5 lbs!) Day 12 we booked a shore tour to Montserrat, mainly because our flight didn't leave until 4PM and it was only $20 more than the airport shuttle fare. It was a bus ride with a guide and a very pleasant half day tour, they had special tags for our luggage which we found and had under the bus with us for the tour. They started disembarkation at 6:30 for those who wish to leave with their own luggage in hand (we did this in March after a Mexico cruise and it was a very LONG line of people wanting to get off early) we met at 7:15 and got off at 7:30 for the tour. Everything went smoothly. I would recommend this cruise to all, we didn't check out the children's program, but at this time of year there were very few children on board. Service was tops and food was good. The sea side cafe was fabulous! We ate most dinner meals in the dining room and had good choices; the food was very good and plentiful. The windjammer we used for breakfast and snacks, also no complaints. The solarium pool had its roof open on sunny sea days, but it was hard to find chairs sometimes. We didn't play golf or climb the rock wall this time, but did play pool on the self leveling tables-amazing! I did mange to win some of the casino's money, but anything ahead is better than leaving it behind. Again our cruise critic friends also made this trip one of the best ever!