Background - I am a 62 year old widow, and this was only my second cruise. I've gone on both cruises (1st one the Panama Canal in April of '04) with my brothers and their wives, and both with Princess.
Since none of us had been to Rome previously, we arrived 2 days before our cruise. We were met at the airport by a Princess representative, and were given a brief tour of the city on our way to the Jolly Leonardo DaVinci Hotel. The hotel was very nice, and was close to the Vatican. There was another representative from Princess at the hotel to pre-register us for the ship and also sign up for tours of the city. We had dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant near the hotel. The next day we took a tour of the city. That evening, we walked to the Vatican to visit St. Peter's Basilica since the church would be closed the next day because the Pope was saying mass in the square. On Wednesday, we had a pre-arranged tour to Vatican City. Then a bus ride to the ship.
Since we had pre-registered, embarking was a breeze. There were very few people in line, and we went right through. The ship is beautiful! It was decorated for Christmas, and looked great. In a short time, we got to our cabins, dropped off our carry-on, and were ready to explore. My luggage was delivered to my cabin early enough to shower and change before dinner. The rest of my party weren't as lucky. Filton, our room steward was a very congenial gentleman, who always had a smile on his face, and was very pleasant.