We travelled with our 3 tween/teen children. It was a wonderful educational trip. We stayed in both the hotel d'arts and hotel continental overlooking Las Ramblas in Barcelona. One is very upscale the other was not but fun to be on Las Ramblas. It is a great city. We loved seeing the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the very fun Gothic Area. Wish we had an extra day in Barcelona. We arrived in just the day before the cruise and had one extra day at the end. We checked in at around 4pm (busy touring Barcelona earlier in the day) and boarded very quickly. 1st stop in Villefranche we had a great time walking the obscure street, eating crepes, and sitting on the beach and having a swim. In the afternoon we did a ship excursion to Nice and Eze. Eze was fantastic! On day two we again took a ship excursion to Pisa and Florence "on your own". It was perfect. It was very quick at Pisa but we had enough time to take some pictures and get on to our afternoon in Florence. We highly recommend "Rome in Limo" which is the service we used in Rome. We really felt it was a good splurge so we could see everything! Vinzenzo our driver was great! We did the "taste of sorrento and pompeii" ship excursion and loved the farm but just unfortunately too hurried at Pompeii. DO NOT believe what others say about Sicily!!!! Go to CEFALU! because Palermo didn't sound too good we thought we would take the ship excursion to Cefalu. Our only mistake is we wish we had used our own transportation so we could have spent the whole day there. You can swim on a beach side of the town or on the other rocky shore. It was spectacular. The medieval town has little cafes overhanging the water and wonderful italian shopping. (great sicilian ceramics)! After seeing this glimpse of Sicily I am anxious to return! If you go on the cruise buy me the mediterranean cruise scrapbook from the photo shop onboard. I'll pay you back! I didn't...thought I would pick one up at home...they are not available anywhere and custom made to be sold only onboard! Have a GREAT cruise!