We arrived the night before the cruise and stayed at the Regincia Colon Hotel. This was a reasonable hotel with a great location, breakfast was also included in the price. I traveled with my family and this cruise will always be very special to me. I booked transfers and a 5 hour tour with a Barcelona Day Tours, they were amazing. On time at the airport, returned to the hotel for a 5 hour tour, transferred us the next day to the ship and then picked us up at the ship for our flight home. I plan on writing a letter to them to tell them how much we enjoyed our tour. We were picked up at 12:00 and brought to the pier, there was very little waiting time, we were brought quickly on the ship. I was on this ship in 2005 and she is still a beautiful ship We had lunch in the buffet, very good food and service (yes, my trays were carried for those who question this). Once the announcement was made that the rooms were ready, we went there to see the room. I booked an inside cabin this time since we really were not in our room much. The room was perfect size and plenty of extra space. We walked around the ship it was nice to see many familiar spots, I love the Martini Bar. This cruise was 11 days and only 2 sea days so our itinerary was intense. I booked all my excursions through the ship, I found them reasonable and we had great tour guides as well as a representative from the ship. The weather in November was great, the only day we had a little rain was in Florence, other than that we had mid to upper 60's to mid 70's. (I heard the cruise before us rained all but 2 days and the cruise after us had bad weather too) I witnessed some of the most beautiful rainbows during the day when we went through a 5 minute rain shower during sea days. I did want to mention a few excursions that I loved, the one to Gibraltar. The fortress was amazing and to see the WWII tunnels and the history about them, this is a must do for anyone who loves history. The only stop I was not thrilled with was Corsica, but this is just my opinion. My favorite stop was Morocco, I cannot stop thinking about this excursion to Marrakech. The countryside, the market place, snake charmers, the HOT tea with mint. I loved it, I was told we had a great tour guide (bus #3) while it was such a different culture, I found their way of life very interesting. Italy, while in Rome we did the ship tour of the olive oil tasting......all I can say is,while on this tour we stopped at a town before heading to the farmhouse for the olive oil tasting. This scenery was too beautiful for words, I was told that they would come here from the Vatican and stay because the beauty was amazing. We headed to the farmhouse in Tuscania, here we tasted some of the best olive oil and sampled wine this was a great excursion. I know some people only like private tours but I had wonderful luck with ship tours and I rather pay in dollar than euro.

While on the ship, breakfast, lunches and dinners were all very good. I had nothing to complain about, (yes there were people who did) I found the service to be so outstanding. While I am not new to cruising (been on over 40 cruises) this ship and service was one of the best I have experienced. I did eat at Murano's one night......spectacular....the service, the food I can't say one bad thing......

I loved having the hot chocolate when we boarded back on the ship and you must do the martini bar sampler. Regarding the entertainment, we had late seating so we were not getting out of dinner till after 10:00 so we usually walked a little and went to bed by 11:30-12:00. Read more