We chose this cruise because it fit our time availability & we liked the ports to be visited. This was a highschool graduation trip (plus a few nights in Rome). We were not impressed with Free Style Dining. The staff seemed overwhelmed in the main dining rooms during peak times. We also felt that there is some tweeking that needs to be done on this ship. However, the ports of call were amazing- we left from Rome's port, then to Livorno & visited Florence on our own. Next day was Cannes which was amazing! We skipped Marseille because we wanted a day to rest! Barcelona was beautiful and interesting. We really didn't see much of Naples because we took a tour offerred through the ship. It was pricey but enjoyed the Amalfi Coast and visiting Pompeii. We chose Norwegiian because we had sailed on this line before. But for the ports of call, I would not recommend this cruise. Passengers were very upset about the lack of deck chairs for the adults only area by the pool (saving chairs started early & was not discouraged). Also, it seemed everytime we turned around something had a charge which was a change from the "all inclusive" feel. The entertainiment was *****! We thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. Food was not very good except in specialty restaurants. This was the first ship that the buffet was a better choice than eating in the main dining room which could take close to 2 hours and was marginal in quality.
Cabin was "tight". Nice balcony.
We were staying in Rome so the only thing we did in the port was travel from the train station to the ship
We travelled to Florence on our own. It involved a shuttle to the center of town. 2 block walk to buy a bus ticket. Bus to the train station and taking a train into Florence. We've been to Florence and the price for the ship to arrange our transfer to Florence was $145 per person which seemed really high since the 3 of us travelled to Florence for less tha $100 and the ship would've charged close to $500.
We really enjoyed exploring Cannes on our own-dining, shopping and renting beach chairs & umbrellas!
We stayed on the ship
We loved exploring Barcelona on our own!