Having cruised only once before (Carnival/ Eastern Caribbean), I have only limited experience in cruising. Perhaps therefore, I can only say that this 12-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise onboard the Royal Caribbean "Legend of the Seas" fully lived up to my expectations. The itinerary brings you to Naples (Italy), Athens/Mykonos/Rhodes (Greece), Kusadasi/Ephesus (Turkey), Alexandria/Cairo (Egypt) and Corfu (Greece) thereby providing you with ample opportunity to explore archaeological sites in four different countries.We were about 1900 passengers onboard, of which about 800 were Americans and about 50 were Scandinavians (much to the disappointment of our 11-year-old daughter who found it difficult to communiate in English). The port of embarkation is Civitavecchia. We (a Danish couple in our 40-s with two children aged 15 and 11) arrived a couple of days prior to the cruise and stayed in the Hotel Traiano (can be recommended!  We stayed in a suite with two, huge connecting rooms with a kitchen). Spent some time exploring the area in a rented car (which actually proved less expensive to rent than paying for a shuttle service from the airport for the four of us). Expecially the thermal baths just outside Civitavecchia are worth visiting, both an open air museum/excavations and the public baths nearby.The hotel provided a free shuttle to the port, and after a very fast check-in we were onboard at noon. Got our cabin already at 1 pm and found it to be of an acceptable size even though it was just a standard, interior stateroom.Asked our stateroom attendant for extra hangers and in this way managed to unpack all four suitcases (we have never learned to "travel light").We had prebooked two excursions: one for Pompei and the other one called "Cairo, pyramids and tombs". The latter became the absolute highlight of our trip. I spoke to fellow passengers who had chosen an excursion which included a Nile cruise but found it rather disappointing, but we were very satisfied with the contents of our excursion and the very knowledgable guide. We even got the chance to go inside a couple of pyramids.In the other ports we managed on our own. In Athens we walked to the metro (about 20 minutes' walk from the port in Piræus) and then took the local metro/train to the Acropolis (stunning as always, but very hot!). You shouldn't miss the newly opened museum close to the Acropolis with a lot of items from the Acropolis itself. It is built on-top another excavation which you can see through glass-floors.Mykonos is a very idyllic island with narrow streets and beautiful white houses. We walked to the centre of the small town and took a local bus to "Paradise Beach" (not exactly paradise, but OK for bathing). The bus ride is only about 20 minutes each way.In Rhodes we just visited the old town with its cobble stones and medieval "Street of Knights".In Kusadasi we walked to the local bus station (a 15-20 minutes's walk) and then took a local bus to Ephesus. Or so we thought, but in reality we were dropped off about 1 kilometre from Ephesus, so we had to walk a bit. Then we visited Ephesus (can really be recommended!) and the total cost of bus and entrance fee came to only 23 Turkish Lira per person (or about 12 Euro).The final port of call was Corfu, which is a very green island. There we only went ashore to visit the old fortress and then returned to the ship for a late lunch.Overall, we were very pleased with the service provided onboard. Especially our dinners in the restaurant were excellent(second seating at 8.30): the food was delicious and our two waiters always made us feel truly welcome and "special". They were very attentive and charming and one of the reasons why my daughter said that she was really sad to see the cruise come to an end. In my opinion you should be very demanding and picky if you should go hungry and dissatisfied while cruising onboard the Legend.Entertainment-wise it was also OK - although perhaps geared more to the American taste than the European one. The only two issues which sort of made the entire holiday less than perfect were leaking pipes from the ceiling in the corridor outside our stateroom (they tried to fix it throughout the entire cruise) and a totally disastrous disembarkation, where we stood on the pier for about 25 minutes in the heat waiting for a shuttle bus which was to take us just a short ride to the entry of the port. It is possible to book transport to Rome or the airport through the cruiseline, but it is very expensive. If you can manage to carry your luggage to the local train station in Civitavecchia (about 15 minutes' walk from the port), there is a direct train taking you to Rome. However, you should be aware that  400-500 of your fellow passengers might have got the same idea so you may have to stand up during the 75 minutes' ride!! To conclude I can only recommend cruising the Eastern Mediterranean onboard the Legend. Both my husband and I had visited several of the ports of call before but it was wonderful to be back and show the children our "European roots". For a person from overseas I would say that this cruise and its itinerary is too good to miss!! The cruise can also function as an appetizer which might make you want to go back to explore for instance Greece again.....