The port seems quite large and difficult to navigate on your own so we decided to book an excursion.  We wanted the 'Taste of Camargue', a drive through the french countryside and visit to a typical farm, but it was cancelled due to lack of participation. (go figure)  We settled for 'Aix-en-provence', a four hour tour to the area with a guide.  We were taken by bus and then a historical walking tour that was informative and enjoyable.  We then had more than an hour of free time to visit the markets or whatever we wanted.  

Marseille

We did another excursion with the ship to 'Portofino'.  A must see village in Italy.  The excursion was basically to get you there and the rest of the time was free.  You can get there by yourself which I believe involves a train and a bus.  However, the trip we took by bus and ferry had spectacular views and I thought was a good value without the hassles of train schedules.  

Genoa

Naples is an easy port to go out on your own.  The ferry to Capri or Sorrento is just off the pier to your left when you leave the ship.  There are also plenty of cabs willing to take you anywhere.  Just depends on what you want to do.  I have been here before and there are tours for every taste and budget.    
We decided to take the ferry to Sorrento. This village is on a cliff so we took the local bus up into the center of town, found the TI and got a map.  Most sites are an easy walk.  You can walk up to town if you'd like.  There appeared to be some beaches by the hotels, I don't know if they are opened to the public but I sure wish that I had taken my swimming suit.  We also took the little quirky train tour, it stopped for gas midway through out trip, really, and it has an audio guide in different languages.  Make sure you check the ferry times back and be aw tare there is more than one pier.  It was raining and we almost missed our ferry.  

Naples

Palermo is easy access from the pier on foot.  We decided to do the hop on hop off bus which was 20 euros and there was two lines, red and blue.  Each line runs about 1 1/2 hours and had an audio guide included in the price for many languages. The blue line did start until 2pm. We bought the tickets at the pier desk thinking we could get right on when we got to the stop.  It was morning and the rush was on.  We had to get a number and wait for about an hour to get on the bus.  Evidently many others had the same idea. The rest of the buses we used were no trouble. There are a lot of street vendors in the area and most things are not made in Sicily.  The local markets are very interesting.  Found some gelato by the cathedral that was delicious and cooled us off on this very warm day. If you are on a short time frame I would recommend taking an excursion or finding a cab driver you like and pay them to take you around.  Wish I had done more homework here.   

Palermo (Sicily)

This beautiful city is not to be missed.  You can walk as the town is at the pier if you just want to wander, the sites are spread out.  A cab will do.  Find one you click with and negotiate the price.  They will take you to the same places the cruise excursion takes you.  We found John, who had fairly good English as none of us spoke Spanish (wish I did), we had four people and he charged 25 euros each for about a 3 hour tour, the ship is four hours but they have a whole bus load of people to move around, and they charged 48 euros.   We visited the bullring, Belver Castle and the pearl factory but just drove by the Gothic Cathedral.  If you want to go in, I think there is a charge, negotiate that up front, might cost you more for cab to wait.   

Palma de Mallorca (Majorca)

Our cabin, 10114, was lovely with a balcony.  Beds were comfortable.

This CROWD factor and the food, water and short staff issue would make me NOT select this line again, IT totally spoiled this lovely ship.First we were taken to a rug
shop, led up a small crooked and very old staircase and brought into a
small room for the purpose of selling us a Tunisian rug.

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