Firstly, just a quick rundown on our party - we are 4 couples in our late 40s early 50s from Sydney, Australia. Two of the couples had cruised before and two had not. The trip was about 2 years in the planning and we decided on this particular cruise mainly because of its itinerary. We had heard a lot of good things about Royal Caribbean and had in fact cruised with them before, and ultimately our decision to choose Royal proved a very wise one. Our cruise on Royal's Brilliance Of The Seas embarked from Barcelona on Sep. 7th 2009. Unknown to us our timing was great because school had just resumed in Europe and the U.S.A. which meant there were very few kids on this cruise. We had 4 nights together in Barcelona prior to the cruise to allow us to recover from jet lag (as it takes about 30 hours to get there from Sydney!)and explore a bit of this fantastic city. We stayed at the Marina View, a B & B at the bottom of the Ramblas and as the name suggests opposite the marina. We found it on Tripadvisor (go and have a look) and all the reviews were very positive - after staying there we could see why. Our host Mila couldn't do enough for us and the location was just perfect - close enough to everything but far enough away to allow a nice, quiet sleep at the end of very hectic days. And when it was time to board the ship we walked across the road and caught the port bus and were at the terminal in 5 minutes. If you are looking to stay in Barcelona prior to your cruise I would highly recommend the Marina View. Our embarkation was very smooth and we were upstairs having lunch and our first (of many) cocktails in no time. We had chosen balcony cabins and they were up to our expectations, plenty of room and very comfortable beds. We were on deck 8 and found that to be ideal. Before long we had pushed off from Barcelona and were on our way to our first port, Villefranche. Our cruise took in the ports of Villefranche (Nice), Civitavecchia (Rome), Livorno (Florence), Naples (Pompeii, Amalfi), Pireaus (Athens), Kusadasi (Ephesus), Mykonos and Santorini. For our shore excursions we decided that we would book them independently of the ship and we were very pleased with our choices. For Livorno and Naples we used Romeinlimo - our guides were fantastic. In Livorno we had Alberto and he knew everything about our destinations of Pisa and Florence and was a very pleasant chap. Our guide from Naples, Carmine, went above and beyond the call of duty. We had booked a tour to Pompeii and the Amalfi coast and it was fantastic. Carmine took us to a remote retaurant high above Positano for lunch which had the most spectacular views imaginable - and on top of that the lunch was sensational (and not expensive). Then on the way back to the ship he pulled up at a corner shop and jumped out before returning with 8 gelatos for us! We had a great day. In Villefranche we used Private Shore Trips and our guide Stephanie was also excellent and took us to a beautiful restaurant in Eze, high up on a cliff, for lunch. We had booked the excursion for Nice and Monaco and were not disappointed. In Athens we used Athens By Taxi and our driver Peter had an encyclopedic knowledge of Athens. He took us to all the main tourist attractions and dropped us at the Plaka for lunch after recommending a restaurant for us to try for lunch. We eventually found it and were very appreciative of his choice as we had a very filling, authentic Greek lunch. We all agreed that we got great value for money for all our shore excursions and after speaking with a few of the other passengers, who chose to go with the ship's shore excursions (big coaches, very regimented and impersonal), we had no doubt we made the right choice. And believe it or not, our tours (all of them in 8-10 seat air conditioned mini-vans) cost less per person than the tours via the ship. The cruise in general exceeded our expectations. Brilliance Of The Seas is a beautiful ship and there is always something to do. We were very lucky with the weather and the seas were reasonably calm (which always helps). We chose the 'my time dining' for our dinners and this worked well for us - the meals were delicious and the choice quite varied. We generally lunched at the Windjammer buffet, although we were off the ship most days for lunch. We caught the shows every night - some were better than others but that's to be expected. Our cruise director Gordon did a good job and the activities staff kept us well entertained throughout the cruise. In particular the activities manager Cuddy worked really hard, was very funny and he seems to be a cruise director of the future. Overall a great time was had by all and we would not hesitate to cruise with Royal Caribbean again. The hard part now will be choosing where to head for our next cruise.