We chose this cruise for several reasons: 1) The timing was perfect. 2) The ports were interesting for all ages and my wife and I had not been to any of the ports on our prior cruises. 3.) Children sharing a cabin with their parents were free. 4) We thought the variety of nationalities on the ship would be interesting for our children and grandchildren. As it turned out, we were correct in our choice. The itinerary included our port of embarkation, Rome, and the ports of Salerno, Italy, Tunis, Tunisia, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Toulon, France, Genoa, Italy, Ajaccio, Corsica, France and back to Rome. The ports, with one exception, were wonderful and there was something for everyone. On the day we visited Genoa, we were to leave Genoa and go to Portofino, Italy, where we were supposed to be able to tender in (at an extra cost), to Portofino at 6:30 PM and stay until 11:30 PM. We received a notice in our stateroom, after we left the ship for some time in Genoa, that the stop in Portofino was canceled for weather related reasons (which we could not figure out because the weather seemed to be good all around us) and we would leave an hour or so later, heading for our next port.

The cabins are on the small side, but our outside cabins had more than enough storage space for our needs. We had three boys sharing a cabin and they had enough room for their things, we think. We don't think the boys unpacked, but nobody would go in their cabin to check. As in most cruise ship cabins, the third bed is like a bunk bed, folding down from the wall. Even though we did not have a third person in our cabin, it took me a few days to figure out how to avoid bumping my head on the third bed, even though it was folded against the wall at all times. The cabin attendant kept the cabin clean, although she did not always leave the ice bucket full.

We had been warned by others of the bottled water issues; however, each cabin received 7 tickets for 1 liter of bottled water to be used in the dining rooms only. Tap water was not served in the dining rooms. Additional 1 liter bottles of water in the dining room were 2.07 Euros each, including 15% service charge. Wine was reasonably priced, but soft drinks were very costly. Although the ship offers various drink packages, we found that unless you used every one of the drinks in the package, you would end up paying more than if you purchased the drinks individually. Their were bottles of water in the cabin, but you were charged for their use at mini-bar prices. Although they say they will confiscate drinks brought onto the ship, we found that they did not enforce that, since some unfinished bottles of water that had been purchased elsewhere made it back through security. Read more