First, let me say there were many good things about the cruise, like the weather and the itinery. The room was better than most and the solarium cafe was a nice place to have a snack. All the travel arrangements, which we made ourselves, went well. So what could we possibly be unhappy about?

Some things were outside the control of RCI, for example, the people in the adjoining rooms would wake at the crack of dawn every day and have an impromptu competition as to how many drawers/doors/wardrobes could be opened and closed with maximum force before departing presumably to reserve sunbeds for their group, this together with the loudest ring of any kind of communication device known to mankind. It may have been the whole group had walkie talkies, because his went off every couple of minutes. Put up with it for a while, then suggesting on the balcony what he should do with it, the problem than eased a lot.

Now onto the Livorno Lottery for which RCI charge $8 each, from which evidently they get not 1 cent. (They tell me) It takes the form of buying a shuttle ticket into town, which you must buy or stay on the boat. The element of luck comes on the return leg, where you queue with hundreds of other people from various cruise boats for a bus which may or may not come anytime soon, and which will pick up from a place convenient to the driver but which may be far enough away from where you guessed it may stop for you not to win the prize of a seat on it. It helps in this competition to be young, fit, quick and clairvoyant. On the day we were there, the contest took place in about 30c of full sun. Read more