I've really thought about this review, and I'm trying hard to be fair. There was not much to object to, but I was underwhelmed. I paid a premium price, and in the end it wasn't worth the extra to me.

Destinations. Not O's fault, but there were usually four other ships in every port, with thousands of cruisers in every port. The destination ports were often small places (Dubrovnic, Kotor, Santorini, Mykonos, for example) and there was no pleasure for me in sharing such small venues with several thousand other people. I quickly decided that in any port, whatever the highlights were supposed to be, I would head in exactly the opposite direction. That worked for me, as I enjoyed exploring a quiet beach after a local bus ride in Santorini, for example, but if you wanted to see the highlights, you were going to share them with hundreds or even thousands of other people.

Food. Yeah, well I just can't eat this way for 10 days, and it eventually became a struggle to avoid the fatty, creamy, overblown food in the dining room, the specialty restaurants and even the buffet. It's gorgeous, it's awesome, it's everything you want to eat all the time, but shouldn't. I found it difficult in the buffet, the dining room and the specialty restaurants to get a big attractive salad I could chow down on so as to curb my appetite before eating way too much fatty, creamy stuff I knew I would regret and would make me blow up like a beach ball later. Read more