This was our first small ship after 4 cruises on ships at least twice its size. We were wary, particularly since we'd only done Anytime Dining previously and tended to like to keep to ourselves, but we shouldn't have worried. We loved it. We regularly participated in shore excursions with other passengers we'd corresponded with before the cruise and enjoyed making friends we might not have made on a larger ship.

Unfortunately, the weather was not our friend. The cruise started in Venice and our first stop was in Korcula. Although the Princess tour we took was basically a good one, it was our first introduction to travel so late in the season in which a good portion of the shops and sights in each of the ports we visited were closed. From Korcula we went to Kotor, Montenegro, which was one of the ports larger ships are unable to visit. It was cold, foggy, and rainy but we had a fabulous 5 hour tour with Jovan Vukotic (spring08@t-com.me) who took us and another couple on a day trip, first above Kotor to an old native village, then to the old royal capital, and to the coastal town of Budva. By the time we returned to Kotor, it was pouring rain but we were still able to wander around on our own. In Corfu we spent 8 hours with a SpirosBus tour, and in Malta we participated in the surprise port of our trip (where we'd had no expectations but our experienced guide, Joan Sheridan (TouringMalta.com), brought the city and its history to life). The next day in Messina, we spent an enjoyable day with Tours by Mario, visiting the Godfather region and Taormina. This was our last day of semi-decent weather.

As we headed up the west side of Italy, the sea became rough. On our last cruise in Asia we'd had gale force winds but on the much larger ship, we didn't feel much. On the Pacific Princess, a large number of passengers and crew ended up seasick but, fortunately, most of the really rough sea travel was confined to one night so we were successful in more or less sleeping it off. But the rough water meant the next 3 ports we were unable to visit as scheduled, and the captain had to substitute Naples for Sorrento, Villefranche for Nice, and Genoa for Portofino. We planned to roam on our own around Sorrento so did the same in Naples. Our tour in Nice (RivieraTogetherTours) picked us up in Villefranche instead, where we headed into Provence. We highly recommend visiting Tourrette Sur Loup and St Paul de Vence. (We'd visited Monte Carlo on a previous cruise and had no interest in returning.) From Genoa we participated in a Cinque Terre Tour (cinqueterretour.it) for which the small size of our group (6) made it easy to get around despite the rain and cold. Read more