We did a Western Mediterranean cruise from July 17-24th. We had never done the Mediterranean before, and our experience was limited to several Caribbean cruises. We had booked two private tours for two of our ports and two excursions through RC for two other stops. The private tours were terrific, and we couldn't ask for anything better. The RC tours were severely lacking. The Nice/Eze tour, in particular, was a total bust and waste of time and money, and RC books this as "one of their best". We left an hour late, got to Nice, and all we did was follow the tour guide carrying a sign that he held in the air. There was no amplification system to hear what he was saying. All he did was point to landmarks, and we kept following like sheep. It was horrendous. You couldn't hear a word he was saying. We just kept marching. Then we went to Eze, and we go dropped and told we had an hour and a half, and we would meet back at the bus. Would have liked time to stop in Nice, as all you need in Eze is 1/2 hour at most. AWFUL TOUR GUIDE AND TOUR. Our other tour was of Sorrento/Pompeii. The visit to the farm in Sorrento was lovely...a wonderful experience. Pompeii, on the other hand, was not. We were given the little earphones/speaker systems, but the quality was lacking, and it was very difficult to understand what the guide was saying. Also, his knowledge was minimum at best. He couldn't answer many questions, so we just walked around.

The ship itself was fantastic, clean, food very good. Night activities were not what we were used to on Royal Caribbean. There were no comedy shows, Love and Marriage Game, Quest, dance bands (60's, 70's)...many of the fun evening activities we were used to. A couple evenings we were truly searching for something to do. That was disappointing. The Ice Show and Saturday Night Fever were fabulous!! Best Ice Show we had seen on RCCL. Great experience overall...just disappointing excursions. Still would recommend the cruise highly as a great way to tour the Mediterranean.