We embarked at Barcelona and our itinerary included Toulon, Florence, Rome, Naples, Mykonos, Istanbul, Ephesus, Athens, and Venice. We spent a few days in Barcelona first and a few days in Venice after. Those stays were wonderful as we got time to do a bit more exploring of these wonderful cities. I enjoyed almost everything about the ship. Entertainment was a disappointment. There were no films or cinema experiences which was disappointing, and the nightly entertainment was pretty awful. But that really didn't matter much as our excursions kept us too tired to do much in the evening. The television was also pretty awful. For English language speakers there was one movie station which showed awful stuff and two BBC news stations (all Scotland and ISIL while we were there).

The food was fine. The Bistro (French restaurant at $20 extra) was excellent. The Shogun was not worth extra $. Windows, the main dining room, was lovely. We deeply appreciated them being willing to seat parties of 2 with no hassle. On our Holland cruise to Alaska, we were pretty much forced into sharing tables with larger groups making mealtime sometimes awkward. The freestyle dining worked perfectly for us. The ship may not have been flashy, but it worked just fine for us. We had a nice sized balcony room with plenty of storage space. Even though it was just below the buffet, there was no noise. Unfortunately our neighbors were smokers, so that curtailed our balcony time. I wish NCL had a place far away from the rest of us for those who need to smoke. Their policy of allowing it on balconies is intrusive, as the smoke blew right into our cabin and we had to keep the door closed whenever the tobacco urge summoned our neighbors tot he balcony.

The crew, mostly Filipino, was great. Always accommodating without being overly obsequious. Our steward, Emanuel, was just wonderful. The restaurant workers were great, and some were very funny. The itinerary and the weather were wonderful. There are some changes, however, I would make if I were to do this again (which I would love to). Some of the excursions were too rigorous for our aging bodies and we ended up having to skip 2 trips because of exhaustion. I would probably choose a few of the half days excursions with more relaxed free time or even a few of the ones primarily bus sitting sight seeing. I would leave the strenuous ones with the miles of walking and 100 steps to the younger ones, or perhaps just do one of those in the most special places (e.g. Florence and the Acropolis). The groups share a shore excursion in Italy and ShareAnExcursion worked well for us. It was great having more freedom. But the excursions sponsored by the ship refunded my money when I couldn't go and the other did not.