We really enjoyed our cruise on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Eastern Mediterranean Cruise. It was our first experience on a cruise. Our cabin attendant was excellent and always available to answer our questions no matter how simple they may have seemed. The ship was clean and was always on time. There were 3000+ passengers. The beds were very comfortable and the cabins spacious. The food was average - actually the food in the Windjammer Cafe was in many ways better than that in the Dining Room. We were 2nd seating which we were told it was at 8pm unfortunately when we boarded the ship we were told the seating was at 9pm. It took 2 hours to be served dinner, ages to get a drink or extra bread. As a consequence, we didn't sleep very well because of eating so late. We were able to switch on our last night to an earlier seating. I ordered a steak on the first night and it was like eating leather, I actually choked on it and if it hadn't been for the quick action of my husband, I dread to think what would have happened. I also ordered prime rib one night and that was cold and tough. The breast of chicken was dry and the 'catch of the day' was frozen fish which was full of water. We hadn't expected to be continually paying out for things. It seemed there were a lot of extras to pay for. Also, when we tried to get information to go into a port alone, we couldn't get that from the ship - they would ONLY give information on Royal Caribbean sponsored tours. Many times all we needed to know was about the public transportation and they would tell us how to get there on a map but not much else. They really should provide more tourist information - not SHOPPING information.

Because there were 6 of us, we didn't want to pay the 300 or so euro each for a tour of Rome. Instead we used a company called RomeinLimo. The cost for all 6 of us was 500 euro. They were absolutely wonderful. We were picked up in a mini-van with A/C and taken all around Rome to places we had requested and the driver also added things he thought we should see. He told us how to beat the lines and where to buy tickets so that we spent very little time lining up giving us time to see so much more. Fabio was from Rome and very passionate about his city. We had an absolutely wonderful day with him. Highly recommended over the cruise ship tours. For the tour of Naples we took one of the ship's excursions to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, Rosanna was our tour guide - another passionate knowledgeable person. She brought Pompeii to life! She also kept our spirits up on the treacherous Amalfi coast road!. We also took the tour to Tuscan winery. We were supposed to see how wine was made but that only entailed walking into the winery and the guide spending only 2 minutes telling us about the wine. We were then taken to a cafeteria for wine tasting and snacks. It was an extremely hot day and the A/C on the bus was poor so our 1 1/2 hour ride (there were no sightseeing stops) was not really worth it. We also were disappointed with the cruise organized tours which incorporated visits to outlets and factories. Again, they were hot days and to stand in a room to watch someone cut a cameo (which by the way most of us couldn't see because it was on a 12" TV screen) and then walk through their showroom was something we were not interested in. We were there to see Pompeii and only had 1 1/2 hours to get through it!

All in all we had a great time. Next time, we would like to go on a smaller ship and perhaps one that has better food.