This was our first trip to Europe and the itinerary was just wonderful. We flew into Rome and then did the RCL transfers to the ship. The ship was comfortable and clean. We decided not to take any formal wear and so skipped dining room those 3 nights and went to the buffet. The dinners in the dining room were good but it seemed the selections were always the same for about the first week. Then we finally started getting new dishes to choose from. Our cabin - superior interior - was nice and roomy and we had a wonderful cabin steward who was anxious to make sure we were comfortable.

Our first port was Portofino, and it is absolutely lovely. I wish we had more time there but we were just there for a brief visit; I took the ship's tour of Cinque Terre. The ship didn't have the paperwork ready so we were almost an hour late getting off the ship. That backed up the tour and so we really had to walk quite fast for most of the hike. That was a real disappointment. If I ever get there again, I will walk by myself and skip the tour. The towns are lovely and the tour included ferrying to and from a few of the towns and that was great.

Next was Florence. The ship's tour we took was awful. It turned out to be a walking tour and we never got to go into any of the museums, churches, etc. It was extremely hot and the city was packed with tourists, and so it just wasn't a fun day. We also visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa and that was okay. Unfortunately, the bus was parked in a parking lot about a mile from the Tower and it was at the end of the day, very crowded, very hot, and lots of straw market type areas with tons of stuff for tourists to buy. The second day there was a threatened train strike, so we ended up staying on the ship. Read more