We just got back from our first cruise with Azamara on the Quest from Rome to Athens Nov 8-22. The weather was sunny and mostly warm for the entire 2 weeks which was a bonus for this time of the year. The arranged flights there to Rome was uneventful with Air France although the connection in Paris was a little tight for time if you were slow due to handicaps etc. We chose this cruise for the different itinerary and we were not disappointed in the shore excursions offered at each port. We started with Pompeii on a sunny day in Sorrento yet cool enough to feel comfortable walking among the ruins. We were in Sorrento two years ago and did the Amalfi coast excursion and people we knew on this cruise did the same excursion this time and were delighted with the scenery like we were before.  Sorrento is a must stop for the part of the Med.  Pompeii is very interesting and a glimpse into life of the Romans 2000 years ago.Our cabin was deluxe balcony midship starboard and more than adequate at 175 sq ft plus 55 sq ft balcony. Bathrobes and towels amenities were good but not that luxurious to notice much. Fruit and flowers daily were unnecessary to us as the flowers prompted an allergic reaction for my wife. The butler was of not much use as we are used to taking care of ourselves for reservations so he was just the head maid so to speak. The restaurants and food were of high quality and we had one meal in the specialty seafood Aqualina restaurant as I had lobster and shrimp in every course except dessert. The main restaurant was no reservation required and served gourmet menu different every night plus a list of standards if you fancied ordinary food. All cruise lines will eventually adopt this format as the people want freedom to dine on their own time. Perhaps the one downfall of the small ships such as Quest is the limited resources for entertainment compared to the big ships with Las Vegas style entertainment every night in large theatres. We attended most of the shows and quizzes with very few participants or spectators for unknown artists in North America. Of course the average age of the passengers on this ship put these older folks in bed by 10 or 11 pm every day and not in the disco. A very sedate cruise with your parents or grandparents but a tough excursion schedule with early wake up calls to eat and leave the ship for all the ruins and historic sites.  Turkey has more Greek and Roman ruins that Greece and Italy. And we were on a mission to see most of them on this Ancient Empires Cruise. Overall the cruise was smooth and no problems until we pulled into Piraeus and got high winds and waves that delayed our docking until 9am instead of the scheduled 7am. We missed our flight home by 1 hour and had to stay overnight at the airport and go out the next day. We had trouble dealing with Olympic Air and had to pay $200 US to rebook our flight for the next day and get the connecting flight home. A couple from Toronto had lots of trouble and they were overlooked by the travel tour agent in Athens and barely made the overbooked flight. Then they had to fly through Montreal from JFK to get to Toronto that night. What a mess but we made it home.