First the cons as they far outweigh the pros. My first trip to Europe and one of the must sees for me was David. Unfortunately not being familiar with the area and the fact that Holland America failed to disclose that the Florence port day was Monday and that most of the major attractions were closed including David I came home not seeing the top item on my to do list. Now on to the Wifi service. Not only was it pretty nonexistent, unless you didn't mind waiting 15 to 20 minutes for each page to load, but having to pay several hundred dollars for pretty much nothing was very insulting and left me feeling like I had been cheated. After several days people were standing in line at the front desk and the librarian's desk in the Crows Nest complaining and the poor librarian didn't handle it well. She got pretty defensive insisting that it was better up there than in the rest of the ship which wasn't true as I took my iPad up there many times and even had her try to get me logged in on the desktop so I could access my email but the same issue, 15 to 20 minutes waiting for the site to load. Third and last issue was the young lady that worked for the photographer. I've cruised many times and I always wait until the second to last day to choose my photos and package. I have never been told when viewing the first few days pics that if I didn't buy the pictures just taken right now that "we might not be able to find them at the end of the cruise". I'm not sure if it was her initiative to use this sales tactic or if she had been instructed to say that but either way it left me with a bad taste and I only purchased 2 taken with my sister and I normally would have purchased a large package to chronicle the trip.

Now for the pros. Our cabin was wonderful as were Ari and Pur, the food was good with a few dishes being excellent and the magician and comedian were two of the best acts I've seen on any cruise line.

All in all, given my health issues, I might not be able to go back and missing the Florence experience was a huge disappointment and as I was not physically able to make every port the inability to access the Internet while resting up in my stateroom made my onboard time pretty boring. The only thing that saved the day was staying in Barcelona after disembarking for 3 days. A lovely city filled with atmosphere and great food.