We signed up for this cruise over two years before we left, but decided to do a Rhine cruise last August which we thoroughly enjoyed so we are really comparing a river cruise with the Med cruise from Venice to Barcelona. We did two days in Venice prior and two days in Barcelona post. We loved our cabin on deck 4 in the exact back of the ship two floors below the Infinity Pool. Our neighbor in the "around the corner suite" who had joined the cruise in Istanbul warned us that in a tough sea the pool would splash out onto our balcony. We did not experience any problems with this however. We did struggle with a few things. The coffee pots which were hybrid European Keurigs were up very high and difficult to figure out (many passengers told us this as well). There were a number of issues with the amount of people signed up for tours especially on our first few days. We were not big fans of the buffet style restaurant but absolutely love the Restaurant where meals were served as well as the two specialty restaurants Manfred's and the Chef's table both of which we were able to get two reservations apiece. We met wonderful people all over the ship. The entertainment was great. We especially enjoyed the speakers on the ports and the ambassador from Iraq who spoke a number of times. The ship was beautiful. The staff was fabulous especially the two guys who watched over our room and made sure that our every desire was met. I asked for ice on the first day and every day thereafter I had ice whenever we came back to the room. They were wonderful as were the wait staff in all of the restaurants. My wife fainted the day we were leaving the hotel for the boat as we waited to check in. She had an issue with some medicine she had just started taking. We spent the afternoon at the emergency room in Venice. The viking people got us there and stayed with us the whole time and made sure we got on the boat (with an escort) I could not say enough about that kind of service. I have to admit the riverboat cruise was more intimate but we have been on large ocean liners and I would much rather the Viking approach. The Star was overall our best ever vacation.