As an American I thought going on a European cruise would be a good change of pace, didn't realize what I was getting myself into. I expected this cruise to be more subdued than others I have been on such as the Mexican Riviera for the Caribbean. There was no exciting vibe on the ship whatsoever, rarely did any of the staff greet us or say hello as we walked by. The hot tubs were more like warm tubs and one of them was even cold. Since every public announcement on the ship was in five different languages I figured the customer service desk experience was going to be interesting--and it was. Communication was difficult and I was never satisfied when I walked away, just more frustrated actually. As an example one of our stops was in Israel and when I went to the help desk to change dollars into shekels the young lady didn't know if that was even possible. After 15 minutes I came to find out that the ship does not exchange any money for shekles. I mean really? And we stay in this port for two days!

While I loved our state room, as it was very spacious, I thought the ship in general was just mediocre. The food was horrible, we ate better off the ship than on it. In fact the food was so bad that over an 11 day cruise I gained 0 pounds. The main attractions at our first two stops were closed, and the ship refused to refund the excursion fees. In Rome the excursion bus didn't get us to the city until 11 AM which left us only 4 to 5 hours to see the city. It seems many other people we met on the ship have the same experience with the same opinions as we had. I realize that you get out of something what you put in to something, but in my opinion this cruise line was pretty bad.

There were some things we enjoyed however, getting on and off the ship was relatively easy, we really enjoyed all the ports and the destinations. How are state room was always made up properly and timely and our dinner waiter was fabulous.