Having previously enjoyed two incredible 7 night sailings around the Caribbean with Disney during the past 5 years we decided it was time to take another adventure around a part of Europe that we've not previously experienced & after much research decided to book a 10 night "Mediterranean Variety" cruise on Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of The Seas.
Prior to our fantastic experiences onboard the Disney Fantasy & Magic, the only other cruise we'd experience was a short Bahamas getaway with Carnival many years ago which at the time, was enjoyable enough however as tastes change & refine, we only really had our cruises with Disney on which to base our Cruising experience.
The price we secured our cruise for seemed reasonable as RC were offering Buy One get One Half Price with a free drinks package thrown in also. It was clear when booking some 3 months prior to sailing that there wasn't a great deal of availability but after a few days of pondering which grade of cabin to select, thankfully secured one of the recently newly-created Panoramic Staterooms. Having booked flights ourselves & a couple of nights prior to the cruise in Venice (which I highly recommend) we were on our way & very much looking forward to visiting a number of new countries & sampling one of the more popular cruise lines on a ship we knew fell into a medium-size bracket & was somewhat older than the Disney Fantasy but only a year older than the Magic.