My mother in law booked this cruise a couple years ago as a surprise to her children and grandchildren.  She booked everything with Royal Caribbean because she thought that would be easier and that it would be easier to deal with a large group if the cruise line handled everything.  There were 12 of us in our group.  Three grandparents (78 and 79) five children and teenagers (9 -16) and 4 parent/children/sherpas in their mid 40's.  Our family has cruised together 4 times but this was our first cruise in the Mediterranean.  This was by far the worst cruise experience we have had. Travel - The trip to Barcelona was a nightmare.  We missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt because our plane landed late and they let us off in the middle of a field in the pouring rain.  The ground transportation we requested for my Father in law never showed up and we ended up in the main airport with no idea where to go or what to do.  We ended up having to walk over a mile to the main ticket counter to get a new flight.  The Royal Caribbean agents were practically useless except to tell us that it was the airlines fault and they were responsible.  Eventually we were able to get the airline to bump 12 passengers off the next flight and we got to Barcelona in time to board the ship.  We were the last ones on board but we made it!The shipThe ship was packed.  Most of the passengers were from Spain so the movies on TV and the theater were all in spanish.  We always had to wait for an elevator and often had to let one or two pass because they were so crowded.  Our elderly parents just can not handle the stairs for more than one flight.  I read over and over again that you don't feel the crowds in these big ships, well that was not my experience.  Everywhere we went was crowded with lines and a wait.The service in the main dining room was down right bad.  We had nice waiters but our main server had 6 tables including 2 of over 6 people and his assistant (which he shared) had another 6 tables as well.  They tried very hard and worked very hard but they were spread too thin and we spent alot of time waiting for our food.  However, the service in the Windjammer was almost too much.  How many times can you tell someone that you do not want to order a glass of wine?  Our cabin steward was excellent though.  I really hate to write about the food.  I read reviews before we went and had heard that the food wasn't all that great.  I was hoping that all those reviewers were food snobs and that I would enjoy the food.  Nope.  The choices were very limited and not very exciting.  The food itself was ok.  If it were a restaurant at home, I would not go back.  The breakfast (which is only served in the Windjammer most days) was just plain bad and lunch (again only the Windjammer) was worse.The ports of call were great.  The excursions we booked with RCCI were excellent.  The tours were not very elderly friendly though.  The moderate tours had a lot of hilly walking and they sometimes moved rather quickly.  However, they were very close to what was described in the excursion book.  We did Imperial Rome and the lunch at the hotel in Rome was the best food we ate all week.Our kids did not use the children's clubs.  We signed them up, but they were not interested in any of the activities.  The older teens made some friends from several different countries but none of them went to the teen programs.  They hung out in the Windammer eating free soft serve ice cream and ordering sodas off of the few that had soda cards.  They met kids from Denmark, England, Scotland, and Norway.  I guess the spanish kids hungout with each other.I thought the entertainment was ok.  I missed having a comedian, but that would be hard given the diversity of the audience.  I enjoyed the ice show but to be honest, the ice rink is so small that it seems silly to even bother.  The skaters were great but there isn't enough room for them to get the speed they need to so any real jumps.  If you want to see a little of Europe and would rather not travel by train, then this is the way to go.  It was nice to come back to the ship every night and relax as opposed to packing up everynight.  If you are thinking it will be like your last caribbean cruise then think again.