My husband and I chose this cruise as one of our "bucket list" items - mostly for the destination and itineraries. We had both seen Rome before, but with students tagging along, so wanted a cruise that departed Rome, giving us time on the ground either before or after. We came in three days ahead of time, plenty of time to savor and experience the city. It is quite easy to negotiate on your own if you have several days, but if time is limited I would probably use one of RC's excursion options. IT IS HOT AND SUNNY. You'll have to take precautions for that or suffer! Our embarkation was a breeze, and although we had priority boarding, we were directed to take a seat with the masses, even though we tried to convey that to the woman directed human traffic in the terminal. We ignored her and found our way to the priority boarding, and aside from that glitch it was super smooth.

We found our cabin to be lovely, and the ship's overhaul really created a serene and sophisticated atmosphere - no garish color schemes or themes to be found. We spend our days at sea in the Solarium (mostly), and this is the only issue I have - on this ship it is located mid ship, and many people use it as a conduit to the main pool and Windjammer Cafe areas. In addition, from the very first day, there were groups of people who consistently violated the "no children under 16" policy. There were signs posted which they blatantly ignored. The pool personnel (on the first day,) advised these folks (they were European) in their own language, since the signage was in English, as to what the rules were. Despite this, they would continue to try, throughout the duration of the cruise, to bring their children in and place them into the pool with diapers on, another absolute no-no!!! I couldn't believe their rudeness. These same folks also saw no problem with allowing their children, including babies between 12 and 18 months, into the bar areas until the wee hours of the morning. This is not something we've EVER on the Caribbean cruises we've taken: adult activities are for ADULTS. That is why the cruise lines provide child care options and children's activities on board. These tots were running onto the dance floor, laying down, etc., and eventually were crying and fussing because it was LONG past bedtime..

The entertainment was good, but honestly I've had better experiences on Carnival as far as music options go. There was an awful lot of Latin music, and well as club dance/techno music in the Vortex. We we spent most of our time at the Centrum with the band there, but for the 70's music, there were kids everywhere, since it began at around 7:00. Another issue with the entertainment is that on several occasions, the schedule provided the previous night outlaying the next day's activities which was left in our cabin was not accurate. Sometimes the times were off, and at others a different artist was performing when we would show up, for example, at the Safari Bar. However, the quality of performances was really excellent, and the orchestra did and fabulous job on the Glenn Miller/Big Band and Jazz nights. Awesome. Read more