We chose this cruise as we have wanted to do a Viking Ocean cruise for a while and a roundtrip cruise from Barcelona over Christmas was appealing. We did back-to back cruises so start and end was Barcelona. Some of the ports we were already familiar with but the new ones were interesting and scenic. The ship was beautiful and everything was conveniently arranged. We particularly enjoyed the poolside movie and live piano performances. We were slightly disappointed when scheduled stops at Tunis and Algeria were changed to Naples and Mallorca but it worked out very well for us. Excursions were very good and our side trip to the Italian Archeology Museum in Naples was well worth the taxi ride (encouraged for anyone who has visited Pompeii). The stateroom and dining exceeded our expectations with abundant excellent choices of very good food. Airport to ship connections were well organized and efficient. We would not hesitate to do this cruise again.