We have been on previous cruises. We wanted to have a special dinner for my birthday, but staff couldn't arrange it. Was disappointed in lack of celebration. Gave me a piece of cake at the end of my last dinner. Our overall experience was not as good as our previous Norway cruise. We have an Amazon cruise coming up and I have high hopes for that one. The cabin staff was excellent. The shore excursions were well handled, but we had to miss a port because of weather. Our trip to Florence had too much down time sitting around in the cold. We weren't given anything special to make up for the missed port. I think that the lectures were not as good as the ones we had in Norway. I would have liked more about the history of the peoples of the western Mediterranean. Nothing about the geography, flora or fauna was given.