We cruised the Mediterranean from Barcelona on Brilliance of the Seas; we had a lovely room with a balcony on the top deck, near the pool, restaurant and spa. We had a massage appointment: they insisted we be on time, then they had us wait for over half an hour when we had to go and we never got the massage. The room was beautiful, well located and quiet.

When we arrived in ports we preferred to sightsee on our own most of the time, and found it very difficult to get into town, to train stations, etc. Especially in Rome and Athens. Cabs refused to give us a ride from the ship to the train station. In France they used small tenders and it was so rough we were stuck in town a long time. In Livorno, the cruise line said they had a shuttle into town and back, but they quit running it for return to the ship early and a lot of us were stranded and almost missed the sailing. We were flagging down police cars and begging for a ride. cabs were scarce. We were so upset and they acted like that was nothing. The cruise ship could so easily provide transportation into town and/or train stations if they wanted to.

They broke the handle (the telescoping kind) on my suitcase upon arrival at the ship and kept it the entire time and did nothing to fix it. I had to hunt it down the last day. Then they gave me a hard time when I asked them to pay for the repair. The personnel never seemed interested in meeting our needs in these regards, most unfriendly. But the ship was beautiful. The food was alright, sometimes quite good. The bread was awful. I hurt my jaw biting on a hard tasteless white roll. How hard would it be to make some tasty bread?