We had great ports on this cruise and really enjoyed seeing a different part of the world. The ship was beautiful and the rooms very comfy. The huge drawback is that the food was truly AWFUL. We have cruised with Disney and Carnival and we know that there are limitations to what you can prepare for large groups. That said, we never once had a meal in the main dining room that we liked. The best we could muster was a meal we tolerated. I sent back many dishes completely untouched- even desserts- and I am so not that girl. Shipboard entertainment was not much to speak of, largely because they have 7 languages on board so they are pretty limited in what they can do. As far as the excursions went- we did one in every port. In Muscat, we did the Nizwa fort and really enjoyed our day. Great tour guide, got to see a lot, really lovely poolside lunch. Highly recommended. In Fujeirah we did the desert 4X4 tour. Again, great excursion- not for the faint of heart though. I don't think I quite understood how high the dunes would be! This was a good port for this excursion since there is not much else to do there. In Abu Dhabi we did the city tour and tea at the Emirates Palace. The tea was awesome, and we got a great introduction to the city. I do wish we had ditched the tour after the cultural center and taken a taxi to the Marina Mall rather than going all the way back to the port and going out on our own from there. In Bahrain we did the city tour, it was a little long and we had a boring guide. They also do not have lunch built into this tour- ridiculous since we left the ship at 9 and did not get back until after 3. We kind of bucked the tour plans and grabbed lunch at the sandwich shop at the fort. Food was REALLY good there, but we had to just decide to do it on our own and I think it made the guide mad. All in all, if I could do this route with another cruise line I would. I will NOT be taking another Costa cruise unless I'm looking for massive weight loss from really bad food.