My favourite destination in the Mediterranean is Turkey and I thought that my next cruise through the Mediterranean would include ports of call in Turkey. This cruise was off my radar but a friend invited us to attend and we are so glad that we were able to enjoy the itinerary.

Weather was rainy and windy when we arrived in Barcelona 2 days pre-cruise. Our international flight was poor, so we were in rough shape to take in a walking tour of Barcelona the same afternoon, so we excused ourselves when the rain wouldn't let up. We took a half day tour of Barcelona on the day of embarkation offered by Spanish Day Tours and they conveniently dropped us off at the terminal. Very good tour, we needed a transfer to the terminal anyways and a few extra hours touring Barcelona before embarkation was a nice bonus! Embarkation was smooth and timely.

The ship is in excellent shape, nice layout and easy to orient yourself to the main venues. My favourite spots: Cafe el Bacio, great baristas and attentive servers. Moonlight Sonata, the main dining room - consistently excellent, cuts of meat prepared very well, seafood/fish tend to be a little overdone. Superb service and menu choices. Couldn't say no to their excellent desserts, maybe some of the best I have ever had. The Ocean View Cafe (buffet) layout was a little confusing, during peak times the crush of people made service slower and harder to move around and find a table. I had some issues about food handling by some passengers and the ship was very quick to acknowledge my concerns. Read more