We chose the Ancient Empires & Mediterranean Rivieras cruise as it ticked several Bucket List destinations. It was a more expensive cruise fare than usual, even accounting for the length (2 cruises back-to-back), but that was only the start of the costs. Almost everything is an extra cost. We expect to pay a reasonable amount for a cruise but surely service should be included in the ticket price - to find $14.50 added per day per person for gratuities is ludicrous, and 15% for a bottle to be brought to your table and opened is even worse! Be aware that the cheapest bottle of wine is $35 + $7 if you want it opened, not surprisingly many people opted out of alcohol all together. In the speciality restaurants you aren't even offered this and the wines seem to start at $65 unless you specifically ask for the usual wine menu. Sadly we see that many cruise lines are charging service like this these days. Fortunately someone told us we could ask for the gratuities to be removed from our bill, so we did, and tipped as we thought appropriate.

Excursions were incredibly expensive compared to other excursion companies so we gave them a miss and prebooked elsewhere. Elsewhere, a friend needed acupuncture for a bad back and was charged $169 for a 40 minute session. Even Americans who had sailed with H&A several times before commented that nothing changed except the prices that just kept going up.

The highlight of the ship for us was Rudi's Sel de Mer restaurant - the food was excellent and the service impeccable, we returned 3 times - portion sizes are generous to say the least and you do get freebies at the start of the meal, so beware you don't eat too much to start with or you won't finish your main course. The Lido deck offered a good range of different/interesting lunchtime options and was much better than the so-so food in the main dining room. Room service breakfast surprisingly was not at an extra cost but after 8,30am not reliable in terms of either delivery time or content. Read more