My husband and I cruised on the Brilliance of the Seas on October 6th 2010, with stops scheduled for Toulon, France - Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, and Venice Italy - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Corfu, Greece. We arrived in Barcelona 2 days early and stayed at the Hotel Montecarlo, which is right on La Rambla. It was the perfect location and we loved the city. We were a block from Plaza Catalunya and could pick up the On/Off bus tour there, which was a great way to see the city! From the hotel to the port on the day of embarkation, it was just a 20 minute taxi ride.

The Brilliance was nice enough...not the biggest or the best ship we've ever been on, but it was clean and there were plenty of common areas. I liked the Solarium, it was always warm and there aren't any kids allowed...not that there were any on the cruise. I think I saw 3 at most. We had an interior room which was fine, we really didn't spend much time in it except to dress and sleep. The food and entertainment were just ok, nothing special. The service was good, we enjoyed our servers and room steward. We booked this cruise for the itinerary, not the ship, so I can't say we were disappointed at all.

Our first stop was Toulon, which there was nothing going on there. We booked a tour through the cruise line to Marseille, to Santa Maria Notre Dame de la Guarda. It was OK. The views from the cathedral were beautiful, but other than that it was just a bus tour, nothing special. We were really looking forward to the ports in Italy. We did some research on cruise critic before we left and found out about Romeinlimo, a company that provides private driver and tours. At first we were only going to book them for Civitavecchia, because seeing Rome was most important to us. But then when we started comparing the price of the Cruise Line tours and what you get for your money, we booked drivers for Livorno, Civitavecchia, and Naples. These tours made our vacation! Fabrizio was our driver in Livorno and he was engaging, and very fun to talk with. I started the day by handing him an aggressive list of tourist sights and he didn't flinch, he said it was good and we would see it all....and we did. Florence was wonderful! Make sure you get up to Piazza Michelangelo, the views are amazing! We had lunch at a restaurant called Bocca Dama, sitting at a table on the Piazza Croce. The spaghetti was awesome! In Civitavecchia we had Ornofio as our driver. He was easy to talk to and was very well informed. He got us to Rome in record time and adjusted our day because the Vatican was closing early, so he made sure we saw it first. We appreciated that. My favorite that day was the outdoor market where we had pizza from the oldest oven in Rome. And of course Piazza Novana, that was wonderful! And in Naples our driver Enzo was also great, he stopped several times on our drive to Sorrento so we could take pictures, which we appreciated. We had about and hour and half to walk around Positano, down to the water where I collected some sea glass. And in Sorrento we did some shopping and had lunch. We also toured Pompeii whcih we found a little disappointing. Of course we didn't get a map when we bought our tickets so we got lost and were hot and aggravated...so that may have colored our experience a bit. All three of our drivers were well spoken, warm and friendly, and knew the ins and outs of the cities to ensure we saw everything on our list. We saw everything and more! Our dinner companions were jealous when they heard about what we had seen after the first day, and each of the next nights were eager to hear about our day. They missed so much, they wanted to see our pictures at the end.....and we spent less than they spent on their cruise tours! I would urge anyone in town for a day to tour with Romeinlimo! We did our own thing in Venice, just buying a shuttle pass to get over to St. Marks square. From there the city is so easy to walk, and you can walk right up to any gondola driver and get a ride. It's silly to book through the cruise line. When We got to Dubrovnik we again just bought a shuttle pass to the old city. It was pouring that day, but we were determined to tour the city. We bought tickets to walk the fortress wall, and that was wonderful. The views were spectacular. I wish it hadn't been raining so hard because I would have liked to have walked around more. And our last stop was Corfu Town, which again, we went with a shuttle pass. The highlight there was getting authentic Gyros, wow were they good. Otherwise there wasn't much to see or do downtown. We should have booked a tour there. All in all, it was the vacation of a lifetime, and we were happy with how much we got to see!