My sister and I selected this cruise because of the value of the cruise and its ultimate destination in Venice. We originally selected a balcony cabin but were upgraded to a junior suite the day before we left for Lisbon. We have no idea why, but we really enjoyed the extra space.We arrived the day before the cruise and stayed in a hotel on the Aerobus route which was comfortable but had few available restaurants nearby which proved to make finding a place to eat dinner on a Sunday evening very difficult. The next morning the port was an easy cab ride away, and much to our surprise, we arrived to NO lines and and were on the ship and at lunch before noon. We spent the next couple of hours getting our bearings since we had not cruised Royal Caribbean before. Our luggage was in our room before 3:00 PM. We adored our room steward who could not have been more friendly and helpful. Andrei was the best we ever had. He kept our room in immaculate condition. I even found a fresh bath robe after leaving my wet one on the balcony to dry. He knew our names and greeted us no matter how far down the hall he was.We loved the "My Time" dining because it was flexible and offered an opportunity to met so many interesting people whose company we enjoyed again and again throughout the cruise. The food was very good, and the service excellent. The frequent serenades by a crew member at dinner was great fun. The solarium pool offered a relief from the winds on sea days.One negative was the small size and somewhat limited selection in the Windjammer buffet. We are used to more dining options and more varied buffets. Our stop in Gibraltar was a disappointment when swells (which appeared quite small to us) would not allow us to go ashore, and we spent the day in the harbor. We enjoyed our excursion to Kirka Nat.Park in Croatia, but mechanical problems with one tender resulted in no time to see Split. Our excursion around Malta was very interesting, and that proved to be one of our favorite. We saw only two shows in the evening, loved the "Beetles" but found an hour of juggling to be 30 minutes too much.We arrived in Venice early in the morning and our disembarkation was quite easy. The "People Mover" took us right to the Pizzale Roma and a quick connection to our hotel