This was our 10th cruise, but 1st on a HAL ship. My wife and me are both mid 40s and live in Bern, Switzerland. A lot of comments are very subjective and relate to our personal preferences, so please do not feel offended if you see things completely different.

We travelled to Rome FCO and took a hotel near Termini one night pre cruise. Leonardo express train easily takes you there for just 14 EUR. From Termini we took a train to Civitavecchia, walked about 10 minutes to the port entrance and took the free shuttle bus to the ship. If you are able to carry your luggage for 10 to 15 minutes at each end a quick, easy and cheap way to get there.

Embarkation was the best we had so far in our 10 cruises. They are extremely well organised, took our papers, gave us our room cards and in less than 10 minutes we were on board. Read more