My wife and I recently returned from a 14-night cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. This was our 30th cruise overall and 20th on RCI. We have sailed on all current classes of RCI ships. This was our 5th long sailing in Europe and 3rd departing from and returning to England. This time we were a small group of 6 compared with our previous cruises in Europe where we had groups ranging in size from 11 to 25 people. The size of the group, however, had no appreciable effect on the cruise experience, except to simplify our private port touring arrangements.

We selected this sailing largely for the itinerary, having been to the Baltic capitals, the British Isles and Norwegian fjords, the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Greece, and all around Italy with a stop in Dubrovnik. This cruise took us to 6 new ports: Gibraltar; Toulon; Cagliari (Sardinia); Cadiz; Lisbon; and Vigo; and gave us an opportunity to further explore new areas in Tuscany and around the environs of Rome.

Overall this was an excellent cruise vacation by any standard. We enjoyed wonderful weather throughout our fortnight on board. There were 5 full sea days that provided just enough of a break from the port sightseeing and really allowed us to take advantage of the many fun activities provided by the excellent cruise staff and outstanding live entertainment - and we met many terrific people, most of whom hail from England and Scotland. In fact, on a ship carrying over 4,000 passengers, there were fewer than 250 Americans on board; the vast majority of passengers were citizens of the UK. This came as a bit of a surprise to us, but overall a very pleasant one (except, perhaps, for all those trivia questions requiring detailed knowledge of the UK - more on that later). Read more