We've just come back from our first ever cruise, 7 nights on the RCI Navigator of the seas cruising the Eastern Med from Civitavecchia, 2 adults and 2 teenagers.
We wanted to visit Athens so the choice of cruise line and ship was largely dictated by that although RCI got better reviews than MSC so we went with them.
Made our own flight arrangements with Alitalia from Heathrow to Fiumicino, got 23kg luggage each and able to prebook seats, at no extra charge Easyjet! Then we had booked a transfer with Bobs Limos, now a note here, give them the flight arrival time don't make an allowance yourself for the time it will take you to get through customs/baggage collection, I did the latter and we had a fraught 45 min wait but anyway van duly arrived and transferred us straight to the ship. The drive was er interesting there was a lot of gesticulating and use of the horn but I think that a, this is standard roman driving and b, it was largely friendly between the taxi driving community.
Nice big balcony with 2 loungers, 2 chairs and table. Large wardrobe to get rid of cases and hanging space. Superstructure at rear didn't spoil use of balcony or view and less breezy at back of ship.