This was our first cruise with RCI, but our 4th cruise. We boarded at Civitavecchia, after arriving from Roma Termini main train station near the hotel we stayed in for three nights prior to the cruise. After taking the train, we walked to the port where we caught the free shuttle to the ship. Check in at the port went fairly smooth even though we had forgotten our color coded luggage tags. We received our SeaPass and headed straight to our cabin. The champagne,gift basket and 8 juices we had pre-ordered were all there. Unfortunately the juice flavor wasn't what we had ordered and it took 3 days to get that straightened out. We enjoyed a nice refreshing lunch in the Windjammer and returned to our cabin to find our luggage, have some champagne and head off for the muster drill. Being our anniversary, we had made reservations at Chops. Chops was well worth the extra cost. The staff was wonderful and presented us with a special dessert and sang "Happy Anniversary." Our cabin steward was very good, in fact, at the end of the cruise, he received in addition to a nice tip, the remaining 2 bottles of juice and the cookies and nut mix from our gift box. It was so extremely hot we rarely used our balcony. Our stateroom had plenty of closet space and drawers. The bed was a bit lumpy and the cabin could use some updating of the decor...no flat screen tv and the sofa a bit over sized for the space. All our luggage fit nicely under the bed.

1st Port: Messina, Sicily The ship docked right downtown Messina. We chose not to take a tour, we instead shopped at local stores and at noon watched the astronomical clock at the Duomo.

2nd Port: Piraeus (Athens), Greece We took a 7:30am cruise shore tour to see the Acropolis and it was worth every penny. The climb to the top wasn't bad since it was a winding pathway with steps along the way. Just be aware the steps and pathway are slippery due to the dust on the marble. It became very crowded by the time we left. At that early hour it was warm but windy, we were given a bottle of ice cold water by the tour company. We made a stop at a souvenir shop and had the opportunity to leave the tour to shop more. We returned to the port. Our guide was good but didn't share much information about current life in Greece. Read more