yyz1314

Great review so far. We were on this but boarded in Rome on the 6th.

By the way, all aboard is always 30 minutes prior to sailing at all the stops except embarking day which is 2 hours for newbies and 30 mins for anyone who is on a port day.

Naples all aboard is 5:30 now with the revised port times. If you are on private tours let your driver know this they and will adjust their times accordingly. Our driver thought it was back by 4 but he was able to reschedule the day to use the extra 90 mins.

Look forward to the rest of your review.

Frank

We did the May 6-13 Rome version of the trip.

Getting on with only 1/4 of the ship is fantastic. As others said, it is a ghost town when you get on as everyone is in Rome for the day. Rooms were ready at 1 and bags came mid afternoon for us. Lots of chance to explore the ship and unwind after a few days running around Rome.

Leaving port was different as there was no Sail Away bash on the deck, you experience that when you get back from touring Barcelona. However, it really does not detract from anything. We really didn't notice it until we saw it in Barcelona.

As everyone says, it's a really port intensive trip, so you don't spend much time on the ship if you want to see Europe. We just did the Manhattan Room most nights, and walked right in every time. We also did the Cirque Dreams with the standard seating and it was totally worth it. Had a booth at the back and saw 95% of everything, only lost a bit of the trapeze thing at the start.

There seemed to be room in the specialties most times or short waits.

The shows in the theatre were Legends, magician, Burn the floor. We missed all of these as we were okay with other stuff. There were openings available when we boarded if we had wanted to go to them.

We did see Howl about 4 times. It is a drop in venue and there were always seats available. Great show as all 3 of the performers are amazing. We also really liked Crystal Blue, although the crowds for them were sparse for some reason. They played more classic rock and were really good musicians. Beatles cover band was okay too, bit cheesy but fun. Jim the acoustic guy was a great way to wind down. Great thing about the musical acts was that sometimes another performer would join in. Rhonda from Howl joined Jim one night and sang a couple of Janis Joplin songs to about 20 or so gathered at the bar/lounge late at night.

As I said, it is an awesome cruise, tons to see and do. You will not be bored.

We liked boarding in Rome as I think it is better to have multiple days in Rome instead of just seeing the sights in a few hours if it is just a port on your trip.

After passing through Barcelona, we now have a reason to go back and spend serious time there too.

Only you can decide what is most important for your vacation to be perfect.

There are people who will find issues no matter what and will write stuff on forums about problem with this and that. That is the age we live in. I choose to enjoy the experience and not sweat every detail.

Trust that you and your travelling party are in the best part of Europe, and make it as great as you want it to be. It is different from North America (in many ways better) and you will have life long memories. Hope you have the time of your life.

Frank