The itinerary was Greek Islands, Corfu, Dubrovnik and overnight in Venice. I should say upfront that for us this was a large ship as we have gone on nothing but small ships for many years. So, we're used to checking in and walking through security and onboard with no delays. Embarkation was delayed 90 minutes in order to replace deck furniture. Check -in was very quick but then we had to wait 75 minutes to board in groups - perhaps it is just the way Piraeus does it. However as we were waiting to go through security, the woman behind us said that if we were in a suite we could have just gone onboard directly after check -in. This was never communicated to us at the check-in desk, however.

The cabins were ready when we arrived onboard and all but one bag were there waiting for us. We chose a Club suite which isn't very large but was the best designed cabin we've ever had. There were 2 large closets and a nice bathroom with a tub/shower combo. The bed, though not a king, looked a lot larger than the standard queen. Our main reason for getting the suite was the closets, bathroom and unlimited reservations in the specialty restaurants. The advertised benefits of the butler packing/unpacking and making reservations didn't happen and I probably wouldn't have taken advantage of those services anyway. Cabin services were quite good but I found them to be pretty chintzy with the towels. We only had 2 bath towels at any given time and the replacement was hit or miss. New towels every day for the first few days and not replaced at all the rest of the cruise. There was champagne waiting for us in the cabin and bottles of hard liquor- rum, vodka, gin and scotch. We never drank any of it but took it home with us.

Main dining room food was mostly good and a good variety. It took about 2 hours to get through dinner but we never felt that was excessive since the courses kept coming at a leisurely pace and they were very generous with the wine. We ate at Aqualina once which they have now changed to an Italian restaurant and Prime C twice which is mostly a steak house. Both are excellent as is the service. There is no comparison to the steak you get at the main dining room. Even if you have to pay the surcharge, both restaurants are worth it. I wasn't impressed with the buffet food in Windows at breakfast or lunch so we ate breakfast most days in the main dining room and we never had dinner there except when they did the White Night deck BBQ buffet, which was excellent. Read more