We picked this trip for its itinerary, especially Egypt.
We arrived in Rome a couple days early and stayed near the Pantheon at the Albergo del Senato. We arranged for a van to take us out to the port. We arrived at the ship around 1:30 and embarked quickly. As others have noted, we needed to turn our passports in to expedite the Egyptian visa process. We did get a receipt for our passports.
The ship looks good but its scheduled for dry dock in January and we could see that it needs it in some places. Overall, though, it was in good shape.