We flew from Washington DC into Marco Polo airport at 1100 am and went straight to the ship the day of the cruise. Tip, take the bus for 8 euro a person from Marco Polo to Venice and 1.50 euro a person for the ppl mover from the Venice bus stop to the cruise port ....save your money as the cabs and water taxi prices are high (unless you have 4 ppl for a taxi or if you packed many bags) and the bus and ppl mover are convenient and easy! Embarkation was easy....have your cruise docs printed and your passports ready. Once checked in you have to go to a machine to activate your room key.

This ship is a smaller ship, we had 4 people to an ocean view room. This was our 16th cruise and we met with family, for a total of 9 ppl in the group. We typically get two connected balcony rooms to separate us and the kids but there were no balcony rooms available and we received an incredible deal on the one room with a military discount. The ports were the most important to us so we went with it.

Dining is geared toward the European palate but they did have burgers, hot dogs, fries, and pizza for the kids. Note that cruisers that book from the US and Canada receive the Fantastica package which gives you 12 drinks for each person in the cabin....we found this to be plenty as we ported for many days and enjoyed drinks in town. Read more