We have cruised many times before and chose this cruise for the class of ship and sailing date.This boat did not live up to our expectations. The food was mediocre at best. We were very surprised to find that even though we were in the South of France and Italy at this time of year the tomatoes were tasteless,and the vegetables and fruit were definitely not premier. There is no excuse for not serving top quality at the rates we paid.
The servers and cabin staff were most helpful and accommodating but that is where it ended. The reception never answered the telephone and we had to approach the desk to reach someone. No one seemed interested to be helpful and behaved like we were disturbing them. The excursion desk was not open most of the day.
The maître d'hôtel acted very uppity and again not particularly helpful. Sebastian our waiter one evening was great! The room service staff was wonderful and as I mentioned before all of the servers really did a great job. The guides were very well informed and made the excursions fun. The one problem however was the drop off points for some ports were quite a distance from the tour and the planning could be improved.