I am a first time cruiser and have two small children. We are seasoned travelers with our children and were looking for adding something different to our European vacation and originally considered a river cruise, but opted for this cruise out of Venice. We concerned about many things in advance: size of the cabins, food choices, seasickness, etc..probably some of the things everyone who has never cruised wonders about.

The boarding process seemed chaotic to me as I didn't print out my bag tags in advance---I think if I had it would have gone better. We booked a two bedroom royal family suite with just four of us. This was a great choice, we always like a suite when traveling and this didn't disappoint---our ocean view was fantastic, and it was like having an apartment on the ship. It was very clean, I would characterize it's decor as something similar to a decent Hilton. Not great, but very comfortable. Beds and bedding were what you'd expect in a high end hotel. Bathrooms were fine, balcony was nice--it's great to always have an ocean view! The perks afforded to suite guests are worth it to us...we always had seating in the MDR whenever we showed up, and the concierge in the lounge was so helpful and dedicated to just us the cruise was outstanding. Noellia expedited us off the ship at ports, put us first in line for everything and even arranged a bridge tour only for suite guests on the sea day---that was outstanding.

Food was interesting at first but gets tiresome after a few days. It's kind of like going to a wedding every night---fancy names on a printed menu with swirly handwriting but not very well executed--nice to look at but not great. We tried specialty dining at Chops and Izumi--if you have never been to a sushi restaurant you would like it---I did not. Chops cuts of meat are not prime in my opinion--underwhelmed but appreciated having some choices to dine in. Bartenders seemed tired--I didn't purchase the drink package and they seemed overworked by all the folks trying to get their money's worth from their packages. The exception was the waiter in the concierge lounge---he always worked hard for us. Read more