Chose this cruise ship and line for the itinerary. We wanted to see Malta and this ship had the itinerary of other places we wanted to go.

The stateroom with balcony was large enough, yet could have used more closet space. Shower left water on the floor no matter what we tried. The TV was a joke: selling RC services and repeated network shows on the few channels available for the entire cruise. Is there no satellite available? It was clean enough, but our room attendant wasn't as helpful as the rest of the crew staff. In port there was a foul smell on our balcony, so we couldn't use it much unless we were at sea. And it wasn't the time of year to do so.There seemed to be enough entertainment for the people on board, but much wasn't to our taste. We ended up watching guitarist Tim every night in the pub. But just because it wasn't always our cup of tea, there were lots of options. Food was good, but it was worth upgrading to the speciality restaurants a few nights: the steakhouse is outstanding, as was Christian's service. The buffet and dining room were good, not great. The bar staff was excellent, especially Marvin in the Schooner lounge. We enjoyed his excellent service and let him know that. The drink package was a worth while investment. We did several excursions, and they were well organized. The Malta excursion guide was a little too fast for the crowd: if you stopped for a photo you were left behind. Getting on the ship a guest threw up in line, and boarded without saying anything. On our first excursion the person in the next bench on the bus was clearly ill. By the end of the cruise I was suffering from a cold as was many people: the crew were trying their best to disinfect the ship but to no avail. In a close quartered area like a cruise ship, the guests have to take some responsibility to stay in cabin or cancel their trip or excursion if they are ill. Before continuing on the transatlantic crossing, those guests were required to leave for further disinfection procedures. The ship and crew tried to do what they could to protect those who weren't sick from those who were.

The casino and art auctions were a good way to spend time on sea days, even though you spent extra money. They really shouldn't allow smoking in the casino, and I am a smoker. The hot tub was occupied by guests who got their space and stayed there for hours, not letting anyone else have a turn. Kind of gross really. The pool area was small. The night time disco had a lot of rude people attending, so we only went once. Since we couldn't enjoy the pool deck because of the time of year, sea days were a little long. The public rooms were very pleasant, although the elevator systems were insufficient for the amount of guests. We are young enough to take the stairs, many other guests weren't. This was definitely an older crowd of guests for the most part. One guest had an emergency and the ship had to turn back to Sicily to get him medical attention. The ship's captain did that exceptionally well, and didn't lose any of the time from the itinerary. Good on him and Royal Caribbean for that. In short we enjoyed our first cruise, none of the negatives would deter us from cruising again or not going on a RC cruise. The cruise line has no control of its passengers rudeness or poor decisions. The ship was very well decorated, we enjoyed our trip, and the staff were excellent. The food was OK, the drinks top shelf. We saw the best of Greece and Italy as well as Malta, so what else could we ask for from a vacation provider?