I travelled solo and had air arranged through Flight Ease. I was booked on a direct flight from ATL to FCO. It was a long flight and upon arrival at FCO, found my luggage and headed to find the HAL rep for transfer to the ship. Now, coming off a nine hour flight, with little sleep, and feeling stiff from not being in the most comfortable position for the flight, I was a little cranky and a lot clumsy. As soon as I found the FCO rep, I was told to go with the driver and the other passengers that were waiting. The driver proceeded to take off at a brisk pace. I went after the group and my luggage fell over. By the time I got it all under control, the group had gotten out of my sight and I could not find where they had gone. I had even hollered for them to hold up. Several people in the group looked back but continued on after the driver. Luckily I was able to find a transfer taxi and got a ticket for just a little more than what I paid for the HAL transfer. I had a wonderful driver that helped me with the luggage and took me to the port.

Embarkation was a breeze. Because of the delay at the airport I arrived at the port around 2:30. There was no line to check in and I was on the ship in no time at all. I went directly to my balcony stateroom dropped off my hand carry items, washed up and went to explore. To try to combat jet lag, I was determined to stay up until night time in order to sleep through the night.

The stateroom was a standard balcony with bed and night stands, mini sofa with small square table, desk with chair, corner cupboard with added glasses and ice bucket, a two door closet and 3 drawers. The storage space was good for me for 24 days, but I think it would have been tight with another person. Only one of the closets is full length, while the second one is half size (good for hanging blouses) with shelves underneath. The bathroom is wonderful with the tub sized shower with glass door, single sink with good side storage and the toilet. There were no problems with the air conditioning or anything mechanical in the room, and I had not experienced any excessive noise. Read more