Beautiful ship,and trip but disappointing food and entertainment.

We sailed on this ship for a 12 day Mediterrain cruise from Barcelona to France, Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. The decor of this ship was absolutely amazing plus the lay-out permitted passengers to easily navigate their way around. The itinerary was excellent-staying in Venice was a big bonus -except that many ports of call required buying a shuttle ticket to enter the city or town we were visiting.

 We were very disappointed with the variety of food served in the buffet and dining room.The Windjammer served the same buffet choices every day-or similar dishes and changed he name cards on the dish labels. The main dining room rotated a 4 day menu and charged extra for lobster on Formal nights..what a let-down!

The entertainment was less interesting plus varied than expected. There were two production shows which contained more singing (screaming) than dancing. Other shows consisted of a pianist, juggler, singer and a hypnotist -who only did one show on one evening. We expected much more variety than we received on a 12 day cruise.

Our final disappointment was that they refused to return our VAT ( European taxes which are rebated to non-European tourists) explaining that we purchased our tickets in the USA so, we weren't charged the extra tax. We know that, that is fiction as we've taken other cruises out of Barcelona with tickets that were purchased by US travel agents and have had our VAT returned in cash on board.

All in all, this was a good cruise due to its itinerary and fellow passengers who made the experience worth the value.