We were on a similar cruise in May 2007 which had two days in the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens as part of the deal. This we later found was normally €700 a night for the room!! Absolute heaven. £7.50 for an ice cream! We stayed in the Holiday Inn Nice the day before - good location and reasonably priced considering the Cannes Film Festival was on. Agree with all the good bits but not the criticism of the excursions - we did Taormina in Sicily - a lovely place with wonderful amphitheatre overlooking the sea the ship and Mt Etna and cost about £15 each. The Ephesus trip (plus terraces) in Kusadasi - this was excellent and highly recommended, wonderful sights and history St Paul, Mary Magdalen etc It cost around £30 including entrance fees and an excellent guide. Dont miss the terraces lots do. The three tenors concert in the evening by the pool in Kusadasi was memorable whilst some passengers had a concert in Ephesus itself - a one off for the ship. The train to Rome got rave reviews from friend - Pullman coaches staffed by the ships crew serving chanpagne and high quality food for €70 was one we should not have missed. Yes the captain was British (but born in Scotland - so not English) and was a lovely man often seen on the ship and informally chatting to passengers and adding the odd Scottish flavour to the cruise.