We too will be on the Athens to Rome cruise so hope to see you then. You picked a great itinerary.
I will tell you we did 21 days on Whisper last September with 3 friends and none of us will do SS and Whisper again based on that cruise. There was a huge lack of service, etc. I have heard that the newer SS ships are better
For example, I mentioned to our butler one day that there was no place to get a chocolate chip cookie after 2 PM. His response? On the other ships you can get it at the cafe. (There is no cafe on Whisper) He didn't offer to go find one for me and just walked out of the room. Note that if I had mentioned about not being able to get something on Crystal, they would have gone out of their way to get it for me, even if they had to bake it for me!
Another example is another time at lunch time, I went upstairs to get a cookie. They had none out so I asked if they had any. The waiter outside found the platter, opened it and reached in with his bare hand to hand me a cookie. Obviously I refused.
Additionally now SS is all-inclusive and their tours, unless you pay for the upgraded ones, are no better than mass market tours. The upgraded ones are very good.
I have not been on Viking but hear wonderful things about them.
We used to be Regent cruisers until they went all inclusive. Then their tours went downhill, so in 2014 we decided to try Crystal. We never looked back. The difference was obvious from day one. And as good as Crystal was back in 2014, the NC is even better with better food.
See you in