I found some that look more appealing to me, but my friends seem set on the NCL itinerary. However, I'm a teacher and our school district just changed our school calendar, having us begin and end 3 weeks earlier. Assuming they will stick with the new calendar, I will be back to work at the time we have our cruise booked. With August out for me, and June out for one of my friends, we only have July. Which itinerary did you go with? The Ascent has some fantastic itineraries!
I have never been anywhere in Europe. Why would you call those 3 "cruise highlights" over the ones we chose? Again, since I've never been there I don't know.
We plan to spend 2 days pre and post cruise on land. I will put that on my to do list.
I'm not at all familiar with Oceania.