Hi Deborah,
Just got back from Rome yesterday, what a cruise - be prepared to do alot of walking on these excursions, I actually lost 3 pounds, first time that ever happened on a cruise.
First of all, I thought the ship was beautiful and the staff who served us meals and took care of our state room were very friendly, more then any other curise we have been on, Carnival must be reading their customer's comments because two things that always annoyed me about these ships were showers that were not strong and the cheap hair dryers in the cabins that you have to hold the button down to work, these issues have been addressed on this ship.
I thought the meals were very good they even had a celiberity chef on board who prepared one of the meal selections evey night.
Now to my review of the excursions:
Venice - the Evening Gondla ride was cancelled due to rain the afternoon we arrived suggest you try this, the St Marks Experience I would pass on, the castle you get on the tour is a lot of walking up stairs and I was not impressed. Suggest you take a water taxi over to St Marks Square, and check the place out on your own.
Almulfi Drive and Pompi - this is a very good excursion the drive on the mountain roads is a little scary but you get over it, other then Rome I don't think there is level ground in Italy, your always climbing up somewhere. Pompi was interesting be prepared to take a lot of pictures, again you always walking up hill.
I will have to continue tomorrow, still trying to get over the 6 hour time difference, by the way the ship had more Americans then any other group of people the Canadans were the next biggest, then a mix of everyone else. Excuse my spelling errors.
Take care for now
Fred