I've read that as well. It's true of a lot of the ports we visited. We were in Dubrovnik on Oct 30, so not the height of the tourist season, and yet you still felt the crowds inside the walls of the old city. It's such a beautiful place, though. I'd love to go back, but I don't think I'd want to go in the summer. Our cruise was 2 weeks long, and the entire trip was 3 weeks and we visited so many wonderful places. Yet, everywhere we went we were told the exact same thing by our various guides and people we met. They all said we were fortunate to be there in the fall, as summers were brutal due to the crowds.
I really hope that once DCL has the 3 new ships sailing, they will remain in Europe for a longer time into the fall season, or go over earlier in the spring. We were on an
ABD trip in January, and one of our adventure guides had worked some of the ABD add ons for the European cruises. We were chatting at lunch one day about rumors of itineraries for the new ships, and she mentioned that they were hearing that DCL would keep a ship in Europe for a longer time in the future. I hope that's the case!